Here’s a trick of hockey double vision: looking backward while looking ahead.
It’s all about how the Met Area trio — Rangers, Islanders, Devils — survived the expansion and regular entry draft as well as free-agent frenzy.
Now, more to the point, how they face the coming training camp and the 2017-18 campaign:
Despite the usual misgivings of New York’s negative hockey media, the Rangers hardly suffered from the events beginning in late June and continuing into the summer.
Granted, the loss of Derek Stepan caused hand wringing among some in the audience, but The Maven believes the hand wringing should have been a round of applause. It’s called “addition by subtraction.” Did you miss Stepan’s disappearing act in the Ottawa series?
Or perhaps a more significant concern is the exit, stage left, of Antti Raanta, who had been the most talked-about backup goalie (January through June) in NHL annals. Matter of fact, many Rangers fans turned their tongues into thought-twisters for months trying to figure out how the Blueshirts could preserve the rights to Raanta.
You would’ve thought that the “Smiling Puck Stopper” was the second coming of Mike Richter, John Vanbiesbrouck and Georges Vezina.
Well, the Blueshirts not only have survived those two emigrants, but also Oscar Lindberg as well, and the franchise is still intact and looking better than ever.
Here’s why:
GOALTENDING: No question, Raanta was special in his own Finnish way as a finisher, a special hockey closer. Then again, as New York general manager Jeff Gorton proved, hockey closers are a dime a dozen.
Enter Ondrej Pavelec out of Kladno, Czech Republic. The 30-year-old pro’s experience dates back to his rookie season, 2007-08, with Atlanta and more recently with the Winnipeg Jets. What Ondrej needs more than anything is what he’s never gotten before, and that is a solid defense. No worries there.
If there should be a smidgen of concern about netminding, it centers on Henrik Lundqvist’s ability to withstand 60-plus regular-season games at his previous high level of competency. Only Father Time will have the answer to that.
DEFENSE: In a sense, both Dan Girardi and the Blueshirts’ high command lucked out. The warrior backliner played his heart out in two postseason rounds but clearly was not in the Rangers’ future. The club bought him out — as virtually everyone expected — while unexpectedly the Tampa Bay Lightning signed Old Snowshoes to a two-year deal. That’s luck both ways around.
Add to that the NHL retirement of Kevin Klein, once a worthy defender who by playoff time became a bit vulnerable.
Hence two openings were there to be filled.
The obvious was Kevin Shattenkirk, who fulfilled a childhood dream of playing for his favorite NHL team. The Rangers now boast a power-play point man who really is a power-play point man.
The bonus blueliner attraction could be former first-round pick Anthony DeAngelo, who comes to Broadway via Arizona and the Stepan-Raanta deal.
The way Brady Skjei became a blueline overnight sensation last season, so could Sewell, N.J.’s DeAngelo become a reasonable facsimile in the year ahead.
Add to that a solid core led by captain Ryan McDonagh, Marc Staal, Nick Holden and the recently re-signed playoff hero Brendan Smith.
The Shattenkirk-McDonagh-Skjei triumvirate gives the Rangers offensive power from the defense as good or better than any NHL rival.
Nothing to worry about, because the ‘D’ gets an ‘A.’
OFFENSE: OK, let’s deal with the Stepan deal to begin with. There’s no doubting that the Hastings, Minn., native had been a worthy Ranger. As my Blueshirts sidekick Patrick McCormack so aptly puts it, “The center has been a key in the team’s lineup since he entered the league during the 2010-11 season. It started with a hat trick in his first game against the Buffalo Sabres and continued to his overtime game-winner against the Washington Capitals in 2015, which sent the Blueshirts to the Eastern Conference final. This past season, he ranked second on the team with 38 assists and third on he team with 55 points.”
Translated from a “McCormack-ism” into “Maven-ese,” that’s old business.
What matters is that Stepan in the playoffs seemed to be auditioning for a remake of “The Invisible Man,” or, to put it another way, Gorton got rid of Stepan at the most propitious time. ‘Nuff said.
Lindberg was just another Jesper Fast and the club will do quite well with Fast in the Lindberg Lane. And remember this: The exit of Lindberg and Stepan gives Gorton the opportunity to trade one of his picks for center ice help on offense.
Which brings us to the acquisition of David Desharnais, the “Mighty Mite” who had been a mainstay in Montreal with the Canadiens. With more than half a dozen seasons in the NHL, “Double D” is a double threat as a scorer and architect of goals.
Call this a transition season, or call it what you will. The Rangers’ pendulum for the most part is swinging toward youth while maintaining a youthful corps that includes J.T Miller, Chris Kreider, Kevin Hayes and Pavel Buchnevich.
For veteran experience, there are the likes of Rick Nash, Mats Zuccarello and Mika Zibanejad.
The Maven knows a few teams who’d be tickled pink to have such a lineup.
Not that fans of the Brooklynites enjoy melodramas, but certainly a high-intense version of same had been inflicted upon them right back to last Christmas. It was then that the rumor mongers began speculating as to whether John Tavares would remain an eternal Islander.
The question naturally was raised because the Captain eventually would have to decide on whether he, in fact, wanted to continue employment with general manager Garth Snow, not to mention the ownership headed by Jon Ledecky and Scott Malkin.
As winter turned to spring and spring to summer, the uncertainty surrounding Tavares’ future with the franchise grew more intense than ever.
This feeling redoubled after the July 1 free-agent curtain opener, at which time there still was no news emanating from the Tavares tent. You didn’t have to be a nuclear physicist to know that the options were limited: A. Tavares, minus a contract extension, would play out his final season as an Islander; B. He would sign a new deal; or C. Secure in the knowledge the face of the franchise won’t re-sign, he would be traded for a lucrative return.
Act One of this two-act thriller played out in July without a resolution, which meant that the second act, whatever it will be, looms as the finale.
Overlooked during this franchise-altering furor is the fact that Snow has engineered several other key transactions. It began with his unloading one-time wunderkind Ryan Strome to Edmonton for another right wing, Jordan Eberle, who figures to be a lot more of an asset than the ever-disappointing Strome.
Meanwhile, newly minted head coach Doug Weight plucked three assorted assistant coaches to round out his general staff — Luke Richardson, Scott Gomez and Kelly Buchberger.
How do the Isles look as summer winds down into autumn?
GOALTENDING: With disappointing J.F. Berube gone, the one-two combo figures to be good pals Thomas Greiss and Jaroslav Halak. No more, no less, and it should work out just fine.
DEFENSE: While Travis Hamonic — most deservedly — enjoyed strong fan support, the time of his moving west had come, which is good all around. “The Hammer” was just a shade of his former self last season and bedeviled by injuries. Getting back a first-rounder and two second-rounders provides Snow with assets that still could bring a key forward or D-man in return.
The Harmonic exit also opens a spot for promising Adam Pelech, Ryan Pulock or Scott Mayfield. Any of the trio could make the big club, providing size and energy. Overlooked but no less important was the re-signing of vet Dennis Seidenberg, the wise team leader in plusminus in 2016-17.
This could be the year when Nick Leddy becomes a Norris Trophy candidate. Hopefully he’ll be teamed with his buddy, Johnny Boychuk. Figure on a giant leap forward from ever-improving Calvin de Haan.
OFFENSE: There’s absolutely no point in elaborating until the Tavares conundrum is solved. Suffice to say that there’s a dazzling duet — in Josh HoSang and Anthony Beauvillier — ready for soph stardom and Mathew Barzal could move in and be a Calder candidate. Getting Eberle brings qualities that Strome never had and makes the deal a steal. Gomez could be the perfect mentor for the youngsters.
Act One of this two-act Tavares thriller played out in July without a resolution, which meant that the second act, whatever it will be, looms as the finale.
John Hynes doesn’t fool around. He says what he means and he means what he says: “Getting Brian Boyle and Marcus Johansson moves the needle for us in size, skill, experience and culture.”
That’s a lot of the coach to say in one sentence and what it means is that his Garden State skaters are well on the road to respectability.
That is not to say that the boys from Newark are going to make the playoffs, but if a few things break the right way for Hynes and general manager Ray Shero, hey, you never know.
Shero’s corralling of Boyle-Johansson adds to his luster now that the Devils boldly — and wisely, I might add — chose Nico Hischier over Nolan Patrick in the entry draft. Not that the Swiss center most recently out of Halifax in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League is going to make the varsity. Then again, everything about him so far is coming up roses.
The fact that Newark’s most famous deli, Hobby’s, already has named a sandwich after him — called Nico No. 1 — hasn’t hurt either. Hischier could wind up centering for Boyle and John Quenneville. But let’s not get too carried away, since there are vulnerable areas. To wit:
GOALTENDING: To say that Cory Schneider had a so-so season last year would be very kind. Disappointing is more like it. Nor did his backup, Keith Kinkaid, impress enough. Yet, both are slated to be one-two. The hope here is that new goalie coach Rollie Melanson can work the same magic with Schneid that he once did in Vancouver.
DEFENSE: There’s a surplus of iffies since Adam Larsson never was satisfactorily replaced. That put far too much burden on captain Andy Greene, who needs a solid partner. It could be Mirco Mueller, acquired from the Sharks. Or promising Steve Santini, whose poise belies his relatively little NHL experience. With Jon Merrill now with Vegas, the onus is on Damon Severson to prove that his once-glowing notices were not in the fake news realm.
OFFENSE: It isn’t all about Taylor Hall, but he’s the main man followed by Johansson, Boyle and a core including Travis Zajac, Adam Henrique and Kyle Palmieri.
Hynes has it right. The Devils’ needle is moving in the right direction. But by how much? That’s the key question to be answered between October and Easter Sunday. Hopefully, the Devils won’t lay an egg.
