Legit chance at winning 7 of them and they need to in order to start building a good record. Beat the freakin Devils already. They are an average team at best. Losing twice to them this year is embarrassing. This team is above average. Not a cup threat right now unless a trade is made.
This is the time. From now until Christmas we have one road game, at below average Buffalo, and the rest are at home. This stretch will go a long way towards deciding what type of team we are this season. A safe top 4 or 5 seed in the playoffs. Or a team that will battle for the 7 or 8 seed the whole season. Now is the time. I think we will take advantage of this stretch and be sitting here at Christmas looking at a team with a safe playoff spot, and discussing how we can add a few pieces to have a legit shot at a cup. We'll see.
They need to make hay during this stretch. They cannot play .500 and be content. AV won't allow it. Not after the Boston debacle......they must show that desire to win every game.
So, what do they do vs Winnipeg at home. DESTROYED. Total dysfunction. Another team comes to play all 3 metro teams and leaves 3-0-0. This Ranger team will disappoint everytime.
Eyes is in full Eyes mode. I see all the second guessers are out, if Lundqvist played and gave up 4 everyone would say why not stick with Talbot again. The guy gave up 4 goals it happens. The defense coulve been better for him.
At Buff, NJ, Wash, Nash, CBJ, Cal, Pitt, NYI, Minny, Tor. These are the next 10 games. 9 at home. No excuses. To me this decides our season, and quite frankly that upward move should have started last night. Buff is bad. NJ not a playoff team, and under .500 on the road. Nash .500 on the road. CBJ is bad. Cal is bad. Pitt is very good. NYI are bad. Minny is .500 on the road. Tor under .500 on the road. The only team that is over .500 in the next 10 games is Pitt (when you look at road records for the team we play at home). I'd say 15 of 20 points is needed. Worst case 14, which would be 7-3. I don't think that is too much to ask for given the teams we play. Buff, NJ, CBJ, Cal, and NYI all should be wins IF we play like we can. So right there that is 10 points IMO, and worst case 8. So getting 6 or 7 of the other 10 points should be very doable given they are ALL home games. That's just the way it is IMO. 14 or 15 of the next 20 points is what we need to really show we are a good team, and get some distance between us and .500 AND us the playoff cut line.
I just couldn't pass this thread up. Reality check time. Looking at it without rose colored glasses, this team is an average .500 team. It is what it is. Agree with you Chuck on the next 10 games, but I see it differently. Buff and Calgary bad, yes. NJ and NYR 1 point difference and NJ has beaten our team twice. NJ not a playoff team but we are? I can't say that. CBJ bad, but only 5 points behind us playing 1 less game and missing 5 of their top 6 forwards for most of the year. Most of them will be back in the next week. Are we really that much better? Minny and Nash .500 on the road but we're under .500 at home, and there is a reason for that. Minn has 37 points and Nash 29 playing 1 less game. Are the Rangers really better than those 2 teams? The reality is that the Rangers are extremely small and easily pushed around, and quite slow, especially up the middle. We have 2 speedsters (obviously Hags and Kreider), but overall team speed is slow. Once again, the team really has no identity. Not fast, tough, big, offensive, or prolific on D. What are they? An average, middling team that needs the goalie to stand on his head pretty much every night. Wish I didn't feel this way but that is what I see. I suspect they'll go 5 and 5 over the next 10 games because this is truly an average team.
For the record, I am not predicting anything. I am simply saying that I believe we need to get 14 or 15 points out of the next 20 to really put ourselves in a good spot the 2nd half of the season. I have no clue what this team will do. I want to believe we will go 7-3, but I truly don't know with this up and down team.
Chuck, you should have sat back and waited till the 10 games were up to either gloat or make an excuse or 2. Ha ha ha.
Funny. I wish I could flat out predict 7-3 and really truly mean it. I am hopeful at least, so that should count for something....
Yes, HOPE counts. No predictions on this front. Right now they are 5-6 at home. They had better be on top of their game this homestand. Imagine you'd think I am talking baseball. LOL ......
