Quick thoughts on tanking

With the win last night, there seems to be two groups of people. One group is upset the Blueshirts won (over the Penguins!) because they need to tank. The other group is happy they won. There are a few people that want the tank and want to beat the Pens, but they seem to be few and far between. I fall in that group.

Let’s be clear about the tank. The front office sold off assets to set up for the future. They did not deliver a message to the players to lose on purpose. For starters, that’s just wrong. You don’t want that message to come from anyone in the club. It sets the wrong precedent and gives these kids, who we want to grow and develop and have that “competitive attitude” we all want. Telling them to tank does the opposite.

Second, players don’t tank. Players want to win. Even when the teams I played on growing up stunk, we still wanted to win. We wanted to be spoilers. We didn’t just give up and say there’s always next year. There’s pride at stake here. Players don’t care about lottery odds or Rasmus Dahlin.

With the player aspect out of the way, let’s look at the standings. The Rangers are 21st (10th overall pick) in the standings with 71 points. Ten teams are behind them. The closest to them are the Isles, with 70 points and two games in hand. The Hawks have 68 points and one game in hand.

Beyond that, there is very little chance the Rangers fall lower in the standings. Edmonton is the next highest team, with 65 points. Sure, the Blueshirts could lose out, but that’s highly unlikely. If anything, hoping the Isles and Hawks win a bunch of games is the best bet to drop to the eighth overall pick.

Let’s say that out of the nine points the Rangers have earned this month, they should have only earned five (wins over Calgary, Pittsburgh removed in this hypothetical. That drops the Rangers to eighth, as mentioned above, and Edmonton is two points behind with a game in hand. Montreal three points back with a game in hand. Perhaps sixth worst record is within reach. The magic number is getting in the top five (Detroit), but that would be highly unlikely.

Are we really going to get this upset over a scenario that likely wouldn’t have happened anyway? In the most realistic of scenarios, it was a stretch that the Blueshirts finished with fewer than five points, which was just outlined above. All In For Dahlin is funny and cute, but not realistic.

Plus, even if they did finish in the bottom-five, there’s no guarantee they even draft there. There’s no guarantee they don’t move up in the draft lottery from ninth to second. There’s a whole other aspect here. Yea, they can increase the number of ping pong balls, but it’s still random. I don’t know about you, but I’m not losing sleep over one or two draft spots.