Podcast Ombudsman Report for Blueshirt Bandwidth Ep. 57

Welcome back to the Blueshirt Bandwidth Podcast Ombudsman Report. Each week, Charlie Vidal will listen to the latest episode of the podcast and correct the record on anything Joe and Eric get wrong. If you aren't already, you can listen and subscribe to the podcast here.

Is Chip23 Chris Drury?

As Joe introduced Chip, he said he's “Chip23, potentially Chris Drury.” Chip sounds nothing like Chris Drury, but we’ll need to wait for his next appearance once we have the Banter YouTube up and running to verify that he is not, in fact, Chris Drury. Subscribe today to be the first to know once videos are posted and find out whether Chip is actually Chris Drury.

Team Quit

Joe said that the one thing about the Rangers so far this season is that they haven’t quit yet.

The night after Joe and Chip recorded this podcast, the Rangers thoroughly outplayed the Hurricanes for the first 32 minutes of the game, and then having not scored a single goal, quit and only put one shot on goal over the next 26 minutes.

Kakko's First Game

Joe did not realize that the New York Rangers game in Seattle was Kaapo Kakko’s season debut. Kakko broke his hand on a slash by Beau Akey during a preseason game.

The Lost Season of 2024-25

Chip said that he was mad at Peter Laviolette because he didn’t play Jusso Parsinnen and find out what we had last season. As has been mentioned on the podcast, you could say that about Parsinnen, Arthur Kaliyev, Brennan Othmann, Gabe Perreault, Calvin de Haan, and Nicolas Aube-Kubel.

Borgen's Contract

In reference to the extension that Will Borgen was given last season (5 years, $4.1 million per), it was mentioned that we saw ridiculous contracts thrown out to other defensemen over the offseason. Cody Ceci and Ryan Lindgren each received 4 years and $4.5 million per. The shell of John Klingberg received 1 year at $4 million. Brian Dumoulin received 3 years and $4 million per. Nate Schmidt received 3 years and $3.5 million per. Borgen's contract looks much better in comparison to those deals.

Drew Fortescue

Joe is already dreading needing to pronounce Drew Fortescue’s name. You pronounce it by saying “FOUR-to-skew” very quickly, examples can be found on YouTube. Of course, I will defer to however our fearless leader Kenny Albert pronounce his name.

Power Play

Joe mentioned no one is doing anything on the power play. The Rangers currently have the second worst power play in the NHL, scoring only 12.2 percent of the time and ahead of only the Calgary Flames. Only two players have three or more power play points this season: Artemi Panarin (three assists) and Mika Zibanejad (two goals, one assist)

Panarin Playoffs

Panarin’s playoff shortcomings were mentioned, with Chip pointing out that he “has absolutely cracked under pressure in the playoffs.” Panarin has 880 points in 768 career regular season games, good for 1.15 points per game. In the postseason, he has 61 points in 73 games, good for .84 points per game. Now, scoring in the NHL decreases during the playoffs, so let’s chart Panarin’s decline next to some other prominent Rangers forwards from recent years:

Scoring decreases by about 12% relative to the regular season, so Panarin’s postseason scoring dip outpaces scoring in general.

Panarin Contract Comparables

Chip said in reference to Panarin’s impending free agency that he would be open to a Kopitar- or Stamkos-type contract. Both of them signed UFA contracts in the summer of 2024. Anze Kopitar signed at the age of 36 and is in the final season of his 2 year, $7 million per year contract. Steven Stamkos signed a four year contract at the age of 34 at $8 million per season. Given that Panarin is projected to get in excess of $10 million per season this summer, I would gladly sign him to either one of those deals.

Joe said that with many of these contracts given out to players in their 30s, “you’re paying people for tomorrow, the Rangers have run into trouble paying for yesterday.” Two weeks ago, we went over the list of Rangers long-term (5+ year) contracts handed out since the lockout, and other than Panarin there was a lot of “Rangers paying for yesterday” on that list.

Tying together both the Stamkos contract and the idea of paying for future rather than past productivity, let’s take a look at what the Tampa Bay Lightning did instead of signing Stamkos. The Bolts traded for and extended Jake Guentzel, who is 3 years younger than Stamkos, to a 7 year contract at $9 million per season. Since the 2024 offseason, Stamkos has 57 points (30 goal, 27 assists) while Guentzel has 95 points (47 goals, 48 assists).

Who’s Coaching Anyways?

There was talk about how refreshing it is to see Mike Sullivan actually coaching after Peter Laviolette admitted that he didn’t even talk to the team after losses last season. I’m old enough to remember the halcyon days of the beginning of the 2023-24 season when we were talking about how nice it was to have Peter Laviolette actually coaching in contract to Gerard Gallant.

The Letter v.s the Text Message

Given that we already have “The Letter” as part of New York Rangers lore, we should start referring to Drury’s message that he was open for business last season as “The Text Message.”

Derick Brassard

Joe said that the Rangers traded Derick Brassard “a year too early.” In his final two seasons with the Rangers in 2014-15 and 2015-16, Brassard had 60 and 58 points while playing in 80 games each season. In 2016-17, Brassard’s first season in Ottawa, he cratered to having 14 goals and 25 assists for a grand total of 39 points in 81 games. Brassard’s career high in points following his trade out of New York was 46, meaning that the Rangers traded Brassard at the perfect time following the two best seasons that he would ever have over his 16 year career.

Is Joe a Wonderful Man?

“You’re a wonderful man, Joe Fortunato”

The jury is out on Chip’s statement.