Michael Hurley of CBS Boston joins me to talk about the Rangers’ 2-1 shootout win over the Bruins on Tuesday night.
The Rangers had two weeks off between their most recent game on Feb. 1 and Tuesday’s game against the Bruins, and it showed. The Rangers were held shotless for more than half of the first period, mustered a single goal in regulation and then needed to win a wild nine-round shootout to come away with two points. Once again, the two points earned were a product of the play of Igor Shesterkin, the way it has been all season.
Michael Hurley of CBS Boston joined me to talk about the Rangers’ 2-1 shootout win, the Bruins’ roster build, the recent midseason retirement of Tuukka Rask, the unnecessary suspension for Brad Marchand and the absence of Patrice Bergeron.
As is tradition every All-Star break, here is this season’s All-Animosity Team.
The NHL All-Star Game returned after a year hiatus, but now it’s come and gone, and the second “half” of the season is set to begin. With 35 games remaining, the Rangers have put themselves in a position where winning less than half of their games would get them to 98 points. It will take a monumental collapse for the Rangers to not play a postseason game for the first time in five years (I’m counting the 2019-20 playoffs as real postseason games for them).
Because of the Rangers’ two-week break from Feb. 1 through Feb. 15, there has been a lull in animosity toward non-Rangers around the league. But in sticking with tradition of the All-Star break, here is the 2021-22 All-Animosity Team.
FORWARDS
Matthew Barzal We came dangerously close to Barzal and Artemi Panarin 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 didn’t happen.
When Barzal is on the ice, I’m scared. I’m not scared at the level of Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, Nathan MacKinnon or Connor McDavid, but I’m still scared. He’s the one true playmaker on the Islanders and 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 that line has been going for years.
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.
Tom Wilson OK, maybe Wilson is the ultimate player who you hate to watch your team play against, but would love if he were on your team. Like Marchand, Wilson is a really good player, however, his lapses in judgment are nearly impossible to comprehend. His presence on the ice worries me for the health of the Rangers’ elite talent, but if he were flying around throwing big hits and scoring big goals for the Blueshirts, my perception of him and the Tri-state’s perception of him would be much different.
DEFENSEMEN
Alexander Ovechkin OK, so I had to do some odd maneuvering like putting a historically awful defensive player on defense for this year’s roster. But considering he does hover around the top of the left circle on the power play, it’s almost like he’s a defenseman sometimes. A stretch? Yes, it is.
In his career, Ovechkin has 41 goals in 67 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 left circle on the man advantage, two minutes feels like 20 minutes as you pray the shot attempts he does get somehow miss the net.
I keep waiting for Ovechkin to slow down, thinking age or games played might start to catch up to him, but in his age 34 season he led the league in scoring with 48 goals and was on a 58-goal pace before the season was shut down. In 91-regular season games since January 2021, he has 53 goals. He’s not slowing down. At worst he’s keeping pace with what he has always done, and it’s possible he’s getting even better with age.
I do respect his ability and appreciate that I’m watching greatness, a generational talent and the best goal scorer in the history of the game, but that doesn’t take away how I feel when he’s playing the Rangers. And no, I don’t want him to break Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goal record, though unless he unexpectedly decides to retire, he’s going to break it.
Zdeno Chara Chara’s last three stops have gone from the Bruins to the Capitals to the Islanders. All he needs are stints stint with the Devils, Flyers and Penguins at this point to increase an animosity that doesn’t need any increasing.
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.
I will miss him when he’s no longer in the league though. Chara and Joe Thornton remain the last members of the ’90s club of current NHLers who played in that decade with both going back to the 1997-98 season. Derek Jeter was finishing his second major league season when Chara and Thornton both made their debuts, and this year will be eight years since Jeter retired, all while Chara and Thornton keep on playing in the NHL. It’s preposterous, and the length of their careers is something we may never see again, and we’re seeing it from two players at the same exact time.
GOALIE
Matt Murray During Henrik Lundqvist’s number retirement ceremony, I couldn’t help but think how unfortunate Lundqvist was to have his career take place during a 15-year period in which the front office gave him to little no help defensively and asked him to single-handedly carry the organization to each win during his career. Lundqvist deserved better. He deserved more than one chance to play for the Stanley Cup, and he did everything one single member of a hockey team could do to win a championship.
It’s not Murray’s fault he got to play behind the 2015-16 and 2016-17 Penguins en route to back-to-back championships. And for as unreasonable as it is, it bothers me that he got to do so. I’m glad Lundqvist retired only ever playing in an NHL game for the Rangers, but I still wish he had agreed to waive his no-trade five and six years ago and went to a contender at the time and won. Then I wouldn’t have to think about the all the fortunate goalies over the years who have gotten their names engraved on the Cup, while Lundqvist who was undoubtedly the undisputed best goalie of his era never did.
After having their recent four-game winning streak end, the Rangers have put together a new three-game winning streak.
After having their recent four-game winning streak end, the Rangers have put together a new and current three-game winning streak. The first seven weeks of the season have been full of wins.
Brian Monzo joined me to talk about the Rangers’ impressive first quarter of the season, noticeable differences between Gerard Gallant and David Quinn, realistic expectations for Alexis Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko this season and what to do with Alexander Georgiev.
The Rangers embarrassed the Flyers and their own head coach with their memorable 9-0 win on Wednesday.
The Rangers routed the Flyers 9-0 on Wednesday and they did so without David Quinn and his entire coaching staff. What does the Rangers putting together their best performance of the season without their head coach say about their head coach?
David Quinn can’t be happy with his team’s 9-0 win over the Flyers. That’s because he had nothing to do with it, and now everyone everywhere is questioning whether the team is better off without him.
David Quinn is the head coach of the Rangers, and right now, he can’t be happy with his team’s 9-0 win over the Flyers. That’s because he had nothing to do with it, and now everyone everywhere is questioning whether the team is better off without him.
1. I don’t think David Quinn should be the head coach of the Rangers, and if you frequent Keefe To The City, you will know that’s nothing new. I don’t think Quinn is the right guy for the job now, and I certainly don’t think he’s the right guy to lead this team into future when they are supposed to contend as quickly as next season. His lineup decisions, in-game strategies and ice-time decisions are too much to overcome. He has made too many head-scratching choices between last season and this season for me to change my mind about him.
2. I don’t think the 9-0 win over the Flyers on Wednesday was completely a result of Quinn not being on the bench, but I don’t think it was a complete coincidence either. I don’t think it was an accident that Mika Zibanejad scored a hat trick, a natural hat trick at that, after having three goals in the first 27 games of the season in which he has been benched and criticized publicly by Quinn. I don’t think it was by chance the Rangers happened to put together one of the most dominant offensive performances in franchise history in a game in which they didn’t have to worry about the lines being shuffled from minute to minute or have to fear a lack of ice time for a momentary lapse of judgment.
3. There was always going to be sarcastic comments about Quinn if the Rangers won by any score on Wednesday. Shutting out the Flyers and scoring nine goals in the process was the absolute worst-case scenario for any Quinn fans, Quinn himself and the Rangers’ front office, which is definitely still unsure if Quinn should be given a fourth season at the helm when the Rangers are expected to shed the “rebuilding” title from in front of the team name.
4. Six different Rangers scored in the rout of the Flyers. Brendan Lemieux for the second time this season, Artemi Panarin for the seventh, Pavel Buchnevich for the ninth and 10th (exactly two minutes apart), Jacob Trouba for the first, Zibanejad for the fourth, fifth and sixth and Filip Chytil for the fourth. Just a nonchalant five-point night for Zibanejad without the head coach who has benched him and who has publicly called him out. Freakin’ Brett Howden got on the scoresheet in the game. That’s how much of a team effort this one was.
5. If you’re Quinn, you have to be sick over Wednesday’s performance. Sure, his team played well, picked up two points and is that much closer to a postseason berth, but they also put together the best effort of the season and one of the best of all time without their head coach on the bench and without anyone from his coaching staff on the bench. That’s embarrassing at best for Quinn, and at worst, has to make the front office question everything. That’s how different the Rangers looked.
6. Now the Rangers head to Washington D.C. for games on back-to-back days against the division-leading Capitals, who the Rangers are somehow 2-0 against this season and have outscored 8-3 in those two games. The Capitals are tied for the league lead in points, and the Rangers have easily handled them in both games this season. It’s those types of efforts that make the Rangers’ .500 first half even more frustrating and harder to accept. They have shown they can play with and beat the best teams in the league, but they have also shown they are incapable of holding third-period leads, completely overcoming deficits and winning games in which they dominate possession and win in expected goals.
7. Even though the Rangers have picked up five of a possible six points in their last three games against the Bruins and Flyers, I still don’t think they will make the postseason. That pains me to say, but the math isn’t in their favor at the halfway point of the season. A .500 record wasn’t going to cut it for a half-season in a shortened, 56-game season, and that’s what the Rangers provided in the first 28 games, going 12-12-4. The 1.20 points per game threshold I have written about since before the season began wasn’t picked out of thin air. It was a historical measuring stick from seasons past with a little cushion built in. The Rangers averaged 1.00 point per game in the first half of the season and are three wins off pace. Three wins in three games they can’t get back on the schedule. There are four teams averaging at least 1.20 points per game in the East. They are the four teams currently holding the four playoff spots.
8. The Rangers could have easily won three more games. They have lost seven games in which they had a lead, including four in which they held a third-period lead. Against Pittsburgh alone, they have had leads in five of the six games between the two and have lost five of six. The difference between being holding a playoff spot right now and being the three points out of one that they are is their head-to-head series against the Penguins. The Rangers are currently six points out from the Bruins, who have a game in hand on the Rangers. They are nine points in back of the Penguins (those five blown leads loom large) and 14 points behind both the Islanders and Capitals. Let’s focus on the fourth spot, and the Bruins with 34 points because that’s the Rangers’ best path to a postseason berth.
9. The Bruins are averaging 1.26 points per game. If they play to that pace over their remaining 29 games, the will finish with 71 points. The Rangers would need to get 43 points in their remaining 28 games, a 1.54 points-per-game pace to reach 71 points. That’s a 21-6-1 or 20-5-3 or 19-4-5 record. That’s not happening. The Bruins have an odd number of games left (29), so let’s say they played one-game-over-.500 the rest of the way and finished with 64 points. The Rangers would have to play to a 1.29 points-per-game pace to earn 36 points in 28 games. That’s an 18-10-0 or 17-9-2 or 16-8-4 record. It’s much more reasonable, but unless the Bruins’ recent slide is going to continue, it’s not likely. On top of the Rangers playing exceptionally well for the next nearly two months, there’s still the issue of the Flyers sandwiched between them and the 4-seed.
10. It’s going to be hard, very, very hard for the Rangers to overcome their mediocre and mostly disappointing first half to reach the postseason. Not impossible, but unlikely. I’m not ready to give up on them yet, and I’m not ready for the season to completely turn into watching the development of the young core. I’m close, but I’m not there yet. A few more blown third-period leads, and I won’t have to give up on the Rangers. They will have done it for me.
