The first month of the season has been a rollercoaster ride of performance of production with mixed results, and it’s been exactly what’s to be expected of a rebuild.
The Rangers won their first two games of the season then lost their next five. They beat the talented Sabres and then looked like they didn’t belong in the same league as the Bruins. They upset the Lightning and Predators and then were embarrassed at home by the league-worst Senators. The Rangers have at times looked like a team capable of playing meaningful games in the early spring with the possibility of sneaking into the playoffs and at other times have looked like a team in the early stages of a rebuild and years away from contending.
So is life as a rebuilding team, which the Rangers are. Miraculously moving up in the draft to second and signing the offseason’s most-coveted free agent didn’t change the fact the Rangers aren’t expected to return to the playoffs for the first time in three years this season, and most likely won’t be back in the postseason next season either. The Rangers might have been able to skip the earliest phases of a rebuild by drafting Kaapo Kakko, signing Artemi Panarin and trading Jacob Trouba, while having three starting NHL goalies on the roster, and one of the better two-way centers in the league in Mika Zibanejad, but it’s still early in the rebuild. The Rangers were able to advance to GO without having to run through a gauntlet of hotels along the way because of some luck, good fortune and crafty trades, but they still have a long way before they can be taken seriously.
Aside from watching the fourth line scramble to clear the zone and prevent high-quality scoring chances in their limited ice time, this Rangers season has been enjoyable and I expect it to remain that way. Sure, I could do without the emotional and disciplinary meltdowns like the one against the Senators earlier this week in what was as winnable a game as they get though those kind of games are going to happen given the Rangers’ inexperienced roster, which is the second-youngest in the league when Henrik Lundqvist and Marc Staal are playing, and the youngest when they’re not.
The wins and losses ultimately don’t matter this season. Right now, they do because the Rangers are still months away from the expected separation from a wild-card berth and technically have a goal of playoff hockey, however in the big picture, they don’t. Experience and development is all that matters for this team. There will be impressive feel-good wins over contenders like those over Buffalo, Tampa Bay and Nashville, and subsequents depressing letdowns against the league’s lesser teams like those to New Jersey and Ottawa, but the main goal is experience and development.
The one constant needs to be effort. After a month of hockey, David Quinn has mentioned on more than one occasion about needing to deliver a message to his team, as has Lundqvist who spoke about the team’s performance not being close to good enough during their five-game losing streak. Without the veteran leadership the team once possessed during their true contending seasons from 2011-2015, it’s understandable the second-youngest (and at times youngest) team in the league will get away from what makes them dangerous like they were over the weekend and makes them vulnerable in all three zones and extremely beatable.
The first month of the season has been a rollercoaster ride of performance of production with mixed results, and it’s been exactly what’s to be expected of a rebuild. The Rangers are headed in the right direction even if it seems like it might take forever to get there.
NHL veteran Mike Knuble talks about his career and Kevin DeLury of Go Rangers Radio talks about Rangers rebuild.
Kevin DeLury of Go Rangers Radio joined me to talk about the Rangers taking two steps forward and one step backward with their recent play, being optimistic about the rebuild and where the team is headed, evaluating David Quinn as a head coach and the possibility of Henrik Lundqvist finishing his career outside of New York.
At the 25:21 mark, former Ranger and NHL veteran Mike Knuble joined me about growing up in Michigan and playing for and winning the Stanley Cup with the Red Wings, making his NHL debut in the memorable Red Wings-Avalanche brawl, his trade to the Rangers, the Bruins teams which couldn’t get past the first round, his time in Philadelphia and Washington, which team he most identifies himself with and transitioning to coaching in the AHL.
I don’t know what to make of this Rangers team, and unfortunately, neither does the front office or coaching staff. The Rangers’ roster is being managed and their games are being coached with no real plan.
I really thought the Rangers were going to turn it around after Thursday’s impressive win over the Sabres. I really did. It’s not that I thought there wouldn’t be other losing streaks this season or that the Rangers would go on the kind of run they want on in early 2015. But I did think we would see consistent, full-game efforts from the team moving forward. That optimism lasted a little more than one period.
I didn’t expect the Rangers to necessarily beat the Bruins, even without Tuukka Rask playing. I did, however, expect them to play a competitive game, considering the Bruins had played at home the night before. The Rangers were barely competitive on Sunday night and barely looked like they were from the same league as the Bruins playing their second game in as many cities in as many nights. The Rangers might have led 1-0 after a period on a Micheal Haley goal of all goals, but the score was no way indicative of how the first period went. It was a game straight of the Henrik Lundqvist era as Number 30 played like it was 2011-12 and the defense gave up high-percentage and quality scoring chances like it was as well. To think Rangers fans would long for the overhyped defense of Lundqvist’s prime whose bad contracts led to this rebuild in the first place.
The Bruins dominated the first period and their domination paid off 11 seconds into the second when they tied it up on a call which I will never understand how it wasn’t goalie interference. Fifty-seven seconds later they had the lead and by the end of the period they were up 4-1 and Lundqvist’s night was done after essentially playing a game of Rebound for two periods. Fourty-three seconds into the third, Zdeno Chara welcomed Alexander Georgiev to the game with the Bruins’ fifth unanswered goal and the rout was on. The Rangers lost for the sixth time in seven games and lost by three goals for the fourth time this season. It was the type of game you could expect from a young, inexperienced team against a team that came within one win of winning the Stanley Cup, but not when you remember how the Rangers played and looked on Thursday against Buffalo.
I don’t know what to make of this Rangers team, and unfortunately, neither does the front office or coaching staff. I didn’t expect them to contend for a championship or necessarily even compete for a postseason spot a year and a half after they said they were going to move any tradeable asset and start over. But after opening the season with back-to-back wins and after seeing the type of game they are capable of playing against Buffalo, I thought we would see more of that. I thought we would see a young team grow and gain experience, while being fun to watch. I didn’t think 2019-20 would be a continuation of 2018-19 with no progress.
The Rangers’ roster is being managed and their games are being coached with no real plan. Players who are the foundation of the rebuild are having their minutes given to less deserving players and players who need and deserve NHL experience are having their roster spots given to less talented players for unknown reasons. Rather than go full rebuild and put the most talented team on the ice, no matter how young or inexperienced the team might then be, the Rangers are more worried with playing veterans even if those veterans aren’t part of the future and even if those veterans are playing out of position.
It would be one thing if this strategy were working, if the Rangers were winning with a head-scratching bottom six, while letting first-round picks with nothing left to prove in the AHL continue to need to prove they have earned their shot, but they’re not. The Rangers aren’t winning with their current roster and lineup construction, and their choices are coming at a cost of stunting the growth of their high-end prospects. With each game that comes off the 2019-20 schedule in which the team isn’t giving roster spots and ice time to the players they expect to be the architects of this rebuild, they’re hurting themselves for 2020-21 and beyond.
Maybe so much shouldn’t be made of the Rangers’ impressive four-goal win over the Sabres and that game should be viewed as the type of anomaly that can happen in a salary-cap league over 82 games, especially since it was sandwiched between a five-game losing streak and the worst effort of the season. But it’s hard to act like that game didn’t happen and now wonder how the Rangers can duplicate that effort moving forward.
This rebuild was always going to be a true rebuild and wasn’t going to happen on the fly. The Rangers miraculously acquiring the second overall pick and landing the offseason’s top free agent wrongfully sped up the timeline in the eyes of fans and altered the expectations of many. After nearly a month of play, the expectation for success for the Rangers this season is returning to where it should have been all along: none.
NHL veteran Tom Poti talks about his career and Adam Herman of Blueshirt Banter talks Rangers’ rough start.
Adam Herman of Blueshirt Banter joined me to talk about the Rangers being unsure of whether they are trying to compete or rebuild, expectations for this season, why David Quinn’s first season-plus has felt like Alain Vigneault, wasting the fourth line on players without a future and the defensive issues under Lindy Ruff.
At the 20:59 mark, former Ranger and 14-year NHL veteran Tom Poti joined me to talk about growing up a Yankees fan in Massachusetts, choosing Boston University, leaving college for the NHL, getting traded to the Rangers, the highs and lows of his time with the Rangers playing for Bryan Trottier and Glen Sather, why he left for the Islanders in free agency, joining the Capitals on the rise and the injuries that ended his career.
For the second straight year, I don’t have a team to root for in the playoffs, so here are the 16 teams and the order I will be rooting for them over the next two-plus months.
It’s been nearly two years since the Rangers last played in a postseason game. Two years. The worst part is no one knows when they will play their next postseason game.
Unfortunately, the Rangers let their most recent window of opportunity (2011-2016) slam shut without a championship and now they are in a rebuild with their only real high-end talent in the system not even in the system yet. The best prospect the Rangers have isn’t even a player, it’s the No. 2 pick in the 2019 draft, which they miraculously won on Tuesday night. Maybe Jack Hughes or Kappo Kaako will be a true star and the Rangers can win free agency and their slow rebuild can be greatly accelerated. But if it’s not, this likely won’t be the last time I have a “Stanley Cup Dilemma” prior to the Stanley Cup Playoffs starting because I won’t have the Rangers to root for for even a single round in the near future.
Here are the 16 playoff teams and the order I will be rooting for them over the next two-plus months.
1. Sharks Joe Thornton. He’s who I’m rooting for in these playoffs. I want Jumbo Joe to retire with a Stanley Cup and it will be sad if he’s unable to. Outside of pulling for Henrik Lundqvist to win a Cup, which isn’t going to happen as long as he wants to remain with the Rangers, Thornton is the one other play I desperately want to win. Even after reaching the Final three years ago, this team is his best chance to win a championship. If the Sharks can’t win it this year, it’s not going to happen with Thornton on the team.
2. Stars Mats Zuccarello. Like his best friend Lundqvist, Zuccarello’s time in New York was wasted by surrounding a strong core with the worst imaginable defense. Zuccarello loved New York and being a Ranger and trade rumors this season negatively affected both his life both on and off the ice. After the Rangers failed to come to terms with him on a contract extension and traded him, seeing him smile when he scored in his first game with the Stars made me smile. If the Stars win, Zuccarello wins and the Rangers win since they will get Dallas’ first-round pick if the Stars win at least two rounds in the playoffs.
3. Predators The Predators were close two years ago, losing to the Penguins in six games. I have nothing at all against the team (outside of a few bets they lost me this season with some disappointing performances), and P.K. Subban winning it in Nashville wouldn’t go over so well in Montreal.
4. Flames The Flames are fun to watch and Johnny Gaudreau is my favorite player to watch in the entire the league. Everything he does looks effortless and the numbers he has compiled and resume he has built since entering the league with his size is incredible. Unfortunately, the Flames have Mike Smith in goal, so for as much as I would enjoy seeing them win, it’s going to take a lot of offense, and in the postseason, that’s not something that should be relied on.
5. Golden Knights I pulled for the Golden Knights last season in their first season and jumped on their postseason bandwagon as a compilation of players other teams didn’t care to protect. I wanted them to deprive the Capitals of a championship, and they weren’t able to, but I will gladly root for them again.
6. Blues The Blues are the oldest team to never win the Cup. As much as I enjoy championship droughts for teams I despise, I root for them to end for teams I have no relationship with.
7. Avalanche I have always believed the NHL needs to redo their postseason format. There should be more of a reward for winning your division or being the 1-seed in your conference than one extra home game in a seven-game series. The Lightning just completed what is tied for the best regular season of all time and they have to play a dangerous and deep Blue Jackets team in the first round despite dominating for 82 games and six months. The Avalanche winning would mean yet another 8-seed survived the postseason, like the Kings just as recently as seven years ago, and will only further enforce the idea the current format needs to be changed.
8. Jets Winnipeg lost its team to Arizona. Yes, Jets fans got their team back, but they deserve to win for Gary Bettman’s “Let’s put hockey in all the southern states” plan.
9. Maple Leafs The Maple Leafs’ championship drought might not be as long as the Cubs’ and Red Sox’, but to me, it’s actually worse. The Maple Leafs are hockey, and after having gone to Toronto for the season-opening Yankees-Blue Jays series last year, it really hit home how incredible it is the team hasn’t won since 1967. I can’t even imagine what Toronto would be like if the Maple Leafs were to win it all.
The downside is I’m not a Mike Babcock fan, and for the Maple Leafs to win, it means Babcock wins. But at the same time, John Tavares winning the Cup with Toronto would crush Islanders fans, and I’m all for Islanders fans being sad. Also, the Maple Leafs winning would mean they had to beat both the Bruins and Lightning (both teams are at the bottom of this list) to do so, and that works well for my personal fandom.
10. Hurricanes It makes me sick when the Hurricanes wear the Whalers jerseys. Either change your name to the Carolina Whalers or stop bringing up the nostalgia of hockey in Connecticut. The Hurricanes are a constant reminder of the Whalers’ move and they make me sick.
11. Blue Jackets At this point, I don’t care if John Tortorella wins again. Yes, he forced Marian Gaborik out of New York for scoring goals instead of blocking shots, and it was Gaborik who led the Kings in scoring in the playoffs in which they beat the Rangers, but if the Blue Jackets win, a lot of worse options from the East won’t.
12. Penguins I like watching greatness and the Penguins have been just that in the Sidney Crosby era with three championships. So while most Rangers fans despise Crosby and the Penguins, I don’t. He’s a generational talent and on the short list of the best players in the history of the game. I have no problem with him winning a fourth Cup.
13. Capitals In the never-ending Sidney Crosby-Alexander Ovechkin debate, I have always been Team Crosby. Aside from the career points per game and being an all-around complete player, Crosby’s three Cups to Ovechkin’s now one has always served as support for my argument. I can’t have him winning another one, let alone in back-to-back seasons.
14. Islanders You’re probably wondering how the Islanders are only 14th out of 16. You’ll see why. Obviously, no Rangers fan could pull for the Islanders to win it all, and I’m certainly not. The only series in which I would root for the Islanders would be if they’re playing the 16th team in the Eastern Conference finals, and then I would root for the Western Conference champion to win the Cup.
15. Bruins If the Bruins were to win the Cup, it would mean Boston has won the World Series, Super Bowl and Stanley Cup in consecutive. Outside of the Red Sox and Mets meeting in the World Series (since one team would have to win), three straight championships for Boston would be as bad as it gets.
16. Lightning I’m still sick over having to watch three ex-Yankees, who were all painful to watch as Yankees, in Nathan Eovaldi, Eduardo Nunez and Steve Pearce win a World Series with the Red Sox this past October. All three had a significant hand in beating the Yankees during the regular season and again in the ALDS. I will never get over it.
The same thing nearly happened in the 2014-15 Stanley Cup Playoffs when the Lightning beat the Rangers in Game 7 at the Garden to advance to the Final. Thankfully, the Blackhawks beat the Lightning and Rangers fans were able to avoid having to watch Ryan Callahan, Brian Boyle and Anton Stralman hoist the Cup at the Rangers’ expense.
For the foreseeable future, I have to worry about a similar situation. The Lightning currently have the following ex-Rangers on their team: Callahan, Stralman, Ryan McDonagh, Dan Girardi and J.T. Miller. I can’t have the Lightning winning the Cup this season or any season in which those names are still on their roster. Sure, the Rangers get the Lightning’s first-round pick if they win the Cup, but I don’t care. After Girardi’s disastrous decline with the Rangers, which included him single-handedly giving away games to the Kings in the Final, the last thing I want is to see him holding the Cup over his head.
