The trade deadline has past and we are in the throws of the second phase of the rebuild.

There were a couple of minor league trade shuffles leading up to this weekend and as expected the big moves have been made. Mats Zuccarello has gone to Dallas for two early draft picks. Kevin Hayes has gone to Winnipeg for a draft pick (4th round in 2022(!) with some a condition Winni wins the Cup this year) and forward Brendan Lemieux (22 years old, some ok stats). Adam McQuaid has been sent to Columbus for 4th and 7th round draft picks.

So the obvious take from this: management is looking ahead 2-3 seasons for things to come together. For some reason, they didn’t think Hayes and Zucc are part of that team which has to be mostly cap space (all three players contracts were ending this season). They both wanted long term contracts and were told no and they would have gotten big raises, Hayes especially. Odds of them coming back to the team just got much smaller. Zucc is 32 I think so I assume they think the clock is ticking on him. Hayes is 26 and is probably about to hit his prime so not keeping him seems crazy. I don’t think McQuaid got a fair shake this season since trading for him in September. Wasted opportunity, Lord knows we need some muscle out there and he’s at least got that going for him (he’s 31 so I guess management doesn’t believe in him either…he’s just under $3 million at the moment).

The other take away is, if you are over 30 and not an absolute all-star of epic proportions, you aren’t going to get resigned. Management is building a young team that they expect to mature in 3 seasons or so. They’ll work with these rookies to see who takes off and when they have a homegrown stable set, a stupid amount of money will be dropped (the caps space is being built for this now) on other franchise players to fill in the gaps.

Hank has 2 more seasons left. He’ll be 38 and a salary of just over $8 million. They have a kid named Igor (iirc) who is more of a brick wall than a human being in the KHL (iirc) so they see him as the golden goalie. This kids stats are currently unreal and if he makes a successful transition to the NHL, it’ll be the second coming of the 2014 Rangers. Alexander Georgiev is I think the stop-gap solution for the next few years, he’ll play a lot more to make up for Hank starting to fade (it’s noticeable, he’s not reacting as fast). And who knows, Georgiev could be a monster soon too which gives the team a lot of options.

That’s years away. I’m now convinced that Hank’s exit between the posts will be the signal of when these bold trade moves are expected to pay off. They are preparing for the next NY Ranger generation to start the moment the Henrik Lundkvist era ends.

This is a major player loss for the New York Rangers. Part of the team since 2010, Mats has been a force on and off the ice. He’s one of the most loved players in team history and it’s sad to see him move on. This article says it all best.

https://foreverblueshirts.com/rangers-reactions-goodbye-mats-zuccarello/

We are at the All Star Break so that means the 2018-2019 season is half way over (technically, 7 games ago as 48 have been played…some teams are at 52). Let’s look at the standings and get to the New York Rangers. This is the Top 16*

*Carolina is tied with Buffalo, at 54 points, they are just outside of the Wildcard for the East. Not shown is Dallas and Colorado who are tied at 52 points, they are currently the wild cards for the west. Vancouver also has 52 but has more games played than

Now here is just the east division.

So let’s state the obvious, the Rangers are bad. There’s no more holding out hope. They are much better than they’re record shows. the potential is there but they struggle to play as a team. See those top teams? They play as a team (Tampa Bay’s record is obscene). If the Rangers consistently played as a team. they’d be around 56 points right now.

I don’t know what it is. New coach, rookie players who have a long way to go, vets who have bad habits from years of ineffective coaching and managment? Everything that has plagued this team since 2014-15, bad passing, face-offs, special teams, penalty killing, sloppy defense, stupid penalties and plays that turn into turnovers, are all still there. We don’t have consistent goal scorers, the droughts come in huge waves and the brain dead penalties just make everything more difficult. It makes everyone on the ice have to work harder and ruins any kind of positive momentum.

This is a rebuilding year. One of many, everyone knows that. It would have been a miracle to have made a championship team in one trade session and off-season. What we have is a team that is still missing pieces and most likely some drastic trades are coming by the deadline in February. Hayes and Zuccarello are on the top of the list and if some huge deal is dangled in front of management, Kreider with out a doubt in that group. All three of them are fan favorites and would be a huge morale loss (and we do need vets to lead the team). Plus, I think it would be crazy to do another full fire sale. There’s no point in trading already great players with the hope of hitting it big in the draft. That is a huge gamble.

When the team plays together, they are a ton of fun to watch. I’m saying this on the runners high of 3 wins in a row but any kind of win streak is rare. Zucc has had a really off season and it hasn’t been until the last 2 weeks where the professional has shown up. He’s way more active, way more aggressive and that leads to plays coming together.

Even if the Rangers have a better second half of a season, I don’t think they’re a playoff team. Getting into a wildcard spot would mean going up against Tampa Bay or Washington and that would be a slaughter. It’s not worth it.

Looking around, Vegas and Pittsburg had terrible starts and turned around their season, something we hoped the Rangers would do. The Islanders have hit their stride with their new coach (it’s insane Washington didn’t want to pay him what he wanted and deserves), they are a major threat. And look at Buffalo! They have been terrible forever and this season is a total turn around. They came out on fire, cooled off, get good results but the East division is so monsterous in talent that they are on the edge of the playoffs. Considering how many goals they score it’s surprising they aren’t in right now.

Still a lot to go but the front runners are very clear (look at Calgary and Toronto! It’s been a long time since Canadian teams have done so well). Who ends up in the wildcard slots should be interesting. The closer the trade line comes up the bigger moves we’ll see league wide.

And the Rangers lost to the (struggling) Flyers 4-0! Man, the worm turns real fast in this sport. Not sure what happened. Terrible passing and the offense rarely found traction to make any plays.

Revenge has been served. NYR crushed the NYI 5-0! The streak continues 9-1-1 for a total of 12-8-2. This is what dreams are made of. Happy Thanksgiving!

We have just past the 20 game mark of the season and I am happy to say that watching the NY Rangers isn’t a form of torture anymore. The first 10 games were a horror show and we’re now in the middle of a win streak that no one thought was possible (8-1-1 if I’m remembering right).

Going from 3-7-1 to 11-8-2 for 24 points has jumped the Rangers into second place in the Eastern Conference, which is nuts. 1 point ahead of the Stanley Cup Champions, the Washington Capitals (first game against them is this Saturday). Other important numbers: 14th in the league, Nashville is 1st with 31 points. In last place, Los Angeles can be found with 15 points. Most of the league is bunched in the middle with 21-25 points.

Coach Quinn is amazing. I think that’s the best summary. After the team was playing like they were in high school, he cracked the whip to make the professional athletes remember that they are professional athletes. He’s the opposite of Alain Vigneault. He knows how to use younger players (and actually talk to them) and if you aren’t pulling your weight, you get benched to think about what you are doing. Vigneault let the veterans get away with murder and it stifled the team.

The rookies are starting to get comfortable and it’s a blast to see it happen. Jimmy Vesey is always getting work done. Neil Pionk is having a blast. Philip Chytil has broken the seal and scored once in each of the last 4 games. Brett Howden is getting better and better. The team is still in flux though. Zuccarello and Buchnevich (who was on a roll) are hurt. Skjei and Smith swing from good to garbage seemingly by the minute. It looks like Namestnikov has finally woken up and Shattenkirk is doing a fine job on defense (it’s clear why he was picked up last season and after his terrible injury it’s great to see him play). Lias Andersson hasn’t scored yet and is looking to get the breakthrough that Chytil just struck. Ryan Spooner was traded for Ryan Strome from Ottawa so we’ll see how that works out. Vinni Lettieri was sent back to Hartford to cook some more. Jesper Fast has no show stopper moments. In fact, he’s oddly cold with only 1 goal and 6 assists so far.

The internet scuttlebutt has raised this question from this new success streak: Where are we in the rebuilding process? This usually takes years and it’s awful in the beginning. Hayes and Kreider are playing very well (Hayes, at 25 is starting to hit his stride) and they will have targets on their back for other teams to trade for him. Hayes especially as he’s young and his contract ends this year. If they end up doing well, they get no more early draft selections for next year and that’ll affect the rebuild.

These two guys are what I’d consider the old guards of the Rangers. They are the players the rookies can follow as mentors in their new NHL careers. You need a core to build a team around, but will management jettison them (for something worthwhile instead of letting them go for nothing) in favor of looking for the future (which hasn’t been done in years, instead paying out the nose for quick “fixes”), or re-sign them to use as the team core to build around? Skjei was signed to a big contract and he’s not living up to expectations but I find it hard to believe they’ll give up on him.

If they can maintain this kind of success it’d be nuts to break up the team. But I have no idea if it’s possible. It’s so early in the season and a big factor when we get closer to the playoffs is how healthy the team is. Henrik is playing incredibly well but is he going to get burned out playing as much as he has? Georgiev has played a handful of games so far. He isn’t going to get better by sitting it out all the time and leaning on Henrik like he’s still 26 years old is dangerous.

This could break in any direction has each week passes. They could collapse again or they could make the playoffs. A cup run would be something for the history books. Or they skid somewhere to the middle of the league and another round of drastic trades are made come February.

Regardless of what happens, I’ll be watching it unfold.

The ice is back! And the Rangers are off to a rough start.

There were a lot of changes over the offseason and none of them were small. A new coach is arguably the biggest. A lot of young talent makes up the roster now. A rebuild is what it was called last winter and that’s what we’re watching now.

The sports scuttlebutt going into the season was that the Rangers are being completely written off. With no breakout player and a new coach, there’s no expectation of a good season. I think everywhere I read/watched had the Rangers duking it out with the Islanders for the last place in the Metro division. The Islanders lost major talent at the end of the season so they are more or less considered to be a wounded animal this season.

The Rangers have a lot of talent on the team but there is so much in the air that the safe best is mediocre at best. With a 3-3 preseason, I had my hopes that the team will figure out how to gel as a team under the new leadership.

The start of the regular season is 0-3 so it’s basically like last season is still happening. They have moments of greatness and then there are the stupid plays…a mistake here, a bad move there, a squandered effort to get to the puck turns into a disaster. There are times where it looks like a player has stopped paying attention–like they forgot they are playing. It’s amateurish to say the least.

The team can’t rely on Lundquist to save them anymore. In fact, he can’t be expected to play as much as he has in the past. This is where Georgiev needs to step up and after tonight’s loss to the Hurricanes, he’s got a lot of work to do. They hung in there in the first game with Nashville. They should have skated through Buffalo and struggled to score the entire night. Tonight they lost the lead 4 times. 4!

There’s gotta be something that’s missing. The rookies are putting in a ton of effort, it’s just these collapses that keep showing up. These terrible defensive moves that are mindboggling. And that’s from the vet players too. Tonight Zuc gave a goal up because he wasn’t playing his position. He skating in the wrong direction giving the offensive player a wide open shot as he went right by Zuc.

Serious practice is all I can think of at this point. It’s still early though. It’s still early.

We’re finally at the end! Vegas worked over Winnipeg and Washington kicked it into high gear to dominate the last two game to move on. Washington has worked much harder than Vegas to get to this point (I think Vegas only played 15 games) so they are going to have to dig into their reserves to keep up the energy that’s going to be needed to win.

As the first game proved, these teams are evenly matched. It was a fast and furious contest from start to finish with multiple lead changes. While the final score was 6-4 Vegas, it was close the entire game. Vegas got the final goal and Washington just couldn’t find one more opening. The sixth goal was an empty net with about 3 seconds left so it was a non-factor.

I’m expecting 7 games, 6 if Vegas can keep this incredible momentum up. I expect Washington to be their toughest test and I’d like to see Washington win. No matter what a team will be getting their first Stanley Cup so that’s fantastic.

Round 2 is going to be a straight up dog fight in every match up. Nashville is the favorite for the west. Can the Las Vegas Knights continue to make history? Washington is going up the two time defending champions along with the dark cloud of not making it past the 2nd round in something like 20 seasons. Insane pressure for both teams and they are both monster teams, so it could go either way. Washington has to keep focused and calm no matter what happens or Pittsburgh will take advantage. Tampa is having another big run and there are quite of few ex-Rangers on that roster now. I think I favor them over Boston but you can’t sleep on Boston, they’re scary good too.

The New York Rangers’ season is mercifully at an end. The last 10 games were a mudslide of pain and disappointment. They were out of contention for a while now but that doesn’t make loss after loss, mistake after mistake any easier to take.

34-39-9 is a terrible record. Not the worst in the league (24th) so there is your silver lining. Major things need to be done over the summer and the draft in June will be the most telling. I’ve had my reservations about coach Alain Vigneault being on the job for a while now and last night the powers that be made the decision: he’s done. Now the other half of the puzzle needs to be found. A coach that can foster what will without a doubt be a roster of mostly young players. Rebuild!

So while my hockey interest is chopped down, the playoffs are really stacked. There are many monster teams this season and the Las Vegas Knight story is nuts. The first season of the franchise and they made it easily into the playoffs. I’m interested to see how far the can go. Is this the year the Capitals shake free the noose and get to the Cup? I don’t think anyone believes the Devils are going to get past the second round and I’ll be cool with anyone but the Kings and Penguins winning. I think Kings have a tougher hill to climb than the Penguins this year. There’s going to be many great series starting on Wednesday the 11th.