News Article: November 1 and playoff seeding

[Vidic15*]

Let's assume that Fleury has another glorious post-season meltdown and the Penguins lose in the first round. Who stands in the way of the Rangers? No one in their division seems to be a big enough threat, Boston is probably their biggest threat outside of Pittsburgh, and it seems that would be round 3 matchup or never under the new system, Toronto is playing entirely unsustainable hockey right now (have you seen their shooting differentials??), Tampa doesn't have the goal-tending or defense... Even with the horrible start, for the East, it still looks to be (1) Pittsburgh, (2a) Boston, (2b) Rangers once things shake out. Other teams will hit their injuries at some point. Other teams will hit cold-streaks at some point. I still only view Pitt as the challenge in the East. The West is a different story, but it'd be nice to even see the Rangers playing for a Cup again (even if they lose), and I don't see the challengers in the East to stand against them, especially if Pitt gets an injury/Fleury happens/gets beaten by a Wild Card. If the Rangers finish as the #2, as most everyone predicted, they would play a mediocre #3 in the first round.

Matchups working out in the Rangers favor is the biggest thing. Remember 94, when the Caps managed to beat the Pens. That was huge. The Rangers simply couldn't beat the Pens to save their life.

 

[Levitate]

To be a contender I generally think "they are a favorite to go to the Stanley Cup Finals". Right now I can't say that about this team...I'm not sure yet they have the ability to beat Boston in a 7 game series, and that's getting way ahead of ourselves here and assuming that they'll even make the playoffs/2nd round/conference finals.

That said, I'm not saying that can't end up being that good...it's just really early and we're finally seeing the team getting settled into AV's system and are still waiting for everyone to get healthy. If they get healthy, play great hockey under AV's system, and are a legit top team in the conference, I can start thinking they'll be a contender.

I thought they were a contender in 2012 and they came close to the Finals, but things kind of slipped away the next year and with the changes that went on, we're still waiting to see how things will shake out this year.

I do have to say that if everything goes right (they get Nash back and he's healthy for one), I think AV's system gives them a better chance to go deep and make the finals. The Rangers just didn't play with the puck enough under Torts and I felt like he bought into the idea that they just weren't skilled enough to play the kind of game AV has them playing

 

[bobbop]

I thought Friedman's article made some good points but there was one big miss -- the Rangers opened up with 9 straight road games. That can throw off any calculation like this.