Rangers vs. Maple Leafs: A Perfect Game
A perfect tank night: the kids produced, the Rangers lost, and the lottery odds got a little better.
- Over the past couple of months I have talked about the types of games I would like to see from the New York Rangers. The requirements are pretty simple: The kids get ample opportunities, they do things with those opportunities, and the Rangers continue to lose games to increase their lottery odds. Well, that's exactly what happened Wednesday night, with the added benefit of the loss officially eliminating them from the playoffs.
- The Rangers currently sit in sole possession of second place in the draft lottery. As I keep reminding you all, no one is catching Vancouver, but the Rangers could get odds as high as 13.5 percent for the top pick.
- Eric and I talked on the podcast out today about whether or not we were concerned about Alexis Lafrenière's production dropping off from his hot streak. I made the point that I thought the production dropped off but his offensive performance and opportunity generation had not. Well, last night he was the best player on the ice for the Rangers, notching a goal and two assists. The goal and his first assist came on the power play. Funny how that works.
- Gabe Perreault also played a really solid game, and recorded a primary assist on the second Mika Zibanejad goal. Would be lovely if Perreault could actually get PP1 time—he got 38 seconds of ice time over the course of four power play's if you were curious about the "not a demotion" demotion off the top unit.
- Zibanejad also continues to wipe the stink off of himself for last year. We talked about this on the podcast, too, but if he helps Lafrenière and Perreault get their wings then by all means.
