Mike Sullivan rightfully RIPS the Rangers mid-game!! Mika Zibanejad EXPLODES for two goals!

Mike Sullivan rightfully RIPS the Rangers mid-game!! Mika Zibanejad EXPLODES for two goals!

Mika Zabanad scores twice on one-timers. Yes, that really happened. Plus, Mike Sullivan rips into his team and we tell you why he was correct to do so. You’re Locked on the New York Rangers, your daily podcast on the New York Rangers, part of the Locked On Network, your team every day. Welcome back Blue Shirts fans to episode number 1432 of the Locked On New York Rangers podcast. I’m your host John Czech. Just want to thank you guys as always for making locked on New York Rangers your first listen every day. We are free and available on all platforms including YouTube and we are of course part of the Lockdown Podcast Network now the number one sports podcast network. So we got a lot to do here. The Raiders coming off of a six-2 win a little bit earlier today. the rare Friday afternoon start time for the Rangers and the Bruins. Today we’re going to be talking about Mike Sullivan laying into his team in the middle of this game while his team was still up by three goals. Going to tell you why he was justified to do that. Also going to basically call for Ranger fans to in the spirit of Thanksgiving just be thankful for these wins. The Rangers have won three in a row after it looked like the season might kind of go sideways and they’ve seemingly uh raided the ship. We begin with a really strong performance by Mika Zabanad who really is having a nice bounceback season uh this season as a whole. More on that in a little bit. But something that we mentioned in our most recent episode and of course the Rangers were coming off of a win against the Carolina Hurricanes and now with that win and the win before that against the Blues, now this win against the Bruins, they have won three in a row. Something that we mentioned at that time was that when you’re going through it, when you’re up against it and things are not going well, and clearly the Rangers were not playing very well at all before that. They had lost four in a row, you need your stars, you need your best players, you need your top paid players to be the guys that lead you out of the darkness. And we’ve seen that certainly in these last two games definitely against the Canes. And then we saw it again here uh from Mika Zabanagad specifically against the Boston Bruins. We do have to give a quick honorable mention to our Tammy Paneran. I mean, we could talk about him all night, too. He ended up with a four-point night. Scored the first goal, assisted on the next three, and that was all well and good. And obviously, Panera has been on fire ever since getting the haircut. But for me, the kind of the headline grabber, the big story of this game was Mika Sabanad converting goals on a couple of one-time opportunities. This did not happen really at all last season. It’s something that used to be a weapon in Mika’s repertoire, and he’s gotten away from it in recent seasons. Starting to find it again a little bit this season. We’ve seen a couple of onetime goals even before this one, but in this game it really stood out obviously in a positive way because not only does Mikasan end up with two goals in this game. That’s great in its own right. Not only does he convert uh two power plays with goals, but he did so again on a pair of one-times and it feels like he is starting to rediscover uh the accuracy and the velocity on his one-time. Sometimes I wonder if he’s kind of made an adjustment this season. I feel like we’ve seen this from time to time where he’s sacrificing just a little bit of the velocity. I mean, he can still shoot it, don’t get me wrong, but he’s he’s sacrificing a little bit of the velocity in order to make sure that he gets good wood on the puck, that he times the shot correctly and that he if nothing else, at least gets the puck on net. I mean, Mika can shoot the puck. We know that. We’ve seen him with these one-timers in the past. At least give yourself a chance to score. And if that means you have to take a little bit off of the velocity to ensure that it’s an accurate shot, then so be it. I feel like we saw that maybe on both of these. I mean, the first one was a rocket from a tough angle. The second one was uh it actually was kind of uh a little bit lower, a little bit of a lower one-time. We don’t see that all that often, but it’s been nice to see uh Ma again rediscover that ability, rediscover that weapon uh that he’s had at his disposal for the majority of his career the last couple of seasons uh potentially notwithstanding. But let’s kind of go through these goals. I mean, the first one, the Mika score on the one-time again, the Rangers on the power play. This is the big two-minute minor. They’re going to be uh on the uh power play for four straight minutes. And they actually have six seconds of uh five on three time at the very start of this. And the five on three expired, but Mika was able to score here. We had a faceoff win by JT Miller. JT did an awesome job fighting for the puck on this one. This really could have gone either way. He bodied the guy in front of him. Basically just bullied him, got control of the puck, and sent it back to Fox. Fox over to Paneran. Paneran then with a pass in deep and to his left to Zanad. And like I mentioned just a minute ago, Mika scoring on, you know, somewhat of a difficult angle here. Kind of a sharp angle from pretty close to the boards there, but an absolute snipe. Great shot there. And then the second one, this two was on the power play. And it’s crazy because Mika almost scored early in this power play. Went off Corpo’s uh shoulder and over the net. So, he wasn’t able to score there. The Rangers work it right back to him. And this time he converts. You’ve got Fox from the right point centering the the puck to our Timmy Paneran. And then Paneran setting up Mika in that same spot in the left faceoff circle. Mika’s waiting for it. He shoots and he scores. And again, what I love about this is this used to be Mika’s advantage at office. So, you hope that he can get back to this. You hope he can uh rediscover that that scoring prowess, especially on the power play, but five on five is uh is great as well. But just great to see that two power play goals and this really allowed the Raiders to break the game open. And as it turns out, they needed these goals because they were up four nothing. they they were in complete control and obviously the Bruins rallied in the third period. It got a little bit dicey there and Sullivan uh ripped into his team, but we’ll get into that in greater detail in just a little bit. The other thing that I got to point out here because this kind of gets lost in the shuffle. So, obviously, Ma, you know, two one-time power play goals in relatively short order here. I I don’t know what the exact time was between these two goals, but it obviously was only a handful of minutes, if that. Mika came exceptionally close to making it a hat-tick. He had a one-timer after the second power play goal where Gabricov set him up and Mika’s in that same spot in the left faceoff circle there and he’s able to fire it off the post. So Mika was like this close to not only a natural hat-tick but a natural hat-tick that would have occurred in the span of about four or five minutes at the most. Four or five minutes for a natural hat-tick. It would have been in the same period. It would have been from the same spot on the ice and it would have been all onetimes. That’s pretty crazy. he was that close to doing it. I know would a could have, should have and all that, but that was pretty close to being obviously a very very unique moment there uh for Mika Zabanad and the New York Rangers. But as it is, we’ll take what he gave us. Uh he was awesome in this game. And the one thing I’ll mention here, the one thing that I hope doesn’t happen, I don’t want to see the Rangers go back to the trap that they fell into a couple of seasons ago. Even when they had a really good team, there were times I thought particularly on the power play where this team was a little bit too reliant on force feeding Mika Zabad one-times. And I think at a certain point, you know, penalty kills or even just uh defenses in general at even strength. They started to kind of key on that. They started to look to take that away. And I think to a certain extent they did. And then of course last season, I mean, Mika just couldn’t hit a clean one-time to save his life. He he really couldn’t. I joked last season, but it wasn’t really a joke, that I I think Mika Zabanad has a better chance when he’s attempting a one-timer, has a better chance of breaking his stick than he does of scoring a goal. And for a while there, legit, I think that actually was the case. But as we just gotten done talking about here, obviously, uh, Mika for today and other points this season, he seems to be uh, rediscovering the prowess for that one-time play, and that’s been awesome to say to see, excuse me. But again, overall, beyond the one-timer, beyond the the one nice game here, beyond um the two goals that he scored in this one, it’s just been in general a very nice bounceback season for Mikas a Benjet. A lot of us, I think basically, myself included, left him for dead about midway through last season. It just felt like that passion, that fire, they just weren’t there. And then I do think and I’ll continue to say this that trade where the Rangers reacquired JT Miller uh has been a positive development for Mika Zabanaged particularly when they’re playing together because I do think there’s good chemistry there and I do think uh you Mika kind of follows JT’s lead a little bit but just in general I I think it’s been a good thing uh for Mika Zabanaged. That uh addition of JT Miller last season gave Mika a boost down the stretch last year and it certainly carried over into this season as well. And even beyond all the points in the offense, just a better brand of hockey for Mika Zabanad this season as well. You look at his numbers, they’re not overwhelming. 18 points in 26 games. I mean, it’s not a small total, but it’s not like a grandiose total either. But I also feel like Mika could have a lot more. I don’t think there’s a player on this Ranger team that has been unluckier when it comes to hitting the post, when it comes to getting absolutely robbed by the opposing goalie, when it comes to just poor puck luck, whatever it might be. I feel like Mika could have quite a couple more uh goals than he currently has. But be that as it may, um it’s been a strong start to the season for Mika Zanad. We’ve seen some physicality from Mika as well. He had three more hits in this game. Here’s a stat that I’ll throw at you guys right now as well. And granted, hits are not the only way to measure physicality, but this did stand out to me. Mika now has 36 hits in 26 games this season. Last year, he had 44 hits in 82 games. It’s conceivable that Ma could tie or even uh even pass his total hits from last season two games from now or at the most three games from now. That certainly could happen. He’s forchecking. He’s backing again. Just a much much stronger start to the season for Mika Zanat here. Everybody loves a redemption story. Everybody loves a comeback story. And it hasn’t been perfect with Ma. Um you know, we’ll see. He’s still got a lot of time left on that contract and a lot of money that’s still owed to him. I know a lot of people they would trade Mika even now in an instant if they actually could. I don’t think that’s going to happen. You got to make the most out of Mika Zabad and what you have here. And what you’ve got so far this season again is at least thus far, you know, a positive bounceback showing for Mika. You know, 26 games into the season here or whatever we’re at at this point. But in just a minute, we’re going to keep everything rolling. This game was not without adversity. It was not without uh some shouting on the Ranger bench. Mike Sullivan laid into his team during this game. even though the Rangers had a three-goal lead at that time. And in just a minute, we’re going to talk about why he was absolutely justified in doing so. We will get to that in just a second. All right, we just want to take a minute to let everybody know today’s episode of Locked on New York Rangers is brought to you by Monarch. Let’s be honest, most of us cannot name all of our financial accounts, let alone what they’re worth. Between 401ks, savings, and investments, it is easy to lose track, and that can mean leaving money on the table. 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And like we talked about in the last section, the Star Players being a step up as well. And the Rangers are really going to be tested tomorrow because they are back in action at 2:00 p.m. tomorrow, Saturday at home against Tampa. And it’s going to be their fourth game in six days. We’ll see how they can handle it. I mean, don’t fall into the mistake if you’re the Rangers are thinking like, “Yeah, three wins in four games, that’s good enough.” You know, come out with a a lot of energy, a lot of fire, and go out there and look to earn this win against obviously a tough opponent. But in this game, let’s keep the focus here for the time being. Mike Sullivan ripped into the Rangers during a timeout. And I think he was completely justified in doing so. I’ll explain my reasons why for that in just a second, but to kind of set the stage for anybody that might have missed it or just to kind of refresh you guys on everything that happened and really kind of set the stage for Sullivan’s, you know, borderline blow up at his team on the bench there. The third period was getting a little bit dicey. I mean, the Raiders were in complete control through two periods. I loved their game for the first 40 minutes. uh defensively responsible, not chasing offense. That’s something that Sullivan and even some of the players have talked about in the past. That might have been part of the reason why they lost four games in a row not too long ago. Kind of letting the game come to them a little bit. Thinking defense first and it worked uh brilliantly through 40 minutes. And the Rangers, you know, the offense was eventually there. Obviously, Mika had the big day. Uh Paneran’s on fire recently and lo and behold, despite not, you know, cheating for offense, the Rangers are up four nothing at the second intermission. But like I just said, the third period did get a little bit dicey. They just didn’t have that same jump, that same kind of focus early in the third. We saw the Bruins get one back, you know, relatively early. There were a couple of different scoring chances for the Bruins early in this period. And then not too long after it went four to one, the Bruins uh basically, you know, took advantage of some lethargic play, I thought, by the Rangers, and they’re able to get another chance right from the doorstep there. And Igor has to make an awesome save. And Igor doesn’t typically show up his guys and I don’t think he really did that here, but he did have a little bit of like arms out like come on guys, let’s go, let’s pick it up a little bit. And that’s when Sullivan called his timeout and man, he laid into his team here. Uh there were about 14 minutes to go. First of all, let me just say I love the use of the timeout here. I I think there’s times where NHL coaches, they almost forget that they have the timeout or they fall into this trap of thinking that like, well, we can only call the timeout when there’s like a minute and a half or two minutes to go and we have to set something up. And obviously that is a good time to use your timeout. But when you’re up by three goals and it’s the third period and you’re seeing what Sullivan was seeing here and you’re seeing what we were all seeing here, this is a perfect time to use a timeout. Be proactive here. Don’t let Boston like really really get back into this game. Don’t let them build their confidence. Calling timeout if nothing else. It kind of takes the air out of the game just for a couple seconds there because you do essentially just freeze play. You get to talk to your team a little bit and um you know the Bruins they had some momentum there. you want to drop the puck and you want to keep going and by calling the timeout, you at least kind of nullify that at least a little bit. Um, but Sullivan really laid into his team. He was up and down the bench. He was yelling at guys to his left, guys to his right, guys that were on the ice. Nobody was spared here. I I don’t think there’s a single player on the Rangers. Maybe Dylan Garan might have been the only one because he’s the backup goalie and obviously he wasn’t playing at this time, but it was just it wasn’t directed at any one or two players and I like that too because obviously he’s not singling out people, but he was laying into them and let them know this isn’t good enough. this is unacceptable. And I think part of the message there too is like you guys have played a great game. Like, are you really going to let this happen? Are you really going to let things get away from you right now? Um I I probably can’t I mean, you know, if you read lips, there was some colorful language there to be sure. Um can’t repeat everything that he said, but I would also say this is probably as angry as we’ve seen Sullivan get with his team uh during a game when it comes to addressing them on the bench. Now, we don’t see everything that goes on behind closed doors, obviously. So, maybe it’s been worse than this at other times this season. You know, Sullivan is not a coach that’s going to shy away from this kind of a thing, but I like the fact that he really, you know, gave them a kick in the you know what and said, “Let’s get it going here.” And they mostly did that. Now, I know a lot of people are going to hear that and say, “Well, wait a minute. The Bruins scored immediately after this timeout.” And yes, they did. There was an offensive zone faceoff for the Bruins right after this timeout. Five or six seconds later, the puck is in the net. They score. It’s now 4-2. But I think from this moment on after this goal here, the Rangers did play better. It wasn’t perfect. The game opened up quite a bit more than I think you would like a game to open up when you’re up by four goals or three goals or at this point now two goals. But I think for the most part, the Rangers tightened things up defensively. They also got back to their forche, which was a real strength of this team early in the game. It’s a big reason why the Rangers basically dictated the game to the Bruins, why they were in control, why they had a four- nothing lead at the end of two periods. For the most part, things were better after this. They got back to work. They seem to find their game again and there wasn’t any panic in their game after this either. And I I think they did a nice job after this. Uh you know, not eliminating but at least limiting, you know, quality Bruins scoring chances uh from this point forward. So that was obviously nice to see. Then you get the empty netter by Lafrrenier and then you get an extra goal by Gabricov and the the closing, you know, minute or two there. So that was nice to see. Um, you know, for a game that the Rangers won six to2 and were leading for pretty much the entire way, like I say, it did get a little bit dicey there. But I again, I do appreciate the fact that Sullivan knew when to use his timeout, that he called out the Rangers at a time where they needed to be called out. And I can also appreciate the fact that multiple Rangers after this game were accountable about what was going on there. Panaran was one of them. He said, “We were controlling in the beginning, but after the second period, we still lost our focus. Can’t happen.” So, he’s on top of that. There were a couple other quotes as well. I don’t have a whole lot of them written down, but this is what we got from Mike Sullivan uh talking about, you know, what was going on in the third period. Here is what Sullivan had to say after the game. That’s the challenge. When you get up with a four-goal lead going into the third period, you’re almost guarding against human nature where you want to exhale and you can’t in today’s game. I thought after they scored, we started to respond again and started to play the game that we wanted to play. And I totally agree. I mean, it’s it’s a tough balance because you’re up by four goals and there’s that, you Sullivan mentioned, there’s that knack to kind of take it easy a little bit, but you just can’t do that. These teams are too talented. I know Boston had some injuries and they were compromised and, you know, they were hot for a while, but I I don’t think too many people have them pegged as Stanley Cup contenders this season. And, you know, if nothing else, I think hopefully for this Ranger team, for these players, this is a reminder and and it’s a reinforcement of something that we all know that I think they all know as well. There are very few easy wins in the NHL. There’s not too many games where you get to just coast for 60 minutes and you, you know, bury a team and win by four or five goals. Just doesn’t go that way. You the team is too b excuse me, this league is too balanced. There’s too much par. And these guys are in the NHL for a reason. Even though the Bruins roster was compromised today, these guys are in the NHL for a reason. And it’s just a reminder, and one that I hope the Rangers really take to heart here, that you can never relax. You can never take your foot off the gas, especially in the third period. you know, you got to come out hungry in the third period even though you’re up four nothing and look to close the game with some authority. And I guess in the end, in a way, they did that. You know, those two late goals that you end up winning by four. I do think they close things down defensively a little bit after the Sullivan uh timeout. But, um, yeah, I mean, overall, I I think any player on the Rangers, anybody that watched this game would tell you they need to be better than what they showed at the start of the third period. And hopefully it’s a lesson learned and they don’t make that same mistake again. So, they got the win. That’s what counts. Just a minute. We’re keep everything going. We’re going to uh essentially talk a little bit about why I think everybody needs to be thankful for this recent run of Ranger hockey here. We’re going to get to the reasons for that. It’s kind of in the spirit of Thanksgiving and for all those who celebrate. It’s now the day after Thanksgiving. So, we’re going to get to that in just a second. Okay. We just want to take a minute to let everybody know that today’s episode of Lockdown New York Rainers is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA is back and there’s no better place to get in on the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you miss the start of the game or you want to ride the hot hand, FanDuel has live bets on everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comebacks. Plus, you can even combine your live bets into a singame parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. It keeps every game exciting, especially when your team is making that late push. Right now, FanDuel is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So, head to fanduel.com to sign up and play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. All right, let’s go ahead and wrap up today’s episode of Locked on New York Rangers by just appreciating where the Rangers are in the season, appreciating this uh three-game winning streak. Like I said, it’s it’s very much uh it’s the time of the season, you know, to to feel this way. I think I realize I’m mostly preaching to the choir here and that most of you typically are happy when the Rangers win. I mean, isn’t that the whole point of being in the sports? Isn’t that a whole team the whole point of you rooting for this team or rooting for that team? But you also have to acknowledge this certain group of Ranger fans and they are out there and you all know who you are that just never can really be happy after a Ranger win. Or maybe it’s not even that, but it’s just that like there’s certain fans that always have to have like a qualifier for why the Rangers won. They can never just give the Rangers credit for winning a game. You know, it just can’t happen. You know, you take this recent stretch of uh of games uh as an example. Okay, the Rangers beat the Bruins to end their four-game winning streak. And there’s a lot of Oh my god, it’s the Bruins. They had to win sooner or later. They had lost four in a row. Uh excuse me, it’s the Blues. I said it’s the Bruins, but it’s the Blues. They’re not any good. They’re, you know, a bad team. The Rangers were just a little less bad than the Blues. Why would you even be happy about the Rangers beating the Blues? I don’t know because I like it when my team wins and I’m happy when my team wins. And again, I know I’m preaching to the choir and a lot of you will back me up on that, but you know, there’s people that can’t be happy after they beat the Blues. Then you’ve got the game against the Canes. Now, this is a big- time division rivalry. We’ve seen these teams collide in the playoffs a couple of times over the last handful of seasons. The Rangers have come up come out on top more often than not and it’s always a battle and it can get kind of nasty between these teams as well and there’s a lot of like oh man you only beat the Canes because Frederick Anderson is so bad and and that’s the only reason why the Rangers won. Okay, first of all Freddy Anderson is not a bad goalie. He gets hurt a lot. I’ll give you that. But when he’s on the ice for the most part in his career, he’s been a very solid goalie. Not elite, but a very solid goalie and somebody that you know you have to play well to be able to beat him. If you don’t believe me, go look at his career numbers. Point to be anything that is bad. He’s he’s off to a rough start this season, but for the most part for his career been a very very good goalie. Um, but the funniest thing about that one to me is I feel like the fans who are saying like, “Oh, well, you only beat the Canes because, you know, Frederick Anderson is so bad.” Okay, are these the same fans that tell you that like, “Oh, the Rangers should have never resigned Igor Shurken because goalies aren’t that important.” Are goalies important or not? You got to pick a lane and you got to stay in it. So, that’s the excuse for the Canes game. And then for this one, I mean, you already see it on social media. I mean, obviously, I haven’t seen the comments of this episode yet because we haven’t published it yet. Um, I’m still recording, but uh, you know, there’s a lot of like, oh well, you know, the the Bruins, uh, you know, they got so many injuries and Corpos in instead of Swayman and the Rangers got a break there and, uh, you know, a lot of people are are down with injuries for the Bruins and they need to play in this game and all this other stuff. Okay, look, injuries happen. It’s unfortunate. I would never certainly root for anybody to get injured. nobody on the Rangers or anybody else, but it’s an unfortunate reality of pro sports and just sports in general. These games are very physical. They’re very demanding. People are going to go out there and they’re going to get injured. It does happen. And if a team is injured, if a team is compromised, if a team is missing four or five, you know, significant players, a superstar player or two, then you have to take advantage of it because you can’t feel bad for them. They’re not going to feel bad for you. Imagine if the Rangers were out there and and they were missing three or four of their best players. Do you think the Bruins are going to feel bad for the Rangers? Do you think any of the Bruins fans are going to feel bad for the Rangers? And hey, maybe if the Bruins weren’t full strength, maybe they win this game. I’m not so sure they do, though. I think it’s entirely possible, certainly that the Rangers would have won this game anyway. And by the way, the Rangers are missing one of their best four defenseman, Will Borggan. Now, I don’t think that completely cripples this lineup or cripples this team or anything along those lines, but he’s a significant player. He’s an important player, and certainly if he was healthy, he would be out there. The Rangers had to go without Vincent Troek for a long time. JT Miller, he missed a couple games. It look like looks like he’s been playing hurt the entire season. And now Jonathan Quick is hurt as well. So they’re not the only team dealing with injuries. The Rangers have to deal with injuries. There’s probably teams that have taken advantage of that against the Rangers. So if you’re the Rangers, you take advantage. You beat a team that’s compromised and you don’t apologize for it. And certainly as fans, you shouldn’t feel bad about it either. You should just enjoy be thankful that the Rangers are winning these games. So for the people that would like like you to believe that the Blues win doesn’t really count and the Canes win doesn’t really count and now the Bruins win today that doesn’t really count either. Do any wins count for the Rangers? Like I I swear the Rangers could go out there against the Edmonton Oilers teams, you know, the Dynasty from the uh the 80s and into the very early 90s there. I believe it was five Stanley Cup wins in seven seasons. the Rangers could go out there and beat that team in its prime 5 to1 and there’s certain not all fans but there there’s that certain you know small group of fans that would have you believe that oh that doesn’t really count there there’s this reason or that reason that’s the only reason why the Rangers were able to to win that game just enjoy the wins because losing isn’t fun whether you’re playing the sport whether you’re watching the sport whatever it is there’s enough heartbreak in losing it there’s enough heartbreak when you see the Rangers go on a deep playoff run and they get to the conference final and they get eliminated. Those are rough moments. So, at least enjoy when they’re winning. Try to enjoy those moments uh for your own sanity. And enjoy them from a practical perspective as well because this is twice now. We’re pretty early in the season. I believe that was the 26th game. The Rangers twice this season already have gone through two separate stretches where it’s looked like their season very well might go off the rails and everything might fall apart, might fall apart, and we might be right back to where we were uh last season. There was that stretch early in the year where the Rangers, I mean, they were just getting absolutely stoned by opposing goalies. Um, the game against Edmonton, uh, there was a game against the Canes earlier this season. There were a couple others as well. I don’t have the schedule in front of me, but you guys get the idea. They got legitimately goalied a couple times early this season and they kept losing and their record suffered and then, you know, they can’t beat the Flames or the Sharks and it’s looking like, geez, man, like this this might go south really fast. And, you know, it’s easy to believe that this group of players could get easily discouraged. you getting goalied night in and night out and things might go south and they might never recover from it. They recovered from it. They won, I believe it was six out of eight not too long after that rough stretch. Then you get the more recent four-game losing streak and in this case I don’t think luck had a whole lot to do with it. I just don’t think the Rangers played well enough and that being the case, they lost four games in a row and again you’re thinking like geez, you know, this could go south. This could go off the rails. Uh you do start thinking I mean I think it’s human nature for all of us as fans to kind of look at the lay of the land. It’s like, all right, well, if this is how it’s going to be, then are the Rangers going to be sellers at the deadline? Are they going to trade Paneran? Are they going to trade this guy and that guy? And what’s going to happen? Is Jury going to survive this? And uh do they need to rebuild all that stuff? And then next thing you know, you know, they they play three strong games in a row here and they’ve won three in a row. So, in both instances, both of these early season losing streaks where everything looked pretty bleak and pretty rough, the Rangers stuck together. They they had each other’s backs. They fought their way through it. In both cases, they kind of got back to basics. I think this most recent three-game winning streak has a lot to do with the Rangers kind of recommitting to defensive hockey and and almost being like counter punchers. You know, take the offense when it’s there, but commit to defense first and foremost. And I think that deserves uh to be applauded. I think it really does. Um last year’s team would have folded. They would have folded for sure. So, the Raiders right now kind of put a bow on this whole section here. 1311 and two to start the season. Basically 500. They’ve won 13 games. They’ve lost 13 games. And that sounds about right. Um because there there’s been some good to start the season, there’s been some bad to start the season as well, and you end up, you know, with the same amount of wins as losses. But there are still fans out there who will tell you, they will tell me that the idea of the Rangers making the playoffs is a pipe dream. Okay, they’re one point out. They’re one point out, right? And I honestly I think it’s too early to even like dive into the playoff standings, you know, that deeply this early in the season, but a lot of people have been telling me that and they can’t possibly make the playoffs, so I had to bring this up as well. Um, look, do do we really think that the Rangers, they can’t possibly finish ahead of a team like the Islanders or the Flyers or even the Caps? I mean, I think we all knew some regression was coming for the Caps this season, but these are teams that are just a couple of points ahead of the Rangers. You know, the Rangers are a couple more wins away from being in like third place in the Metro. It’s not a bad place to be at this point in the season, you know. So bottom line, playoffs are not impossible, and they’re certainly not impossible when you’re one point out of the last playoff spot and there are 56 games to play. In a literal sense, there’s 112 points still out there for the taking for the Rangers. I understand they’re not going to get all of those. I get it. But that’ll give you an idea of just how little hockey has been played thus far and how much is still to come and how much the Rangers are obviously still in this thing. You go on one hot streak, which the Rangers that might be getting underway right now as we speak. you know, we’ll see. They are getting into, you know, kind of a tough part of their schedule coming up, but you go on one hot streak and and you you’re right back into it. You’re right back in the mix and you put yourself back into a playoff spot. Now, of course, there are no guarantees that this Ranger team is going to make the playoffs. Not in the slightest. But my plea to Ranger fans is to please understand the fact this team is not buried. For anybody talking about like tanking for for u McKenna right now, no, no, we have a season to play. We have a season in front of us. It’s way too early for any of those kinds of talks. Just be thankful that the Rangers have turned things around here. They’re pointing in the right direction and they’re right back in the fight. That’s that’s awesome. And you owe it to yourself as well. If you’re watching sports and you’re heavily invested in the Rangers, you should be happy when they win. Now, there’s things you can nitpick. You can still if you tell me like like for this reason or that reason, well, I still don’t believe in this Ranger team because A, B, and C. Okay, I’ll hear you. I I’ll I’ll certainly respect your opinion. But the people that are always doom and gloom and they try to, you know, nullify every win that this Ranger team has, I don’t get that either, man. I feel good. They’ve won three in a row. This is awesome. And they’re doing it in a tough kind of area in the schedule. You know, you have three games sandwiched around Thanksgiving here. And you’ve got four games in six days. And I mean, they’re they’re passing the test. And and tomorrow’s another big test as well. Going to be in action against Tampa. But uh to go 4-0 in this stretch would be an amazing accomplishment. I think uh if they do that, Ranger fans should be very very proud of this team. But we’ll call it there. If you guys would like to get in touch with this podcast, please send an email to locked on [email protected]. Once again, that is locked on [email protected]. Definitely give us a follow on Twitter as well, JHIX7. Once again, JCHK17. And definitely subscribe to locked on New York Rangers YouTube channel. Thanks again, guys. I will see you next time.

Despite a dicey third period, the Rangers win their third in a row and take down the Bruins, 6-2!

– Mika Zibanejad scores twice on one-timers, continues bounce-back season

– Mike Sullivan (rightfully) RIPS into the Rangers during a timeout

– Rangers showing resilience, despite some tough stretches

Episode 1,432.

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