Next up on the Elimination Eval series comes out of the battle of Florida, the Tampa Bay Lightning. I want to start this one off with a very similar question I had for the Washington Capitals; Is this the end of an era? Arguably one of the biggest stories to come out of this season’s training camp surrounded the future of the team’s longest tenured player. With their postseason coming to a quicker than desired end, the attention will surely shift back to those conversations as the Lightning have a lot to think about going into the off-season.   The Lightning took the hockey world by ..read more

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As the Rangers now have their eyes set on their next opponent, the Carolina Hurricanes, a familiar face is rotating into the lineup within practice. Chytil just took a shift with Trocheck and Laf. Maybe Panarin is going to be a healthy scratch? ? — Vince Z. Mercogliano (@vzmercogliano) May 1, 2024 Not entirely new or newsworthy, but Chytil has been fully practicing with the team since early April. As the Rangers progress in the postseason, the question on whether he will or will not return will only continue to burn brighter and brighter. While he has cycled in with certain lines on the Range ..read more

Good morning all, Just a quick update I have teased the past few weeks that I can finally comment on. I am pleased to announce we have brought on Ethan Haas of Project 94 to join our writing staff. Ethan is a data scientist by trade, and has a unique, self-built, analytical tool that he has created for numerous sports (hockey included) and he will be using his skills and his tools to bring a more data-centric focus to the site. Some of these stories will obviously focus on the Rangers, some will focus on other teams as well. In addition, there will be opportunities for collaboration between s ..read more

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Here are today's news and links: Rangers News: Larry Brooks examines the work New York's front office, both in the form of current general manager Chris Drury and his two predecessors, has done to turn the team into the contender it has become (NY Post) Mollie Walker heard from Peter Laviolette about the pros and cons of earning an extended rest following a quick playoff series victory vs an extended series with less time away from the ice from one series to the next (NY Post) Colin Stephenson notes that even though Kaapo Kakko didn't put together as strong of a regular season performance as a ..read more

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s that time of year again. For first time readers, welcome to my yearly Elimination Eval series that I'm excited to bring to Blueshirt Banter! In these evaluations, I breakdown how each team's playoff run went, whether or not it was a success and what could come next as a result. It rarely works out where the first one of the season is a result of the Rangers success but nevertheless, let’s talk about the Washington Capitals.  The end of an era or on the brink of greatness, the Capitals are certainly in a once in a lifetime situation. While on an organizational le ..read more

Matt Rempe played really well against Washington. It also might have been his last playoff experience of the season ..read more

Here are today's news and links: Rangers News: Mollie Walker chatted with Erik Gustafsson about the satisfaction in contributing to the Blueshirts' advancement to the second round after sitting out the majority of his 2023 playoff run with Toronto as a scratch (NY Post) Walker also heard from Igor Shesterkin about the work New York still needs to do as the postseason continues (NY Post) Dave Blezow examines how the Rangers stack up with other Presidents' Trophy-winning teams that secured first round playoff sweeps (NY Post) Colin Stephenson writes about the tougher opponents Peter Laviolette's ..read more

Thought from the New York Rangers sweep of the Washington Capitals in the First Round of the 2024 NHL Playoffs ..read more