Certainly not a cupcake opponent but the easily preferred opener compared to falling into a wild card slot.
Which depth forwards and/or defensemen should they target at the deadline?
Im expecting a similar approach like last seasons acquisitions.
)Do Rangers also plan on boosting the fourth line?
Motte would be a nice add.
4C is a significant question mark.
Not sure Jake the Snake Leschyshyn is the answer yet.
If you wanna make that 4th line a straight checking line they could swap Vesey & Gauthier too.
Nick Bjugstad would be another solid depth add.
They’ve gotta improve there, or at least acquire better insurance.
A guy I like a lot is Dmitry Kulikov.
The biggest reason he gets my attention though is that he can still skate & move the puck.
Possible return for a kane or Meier trade?
As I said above I think adding a big gun is a must.
Acquiring a quality weapon allows them to slide down and do exactly that.
Only the Isles have been worse.
It’s become stagnant and predictable.
The team around him STINKS.
His 92 points were almost double any forward not named DeBrincat (Strome was next with 48).
Kane is a premier playmaker without a single teammate skilled enough to make plays for.
What did we think was gonna happen?
He was gonna make Anathasiou a point-per-game guy?
Imagine what he’d do in NY?
That’s the biggest load of bullshit I’ve ever seen.
The Hawks have no leverage here just like Philly had none last year when moving Giroux.
How could anyone have a problem with that???
If we’re talking Timo Meier, we’re talking pipe dream.
It’s just not worth it.
I’d absolutely love Meier in New York, but not for the collateral damage it’d seemingly cause.
Kiss that dream goodbye.
The other big name that should be on the Rangers radar is Vladimir Tarasenko.
Mileage seems to be catching up.
4.Timo Meier- Simply because of the cost/collateral damage of acquiring/re-signing him.
It’s too much now and in the immediate future.
3.Vladimir Tarasenko- I’d be happy to add him and assume the cost won’t be outrageous.
Just too one-dimensional to get overly excited about, although it’s a dimension the Rangers need.
If he’s not finishing though, what do you have?
A disgruntled defensive liability?
2.Jakob Chychrun- Iwrote about it as a hypothetical hereabout a month ago.
Highly unlikely but I’d absolutely love being set on the back end and in the crease through ‘24-25.
Don’t like the person?
Nervous about his lingering injury?
Do you ease up on Igors workload in the second half considering Halaks recent play?
There are 8 back-to-backs in the second half.
With 33 games to go & 8 back-to-backs it pretty much works out perfectly in terms of balance.
Jaro finding his game makes it a hell of a lot easier to avoid over-extending Shesterkin though.
Rangers seem to suck in Ot and have blown leads.
Could this be a conditioning issue?
Ice time management issue ?
They dropped 4 of 5 games in the overtime period and another in a shootout to start the year.
In half those games, they blew leads to SJ, DET & OTT.
They’ve been better though since.
2-1 in shootouts, 2-2 in overtime periods.
Extra time is a crapshoot though.
No rhyme or reason.
Blowing leads to GET to those overtimes is the bigger concern.
If they were middle-of-the-pack they’d have another 4 points banked right now.
That could end up being the difference between home-ice or not come April.
And by “tighten up” I don’t mean go into a shell.
They’ve got to continue to dictate the game as much as possible but in a straight-line manner.
Get pucks out of the d-zone and into the o-zone with purpose, then go to work on possession.
The deadline should bring a body he can trust more in late-game situations.
Im a little disappointed in Lafreniere.
Can you tell me exactly what you see when you watch him play?
I honestly cant think of one thing that he does very well.
Let me preface my answer here by saying I still think the future is bright for Alexis Lafreniere.
This season though has been revealing.
What specifically does he do very well?
None of that stopped him though from putting up impressive 5x5 goal numbers his first two seasons.
Of all skaters with 1500+ 5x5 minutes over that span, Lafreniere was 28th in goals-per-60.
Same rate as Nate MacKinnon.
The caveat to those goals though is that no one out-performed their expected goals rate more than Laf.
He essentially doubled it which is unheard of.
So what does that mean?
Was he extremely lucky or just that good at putting himself in position to cash in on opportunity?
Well if this season is any indication it might’ve been the former.
New Jersey went the other way and won the game seconds later.
An illegal hit on Lafreniere and the Devils go on a 2-1 rush to win it in Overtime.
What a horrific way to end a great game.
Both are skating with supreme confidence and truly look like they’ve turned a corner.
Chytil wants the puck everywhere on the ice while Kakko is an absolute puck possession menace along the boards.
The reassembled Kid Line has been in on three goals together in the Rangers last three games.
Laffy finding his groove again may be closer than we think.
