On this Super Bowl (Big Game? Sorry, I don’t know what I’m allowed to use here) Sunday, the Rangers are thankfully off, thus allowing us to watch what should be a good football game and hopefully some better commercials. Despite having last week off and only playing twice in the past 2 weeks, it’s been busy in Rangerland. As per usual, I have some thoughts.
1. The Chris Kreider injury has the potential to change the entire course of the trade deadline for the Rangers. If it’s a concussion and if he is out longer than expected, then he either won’t be traded or will get far less on the market. This only impacts the trade market, though. If the Rangers planned on re-signing him, then it likely changes nothing as long as the injury isn’t long term. Concussions can be tricky though.
2. A lot of talk has been about how the Rangers are going to manage Kreider, Jesper Fast, Alex Georgiev, Ryan Strome, and Tony DeAngelo at the trade deadline. Georgiev aside, the other four are all tied to each other and it’s not easy to really predict what the Rangers are going to do. If Fast and Kreider price themselves out of New York, then keeping Strome is likely happening. If the Blueshirts find a way to keep both of their alternate captains, then Strome is likely a sell-high candidate and a cap casualty. I think it’s two of three forwards that stay. DeAngelo is a whole other ballgame and not someone whom I’d like to see traded, but I just don’t see the numbers working out unless the Rangers get away from their 3LD/3RD line of thinking.
3. One last thought on trades – not all trades need to happen at the deadline. Players like Georgiev, Strome, and DeAngelo will have more value at the draft when teams are looking to retool. They are young(ish), skilled, and coming off big years. There’s a lot of value there. The wild card that is Lias Andersson as a sweetener makes things interesting as well. What is the market for them? Honestly we don’t know, but it will be interesting to see how the Rangers navigate the next five months.
4. Even with the two wins against Detroit, the playoffs seem like a tall order for the Blueshirts. The four points in two days moved them up just one spot in the standings. They have games in hand, which cuts the deficit a little bit, but it’s too many teams earning loser points. Ten points out may as well be 20 nowadays. I don’t think it’s in the cards unless the Rangers go on a ridiculous run. If 98 points is the magic number, the Rangers have 32 games to get 44 points. That’s a shade under 1.5 points per game. Regulation losses are their worst enemy right now if the playoffs are their goal.
5. Fatigue is going to become a factor. We’ve seen Kaapo Kakko look rejuvenated after the break, which is promising since he looked shot and just out of place going into the break. Unfortunately the Rangers aren’t going to get many breathers coming up. They play almost every other day for the next two months. Fatigue is going to be a factor, especially since David Quinn doesn’t like running a fourth line all that often.
6. The condensed schedule at the end of the season is a by-product of the bye week. The players certainly deserve and earn their bye weeks, which is 5 days back with families or to take vacations. However it results in this kind of schedule. I wonder if the trade off is worth it.
Share:
More About:Musings