So many other Rangers fans are so upset right now. I'm like, what? The NHL has existed for almost 100 years, and we've only won twice. You're not used to this already? Maybe these people aren't also Mets fans like I am.
So many other Rangers fans are so upset right now. I'm like, what? The NHL has existed for almost 100 years, and we've only won twice. You're not used to this already? Maybe these people aren't also Mets fans like I am.
4. 1928, 1933, 1940, 1994.
Most people weren't even born for those first three Cups. I'm lucky enough to have seen all of my sports teams win while I'm still young.
Even so, I feel bad for Lundqvist. He deserves to win a Stanley Cup.
So many other Rangers fans are so upset right now. I'm like, what? The NHL has existed for almost 100 years, and we've only won twice. You're not used to this already? Maybe these people aren't also Mets fans like I am.
4. 1928, 1933, 1940, 1994.
Most people weren't even born for those first three Cups. I'm lucky enough to have seen all of my sports teams win while I'm still young.
Even so, I feel bad for Lundqvist. He deserves to win a Stanley Cup.
Such is the way of team sports. There are a lot of hall of fame calibre players in all sports who have never won the championship, or only won it once.
Let it be known, headbutting a puck is illegal, but kicking is totally ok.
The problem is that the rule says the puck can deflect off of anything, even a skate or helmet. You can even intentionally angle things to deflect the puck in. You just can't intentionally kick or butt or push the puck into the goal with a non-stick. This leaves a lot of judgement calls for the refs.
Don't know who this guy is, but that Wings team had 2 or 3 times as many Hall of Fame players as the Rangers do now.
The first half of that era was similar to the Rangers. I lived through it.
You see the Wings play an amazing season, and then come into the Stanley Cup strong. Then they'd fall into this failure pattern, and you'd see them lose games that they "should have won." More shots on goal, winning all the faceoffs, plenty of real opportunities and power plays, but....
1. Hesitation on offense 2. Hanging on to the puck too long 3. Not actually scoring
Meanwhile, they'd give up 1-2 dumb goals.
So this crazy good team with tons of momentum would suddenly play a very anemic game and lose 0-2. They would just peter out into an anti-climax.
During the last few bad Rangers games, I was having flashbacks to the Red Wings circa 92-96.
But, as you point out, the Red Wings built a fucking hockey nightmare machine over those years. There's a reason they barely lost in 96, and then stormed onto the ice with back-to-back cups and record setting regular seasons.
Rangers and Red Wings both had solid penalty killing teams.
Rangers have Lunqvist. Red Wings had Vernon (old but amazing) and Osgood (amazing and getting better).
Rangers have deep lines. Red Wings had two goal-scoring offensive war machine lines.
Rangers have shit for power play. Red Wings had a special team that was practically guaranteed to score if they had the advantage.
So the Red Wings had similarly good goalie power, two viable goalies (they did swap more often than you'd have expected), a third great goalie working his way up, two strong offensive lines, and easily 5-6 stand-out stars. I don't think the Rangers are on that path.
Tampa Bay lost Game 1 in a frustrating fashion. I still think the series will go the distance, though. Chicago looked unprepared in the 1st and 2nd periods.
The Glendale City Council has voted to terminate the arena contract with the Coyotes. A lot of lawsuits inbound, but I guess it means that the team will not be in Arizona for long (unless they move to Phoenix and share an arena with the Suns). There is the option of moving them to Quebec City, but I don't think the NHL really wants that at all considering that the conferences are already unbalanced and this would just add to it. Las Vegas and Seattle are in rumors of being targets for expansion, but I don't think either is ready yet for a team (Seattle doesn't have an arena yet). And the last thing the NHL wants is to move a team twice.
Tampa has put in place crazy rules and even restricted season ticket holders from many kinds of resales. The reason?
Their stadium is filling with Hawks fans, and even other team's fans. The local market for tickets isn't strong enough to bear the national market prices.
If they didn't so heavily manipulate the market in Tampa, I would wager a full third or more of the Lightning's arena would be out-of-town fans of other teams.
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Most people weren't even born for those first three Cups. I'm lucky enough to have seen all of my sports teams win while I'm still young.
Even so, I feel bad for Lundqvist. He deserves to win a Stanley Cup.
Go for it.
Don't know who this guy is, but that Wings team had 2 or 3 times as many Hall of Fame players as the Rangers do now.
You see the Wings play an amazing season, and then come into the Stanley Cup strong. Then they'd fall into this failure pattern, and you'd see them lose games that they "should have won." More shots on goal, winning all the faceoffs, plenty of real opportunities and power plays, but....
1. Hesitation on offense
2. Hanging on to the puck too long
3. Not actually scoring
Meanwhile, they'd give up 1-2 dumb goals.
So this crazy good team with tons of momentum would suddenly play a very anemic game and lose 0-2. They would just peter out into an anti-climax.
During the last few bad Rangers games, I was having flashbacks to the Red Wings circa 92-96.
But, as you point out, the Red Wings built a fucking hockey nightmare machine over those years. There's a reason they barely lost in 96, and then stormed onto the ice with back-to-back cups and record setting regular seasons.
Rangers and Red Wings both had solid penalty killing teams.
Rangers have Lunqvist. Red Wings had Vernon (old but amazing) and Osgood (amazing and getting better).
Rangers have deep lines. Red Wings had two goal-scoring offensive war machine lines.
Rangers have shit for power play. Red Wings had a special team that was practically guaranteed to score if they had the advantage.
So the Red Wings had similarly good goalie power, two viable goalies (they did swap more often than you'd have expected), a third great goalie working his way up, two strong offensive lines, and easily 5-6 stand-out stars. I don't think the Rangers are on that path.
Protip: don't get hit in the head by anything, especially not a hockey puck.
Their stadium is filling with Hawks fans, and even other team's fans. The local market for tickets isn't strong enough to bear the national market prices.
If they didn't so heavily manipulate the market in Tampa, I would wager a full third or more of the Lightning's arena would be out-of-town fans of other teams.
The cup comes out tonight.
Bishop gets relieved at some point during the game.
One bullshit penalty happens relatively early, leads to a goal.
No OT.