Next two games are against two recent Stanley Cup Champs. That’s all you need to know about this stretch. I am really anxious to see how they respond to those two bad losses. This is already playoffs, for all intents an purposes.
Rangers ( 35-26-4 ) vs St Louis ( 39-17-20 ), 7 pm start, TV-MSG.
Projected lineup:
Di Giuseppe-Zibanejad-Buchnevich
Panarin-Strome-Fast
Howden-Chytil-Kakko
Lemieux-McKegg-Gauthier
Smith-Trouba
Staal-DeAngelo
Lindgren-Fox
Kreider, Shesterkin, and Haley injured.
Nobody’s prucha’d.
Georgiev in net.
LGR!!!!!
204 responses to “It’s Go Time!”
FIRE SATHER!
Solution: Transfer Hank’s rights to Quinnipiac Univerity. They can pay Hank 40 million over four years and win multiple National Titles. Hank gets his degree and makes his mother happy. Win/Win.
eddie, Patrick has been Sharp his whole life.
Anyone out there know what ever happened to Al Trautwig? It’s been a while and when you google him, last years story come up.
Do not ingest this product if you have a bowel blockage.
Don’t be boring, Jeffrey.
Whatever is Troutwig’s problem, obviously he wants no one to know.
My 6:33 (correction) – Win/Win/Win
4 ever
You’re slacking! 😉
Or just being charitable?
Is prucha prucha’d?
Trautwig Prucha’d. Duguay too. LGR!!!!
I like binnington, sometimes his wires cross
YA GOTTA BELIEVE
Who gets to 50 first, DeAngle or Pietrangle?
Hey guys, I’m listening to the away team feed and they said hank is the greatest goalie that ever played the game!
Wicky, Do you wear a French maid outfit whilst you house clean?
Disjointed going forward but not easy to play against so far, more importantly.
The Blues may have won the Cup last year, but have they won it this year? Didn’t think so. The defense rests!
Is this thing on?
Smith buzzing. Wasn’t expecting to write those two words consecutively.
Smith’s offense blows. Good thing he’s back to D.
Smith is taking over for “hands of stone” Kreider in his absence.
Woot
There you have it!
Beer!
Tic tac yahtze
KABLAM ZIBANALAKALAKA!!
Interesting 3-man drop for first entry followed by a 2-man (as they used vs. Philly). Coaches have been busy.
Liking the confidence on Gauthier there. Dangle and a half!
I originally yelled about that 3 man entry but it worked out great because of Zika’s skill. Unfortunately he didn’t have his eyes on any of his teammates because he just shot it around the boards and cleared it for the Blues. Luckily he more than made up for that.
Smith earning them the penalty–big play with #1 PP at their service.
They might’ve worked on the pp in practice but they, again, forgot about defensive clears.
Refs too afraid to put the Blues down 2 men. Clear as hell trip there.
I can’t think of a better period that they’ve played this year, and a PP to begin the 2nd. Carp’s Great Aunt Tillie could have minded the nets.
Nice hit by lindgren
Good draw of pp by smith
And heck of a pass by strome
Buch also with the big win on the boards, undressed Scandella.
Norm, you can’t think of another period this season where they got 2 shots in the first 8 minutes?
They gave the Blues nothing, EvB. Nothing. And they’re winning. But enjoy your hand-wringing, as always. 🙂
I do expect StL to wake up at some point.
Peanut
I sent you the pic, did you not get it?
St. Louis is loaded. That was a very good period by the Rangers. Ran into Chico Resch on my way to my hotel this afternoon. Hard to believe NHL goalies used to be that small.
D’anger. Great friggin job 🙄
So they try the dumb half rink drop pass on the first zone entry attempt on the point, predictably lose instant zone time and possession, don’t try it on the second entry attempt and possession in zone and pp goal!
At least they learned quickly and didn’t try it the second time!
Point=pp
yay🤦🏼♂️
Asleep forward there and he knew it
Asleep=a clear
St Pete
What did you do to my phone?
Z. just missed that clear.
Yes, bad clear attempt
Strome is an idiot. “Hey, let’s not make this a 2 on 1 and just both stay in the same side of the puck as the defender.”
🤦🏼♂️🤦🏼♂️🤦🏼♂️
2 out of 3 successful drop entries. It’s a standard part of the #1 PP in the league in 2020. The three-man drop was a variation I haven’t seen, I think that’s new. When DeAng continues on in with two trailers, that’s something the D has to worry about it again. I’m a fan.
Minx! Error 523 Error 523 Error 523
At least its Kenny on radio
Blues not smart taking these penalties.
Refs have no friggin clue what interference is anymore. None.
Once again, try the half rink drop pass, no zone time and short handed shot, regular entry, good zone time. 3rd entry try by fox, too big of a gap still but not as bad as the first one…nothing to show for it.
Tally…dumb half the rink drop pass 0 for 2.
No half rink drop pass, 1 goal and a lot of pp time
Hehe…pp time
All in all this is a pretty good game.
They’re going with the two-drop formation every time tonight. Either they drop to a trailer or DeAnger handles it in. No old-fashioned rim-arounds at all. I wonder what other teams do against them?
Horrible officiating
Of course I’m not counting every drop pass made on a pp, just the too far of a gap drops.
Penalties do not get more blatant than that. Holy mother effin snit!!!!
Wild Wild West
Apparently you can interfere with a guy going to the puck and yank a guy down by the back collar of his jersey after you hook him.
Oh yeah, you can knock the stick out of an opponent’s hands as well.
As long as it’s called the same both ways, who cares.
This reminds me of those nights I would lean over to my friend and say “We’re getting the early train tonight.”
YOU TAKE THE SHOT WHEN THE ONLY PASSING OPTION YOU HAVE IS A COVERED MARC FRIGGIN STAAL!
Montreal 4
Fish sticks 0
Wicky, it hasn’t. Both teams have gotten away with stuff but the team with the largest benefit has been the St Louis Referees.
EV can’t do that if you’re Strome
Rangers effort about twice as good as in the last two. Very impressive, Georgie with little to do and sharp when’s had to be. Lost his form a little on the goal, but that might have gone in even if he’d squared up.
Norm
Oh I get it, lmao…you’re counting every single drop pass so you can be right.
Ha, brilliant.
It’s abundantly clear that we are definitely talking about two entirely different things though, so you can relax and quit trying so hard.
Fix the ice, Dolan, you cheap, close to the ground, gnome-looking muddy pucker!
Ev
Guess I missed that, my bad.
Is it me, or did it seem like the referees hit the 3 penalty quota against the Blues and decided that was all? How can you yank a guy down by the collar right in front of the ref? The Blues are loaded and are in the Rangers shorts every shift. So far, they are coping with it well. Really could use these 2 points.
E3
Go habs go!!
Blues built for another run. NYR playing smart; keep it tight 5v5 and hope to win with the PP. the pk has not been good as of recent.
So is the Wicky vs. Norm Steel Cage Match during the NHL season or after it?
Shaddup, Michletti!
Wicky, just amateur-analyzing what I see, no problem with your seeing it differently even if I disagree. And I’m only talking about the DeAnger deep drop pass and the DeAnger keep. Keeping two trailers in both cases and forcing a decision from the Blues, which I like. I’m inclined to go with the Rangers coaching staff on this one, putting their talented guys in positions to succeed–again, #1 power-play in 2020, not by accident. If they get another PP, it will be interesting to see if they switch to something different now that the Blues have seen it.
We’re outweighed. Tough to win Playoff Hockey when you have no turnips in your shorts.
Who ordered pizza? Norm?
Norm
It’s all good.
Talking about different things.
Ev
What the hell are you talking about?
You guys are always arguing. Lol
Habs helping our sexy boys…
I love it because it’s not me 😁
Remember when Herb Brooks’ Smurf Team blew the doors off the Broadstreet Bullies in the early 80’s?
Anyone else ever wonder just how lazy Susan had to be to get a spinning part of a kitchen cabinet named after her?
D’anger is the new Girardi on 2 on 1’s
Ev
Ha, I didn’t really see it as arguing since we were talking about two different things lol
Fast has to seriously hustle back, succeeds. Where in the hell was Staal?
Peanut
Before my time but I’ve seen videos.
Did the smurfs win 2 or 3 cups?
Never mind, I’ll consult the google
Close…but no seegar
I’m always impressed by Panarin’s passing. Some of his pass-catching, too, is sublime.
That last possession in the offensive zone was longer than the total possession time in the last game.
Damn, they didn’t win any…wtf, thought sure they did.
Loved herb brooks calling the one Olympic line the coneheads
Make it to the playoffs or not, this is great experience for the young ranger players imo
Trouba playing great game tonight
Matchbox 20 is the kind of player NYR needs
Ranger speed against Blues size and the 2 zebras
Smith was slashed in that last shot. Where were the refs? Same place as usual. Nowhere.
SN
Wholly crap, haven’t heard the matchbox 20 référence in a long time
Great pull
Smiths best game in a while
All 6 D playing great games, IMO.
Strome touched a Blue’s glove behind the net and immediately was called for a penalty by the ref behind them.
Kakko’s got to bury one of these for once. Jeez..
Tony D owns the puck tonight. Fabulous
Does this game seem to be going faster than most?
Georgiev blows. Great on difficult shots, fell asleep for that one.
Ooof, bad luck
So that’s it…. that’s how we lose tonight….. cool.
Did the Sabres realty trade the ROR; a 1C winning Conn Smythe winner?
They deserve to suck
Wrong-way Lindgren and a big oops from Georgie. Too bad. They had played an almost perfect game, will now have to open ‘er up.
2 bad breaks
Even Lundqvist would’ve stopped that one.
Plenty of time
down by a goal, we really need the di giuseppe-strome-fast line out there more!!
What are the chocolate wafer things with peanut butter inside called?
Ugh this losing is starting to suck now. Playoff berth is RIGHT THERE for the taking…. dammit
We need someone to score a friggin goal
Captain Obvious
Hey ho, 3 in a row
😭😭😭
Just watched the replay again for no fun. Georgie. Oof.
Fishtanks break up the shutout
No call? Bogus…
What 2 a holes are reffing tonight?
Great play by fox
Did you see that one, Wick?
We don’t have a chance of coming back with these two brainless refs.
Play for the point.
Dumbass blind Harlem Globetrotters passes aren’t helping.
Krusty needed to shoot I think
Too late, Olga, Georgie stole it from us.
Again with Kakko
Krapo Kakko
Ev
The great d play?
K’mon Kakko! Yeesh.
All of our best opportunities have been by guys who haven’t scored in months.
Need a good 1:30
Bench Lemieux. He’s been nothing but a hindrance for a while now. That was just idiotic.
Ugh
Bad play Lemieux
Plenty of time.
Wicky, i was talking about the point, not the win.
Lemieux finally got a goalie to hold onto it. Time out was desperately needed.
What a waste
If we played against Jake allen we would’ve been shut out.
Smart play by Lemieux if Georgiev speaks English.
Ev
Oh, my bad
Damn
Nah nah nah nah….
Why is Lemieux on the ice with the goalie pulled??
Woof
Sigh… On to Chicago
I would prefer to see Gauthier on ice than Lemieux in this situation
Why is it they lose every big faceoff?
Great game by the Rangers away from the faceoff circle. Did they win any key draws at all?
But.
The effort was there. The execution was there. Just not the results.
Washington next.
I hate these guys
Played a good game but Tough to beat Blues with no rulebook
That should be a beat down, times have changed
Lemieux is supposed to play the Kreider screen role. Not a lot of other options. Fast, maybe, not sure who else.
Good thing Washington had been up and down lately. We’re also playing on the second night of a back to back for them. The only caveat to that is that in that situation it’s usually the Rangers who look like they played the night before.
Playoff hopes….. slip slidin’ away….
Played a close game against cup champs…would’ve loved 2 points but they played tough.
Tough night and tough season for Mr. Kakko. He needs one to go in off his butt, put a smile on his face.
1 even strength goal since Kreider injury; Howden’s garbage time tally and n first Flyers game
Crappo should have scored 3 or 4 tonight
When the schedule gets tough…….the tough lose 3 straight. Too bad. Played a good game, goalie gave up a horrid goal and could not recover.
Coos your idol had a strong game anyway
Not the time of year nor the situation where you want to take positives out of a lost game, but they have no choice and do actually have something to take pride in–a strong defensive effort against a top team.
ANother positive is that Hank did not give up that second goal .
getting late early! soon enough would be good to start elevating the kids in the lineup for some stretch assignments:
Buch-Mika-Goat
Panarin -Strome-Kakko
Di Guisep – Chytil – Kravtsov
Lemeuix-Howden-Fast
and at some point no reason to get Hajek back up instead of smith or staal
Wasn’t able to stream the game tonight tough loss. The loss of Kreider and Shesterkin is too much to overcome for this cotton candy crew!
More Goat-cheese, please
Nothing cotton-candy about this crew tonight, SPE.
It’s slipping its slipping it’s slipping aaaawaaay…
I wouldn’t feel so bad if we had a decent scouting staff.
Could be worse…
We could be losing 6-2 to the Habs!!
I will have to take your word for it Norm I didn’t see the game.
Don’t take my word–just the way I saw it. Want to see more of the Trouba-Staal pairing, which looked assured out there. Smith was good, too, though, as were all the D, one small mishap by Lindgren leading to the winner, but a tough snap decision.
Even though they lost they played one of their best games of the yesr tonight. They could play with about any team in the league with this defensive discipline. Unfortunately, they had too many opportunities and didn’t cash in. The good news Is they didn’t lose any ground in the standings
St Pete, sure Off the Board Gord has his eyes on an undersized defensive swedish forward or lefty d!
I feel a 5 game wining streak starting with the Craps!
They would have had more opportunities possibly a W if the refs called the rulebook
Even if Kakko doesn’t pan out, that won’t be a knock on Gorton’s resumé. Gorton chose the best available player.
Kakko will be fine but do not understand the rationale of not putting him in a position to succeed at age 18/19.
not the ranger way SN!
Minx you are error 523 😉
Pepe jr likes to bang heads but I’m starting to wonder if he’ll be good at anything more.
This was a very boring game to be at. It was like a Devils game from the late 90s. Neutral zone trap and lots of obstruction not called. The Blues are good, but, it’s like watching paint dry. The league has obviously decided to call less penalties and everyone is starting to catch on. Also the lacrosse line changes when a D holds the puck behind the net and both teams change took up about 5 minutes of the game. The Rangers were very patient and work hard to beat the trap. I think that’s the worse goal I have seen Georgie give up and it couldn’t have come at a worse time. They were well prepared and played s good game, but, came up short.
Wicky, I’m just in the NYU Langone after yet another heart attack. And no, it’s not because of Rangers recent plays…
Holy crap, 4ever! Are you serious? If so, speedy recovery brother
Kakko is getting in position to score but he takes a split second too long to release the puck. He’s getting better. He needs to take some time off after the season and then hit the gym and work on his skating technique.
I knew i should’ve work one of my Blues jerseys tonight. Lately whatever team logo I’m wearing, that team loses.
*worn
Speedy and permanent recovery, 4Ever.
4ever-
Get better – feel better.
Positive vibes to you!
4 ever
Wtf?! Man, take it easy and feel better ASAP!!!
Rest easy 4ever…
4everanger
Just saw your post hang in there brother get well soon!
Get well 4ever-all the best
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