Br4d

Zibanejad should have shot behind his back just to totally mess up the Canes.

Boston scored one less goal than Florida this season. The Bruins got the better of them in the season series. I'd be really surprised if the feeling in the Bruins locker room wasn't something along the lines of "we'll get them in 6, maybe 5."

The animal spirits are going to be running high for the Bruins after the game 7 win and their success against the Panthers this season. I think they are going to have to come out fast and score a couple of goals early in the first two games. If they can do that this series is Boston's to win.

I'd have been ok with this ending either way. I think Boston has better chances against Florida.

But Rempe bends space and time around him. It's all that gravity he exerts on the ice...

It's been awhile since Zac Jones played. Can't believe I'm saying this but he'd probably be a boost for the scoring chances against the 'Canes. Nobody to sit for him though.

But he was big even back then. I rest my case.

How do you get a Jack Adams when your team is 4 pts better than the two teams that preceded it? Not a Tocchet fan but I think he gets the award because the Canucks are *much* better under him than they were under the last few guys and that change started last season when he took over.

I believe the media perception of the matchup is extremely flawed. It does not give the Rangers any credit for the changes in the team over the last few months and frankly the Hurricanes are little bitches and likely to hate the Rempinator anyway. My perception of the matchup is that it rides on the Bread Line and I think those guys are going to come out shooting this round. Just adding: if these were the Rangers playing Wheeler, Bonino and Pitlick the perception would be accurate. Those guys aren't around any more and the guys who replaced them matchup much better against the 'Canes speed and hustle.

I think Rempe is going to be in the lineup as long as he is available. Laviolette is used to having a pounder in the playoffs. Call it Tom Wilson Syndrome. Laviolette won a cup with it a few years ago.

Red, White and Brew.

All I'm saying is that I am pretty sure that the Bruins view the Panthers as eminently beatable at this point. Whether they view the Leafs as beatable is an open question.

They didn't show up twice at the end of the season and were still playing for the President's Trophy in game 81 as a result.

Panthers are 0-4 against the Bruins this season. 2-2 vs the Leafs. 2 of the losses to the Bruins and 1 to the Leafs happened after TDL.

The difference between the last two seasons and this season is a transformed Artemi Panarin. Off of that we got Star Vincent Trocheck and Star-in-waiting Alexis Lafreniere. Obviously it's not all about that but it is mostly about that. So basically the analysts are waiting to see the Breadman rise in the playoffs before they give the Rangers anything like full credit. A Panarin hat trick early in the Hurricanes series would completely change the conversation. A Lafreniere hat trick would also but Panarin is going to have deep fingerprints on that if it happens.

The cross-ownership problems were symptomatic of what was in effect a racket. That's why I said the 3 teams were in cahoots.

The Rangers are not getting credit for the changes this season because so many other things seem the same. As soon as Panarin and Laf break out they'll start getting credit for that line + Igor + power play. Right now it's just Igor and power play. By breakout I mean score goals at 5v5 the way they were in the regular season.

The images I'm going to remember from this series are Mathews sweating like a pig when he got sick and Marchand folding like a paper doll when somebody (the linesman) came at him from his blind side. Hard to be scared of those guys at this point.

One of these teams is going to have some major movement this summer. Leafs management has already said that they have "some good assets" and they will be restructuring to a more effective form if they lose this round. They said this when they were down 3-1 and the Leafs have won the last two games, albeit scoring only 3 goals total in the two games in regulation.

Detroit had access to a lot of good Canadian players also via proximity to Ontario.

We still had weeks this last season where the Rangers no-showed. No room for any of that in this run. The first time the Rangers no-show we're probably well on the way to getting cooked. The Bruins had 2 shots on goal last night through 28 minutes. That no-show effort ultimately cost them game 6, which was a huge deal given the collapse last season and the two straight losses this season. I bring the Bruins up because they are a disciplined, talented, well-coached team who sometimes get totally lost even when the stakes are the highest. Just like the Rangers do now and then.

If we take care of business we're going to beat Carolina. If we don't we won't. You never know which Ranger team is going to show up on a given night. I favor playing Rempe because he is a huge disruption in business as usual.

I can't imagine what CBS pregame and halftime NFL shows are going to be like without Boomer.

The Rangers are a bit different than the team that had trouble at 5v5 all season. That's my take on the issue at this point. I think all 4 lines can play and score at 5v5. The question is "will they?" We really need The Bread Line to break out in this series.

3 of the 6 original teams were on a different plane than the other 3. This is because the owners of those groups were in cahoots to keep the other 3 down.