How are we going to get out of our division?

[Machinehead]

MH I'd agree but we have Girardi playing 20+ so..

Exactly.

And how does that turn out?

 

[Machinehead]

Give me Toronto, a team that has never beaten anyone.

I don't know. Toronto would be a tough out but they are a young team and very prone to being nervous with leads.

Would much rather them than Montreal or Boston, for sure.

The only team I'm really confident against is Ottawa. They're just ****ing terrible. I've watched them several times and looked at every stat under the sun. I still don't understand how they win games at all.

 

[Hire Sather]

I don't know. Toronto would be a tough out but they are a young team and very prone to being nervous with leads.

Would much rather them than Montreal or Boston, for sure.

The only team I'm really confident against is Ottawa. They're just ****ing terrible. I've watched them several times and looked at every stat under the sun. I still don't understand how they win games at all.

This bothers me a lot less than "No way in hell we beat Boston, Montreal, or Toronto in a 7 game series. Maybe Ottawa."

 

[Leetch66]

Some iffy thoughts here....if Nash gets moved for rental Dman that can actually plug a major hole and we add a cheapie dman for insurance ....and if we can intensify our play by our forwards a bit by having two guys perform like Kunitz and Hornqvist and if AV will allow them to play that way...and if our goaltending can perform like they are capable of....and if our forwards can draw more penalties by using the speed factor which means more PP's and if they convert that into more goals.....I honestly think we might be able to handle the Penguins in a first round series .

I think the Penguin club is going to eventually find out just how much hockey they have played in a full year and that will slow some key guys down . I am still not 100% sold on Murray just yet .

 

[Beacon]

The idea that anything can happen is stupid. Better teams win. Teams built to win are the ones that succeed in the playoffs. That means strong goaltending, top-shelf blue line, depth and the toughness to both land a hit and take one.

1. I know "tuffness" is laughed at on this forum, but the reality is that as checking gets tighter in the playoffs, it starts to matter that much more. We lost to the Kings because of the "tuffness" that is mocked on this forum. That the ability to take a hit and dish it out is more important in the playoffs has been known for 50 years or more, and it is still true. We lack any of it, even more than we did in 2014.

2. Our goaltending is now questionable: was Hank just having a cold streak or did he get old?

3. Defensemen blow hard.

4. Forward depth is solid, but not the blue line depth.

This team is not winning the Cup. No way, no how. Trading youth for age right now is idiotic, we should be trading age for youth.

 

[Vinny DeAngelo]

Who says we'll make the playoffs? Have you seen our defense

 

[Vinny DeAngelo]

Our offensive depth is good enough to win if it had good defense and goaltending behind it... it's not deep enough to trade pieces for defense and still be good

 

[Rangerfan4life90]

Who says we'll make the playoffs? Have you seen our defense

Barring an absolute collapse, the Rangers will definitely make the playoffs.

 

[Machinehead]

Our offensive depth is good enough to win if it had good defense and goaltending behind it... it's not deep enough to trade pieces for defense and still be good

Of course it is. We have 11 top 9 forwards.

 

[Maximus]

I'm shaking my head here in amazement as I don't see what the debate is here about how Rangers get to ECF.

You go thru the Atlantic. Been saying this for over a month now on our board. It's not even debateable. We are not built to beat TWO Metro teams even if GMJG gets us a RH shot Dman. Can we beat one Metro team? Yeah I think that is possible. But to beat two of them? Not this year and not with this team.

The Atlantic tho is very vulnerable Montreal has more warts than us and are beatable. Would it be a 4-5 game series? Of course not. We never do things easy anyways. It would likely go 6-7 hard fought games. So we get past Montreal and I'm reading posts from some of y'all saying that Boston who can't score in ***** house, Toronto who has kids leading them, Ottawa who is pretty good but nothing scary and maybe a Tampa who are having loads of issues. So we are going to have more trouble with these teams than a Pitt, Caps or BJ's?

I don't know fellas, I really think some of y'all should take a look at the reality and that is our only shot at the ECF if thru the Atlantic and if we get fortunate enough to do so, than we have a shot at beathing whoever survives the Metro. But for anyone to say that we can't beat the teams in the Atlantic, I suggest you guys are dead wrong. This is our only shot in a year where most people before season thought we were a bubble team.

 

[Vinny DeAngelo]

Of course it is. We have 11 top 9 forwards.

By what standard?

 

[Beacon]

So the most optimistic opinion here is that we need to get lucky with matchups, hope those teams have their warts exposed while we do not, then we may get to the ECF, and after that we have no possible explanation on how we can succeed, so the answer is "at that point anything can happen." Because obviously it will only get easier against 2 of the 4 best NHL teams in the final two rounds.