He will be signed (Photo: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images North America)

He will be signed (Photo: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images North America)

Chris is still MIA, so if you happen to be walking through the city and see a lost Welschman, please direct him back to his laptop so that he can continue writing the musings. I know you like his ramblings more than mine. But for now you will need to make do with me.

  • This whole Ryan Callahan thing is getting blown out of proportion. Take a step back, read my post this morning, and realize that no team that is a legit contender trades their captain. This is just the media hyping things to sell page views, in my humble opinion.
  • No one has really mentioned Dan Girardi in a while, but that’s likely because he is getting overshadowed by Cally. Hey, I’m all for that. One less rumor to continually write about until my fingers bleed.
  • I am sticking with my prediction: Girardi re-signs before the roster freeze, and Cally before the trade deadline. I know that doesn’t give me much room for error, since the roster freeze is tomorrow, but I am sticking to it.

  • In case you’ve missed it, and by the looks of all the people who want to gut the team, you have, the Rangers have managed to win a few games. And by “a few,” I mean 15 of 21, including four in a row currently. They had two other sets of three in a row in January. The slow start will prevent them from catching Pittsburgh, but they’ve been one of the hottest teams lately. They fell asleep in December, but they are still making the playoffs.
  • New York has Edmonton tonight and Pittsburgh tomorrow. I honestly think they can win both games, making it six in a row before the Olympics.
  • But therein lies the concern: Will the Olympics cause the Rangers to lose their momentum? That’s a legitimate concern for a team that has been top-ten in points since their 3-7-0 start.
  • Another thing: The Rangers aren’t just beating the bottom feeders. They beat legitimate teams who will be making the playoffs in Colorado and Chicago. They also beat bubble teams Detroit, Ottawa, Ottawa, Philly, Dallas, New Jersey, and Toronto. Some of these games were in convincing fashion as well. Even their loss to St. Louis was a “good loss” in the sense that they played very well.
  • So when you pool all that together, you have a team that not many teams want to play in the playoffs. They are running on all cylinders. They are scoring, playing defense, getting great goaltending, and executing on special teams. The forecheck is creating turnovers and they are capitalizing on these turnovers.
  • Speed kills. But this time around, it’s New York’s speed that is killing other teams.
  • Questions:
    • What holes do you think the Rangers need to fill at the deadline?
    • Cally is at 11 goals with about 25 games left, think he can get to 20 goals?
    • If I told you at the beginning of the season that Brad Richards and Mats Zuccarello would be leading this team in scoring at the Olympic break, would you have believed me? (Note: This is a trick question.)

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