AV said today he will play Saturday even if Kreider is back. I agree mel he looked good. That was our best line last night.
The real test will be whether they put everything into last night and now go and score 5 goals in the next 4 games or actually start showing consistency.
I agree 71... can this team provide a balanced attack like last night consistently. As the schedule gets tough, if the top 6 are not producing consistently this team will struggle to make the playoffs. A lot was exposed during this last tough stretch. In the 15 game rough stretch from about Thanksgiving eve to right before xmas, they scored 2 or less goals in regulation 8 of those games. The Brass/Nash/Zuc line started to struggle but Brass had 14 pts, Zuc and Nash 10 pts apiece. Chris Kreider had 6 pts in those 15 gms, Lindberg 3 pts, and Stepan 0 in 5 of those he played. This scenario is all too familiar as they struggled in last years playoffs with almost same roster. In 19 playoff games last year, the Rangers scored 1 or fewer goals in regulation 9 of those 19 games !!! Same team, little change...no depth will end in similar results...maybe sooner this year !
It's one game but they sure didn't miss Kreider. Like I said. Trade him in seconds to get a chance at Drouin.
The forwards did a nice job playing both ways instead of waiting in the neutral zone for an outlet pass. Amazing how you can stop an offensive rush just by holding your ground at the blue line like Brassard did on the Megna goal. He didn't even have to make contact to stop the play. I hardly think that a team that's gone deep in the playoffs for years is suddenly done but I do think they need to make a few changes to get the Cup. To me the two obvious moves are Yandle and Nash. Yandle can't be kept and the Rangers have to recoup something more than 2 years of his service, had they let Staal walk Keith's acquisition and resigning would have been a good deal. Nash is playing good hockey now so moving him now when his value is high makes sense, Rick is one of the primary reasons the playoff stats JD listed are so anemic. I think Etem is odd man out with Megna up, he is actually more useless than Tanner Glass. His lazy play against Florida should earn him a few healthy scratches.
Darren Dreger says that teams in the East would need to pay a lot for Drouin and that the best offers for him could come as early as next week.
