Did you see the 10 person fight at the beginning of the Rangers vs Devils game a few nights ago? Right at the opening puck drop all 10 skaters squared off and fought. It was pretty awesome. 8 guys got ejected:02 into the game. I love hockey
Line brawls don't happen often anymore but the Rangers were supporting Matt Rempe, who knew he was fighting MacDermid. I don't think they knew they'd all be kicked out of the game though--the rules had changed since the last line brawl.
The 2 big heavyweights put on a pretty good show as well. MacDermid is tough and Rempe fought him to a draw I would say. I didn’t know the new rule that only the 2 guys who dropped their gloves first wouldn’t be ejected. Players didn’t seem to know it either
Mackinnon. 2 point streaks of at least 19 games plus a 35 game home point streak which is the second longest in history behind only Gretzky. Kuch has been incredible as has McDavid but Mackinnon has been consistently great all year. I watch every Avs game and it’s been so much fun watching him this season
I feel weird defending Sidney Crosby but as good a season as both those players are having, the Penguins were sellers at the deadline and had basically thrown the towel in on the season. Malkin has looked like a shadow of himself at his peak, Letang is wildly inconsistent, and goaltending has been spotty to bad. There are big holes on all the lines and the D is a mess. If you view the Hart as the MVP of a team, and some do view it that way, the Penguins would be an AHL team without Crosby. The Lightning and Avs would still be very good teams without Kucherov and MacKinnon.
You are absolutely correct. Crosby is driving the Pens across the finish line. Kuch is doing the same thing with the Lightning with a lot more points
Kucherov has had a more dominant year, but Crosby had less help. The Pens don't have a Hedman equivalent (and he started out slow but has come on strong of late) or a Vasilevskiy equivalent (whose season has looked a bit like Hedman's). Karlsson is basically a fourth forward out there, wholly uninterested in playing defense, and his point production fell off the table from where he was with the Sharks (though still a notch above Letang, but not by much). And Letang has looked very lost at times, though he does have a lot going on. Malkin is invisible some, probably most nights. And then to lose the second best player on the team to get Bunting back in return, yow. (Not that it was a bad trade, they needed to get something for him because they weren't going to re-sign him.)
Last time the Rangers won the cup, thirty years ago, they also won the Presidents' Trophy. And last time the won the Presidents' Trophy, nine years ago, they went to the conference finals. Last time a team won both was Chicago eleven years ago. But since 2016 the Presidents' Trophy winner has gone down in either the opening or second round.
Trouba hasn't looked great since returning from injury and a lot of the lapses are attributable to either him directly or Miller overcompensating for Trouba underperforming. But they're otherwise pretty healthy heading into the playoffs and I don't expect the defense will be a big problem once the playoffs start. They were the first team to clinch and are finishing out a string of largely meaningless games (to them) against desparate bubble teams. At their best this year, the Rangers have looked as good as any team in the league, and for sustained stretches too. Power play is clicking at the right time and that's where their goals are going to come from. Even in these last few losses they've otherwise looked good, defensive lapses aside.
