Br4d

Big off year and shadowy injuries. Not sure he'd be as much help as we think after TDL. Some times the timing is just off.

I'm finding it to be a calming effect thinking of Lafreniere as a good 3rd liner and not as a failed 1OA. Sunk costs are sunk costs and it he turns out to be a good 3rd LW he gives us other options down the road. Will be a lot easier to trade Kreider (or potentially Panarin if Othman proves out) knowing that we're still going to have LW covered for depth and talent.

So how bad would it be if Lafreniere turns into a 3rd line LW with 15-20 goals and 35 points a year? Assuming the Rangers can bridge him cheaply this year we'll have a pretty good idea by 2025 if that's the case. The way he's been playing lately he'd probably be a good 3rd liner for the Rangers. Then there will always be the possibility of a breakout year as he approaches his prime. Watching Chytil this year makes me think there's a really good argument for just signing Laffy as cheaply as we can and letting him continue to figure things out on the ice. I'm not a big GG fan at this point but I think he's right that the kids have played worse on lines with vets and that they defer to much in that situation, stunting their growth in the process.

He does look a lot like Zibanejad at this point. Not the 200 ft Center necessarily but he does lay out when he has too.

I definitely know what Chytil is going to look like in 25 years. Freaking uncanny resemblance to his dad.

Trocheck line is a vet line with a couple of GG's faves. Kid line is *spits* kids...

The Rangers stickhandling and passing is exceptional right now and Panarin is a big part of that. If anything we have too many guys proficient in making the accurate long pass and not enough who want to be like Kreider and get the breakaway that ensues. Seriously, I have been tremendously impressed with the Rangers puck movement all year long. They were good last year but they pushed it to a new level this year. Now if somebody would just shoot the damn puck we might go deep in the playoffs again.

The problem of course is that GG will reverse your 2nd and 3rd lines because vets and then we're less effective than we ought to be. (Again) Maybe put Gauthier on line 3 and Vesey on line 4 to confuse GG and get the kid line their proper minutes? Goodrow and Vesey have chemistry because they play the same kind of grinding hockey and it'd be really nice to see Cuylle on a line with the two of them as his intro to the NFL.

Kids not on the ice for awhile now.

Would be I think. 3L tonight appears to be Vesey-Trocheck-Goodrow

Kids coming out party. Again.

$4.8M cap to Trocheck's $5.6M.

Trocheck is gonna be the highest paid 3C in the NHL for years.

Lafreniere looks fatigued even when he is playing like he was last night. Something is not right with him.

Panarin - Zibanejad - Kreider should be a great line. It's not but really it should be a top 10 NHL line. It's possible they're handicapped at 5v5 *because* they play together on the PP so much. Patterns...

Miller is huge and he's fast and he's gaining confidence each season. The oops moments are still there but they tend to be of the enormous skater over-skating the puck in traffic variety and they're also declining as he advances in experience at the NHL level. If you look at his progression over his first 3 seasons in the NHL you see a guy who is likely to be a 15-20 goal scorer by his prime and at LD with Miller's other attributes that becomes a top 10 player in the NHL.

Miller is going to be the Rangers best player one of these seasons soon and probably a top 10 player in the NHL. You don't trade that.

Teams don't win championships with flashy productive players who don't fit in. You can make an argument that Panarin and Trocheck both fit that description pretty well right now on the 2nd and 3rd lines. You have to find Panarin's fit and make it work or you need to find a way to move on - a way that is really not clear right now. The only place that Panarin looks like a dominant player to me right now is on the power play.

Chytil has a bit of a chip on his shoulder this year and he's definitely playing more up to his size than he was. I think a light flipped on in the playoffs last year and he's going to produce based on the opportunities he gets moving forward. He's definitely worth more than Trocheck on the ice right now.

Rangers have won a few games against better teams from behind this year. They're going to have to play their best two periods of the year to do it tonight. I was really surprised we had a couple of the multi-minute runs in their zone. That's at least hopeful.

They'd have to move Kreider to be able to swing Meier's cap numbers. Probably Lindgren also. This gets them a bit better than break even in terms of cap space. Given Kreider still has a full NMC that's not going to happen.

I keep looking at the list and thinking it is unlikely that the Rangers have 9 players better than Ryan Lindgren. No goals but probably the best defensive asset outside of Shesterkin.

I'm going to go with the comeback win against the 'Canes. That's when I first thought this team might do some real damage in the playoffs. That kind of capped a month of very good hockey and it came against the top dog in the division.

It's early but this definitely has the look of a team on a date with destiny and my guess is she's not gonna order the lobster this time.

Wow. I'm pretty sure that's the latest goal I've ever witnessed.