Hello friends (it’s Masters Thursday, you know I had to open with that), I’ve been promising a Rangers blog for a while now and just haven’t exactly known the spot to jump in but oh boy did I find it. Say hello to the bad guys.

Its become apparent now more than ever that the New York Rangers have become one of the most hated teams in the league by players, talking heads, and fans alike. I used to fight it. It used to embarrass me to be apart of a “trash bag” franchise like a certain team that will remain nameless but decided to pelt their long-tenured captain with trash and rubber snakes upon his first return to “the old barn” (the coliseum sucked and no one cared about it until you thought you got good for 2 years but too little too late fuck you). But now, we’re going full heel turn.

Things have been brewing for a bit ever since someone taught Jacob Trouba how to hit (cleanly, just about every single time, cry about it). After every single big hit there’s a fight now. I get it as a player, that’s the whole reason there’s fighting in the first place for self-policing, but it doesn’t have to be EVERY single time and certainly shouldn’t be happening after by the book hits where your player just had his head down. Speaking of which, at least for me, I think this heel turn came during that first game against the Penguins on that three-game stand.

I don’t think I wrote a blog about it here but instead took my battles straight to the trenches on twitter which I promised myself I wouldn’t do but I was fuming. Basically in summary, the Penguins remain to be a piece of shit franchise but choose to blame us and this was proven to me right after I started giving Sidney Crosby the roses he deserved. Now granted, Sid wasn’t the one in the mix this time around shockingly so we’re still cool for the time being. It was instead his Russian henchman #2 Evgeni Malkin. Who, shocking I know, is still a piece of shit after all these years who would’ve thought. If you’ve been following the Rangers this year you remember exactly what and how it happened on a sunny Sunday afternoon so I won’t go into great detail on that OT loss, but it left me calling for the Garden’s ice to be stained red with his blood. And the boys delivered (thankfully) the next two games giving me exactly what I needed. Fuck the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The funny thing is, we remain in their heads rent-free. Rumor has it that there was a “Fuck the Rangers” chant breaking out at a recent home game against none other than the New Jersey Devils who we’ll get to in a bit. Laughable and embarrassing given that the Rangers at the time were 370 miles away, but yes continue to be salty your tears taste so sweet. Now on to the Devils.

The Devils are a team that I can see right through. I said it in the beginning of the season when they went on their like 8 game win streak to start it off and while I’ve since been proven slightly wrong, I’m sticking to my guns. The Devils are frauds, straight up. They don’t scare me in the slightest and I in fact want them in the first round (not like we have a choice). If you look at the score board they have the leg up, but that’s only because we have a nasty habit of falling asleep at the wheel. Not great for us, but I have full confidence that this team will wake up and show up when it matters unlike the team across the river. They’re young with an OK goaltender between the pipes but that’s just never enough in the spring. Sure so were we last year, but now we’re not (great logic Jerry!!!!). Long story short, I haven’t taken the Devils seriously since Brodeur and honestly don’t think I ever will again.

Pittsburgh is public enemy number 1, Devils number 2, but last night man, I think someone is mad at us. I don’t know what came over the Lightning yesterday, but holy cow are we a long ways away from the Lady Bing Lecavalier St Louis days. The Lighting is a foe I’ve always respected and liked with some of my family being close to the organization, but last night was pretty classless play. I know they’re 2/3 with cups and beat us last year to get there (we would’ve been WASHED by the avs so thanks for saving us the heartbreak) and credit where credit is due, but what the fuck was that. It was a similar game to that CBJ game a few weeks ago where we went up big early, they closed the gap, and then we stepped on the gas in third and closed it out big.

During the game though, things were incredibly chippy. And that’s fine, but fact of the matter is that both teams have clinched, what are we doing here? Why are having brawls and spraying goalies with ice? Why are we tackling players to the ground after shoulder to chest clean hits? Why wasn’t the guy who tackled Schnieder arrested and tried for war crimes? Seriously, you gotta be a real scumbag if you have Cory Perry on your team and you out dirty him. Perry also got his ass kicked tonight and he deserved it. Idk if this was recycled bad blood from last year’s ECF or what, but save it for the fucking playoffs man. I hate to root for the leafs because I love the fact they can’t get out of the first round ever, but I hope the bolts get swept here since they decided to put it all out on the line too early.

We won the “meaningless” game, but at what cost? Trouba went down early and my mind immediately went to the worst cause it looked really awkward in the knee region. Toruba has been a freight train while also being a little bit of a liability on D, but we don’t want to be losing our captain going into the playoffs. He’s a tough SOB so I’m pretty confident he will be playing either way, but I’d obviously rather him be healthy.

It’s also crazy to me that all my hate this season has been focused on teams other than the Islanders. All of my hate for the race track trashbags this year comes from a place of a personal vendetta (I hate to sound like a gen z’er, but IYKY). It’s probably a product of the dog shit scheduling the NHL decided on this year, why on earth would you have 2 teams a short train ride apart only play each other 3 times for the whole season all before the new year? Can you imagine meaningful hockey against those two where like the Isles need a win to get in but the Rangers stomp on their necks and give the Panthers the 8th seed? That’s Jerry’s wet dream right there, make a fucking tee shirt out of that (sorry last jab until the playoffs, again IYKYK).

Also speaking of scheduling, why and how the fuck do we have 3 in a row this late? Who made this schedule and thought it was a good idea. If I’m GG I bring up the entire Wolfpack roster and let them live out their dream while resting everyone, we are in we got nothing left to prove we’re playing the Devils its carved in stone. Whatever. I’m so excited for the playoffs man I really am. Rangers and Knicks are both going to dominate and Spring time on Broadway is going to be one show you won’t want to miss.