The seven-game saga that brought the Rangers into an Highland Division showdown with Dallas at The Garden on Tuesday night didn’t erase all doubts. The winning streak, which began before the All-Star break, has not reached that point yet.
But this performance is somehow reminiscent of the Blueshirts’ 18-4-1 run that established them as a top team in a league without a single great player. It’s not like the 1982 Islanders, 1992 Penguins, 2002 Red Wings or 2013 Blackhawks cast a dark and terrifying shadow over the course of this game.
And this stretch certainly justifies general manager Chris Drury pushing his chips to the middle of the table as the March 8 trade deadline approaches. The Rangers are no closer to being like the Islanders, who acquired Butch Goring at the deadline in 1980 in one of the most shocking trades in professional sports history. The lineup is dotted with imperfections.
But after taking a look at the national landscape on Tuesday, where the Blueshirts entered the game with the fourth-best winning percentage in the NHL, fifth overall in the league, two points inside second place, and five points inside first place, Drury and his organization I thought, “I have to approach this with the following attitude.” Why not us? ” Attitude.
There are different interpretations of what it means to push the Rangers’ chips into the middle. That doesn’t mean trading Stephen Matteau and Brian Noonan on par with Tony Amonte. That doesn’t mean sacrificing Brennan Osman. Of course, that doesn’t mean giving up Gabe Perrault’s rights. That doesn’t mean trading Kaapo Kakko. Because, did it make any sense at all?
But, of course, a 2024 first-rounder will be playing. AHL Hartford players other than Osman, including Brett Berard and possibly Adam Sykora, should be at the table, but of course it depends on their return to New York. Drury has traded away draft picks like Pez in exchange for rentals at the last few deadlines, and that’s not a sustainable strategy.
However, this is a team that has won once in 1984, and is a team built to win now. 4 Everyone at Penn Plaza Igor has no doubt that he would definitely like to acquire Shesterkin, but it has to be based on belief. It’s a truism that the Rangers can’t win with average, let alone subpar, goaltending.
Ahead of this test against a Dallas team that enters Tuesday’s matchup with a one-point lead, they are 0.003 points behind the Rangers in the overall standings, but they also don’t have Butch Goring on the market.
In a league where there are no absolutely perfect teams, there are more buyers than sellers, and a deadline where there are no absolutely perfect rentals to tip the scales. Most often, role players and sometimes goalkeepers appear in the bazaar.
The Rangers need a right wing to skate alongside Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider. They could definitely use an upgrade in the middle of a developing third line that features Kakko and Will Quill on the wings and Johnny Brodzinski at center. And while the staff may be content to stick with Erik Gustafsson to lead the offense, they could use some muscle on the left side of their third defensive pairing.
The paper reported that the Blueshirts have identified Seattle center Alex Wennberg as a player of interest for the central third line position. The Swede is a pending free agent, working on the final year of his free agent contract with the Kraken in 2021, which carries a total cap hit of $4.5 million.
Wennberg has some size at 6-foot-2 and 190 pounds, skates well and will likely play in the lineup as a third liner. The Swede, who is 8-14-22 this season, doesn’t necessarily have the same shooting mentality as Brodzinski, who plays between straight liners Kakko and Quill, but he does have 42 games of playoff experience. They both skate well and are definitely a legit duo. An NHL center that has completed its 10th year.
It is said that the Rangers are not the only team interested in Wennberg. The Bruins could need a top-six center, and he has been mentioned as a candidate. That cost, affected by Seattle retaining 50 percent of the cap fee that would allow Drury to operate further, is not cheap. But the Blueshirts can’t empty their piggy bank to acquire a third-line center.
Drury will need to use his assets wisely over the next two-plus weeks to transform a regular-season roster that has been very successful and talented over the past three seasons into a playoff lineup that is fit and physical to win. there will be. 4 series and 16 games. There are holes and questions.
But holes and questions exist almost everywhere in the East and throughout the league. The Rangers have led the division every day since October 24th. In the beginning, he won 6 straight games, and now he has won 7 straight games.
They are one of the best teams in the league and have played well enough to justify a GM pushing his chips to the middle of the table.
