Rangers – Page 26 – Keefe To The City

Apr 14, 2015

Podcast: 610 Barstool Sports New York

The wait for the playoffs to begin seems like forever, but the Rangers are set up perfectly for a long run into the late spring and that makes it worth the wait.

The days off between the regular season and the postseason feel like forever. And when you add in the fact that the last few weeks of the Rangers’ season was just a formality because of their strong hold on a playoff berth, the wait has been even longer. But the playoffs are about to begin and the Rangers are perfectly set up for an extended run that should take us into the late spring and that makes it worth the wait.

610 of Barstool Sports New York joined me to talk about which team Rangers fans should have wanted to face in the first round, what it’s like to be the team to beat in the playoffs, why Rangers fans shouldn’t be worried about the Penguins this postseason, how the playoff experience has changed for Rangers fans and predictions for the playoffs.

Podcasts • Rangers • Rangers Playoffs

Apr 13, 2015

Podcast: Brian Monzo

The mentality has changed for Rangers fans thanks to the Stanley Cup Final run last season and now this spring it’s Stanley Cup or bust for the Rangers.

The playoffs are here and the Rangers got here the way they wanted to. I’m not talking about by winning the Presidents’ Trophy or by winning the East or the Met or by having home-ice advantage for the playoffs. I’m talking about being healthy for the starts of the postseason, which is the most important thing.

WFAN Mike’s On: Francesa on the FAN producer Brian Monzo joined me to talk about the Rangers’ season and what winning the Presidents’ Trophy means, the first-round matchup with the Penguins, last year’s series against the Penguins, which team the Rangers should have wanted to play in the first round, the Stanley Cup-or-bust mentality in New York and predictions for the playoffs.

Podcasts • Rangers

Mar 27, 2015

Podcast: Danny Picard

The Rangers clinched a playoff berth with some help from the Bruins and now the Rangers head to Boston to hopefully play the Bruins for the last time this season.

The Rangers became the first team to clinch a playoff berth and got some help from the Bruins to make it possible. The Rangers’ win over the Senators coupled with the Bruins’ last-minute meltdown and overtime loss to the Ducks gave the Rangers a playoff berth much earlier than they are used to getting one. Now this weekend, the Rangers head to Boston to face the Bruins for hopefully the last time this season with the Bruins desperately fighting for a wild-card spot.

Danny Picard, of DannyPicard.com and The Danny Picard Show on WEEI and Comcast SportsNet New England, joined me to talk about the mood in Boston around the Bruins, if Peter Chiarelli and Claude Julien should be fired at the end of the season and if Bruins fans will be rooting for the Rangers and Keith Yandle this postseason.

Blogs • Rangers

Mar 23, 2015

The Scared of the Rangers Playing Them in the Playoffs Power Rankings Part II

We’re a month closer to the Stanley Cup playoffs, so it’s time to update who Rangers fans shouldn’t want to play in the postseason.

The Rangers are still going to the playoffs. Since the first time I put out these rankings on Feb. 24, the Rangers have gone 10-2-1 and now sit in first in the Metropolitan Division and share the lead league in points (99) with Montreal and Anaheim. However, they have two games in hand on Montreal and three games in hand on Anaheim. So, yes, right now the Rangers are technically the best team in the entire NHL.

I don’t know that anyone could have seen a 35-8-3 run coming after they lost to Detroit on Dec. 6 to fall to 11-10-4. And certainly no one saw the Rangers going 17-3-3 after losing Henrik Lundqvist at the beginning of February. But here we are on March 23, a day after the Rangers embarrassed the Ducks with a 7-2 win at the Garden with the Rangers sitting atop the NHL.

Some things have changed over the last month since the original rankings came out and with 12 games and 19 days left in the season, I thought it was time to revisit them and put out the second installment of The Scared of the Rangers Playing Them in the Playoffs Power Rankings.

1. MONTREAL CANADIENS
Because I follow some Canadiens fans on Twitter, I’m not as scared of the Canadiens as I was a month ago. Yes, they’re still the biggest obstacle between the Rangers and getting back to the Stanley Cup Final, but hearing Canadiens fans complain about how the team isn’t as good as their record indicates, but rather it’s the Vezina- and MVP-like performance from Carey Price that has them in first in the Atlantic and tied with the Rangers in points has me less worried.

After losing six of eight to start March, the Canadiens have gotten back on track with three straight wins and back-to-back shutouts from Price. Price currently has a 1.86 goals against average and .938 save percentage. To put that in perspective, during Henrik Lundqvist’s memorable 1.97/.929 he was unbeatable and Price is having an even better season than that.

I don’t care how upset Canadiens fans might be or appear to be about their team’s recent play. The Canadiens are the team to beat for the Rangers.

2. TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING
The Rangers went 0-3 against the Lightning this year and haven’t seen them since Dec. 1 when the Rangers were a completely different team. So now there is a lot of mystery and unknown in how these two teams match up, but like I said a month ago, losing a playoff series to a team with Ryan Callahan, Brian Boyle and Anton Stralman isn’t exactly how I want this Rangers season to end.

3. BOSTON BRUINS
I know this doesn’t look right having the Bruins this high up when they only have a one-point lead on Ottawa right now for the 8-seed and Ottawa has a game in hand on the Bruins, but this team never dies and the last thing I want them to do is get hot over the next two-plus weeks and then be the Rangers’ first-round opponent. The Bruins are the hardest team to put away in the third period and they seem to always tie up any game once Tuukka Rask heads to the bench in the final minute. They are playoff-tested and still have 11 players from their 2010-11 Cup-winning team and 13 of players from their 2012-13 Cup-losing team on their roster. While New York could use a series win over the Bruins to start to tilt the city rivalry back the right way, I’m not sure the reward is worth the risk.

4. OTTAWA SENATORS
The Senators moved into eighth place in the East on Monday night with a win over San Jose. I watched the third period because of a financial investment in the game and the Senators went into the third trailing 2-1 before turning into Team Canada and scoring four goals en route to a 5-2 win. The Senators opened February with five losses in seven games, but since they are 15-1-1. That’s insane. The Rangers will see them twice in the next two weeks and I will have a better feel for what Rangers fans could be in for in a seven-game series with the Senators, but they are peaking at the right time and after the seven-game scare from them in the 2011-12 playoffs, I don’t want any part of them.

5. NEW YORK ISLANDERS
That sound you hear is nothing. It’s silence. It’s every Islanders fan that chirped Rangers fans with the “Best Team in New York” title for the first four-plus months of the season with nothing left to say.

6. PITTSBURGH PENGUINS
Since 2007-08 everyone has been riding the Penguins and since then they have two Stanley Cup Final appearances (2007-08 and 2008-09) and one Cup (2008-09). There’s a good chance we are looking at a 30 for 30 in the future being made about how much of a disappointment the Sidney Crosby Penguins era was. Here is what the Penguins have done since winning the Cup in 2008-09.

2009-10: Blew 3-2 series lead in first round to Canadiens and lost Game 7 at home.

2010-11: Blew 3-1 series lead in first round to Lightning and lost 1-0 in Game 7 at home.

2011-12: Lost in first round in six games to Flyers and allowed 30 goals in the series.

2012-13: Swept in conference finals by Bruins and scored two goals in the series.

2013-14: Blew 3-1 series lead in second round to Rangers and lost Game 7 at home.

For the first time in the last eight years, no one seems to be backing or hyping or believing in the Penguins and that’s what makes them dangerous. They still have Sidney Crosby and they still have Evgeni Malkin and Marc-Andre Fleury is having the best year of his career. The Penguins are playing without any pressure with a new head coach/general manager regime and without everyone expecting them to play for and win the Cup and that might be the scariest thing of all.

7. DETROIT RED WINGS
Ryan Brandell of Barstool Sports Chicago has been telling me about the Red Wings all year on every podcast we have done. And because the Red Wings are sort of a mystery team because of their move to the East last year coupled with their abundance of injuries in 2013-14 and their first-round, five-game exit in the playoffs, I started to worry about them because I felt like I didn’t know enough about them and hadn’t seen enough of them and wondered how they were having such a remarkable season. But then I watched the Rangers go to Detroit without Henrik Lundqvist and thoroughly dominate the Red Wings for 60 minutes and lose 2-1 in overtime on a fluky goal.

Jimmy Howard was the only reason the Red Wings were even in the game and I would be willing to bet against him having that type of performance for an entire seven-game series because nothing he has done in his career to this point suggests he will. So unless Howard turns into 2002-03 Jean-Sebastien Giguere then I like the Rangers’ chances against the Red Wings.

8. WASHINGTON CAPITALS
The Rangers have played the Capitals since the first installment of these rankings. The game was on March 11 and the Rangers beat them 3-1 in Washington. It was a pretty easy win for the Rangers and despite the Capitals tying the game at 1 in the first period, it felt like the Rangers would win all along, and they did.

A series against the Capitals means the Rangers will play another series after it. Give me the Capitals.

Podcasts • Rangers

Mar 18, 2015

Podcast: Ryan Brandell

The Rangers are now the class of the NHL along with the Blackhawks and for the second time in a little over a week, we get a potential Stanley Cup Final preview.

The Rangers are the class of the Eastern Conference. The Blackhawks are the class of the Western Conference. For the second time in just over a week the two teams meet in what we might be able to call a Stanley Cup Final preview if both teams stay healthy for the next two-plus months.

Ryan Brandell of Barstool Sports Chicago (known as “Chief” on that site), joined me to talk about welcoming the Rangers to the class of the NHL, the comfort of knowing your team is going to the playoffs early on and what to do with the shootout and loser point.