The Rangers have held a third-period lead in all three games against the Penguins and have lost all three games.
The Rangers have played the Penguins three times this season. They have held a third-period lead in all three games. They have lost all three games. The Rangers have blown every lead they have had since the second game of the season.
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The Rangers ended their four-game losing streak, the best prospect in the franchise’s history finally scored a goal and David Quinn began to undo some of his idiotic lineup decisions.
The Rangers ended their four-game losing streak, the best prospect in the franchise’s history finally scored a goal and David Quinn began to undo some of his idiotic lineup decisions. It was a great night for the Rangers in Buffalo on Thursday to end their four-game road trip.
Here are 10 thoughts on the Rangers.
1. Alexis Lafrenière went pointless in the first six games of his career. The 2020 No. 1 overall pick had opportunities to score his first NHL goal, but couldn’t catch a break. He couldn’t even luck his way onto the scoresheet through a secondary assist. The only time Lafrenière’s name had been written on the scoresheet was in the season opener when he served a bench minor for too many men on the ice. Not exactly the way the most highly-touted first pick since Connor McDavid had likely envisioned his professional career starting.
Maybe it was having not played in an actual game in nearly a year, but six games is most likely the longest Lafrenière has ever gone in any level without a point in his life.
2. On Thursday, in the seventh game of his carer, it looked like that streak would reach seven. Lafrenière was held scoreless in regulation and was coming to the end of a very long overtime shift. With just over two minutes left in overtime, it wasn’t certain he would get another one. But then Colin Blackwell forced a turnover from Jack Eichel in the neutral zone, picked up the puck and skated in 2-on-1 with Lafrenière. Blackwell gave him a perfect pass that Linas Ullmark was unable to slide across in time to defend and Lafrenière put it in the back of the net. Goal No. 1 with a great call from Sam Rosen.
“He scores! His first NHL goal! Alexis Lafrenière wins it in overtime! What a goal! What a moment for the No. 1 Rangers draft pick!”
3. That goal might have saved the Rangers’ season. If the Rangers were to lose again, they would be 1-4-2 and looking at two games in the next four days against the Penguins. The season was already spiraling in the wrong direction after four straight losses and it could have spiraled out of control with a bad weekend against the Penguins who are coming off back-to-back losses to the Bruins.
4. I expect Lafrenière to now go off, the way I thought he would go off right from the start of the season. Now that he no longer has a goose egg and no longer has the pressure of being a pointless No. 1 pick, I think he will go off. Especially if he’s playing with either Artemi Panarin or Mika Zibanejad. Maybe he will finally get a chance on PP1. After Panarin and Zibanejad, he belongs on the unit more than anyone on the team.
5. The Rangers don’t have a problem getting a lead in a game, but they have a huge problem when it comes to holding leads. Here are the leads the Rangers have blown this season.
Game 4: 3-1
Game 5: 1-0
Game 5: 2-1
Game 6: 1-0
Game 6: 2-1
Game 7: 1-0
Game 7: 2-1
6. Aside from the second game of the season in which the Rangers took a 1-0 lead over the Islanders and went on to win 5-0, they have blown every lead this season. It’s astonishing. It wouldn’t be a problem if the Rangers were good at erasing deficits and forcing other teams to blow leads, but they have been unable to do that. They couldn’t overcome trailing in the season opener. They couldn’t come all the way back against the Devils. Once they blew leads to the Penguins and Sabres, they went on to lose.
7. Zibanejad is going to start scoring soon, right? The league’s best goal scorer after the New Year last season has one goal (and only one assist) this season. He has less points than Filip Chytil, who has missed two games, Colin Blackwell, who has only played in three games, and Phil Di Giuseppe, who plays a fraction of the time Zibanejad plays. It’s pretty remarkable the Rangers have won in expected goals in the majority of their games given the lack of production from their top two lines. Only Panarin (3-5-8) and Pavel Buchnevich (2-4-6) have numbers representative of Top 6 forwards this season. Zibanejad (1-1-2), Chris Kreider (2-0-2) and Ryan Strome (2-0-2) have all underachieved.
8. David Quinn finally started to take advantage of easy wins and the Rangers won a game. It’s not that they necessarily won on Thursday because of the his moves, but they won, which is more than you can say for the last four games and five of the first six games this season. The decision to remove Strome from PP1 was overdue. Pushing Kreider to the third line was as well. Now it’s time to give Lafrenière PP1 time rather than Tony DeAngelo and not shuffle the lines multiple times per period per game. Quinn is getting closer to making logical lineup and personnel choices, he’s just not all the way there yet.
9. It might be “early” to worry about the lack of offense from those players, except it’s really not in a 56-game season. The Rangers play four games in the next eight days (Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Washington, New Jersey) and at the end of play next Saturday, the season will be 20 percent over. One-fifth of the season will have been played at the end of next week. That seems crazy, but it’s true.
10. The Rangers had to win on Thursday in Buffalo. They had to. They couldn’t fall to 1-5-1 or 1-4-2 with 12.5 percent of the season having been played. They had to salvage the last game of their four-game road trip. They had to end their four-game losing streak, and they did just that. Now they need a winning streak. They need to do what to the Penguins in New York what the Penguins did to them in Pittsburgh last weekend. They need to start stacking wins the same way they just stacked losses. Winning cures everything and for now, Thursday’s win is the cure until the puck drops on Saturday night.
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After blowing another two leads, Alexis Lafrenière scored the overtime game-winner for the first goal of his career.
The Rangers had to win on Thursday night in Buffalo. At 1-4-1 and in the midst of a four-game losing streak, they desperately needed to salvage the fourth and final game of their road trip and get two points. And they did just that. After blowing another two leads in the game, Alexis Lafrenière scored the overtime game-winner for the first goal of his career.
Subscribe to the Keefe To The City Podcast. New Rangers episodes after every game throughout the season.
A lot has happened this week. It was easily the busiest week for the Yankees this offseason as the team made two trades, finalized two contracts and let a great Yankee leave.
A lot has happened this week. It was easily the busiest week for the Yankees this offseason.
Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.
1. I wrote all there is to write about the Yankees’ approach to the imaginery salary cap and said all there is to say about the team’s decision to cut payroll by $50 million this offseason for the second time in three years, and here it is for the last time. It’s sad, disappointing, frustrating, annoying and embarrassing, but it is what it is at this point. Hal Steinbrenner would rather save a homestand’s worth of hot dogs than do everything he can to win the World Series for the first time in 12 years.
2. The Yankees dumped Adam Ottavino’s salary on the Red Sox. But not all of it. The Yankees will pay Ottavino $850,000 in 2021 to pitch for their hated rival and to pitch against them. The Yankees will play the Red Sox 19 times (if the season goes as planned) or 12 percent of their season. Not only did the Yankees essentially give Ottavino to the Red Sox, they also attached a prospect to him. So when the Red Sox are buried in the standings at the trade deadline, they can then move Ottavino, who’s an impending free agent, as a rental and acquire even more prospects. The Yankees not only made the Red Sox better and set up their own right-handed heavy lineup to fail against Ottavino, they are also helping the Red Sox expedite their rebuild. When the prospects the Red Sox obtain for Ottavino in July become cornerstones for them and haunt the Yankees for the next decade, Steinbrenner’s fear of the luxury tax will be to blame.
3. The Yankees traded away Ottavino and then turned around and signed Darren O’Day, who does what Ottavino does from a different arm angle. The 38-year-old side-winder is as tough ones right-handed hitters out of the bullpen as anyone in the league, but what attracted the Yankees to O’Day was his price: around $2 million.
4. Why did it have to be O’Day instead of Ottavino? Why couldn’t it be both. Two years ago, the Yankees were going to go into the 2019 season with six elite relief options: Ottavino, Chad Green, Tommy Kahnle, Dellin Betances, Zack Britton and Aroldis Chapaman. Unfortunately, Betances got hurt and they never got to experience the full “super” bullpen, but they still had five elite relievers for 2019. Then they let Betances walk and sign with the Mets, and they had five options for 2020. Then Kahnle got hurt, and they had four for 2020. Then Ottavino fell out of Aaron Boone’s bullpen circle of trust, and they had three. They Kahnle leave and sign with the Dodgers and traded Ottavino to keep it at three for 2021. Adding O’Day gives them four again, but that’s still not enough. After O’Day, there’s Luis Cessa, Jonathan Loaisiga, Michael King and Nick Nelson. The bullpen is top heavy and old. Britton is 33. Chapman will be 33 next month, and O’Day is 38. The Yankees need to be adding to their bullpen like they did with O’Day, not subtracting from it like they did by moving Ottavino. The illusion of the luxury tax is preventing the Yankees from putting together the best possible roster.
5. Thankfully, DJ LeMahieu finally signed. The delay was waiting for a 40-man roster spot, but now the Yankees have their best player back. (I wish Aaron Judge were still considered to be the team’s best player, but you have to actually play to be the team’s best player, and not just half the season.) I lost a lot of sleep, staring at the ceiling in the middle of the night, wondering if the Yankees were going to let LeMahieu walk, so I’m glad his contract is finalized.
6. The Yankees also traded for Jamseon Taillon to bolster their rotation. On paper and when healthy, the Yankees have a great rotation: Gerrit Cole, Luis Severino, Corey Kluber, Jameson Taillon and Jordan Montgomery. But “on paper and when healthy” can’t be a thing for the Yankees. A year ago right now, the Yankees’ rotation “on paper and when healthy” was Cole, Severino, James Paxton, Masahiro Tanaka and J.A. Happ with Montgomery as insurance. How did that turn out?
7. Taillon gives the Yankees another unknown. This is the Yankees’ potential rotation at full strength:
Cole: Nothing wrong (knock on all of the wood)
Severino (unavailable until midseason): Five starts and 20 1/3 innings since start of 2019
Kluber: Eight starts and 36 2/3 innings since start of 2019
Taillon: Seven starts and 37 1/3 innings since start of 2019
Montgomery: 12 starts and 52 innings since start of 2019
Deivi Garcia: Seven career starts and 35 1/3 innings (including his “start” in Game 2 of the ALDS)
Clarke Schmidt: One career start and 6 1/3 innings
Severino is coming back from Tommy John surgery, which was preceded by a lat issue, which was preceded by a shoulder issue. Kluber is coming back from a shoulder injury. Taillon is coming back from his second Tommy John surgery. Montgomery is 52 innings removed from Tommy John surgery.
8. Taillon does give the Yankees’ depth. Before the Kluber signing and Taillon trade, Montgomery was the No. 2 starter. Now he’ll be the No. 4 to start the season if everyone stays healthy (knock on all of the wood again) and the No. 5 when Severino hopefully returns (knock on all of the wood again). Garcia and Schmidt go from getting rotation spots on Opening Day like Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy did in 2008 to insurance options in the event of injury (knock on all of the wood again) or underperformance.
9. Unfortunately, Masahiro Tanaka won’t be returning to the Yankees. The seven-year Yankee is returning home to pitch for the Rakuten Golden Eagles. I think Tanaka only wanted to remain in North America if it were with the Yankees. He probably said he wanted $X and if he didn’t get it, he would just go home and pitch, and the Yankees’ desire to not go past $210 million meant he wouldn’t get what he wanted. I wanted Tanaka back, but the non-existant salary cap ended his time with the team. (I will have more on Tanaka in a separate blog.)
10. The 59-day gauntlet that is January and February is about halfway over, and that means there’s less than three weeks until scheduled spring training. Less than three weeks! I’m afraid to get too excited for the return of baseball because I still think the league and the owners will do everything they can to delay the start of the season. If they don’t, there will be baseball in no time. That makes me happy.
Subscribe to the Keefe To The City Podcast. New episodes every Monday and Thursday during the offseason.
My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is now available as an ebook!
For the second time in three years, the Yankees have cut payroll by $50 million while in their championship window.
The Red Sox were happy to take Adam Ottavino in the Yankees’ salary dump of the right-hander. Why wouldn’t they be? He makes the Red Sox better and his removal from the Yankees makes them worse.
Sure, the Yankees then went and signed Darren O’Day, but why couldn’t they have both? Why couldn’t they have five elite relievers? For 2019, on paper, they had six. Now they have four.
For the second time in three years, the Yankees have cut payroll by $50 million in the middle of a championship window.
Subscribe to the Keefe To The City Podcast. New episodes every Monday and Thursday during the offseason.
My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is now available as an ebook!