Early morning Friday thoughts

Happy Friday, BSB faithful. It’s about 5am and I am readying to leave for Canada to get back to my Canuck roots for a couple days, so I’m going to leave you with some brief thoughts before the Kings come to town this evening.

Let’s start the proceedings with a former King. I am very surprised the Rangers did not put a claim in on Christian Erhoff. I know what you are saying; “but Justin, there was a reason the Kings put him on waivers, why would the Rangers want anything to do with him?” Well, for one he would have added defensive depth and he only cost cap space. There have been several nagging injuries this season, and clearly the organization is only looking to call up Brady Skjei in the event of a long-term role. Could also have created some matchup leverage depending on opponent. Alas, it was not meant to be.

It is nice to see some resiliency from this group with Nash and McDonagh out. They have been mighty inconsistent since their hot start and seemed a group without an identity. They still haven’t show truly what type of team they are yet, but the past few weeks have been moving back in the right direction.

Kudos to JT Miller for getting molten hot right as the Rangers lost Rick Nash. It made losing one of the team’s most important forwards much easier to absorb.

The recent run of improved form has maintained solid playoff positioning with 28 games remaining. What is a bit more troubling is that only 6 points separate the 2^nd place Rangers from the 5^th place Devils. I know it is harder to make up points in today’s NHL than in the past with the loser point, but the Rangers really need to start a run of consistent hockey. Hopefully they peak for the playoffs.

Henrik Lundqvist has been something of an enigma to fans this season. It seems like he has been hot, cold, hot, and lacks the consistency we have come to expect over the past decade. The reality is that his 5v5 save percentage is the highest of his career; while his 5v4 save percentage has nose-dived. Considering the state of the PK at the moment, it’s hard to be surprised by those statistics.

I’ve seen several complaints recently citing Hank’s “rebound control” issues. What is important to understand about both Hank specifically and the momentum of the equipment industry, as a whole, is that most pads now are designed to project rebounds farther out, rather than to help absorb them. This gives the goaltender extra time to recover and be ready for the next shot. “Crease clearing” in the traditional sense when it comes to rebounds is becoming less and less common. Every goaltender is going to have rebounds placed in inopportune areas depending on the degree of difficulty of the original shot. All that is to say that rebound control is not really an issue for Hank.

I think given a survey of the market, if the Rangers cannot move either Girardi or Staal, or get a significant package for Keith Yandle, I would be fine with them standing pat. Part of the value of the Yandle acquisition was for two playoff runs. I think the re-signing ship has sailed, and I get wanting to generate value from a departing asset, so the run of form over the next two weeks should be very telling about this team’s realistic possibility at a long playoff run.

Well, that’s it for me. Everyone enjoy the game tonight and share any thoughts you may have on my thoughts in the comments below.