CALM BEFORE THE STORM: CZAR IGOR and The Team-First BEST IN THE WORLD BLUESHIRTS Prepare For a Repeat Rumble with Raleigh; Game 1 Set For This Sunday, Lavy & Brind’Amour Respect; Lots on the Line For Both, Off-Day News, Year-End Awards & More

Greetings and salutations everyone and welcome to another blog here on BlueCollarBlueShirts.com. Let’s go!

To quote the pro wrestling impresario of the present and the former multiple-time heavyweight champion of the past too, the great Triple H, “are you ready?”

Me?

Game 1’s puck drop, now scheduled for 4PM this Sunday at M$G, can’t come soon enough!

And when using those two words – “puck drop” – I must admit off of puck drop tonight – I really don’t have that much for you – and somewhat akin to a beat writer!

After all, this past week has been nothing but a waiting game, as the other series’ around the league finally reach their conclusions – and where there are still two Game 7’s left to be played in order to close out this first-round.

Plus, I think that I said everything that I needed to say this past Tuesday, May 1st, when I gave you my 10,000-word Rangers/Canes series preview (https://bluecollarblueshirts.com/5124/ ).

However, if there’s anything that I want to stress from what I said a few nights ago, then it’s this:

For two teams who are evenly-matched, then the Rangers must, and I mean MUST, exploit the biggest advantage that they have – the one in goal.

Simply stated: CZAR IGOR has to be better than Frederik Andersen – and I’ll leave it at that, as I don’t want to get redundant!

While perhaps the word “filler” may be the best description of tonight’s tome; at the same time, I figured that I’d share all of the Blueshirts’ off-day news from the last several days with you guys & gals.

But deep-down, and just like most of you Cup-thirsty bunch too – I fully admit it – I’m over all of the talking and just want to get back to this journey – the Rangers’ quest for their fifth Stanley Cup in franchise history.

In other words, and in a rarity, this will be a short piece from yours truly – and not that opinionated either – as we all know the drill and eagerly (and nervously) anticipate what happens next during these next two-weeks – and where hopefully – the Rangers, and as they did in 2022 when they last vanquished these villains from North Carolina – then move on to the 2024 Eastern Conference Final.

And unlike two-years ago – they better win it this time – and the final round too!

The Rangers, after eliminating the Washington Capitals last Sunday and with their next game not to be played until the weekend after, took off on both Monday and Tuesday – a nice 48-hour rest period for everyone involved with the club in order to recharge their batteries.

While everyone knows that the Rangers were “supposed” to make short-work of the D.C. club; at the same time, we’re also way too familiar with this franchise’s history whenever attempting such a feat!

And to think that the first-round was a complete cake-walk would be foolish, as despite the disparity in talent, situations and expectations between both teams – no playoff opponent is an easy out.

But in the end, and as we all know – the Blueshirts, and for the first-time in seventeen-years, earned their first-round sweep over Ovechkin’s merry men.

For a Blueshirts’ core that’s not getting any younger, a lengthy pause in-between rounds was welcomed – and as mentioned many times this season on this site – the team is batting 1.000 whenever returning from breaks – and whether it be following wacky scheduling, bye-weeks and/or the All-Star break.

The Rangers will look to continue this super streak on Sunday.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the team reconvened for practice, battle-ground training, in Tarrytown, NY.

In news that I enjoyed the most (while also hoping for it too) – once back on the rink and Blueshirts’ bench boss, Peter Laviolette, continued to employ the same line-up that made a winner out of him during the last six consecutive games played (the two final games of the regular season and the four-game sweep over Washington).

For those who need such a reminder (it’s been a while), then here’s what “Lavy’s Line-Up” is expected to look like for Game 1 against Carolina:

The best way to sum up the Rangers’ pair of practices from Wednesday and Thursday is with one word – “uneventful.”

And don’t take that as a negative either.

Rather than anything negative; instead both of these practices, reported to be intense and at a high-level, were extremely positive – and pretty much the norm when compared to the previous trial runs in Tarrytown too.

In other words – there’s no drama, there are no serious injuries, there’s no panic.

Instead, it’s business as usual for THE BEST IN THE WORLD BLUESHIRTS.

The only thing to really note, and similar to what I said about Alex Wennberg during the first-round – I don’t think this is a story at all – is that Adam Fox didn’t participate, as instead, he was ruled out for “maintenance issues.”

In other words, while Fox didn’t practice – I wouldn’t worry about that one iota.

I’ll go even further – he WILL be playing in Game 1 of this series.

Similar to about 78967896766796896 other players in league history – dinged-up players will skip practice and then use the time off to heal-up for when it matters most – game time.

This is all obvious (duh) – except to the members of the birdbrain Blueshirts’ beat – men and women who try to sell these injuries as life-or-death situations during their clickbait material.

In other news that some may care about, “The Concussed Czech,” Filip Chytil, continues to skate with the team, but hasn’t been officially removed from his LTIR designation yet.

I don’t even want to think like this (so knock on wood as you read these words), but it’s my assumption that the only way that you’ll see #72 ever return to the line-up is if the Blueshirts find themselves trailing in the series or if someone gets injured.

After all, why fix what’s not broken?

And if you’re one of these people still crying about Lavy’s usage of Matt Rempe in these games – then you’re a lost cause – and I can’t be bothered with you!

The funniest thing about the non-Rempe fans of Rangerstown, USA? (And sadly – these creatures, both ogres and ogresses, do exist.)

Most of these residents reside in the ANALytical streets, where charts and graphs fly around like cigarette butts and soda cans in the littered and full of debris NYC streets and avenues – yet they will also ignore this simple black-and-white stat:

The Rangers are 20-2-1 whenever Rempe plays.

And should these nerds and geeks ever put their Microsoft Excel spreadsheets down for just one-second – and then just listen to and watch these games instead – then they will hear that no other skater on the team today receives as such as an ovation as Rempe does – a contagious roar of approval that completely juices up the entire team.

And these pie chart chumps want to throw away that home-ice advantage?

Mooks!

During his two previous sparring sessions with the media, Laviolette said that he wouldn’t be giving out his line-up information – but at the same time – it’s hard to imagine that he’s going to throw a last-second curve-ball prior to Game 1.

After running out the same line-up during the past two practices, the head coach conducted two more editions of “LAVY’S LOUNGE.”

Here’s what Lavy said on Wednesday:

And here’s what the head coach said on Thursday:

To me, and both of these interviews were identical when compared to everything that we’ve heard from Laviolette all-season – as he just routinely praised his players (individually) and the team (as a whole).

If anything, then I’m surprised that the Blueshirts’ beat reporters didn’t press Laviolette about his relationship and history with Rod Brind’Amour – but then again – and outside of a select few – the majority of these scribes probably aren’t aware of what happened in 2006 to begin with.

Rather than focusing their questioning on perhaps the biggest storyline entering this series; instead, most of the questions were about a line-up that Laviolette already said that he wouldn’t reveal (and multiple times at that) – and as the head coach was routinely peppered with questions in regards to both Chytil and Fox.

Funny enough, over in Carolina, and their reporters asked Brind’Amour all about Laviolette, and where “Rod The Bod,” currently embroiled in a “contract controversy,” as the head coach has stated that he wants to stay, yet the man presently without a deal for next season still remains unsigned by the Canes, had nothing but ever-loving praise for his former mentor-turned-friend.

(And should the Canes hopefully lose this series with Brind’Amour still unsigned – then there will be a ton of suitors looking for his services, including the Devils, Senators, Sharks, Kraken and others.)

In other news pertaining to these two hockey wizards, both coaches of this former teacher and pupil relationship have reportedly had their “Black Aces,” their extras, mimic what their opponents do during their respective practices.

Following the two days of hard work, come Friday, May 3rd, the Rangers had the day off.

They will practice one more time this Saturday (perhaps by the time that you’re reading these words) and then it all becomes real again.

As noted above, I thought that Laviolette did a masterful job of picking his spots here, with the two days off, two days on, one day off, one last practice and then onto Game 1.

While Carolina had a similar schedule, the Rangers, who again, have the home-ice advantage, should be more refreshed – and as explained many times over on this site – I’m not worried about “rust vs rest” either.

And I’m a man of my word too – I promised you up top that I wouldn’t go long tonight – so I have one last real thing to talk about before heading home here – the NHL’s year-end awards.

As the NHL wraps up their first-round of these 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs, in turn, the league has been announcing the finalists of their year-end awards.

Granted, while I never thought that Adam Fox would finish as a Norris Trophy candidate (because of the ten-games missed due to the disgusting Sebastion Aho hit), nor did I think that CZAR IGOR would finish as Vezina Trophy candidate either (he wasn’t as consistent as the three finalists – plus, his back-up, Jonathan Quick, did a ton of heavy lifting too); going into this year-end awards, I thought that both Peter Laviolette (Jack Adams) and Artemi Panarin (Hart/MVP) would get some consideration.

While the Hart Trophy finalists haven’t been announced just yet, and as previously explained on this site, there will be three major snubs no matter who the three finalists are; I thought that Laviolette was a slam-dunk to finish as a Jack Adams candidate as top bench boss in the league.

Nothing against Rick Bowness, Andrew Brunette and Rick Tocchet, three men who are all worthy for this prestigious award – but I thought that Laviolette entered this season with much more pressure on his shoulders than either of these three – and further than that – he led them to a Presidents’ Trophy once it was all said and done.

I know what the naysayers are saying.

Under the previous head coach, Gerard Gallant (who did finish as a finalist for this award in 2022), and the Rangers were a damn good team – and a strong playoff contender too.

After all, Gallant became the first head coach in franchise history to post back-to-back seasons of 100+ points – and where yes – that stat is influenced by this modern-day era of no ties too.

And while this may sound like “homerism” (and maybe it is) – I just can’t forget how the Rangers finished last season – and where they now are today.

For a franchise set to turn 100-years-old in two-years time, and there was Laviolette, bringing back this sinking ship to surface, and where in the process, he shattered franchise record after franchise record.

Doesn’t that have to count for something?

Plus, for everything that Laviolette (and the Rangers) accomplished this season – they largely did it without much offensive impact from their projected first-line center (Zibanejad) and first-line right-winger (Kakko) too.

TEAM.

For all of these Ranger snubs (Jonathan Quick was also denied of a Bill Masterton bid) – none of this will derail them of their mission – winning the Stanley Cup this June.

At the same time, all of these snubs can provide some extra motivation too.

And while individual year-end trophies and awards are nice – the only hardware that this team cares about is the holy chalice of hockey – and perhaps the Conn Smythe Trophy too.

To me, and I just believe that all of these snubs just speaks to the testament of how strong this team is as a sum of their parts – and even if Artemi Panarin just had a solo season for the ages.

And maybe Rempe gave them some extra juice when needed too, but even so, you had amazing bell-to-bell years out of Vincent Trocheck, Alexis Lafreniere, Ryan Lindgren, Chris Kreider, Jonathan Quick, Jimmy Vesey, et al.

You also had a strong rookie campaign from Will Cuylle, and as the season progressed, huge leaps from both K’Andre Miller and Braden Schneider. (You can also include Black Ace Zac Jones here too.)

Veterans on this team all pitched in when needed, including Adam Fox, Jacob Trouba, Erik Gustafsson (especially during the Fox injury), CZAR IGOR and others.

Even the Blueshirts who are no longer here for one reason or the other, such as Nick Bonino, created a positive impact – and look no further to Barclay Goodrow – the alternate captain who continues to use the faceoff technique that Bones taught him – and where Goody, and much like Bones, a Stanley Cup champion himself, showed us that you CAN teach an old dog some new tricks!

And how about the one-and-done Connor Mackey, whose fight-and-win over Ottawa’s Brady Tkachuk pulled the team out of their worst stretch of the season?

As Frank Sinatra once said, “it’s been a very good year.”

And as Cody Rhodes once said too, “FINISH THE STORY!”

I really don’t see anything major taking place during Saturday’s practice, so I’ll return late Sunday night with a Rangers/Canes Game 1 review.

And since I’m going to the bar, where I’ve been perfect at this season – then expect that blog to be posted extremely late too!

Granted, while the GAME REVIEW blogs are more informative whenever I’m watching from home – this game is too big to ignore my hot streak at the bar – and my liver be damned too!

We all must do our part!

As far as anything else, the schedule for the rest of this series hasn’t been officially announced just yet, as the NHL awaits outcomes of two other series, while also waiting word on the Knicks’ second-round schedule at M$G too.

However, it’s expected that Game 2 will be played on Tuesday night – but we all know how much I despise that word “expected” – and especially whenever Sieve Vagistat says it!

Bring on the Canes…

And enjoy the game too!

See ya Sunday night.

PLUGS TIME! (Buy a book and support my Rangers’ induced therapy bills. After all, I don’t run ads on this site!)

My fourth title and tenth book is now available!

“The Top 100 Villains of New York Rangers History,” is now available for sale!

For complete information, please visit: https://bluecollarblueshirts.com/rangerkillers/

My second plug of tonight’s blog – the mandatory plug for my book, “The New York Rangers Rink of Honor and the Rafters of Madison Square Garden.”

As mentioned previously, the book is now available in hardcover, in paperback and in Kindle formats. To purchase a copy of the book, visit this link:

https://www.amazon.com/Rangers-Rafters-Madison-Square-Garden-ebook/dp/B09CM5N2WD

For those still looking for signed paperback versions of the book, I have re-ordered more copies. I now have a few signed copies for sale at $25 a pop (includes shipping price) through me directly. Here is all the information on that:

Order “The New York Rangers Rink of Honor and the Rafters of Madison Square Garden” Book Today

My four-volume set of books, “One Game at a Time – A Season to Remember,” is a game-by-game recount of the Rangers 2021-22 campaign.

My second title as an author, “One Game at a Time – A Season to Remember,” is now available in eBook, paperback and hardcover formats.

To obtain signed copies, visit: https://bluecollarblueshirts.com/onegamebook/

To purchase all four volumes on Amazon, visit: Amazon.com – “One Game at a Time.”

The greatest volume-set of books on Rangers’ history today!

“Tricks of the Trade – A Century-Long Journey Through Every Trade Made In New York Rangers’ History,” a four-volume set of books that meticulously covers every trade made in franchise history, is now on sale.

All four volumes of the title can be purchased on Amazon.com and are presented in three different formats – eBook, paperback and hardcover.

To purchase Volume I: Conn Smythe (1926) – Craig Patrick (1986), visit Amazon.com

To purchase Volume II: Phil Esposito (1986) – Neil Smith (2000), visit Amazon.com

To purchase Volume III: Glen Sather (2000-2015), visit Amazon.com

To purchase Volume IV: Jeff Gorton (2015) – Chris Drury (2022), visit Amazon.com

To purchase signed copies of all four volumes, visit https://bluecollarblueshirts.com/tricksofthetrade/

If you haven’t already, subscribe to this blog for the next update:

Don’t forget to order my four-volume set of books, “Tricks of the Trade!”

If you don’t order through me, all four volumes are now available on Amazon.com

For more details, check out: https://bluecollarblueshirts.com/tricksofthetrade/

Thanks for reading.

LET’S GO RANGERS!

Sean McCaffrey

BULLSMC@aol.com

@NYCTHEMIC on the Tweeter machine