- 4 weeks ago
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00:00How on earth have the two most recent President's Trophy winners fallen off so hard so fast?
00:07Maybe if I'm not lazy, I'll talk about Winnipeg, but for now, I'm focusing on the team that's funnier to
00:12make fun of.
00:13The New York Rangers have basically waved the white flag in their cup window,
00:17as shown by this statement right here, which, first of all, automatically better than Ottawa's statement.
00:22They announced that they would be entering not a rebuild, but rather a retool,
00:26which is basically a rebuild without the intention of sucking.
00:29But just because they don't have the intention of sucking, that doesn't mean they don't suck,
00:33because they absolutely do.
00:35Currently, they sit at dead last in the admittedly stacked Eastern Conference
00:39by a decently sized margin with the least wins and the most regulation losses.
00:44This is a big apple-sized downfall from a couple years ago when they were on top of the world
00:49except without the whole winning the Stanley Cup thing.
00:52That President's Trophy season came off the back of a previous rebuild
00:56that, at the time, was considered as perfect as a rebuild could be.
00:59I mean, back-to-back years where you win the draft lottery and get two in a row top two
01:04picks,
01:04including a first overall pick in a year where you made the playoffs,
01:08asterisk because they really didn't, like, what more could you ask for?
01:11A few years later, and the fruits of this rebuild berry are tasting quite sweet.
01:16Giving them two conference finals appearances and a playoff loss to the Devils,
01:19the Rangers' stonks are just getting higher and higher.
01:22That is, until last season, when those stonks just crashed horrifically,
01:27like that one anti-speeding PSA.
01:29And this season has shown that that previous season was not just some unlucky fluke.
01:33It's the new norm, and they've realized this.
01:36But unlike that season where they fell apart after a good stretch to start,
01:40it's been like this the entire time.
01:42Started right off with a shutout dud to the Penguins at home.
01:45But, you know, just one game, they can bounce back, and they do bounce back.
01:50They shut out the Sabres, and then they get revenge on the Penguins, and it's starting to look better.
01:54Then they get back home, and oh my fucking god, shutout, in the garden, back-to-back.
02:00In their first three home games, they scored zero goals.
02:04Oh boy!
02:05And it doesn't stop there.
02:06Just a little later in the same month,
02:08they would have the dishonor of being the first team to lose to the San Jose Sharks,
02:12who, as is tradition these days, were the only remaining winless team in the NHL.
02:16To be fair, the Sharks have gotten better.
02:19They even have more wins than losses now, which feels weird to say.
02:23But while the Sharks' record has gotten better,
02:25the Rangers' record has not, especially at home.
02:28They would get shutout two more times in the garden,
02:31bumping that number up to five,
02:32and then on November 10th,
02:35they would beat the Nashville Predators,
02:36and finally get over the home hump.
02:39It only took one month, but at last, the Rangers have their first win at home.
02:44Hopefully, the Rangers fans cherish this win,
02:47because they haven't gotten many of those since.
02:50Currently, the New York Rangers have the second-worst home record
02:53in the entire NHL, behind only the Canucks.
02:57Meanwhile, every other team that's not the Kings
03:00has already reached double-digit home wins,
03:02including the likes of the Blues and the Flames.
03:05Those are some bottom-of-the-barrel teams,
03:08and they have double the number of home wins as New York Rangers,
03:12not the Islanders.
03:13The Islanders are actually good.
03:15But how in Khonshu's name could this have happened so quickly?
03:18That rebuild, it was perfect.
03:20Everything went right for them.
03:22Well, actually, it might not have been as good as we first thought.
03:26You'd think a rebuild that involved multiple draft lottery wins,
03:29signing Artemi Panarin,
03:31and Igor becoming the new King Henrik,
03:33you'd think that would be a very successful rebuild.
03:35But hindsight is 2020,
03:37and the Rangers need to be put in quarantine.
03:39That was a long fucking time ago.
03:42Jesus.
03:42Some of the signings and trades
03:44probably cut the rebuild a little bit shorter than it should have been,
03:47but I'm not going to talk about any of that.
03:49I want to talk about the funny thing,
03:51which is the drafting.
03:52Between 2017 and 2021,
03:54the Rangers had nine first-round draft picks,
03:57and in four out of five of those drafts,
03:59they picked in the top ten.
04:01Of those nine picks,
04:03almost all of them have been massive busts.
04:06Who is Vitaly Kravtsov?
04:08Exactly.
04:08Case in point.
04:09Two picks that showed promise were Keiondre Miller and Philip Hedel.
04:13However, Miller couldn't find his consistency,
04:15and Hedel kept getting concussed,
04:17so they're both no longer with the team.
04:19Jack Hughes was the only player picked before Kapo Kakko.
04:22However, Kakko hasn't come close to what Hughes has gotten to.
04:25And Brennan Othman, the 2021 pick,
04:28has only recently this year gotten his first goal,
04:31so congratulations to him.
04:33That's a bunch of players that didn't really develop
04:35into the way the Blue Shirts wanted them to.
04:38However, the biggest bust of them all
04:39might be none other than that first overall pick.
04:42Alexis Lafreniere was considered by basically everyone
04:46to be the best player in the 2020 draft.
04:49Hell, GM Jeff Gordon himself said,
04:51when the ball came out of the machine,
04:53we knew he was going to be our guy.
04:56It wasn't as much as, say, Bedard or McDavid or Crosby,
04:59but there was a lot of hype around this guy,
05:02and he didn't live up to any of it.
05:04In his best year so far, the president's trophy year,
05:07he scored 28 goals and 57 points.
05:11That is his career high.
05:13And at the time, this was considered Lafreniere
05:15beating the bust allegations that had already been placed on him.
05:18And now those bust allegations are back.
05:21Instead of upping those numbers, the numbers have gone down,
05:24and this season, he's only scored 12 goals and 32 points.
05:28Which, I mean, this will likely be his second highest scoring season,
05:32and if he gets really hot,
05:33it could end up being his highest scoring season.
05:35But when you compare this to the first overall picks
05:37that have come since, like Uri Slafkowski,
05:40Conor Bedard, Macklin Celebrini,
05:43Lafreniere just doesn't compare to them.
05:45Hell, Slafkowski and Celebrini
05:47got to play in the Winter Olympics this year,
05:49and they did pretty damn well.
05:51Guess where Lafreniere was?
05:53Here's a hint.
05:54Not Italy, I don't think.
05:56And with him having recently been called out by Mike Sullivan
05:59and demoted to the third line,
06:00the idea of this former first overall pick being traded away
06:04has become a real possibility.
06:06So no matter what way you look at it,
06:08the Rangers drafting has aged pretty horrendously.
06:11The last player the Rangers drafted
06:13that ended up being a big deal for them
06:15was Igor Shosturkin in 2014,
06:19and he wasn't even the first goalie they drafted that year.
06:22Of all the prospects they got through the rebuild,
06:24the one that turned out the best
06:25ended up being one they didn't even draft.
06:28And all their other big players in this window,
06:30like Artemi Panarin, Chris Kreider, and Mika Zibanejad,
06:33weren't even prospects.
06:34And with the new retool in motion,
06:37those players are likely gone as well,
06:39especially Artemi Panarin.
06:41Wee woo wee woo, you hear that?
06:43That's the sound of future me
06:44updating the outdated info from past me.
06:47The Rangers have, in fact, already traded Artemi Panarin,
06:50and the return they got for him looks fucking terrible,
06:53but it's all prospect and draft stuff,
06:55so we'll have to wait and see on that.
06:56And while this sucks for one out of 32 fanbases,
06:59at least the Rangers are willing to admit
07:01that the way they've done things hasn't worked
07:04and they need to change,
07:05which is more than I can say for some other franchises
07:08whose names rhyme with Calgary Flames.
07:10But it doesn't change how bleak this season has been
07:12for the New York team that's not in Long Island.
07:15And no game has shown just how bad this season has been
07:18than this game against the Boston Bruins,
07:21because yes, I had to mention this.
07:2310 goals.
07:24The final score was 10-2 Bruins.
07:27Boston scored 10 goals against the Rangers.
07:30This isn't like the NFL,
07:32where scoring one touchdown gives you six or seven points.
07:35It's one point for each puck that goes in net,
07:39and the Rangers let it happen 10 times in one game.
07:43That, in my opinion, is the low point of the Rangers' season.
07:47Sure, they could go on a massive losing streak
07:49and crash even further down the standings
07:51than they already have,
07:52or they could end up getting swept by the Islanders
07:54for the first time in eight years, which they have,
07:57but they are not going to have
07:58a more embarrassing game than this.
08:01But if there's any, any silver lining in any of this,
08:05it's that the Devils aren't doing much better.
08:07They're doing better, just not much.
08:10I mean, it's not like the Devils' first overall pick
08:12has been any better.
08:13All he's done is score the gold-winning goal
08:16at the Winter Olympics for USA.
08:18Yeah, no, I'm sorry, Rangers.
08:20You have nothing to be happy about.
08:22Goodbye.
08:22Holy guacamole, guys.
08:24See that?
08:24See that guy right there?
08:26That is Bigfoot.
08:27The Bigfoot right there.
08:29That is the Bigfoot in the flesh.
08:32Say it's fake?
08:34Nuh-uh.
08:34You're lying.
08:35That's John Bigfoot right there.
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