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00:02what's up everybody welcome back to another episode of up in the blue seats your favorite
00:08rangers podcast from the new york post as always it's molly walker and former ranger brian boyle
00:14here and we've got one home game left on the rangers season tonight against the buffalo
00:21sabers and then there are just three games left in the season as a whole we won't be there but
00:27are you ready for the playoffs brian well i will be covering the playoffs and it has been a very
00:36interesting last couple of weeks on some of these teams and what we've seen throughout the league
00:44i will say that i am not a fan of how the playoffs are situated i think one through eight
00:55is the play
00:56just want to get it out there that is the way why the only way why state your reasons go
01:03ahead
01:04state your case i understand uh travel right i understand why it can't just be like one through
01:1016 everybody like you want to get on whatever i i get it there's so many games
01:20there needs to be a reason why there's so many games like winning your division
01:26i mean i guess i get it but is it is it really like advantageous for reward yeah like for
01:34the league to have and you know the commissioners come out and said it like
01:39you know it's the greatest first round which is yeah but you know there's six more weeks and i
01:46like like if you think it's probably you know people stop watching when their team's out okay
01:52that's that's that's probably fair too and look i'm not the econ guy here i obviously don't know how
01:59to you know make profits i just see what i see and i just think if you are
02:07if it's like an honest way of doing things you should six months of work you should earn something
02:14for it and you know the central divisions why it comes up a lot but then like and in the
02:21pacific
02:22teams are starting to win now so the points don't matter but like it wasn't great when the southeast
02:26division wasn't it was a thing and those teams weren't very good southeast division yeah it wasn't great
02:32in the pacific this year i get it edmonton's in there and if like they figure it out would anybody
02:37be shocked if they went on a run again but like is there a reason the utah mammoth sitting in
02:42wild
02:43card one in the west is like people are so excited about them because of the path they have right
02:50that should be the path one through eight and receive like if an eight upsets a one unreal yeah
02:56you're gonna go play two yeah electric because for six months that's how many points you earned
03:01that's what you deserve i don't know that's my first opening comment i will be covering the
03:06playoffs i think it's amazing i think uh if ottawa gets saves they're going to be a pain in the
03:11butt
03:11to play against i think uh my bruins prediction looks pretty good right now i cannot believe philly's
03:17in the mix i cannot believe the islanders in detroit are not i oh my god yeah love it more
03:24chaos please
03:25and the ranger is playing spoiler to a couple of those teams you mentioned but none more so than i
03:32think the capitals excuse me that capitals game was huge for washington that was a if they would have
03:40won that game they would have leapfrobed three teams closer to the uh wild card spot so that was
03:47and that wasn't just a regular loss that was a thrashing yeah that was that was worth a uh fun
03:54at
03:55adjectives for sure yeah um yeah no i mean it's it's been kind of kind of fun to watch the
04:04rangers
04:04play spoiler to these teams and they're just playing so much better at home in general um
04:12look it's much better yeah but it like remember i mean six months slash like a decade ago when we
04:19first started talking about this season a decade ago you could tell they were trying right last season
04:28last season towards the end it wasn't a lot of fun to cover the rangers because you know just knowing
04:35guys and just i'm just like what is happening in there this this year like the start man they
04:41defended hard they kind of righted a lot of the wrongs that tail spun them last year at the end
04:46but they couldn't put a puck in the damn net i was just like baffled by it and now like
04:53it just shows
04:54you what like the mental part is capable of and how it can it can it can take you one
05:00of two ways and
05:01it took them the wrong way for a lot of it um and then you know it's it turns into
05:06what it turned into
05:08you know there's you know temperamental players that you have to deal with it you know i and listen i
05:14would
05:14have been one of them i would have said something that would have probably gotten a reaction where
05:19there'd be a follow-up article the next time we you know what i mean like yeah that was just
05:24how
05:25you know we operated and that's how they should they should be angry they should you know who cares
05:30what they say as long as they can figure out what they're doing right now they're still good players
05:36the roster is still i still like the roster um i understand why fans would probably not like it as
05:42much
05:42or they think uh the aging cores is not as exciting i think they're going to come back
05:48with a whole bunch of piss and vinegar and yeah yeah i just yeah i i i mean i i
05:55hope you're right
05:56i just i find it hard to put a lot of stock into what's going on right now just because
06:01of the
06:02circumstances i think that they're getting such a lift from the young guys and they're those young
06:09guys especially a guy like adam sakura i mean he just 100 and forget 110 120 every single shift i
06:16actually think each game he's gone up how much effort he's putting into each shift so i think that
06:22that's carried them a lot they're getting great goaltending just tricking has given up even garan
06:27too dating back to the chicago game they've given up one goal in five of the last six games you
06:34know
06:35aside from the montreal game but like i said it's hard to put a lot of stock in it just
06:40because of the
06:41circumstances but they are you know detroit washington new jersey detroit detroit detroit losing yeah was
06:50yeah unforgivable it's i don't know what happened to them like
06:59rangers fans at least you're not detroit fans that's true okay uh and you have igor
07:06the special i'm with you i know it's meaningless they're not like whatever but yeah look if you
07:12know you're retooling and you know you're not going to make the playoffs like what do you have
07:16look forward to as a as a fan of this team young players coming in having a role in doing
07:21well
07:21so then you can't get mad if they win you hockey games i was gonna say this this leads us
07:27into a
07:28conversation we were having in our group chat yeah um about how all this winning is ruining their
07:34draft odds and the fans are obviously not happy about that what is your argument towards never
07:43tanking brian never tank boyle never never ever what did i write
07:50ever ever ever tank ever ever under any circumstances do players ever not play 100
07:57coaches coach 100 and sometimes yeah maybe management will pull guys out or move guys
08:04around or trade guys or do whatnot to purge and the results become losses and you don't get points
08:12and yes it's favorable for your uh draft odds but okay say you improve your draft odds and get a
08:21higher
08:21pick there's no guarantee that does anything if you ever accept anything less than your best as a player
08:29as a like in the national hockey league it is a terrible terrible thing and you will be gone fast
08:34i don't care what people think um is there maybe a risk of i'm gonna cheat for offense yep i'm
08:45sure i'm sure
08:45guys do that uh you're playing for contracts but you're doing it to the best of your ability to try
08:50to score goals for your team to win hockey games um it's such a privilege to play in the league
08:58one game so you can't take any of those for granted and you've seen what you know you have bednar
09:05and
09:05cooper and then who's who would be the longest tenured after after bednar and cooper i mean i probably
09:14could have looked that up before the podcast but it's so hard to keep your job in the nhl as
09:23a coach
09:23brendamore so yeah sorry that was an easy one i'm an idiot um you've seen the coaching carousel
09:30you've seen guys are out now you're getting some teams that have had success ish or have gone down
09:36the road of i'm gonna hire a first-time guy so if you're a head coach yeah you're gonna lean
09:41into
09:41trying to put on a good product if you have young guys come in the lineup you want them to
09:47do well and
09:48you want to win because look what i did with these young guys for the last six weeks this season
09:51i can
09:51coach veterans old young guy whatever so and i'm not saying mike sullivan's in any sort of jeopardy
09:57but that's just how you get there and then it's so hard to make it that can't like that's never
10:04going to come out of you performances will slip because of different things mentality and the
10:09mental part of the game is a big reason for it playing through injuries is another how you're
10:13playing your role all that but the effort is never ever going to happen so stop trying to
10:20hope i mean you can hope they lose all you want if you want a better draft out if you're
10:23a fan but
10:24they're never going to lay down in any any team you follow any sport and i get it the giants
10:29have won
10:30games at the wrong time um the patriots did a couple years ago and they end up drafting a guy
10:36um pretty good player drake may you want the number one of a pick fine but
10:42like you're not gonna you're not gonna see tanking especially not yeah
10:48no well the rangers the rangers odds are down to 9.5 percent for the number one overall pick they
10:56were they were in second for a little while so it's all west teams huh was it vancouver chicago calgary
11:04calgary yeah vancouver has 18.5 percent chance
11:10like you're vancouver in the pacific in the pacific stinks and you still can't win
11:14any game yeah quinn hughes had some interesting uh some interesting comments he was very upset when
11:22vancouver connects traded jt miller yes yes i think one of my favorite quinn hughes quotes was
11:29what did he say bill garan sacked up sacked up and gave what he was worth
11:36that was a good one um but it was quite the couple of days for the rangers neighbors you mentioned
11:44the islanders but the devils too devils fired president and general manager tom fitzgerald on
11:51monday and then the next day or no the day before the islanders fired head coach patrick
11:58wow on easter sunday and hired peter devore with only four games left in the regular season
12:04in the middle of a do or die stretch to make the playoffs might i add but it's kind of
12:11funny that
12:11of the three local teams and where they're all are at at this moment in time the rangers are the
12:17only
12:18ones not making major managerial or coaching changes right well they did that last year with
12:25laviolette you brought in mike sullivan that's that's obviously a long-term plan they've been
12:30pretty periodic with the changes so every couple years every couple years um so all right we'll
12:38start in jersey that happened first i i signed in jersey in 2017 tommy fitz was there he's been
12:45there a long time and he's worked his way up and i i honestly i love how he communicates to
12:52his players i loved how involved he was uh ray shiro was the general manager and fitz he was a
12:57assistant gm at the time then he got you know interim and then promoted and i like like he went
13:03out and
13:05gets timo meyer he went out and signed a proven stanley cup champion guy and andre palat he's he's
13:13you know he's got some talent the grits kid looks pretty good they have
13:18hemanaho who looks like he's could be a decent player you've had terrible injuries on your back
13:23end every year that jack hughes goes down it's been troubling the signing the extension for markstrom
13:28maybe that looks bad but like goalies play into that sort of age range and do well and he's such
13:34a big guy they also weren't having much luck at the position in the past either well i know yeah
13:40i mean
13:40since you know schneis who was unbelievable when they were a terrible team the aging team like
13:48they're an exciting team with some great forwards i mean he shares underrated they obviously have
13:53jack hughes you got meyer you got like this kid mercer who maybe he's going to be on the way
13:57out now
13:57i don't know because who the heck knows you got a resurgence from connor brown like i can't i can't
14:03get mad at any of the things he did he tried to move dougie hamilton he tried to get quinn
14:08hughes in
14:08uh he's got luke hughes who's going to be a really good defenseman you got nemich who's number
14:14two overall looks like a player now if you want to move him i guess you can they don't have
14:19a
14:19ton of size my question to you is how much do you realistically think not bringing quinn hughes to
14:25new jersey played a factor in it though look i don't know if it's the play i mean like that's
14:34a lot
14:34of control to give yeah three players because it's kind of like especially if luke turns into
14:40what you think like i get it they probably all and i'm not saying that they do you know
14:48take like abuse their power or whatever they're going to have power as players like that we've
14:52never seen because like two of them are superstars want like the third is maybe on his way and i'm
14:57trying to be i'm trying to be complimentary here but if i'm a manager or even a coach it's kind
15:02of like
15:03yeah what if you have to come down on one for just not saying that will happen they seem like
15:08pretty driven hypothetical it's just kind of like opening up a possibility where it's kind of like
15:15if i'm a coach of that team like what if they just go right over my head like get this
15:19guy out of here
15:19it's i only say it because it's happened with guys in the past on different teams that have gotten
15:26big deals and they weren't brothers i'm just saying like you know there was a situation a couple years
15:31ago where like an owner signed a couple guys to big deals and you know those guys
15:38had the owner's ear like above the gm it was kind of like you just have to be careful so
15:43fitzy i get
15:44it he tried to make it happen yeah and it would have set him up like for their on ice
15:49play for a long
15:49time i just i can't really fault him for jack getting hurt and his goaltenders being bad uh i really
15:56thought they turned a corner when they came back in that series against the rangers a couple years ago but
16:00you know he's been at it a while so sometimes these things just run their course i think fitzy
16:06will get another job because i honestly like what you see he's done and no one hits on everything
16:10he's done all right now the patrick wah thing i was like what yeah that was that was i i
16:18won't say
16:18i i was not as shocked as i was when they fired barry trotz i remember where i was i
16:25remember like the
16:26exact moment that happened i was in pittsburgh it was i think it was the playoffs i was with larry
16:33we were at a coffee shop next door at our hotel and we were sitting there and i like almost
16:40threw
16:40my phone across the whole room because i was like i was like oh my god they fired barry trotz
16:46but
16:46so i wasn't as surprised as when they fired barry but i was definitely surprised just because
16:54four or five games left in the season there's a real possibility that they could be gearing up for
17:00a first round playoff series against the hurricanes in a week and a half if you know some if things
17:05work
17:06out in their favor so that's obviously a lot but yeah it definitely was it definitely caught me by
17:13surprise there but i think that the whole you know bruce cassidy john tortorella you know that
17:19just kind of opens the door and gives these other teams an idea you know well i mean it's like
17:25yeah
17:26and they probably had their eye on on pete deborah for a little while and they're like we gotta get
17:30him now because teams are yeah that's what it was about at the end of the day it's jumping the
17:35line
17:35to hire peter deborah and i spoke to him at the olympics actually really great guy really you know
17:41really like the way he sees the game and the way that he talks about his players um but yeah
17:51but uh but that's that's definitely what it was about but it was two really aggressive moves from
17:58the rangers next door neighbors there yeah i mean and you know you see torch back in the league that
18:05one i'm like what do you want cassidy to do because he i mean you can't go in there and
18:08make saves
18:09and vegas is a good hockey team that gets no saves i think their last two goals against the
18:14save percentage um save percentage rather it's but you can't go in there and start kicking like
18:21he's not gonna throw the pats on uh but that's vegas you know that's that's life in the big city
18:27uh with yeah with the islanders um yeah it's for now and the future and deborah's been to two cup
18:34finals and like how many how many conference finals like i've been to uh four three four five i don't
18:41know um a lot yeah he's obviously a really really really good coach um coaching for a long time so
18:48well respected as in terms of what he knows and how he can manipulate things but they need more too
18:54like schaefer's been unbelievable um you know they make some moves i just matthew darsh is
19:02i like what he's done i like how he operates and i used to play against him in the minors
19:08actually so
19:08it's you know it's cool that uh they're in the news it's something to talk about it's a wild thing
19:14it sucks for patrick wad easter sunday come on man yeah easter sunday
19:21harsh harsh bones blown up yeah no but i mean it kind of got me thinking about you know obviously
19:28how it how it pertains to the rangers and obviously the rangers are in a situation where
19:33they're not looking to make changes because they just brought in a new coach it's its first year
19:37even though it didn't go the way that they thought it was going to obviously mike sullivan is
19:43chris jerry's guy he wanted to hire him before gallant even so um you know that's all set in
19:51stone but the way that i it was making me think about how things change so quickly in this league
19:59you know like even even if even if he has been granted this runway he as in chris jerry has
20:06been
20:06granted this runway to fix the mistakes that he's made with this rangers roster
20:10that axe is always hanging man and somebody always has other another set of hands that are that can
20:17let that fly and as we've known this this uh msg owner is not a patient guy even though he
20:23said he
20:23was going to be patient on wfan and his most recent public interview but that and run out quickly
20:33especially if the results aren't there i mean i was thinking about it if if they fall flat next season
20:40that's three seasons without the playoffs and basically like a mini dark age you know like how
20:46how much longer does the runway extend if the results aren't there yeah but
20:55chris jerry and mike sullivan they can't like you can't look at it like that you have to look at
20:59what
20:59you have and then what do you need and you know i think a little more mobile size i think
21:07that's the
21:08way the whole league's going especially in the back end it's a mobile size some physicality a couple
21:14more defense like uh you know you knocked it out of the park with vlad gavrikov signing i think
21:20if you could sign two more of them you would but are they out there yeah it's gonna fit is
21:26it gonna
21:26work i don't know you have some young players that i think it's encouraging to see what they might be
21:32able to do next year it's and i'll if i go right down the list and think like his laugh
21:37from here
21:37figured out as he matured he's 24 that's fairly young in terms of like an adult perfect age
21:44for him to take off if it has taken him this long i think noel lava is a guy that
21:50can
21:51be that middle six sort of checking center that's just going to add a little bit of offense each year
21:57because of how he plays his discipline and it seems to be how he's wired um will cooley went
22:04through some struggles and sort of figured it out this year and then okay is he a 20 goal guy
22:08again
22:08boom look at this is he going to take another step he can you have a lot of options you
22:16have a lot of
22:16players that look like they can play bottom six roles now is that ideal i mean i get it it's
22:20not as
22:21exciting but if you fill four lines with guys that play well together and play hard you're a
22:27playoff team the boston bruins just showed it you get some big trees on the back end you get great
22:32goaltending they had one line essentially all year then they got like off the scrap heap victor
22:39arvidsson who no one wanted i still think he's a good player it gave another chance to a guy like
22:44casey middlestad and pavel zaka obviously he's a good player we've seen a lot of him they're
22:49unbelievable they're in the playoffs it's not it's not crazy it's just you got to see if it works and
22:55hopefully the guys that have been around a long time making a lot of money another year doesn't
23:01make them go the wrong way they get better because they're motivated they had a long offseason
23:06yeah i'm curious to see realistically how many of these young guys who have
23:11joined the mix are on the roster at the start of next season i think that'll be really because i
23:17just
23:17feel like there's there's a lot of guys that are in the mix now with nhl experience but realistically
23:24it's yeah six spots in the bottom six so yeah only a finite amount but it'll be curious because he
23:33also
23:33got matt rempe is going to be back in the mix adam edstrom is still here guys like that so
23:39could could
23:41have edged matthew rempe out of the lineup i guess we'll have to see yeah that'll be uh that'll be
23:48an interesting interesting summer for a lot of guys hopefully they're motivated and rising tide lifts
23:54all boats gay pro had a hat trick against the red wings first in his career became the fourth rangers
24:03rookie in the past 30 years to record a hat trick and one of only five rookies in the league
24:07to do so
24:08this season what have you seen from his game over the last few games well what do we like what
24:16did
24:16we talk about when he sort of came up i said you know he's such a cerebral player he can
24:20he thinks
24:21the game at a pretty elite level and you know he he fell in the draft because he's skating these
24:29kids
24:29that come in the league now they're man they're fast they're all so fast um he can do things that
24:36and and think fast he gets he anticipates while he gets to places and his skating's fine like it's
24:41not i don't think it's a detriment to him i think he's been i think he's been fine obviously he's
24:46kept
24:47up and he goes to the right areas and he can make plays he can play with high level players
24:51and
24:51understand their game and what makes them tick and that's like a crazy skill it's really hard to scout
24:58and then it's because it's just so hard to understand if it'll translate or not it looks like
25:02it's translating so as he gets you know bigger and stronger develops more reps at this speed he's
25:08going to get better and better man he's he's an exciting one he's a fun one is he going to
25:13be 120
25:13point guy i mean i don't know i don't i wouldn't anticipate that but man he can play yeah no
25:22it's been
25:22good so far um how much do you feel like an accomplishment like a hat trick helps a player who
25:29is in
25:29these early stages of translating his game to the nhl level uh hat tricks is pretty hard to do
25:36scoring goals is pretty hard to do in the nhl and um you get random hat tricks from random guys
25:44sometimes but like when you're a young player a skilled offensive player counted on the score you're
25:49going against tough matchups and you get a hat trick especially after two guys are going to look
25:54for you it's a sign of a a team that likes the guy and you're trying to like there's so
26:00many
26:00positives from it i mean but it's it's a little feather in your cap but it doesn't really you don't
26:06really confidence probably 100 i mean steps got a hat trick in his first game and then i think he
26:12went like 17 without scoring way back when he one of those rookies who had a hat trick in the
26:18last 30
26:18years you know he scored those three in buffalo to start the year was that 20 10 11 or 11
26:2612
26:26and then he went a long time without scoring but he ended up being you know he's a good offensive
26:31player he's a great ranger so um it's certainly helpful to you carry it with you oh yeah hold on
26:40it the following season but don't expect to score hat tricks night one the following year
26:46another young kid who deserves a shout out is matthew robertson who was the rangers bill masterton
26:52trophy nominee and that award is given to the player who best exemplifies the qualities of
26:58perseverance sportsmanship and dedication to hockey and let me tell you if anybody is dedicated
27:04it is mr matthew robertson he put in his time in the american hockey league for sure and he
27:12is now an every night guy for the rangers this season which you know that's a pretty big jump
27:19to make after being there for so long and not really getting any sort of opportunity he made
27:24his debut in the second to last game of last season when nothing mattered and it was just kind of
27:30like
27:30a why not type of situation but he came into training camp and mike sullivan liked what he saw he
27:37started as a 70 and now he's been playing every single night but it didn't really start that way
27:43which you know i think is a testament to him gaining the coaching staff's trust as well so um it's
27:50been
27:50about as as good of a first season as it could be for for matthew robertson individually i have it
27:56here
27:56five years nine months and 29 days after the rangers drafted him 49th overall he made his debut
28:03that's a long time yeah it's a really long time yeah um yeah that is a long time i was
28:12that was
28:13probably around there i went to four years of school after i was drafted it's i mean it's a hard
28:18league and guys arrive at different times so congratulations to him that's a uh that's a
28:24pretty cool that's a that's a pretty cool recognition um you don't do it for the recognition
28:30but it's cool that he's recognized you know four years at bc is a lot more fun than four years
28:37on the
28:37uh on the bus eating crap food and driving around in the american league but credit to him he uh
28:47he just you don't stop the goal is the goal and you keep trying to achieve it each day so
28:51congrats to him
28:53and in some front office news for the rangers they announced that kevin maxwell will be rejoining
28:59the organization as director of player personnel and director of pro scouting he's going to be
29:06working alongside john lilly again on all things related to player personnel maxwell will oversee the
29:13pro side and lilly is in charge of the amateur side and maxwell came from the blues where he was
29:19a pro scout and general manager of the springfield thunderbirds the team's ahl affiliate for the past
29:26four seasons um not exactly a brand new voice rangers organization but yeah someone new in the
29:36organization i guess he worked for the rangers for 14 seasons from 2008 to 2022 11 as director of
29:44professional scouting beginning in 2011 12 and you were there during his reign right how much
29:51how much interaction do players actually have with guys in that sort of position um it depends kind of
29:59on how the team operates the management team and uh so some teams not a ton and then other teams
30:06might
30:07be a little bit more i remember in tampa they'd have their pro scouting meetings i don't know if it
30:13was
30:14kind of all come in and also kind of depends on your sort of status as a player in terms
30:20of how long
30:22you've been around in the league and whatnot so yeah um but yeah new york not a ton not a
30:28ton in new
30:28york um other teams maybe a little more maybe a little less but tell you what they're uh they're gonna
30:35be busy the next few months i mean you got some college free agents maybe you can look at and
30:41you
30:41gotta keep that prospect pool stockpiled high so maybe if you know maybe he makes he picks something
30:48up uh four years with st louis you know doug armstrong's pretty well respected guy working
30:53under him who knows hopefully hopefully it helps the organization yeah no i i mean i was looking at it
31:02and they're just there hasn't been a lot of changes to the rangers scouting or development department
31:08since jury came in he hired like three guys in 2022-23 um i think mark stall is like the
31:16most
31:16recent addition as a development assistant yeah and and tanner glass has been there since i think 2019-20
31:23so not a lot of movement over there and obviously that's been an area the team has not exactly excelled
31:31so bringing another guy back and maybe he has some new ideas yeah hopefully we'll see all timing
31:42though again like the season's not over you just guys are moving just getting ahead of it i guess
31:49you know get your guy get your guy jump the line get your guy should be all right motto yeah
31:58one more home game huh one more one more one more one more and then we end in dallas sunrise
32:07and
32:07tampa tampa is my favorite place in the entire nhl tour so i'll be very very happy tampa's a great
32:13place that's a great place and then we can get into all the off-season fun yeah forward to it
32:22yes on that you'll be talking about rangers off-season stuff while covering the playoffs
32:27that's fine that's fine i can do it yeah you're okay with that totally all right great all right
32:35that's a good spot for us to the end give us a thumbs up comment down below what are you
32:41liking
32:41what you're what you're seeing from these kids lately matthew robertson's masters and trophy
32:47nomination what do you what the hell do you think is going on with the devils and islanders
32:52let us know and we'll talk again next week
32:58you
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