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.

OK, we’re two games into the “new” roster with another game in Canada tonight. And the New York Rangers have won both games. The defense is still a mess but the spirit does seem to be back.

Ryan Spooner (from the Bruins) is doing amazing. Six assists and one goal in three games. He’s helped Hayes light a fire under him who is on a goal streak that hasn’t happened in I can’t remember how long.

The Vancouver game started amazing, 3-0 almost right off the bat. Two goals in the first two minutes. And then it fell apart and turned into a war that ended 6-5 in OT. 55 shots for Lundqvist, which is absurd. Last night 3-1 win with 50 more shots against. Hank was a man possessed this two fend that off, it was nuts. They managed to keep a lid on rebounds and turned it around to offense more against Calgary which shows in the score.

But the defense. 50 goals against cannot keep happening, it’s unsustainable. No goalie can keep dealing with that.

The games have been fun to watch though.

Ok, we’re on the other side of the trade deadline. A lot of moves have been made league-wide but there have been none as drastic as the New York Rangers. And we might as well be honest, it’s been long overdue. Patchwork pickups and hail mary trades didn’t work in seasons past so here we are since that tactic obviously doesn’t work for this organization.

After a terrible start, a recovery that went into some stumbles which have ended in a face plant of a season. The Rangers were simply not working as a team and the hit list of injuries made the deficiencies of the remaining players (namely the old guard that should have been able to step up) became obvious to everyone.

I mean, it all came to a head with our usual “lean on me” goalie Henrik Lundqvist collapsing under the weight of a terrible defensive line that hung him out to dry more times than you can count. He’s only one guy and hockey is a team sport. The turnovers got ridiculous and the unrelenting pressure finally got to Lundqist…he lost his professional composure. You could see him angry in games, he wasn’t able to move on from letting one get by him. One of the most reliable players on the team for basically ten years got fed up. That’s terrible.

So we’re smack dab in one of the worst losing streaks for the team in a long time. The head office putting out a public letter to fans saying a reorganization was starting with this trade deadline smacked the entire team upside the head. Their bosses didn’t believe in them anymore. That brought moral down and I think that contributed to the slide. Coming out and saying “brace yourself for what’s coming…we’re looking towards the future” will do that to anyone. And they weren’t kidding.

Here’s the list:

Defenseman Ryan McDonagh and forward J.T. Miller to the Tampa Bay Lightning for: forward Vladislav Namestnikov, a first-round pick in the 2018 NHL Draft, a conditional first-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, forward prospect Brett Howden and defenseman prospect Libor Hajek.

Forward Rick Nash to the Boston Bruins for: forwards Ryan Spooner and Matt Beleskey, defenseman prospect Ryan Lindgren, a first-round pick in 2018 and a seventh-round pick in 2019.

Forward Michael Grabner to the New Jersey Devils for: a second-round pick in 2018 and defenseman prospect Yegor Rykov.

Defenseman Nick Holden to the Boston Bruins for: defenseman Rob O’Gara and a third-round pick in 2018.

That’s five NY Rangers gone. Nash and McDonagh are staples of the franchise. Them gone leaves very few of the old guard remaining. Miller, Grabner, Holden are much newer to the team.

Out of that list, Holden was the obvious one to go and the intent to get something for Nash wasn’t much of a secret. I’m really surprised at letting Miller go (I like him a lot, I think he has great potential) and that makes me wonder if they are going to stick with coach Alain Vigneault. It’s no secret that a ton of fans want him to be shown the door. A lot of blame can be put on him for letting problems fester (veterans continually playing like garbage) and not utilizing young talent (word is he and Miller didn’t get along).

These new players push the median age of the team way down. They said they wanted to rebuild and they did not lie. Many prospective players in there as well and what amounts to a ton of early draft picks. There was some serious wheeling and dealing done, the front office managed to get a lot in return for what they offered. Kudos on that.

My gut reaction is that this had to be done and was inevitable. Make moves now for what amounts to huge potential gains for the near future (I read serious Cup runs in 5 years from the people who do this conjecture for a living) instead of massive salary cap problems and zero growth for the foreseeable future. I’ve been watching this team for awhile so I have an attachment to the roster. It’s a major upheaval and the very, very, real potential of not making it to the playoffs (lol at Cup Finals) is a real dig at the soul after making 7 straight runs. It’s just gross.

So the new team plays for the first time tonight. The black fog of uncertainty of the trade deadline is gone and everyone can refocus. The coaching staff must be getting no sleep and practice must be nuts. There is so much to work on and figure out to get the new lines set up, I have no idea where they start on that. And with all of those high draft picks, if the front office borks that up, it will be their time at the guillotine.

The Rangers are currently 9 points out of the second playoff wildcard spot so it’s not yet mathematically impossible for them to make it in. I’d like to see them do it just so they can salvage the regular season. My take is that making the playoffs means you are a success. If you don’t, it’s a failure, you weren’t good enough to be considered a champion.

A lot has to go right for a wildcard spot but the biggest, and the only thing they can control is that the Rangers play as a team again.

1-5-1.

The Penguin game was won. Won! A terrible start followed by a second period opening rally to punish Sidney Crosby. A glorious 5-3 power play opportunity opens up to get a 2 goal lead and the Rangers completely blow it, letting Pen tie it up.

And then it all collapsed in a series of complete nonsense at the end of the third. First, a twist of physics to get stupid Crosby a game-tying goal. Then a bush league mistake in the first minute of overtime to lose.

Crushing. It’s mindboggling what’s going on. I can’t even imagine what the team’s headspace is like right now but they have to ignore it and go out and skate like there is no tomorrow to get out of this. There’s just the most bizarre decisions being made. High-risk low reward passing that goes nowhere or blows up in their face. Stop trying to make every goal a one-timer, you see a sliver of an opening, fire that puck on net. Quit waiting around for things to line up perfectly all the time. It’s like tar that’s weighing them down, it’s such a downer.  Not making the playoffs would be horrible.