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00:01we have a special episode of up in the blue seats this week if you're watching on video right now
00:08you can see brian and i are actually together in the same city so we thought let's share a screen
00:14for once um but apologies for the scheduling conflicts last week uh just to quickly recap
00:22where the rangers have been and what they've been doing real quick they had a five-day break
00:27at one point then they lost four to one to edmonton on home they beat the st louis blues 3
00:34-1
00:34snapped a four-game losing streak in the process they beat philadelphia 3-2 and they beat seattle
00:43in seattle 4-3 to kick off this four-game road trip out west they are 8-2-0 at
00:52home picked up their
00:53second win on the road in seattle pretty good couple of weeks for the rangers and we were pretty
00:59down on them just last time we were recording so where are you at now uh i'm kind of back
01:06where
01:07we were at i think in the preseason i think this is sort of the ups and downs that you're
01:12going to see
01:14with sort of what this roster is in the beginning part of the season now we thought that prior to
01:22understand or seeing igor get hurt so i think they are they're playing well i think we're gonna have
01:29to say that they're playing for what they are they are playing well there is obviously there was a bit
01:36of an issue on the road and they got a i thought a really nice win against seattle now let's
01:41take it
01:42back to you know st louis looks great they should beat that st louis team similar records similar sort
01:47of i think i think they're kind of in a similar spot in terms of where they are as a
01:52franchise
01:53you have to beat philly and they came from behind to do that so that's a great that's a great
01:59sign with
01:59a big goal from your big free agent and then you know just taking care of business i love the
02:06start
02:07i love two periods and being able to see corpus all come in and play really well i thought that
02:13those were i mean you look at the positives are they a perfect club right now no i don't think
02:17i
02:17don't think anyone is i think carolina is probably closest to it but this is the race to be in
02:23the top
02:23three in the metro first comeback win in philly in the season too i mean yeah that's the team you
02:29want to beat and i say at home against st louis you have to win that game and then you
02:33have to
02:33beat the teams below you especially in your division so yeah there were parts of that game in philly
02:41they probably don't love but not a lot i think it was a pretty good game i think the game
02:45in st louis
02:47was pretty convincing or at home against st louis was pretty convincing and then you know the seattle
02:51game is is what it is you have to go on the road against a team that plays pretty gritty
02:55you know
02:56they have a lack of superstardom but they come at you in waves so i mean so far so good
03:03big test uh
03:04their next game or upcoming game against edmonton that's a different animal but you win or you learn
03:09and let's not forget how decimated this rangers team has been with injuries and more just continue
03:18to pile up the rangers just placed sean dursey on ir after he had been battling something the last
03:25couple of weeks missed few practices for some maintenance days and now he's officially sidelined
03:31with a lower body injury but he was skating today at the optional morning skate in a red non-contact
03:37jersey so his injury is retroactive to october 26 so he can be activated and put back in the lineup
03:44at
03:44any time i don't think it should be too much longer um you know scott morrow has gotten a nice
03:51look
03:51here because of that what have you seen from number 60 and and do the rangers have the depth
03:56on the back end to make it through this it looks like it um you know it's interesting and we
04:04can get
04:04to robertson too but with morrow i do you know his his agility i think his edges are pretty good
04:11and i
04:11think he's added some speed to his game i think last year he got surprised uh on like breakouts and
04:18they weren't good last year getting the puck out of their own end and it's not on him the whole
04:22i mean
04:22the whole yeah the team had some trouble with it i think minus the top pair so he looked like
04:28he looks
04:29like he has improved in that he looks way more comfortable under pressure and you know without
04:34pressure and he's jumping into plays so that's a confidence thing if he has that confidence he can
04:40make the simple plays he's that'll grow he'll continue to try to jump up and i think if he continues
04:46to get
04:47minutes and confidence he can be a part of the offense a little bit more which if you have a
04:54guy in sheltered minutes number one you want to be able to defend you want to be able to exit
04:58the
04:58zone but if you can get some bonus offense out of it it just adds so much depth to your
05:04backing
05:04and i think improving his skating was something that he really wanted to work on in the off season
05:09and i feel like i have definitely noticed that yeah yeah it's evident it's definitely evident
05:14yeah now albert smitz is now week to week with an upper body injury he was a very last minute
05:21scratch in seattle he took warm-ups and matthew robertson was telling us today i don't know if
05:27you heard this at locker room but he was talking about how you know he basically had to take it
05:31off all the gear and they were like oh nope you're going in and he was like oh god he
05:35said he went up
05:36there and skated a really hard couple laps and and then he was thrown in there uh but yeah it
05:43gives
05:43matthew robertson a chance to finally play in front of his home crowd in edmonton remember he
05:49was scratched last time when he came back here after playing in a series of games so that was
05:55that wasn't that was pretty unfortunate for him but he said he was super excited and has up to 15
06:00friends and family members come tonight so very excited for matthew robertson um other notes and
06:07transactions james reimer very very brief era for the new york rangers was placed on waivers for the
06:15purpose of contract termination with the return of unis corpus allo as you mentioned how did how did
06:21corpus allo look to you um 25 saves in that game so i thought he was awesome and there was
06:29not a ton
06:29of action in the first 40 minutes but there was some you know it was some difficult moments for him
06:35because there were deflections there were rebounds late in the second period you saw a complete
06:39breakdown with i think three seconds left where i believe was vince dunn on the doorstep it was just
06:48it was a breakdown and he had to come across and look very confident looked very big had control of
06:54his his rebounds made a few you know great stick saves that i think are positional saves so he has
07:02his net he knows where he's at sometimes with not a lot of reps that could be the problem and
07:06he was
07:07he was perfect with that got whistles when he had to especially in the third period because
07:12the momentum that was mounting in seattle's favor and he hung in there it's he made the next save
07:18yeah he had two really great periods as did the rangers he didn't have a ton of work he had
07:22a ton of
07:23work in the third and you look at it like you know three goals on was it 28 shots
07:29he was better than what that stat line says and i definitely think rust was expected so the fact
07:37that it wasn't so much of a factor early on um was definitely an encouraging sign and i do feel
07:43like
07:44now that corpus allo's back the rangers you have to see how he settles in and what the goaltending
07:51situation and tandem really looks like before making an executive decision on what to do there moving
07:56forward um they have been banking on him stabilizing it um but how he performs obviously will likely
08:04answer the question for the rangers moving forward yeah and i don't i think they're in an okay place
08:10right now uh i think now you don't have to do anything if you can do a tandem a real
08:17tandem i think
08:18rob i'm guessing i don't have any information on this but probably that's the ideal scenario because
08:25you have a young goaltender that could be a part of this going forward giving him games where he
08:33stays in it and not long layoffs so you can almost play every other a couple here a couple there
08:38i
08:38think that's i think big picture that makes sense um with the i think luxury of if like one of
08:46their
08:46games slips they can take a week or 10 days get back with the goaltending coach trying to get your
08:53game back that way and you have a viable option so it could go any number of directions i guess
08:59it
08:59can go two directions with either guy but um i don't think adding or bring someone in and losing
09:06another asset for that trade piece would is necessary now so they they held the fort
09:11dilly grand held the fort yeah 12 straight games yeah um it's their they've weathered that storm yeah
09:17no i agree um it should at least give them you know some stability and and a normal a sense
09:26of
09:26normalcy with the goaltending schedule which i feel like they have severely been missing uh and last but
09:32not least uh my umass guy defenseman mark del guizo was recalled on sunday for the extra body on d
09:39just named captain of the wolf pack just won less than a month almost into his first year with a
09:47with a new team so says a lot about us umass though i think oh totally totally you know when
09:53i came in
09:54to the american league when you got named captain it was like a death sentence to your nhl really yeah
09:59yeah they uh the older guys that would get the sea were just like it's over my my dream is
10:06not the
10:07case anymore we've seen captains come up all the time so leadership is leadership you want the guy
10:14that's going to be there obviously if you can find one but they are a younger group i think they
10:18have
10:18some veterans but they're going to be some guys going up and down yep uh he is clearly one of
10:23them
10:24johnny brudzinski with like a word
10:28um moving on to some hot topics from the last couple weeks something new the rangers have tried the last
10:36three games not so sure it will be the case tonight in edmonton though but will cooley
10:41at third line center what do you make of that move brian and how do you see it when a
10:47player makes a
10:48positional change like that i think bolino going down is why different things have to happen and
10:56it is not a straight line in development for any player and noah laba offensively has
11:02not produced so taking a little bit off of his plate to simplify and ask him to do
11:08very specific things to help the team win might be part of that will cooley is a good skater he
11:16is
11:17aware and conscientious defensively he plays a hard brand and has been taking face-offs
11:22you know for i think off and on for a couple years especially on his on the left side now
11:28defensive zone draws on the right side on a penalty kill or whatnot it's a totally different animal
11:34and i don't think he's in that position very often um because you have control over who's going out
11:39taking that draw but it's so much more to the position having said that the game has evolved so
11:45much where it's it's not center left wing right wing as much it still is to an extent but it's
11:52not as
11:53much it's more f1 f2 f3 offensively and defensively so if you're f3 in the offensive zone
11:58you're f1 on the way back right that's your low forward and in meetings with coaches in the past
12:05watching tape watching video it's our low forward is here we want him here or this is our low forward
12:11doing a good job that could be any one of the three forwards usually it's the center and you want
12:17it to
12:17be the center for that coach but everyone needs to understand we're seeing more teams do man-on-man
12:23defense it's it's a five-man concept it's a five-man unit we've heard mike sullivan talk about fives
12:29playing in fives being around in fives that's part of it so i don't know the adjustment is
12:35that difficult i'm a center who could easily go to wing and i played some d
12:41i'm biased i think centers you have to be able to think a little bit more but you're in the
12:45middle
12:45of the storm so regardless how well you can skate it's your brain it's your anticipation it's where
12:51your stick goes that might take a few reps i think he's fine i don't think it's long term
12:56but it could be as he continues to progress depending on what they have the center depth
13:02which is it's thin right now yeah i didn't i didn't hate it just under the circumstances
13:07and i thought that of all the players on that team to make that ask of will cooley is probably
13:15the
13:15most perfect guy just in terms of i mean you could see it in that first game that he was
13:20skating in
13:20the middle how hard he was working make it work you know how much effort he was putting into the
13:26role
13:26physically it is the hardest position yeah and again i played all of them so regardless of what
13:32anyone thinks you mean that's why defensemen can play 24 25 sometimes 28
13:37a center playing 21 minutes is still harder you're burning way more calories so it's it's just
13:42you got to play 200 feet it's the whole ring i think what i liked the most about the move
13:47is that
13:48it allowed noah lava to drop down to the fourth line center luke glendennig came out
13:56and melash comes in matt rempey comes in and i thought that that fourth line was just considerably
14:02faster the last few games just making way more of an impact with their limited ice time than i felt
14:11like the rangers were getting before melash was on that line it was returned to that line that's just
14:16my absolute observation they're asked to get it out of their end get it in the other end and leave
14:21it
14:21there if you can for the top lines to go in and if you can play with it and and
14:26have zone time that's a
14:29bonus thought they played fast they played physical they were they did absolutely what you would
14:35picture that's what you would draw up that's this is what you need to do to help us tonight and
14:39they
14:39did that it does look like luke glendennig will be back in the lineup tonight against edmonton but
14:45don't quote me on that until you see it on the ice because you never know with these things but
14:51another great story from the last couple weeks ty cartier absolutely fantastic three goals and five
15:00points in his last five games he makes his return to seattle for the first time the very team that
15:07gave up on him and waived him last year to the rangers benefit um what do you like the most
15:14about
15:15cartier's game brian and how much of the steel has he been oh well he is he has been a
15:22steel jason
15:22botrell we we connected in in seattle he's uh managing seattle now and he just knew he told
15:29sully because they have a relationship from pittsburgh you're gonna love this kid and you know he's they
15:33just couldn't find a place for him he knew he was giving up a quality human being and a quality
15:39player
15:39and now you know again we say it all the time and luck is when opportunity or when preparation
15:45meets opportunity and he's obviously prepared he obviously works extremely hard in his craft
15:51he's developed so you'll see the doggedness and just the relentless you know like he looks like the
15:59old 24 that i played with really honest to god it's the guy will not be stopped and they'll put
16:06himself on the line just to help the team he plays in straight lines he plays physical but he has
16:12voice and you know there's there's been plays in the philly game where he's back checked and gotten
16:18fucking high ice of his own end and made a poised play that's created another chance uh his goal
16:23against billy the game winner he he's the one in the corner getting the puck out of the zone in
16:28the d
16:28zone and in seven seconds he has the puck on the stick and it's in the net because he sees
16:33the play
16:33bump back he finds ice he notices it's adam fox so he gets open with speed it's on his tape
16:39he flies
16:39in and scores like his iq is higher than he's got credit for because of his work ethic and that's
16:48you know he's a second line player now mike's all just put him on a power play because he's leading
16:52the team in five on five points it's like am i crazy do i have to am i overthinking this
16:57why don't
16:57i put him on yeah that was great that was that was an answer to my question and yeah i
17:02just i loved
17:03i love the way that sullivan was like am i crazy for thinking this like just like bouncing it off
17:08the coaching staff like i'm not insane for thinking that we should put ty cartier on the second
17:13power play you know right but i mean if i feel like especially sullivan the whole organization has preached
17:19you know getting the results and and getting rewarded for it and i feel like ty cartier is just
17:25such a perfect example and even sullivan said it himself like what a great story he's been this
17:30season and yeah he's he he's earned that second power play and and those uh man advantage minutes
17:36for sure and and he's been a pleasure to watch and of course in seattle you ask him you have
17:42any
17:42extra motivation coming into this game the team that gave up on you nope not at all i'm a member
17:48of
17:48the new york rangers i want to play well for the new york rangers we were like sullivan was like
17:53yeah
17:53he's i don't buy it so it was like he's he's a nice kid but i'm sure there was some
17:59added motivation
18:00in there and and he was he was a big part of that seattle game for sure um another guy
18:06who is
18:07starting to eat up pavel dorfeev has his first big moment in a rangers jersey the game tying power
18:15play goal in the third period against the flyers but what comes to mind about that game was
18:22mike sullivan talking about how he's consulted former rangers head coach john tortorella who had
18:29dorofeev in vegas at the end of last season just consulting with him on on how to get pavel
18:36going and and what he should be doing to try and put him in a better i mean what did
18:41you make of
18:42of hearing that i was a little surprised with how forthcoming mike sullivan was about that you know
18:47for a guy who's not in the coaching in the league right now too well so big moment right tying
18:55the
18:55game up on a beautiful shot that's what you know we know the league know everyone knows that is what
19:01dorfeev can do and that's what he does so well he can beat goalies from distance with that shot
19:09when you if you if you want it as a coach you want to get the most out of every
19:15player and
19:17you don't want any player to think this is what i am and i can't improve there's so many great
19:22stories
19:23of players having long great careers who always want to improve like a sydney crosby's that type of
19:29player and you know you have so many more examples marty saint louis who was still trying to get better
19:34when he was in new york his last two years these guys just constantly want to improve so i think
19:41everybody wants that for dorfeev and i'm not saying he doesn't but there's ways mike sullivan is trying
19:47to get through to him saying you you can be better in these areas that will give you more chances
19:53to
19:53have the puck in scoring areas and you know there's a battle that there's a battle level that is expected
20:00and he plays bit perimeter he wants to find quiet ice get the shot score and that is what he
20:06has needed
20:07to do that's why they got him but you still have to pull on the rope that everybody else is
20:12pulling on
20:12and i think that's what they're trying to get out of it and we remember in that game i think
20:16he played
20:17the first six minutes of the third period he wasn't having a particularly strong game he was losing some
20:21battles he was reaching a bit and i think they just i mean you want to see a player in
20:27a battle
20:27where it's a 50 50 kind of get over that puck and protect it you don't even need to necessarily
20:32skate away with it you just can't let the other team skate away with it and that happened a few
20:36times in the philly game and he got his opportunity again because you have to do that with star players
20:42and any i think it was an emotional thing for him because it was he understands he was fighting
20:49of course and those things can happen with confidence you can you're if you have confidence
20:53it's crazy but you skate faster you are stronger it's there's no doubt and there's no wasted energy
21:00stressing he was better in seattle scored what turned out to be the game-winning goal
21:05on a beautiful finish and so that is momentum he is stats look great but his game is coming as
21:14well
21:15which is like that for a streaky guy that's where you can end sort of a streakiness that if you
21:21bring
21:21that every night you're going to get chances every night and sullivan touched on it in that post game
21:26press conference about you know the adjustment that is probably coming with moving from a team like
21:34vegas with talent like jack eichel and mitch marner those the yeah those guys being the ones feeding him
21:42the puck it's a different team it's a differently built team it operates much differently and for a
21:50guy with his skill set i'm sure that was an adjustment and i agree i think it's also about
21:55like also pulling in the same direction as yeah as the rest of the team is at the same time
22:00it's an
22:00area that needs to improve um but starting to to heat up a little bit and starting to find a
22:08bit of
22:08a groove which is always a good thing for the rangers and hopefully can carry over into a game
22:14against the edmonton oilers tonight um but going back to the seattle game uh they obviously almost
22:22blew a four nothing lead you kind of touched on that third period a little bit but they gave up
22:27three unanswered in the final 20 minutes and were holding on for dear life yeah part of part of me
22:33felt
22:33like it truly felt like the jet lag had just hit them in the third period um because they really
22:39played such a strong 40 minutes of that game and it felt like they had a big enough lead but
22:46momentum swings and yeah it's completely swung against them yeah and you shouldn't have too much
22:52going from east to west to be honest with you and the game certainly turned and it turned
22:59you know done scores that goal at the end of the second that we talked about corpus all makes a
23:04big save who knows right but it could have benefited them it could have snapped them out of it with
23:0920
23:10minutes break but it's a four nothing game there were a few times i thought they left seattle off
23:17they let seattle off the hook with lateral plays in the middle of the offensive zone that were
23:24not 100 plays listen you have a four nothing lead and it's a younger team so they're going to have
23:29to learn this a four nothing game unless you are 200 short you just roll it back down the wall
23:38if you make a team defend and win a battle and then have to come 200 feet the clock is
23:44your best friend
23:45so it does nothing matters other than make them come the whole way and the rangers got a little
23:51loose with that some guys trying to make plays you don't need five nothing or six nothing you just
23:56need the zero and when the one goes in and then it's a power play they get on the board
24:01again and
24:02it's a great give and go and veneers finds eberly on the back side they had adjusted their power play
24:08seattle did which i thought was a nice adjustment they wanted to play in the high ice the rangers took
24:12that away so they played low and made a great play now it's four two that's a way different
24:19from a mental scenario and so now you're forced to use less of your bench sullivan's mixing and
24:25matching guys are thinking about exactly who's up next and the rhythm of the game is different
24:30that's how momentum happens and then everyone in seattle woke up because it was a very quiet
24:35building for 40 days yes oh completely i mean when i got done had the the goal that made it
24:42a one
24:42goal game the building went absolutely insane and i was somewhat preparing for it to be heading to
24:49to overtime but no they absolutely pulled that one out and i'd wrote that written this yesterday just
24:55about how i feel like they do need to improve the way that they manage those momentum swings because i
25:01even go back to the first time they played the oilers connor mcdavid flying down scoring 50 seconds
25:09into the game immediate momentum swing and edmondson's favor and it there was no answer
25:16for it he he's different of course that's one thing is it's against the uh against the upper echelon
25:24teams in the league who have guys like that yeah it could be a caprice hub it could be matthews
25:29you
25:29know whoever it is because there are more teams that have that than the rangers that are going to come
25:34in
25:35and single-handedly swing the momentum in their favor and i feel like the rangers do need to
25:40find a better way to manage it and to have find an answer for it than they've shown this season
25:46puck placement yeah puck placement is so huge and obviously you need to win the battles and
25:51you don't want to be on your heels giving team space so if you have puck placement that's
25:56mike sullivan says it all the time dictate the terms if if i know my winger's putting it soft into
26:02the strong corner i'm i don't have to think i'm going straight to that corner for an altercation
26:07there's going to be a physical i want that puck to stop there i don't want if i can get
26:10there fast
26:11enough if i can't i'm still going to bump the guy but i have to get back into play to
26:14support if it
26:15goes to the weak side f3's coming down the guy that dumped it is now f3 and i'm going to
26:19help him
26:20in the corner and those are that all starts because i know my winger is putting it there when you
26:25want
26:25to make lateral plays you're not quite sure and then oh now he dumped it in all right we're oh
26:30now i'm
26:30stickling late and that defenseman can he doesn't have to keep it on the wall he can put it on
26:35the
26:36other defenseman's tape now we're back on yeah so puck placement is so huge yeah no it's i think it's
26:43it's did my did my hands yeah paint the picture i think so they're big enough for sure
26:51uh all right we got three more games left on this road trip which city are you looking forward to
26:57going to most i mean i'm going to i'm here in edmonton and then we go to calgary but then
27:03i'm
27:04leaving oh you're not going so i would say on this road trip palm beach is my excited destination we're
27:10going how nice hockey tournament must be nice must be nice now i'm actually excited for vancouver
27:15vancouver is always really fun we're gonna go out for some steak in calgary yeah getting a nice steak
27:21in with the media a bunch of dumb media we don't know any um but yeah i mean it's kind
27:28of funny how
27:29this uh this western swing has changed over the years like i feel like the rangers should win at
27:37least two of the next three games so that is why winning in seattle was so big if you win
27:43a couple at
27:43home and then you leave and you can get more points than games big at five six seven points
27:51that's a great road trip and you're putting yourself in a spot where
27:56you know carolina's carolina the devils are i think a legitimate playoff team if you can try to get to
28:04the two spot as close as you can yeah that's great because you i think washington is coming but then
28:10i
28:10think that's kind of it's a three-team race for two spots the atlantic is
28:18first and second in the wild card and third fourth fifth and sixth so or third fourth and fifth yeah
28:23um the top five wild card teams are all the atlantic division right now as i looked at it two
28:28days ago
28:28it might be might have changed by one but it is a gauntlet so you're gonna get you're gonna get
28:35three teams in the metro you gotta yeah 100 so these are big games every single one of them
28:42but i think i i mean obviously the oilers are playing pretty ridiculous right now but
28:48they uh you know you want to see the rangers start to pick up some wins against the top 10
28:54in the nhl because they haven't played all of them but the only team that i wrote i wrote this
29:00i don't
29:00think it's changed but the only team in the top 10 they have wins against is tampa twice twice and
29:07tampa's a jet and it was a two convincing wins too so that's not it's nothing to sneeze at but
29:13it's you know you have to choose um it's over it already happened so we have to look forward right
29:18listen edmonton this game is this is the best team they'll play they have done what they've done
29:25without two or three forwards that they count on in their lineup they've missed matias heckholm at
29:31times it is a healthy edmonton team surging and devin levi looks like he's playing pretty confident
29:40so the holes that edmonton cup finalist edmonton have had in the past this team is a much better team
29:50than those teams and it's not because connor's on a record-setting pace it's not because leon looks
29:55like he's going to get 160 points and lose to connor by 50 it's crazy that's crazy but now
30:02zach hyman's back and jason dickinson is back and kapanen looks like he has a good role and they're
30:06getting pod coles and this guy who is a unicorn because he'll fight anyone and he's a top six
30:13player but he's playing on the bottom so they have they have depth they're being used correctly and
30:19they have i don't care what everyone say about a brilliant head coach yeah that should be it should be
30:25a
30:25good one so we'll see how that goes and i think that puts a bow on our first episode in
30:32the same
30:33screen together live give us a thumbs up like subscribe tell us if you like this format better
30:40uh we'll try to take it into consideration when we can um yeah it's pretty hard but we do our
30:47best
30:47we do our best um let us know what you think of how ty cartier is doing let us know
30:52if you think
30:53junus corpus allo is going to be the savior in net and how the rangers should do on this upcoming
30:58road
30:59trip and we'll chat again next week
31:03you