Rangers vs. Avalanche: Oh, So Very Rangers
The Colorado Avalanche snapped the Rangers' 10-game point streak in the most Rangers way possible.
- I happened to be at the game yesterday afternoon. It was only the second game I've been to all year, and the first since a win over San Jose back before all the walls came crumbling down. Sitting there, watching the introduction, hearing the crowd – the 10-game point streak helped – and experiencing the team not quit as a really good team threw everything at them the first 20 minutes, I was thisclose to declaring I was back in. When Panarin scored the tying goal I was happy to throw aside all the flaws from the game and jump back in. Stanley Cup contenders? Not as currently constructed, no. But the team was fun again and this was a game the beginning of the year squad would have lost 8-0.
- Then the jack-in-the-box goal happened, against players who should know better (Panarin) or players who just signed a questionable extension (Borgen) moments after another problem child (Zibanejad) had a turnover that quite literally nearly led to that crushing game-winning goal happening 10 seconds earlier. And it's not so much that the goal changed anything, but it sort of woke me out of my trance.
- Look, the Rangers are playing so much better than they were, which is a low bar. But they have been competitive with some good to great teams, have gone on a really nice tear to start the new year, and have elevated themselves right back into the playoff picture. The problem is that's simply not good enough for a team who has so many sellable assets and a series of questions to answer this summer. Making the playoffs to lose in the first or second round does, quite literally, nothing good for this organization. Especially if the Rangers sacrifice selling assets (which they've already done with Borgen, although there are others) to get there.
- Way more after the jump about what I thought went wrong, right, and what changed.
