Wow, great article. Definitely not the sort of in-depth hockey analysis I’d expect from ESPN

Great great great article.

Great story. A lot of what if’s though.

A lot of questions will be answered by the end of the season.

Parise and Suter are both scheduled to

To win a Cup, a lot of things have to break right, and a lot of things have to not happen, like crucial injuries in the final few laps. Having said that, maybe we got our injury bug out this past season, we stay healthy, and people perform better than expected.
The point the article makes about a very competitive East is well taken. The strongest team SEEMS to be Washington, but they’ve screwed the pooch so many playoff series….

We can all be legitimately fired up.
I just texted my brother – next week is the final week until Spring ’12 where there is no professional football or hockey in some form. Thank God.

I’ve been saying it for years, but AA is going to be better the Dubi and Cally. Seriously.

He’s going to be a 30/30 guy in a few years. playing in all scenarios. That line is amazing.

The problem with signing a guy like Parise for 1st line LW is where the money comes from. Sure we could sign him using Drury’s buyout hit lessening, and Wolski and Avery being gone. But what about when guys like Step, AA, McD, Sauer and others need raises? At that point we wont have money. I guess we could get rid of replacing him with a cheaper option.

An interesting route would be to spend 4-4.5 mil on a first line player (guys like Boyes, Hemsky, Brown, Penner, etc etc etc etc), allowing us to keep both Richards and Gaborik.

Just a thought.

for this season to get started?

It’s great to see ESPN cover the Rangers, and I’m glad that Rob threw it out there to give us something to talk about, but content wise, it seems like it thrown together from a media guide. He also makes it sound like all we have to do is win before everyone becomes a free agent, ignoring the the fact we need to keep our two, 30+ year old, $7 million dollar “superstars” healthy, get the same overachievement we saw from so many players last year (Boyle, Girardi, McD, Sauer), and get Gabby back on the right track.

Some examples of stuff that bugs me…

With the signing of Brad Richards and the extension of restricted free agents Brian Boyle, Brandon Dubinsky and Ryan Callahan, the Rangers’ core roster will be locked in place for the next three seasons.

While I understand that Boyle signed at around the same time as Dubi/Cally , but is he really that cruical to the cup? Even if he repeats last season, he’s pegged as our 4th line center, and Hume acknowledges that when he talks about our centers later in the article, and he mentions Richards, AA, and Step while leaving Boyle out of the equation.The fact he even lists each of the guys in the order they signed makes me think he pulled their name off the Rangers “news” page.

After these next three seasons, that window could close in a hurry. In the summer of 2014, Callahan, Boyle, Marian Gaborik, Dan Girardi and Henrik Lundqvist will all hit unrestricted free agency.

Again with Boyle??? We’re already worrying about losing him in 3 years. Where we will ever find another 4th line center? Girardi too. I think the chances that one, or both of them, are booed off Broadway before their contract is over is MUCH better then the chances of either walking as free agents and crippling our team because we can’t find a replacement. As far as Gabby or Hank goes, If we get to the point, 3 seasons from now, where both are healthy and productive enough to still command what they’re getting now, I would be AMAZED. The only REAL possibility to break out and be a premiere UFA is Cally, and if be can be a 70 point guy, I think we’ll have no problem paying him. Our problem isn’t if we can win before these guys get gobbled up as UFA’s, it’s about winning before the wheels fall off.

Despite the common talk of “sophomore slumps,” the cliché is a myth, as discussed by Hockey Prospectus author Tom Awad a few seasons back.

“Hey guys, Dickey Dunn Tom Awad wrote this, it’s got to be true”! To be clear that wasn’t as much a shot a Mr. Awad, or his book, as it was an excuse to work in a “Slap Shot” reference. I don’t get how you can talk about “Sophmore Slumps” and not even mention MDZ. Well, unless you just pulled a random stat from a google search to support a feel good point you thought you should make about a player you thought you should mention.

Marc Staal entered the Rangers’ lineup in 2007-08. In every season since, New York has never fallen out of the NHL’s top 10 for fewest goals allowed.

Another example of finding (and somewhat manipulating) a fact to support a point you think you should make. The Rangers string of appearances in the top 10 for fewest goals allowed started two seasons BEFORE Staal came up… When Hank entered the lineup. I’m not looking to start an arguement about Staal’s value, just pointing out that there are plenty of other stats you can use to talk about Staal. Tweaking the first one you find is just lazy. Is it just more, or could Mike Hume possibly be the only guy who DOESN’T KNOW Marc Staal has a brother?

All in all, it’s effortless stuff like this that makes me happy that the league stuck with NBC/Versus. Sure Pierre MacGuire is a creep, and brown nose, but atleast he knows what balloon knots to stick his nose up. Milbury is clearly an idiot, but everyone who knows hockey already knew that from his time with the Isles. Milbury might spurt the rambling of a fool, but atleast he’s giving his foolish opinions on a game he watched, not pulling up stats sheets and rosters to fill his word quota on a hockey article so he can bang out his next piece on ping pong or women’s basketball.

Good hockey article from ESPN! I have to say that this window is wide open in terms of recognizing who got better and worse in the East. I’ll say Sabers, Devils, Pittsburgh and Tampa stayed the same. Isles, Panthers, Caps, Jets, Toronto and Rangers got better. While the Sens, Canadiens, Bruins, Canes and Flyers are worse then last year. But did the Leafs, Isles, Jets and Panthers put themselves in position for the playoffs, no. I like our chances this year and for the next 5 because by time Gabby is done, a replacement will have already been found. Hank will be Hank until he is Fatso’s age. And we have prospects up the wazoo. Sather seemed to finally figure it out. On paper, at least.

With the roster we have right now, anything can happen. With the addition of any of our prospects over the next few years, even more good things can happen. We have the heart, the soul, the jam, NYR’s pride. We do have the talent to do it. We are not missing anything. Could things be better? Of course, but if players like AA, Stepan, Cally, Dubi, Sauer, MCD, Boyle, continue to improve, that will be what makes us great. If players like Gabby and Wolski step up and play to their talent level, well that just puts us over the top. If Hank has another banner season, no problems. We definitely have the right core of players. As others have said, I think we have a 5 year window.

when i saw the word cup Rangers and ESPN in the same sentence i was truly shocked because for as long as i can remember if ESPN did anything on the Rangers, they were always bashing them

So horrendous its was funny.