The Rangers return to practice at 4pm this afternoon after four days off due to the All-Star break. By virtue of not playing until Thursday against Toronto, Nee York will have a week between games. That break should have allowed anyone nursing a very minor injury time to hopefully heal, as only Henrik Lundqvist saw action in the All-Star Game.
Friday, Larry Brooks postulated (https://nypost.com/2018/01/26/mcdonagh-nash-zuccarello-rangers-are-ready-to-blow-it-up/) that New York had decided to blow it up and sell, sell, sell. Brooks is pretty well-connected in the organization, so his word was viewed as somewhat gospel. What hit me after seeing today’s column, and something I may have hinted at but didn’t explicitly write Friday, is that Brooks may have been tossing out a little trade test balloon and see if it floated or was punctured by the fan base. The general reaction was that this ‘decision’ made by upper management was the right way to proceed, providing air cover if any or all of these deals are made, depending on the return received.
Today, Brooks did a 180-degree turn (https://nypost.com/2018/01/29/rangers-have-playoff-number-to-hit-and-its-not-impossible/) from Friday’s column. Now that he has gotten the buy in from the fan base, I guess he can spin the other direction, cognizant that he has covered his bases regardless of what happens. If what he proposed today happens, then that’s the reason why what he wrote Friday didn’t occur. If it doesn’t, then the fan base has already bought into the rebuild.
Based on point-per-game numbers, the Penguins project as the conference’s second wild-card spot with 92 points, but let’s add another four to account for enhanced performance by any of the handful of competitors for playoff berths.If 96 points is the realistic bar the Blueshirts will have to clear, that means a minimum 41 points (20-11-1) are required the rest of the way. An arduous task, yes, with the twin realities of trade-deadline distractions and a 6-9-1 record over the 16 matches leading into the All-Star break, but the Rangers did go 19-7-3 for 41 points in 29 games from Oct. 31 through Jan. 6. So it would not be unprecedented for this group.
Is it possible that New York plays as they did when they went 13-7-1, sure, if everything comes together and Lundqvist continues to stand on his head. But it’s just as likely that the Rangers go 3-7-2 like they posted earlier in the season, especially if the issues we have seen most of the year aren’t somehow miraculously remediated. I think we all believe the latter is way more probable to occur than the former. Because even when they reeled off that hot streak, many of the unresolved problems that cost New York lately still were in place, it’s just that the goaltending and a hot power play bailed out the team.
Pick which Brooks article you believe and follow it. But as noted above, both could be accurate. That all depends on why you think each was written, especially if as I said, they are connected, just in a non-traditional manner.
Separately, look for a certain familiar name in this column:
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/giants/giants-jets-fans-pick-poison-super-bowl-lii-article-1.3786326