We Won't Make the Playoffs

I'm a Mets fan. Been one my whole life. In fact, the first memory that I have of a sporting event is the Mets winning it all in 1986. I was a young kid and couldn't really figure out why my parents were so excited. I remember being more interested in our kitchen scale than the game.

As a Mets fan, I've lived through many years of terrible seasons. For the longest time, mainly in the 90s, the Mets followed a trend: suck for the first half of the year, pick it up at the half, and then miss the post season anyway. Seeing this repeated over and over again made me a pessimist of a fan. Any true Mets fan wasn't shocked by their collapse. Or last year's fizzle (refuse to call it another collapse. Those that do so are just fishing for a storyline).

As such, I am going to say this now: I don't think the Rangers are going to make the playoffs. Here's why:

1) They have the toughest schedule out of the remaining teams. When even The Pensblog says the Rangers have the toughest finish, you know you're in trouble. They have to face the (in order) Devils, Whalers, Bruins, Habs, and Flyers (twice). Let's look at these matchups for a second:

DEVILS - Fat Martha has been on a tear since coming back from his cake eating injury, getting something like 20 shutouts in 4 games. He also just set some sort of record for eating 552 Ugly Elf hot wings in a single sitting (shout out to TK's in Danbury for putting up the goods!). The rest of the team: their style is impetuous! Their defense is impregnable! They're just ferocious! They want your heart; to eat your children! Praise be to Allah!



WHALERS - always a tough game for me, emotionally...but...oh yeah! Rangers. Right. Tough team. Cam Ward's been quietly having an amazing year. Last time, he stole a game from the Rangers. If his D shows up, we're boned. The fact that they also brought back Eric Cole is bad news bears. This is a team that wants to make a cup run, and is playoff bound.

BRUINS - this is the game I'm looking forward to the most, from an enjoyment standpoint. Every meeting has with the B's this year has been a tense, low scoring affair. OT and the skills competition is pretty standard for these games. Though they've had some trouble, the Bruins are on the uptick. They beat the living crap out of Toronto, scoring 7 (gave up 5). Last time we won thanks to Manny being another Manny; if Timmy Tornado plays...well...it'll probably go to OT.

HABS - Montreal screwjob waiting to happen. Goals come in bunches North of the Border. This is a bad thing. We won the last meeting, but in the previous two gave up six goals a piece. The D needs to show up or Kovie (why'd you burn that troll's hair!?!) and the 300 Kostitsyns will burn Hank.

FLYERS - brutal games. If Biron keeps playing beyond himself, and if they play Flyer hockey, we're going to get blown away. With the aggressive style Torts has implemented, all it takes is a hit on a pinching D man to spring an odd man rush, which the Flyers can cash in to brutal effect. Wade, I'm looking at you. If the Rangers play their game, control the pace, and stay alert, they can win it. Still, playing back to back against a team that'll punish your D on the forecheck doesn't bode well.

Conlusion for Part 1 - Six games remaining against six playoff bound teams. I'd like to see the Rangers win against the Whale (I'm sorry), and at least take OT points against the Bruins and Debbies. The run n' gun will burn them in Montreal, and potentially against Carolina. If they can split the Flyers' series, they'd be in good shape. They can literally play themselves into the playoffs, or right on out. Ideally you'd want to play a team that's coasting into the playoffs, but you won't find any. The Debbies want to break their skid, the Flyers are always tough, the Cane's are on a six game tear and the Habs want to leapfrog the Rangers. There are no easy games from here on in.

2) The Team - what this team has become is akin to getting a single new tire, but slashing all your old ones. Antropov...I mean, wow. The guy has really been playing well. And Avery! NY loves you! Mr. Morris has been good on D and the PP, but for all the good, there's been some very bad. Freddy Shoes has been bounced around the lines like a golf ball in a blender, not really fitting in anywhere. The Korpedo has ceased to exist, along with the majority of the fourth line. Orr's ice time has dropped, and so has the quality of his play. Betts sees more time thanks to his PK skills, but still a lot less than before. This does not bode well for the offseason, where some of these roll players may take off to better paydays and teams that'll play them more. And what of Z? He's been quiet of late, but is now a persona non grata...which brings me to the real problem.

3) Torts - I love Torts. For years I wanted him to be the Rangers head coach. The trouble is he's falling more into the line of what Muckler used to do: run n' gun. Hank is good, but he's not god. The boys have worked on cutting down the passing lanes, but with his idea that the D should jump into the play more often, we're generating more odd man rushes against Hank than before. We may score more goals, but more goals are going to be scored against us. My main problem is that Torts likes to roll 3 lines and play the boys he likes. Dubi is one of his favorites, as has been stated. Z, not so much. It's a shame that the Korpedo got demoted. He and Dru used to be a great forechecking tandem, one which would fit really well into Torts' aggressive play style. However, he uses 2/3 rds of the 4th line almost solely on the PK. He has done some great things, like the Gomer/Avery combo. The shame is that as soon as they are checked well, he splits them up. This is the stuff that people freaked out over Renney doing, but now it's ok. Go figure.

Overall, I just don't think we have it. Our third periods are usually garbage, which, when combined with our new system, leads to us giving up goals and not scoring them when they're needed. It's always better to give up the lead early rather than late, and we suck at this. The other problem is that with more aggression, we get more penalties. One just needs to look at the past few games to see that we have very little in terms of flow. We PK, attack a little, PK, attack, PK...it gets your guys cold and wears out the PK. We also can't contain skill guys like Ovie, Crosby, and Kovie. Probably Kobe too, if he skated. We're just not that good compared to what's around us. I want us to make it, but I'm doubtful. We need to get hot, win a few in a row, and pull away from the Panthers, who have won their last 2.

Let's do it.