Hockey is back. Not on the ice, but based on yesterday's announcement and despite hurdles to surmount, the sport is back. I thought Gary Bettman and Bill Daly did as good a job as possible - save for maybe the draft permutations - explaining how we will proceed in the near future. For all the criticism lobbed to Bettman, the league's handling of the possible return to action sure looks like it has been managed a lot better than Major League Baseball.
We likely have close to two months to analyze Rangers-Hurricanes. Included within will be the regular season matchups, which given the timeframe between contests can almost be thrown out the window, or at worst, discounted heavily. The key discussion - something for the future - will be who should be between the pipes, Henrik Lundqvist, based on his career mark versus the 'Canes, or Igor Shesterkin. New York will get Chris Kreider back from his broken foot while Carolina benefits from the return of Dougie Hamilton from a fractured fibula as well as possibly Sami Vatanen.
Couple of other notes from Return-to-Play protocol: Two exhibition games per team; 28 skaters and as many goalies as you wish to carry.
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) May 27, 2020
Friedman's tweet all but confirms that New York will have the big three netminders, as if there was any doubt. But Adam Huska could travel with the team to provide the Black Aces another goalie if needed. A 28-man roster gives New York some flexibility. This is another items for future discussion, or more accurately, continuation of a prior conversation, because that could mean Vitali Kravtsov and Lias Andersson as part of the squad for the play-in-round and beyond.
AJ Castiglia Pump Up Video:
“The Promise… @NYRangers 2020 Playoff Intro 🎥 LET'S GO RANGERS! 🔴⚪🔵 https://t.co/6wl0nJbPDK
— AJ Castiglia (@ajcastigliaa) May 26, 2020
All the Rangers goals against the Hurricanes:
All our goals against the Canes this season?
— Andrew (@based_shesty) May 26, 2020
All our goals against the Canes this season.
LFGR pic.twitter.com/AdttqKhP0Z
A good FAQ and 10 key questions answered in yesterday's return-to-play announcement:
There is a lot to digest from the #NHL's return-to-play plan announcement today. So let's break it down point by point in a FAQ format:https://t.co/pVj2PW0Y0G pic.twitter.com/52QB6Bz8P0
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) May 27, 2020
Ten key questions about the resumption of play that Commissioner Gary Bettman and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly answered during a videoconference with the media on Tuesday. https://t.co/9ibEjzrR6G
— NHL.com (@NHLdotcom) May 27, 2020
Steve Kournianos did a nice job for Forever Blueshirts in breaking down the six possible scenarios associated with the draft pick the Rangers received from Carolina in the Brady Skjei deal. Now that the Blueshirts are in the playoffs, they are not one of the seven teams on the outside looking in. Even so, New York is not precluded from moving up in the draft.
The good news is that because they own Carolina's pick, New York, regardless of if they win or loss, the team will automatically be in the lottery. Because of this, defeating the 'Canes in the play-in-round should be the goal. Then it's fairly clear, which was mentioned in the blog comments, what option we should want. Because Carolina owns Toronto's pick, which also comes with some protection, nuances exist, resulting in the six scenarios. But a very small chance exists for the Rangers to move way up in the draft, as they did last season when they drafted Kaapo Kakko, similar to when the Canes moved from 11 to 2 to select Andrei Svechnikov.
Clearing the #NHL Draft Lottery confusion on the Rangers pick acquired from Carolina #NYR #PlayLikeANewYorker https://t.co/vsdfrsVk6T
— Forever Blueshirts (@4EverBlueshirts) May 27, 2020
And one more thing, in case you needed the reminder as to the importance of today's date, besides my younger daughter's birthday:
MATTEAU! MATTEAU!! MATTEAU!!! Check out @HowieRose, Sam Rosen, and Gary "1940 is history" Thorne call Stephane Matteau's double OT winner in Game 7 sending the Rangers to the SCF. 26 years ago today. #NYR #PlayLikeANewYorker pic.twitter.com/vY3kbkx1tq
— Michael Silvers (@msilvers1979) May 27, 2020
As a heads up, I am out of pocket beginning Thursday night to Saturday night. If any new information breaks, I will grab it when I return. But at least we have something tangible to discuss with more to come in the future.