For the Rangers, the Inevitable Becomes Reality

Come on now, you didn't really think the Rangers were going to win out, did you? A team that hasn't had a three-game win streak since mid-November was somehow going to miraculously run the table while the Montreal Canadiens simultaneously were going to lose out? 

That team? 

Seriously? 

Right, and your kid's gonna get a personal visit from the Easter Bunny next Sunday. 

THE Easter Bunny. 

You heard it here first.

Throughout this hellscape of a season, the Blueshirts have had numerous opportunities to take charge of their own destiny and they failed to do so every time. You can point all you want to the horrific December they had - and it was pretty horrific - but there was still plenty of time to climb out of the hole they dug. 

The talent was there. Please spare me the bullshit about how they suddenly got old. Teams don't go from winning the Presidents' Trophy one season to the retirement home the next. That's not how it works. True, several key players had off years, but even allowing for that, the talent on this roster was still better than the one that beat it out for the last wild card spot; in fact, it was better than both wild card rosters.

But then talent was never the problem, was it? To quote former head coach Gerard Gallant, "I love to have talent, but you love to have a work ethic." Tragically for this group, work ethic proved to be its kryptonite. In a league that values grit over glitter, the Rangers were simply unwilling to pay the price to win. The last two games epitomized how their season has gone. Against an Islanders team that was badly outclassed, they had their way with them; against a Hurricanes team that is a genuine playoff contender, they were exposed. Poker players can bluff all they want, but not hockey players. You either have a Royal Flush in your hand or you have a pair of deuces. There's no in-between.

So where do we go from here? For starters, don't expect Chris Drury to go anywhere. James Dolan may not like how this team unravelled this season, but from everything we've heard coming out of the Garden, his job appears to be safe - for now. That's more than can be said for Peter Laviolette. Frankly, I would be shocked if he wasn't relieved of his duties shortly after the season is over.

I've said it before, and it bears repeating, Laviolette doesn't deserve all the blame here. As I wrote back in March, "Coaches can scream till they're blue in the face, but the last time I checked, they're not the ones wearing the jerseys."

But they do make out the lineup cards. And as long as we're being totally honest here, it was Laviolette's refusal to hold his veteran players accountable that proved to be his undoing. The power play was a case in point. It was painfully obvious that the first unit was struggling most of the season, especially down the stretch. But rather than swap out units, he simply moved a few players around, which was the equivalent of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Why Laviolette was this stubborn, we may never know. At this point, it's academic. Barring a last-minute change of heart - doubtful - there will be a new coaching staff behind the bench next season. Whoever it is better be able to motivate this core or next time it'll be Drury who gets the pink slip. 

And speaking of Drury, picking a new coach isn't the only thing on his plate. It's clear this core has some major issues that cannot be resolved with a mere pep talk or shouting match. As I also wrote in that piece back in March, "Scotty Bowman would have a hard time coaching this group." You can fault Drury for the manner in which he moved out Barclay Goodrow and Jacob Trouba, but you can't fault him for realizing that both players had outlived their usefulness to the team. And in the cap era, the Rangers simply couldn't afford to keep either of them. If anything, Drury should've played hardball with Trouba in July rather than let things simmer the way they did over the course of the season.

But that's water over the dam now. Drury doesn't have the luxury of indulging in hindsight. He has more "dead weight" on this roster to contend with. Chris Kreider will almost certainly be the next player shown the door. But where? The thirteen-year veteran has played his entire career with the Rangers. But his 26 points in 66 games was a career low for him. Moving him will not be easy, especially since he has a 15-team No Trade Clause. If Drury can find a team willing to take on his entire $6.5 million contract, he can use the cap savings to go shopping for an impact player that can move the needle on this team; someone like Sam Bennett, who's an unrestricted free agent after this season. 

Then there's Brady Tkachuk. While the Ottawa Senators have publicly said they're not interested in trading him, perhaps a package of Alexis Lafreniere, Gabe Perrault, Brennan Othmann and a first rounder - which could conceivably become a lottery pick if the Rangers lose out - might be enough to change their minds. Imagine a line with both Sam Bennett and Brady Tkachuk on it. Hey, a fella can dream, can't he?

But before Drury does any of this, he has some unfinished business at home. Calvin de Haan, the defenseman he acquired from the Colorado Avalanche for Ryan Lindgren and Jimmy Vesey, apparently wasn't too thrilled with being benched the final 15 games of the season, in which the Rangers went 6-8-1, a fact he emphasized in front of the beat reporters yesterday, and later tweeted about. de Haan isn't the only player who has a beef about the way he was utilized, or underutilized. Zac Jones was benched in favor of Carson Soucy, even though it was painfully obvious Soucy was having problems in his own end since his arrival from the Vancouver Canucks at the trade deadline. And then there was Perrault, the highly-touted prospect Drury was forced to burn a year of his ELC in order to keep him from going back to Boston College. For some strange reason, he was a healthy scratch the last couple of games. Thankfully, the kid never said anything about it.

Yes, this will be a busy offseason for Chris Drury. His team shit the bed; it's on him to clean the sheets.

It's Miller Time

Make no mistake about it, the New York Rangers were twenty minutes away from not only losing their fourth straight game, but from finding themselves on the exit ramp as far as the playoffs were concerned. After a crushing loss to the Colorado Avalanche in the final seconds of regulation, the Blueshirts followed that up with two uninspiring performances against the Carolina Hurricanes and Boston Bruins. The reason they were only trailing the Vegas Golden Knights 2-1 going into the third period was because Jonathan Quick was keeping them in the game. Their postseason hopes were on the brink.

That's when the prodigal son came through. With the Rangers on the power play, J.T. Miller took a cross ice pass from Artemi Panarin and fired a shot towards Adin Hill that he was unable to handle. Mika Zibanejad pounced on the loose puck and deposited it in the back of the net to tie the game. A few minutes later, K'Andre Miller blasted a shot from the left point that beat Hill cleanly to give New York a 3-2 lead. And with under two minutes left in regulation, and the Rangers on another power play, Panarin scored the insurance goal to ice the game. J.T. Miller assisted on that goal as well.

In just two games since returning to the Rangers, Miller has two goals and two assists. He was the lone bright spot in Boston, scoring twice and leading the team with six shots on goal. Against Vegas, he was a plus 2 and was on the ice for three of the Rangers four goals. His presence has been felt both on the bench and on the ice. How significant has Miller been? Mika Zibanaejad had his best game of the season with a goal and two assists, playing on Miller's right side with Panarin on the left. The trio combined for two goals and six assists. It's no exaggeration to say that every time that line was on the ice they were creating scoring chances. 

Peter Laviolette has gotten a lot of criticism this season - most of it justified - for the way his team has played. But his decision to unite his three best offensive players is, for now at least, an unqualified success. Most coaches would've just buried Zibanajead on the third line given the way he's played, but Laviolette realized - correctly, I might add - that if this team is going to make a run at the playoffs, it will need contributions from number 93. Credit him for that much.

But it wasn't just the three points Zibanejad registered that was noteworthy. He looked like a man possessed out there. He battled all game long. He kept the puck in the zone on the Rangers first power play goal. Frankly, I haven't seen him play with this much intensity in well over a year. If Miller can motivate this guy, this might just go down as the most consequential Rangers trade since October of 1991. Yes, I went there. But before you get on my case, I'm not suggesting that J.T. Miller is Mark Messier. I may be old but I'm not senile. What I am suggesting is that Miller, like Messier before him, is a passionate player who can't stand losing. I'm positive that's what led to his "leave of absence" earlier in the year, which eventually led to his exit out of Vancouver. Sometimes you're the cancer; other times you're the cure. In this case, Chris Drury is hoping it's the latter.

And speaking of Drury, his detractors might end up eating crow before the season is out. Since last summer he has unloaded both Barclay Goodrow and Jacob Trouba without retaining a cent of their respective salaries; acquired two stay at home defensemen in Urho Vaakanainen and Will Borgen who have solidified a blue line that was as leaky as the RMS Titanic; and landed a number one center in Miller for a player whose next shift might well be his last and a lottery protected first round draft pick. 

As a result of his wheeling and dealing, the Rangers currently have $9.3 million in available cap space, which translates to $16.5 million in deadline cap space, meaning if the Rangers actually do make a run at the postseason, Drury will have a boatload of cap space at his disposal to further tweak this roster. Maybe he isn't Mr. Congeniality, but the guy knows his shit. He's ten times the GM Glen Sather ever was. 

But all that may be irrelevant if the Rangers don't make the postseason. After last night's win, they're currently five points out. Between now and the NHL trade deadline on March 7, the Blueshirts play eleven games. All but three are against teams that are currently in the playoffs. Conservatively speaking, New York will have to win at least eight of those games in order to get within striking distance of a wildcard spot; no small feat given how erratic they've been. 

Indeed, for the Rangers to avoid being only the third team in NHL history to miss the playoffs after winning the Presidents trophy the season before, they will likely have to go 21-8-1 over their last 30 games. They would then finish with a record of 46-31-5 for 97 points. And even that might not be enough to get in. That's how tight the playoff race is in the Eastern Conference this year.

The problem with digging a hole halfway to China is that sometimes you wind up closer to downtown Beijing than you do to midtown Manhattan.

Rangers In A Free Fall

I have watched the New York Rangers since 1971. Trust me. I have gone through my fair share of downturns. 1976-78, 1987-89, 1998-04 & 2018-21. The 1998-04 period was particularly rough. No playoffs and some of the worst trades in franchise history. But in all that time I have never seen what happened Saturday afternoon at Madison Square Garden. The team I have followed since I was 10 years old did the equivalent of a lay down in front of 18,000 loyal paying fans. It was a pathetic performance from a group of players that last season won the Presidents' Trophy. 

I have tried as hard as I can to wrap my head around what is going on here and quite frankly I'm stumped. Not only is this team not playing well, it doesn't appear to be even trying. Against the LA Kings, they looked listless and uninspiring; as if they didn't give a shit. Small wonder they were booed off the ice after the game.

The Rangers have lost 9 of their last 12 games. At 15-13-1, they are currently in 5th place in the Metropolitan Division. Not only would they fail to make the playoffs if the season ended today, with 31 points, they are actually closer to the bottom of the standings in the Eastern Conference than they are to the top. Thank God for the Montreal Canadiens and the Columbus Blue Jackets.

I've heard all kinds of explanations for the dumpster fire currently residing at Penn Plaza. It's Chris Drury's fault for mishandling the Barclay Goodrow waiver and the Jacob Trouba trade; it's Peter Laviolette's fault for not being tough enough with his players. I call bullshit on both. 

True, Drury could've done a better job with both situations, but what was he supposed to do? The Rangers needed cap space badly and, let's face it, Goodrow and Trouba were the logical choices to be moved over the summer. The same people who are now bemoaning the way Goodrow and Trouba were treated couldn't wait to send them packing a few months ago. It was nothing short of a miracle that Drury got every penny of their cap hit off the books without surrendering anything of value in exchange. But by all means let's make him the bad guy.

Did you see what happened down in Tampa Bay? Julien BriseBois did everything except drive Steven Stamkoss to the airport; then turned around and signed Jake Guentzel to replace him. Stamkoss had played his entire NHL career with the Lightning and BriseBois showed him all the love and respect of a worn out lightbulb. Last time I checked the Bolts were in 4th place in the Atlantic Division, currently holding onto the number one wild card spot.

Spoiler alert: players get waived and traded all the time in professional sports. It's part of the business. Yes, Trouba was the captain. Guess what? Captains get traded too. Ask Brian Leetch what being a captain means. He was traded to the Boston Bruins literally on his birthday, two weeks after he asked Glen Sather not to be. General managers aren't paid to be guidance counselors or therapists; they're paid to put a competitive team on the ice. And in a league that has a hard salary cap, sometimes they have to make tough decisions about who stays and who goes.

Regarding Laviolette, yes, I'd like him to be tougher on his players. But last season this head coach, who, it should be noted, guided three different teams to the Stanley Cup finals and one to a Cup championship, was principally responsible for this team not only winning the Presidents' Trophy but setting a franchise record for most wins and points in a single season. Had they not faced the Florida Panthers, they would've made it to the finals. All of a sudden he's fucking Jean-Guy Talbot? Please spare me. 

David Quinn was too tough; Gerard Gallant wasn't tough enough. What's the excuse with Laviolette? He parts his hair on the wrong side? I agree with Larry Brooks: this core doesn't get to fire another coach. Besides, the way this team is playing, Scotty Bowman wouldn't make a difference. If you're looking for someone to put the blame on, how about the players? Last time I checked, they're the ones wearing the uniforms. Is it Laviolette's fault that Mika Zibanaejad can't hit a wide open net? Or that Ryan Lindgren can't back check worth a damn? Or that Chris Kreider has become a statue on the ice? Or that the only goal Adam Fox has scored all season was an empty netter? How is it that on a team with this much talent, its best player is Will Cuylle?

Enough with the excuses; enough with the rationalizations. It's time this group of players took a long, hard look in the mirror and manned up. It is inconceivable that a team that went to the conference finals twice in the last three years could've fallen off the cliff this quickly. So the answer must lie elsewhere. 

What isn't the answer is firing the coach and/or GM. The truth is there's more than enough talent on this team to still make the postseason. Whether there's enough pride is another matter. 

Drury Has the Last Word with Trouba

What do Patrik Nemeth, Barclay Goodrow and Jacob Trouba have in common? All three were signed to contracts that turned out to be richer than the Rangers could afford, and all three were moved off the roster by Chris Drury without incurring so much as a nickel's worth of salary retention. 

Nemeth was sent packing to the Arizona Coyotes, along with a couple of draft picks, for Ty Emberson in the summer of 2022; Goodrow was waived and later claimed by the San Jose Sharks this past summer; and, yesterday, Trouba was "traded" to the Anaheim Ducks for Urho Vaakanainen and a conditional draft pick. I put the word traded in quotation marks because it was widely reported, and later confirmed by Trouba himself, that had he not accepted the trade, Drury was prepared to waive him just like he did with Goodrow over the summer.

Know this about Drury: whether you think he's been a good general manager or not, when he realizes a mistake has been made, he's not one to stand on ceremony. It takes a certain amount of talent to completely erase a mistake; one his predecessor Jeff Gorton, unfortunately, did not possess. 

Of all the mistakes this organization has made over the last few years, Trouba was, by far, the worst. Since his arrival from the Winnipeg Jets in 2021, he was, at best, an above average defenseman with a penchant for throwing bone-jarring checks that often knocked opponents out of the game; at worst, he was a defensive liability, whose mistakes proved costly to his team. The most egregious of those mistakes came against the Florida Panthers in game six of last year's Eastern Conference Finals. Trouba attempted to throw one of his patented checks on Evan Rodrigues late in the first period, and when he missed, Rodrigues set up Sam Bennett for a goal to give the Panthers a lead they would never relinquish. Game, set and match for the Blueshirts.

Bottom line: at $4 million, Trouba was overpriced; at $8 million, he was an albatross around the neck of the cap-strapped Rangers. And with several players due to hit free agency next year, Drury needed to clear cap space fast.

He tried trading Trouba. The Detroit Red Wings expressed interest in acquiring him last summer, but before Drury could pull the trigger, he needed to know whether Detroit was on Trouba's 15 team no trade list. So he asked Trouba's agent and, well, you know the rest. Captain Elbow threw a hissy fit and that was that.

As it turns out, Steve Yzermann couldn't take on Trouba's contract because he wasn't able to clear enough cap space on his own to make it work, which was just as well because the deal the two men had in place called for the Rangers to retain $2.5 million of Trouba's salary. Sometimes the best trades are the ones you don't make. Five months later, Drury was able to unload Trouba's entire contract and he actually got something in return besides $8 million of cap space.

So now that Trouba's is gone, the sixty-four thousand dollar question remaining is whether Drury is done? That depends on what happens over the next few games. Let's not kid ourselves here. While last night's win was sorely needed, it was hardly reassuring. The Rangers barely beat a Pittsburgh Penguins team that has even more question marks than the Blueshirts; two games ago, the Rangers needed a late power play goal by Kaapo Kakko to avoid what could've been an embarrassing OT defeat to the Montreal Canadiens. The fact is of New York's 14 wins, only two have come against teams that were in the playoffs last season: the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Vancouver Canucks. The rest? Well let's just say if the Rangers could play the Penguins, Islanders, Canadiens and Red Wings the rest of the season, they'd win back-to-back Presidents' trophies.

So if I had to guess, I'd say Drury isn't done tinkering with this roster. I could see at least two more trades on the horizon. One involving the forwards; the other the defensive pairings. Thanks to the largess of Pat Verbeek, the Rangers are flush with cap space. With the salary cap expected to go up to $92.5 million for the 2025-26 season, Drury will have about $22 million to play with next summer. And assuming he doesn't bring anybody else up from Hartford, he'll have $24 million in deadline cap space to go shopping with this March.

One thing off Drury's plate is who the starting goaltender will be next season. About an hour before last night's game it was announced that the Rangers and Igor Shesterkin had agreed on an 8 year, $92 million contract extension. On any other team a goalie with an $11.5m AAV salary could be considered insane; on the Rangers it's an absolute necessity. Let's be honest: without Igor, no way this team would've advanced to the conference finals two of the last three seasons. You know it and I know it. There was never any doubt Drury was going to re-sign him; the only question was for how much. Frankly, given the numbers we were hearing coming from Shesterkin's camp, $11.5 million seems more than reasonable.

So, Drury rid himself of an overrated, overpriced defenseman and locked up arguably his best player for the next eight years. Hate him if you want, but he had himself quite a day. 

Blame Drury for Trouba Nightmare

Here's what we know, so far. After a disappointing and bitter exit from the playoffs at the hands of the Florida Panthers, it was clear Chris Drury meant it when he said everything was on the table. His first move was to waive Barclay Goodrow. I remember saying at the time that I didn't think there was an appetite within the Rangers organization to move Jacob Trouba. Clearly, I was wrong.

The first hint that something might be brewing was when Drury asked Trouba's agent to submit a list of 15 teams Trouba would not want to be traded to. While it is standard operating procedure for a player to submit such a list when a contract switches from a NMC to a NTC, it is unusual for a GM to request it before it is due. And after the way Goodrow was waived, Trouba understandably was concerned he might be the next one out the door.

Then came the story by Larry Brooks in The New York Post, which had Trouba going to the Detroit Red Wings for an undisclosed return, presumably a couple of mid-level draft picks. Detroit would pick up $5.5 million of Trouba's cap hit, while the Rangers would retain $2.5 million. According to Brooks, the deal was done.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly. Drury was on the verge of ridding the organization of a contract that was an albatross around its neck, while Trouba was about to be reunited with his old buddy Andrew Copp. Don't you just love happy endings?

That's when the shit hit the fan. Late Sunday, news broke that Trouba was none too happy about leaving the Rangers. In fact, there was speculation that his agent might submit what is referred to as a strategic no trade list; that's a list of teams Trouba would accept a trade to but which likely don't have enough cap space to take on his contract. And how would his agent know which teams don't have enough cap space? The same way we all do: by going to Capfriendly and Puckpedia, that's how.

Going into Monday, it was pretty clear that the standoff between Drury and Trouba impacted the moves the Rangers were able to make. One prominent free agent after another came off the board. While I thought it was highly unlikely that, even with Trouba's contract off the books, there would be enough cap space to sign Jake Guentzel or Steven Stamkos, players like Jonathan Marchessault, Jake DeBrusk, Teuvo Tarevainen and Tyler Toffoli were all reasonable targets that were in Drury's wheelhouse, and yet every one of them signed elsewhere: Marchessault ($5.5m x 5) with the Nashville Predators; DeBrusk ($5.5m x 7) with the Vancouver Canucks; Tarevainen ($5.4m x 3) with the Chicago Blackhawks; and Toffoli ($6m x 4) with the San Jose Sharks.

So instead of landing someone who could've moved the needle, the Rangers wound up signing Sam Carrick ($1m x 3) and trading for Reilly Smith ($5m x 1). Drury was able to get the Pittsburgh Penguins to retain $1.25m of Smith's cap hit by tossing in a 2027 second-round pick to go along with a 2025 fifth rounder. Carrick, I assume, will replace Goodrow on the fourth line, while Smith will likely play on the same line with Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider, and hopefully be more productive than Jack Roslovic and Blake Wheeler were in their relatively short stints with the team. 

To say this situation was badly handled would be an understatement. Drury seems to have completely misread the room here. After the grief he got over how he handled the Goodrow waiver, he did a 180 by informing Trouba of his intentions to trade him before his contract officially switched over to a NTC. In other words, Drury was hoping he could get Trouba to agree to a trade before free agency began so he would know exactly how much he could spend.

But what he didn't know, and hadn't considered, was that the primary reason for Trouba's reluctance to leave New York had very little to do with him not wanting to play for the Red Wings; it had to do with him not wanting to leave his wife Kelly, who's in the final year of a three-year residency at a local Manhattan hospital. Out of fear of retribution to her, the media has not mentioned the name of the hospital.

Which leads me to my next point: Whatever your feelings about this matter, Trouba's wife should be off limits. She has done absolutely nothing wrong here. Going after her is reprehensible. There's no excuse for it. If you're looking for someone to blame, the lion's share should go to Drury. He is the President and GM of this franchise; a franchise which has won exactly one Stanley Cup since 1940. Thanks to his bungling, it is quite possible that Trouba won't be going anywhere this summer. That means the Rangers will have an $8 million defenseman on the third defensive pairing to start the season.

Holy clusterfuck, Batman!

This whole thing could've been avoided had Drury simply acted more decisively. For starters, he shouldn't have asked for Trouba's no trade list in advance. He should've waited until Monday, and if Detroit wasn't on it, he could've pulled the trigger on the trade.* If Detroit was on it, he could've called up his former assistant Mike Grier in San Jose and asked him if he could take on Trouba's contract. If the answer was yes, he could've just waived him like he did with Goodrow. Problem solved.

Obviously, Drury would've caught flack. But that's why he gets the big bucks: to make these types of calls. You think Julien BriseBois gives a shit about catching flack. The Tampa Bay Lightning GM deliberately lowballed Steven Stamkos with an insulting $3 million AAV offer, knowing it would be rejected, just so he could sign Jake Guentzel to a more lucrative $9 million AAV contract. He then held a press conference in which he lied to the media about how it all went down - with a straight face, no less.

Think about that. One of the greatest players ever to don a Lightning jersey and BriseBois literally drove him out of town without so much as batting an eye. That's about as cutthroat as it gets. If you want to know why the Lightning won back-to-back Stanley Cups, this is why. They have a GM who puts the interests of the team ahead of the players. Maybe you don't agree that Guentzel is a better player than Stamkos - and for the record, I don't. But that doesn't matter. What matters is that the man running the organization thought so, and he didn't let anything or anyone get in his way.

Drury needs to be that kind of man. He can sympathize with what Trouba and his wife are going through, but in the end his primary responsibility has to be to his employer and the fans, many of whom haven't seen a championship in their lifetime. The fact is Trouba signed a contract; a contract that went from a no move clause to a 15-team no trade clause on July 1. It's not up to him to "accept" a trade to a team that's not on that list; it's up to him to abide by the terms of the contract. Period.

It's not like Detroit is on the surface of the moon. It's a couple of hours away by plane. What happens when the Rangers go on a long road trip? Does he catch the red eye to Kennedy between games? He's a professional athlete; his GM needs to treat him like one.

For all the intangibles Jacob Trouba brings to the table - his leadership in the locker room, his physical play on the ice - he simply isn't worth the money he's making, or the cap space he's taking up. Chris Drury knows it; the fans know it; and I suspect even his teammates know it. Whether it happens this summer or next, his days as a New York Ranger are numbered.

* I am going on the assumption that the Brooks story is accurate and that there was a trade already in place between Drury and Steve Yzerman. It's quite possible that all that took place was a discussion of a trade. The fact is we don't really know what happened.

Is Chris Drury Done?

That Chris Drury was looking to shed salary going into the offseason should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with this team's cap situation. After re-signing Kaapo Kakko to a one-year extension worth $2.4 million, the New York Rangers had $10 million in available cap space, per Puckpedia, with 18 players - 12 forwards, 4 defensemen and 2 goalies - signed for the 2024-25 season. Assuming he re-signs Ryan Lindgren and Braden Schneider, both of whom are RFAs, that will increase the number of signed players to 20, two below last season's roster total.

Let's say Lindgren agrees to a 3-year extension at $4.5 million per, and Schneider agrees to a two-year bridge deal at $2.5 million per. That reduces the available cap space Drury has to work with to $3 million. For a President and GM who said at his last press conference that "everything was on the table," $3 million doesn't go as far as it used to. Remember last year's offseason when the cap-strapped Rangers were forced to shop at the bargain basement? No? Do the names Nick Bonino, Blake Wheeler, Erik Gustafson, and Tyler Pitlick ring a bell?

Well, this time around, Drury wasn't going to let that happen. So on Tuesday, he waived Barclay Goodrow and his $3.64 million contract. And the following day, the San Jose Sharks claimed him off waivers. To say Goodrow was displeased would be putting it mildly. Seems the 31 year-old forward had a 15-team no trade clause and apparently the Sharks were on it. Oh, well.

To be honest, I'm impressed Drury went the waiver route instead of a buyout. The latter would've allowed Goodrow to sign with any team he chose while netting the Blueshirts $247,222 in cap space this coming season. But it also would've shackled the organization with cap hits ranging from $1 million to $3.5 million over the following five years. Clearly, Drury didn't want to repeat the same mistake his predecessor Jeff Gorton made when he bought out the contracts of Dan Girardi and Henrik Lundqvist.

Now for the sixty-four thousand dollar question. Is Drury done, or is Goodrow the first of several high-priced contracts headed for the exit? That depends on how he feels about this core. Does it need a tweaking or a partial teardown? If I had to guess, I'd lean more towards the former. Remember, this is a team that played most of the season with only two legit centers and no 1RW, yet still won the Presidents' Trophy. And as I pointed out in my last piece, had they not had the misfortune of going up against the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Rangers would now be battling the Edmonton Oilers for the Stanley Cup. As disappointed as Drury was at how the season ended, I'm quite certain he knows that.

Having an extra $3.64 million in the kitty could mean the difference between signing a top-six forward or a bottom-six forward. Just imagine how good this team might be next season with a bonafide right wing on the first line and a healthy Filip Chytil centering the third. You can bet the ranch Drury's imagining it. That's why I don't think we're looking at wholesale changes here. Assuming Lindgren isn't unreasonable with his contract demands, I expect Drury will use the lion's share of his cap space to go shopping for an elite scorer to play on Mika Zibanejad's right side. While that won't be enough to land Jake Guentzel, it might be enough to get Jonathan Marchessault or Jake DeBrusk. And if those two prove too costly, there's always Patrick Kane as a fallback. The last time "Showtime" was on Broadway it bombed royally. But maybe playing a full season for a coach like Peter Laviolette who can incorporate his talents into this lineup will be just what the doctor ordered.

How does this roster look?

Forwards:

Kreider - Zibanaejad - Kane / Marchessault / DeBrusk

Panarin - Trocheck - Lafreniere 

Othmann - Chytil - Kakko

Cuylle - Brodzinski - Vesey

Rempe

Defensemen:

Lindgren - Fox

Miller - Schneider

Jones - Trouba

Mackey

Goalies:

Shesterkin - Quick

While some fans may be disappointed that Jacob Trouba will still be here next season, the fact is I don't think there's an appetite within the Rangers organization to move on from him. A buyout would mean a dead cap hit of $4 million for the next two years - a non-starter - and a trade, assuming Drury can find a willing partner that has the cap space and isn't on Trouba's no trade list, would be nothing more than a salary dump. Period. Besides, when fully healthy, number 8 brings certain things to the table that will be hard to replace. Drury already got rid of one leader in the locker room; I doubt he's willing to vanquish another.

Of course, I could be dead wrong. Maybe Drury has a couple more moves up his sleeve before free agency begins. I guess we'll know soon enough, won't we?

The More Things Change...

In the end, relentlessness won out over resiliency. The relentless Florida Panthers were simply too much for the resilient New York Rangers to handle. Goodbye 1994 parallels; hello futility.

Going into their series against the Panthers, the Rangers knew they needed to have three things go their way in order to have a shot at advancing to the finals: 1. They needed to play almost flawless hockey; 2. They needed to win the special teams battle; and 3. They needed to have Igor Shresterkin be the best player on the ice. As it turned out, one out of three wasn't nearly good enough.

While stats don't always tell you everything about a series, in this case they did. And the stats were not kind to the Rangers: Overall scoring chances: 191-140 Florida; High-danger scoring chances 55-38 Florida; Power play efficiency: Florida 5-19 (26.3%), New York 1-15 (6.7); Shots on goal: 202-151 Florida. About the only stat the Rangers managed to win was save percentage, where Shesterkin edged out his counterpart Sergei Bobrovsky .930 to .921. Indeed, it was only due to the sheer brilliance of the former Vezina-trophy winner that the games were as close as they were. He stole game three, but he couldn't steal the series.

Given the expectations this team had going into the postseason, this will be a very bitter pill to swallow. For the second time in three years, the Rangers made it to the Eastern Conference Finals only to fall short. There will be a lot of questions that need answers to, but before we get to that, let's first acknowledge the accomplishments, and there were several.

The Rangers won the Presidents' Trophy. They set a franchise record with 55 regular-season wins. They led the NHL with 34 come-from-behind victories. Apart from January, where they went 5-7-2, they were the lead dog pretty much the entire year. Their 154 regular-season wins over the last three seasons is fourth best in the league, while their 54 playoff wins since 2014 is tied with the Dallas Stars for third best. Alexis Lafreniere had a break out year under Peter Laviolette. And though they lost to the Panthers, they can boast that they are better than the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Boston Bruins, and, oh yes, the Carolina Hurricanes, whom they've now beaten two out of the last three years.

That's a list of accomplishments most teams would give their eye teeth to have. Whatever else you might think about how the season went, between the two of them, Jeff Gorton and Chris Drury assembled a team that is no worse than fourth best in the NHL. And if they hadn't had the misfortune of going up against the Panthers in the conference finals, they might very well be opening up this Saturday night at the Garden against the Edmonton Oilers in the Stanley Cup Finals.

But here's the thing: they did have the misfortune of going up against the Panthers: a team that, pound for pound, was the most complete in the NHL. And let's be honest. For all their elite talent, the Rangers Kryptonite has always been physically imposing teams that take away the middle of the ice. Against the Blueshirts, the Panthers put on a clinic.

So now we get to the number one question: what does Drury do this offseason? Clearly changes will have to be made. The Rangers have three players who are RFAs this summer: Kaapo Kakko, Ryan Lindgren and Braden Schneider. Does Drury re-sign all three? Or does he trade one or more of them? If it's the latter, the likely one to go is Kakko. For all the intangibles the former number two pick in the 2019 NHL Draft brings to the table, the fact is he just hasn't worked out. Even under Laviolette, Kakko remains a bottom six forward. In hindsight, it was a mistake for Drury not to package him at the trade deadline for a proven scorer.

Lindgren and Schneider made $3 million and $925,000 respectively this past season and both are due for a pay raise. Drury can probably bridge Schneider the way he did with K'Andre Miller and Alexis Lafreniere. $2m x 2 should just about do it. But Lindgren will be a little trickier. He's looking at a multi-year deal in the neighborhood of $4.5 million per. Does Drury want to invest that much in a defenseman who might be the second coming of Dan Girardi? If he can keep the term down to three years, the answer might be yes.

When it comes to the UFAs, it's fair to say that Jack Roslovic, Alex Wennberg, Blake Wheeler, and Erik Gustafsson have all played their last game as a Ranger. The former two were rentals and Drury is not known for re-signing rentals; the latter two were signed last summer to one year deals and have outlived their usefulness. With Brennan Othmann in Hartford, Zac Jones, Matt Rempe and Jonny Brodzinski on the bench, and a - hopefully - healthy Filip Chytil, the Rangers should have plenty of options to fill out their bottom six without going outside the organization.

But the real question for Drury concerns the core of this team. This is now the third year in a row that is has failed to deliver in the clutch. Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider were held to two points a piece against the Panthers. Artemi Panarin had a goal and three assists, while Adam Fox had four assists. As for Jacob Trouba, he was on the ice for more than half the Panthers goals. The cap hit for all five of these players comes out to just over $44 million, or roughly 50 percent of next year's salary cap. Only the Maple Leafs (61.6%) have more salary tied up in their top five players.

We now know that Fox re-injured his knee on that collision with Nick Jensen in game four of the Capitals series. That would explain why he was, apart from a couple of games, a non-factor in the second and third rounds. We'll never know how the Rangers power play would've performed if Fox had been 100 percent. However, the fact that it went 2-25 over the team's last 10 playoff games cannot be a coincidence. 

But while Fox may get a mulligan, the other four have no excuse. Zibanejad, in particular, had a very disappointing season, especially at 5v5, where he was one of the worst centers in the league. Panarin had a career high 49 goals during the regular season, but only one over the Rangers last nine playoff games. After recording a hat trick in the series clincher against the Hurricanes, Kreider had just one goal - a shorthander - in six games against the Panthers. And Trouba's performance was so bad, Laviolette was forced to demote him to the third pairing with Gustafsson.

Does Drury really want to run it back next season with this core? A better question might be what choice does he have? Zibanejad and Panarin both have NMC (no-move clause) contracts, meaning they would have to approve any trade. Kreider and Trouba have 15 team NTC (no-trade clause) contracts. The problem with NTCs is that the teams that have the cap space to take on a large contract are typically the ones on the no-trade list, while the teams that aren't on the no-trade list rarely have the cap space to take on said contract.

In other words, barring a miracle, any speculation involving a trade for Brady Trachuk is just that: speculation. With the Rangers having just over $11 million in available cap space and only 18 players signed next season, Drury is going to have to do pretty much what he did last summer: shop at the bargain basement. store. And after the postseason he had, it's unlikely that Barclay Goodrow will be bought out. If anything, the Rangers need more players like him, not fewer. Jake DeBrusk could be just what the doctor ordered, if Drury if he can shed some salary.

Look, I realize things may seem bleak right now. But here's something that should cheer you up. Among the playoff teams in the Eastern Conference that were eliminated, the Rangers are actually best positioned to make a deep run next year. I'm not joking. The Bruins need, not one, but two centers; the Maple Leafs, despite all that top-tier talent, still can't get out of the first round; the Lightning are finally paying the price for manipulating the salary cap all those years; and the Hurricanes will likely lose several key pieces of their team to free agency, plus their goaltending is suspect. Even the Panthers will have to make some tough choices over the summer.

Bottom line: the glass is half full, Rangers fans. Enjoy the summer.

The Helmet Throw: One Year Later

There are few moments in sports that can genuinely be looked upon as watershed. One such moment occurred a year ago today at Madison Square Garden.

The New York Rangers were in the midst of a stretch of games which saw them drop four of their last five, and were trailing the Chicago Blackhawks 3-0 late in the second period. The only reason the margin wasn't larger was because the Blackhawks were too inept to take advantage of the Blueshirts lackluster effort.

Jacob Trouba had seen enough. The first-year captain decided to take matters into his own hands, or should I say shoulder. He delivered a crunching open-ice hit on Andreas Athanasiou that led to several fighting majors, including one on Trouba.

But it was what he did on his way to the locker room that raised so many eyebrows. He threw his helmet towards the Rangers bench and screamed at his teammates to "wake the fuck up!" 

Sadly, his words fell on deaf ears. The Rangers would go on to lose 5-1, dropping their record to a woeful 11-10-5. The season was hanging in the balance.

It was not until their next game against the St. Louis Blues that the full impact of Trouba's gesture began to take hold. Trailing 4-3 heading into the third period, the Blueshirts scored three straight goals to pull out the first of what would be seven consecutive wins. The Rangers wound up going 36-12-8 post helmet, and even though they lost to the New Jersey Devils in the first round of the playoffs, Trouba has been rightly credited with saving the season.

There are those who say that the 6-3, 210 pound defenseman is overpaid for what he does; that the Rangers would've been better off putting the $8 million they pay him towards other needs. I respectfully disagree. True, Trouba does occasionally turn the puck over, sometimes at the most inopportune time; and his offense, since his first season in New York, is highly overrated.

But the intangibles he brings to the table are undeniable. In a league where the only physical contact between players typically involves a high stick to the face or a cross check to the back, Trouba is a throw back to an era where players routinely took the body and weren't intimidated so easily. 

His hits, despite the chirping from the cheap seats, are always clean and on target. He is a leader both inside and outside the locker room. There is not a single player on the Rangers who doesn't look up to him, and not a single player on virtually every team in the NHL that doesn't keep his head up a bit more when he's on the ice.

If that isn't respect, I don't know what is. 

To the nerds who run the analytics departments across the league, Trouba may seem like a luxury; to the millions of fans who watched him throw his helmet in that game against the Blackhawks a year ago, we know better.

And so do his teammates.

Rangers are Running Out of Time to Right Ship

This is getting serious now. This is no mere slump. Twenty-three games into the season and if the playoffs were to start tomorrow, the Rangers would be on the outside looking in. Incredible, isn't it? Last year a conference finalist; this year eliminated from the postseason.

So what's wrong? I believe it comes to three things.

Igor Shesterkin: Let's face it, last year's Vezina trophy winner just hasn't lived up to his billing. While he's been good, and at times very good, he has yet to steal a game this season. Even in the one shutout he posted against the Flyers, it was Carter Hart who wound up stealing a point, keeping the Blueshirts off the scoreboard until Chris Kreider beat him on a breakaway in OT. 

Pucks that were once routinely turned aside, are now finding their way in the back of the net. Shesterkin has allowed a questionable goal in each his last two starts: the game-tying goal against the Oilers and the go-ahead goal against the Devils. Had last year's Igor been in net, the Rangers likely would've won both games instead of losing them.

Inconsistent play: Too often this season, the Rangers have made middling goalies look like all stars. Including the Flyers game, on five separate occasions, the Rangers have been stymied by the opposing goalie. Despite outshooting the Devils 17-4 in the third period of Monday night's loss, all they could muster was one goal - a power play tally by Vincent Trocheck off a rebound with six minutes to go.

It has been perplexing to say the least to see a team with so much elite-level talent, a team that has been averaging 30 plus shots per game, unable to get its offense untracked. Indeed, if you take away the 8-2 romp they had over the Red Wings in Detroit, only twice this month have the Rangers scored more than three goals in a game, and that was against the lowly Coyotes (4) and the Kings (5). Either they get off to a good start and take their foot off the accelerator, or they fall behind early and can't catch up.

A large part of the inconsistency has been the power play. In a word, it's become predictable as dirt. Fox passes to Panarin on right wing, Panarin finds Zibanejad with a cross-ice pass, and Zibanejad buries a one timer past the goalie. Perfect, right? Except every team in the league with a scouting department worth a damn knows that cross-ice pass to Zibanejad is coming and they're breaking it up. As a result, the Rangers have gone 4 for 28 (14.2 percent) on the power play over their last eight games.

But the bulk of the inconsistency is owed directly to a lack of effort. By my count, the Rangers have had a total of three games in which they've played a solid sixty minutes: the 3-1 season opener win against the Lightning, the 3-2 OT loss to the Avalanche and the 1-0 OT shutout against the Flyers. That's it. Three games out of twenty-three. That's not good enough to even qualify for the playoffs, much less win the Stanley Cup.

Lack of toughness: Did you see it? I'm sure you did. Seconds after Leon Draisaitl put the Oilers ahead 4-3 late in the third period, he skated by Jacob Trouba and knocked the defenseman's stick out of his hands. If that had happened last season, Draisaitl would've been challenged immediately, if not by Trouba, then certainly by someone else. No way that shit would've gone unanswered. Excuses like they didn't want to take a penalty and ruin any chance of tying the game just aren't cutting it.

By now, every team in the NHL has gotten a hold of that video and I guarantee you they're taking notes. The team that last season stood up for each other now looks more like the team David Quinn coached in 2020-21. And we all know how that ended: A .500 team that got run out of every rink in the league. Of all the problems besetting this team, this is the one that, if not corrected, will sink the season. The offense will finally break through; Igor will rediscover his game; but a spine is something a team either has or it doesn't have. There's no in-between.

Bottom line, time is running out on the Rangers. This isn't last season when we knew who the top eight teams in the Eastern Conference were and the only question was the seating. This season there are approximately ten teams - eleven if you count the Capitals - that will be jockeying for eight playoff spots. At the rate they're going, the Rangers are going to run out of runway soon.

If this team is going to turn the season around, it had better start before it's too late.

An Opportunity Squandered

I remember the moment like it was yesterday. It was game two of the 1979 Stanley Cup finals and the Rangers had already captured home ice from the Montreal Canadiens. On the strength of two first-period goals by Anders Hedberg and Ron Duguay, they were on their way to taking a commanding 2-0 lead in the series. Thirty-nine years of futility finally looked like they were about to come to an end.

That was when Mario Trembley's seemingly innocent cross-ice pass deflected off the leg of Yvon Lambert, passed a stunned John Davidson and into the net. The Forum crowd went wild, but more importantly, the home team woke up. The Canadiens scored the next five goals, on way to a 6-2 rout, and went onto win their fourth Cup in a row. Thirty-nine years became forty, and then forty became forty-one, and then, well, you get the picture.

It's too early to tell whether Nikita Kucherov's power play goal in game three of this best of seven series between the two-time Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning and the Rangers will have the same impact Lambert's goal had 43 years ago. But the parallels are unmistakable. Like that '79 team, this Rangers team had a lead of 2-0 on the strength of two power play goals by Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider in the second period. And though the Blueshirts were being outshot by the Bolts, they had the better scoring chances halfway through the game. A win meant a 3-0 stranglehold lead in the series.

But a questionable interference penalty on Jacob Trouba at 10:09 of the second period opened the door for Tampa Bay and they walked right through it. The ensuing power play goal by Kucherov at 10:50 brought the crowd to its feet and gave the Lightning the spark they were looking for. They would go on to score the next two goals, the last one coming with 41.6 seconds left in the third period.

Bye, bye dreams of a sweep. We now have a series on our hands. And though the Rangers still hold a 2-1 lead in games, this is NOT the same Lightning team they dominated in the first two games at Madison Square Garden; not even close. Tampa Bay was the better team at 5v5 and bottled up New York the latter half of the game. If you had a dollar for every scoring chance the Rangers had in the third period, you wouldn't have enough money to buy a happy meal.

To keep this series from going back to the Garden tied, the Blueshirts are going to have to elevate their level of play significantly. While Igor Shesterkin is still the better goalie, Andrei Vasilevskiy has suddenly rediscovered his game. He robbed Barclay Goodrow and Tyler Motte on consecutive shots in the first to keep the contest scoreless. He has a history of playing better the deeper a series goes. Just ask the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Florida Panthers; both teams are playing golf right now because of him.

It may well be that all that happened Sunday was that a desperate Lightning team did what it had to do to get back in the series. The Rangers still have a dangerous power play and if Trouba doesn't get called for those two third-period penalties, who knows, maybe we ARE talking about a sweep after all.

Coulda, shoulda, woulda isn't going to help the Rangers now. They had an opportunity to drive the Tampa Bay Lightning to the brink of the abyss and they squandered it. They broke the cardinal rule every sports team knows by heart: never let your opponent up off the mat.

Well this isn't your run-of-the-mill opponent we're talking about here. This is a two-time Stanley Cup championship team that has gone through hell and back together. Maybe the strain of playing all those playoff games catches up to them, or maybe they summon the will to end this marvelous postseason journey the Rangers have been on.

We'll know soon enough.

So Much for a Storm Surge

Don't look now, but the Carolina Hurricanes, the team the so-called experts, myself included, thought was the team to beat in the Eastern conference, are tied with the New York Rangers, the team that the analytics community has been disparaging for much of this season.

Not only are these two teams tied with each other, but after last night's game - a 4-1 Rangers win - the momentum is most decidedly NOT with the team based in Raleigh. In fact, a strong argument can be made that were it not for a game-tying goal late in the third period of game one by Sebastian Aho, the Blueshirts would be on the verge of winning this series Thursday night instead of merely looking to take a 3-2 lead.

Consider the following: In four games, the Canes have managed to score a paltry five goals against Igor Shesterkin; they are 0 for 9 on the power play; and their top two defensemen - Tony DeAngelo and Jaccob Slavin, who racked up eight points a piece against the Boston Bruins in round one - have been held off the score sheet. DeAngelo, in particular, has had a miserable series and seems more intent on picking a fight with Ryan Reaves than helping his team win.

Meanwhile, the Rangers, apart from that third period goal in game one, a short-hander by Brendan Smith in game two and a few pushes by Carolina in games three and four, have been the better team so far in this series. They are out-hustling the Canes; they are getting scoring from all four forward lines; and with the power play now starting to click and Igor living up to his billing, a trip to the conference finals is looking less and less like a pipe dream and more and more like a real possibility.

Ironic, isn't it? Of the four remaining series, this is the only one that's been remotely competitive. The Tampa Bay Lightning disposed of the Florida Panthers - AKA, the Puddy Tats - in four straight; the Edmonton Oilers are currently leading the Calgary Flames 3-1; and barring divine intervention, the Colorado Avalanche will put the St. Louis Blues out of their misery tonight. 

I'm usually not one to eat crow, but even I couldn't have expected this. After all, it's not like the Rangers played like gang busters against the Pittsburgh Penguins. They twice had to overcome two-goal deficits while facing elimination, not once, not twice, but three times. Talk about sudden death. Only an overtime power play goal by Artemi Panarin in game seven prevented what would've been a disappointing first round exit. Even the most die-hard fan would have to admit that beating the Hurricanes was an uphill battle.

Look, they still have to win at least one game in Carolina, and that won't be an easy task. The Hurricanes are 6-0 at home; I fully expect them to step up their game Thursday night. But the Rangers team that takes the ice for game five will have a lot more confidence going for it than the one that showed up in games one and two. They know they can beat this team and, what's more, the Hurricanes know it too. Knowledge is a beautiful thing, if you do something with it.

The Rangers seem to relish the role of underdog in these playoffs; it has served them well. They are two wins away from getting a crack at the two-time Stanley Cup champs. Just imagine what a series between Igor Shesterkin and Andrei Vasilevskiy would look like.

I get goosebumps just thinking about it.