Hello friends, I hope everyone has been enjoying their week so far, it’s been a bit. Worked picked up pretty heavily, I’ve been running around like a madman, and the Rangers are on a 2 game skid with those trash bags from the racetrack not too far behind us while the Devils continue to widen the gap to second. Luckily, we had a solid 5 days off from games to get our minds right, fans and players alike.

First of all, I gotta say, as much as I love the Rangers and watching their games and everything, these extended breaks usually come at the right time and are always refreshing. We had a long break around the All-Star Game and we just had a pretty sizable one again. It’s a great period to spend some time with the lady, catch up on shows (shout out The Last of Us and Mando, more to come on those at a later date) and just have your nights to yourself. But that is all over now and we got 3 games in 4 days.

This pains me to type out, but we’re 0-2 since Patty Kane got here, and it’s kind of his fault (by absolutely no means entirely), and it’s kind of not his fault. PK has been unable to get on the score sheet so far in his two games, and that’s not because of a lack of production, the chances have certainly been there (more on that very shortly). Is that necessarily the biggest problem in the world? Absolutely not, Chelios said it best during ABC’s abysmal Saturday afternoon coverage against the B’s, being traded at the deadline is a tough spot to be in. You get into a brand new locker room ice cold with no chemistry and in Kane’s case, he is a very high-profile player being placed in big-time roles on the first line and the PP. When your top line and PP can’t find their chemistry, the team is going to be in trouble, plain and simple. Now Kane knew where he wanted to go and got to go where he wanted to go, but you gotta imagine the guy didn’t pre-buy a house in West Chester or anything like that knowing in the back of his mind this was gonna happen. No, he’s been definitely living in a hotel out of a suitcase I’m sure given the tight turnaround and while I’m personally fond of hotels I’m sure it’s no way to live a life, especially with a family there with (no chance Showtime is staying in Holiday Inns, I’m sure he’s very comfy, but still). I do not want to make any excuses for the man regardless of how much of my dude he is, but this is Patrick Kane after all and given his reputation and body of work I think we just need to be patient. We struck gold early with Vladdy T and he’s been awesome, I just really pray that this isn’t a “some players just belong in different uniforms” situation like Sammy Blais.

It also really doesn’t help that we have Bread force-feeding Patty K the puck like he’s a prisoner on a hunger strike in the early 1900s. Panarin really needs to calm down and start using his head, forcing things over to your buddy you helped get here isn’t going to make things good, in fact, it’s going to only lead to situations that end badly. I think there are a ton of things going on right now around the team. Between all the trade buzz that happened pre-deadline and then the hype surrounding Kane’s arrival things were going to get a little wonky regardless. Now, we’ve had 5 days to take some deep breaths and figure our shit out.

Seriously. I really hope GG worked them hard at practice the past few days. Rumor had it that they only practiced like 2-3 times and that shouldn’t have been the case. They should’ve been on the ice ready to go at 8 am after that Bruins game because the problem couldn’t be any more obvious. No one is on the same page, like at all. Now that’s not to say we won’t get on the same page, because this team certainly has the talent and experience to figure shit out, but if we take our time we’re gonna get passed. The entire time leading up to all this all we heard was “The Metro’s playoff spots (at least the top 3) are pretty set in stone and the Rangers are just about locked in at the third seed.

(this asinine take is brought to you by the clowns at ESPN the worldwide leader of sports that doesn’t give a shit about hockey regardless of their 400 mil/season for the 7 years contract)

The Islanders are 5 points behind us, the Penguins are 6, and if we stay on this track we’ll be a WC team in a matter of 2 weeks. The theme of this season I feel like streaks, and that applies to both winning streaks and losing streaks. The Rangers had an incredible winning streak as well as some sizeable losing streaks, same with the Pens and even though they’re pretty much done this year despite Ovi’s quest to make history so have the Caps. We can’t keep slipping and we gotta turn it around, now.

Looking back at last week, we came out of things 1-2 when we should’ve been honestly 3-0. Maybe I had too much hope going into that Bruins game and my Dad made sure to let me know that as he called for a 5-2 loss and I said a solid 2-0 win, but in the words of Coach Danny O’Shea, “one time” (shout out Icebox, 7-year-old Jerry says sup). Seriously, while I respect the hell out of the B’s and know what they’re doing is greatness right in front of our eyes, it’s unsustainable and I’m more than willing to put a future on a first-round exit for them. We’ve seen it before and history has a funny way of repeating itself. I was fully convinced we’d hand them their 9th regulation loss last Saturday but alas I was wrong. I will proudly say contrary to popular belief that we played against them very well and I liked what I saw, 5 days off after that game is only going to make us better. In the Sens game on the other hand, we lost that game, and it was a disgusting loss. Derek Brassard made sure to make his presence felt in his 1,000 game (shout out Brass, good for you man I will never forget all you did for us that postseason and from the bottom of my heart will always be thankful) scoring 2. The Blueshirts went into the 3rd period up 1 and just coasted which never ends well. And the Flyers gonna Flyer. They’re fighting their own demons between Torts trying to keep old-school hockey alive in a game where it’s pretty much dead and figuring out their own future all while Comcast screws over what is a very loyal and passionate fanbase. All I hope is they take care of my guy Kevin Hayes who seems to be Tort’s punching bag.

On to tonight. The Habs are dead last in the Atlantic and on a bit of a losing streak themselves Going just 1-4 in their last 5 with those 4 losses coming consecutively. They’re going to be coming in hungry looking to snap it, but they’re not as well rested as we are. While I usually stand on the side of rust over rest (or whatever, I’ve always thought those who are more active play better than those sitting around however you wanna say it, see last year’s playoff run) I think our rest gave us ample time to figure shit out on our end, at least I fucking hope so. We’ve split this season and going into the Bell Centre is never easy, but I’m fired up and looking forward to a (hopeful) dub. We got Igor between the pipes tonight and I think we just need to come out guns blazing and flat-out crush ’em. Showtime had time to build chemistry with his new teammates while reigniting the flame with his old muse Panarin, Captain Trouba playing physical (sometimes too) aggressive hockey, and everyone’s favorite Swedish DJ on the 1s and 2s lighting the lamp consistently. I think we’re looking at a solid 4-1 win tonight with PK’s first goal, or at least point, in blue.

So with that being said baby lets get back to business and turn this ship around. Enjoy the rest of the week, have a couple of pops this weekend for me since I’ll be DD’ing, and let’s go Rangers baby.