Now the real season will begin. We all know the aspirations are the Stanley Cup. But you do have to take a moment and appreciate 55 wins and 114 points for number one in the NHL.
Strong performance tonight, and yes let's tip our cap and appreciate the great historic Rangers regular season. I also want to say kudos to Panarin. He took a poor playoff performance last season to heart, and he came back this season with a new approach, and a great player became even better. Not easy for a player of his caliber to do that, but he realized he needed to shoot more and be more aggressive with the puck, and he did it. Now if he could only get Zibanejad to do it.... Total appreciation for Panarin as well as the regular season. Now they need to come together and play playoff hockey. Tighten up in their own zone, play a grittier dirty style, and get pucks on net. If they do that, no reason they can't go a long way. I would guess they'll start Sunday since the Knicks play Saturday at MSG.
Elsewhere I think it was a great night for the Rangers: 1. The Isles won, so they are now locked into playing the Canes. 2. The Caps and Wings won. What that means is if the Caps or Wings win tomorrow night, the Pens are eliminated (they both have a magic # of 2 over the Pens since the Pens have the TB). The Caps are at the Flyers, the Wings are at Montreal. The Caps have the tiebreaker, so they have the edge, but the Flyers could win that game potentially. The Pens are at the Isles on Wednesday night, but I am thinking they will be eliminated by then hopefully. It would be very surprising to me if both the Caps and Wings lose. I have to think one will win with their playoff lives on the line, playing lesser teams. Caps - 81 GP, 89 points, 31 RW's Wings - 81 GP, 89 points, 27 RW's Pens - 81 GP, 88 points, 32 RW's Between the Caps and Wings I don't really have a preference either way. Maybe I lean slightly to rooting for the Wings, but pretty similar. Either way, the Rangers should beat either team in less than 7 IMO. Then hope the Isles can beat up on the Canes a bit in their series.
That was a great comeback by Detroit, down 2-0, 3-1, and 4-2, scored with under 2 minutes left in regulation to tie it, and under 30 seconds left in OT to win it. Fun game to watch. After barely getting through tonight one would think they should come out and play well tomorrow night, but we'll see.
Looking like: TBD-Rangers Isles-Canes Lightning-Bruins (I believe the Bruins will beat the Sens tomorrow night) Leafs-Panthers Fun series in the East.
The Caps it is. I expect the series to start Sunday. I say again, there is no excuse for us to not finish it in 5 or 6 games. The Caps had a -37 goal differential, they are under .500 on the road, they finished 4-4-2, and they won tonight thanks to the Flyers pulling their goalie in a tie game because they needed to win in regulation to stay alive. The Rangers have a history of always making things difficult as we all know, but this year let's hope they can take a different path. I was hoping it would be the Caps or the Wings, I did not want to face the Pens, and we got it. Finish this against an average team in 5 or 6 games. And with the Bruins pulling a no-show tonight, I wonder if they preferred to play the Leafs over the Lightning, I know I would, these will be the East matchups in round one: Caps-Rangers Isles-Canes Lightning-Panthers Leafs-Bruins Let's go Isles, Lightning, and Leafs.
Yeah, I wonder if there was intention there to play the playoff challenged Leafs over the playoff tested world class goalie Lightning.
Some interesting storylines for the Rangers/Caps. Lindgren brothers facing each other. Rangers get a healthy dose of Tom Wilson, have to imagine/hope Rempe will be in the lineup game 1. Uhhhh....im sure there are others....didn't Laviolette coach the Caps at some point? The Eastern Conference matchups are great...will make for some entertaining series.
Yes, he coached them the past 3 years, was fired after last season. So that is an interesting storyline. The Wilson thing is interesting as well, you know he will be doing what he does. Rempe needs to be in for game 1. The Caps have 6 or 7 good/very good players led by OV, Strome, and Carlson, including Wilson and Oshie who play well against us, but after that they lack depth. They also play a very defensive game and play to win low event, low scoring, low chance type of games. The Rangers need to stay patient and if we do, we should be good. The West has two great series as well, Avs-Jets, and whichever team Vegas ends up playing, could be the Canucks, Stars, or Oilers. That will be a great series no matter which team they play.
Yeah, the Western Conference will have some great matchups too. Man, there is nothing better than the NHL playoffs. Whenever the series against the Caps start I just hope it's not an afternoon game.
The NHL playoffs are the best playoffs in any sport, and I don't think it is close. So many close games, and almost any team can win.
Also on the Caps, Lindgren has played really well for them, he will give them very good goaltending. They only have one guy on their team better than 50% on faceoffs, Strome, so we should do well there, which is always a good thing. And they average across the board (outside of scoring) - 28th in scoring, 16th in goals against, 17th on the PP, and 18th on the PK.
lol - watch…. Against the Caps this will be an irritating 7 game series. I swear to god this Team better not pull that shit in the first round this year
It definitely shouldn’t be and that would be terrible with a likely second round series with Carolina. Get it done in five if you’re serious about making a run.
Great job by Lav, I'm sure Rempe will be in the lineup to monitor Wilson. The only thing that will stop the Rangers is the unwillingness to shoot the puck and the willingness to play physical hockey, less stick checking more taking the body. This is their best squad in years and they have one of the best coaches in hockey, no more excuses.
