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Speculation: Anyone else think we'll better than we think?

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If there was ever a year it would be better to finish lower, rather than chase a Play-Off bubble slot, then I suppose this is the year.

Dare say that is down to many factors. TDL and Hank's play both being major things to take into account.
 
If you really break it down there is pretty much zero chance the rangers make the playoffs. Best case scenario for the Rangers this season is finishing 5th in the metro. There is no way they Finnish ahead of Pittsburgh, Washington, philly or Columbus. This would put them in contention for the 2nd wild card. Problem is there’s Florida who are much better than the rangers on paper and get to play Detroit Montreal buffalo and Ottawa all year. So Florida is most likely getting the 2nd wildcard. Only reason devils got in last season was luongo got hurt,
 
I think there are a lot of "ifs" for the Rangers to be better than bottom third of the league.

If Kreider and Zibanejad pick up where they left off last season.

If a bunch of forwards have career years.

If Lundqvist steals more than a few games.

If the defense somehow performs better than expected.

If several rookies have great seasons.

The problem is that it's pretty rare that many "ifs" actually happen. Usually some do, some don't and you end up with a mixed bag. In this case, a mixed bag is probably the 23-27 range in the league.
 
Its basically up to our D to be average or better because I think our forward group is pretty good. Skjei,Smith, DeAngelo all have to be better this year. Shattenkirk has to be his usual pp stud and McQuaid and Staal have to not be bad. Our team will go as our d goes because I dont think we will have a problem scoring, especially on the pp.
 
I don't know how good we'll be, but I'd be unloading Namestnikov, Spooner, Zucc, and others as soon as possible to try to ensure a bottom 5 finish. And maybe with some of those assets we could pay someone to take Staal off our hands.
 
I would literally consider giving Chytil and Andersson another year in the A, just to tank.
 
I think this team will have a hard time scoring 5v5. Hank will not be able to steal enough games. The younger guys that will play will make mistakes in those close games. Imagine if there are injuries to the top guys again. I think they’ll finish bottom 5, maybe play spoiler and put a good streak together in March.
 
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Can the team's young players progress at an encouraging enough rate, while also losing enough games to secure a top five pick? Will Hank beat Staal to death with his goalie stick right on the Garden ice, after Mark's man waltzes into the crease and scores in the tenth game in a row? Will Zucc be traded, or simply quit hockey in order to play Bilbo Baggins in the Broadway production of " Hobbit... the musical"? Will someone buy Brady Skjel a vowel for his last name? And, could someone give Stephen Hawking's corpse enough Red Bull to bring him back to life, so he can develop a working theory on warping Space/Time, allowing the Lightning to both win the Cup, and, miss the playoffs simultaneously, so we get an additional lottery pick?
 
Lone Ranger said:
Can the team's young players progress at an encouraging enough rate, while also losing enough games to secure a top five pick? Will Hank beat Staal to death with his goalie stick right on the Garden ice, after Mark's man waltzes into the crease and scores in the tenth game in a row? Will Zucc be traded, or simply quit hockey in order to play Bilbo Baggins in the Broadway production of " Hobbit... the musical"? Will someone buy Brady Skjel a vowel for his last name? And, could someone give Stephen Hawking's corpse enough Red Bull to bring him back to life, so he can develop a working theory on warping Space/Time, allowing the Lightning to both win the Cup, and, miss the playoffs simultaneously, so we get an additional lottery pick?
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He has OCD and had to arrange his name by letter type; consonants first, vowels last. His father's surname is actually Sejik and hails from Tajikistan.
 
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I hope they cut M. Staal in this new season - he is really bad with an assist on last monday game with GA.
 
mschmidt64 said:
I would literally consider giving Chytil and Andersson another year in the A, just to tank.
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While Chytil and Andersson are talented they certainly don't seem ready for prime time, at least to me. Tanking would involve giving them full time roles on the Rangers instead of guys like Spooner, etc. who can produce 50+ points. Chytil might be good for 40 but will make a lot of costly mistakes. Andersson realistic high end in points this year is probably around 30.
 
Ori said:
I hope they cut M. Staal in this new season - he is really bad with an assist on last monday game with GA.
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I see Staal spending a lot of time in the press box this season. It would actually hurt the Rangers long term though to cut him/buy him out now. Then the buyout gets spread over a longer time period, which is when they hope to be competitive again. Unfortunately the best course of action is to absorb his big salary for at least another year or two, especially when they have the cap space to do so.
 
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I personally think we will be better than some here and in the media think. Once the regular season gets rolling, 15-20 games in we will know who we are and where we're at.
 
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nevesis said:
I personally think we will be better than some here and in the media think. Once the regular season gets rolling, 15-20 games in we will know who we are and where we're at.
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Hope so but doubt it. Do we have even one contender for an all-star spot? Deep at forward but no real stars; no one like a Barzal. Mediocre d-core at best. Hopefully solid but certainly not elite goaltending. Doesn't really add up to contending for a playoff spot when considering the competition, but the games should be entertaining.
 
I'd like to believe this team could be like a Jagr-less 05-06 team. Being Jagr-less(or the equivalent of a superior league scorer in general) will make them much less successful in the standings, but with the constant energy and work ethic that the staff is looking for, I'm hoping to see something similar. We spent years watching overpaid veteran glide around the ice and under-perform in the 90's and early 2k's. Then the lockout came, entire changing of the game and rules, and the salary cap forcing teams to play some ELC level guys. All of a sudden, while expecting to again be a bottom dweller, NYR hockey was really fun to watch again. There was the big top line handling the majority of scoring but then it was all hustlers and role players giving their absolute best on every shift.

I'd love to see an energy 4th line like that team had in Orts-Moore-Hollweg. Every time the team was drooping, they were sent out to cause havoc and build the energy back up. I feel like Lettieri is the epitome of that... an Ortmeyer with a constant engine going, but with better hands. I'm hoping he sticks with the big club.
 
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