Rangers vs. Lightning: The End
The Rangers won their final game, moved to fourth in draft lottery odds, and gave us one last reminder of why this year was so hard to watch.
- Well, that season sucked. Time to ... well, you either get this joke or you don't.
- Because nothing really matters, it's hard to know where to start with this game. If these Game Notes seem scatterbrained and all over the place, that's why.
- One thing mattered in a very concrete way: draft positioning. This win moves the New York Rangers into fourth place in the draft lottery odds. That will give them a 9.5 percent shot at the first overall draft pick. That can change, though. The Calgary Flames will play the Los Angeles Kings tonight. A Flames win will move the Rangers back into third place.
- But, of course they won that game. Of course. This team, man.
- I think one of the best things about this otherwise pretty awful season is the emergence of Alex Faust. With Kenny Albert as the primary play-by-play guy, Faust will spend most of his time in the radio booth. To be clear, I very much like Kenny. But, on the other hand, with Kenny Albert as the primary play-by-play guy for approximately 15 networks and a half dozen different sports, Faust will have plenty of time in the MSG TV booth. And that's great for all of us.
- His broadcast partner, on the other hand? You'd have forgiven me for thinking that Faust was broadcasting that game with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. in the booth with him. As I've said on the podcast, I like Maloney—as a radio broadcaster. Those are different things and they require different skills. As Charlie pointed out once, Maloney works on radio because only psychotic fans listen to hockey on the radio, and Maloney is one of us. But, man, he sounded rough. I hope he's okay, but it was hard to tolerate.
