Neil Keefe

Jan 27, 2020

2019-20 NHL All-Animosity Team

It’s been a while since I selected an NHL All-Animosity Team. There are a few familiar faces from years past, but for the most part, there has been quite the turnover on the team.

The NHL All-Star Game was this weekend. It was supposed to feature the best players in the world, but with Sidney Crosby not voted in due to a lack of first-half games, Alexander Ovechkin opting to be suspended for a game rather than go to St. Louis and players like Auston Matthews and Artemi Panarin not playing due to injury, the game featured most of the world’s best players, and some of the world’s not-exactly-best players like Chris Kreider, Travis Konecny, Tyler Bertuzzi, Anthony Duclair and some questionable decisions in net.

It’s been a while since I selected a different kind of All-Star team in the All-Animosity Team. Gone are the days when Milan Lucic, Matt Cooke, Chris Kunitz and Martin Brodeur were fixtures on the team. There are a few familiar faces from years past, but for the most part, there has been quite the turnover on the team.

FORWARDS

Matthew Barzal
We came dangerously close to Panarin and Barzal playing together for the foreseeable future. If not for Panarin taking less money (about $1 million per year less) to be a Ranger instead of an Islander, Rangers fans would have had to deal with those two flying around together for years to come. It gives me chills just thinking about it. Thankfully, it’s not going to happen. When Barzal is on the ice, I’m scared. I’m not scared at the level of Crosby, Ovechkin or Nathan MacKinnon or Connor McDavid, but I’m still scared. He’s the one true playmaker on the Islanders and against the current state of the Rangers defense, he’s not someone I enjoy entering the offensive zone with the puck. Every time he does his patented circling of the zone with possession it feels like it will only end badly, and unfortunately, he’s not going anywhere in terms of the rivalry.

Brad Marchand
Marchand is the ultimate player who you hate to watch your team play against, but would love if he were on your team. He’s dirty and annoying, he’s a pest and nuisance, but he’s really good. He makes up one-third of the Bruins’ “Perfection Line” and the Bruins go as that line goes, and after a trip to the Stanley Cup Final and a current first-place standing in the Atlantic, that line has been going for a while now. Marchand might have been on this team solely for what he does with the puck because he’s that talented, but it’s what he does without the puck that solidified his roster spot. His lapses in judgment and total disregard for player safety whether it’s unnecessary hits to the head or irresponsible slew foots have made him universally disliked in the entire hockey world outside of Boston. I don’t envision a scenario where Marchand is in the league and isn’t on this team.

Alexander Ovechkin
Ovechkin has 33 goals in 58 regular-season games against the Rangers and another 13 goals in 33 playoff games across five postseason series with four of those series going seven games. He’s the ultimate “When is his shift going to end?” and “Get the puck out of the zone” player there is and when he’s waiting at the top of the circles on the power play, two minutes feels like 20 minutes. I keep waiting for him to slow down, thinking age or games played might start to catch up to him, but in his age 34 season he’s on a 57-goal pace over 82 games. I do respect that I’m watching greatness and a generational talent and arguably the best goal scorer in the history of the game when it comes to him, that just doesn’t take away how I feel when he’s playing the Rangers.

DEFENSEMEN

Zdeno Chara
It’s weird to think the Bruins will retire Chara’s number one day considering the team they were when they signed him and the team they eventually became. When Chara arrived in Boston, It felt like it would be at least another three decades until the Bruins won again, but after winning the Cup and reaching the Final two other times in a nine-year period, Chara has been a staple of the Bruins and an exemplary captain of the team for nearly 15 years (though I have always felt as though Patrice Bergeron deserved to wear the “C” all these years). Chara isn’t close to being the player he once was and appears to be a liability on the ice more times than not, but he’s not once again on this team for the player he is, but the player he was.

Andy Greene
To be honest, I don’t dislike Greene. In fact, I don’t have any positive or negative feelings about him. But this roster needs a representative from the Devils, and who better to fill that role than their captain? The Devils are a mess. After winning the lottery for the second time in three years, acquiring P.K. Subban and signing Wayne Simmonds, the Devils looked at worst to be a bubble team for the postseason. The only thing they’re on the bubble for now is winning the lottery again as they are currently tied for the second-fewest points in the league. In a season in which there was so much promise in New Jersey, the team has received awful goaltending and a lack of scoring, fired its head coach and eventually fired its general manager, but only after allowing the general manager to trade away Taylor Hall in what was the team’s most important decision of the near future. The Devils have the pieces in place to rebound next season, let’s hope that’s not the case as this version of them has been more fun to watch.

GOALIE

Braden Holtby
For years I only had to worry about picking the forwards and defensemen for this team because I knew Brodeur would be the goalie. Holtby is in no way as easy of a choice for this spot as Brodeur was, but he has still earned it. Normally, I dislike a player because of their performance against one of my teams, but Holtby has only won 13 of 25 regular-season games against the Rangers and has lost all three postseason series to them, including three Game 7s. The reason I have never liked him is mostly not his fault. It’s not his fault he has been perceived in past seasons to be better than Henrik Lundqvist despite having a much, much better team in front of him, and it’s not his fault that his much, much better team helped him win the Stanley Cup, while Lundqvist’s prime was wasted with a disastrous defense and poor roster construction and he will most likely retire having never won the Cup. What is Holtby’s fault is the way he tends to give up bad goals when I wager on the Capitals. If Ben Bishop were still in the Eastern Conference and still posting unfathomable numbers against the Rangers, this job would have been his. Now it’s Holtby’s job to lose.

Jan 23, 2020

Rangers Thursday Thoughts: It’s Time to Play for 2020-21

With the trade deadline a month away, the Rangers have one last chance at an extended winning streak to get back in the playoff picture.

After winning four out of five and putting the idea of playoff hockey into their fans’ heads, the Rangers lost back-to-back games at home to limp into their 10-day layoff. The losses have put their playoff aspirations in peril and with a little more than two months of hockey left, the Rangers are close to playing for next season.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Rangers as usual.

1. The moment Artemi Panarin was scratched from Tuesday night’s game with an upper-body injury was the moment the Rangers lost the game. The Panarin-less Rangers did their best to win a third straight Battle of New York, but without the team’s leading scorer and best player, it was too little too late for the Rangers in their failed comeback attempt late in the game.

As the Rangers were failing to pick up a single point out of the four on the line in their back-to-back home games to close out the pre-All-Star portion of their schedule, the Hurricanes put together two straight wins and the Blue Jackets six straight to push the Rangers down even more in the standings. The Rangers enter their layoff 13 points back for a division spot, 12 points back of the first wild card and 11 points back of the second wild card. Carolina has the second wild card pacing for 100 points and for the Rangers to get to 100 points, they will need 50 points in 34 games, or a 23-7-4 record and will somehow have to find a way to jump Montreal, Buffalo, Toronto, Philadelphia and Columbus.

2. The Rangers-Islanders three games in eight days did provide some midseason, pre-layoff excitement, but in the future I would prefer a late-October game, a right-before-Christmas game and then two games in March in the final month of the season.

The NHL created its current playoff format to manufacture rivalries and postseason drama, but so far in the Eastern Conference, the only two teams to meet consistently are the Bruins and Maple Leafs (and they might meet again this season). It’s too bad we have yet to get even one Rangers-Islanders playoff series from this format and we won’t get it again this season. Maybe 2020-21 will finally be the year we get the Battle of New York in the postseason.

3. I’m still not over the loss to Columbus because of how crucial getting that one point was and how season-changing getting two could have been. But maybe it was for the better. The last thing this Rangers team needs in the middle of what looks to be a successful and expedited rebuild is to be fooled into thinking they are better than they are like they were when they held on to the core for the 2016-17 season. The best thing to happen to the Yankees since their dynasty was losing four straight games heading into the 2016 trade deadline to take themselves out of the wild-card race, and losing to the Blue Jackets and Islanders might have been the best thing for this Rangers team to prove to the front office “going for it” this season isn’t worth it. This team needs one more pre-deadline selloff.

4. Chris Kreider is the key to this last pre-deadline selloff. To me, it doesn’t matter if Kreider lowers his number or the Rangers find a way to fit his demands into their cap, he should be traded. Kreider is going to turn 29 shortly after this season ends and given the current state and age of the young core of the Rangers and when they will be ready to seriously contend for a championship, the timeline doesn’t match up with Kreider’s future. I understand the Rangers would be parting ways with yet another fan favorite who provides veteran leadership, but it’s not worth the contract it will cost to sign or the possibility of getting nothing in return to hold on to him for the rest of the season.

5. Kreider is a good player, but him being named to the All-Star team in place of the injured Panarin isn’t a great look for a game which is supposed to feature the best players in the league. Kreider is on pace for a 29-goal, 55-point season and is currently tied for 102nd in league scoring. Mika Zibanejad would have been a much better option, and I get that he missed 13 games earlier this season, but at least he’s on a 42-goal pace for an 82-game season and is a more-than-a-point-per-game player.

6. Aside from trading Kreider, the Rangers still need to figure out what to do with their goalie situation. Alexandar Georgiev is still going to be the odd man out, but when? Right now, I feel like the Rangers are going to keep Georgiev through the end of the season and trade him this summer. It’s going to take desperation from a team like Toronto or Colorado and the the realization their season will likely end in the spring because of their goaltending. It doesn’t seem like the Rangers are going to budge on their demand of an NHL-ready forward in return for Georgiev, and they shouldn’t. They’re really in no need to rush to move Georgiev even if the three-goalie rotation is ridiculous.

7. Igor Shesterkin was sent down to the AHL for the layoff, taking a substantial paycut during this time in what is the latest repercussion of this three-goalie situation. In the last eight games, Georgiev has received four starts, Shesterkin three and Henrik Lundqvist one.

Lundqvist had five days off before playing on Jan. 2. Then he had nine days off before playing on Jan. 11. He hasn’t played since. The earliest Lundqvist will play is the first game back after the layoff and that would mean he’s had 20 days off between starts. The situation hasn’t been ideal for any of the three goalies, but especially for Lundqvist who is used to playing the majority of the games in a season and has historically played better when he goes extended periods without backing up. Lundqvist might end up with two starts in the entire month of January.

8. This isn’t necessarily related to the Rangers since they have only been in two shootouts this season and haven’t been in one in a while, but it’s time to get rid of the shootout. It was fun and different and exciting when it was implemented nearly 15 years ago, but it’s time to move on. It’s absurd games and seasons are still be determined by a shootout. Either turn off the clock for overtime and play 3-on-3 until there’s a goal, or if you need a time of goal for record purposes, put 20 minutes on the clock and play 3-on-3 until a goal is scored. The league has changed the overtime format multiple times over the years, and they need to change it again.

9. I think the Rangers will compete for the playoffs next season. I don’t mean compete the way they are now where they are “still in it” but not really in it at all. I mean seriously compete. The only issue is they are part of the Met and the division isn’t going anywhere in terms of talent and depth. The Rangers will have to continue to grind out every single point in division play for the foreseeable future, but it will be the non-division games where they need to improve and take care of their own business next season and beyond. They have lost so many points to the inferior Western Conference this season, winning seven of 18 games, and have given away points to the worst teams in the league.

10. I realize the Rangers aren’t going to immediately change course and start giving NHL ice time and experience to those with an actual future with the team. They are going to try to put together the long-awaited extended win streak after the break with back-to-back games against Detroit to quickly get back on track and try one last time for a lengthy winning streak before the deadline. With five out of their first six games at home following the layoff, they could put a dent into their needed points total. The problem is the regulation loss total of eight they can afford to give up the rest of the way. I’m not sure how they navigate the remaining 34 games without exceeding that number with more than double that amount of games against playoff teams. It was a good run, but with a six percent chance of reaching the playoffs, it’s time to play for the future.T

Podcasts • Rangers

Jan 21, 2020

Rangers Podcast: The Biggest Game of the Season

Vince Mercogliano of the USA Today network joined me to talk about the state of the Rangers before their 10-day layoff.

The Rangers were going to need to go on a memorable run for the rest of the season to reach the playoffs even before their crushing, last-minute, 2-1 loss to the Blue Jackets on Sunday. Now it’s going to be that much harder after they failed to earn a point against Columbus. On Tuesday, the Rangers will play their biggest game of the season with a chance to rebound against the Islanders before a 10-day layoff.

USA Today network Rangers beat reporter Vince Mercogliano joined me to talk about the Rangers’ loss to the Blue Jackets, when the three-goalie situation will be resolved, the locker room mentatlity when it comes to making the playoffs, embracing an offense-first style of play, playing the Islanders three times in eight days and the biggest gripe among Rangers fans right now.

Jan 20, 2020

Yankees Podcast: Joe Girardi Trying to End Phillies’ World Series Drought He Started

Matt Higgins of CBS Philadelphia joined me to talk about the Phillies and the former Yankees now there.

It’s now been more than a decade since the Yankees and Phillies met in the 2009 World Series and neither team has been back to the World Series since then let alone won a championship. While the Yankees have been to the four ALCS since 2009 and have contended for a return to the World Series, the Phillies are going on a ninth straight year without a playoff appearance. I didn’t see this coming when both teams were on top of the baseball world.

Matt Higgins of CBS Philadelphia joined me to talk about the Phillies hiring former Yankees manager Joe Girardi, the Phillies’ bullpen still being a major issue, the free-agent signings of Didi Gregorius and Zack Wheeler, looking back on the 2009 World Series and subsequent offseasons and expectations for the upcomning season.

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My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is now available as an ebook!

Blogs • Rangers

Jan 20, 2020

A Season-Crushing Loss for the Rangers

The Rangers’ last-minute 2-1 loss to the Blue Jackets might not have actually been a season-ending elimination game, but it sure feels like it was.

I could feel it coming and eventually it came. Turnover after turnover led to scoring chance after scoring chance for the Blue Jackets in the final minutes on Sunday night at the Garden. The Blue Jackets began to control play as the minutes ticked down, and while the Rangers looked content with hanging on for one point and taking their chances in the post-regulation skills competition, the Blue Jackets played as though a regulation win was worth a third point.

I had spent most of the night envisioning Igor Shesterkin earning a shutout in his third career game and improving to 3-0 in the NHL, as Rangers fans began to seriously think about the playoffs. The Rangers were just under 14 minutes away from winning for the fifth time in six games and from being on the right end of the four-point swing David Quinn has frequently talked about for Metropolitan games. I started to think this team might really go on the sort of run that would land them in the postseason not even a calendar year after the organization looked like it might not be competitive for a decade. But while I was daydreaming about the Rangers picking up a Chance card instructing them to advance to GO while avoiding all the houses and hotels and obstacles that come with a complete tear-down rebuild, the Blue Jackets quickly woke me up.

Oliver Bjorkstrand beat Shesterkin on an unassisted goal 6:08 into the third and I was awake. Following the tying goal, the Blue Jackets flipped a switch and took over the game, and it only felt like a matter of time until the Rangers were trailing. That time came when the Rangers allowed an inexplicable 3-on-2 with 26.5 seconds to play and Bjorkstrand ripped one past Shesterkin’s glove. Quinn called timeout, only delaying the inevitable of the last 13-plus minutes of play, as the Rangers eventually lost 2-1.

It was a deflating defeat. The kind where no one is talking on the way out of the building and the kind where you sit on your couch and end up watching MSG for hours because you don’t feel like moving to get the remote because you don’t feel like moving to do anything. It might not have actually been a season-ending elimination game, but it sure feels like it was.

I knew how hard it was going to be for the Rangers to make the playoffs before the season began. I knew how hard it would be after their five-game losing streak in October, three-game losing streak in December and three-game losing streak to end 2019 and begin 2020. They had played too much .500 hockey in between their losing streaks and hadn’t put together the type of extended winning streak they would need to make up the point differential in the standings. It’s why I wrote in the most recent Thursday Thoughts how it would likely take a 23-10-4 finish for them to make the playoffs, and even then, with 98 points, it still might not be enough.

But over the last two weeks, the Rangers started to put a dent into the nearly improbably math suggesting they wouldn’t play an 83rd game for the third straight season. Wins over Colorado and New Jersey and back-to-back wins over the Islanders sandwiched an expected loss in St. Louis, and by acheiving wins in four of five and earning eight of a possible 10 points the loss column had barely budged as the team started to make up ground on the wild card. Then Sunday night happened. After getting 11 goals of support in his first two NHL starts, Shesterkin experienced a game right out of the Henrik Lundqvist era in which the Rangers couldn’t find the back of the net, and couldn’t even hang on for at least one point in the final minute.

After beating the Islanders at the Coliseum, the Rangers’ needed record improved to 22-10-4, but that loss to Columbus hurt, and it hurt bad. The path to the postseason was never exactly clear, especially since after the team’s 10-day layoff, they will play 34 games in 65 days. Asking the youngest team in the league to essentially play .667 hockey for the final two months of the season when some of their young core will have already played more hockey in a single season than they ever have before just isn’t reasonable. Now with the last-minute loss, the only way to the postseason is with a single-digit amount of regulation losses the rest of the way with an adbundance of games against the league’s best still to be played.

This season was supposed to be about experience and development and progress for the rebuild. It was never supposed to be about wins and losses and points and the playoffs. After Sunday’s loss, the Rangers are one loss closer to making sure it’s not.

Author: Neil Keefe

2019-20 NHL All-Animosity Team

Rangers Thursday Thoughts: It’s Time to Play for 2020-21

Rangers Podcast: The Biggest Game of the Season

Yankees Podcast: Joe Girardi Trying to End Phillies’ World Series Drought He Started

A Season-Crushing Loss for the Rangers