Rangers vs. Blues: Even a Dull Win is a Win
Two points in the bank, but little clarity: depth stretched thin, Berard flashing, Sheary lingering, and Gavrikov still a rock.
- Hey, a win! I was beginning to forget what those looked like.
- And yet, it's hard to feel exuberant about that victory. Yeah, of course, I'll take a dull win over the team's fifth loss in a row. Hopefully its the start of something. But, despite MoneyPuck and the good ol' Deserve to Win O'Meter pegging the New York Rangers at a 64.8 percent chance of winning, it didn't really feel like it.
- To take the shine off it a little more, the St. Louis Blues are not a good hockey team. Yes, they had notched a point in their last seven games, as the announcers regularly reminded us. But they still sit at 7-10-6 and seven points back of the Wild Card in the West. Ho-hum.
- As I've noted before, I grew up in the St. Louis area. So I have a lot of friends who are Blues fans. I texted one group text of high school friends I have in the middle of the second period last night and just said that "this has not been the most exciting hockey." The pushback was minimal.
- Vincent Trocheck was a game-time decision for this one, and ultimately suited up—and scored a goal. And thank goodness he did. Because the line up without him and J.T. Miller (who remains out day-to-day (but should be week-to-week) with an upper-body injury) looks like a preseason contest:
#NYR morning skate look:
— Vince Z. Mercogliano (@vzmercogliano) November 24, 2025
Cuylle - Zibanejad - Lafrenière
Panarin - Pärssinen - Brodzinski
Sheary - Laba - Berard
Edström - Carrick - Raddysh
Gavrikov - Fox
Soucy - Schneider
Vaakanainen - Robertson
- It bears pointing out that when you remove two top-six players from just about any NHL lineup, it's going to look pretty dicey. In most cases, for most teams, that necessitates moving players who were previously in your bottom six up to the top, when those players were in the bottom six for a reason. As Phil Kocher pointed out on X, this isn't really a depth issue, per se. The Rangers have plenty of depth to fill out bottom-six roles. They just don't have much in the way of high-end, highly effective talent in the top six even when they're healthy.
