This was such a strange one to write about. Prior to the game, the NBA announced it’s league would suspend the season indefinitely due to a player getting coronavirus. With so many rumors flying around tonight, it was really hitting home tonight–is this the last regular season Rangers game until October? To put it in context, Darren Dregar was reporting it’d be a possibility that the NHL could suspend the remainder of the regular season, and start the playoffs at a later date. That would put the Rangers out of a playoff spot and end this fun run they have been on. Stay safe out there friends. With that, let’s get to some thoughts on the game shall we?

  • Filip Chytil is not in the lineup and was replaced by Steven Fogarty from Hartford. It was an interesting decision by Quinn to put him on a line with Brett Howden and Kaapo Kakko. I guess with Fogarty being Hartford’s captain, Quinn wanted to put him in a spot to succeed and see if he could get some offense going.
  • Mika Zibanejad just cannot stop scoring. He has been such a joy to watch since the all star break. Just a dominating force that–along with Panarin–changes games with everything he does. MAKE THIS MAN MY CAPTAIN PLEASE!!!!!
  • This wouldn’t be a Rangers game without a former Ranger scoring. Vlad Namestnikov, come on down buddy! Just incredible how this happens to the Rangers.
  • Ryan Strome’s regression hit hard tonight with 2 wide open nets and missing on both of them, and then getting a prime scoring chance and shooting it right into the chest of Pavel Francouz. Yes Strome has had an unbelievable season, but he could have had a hat trick in the 2nd period from his chances.
  • This game seemed to get away from the Rangers real quickly as they took two bad penalties and the Avalanche–without MacKinnon and Rantanen mind you–were able to convert on both of them. The travel from Dallas to Denver and the altitude could absolutely have affected the Rangers.
  • Julien Gauthier came SO close to getting his first goal as a Ranger but Francouz just absolutely robbed him of a power move to the net type goal. Gauthier is going to be a force in this league with this kind of tenacity.
  • Matt Nieto was rewarded a penalty shot and was stopped with great poise by Georgiev. He stayed with him the entire way and Nieto couldn’t get a good shot off.
  • How different would our left side look if the Rangers gave Ryan Graves a chance? Think he would have done well here.
  • With MacKinnon out, I was really hopeful the Rangers would come out hard and try to take advantage of a roster that on paper is decimated by injuries, this would not be the case as the Rangers missed chances would really ultimately cost them.
  • Pavel Francouz absolutely robbed the Rangers of like 4 or 5 solid chances in the third period alone and without him, Rangers might have been up in this one significantly.
  • An underrated part of the Avalanche in game experience by the sounds of it, is when they kill a penalty, they play the Mario Power-Up Mushroom sound effect. My nerdy self is giddy every time I hear it.
  • The Rangers had a valiant effort to tie the game and they succeeded in the last minute with Pavel Buchnevich deflecting a Panarin shot with 13 seconds remaining. Do we get more Mika magic in OT?
  • Mika rings one off the crossbar, and Cale Makar shoots and deflects a shot off Compher ends it in the other.
  • If this is the end of this season, what a ride it’s been.

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