Rangers vs. Leafs: Reversing the Trends
The New York Rangers lost a tough one to the Toronto Maple Leafs, further damaging their playoff chances.
- That was the first game in a very long time the New York Rangers dominated from start to finish and truly deserved to win. Period. Literally, it's the first time in a long time the Rangers have really deserved to win a game. They happened to lose it, and if you're a playoff watcher—we discussed on the podcast that you probably shouldn't be—that one was a punch to the gut.
- The Rangers now sit four points back from Columbus and Detroit for the final two wild card spots. All three teams have played 59 games. Ottawa (58 games played) and Boston (60 games played) are tied with the Rangers, holding 62 points. Detroit and Columbus play in the Stadium Series against one another Saturday (today, if you're reading this the day after the Leafs loss) which could be a dreaded three-point game.
- But again, you really shouldn't be overly concerned with the standings. The Rangers brought this upon themselves by—and I cannot stress this part enough—quitting on both themselves and everyone around them for six weeks in November and December. They continued to do damage to themselves by having a plethora of games every month since that 10-game point streak where effort continued to be an issue. The three games out of the 4 Nation this past week are perfect examples, even if they somehow won two of them. This is not a team you should be betting on.
- We're a week out from the trade deadline. Below I'm going to go into some of the guys who would really benefit from either a change of scenery themselves, or would benefit from other guys getting a change of scenery. But it should be a very interesting week—one I think will tell us a lot about Chris Drury and his plans.
- More after the jump including nice words about Mika Zibanejad (???), ice time allocations (also ??????), Will Cuylle, J.T. Miller, the power play, and more!
