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The official exhale thread


'7'

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It didn't happen. It got too close for comfort but it didn't happen. It was annoying, the Rags hanging on for dear life. The Kings at times getting lax and lazy and giving the Rags cheap goals. Even tonight. Let's face it the Kings went up 1-0 and lapsed. Rags got a powerplay (didn't even see the damn call, prob was a gift) and scored, then got a super lucky Boyle goal with seconds left. Then hung on for dear life as the ghost of Tortarella appeared as well as their 6 goalies. Didn't work

 

They kept plugging and didn't stop. The Kings have steel in their veins. They ground the Rags to dust late in these games and in OT. The refs tried their best (TWO POWERPLAYS IN OT ARE YOU sh!tTING ME!?) while the Kings were denied powerplays despite the Rags doing some atrocious hooking and holding to hang on. Posts galore, close calls. But it was the Kings always getting the best of the opportunities and outplaying the Rangers.

 

And how awesome is it to watch Gaborik skate around with the cup. Must really sting for the Rangers fans.

 

To be honest if the Rags pulled this out they weren't winning the series anyway. They just have no capability to play 60 minutes anymore, The reserves weren't there in the tank. It's no coincidence the Kings just run them to the ditch late in these games. They have bigger, better athletes

 

So now what happens? Rangerstown is being boarded up. The bandwagon is emptying. The diehards are weeping. And we dodged a major bullet by not having to deal with a Rags cup. That would've really hurt the Devils brand. So they won the eastern conference? Big f'n deal. We can survive that.

 

Rangers are not getting back here again. Not for a long time. They'll be in the playoffs next year and they'll be good...but I predict a very slow start for them next season. And I don't know if Lundqvist will be the same after starting something like 3,000 games this season. He'll be 33 next year. There's a good chance he retires cupless. I almost look at him like a pitcher who just threw 150 pitches and took a no hitter into the 9th....and lost. Sometimes guys are not the same after playoffs like this. This Rangers team will take some hits in the offseason. Losing Stralman would hurt. Some of the lower line guys will not produce like they did this year. Lundqvist may decline a bit. St. Louis is ancient. Nash is a clown flipping and flopping all over the ice and has never been an elite, clutch finisher. Brad Richards had his foot out the door before this series even ended. Maybe they won't have the same injury luck. It's hard to get back here again.

 

Time to go enjoy summer. Swimming, fishing, hanging with your kids. The Rags are dead. They're buried. They're not coming up out of the coffin anymore. No 20th anniversary magic. They'll have to dust off the old 94 VHS for another 20 years

Edited by '7'
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The Rangers have an elite goalie and a lot of young players.  I wouldn't count them out of anything just yet, right now they're still the 2nd best team in the East behind the Bruins.  They were clearly not in the class of the Kings, but who is?

That said I'm obviously delighted with the result, and it's unlikely they get back there again, but there's a lot of good pieces over there, unfortunately.

Edited by Triumph
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Perhaps I'll eat my words, but absent some unexpected free agent signings, this was their best chance for a while. They will have had three years in a row without first round picks, and the prospects that they have are not anything special.

Basically what you saw tonight is what you get. McDonough, Stepan and Kreider should get better. Lundqvist, Nash, St. Louis, Girardi and Staal you would expect to decline. Either way, the Rangers were not a 100 point team this year.

Lastly, as it stands now, the Devils probably have the better goalie.

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Perhaps I'll eat my words, but absent some unexpected free agent signings, this was their best chance for a while. They will have had three years in a row without first round picks, and the prospects that they have are not anything special.

Basically what you saw tonight is what you get. McDonough, Stepan and Kreider should get better. Lundqvist, Nash, St. Louis, Girardi and Staal you would expect to decline. Either way, the Rangers were not a 100 point team this year.

Lastly, as it stands now, the Devils probably have the better goalie.

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At this very moment, I would say Lundqvist is better, but Lundqvists career arc is about to reach a tipping point. That save % is going to start declining

 

Too much has to fall into place for them to make it back. And even if they do the will likely be devoured by a Western beast again

Edited by '7'
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At this very moment, I would say Lundqvist is better, but Lundqvists career arc is about to reach a tipping point. That save % is going to start declining

Too much has to fall into place for them to make it back. And even if they do the will likely be devoured by a Western beast again

I'll also say that Pittsburgh is still better than the Rangers, although that might change if Rutherford manages to screw things up.

Tampa is going to be very, very good, maybe not next year, but soon after that. Drouin should be an absolute star. If Bishop isn't the guy, Vasilevsky will be in a few years.

And I'm bullish on the Devils future, so long as some of the dead weight is jettisoned. You see what a goalie like Lunqvist could do for just a pretty good roster. Schneider can hopefully bring us there with 65 starts.

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The Rangers have an elite goalie and a lot of young players.  I wouldn't count them out of anything just yet, right now they're still the 2nd best team in the East behind the Bruins.  They were clearly not in the class of the Kings, but who is?

That said I'm obviously delighted with the result, and it's unlikely they get back there again, but there's a lot of good pieces over there, unfortunately.

 

Cam Talbot is good but I wouldn't call him 'elite.'

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The Rangers weren't a 100 point team because they had a low shooting percentage - they shot under 8% as a team, which is hard to do.  (For the record, the NJ teams the last two years that fans were crying about having no finish both had better shooting percentages than this year's Rangers team).  

 

The Rangers don't have a lot of dynamite prospects ready for the NHL now, but they did sign two big-time UDFAs who might be contributors.  People always overlook those types of players when they evaluate prospects.  They also look to have had a ridiculous 2013 draft for a team that didn't have any 1st round picks.  

 

If I were in Sather's shoes, I'd do what I could to get Joe Thornton and maybe try to sign Dan Boyle and really go for it next year.  The East is not strong.  The Rangers' window isn't huge, it's as long as Lundqvist is an elite goalie.

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The Rangers weren't a 100 point team because they had a low shooting percentage - they shot under 8% as a team, which is hard to do. (For the record, the NJ teams the last two years that fans were crying about having no finish both had better shooting percentages than this year's Rangers team).

The Rangers don't have a lot of dynamite prospects ready for the NHL now, but they did sign two big-time UDFAs who might be contributors. People always overlook those types of players when they evaluate prospects. They also look to have had a ridiculous 2013 draft for a team that didn't have any 1st round picks.

If I were in Sather's shoes, I'd do what I could to get Joe Thornton and maybe try to sign Dan Boyle and really go for it next year. The East is not strong. The Rangers' window isn't huge, it's as long as Lundqvist is an elite goalie.

They don't have a 2014 and 2015 first round pick either. Both traded away with Callahan.

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They don't have a 2014 and 2015 first round pick either. Both traded away with Callahan.

 

Right, but those only matter for 2 reasons: they could be used in other trades, or they could be NHL contributors ~4 years after they're drafted.  If I'm Sather looking at the Rangers right now, I don't see a team that's gonna be great in 2018 (and I know I won't be a part of it anyway).

 

One good thing is that I was really not impressed with St. Louis as a Ranger.  His shot rate is down.  He'll still be good next year, but this is a guy who led the NHL in points in 2012-13 - I'd project him at 60 points in an 82 game season.

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As much as I'm overjoyed that the Rangers didn't pull this thing off (although we're going to hear a LOT of complaining about refs from Rangers fans...and let's face it, if any other fanbase had seen their team get the same calls/non-calls, they'd be complaining too...not saying the Rags deserved to win by any stretch), I'll be a lot happier celebrating Devils successes than Ranger failures for sure. 

 

'7', Lundqvist isn't a kid anymore (he'll be 33 in March 2015), but we've seen goalies succeed well into their late 30s, so I'm not going to predict any decline for him just yet.  At any rate, he'd BETTER succeed, because he's being paid to be top-notch Henrik for a loooooooong time, not 80% or so of what he was, for the majority of his deal.  Like Tri and others have noted, you can find ways to hide declining forwards and defensemen, but you can't do it with a goalie.   

 

As for even trying to guess what the future holds for the Rangers...who the hell knows?  Sather's MO tends to be "Go for obvious big names", and like Tri suggested, it wouldn't surprise me if they went for Thornton (or maybe Spezza), and went into full "right now" mode. 

 

But yeah, thank whomever that the Ranger franchise and their fans will have to dust off 1994 yet again.  A summer of endless 2014 memorial videos would've been tough to take...a summer of Mets baseball is bad enough.

 

Now back to the Devils...screw the Rangers.

Edited by Colorado Rockies 1976
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Rangers are still clearly one of the best in the East, but they had such an easy road getting there.  As much as Mason sucks, he is still eons better than Emery.  They got to play Fleury in the second round.  Price got hurt in game 1 and MTL isn't even that good to begin with.  

 

Re their young players:  Kreider seems like a player, but he seems to be the type of player with all tools and no toolbox. Hagelin is good as we all know.  Zuccarello seems to have finally adjusted to the NHL.  Miller has torn up the AHL.  Then you have Buchnevich and maybe Duclair in the fold.  The problem is you have Stepan and McD who are obviously great young players. 

 

Their forwards are above average but nothing special.  Same with their defense as they were middle of the road in SA in 2013-2014.  They're a Lundqvist injury away from being an average team and he's had some pretty good injury luck in his career.  Plus, I think CBJ and PIT will be better (Pitt from addition by subtraction, I'm looking at you Orpik)

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i feel some what relieved now that the season is over and the rangers did not end up pulling through to win..certainly did not want to hear from their fans all year next season, however i do have a heart and i do feel badly for some of the ranger fans that i know ..i know, we all know how this feels...especially for my girls father who is a ranger fan..guy cheers for the devils whenever they do not play the rangers because he knows im a die hard and at the same time he knows i cannot fvcking stand the rangers..makes me feel kind of bad sometimes lol. On a second note now the season is over and there is no hockey left to watch which always sucks in the beginning of the off season.. but im ready to enjoy this summer and not rush it by too quickly

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Anyone know the song played at MSG after the Blueskirts lose? Feel like playing it.

 

NVM found it: 

 

Thank you thank you thank you!!  Only been looking for this for about 5 years now.  My favorite sound is their old buzzer followed by boos and this.

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