NHL weekend rankings: Rangers continue the statement fun with a sternly worded letter

Many times, an NHL season comes to be defined by the dominance of a select group. Sometimes, it’s the Year of the Goaltenders. Others, it might be the snipers who take over. In the first half, this looked like it would be a changing-of-the-guard season. But now, a new contender emerges. Hockey fans, welcome to the Year of the PR Department Statement. It started last week, when the Ottawa Senators declared war on the trolls and sick people. This week, it was the New York Rangers, doing what they do best: writing open letters to their fans about how bad they are. Bonus five: Most interesting passages from the Rangers’ letter 5. “Chris Drury, President and General Manager” – Maybe the most meaningful portion of the letter came at the very end, in the signature: This next phase is indeed going to be Chris Drury’s project. That’s not a surprise, since all evidence had suggested Drury has the backing of ownership. But for any Rangers fans hoping that a front office shakeup would be part of any teardown, this letter would appear to nip that in the bud. 4. “We will target players that bring tenacity, skill, speed and a winning pedigree” – So… good players? You’ve just described good players. I don’t think there are too many teams out there whose current game plan involves actively targeting weak slow losers. OK, maybe the Canucks, but nobody else. 3. “… because that is what our fans deserve” – Rangers fans, did you know that you’re the best? You guys rule. That seems to be the main message from this three-paragraph letter, which takes multiple opportunities to blow smoke up the behind of the fan base. Sorry, of “the loyal and passionate fan base.” Thank you for all that you do. Please keep throwing money at us while we lose on purpose for a few years. 2. “That may mean saying goodbye to players that have brought us and our fans great moments over the years” – Artemi Panarin, pack your stuff. And to be clear, that’s a good thing, because Panarin has the potential to be the gold standard in an otherwise weak deadline market. He has no-move protection, but if the Rangers aren’t going to offer him a new deal, you’d assume he’d rather go somewhere to showcase his talents in the playoffs before hitting the UFA market this summer. This will be a fun one to watch. 1. “LGR” – The last line of the letter, weirdly tacked on with no punctuation like a stray cut-and-paste. You could assume this is shorthand for “Let’s Go Rangers.” I’m actually going to hope it stands for “Let’s get rebuilding,” since this is very clearly what this franchise desperately needs. Not ranked: “This will not be a rebuild.” – Ah! Well. Nevertheless. Be sure to check out Peter’s piece on the letter and what it will mean. Meanwhile, the Rangers have yet to appear in our bottom five this year. Is this the week? Let’s get to the rankings and find out… The five teams with the best chances of winning the Stanley Cup. Man, this “Heated Rivalry” show is really going crazy. Now they’ve even bringing in viewers who don’t even like hockey. 5. Vegas Golden Knights (24-11-12, +19 true goals differential*) – I thought our Pacific timeout might last a bit longer, but the Knights apparently took it personally. They’ve won seven straight and just traded for Rasmus Andersson, and while none of those have come against contenders, the streak has given the Knights a nice cushion on top of the division. That means Vegas is in. And it means for the first time in six weeks, we don’t have room for the Central’s big three. So who gets the boot? 4. Dallas Stars (27-13-9, +24) – Sorry, Minnesota. The Wild haven’t won a game in regulation since Jan. 2, and while 2-3-2 isn’t exactly a free-fall, it’s been a while since they’ve looked like the wagon they were in the immediate aftermath of the Quinn Hughes trade. Dallas hasn’t been any better lately, and are sporting an identical record, but they’ll keep their spot for another week. 3. Carolina Hurricanes (30-15-4, +25) – We all love the Panthers, right? Sure we do. Let’s watch some Panthers highlights, from this randomly selected game in Carolina on Friday. 2. Tampa Bay Lightning (30-13-4, +46) – They finally lost, which was nice for the rest of the league. Despite that, the weekend saw a new Stanley Cup favorite on our projection page. The model has actually been ahead of the curve on the Lightning all year, a development I asked Dom about in the newsletter a month ago. 1. Colorado Avalanche (33-5-8, +78) – They’re spiraling, which is to say they’ve lost back-to-back games for the second time since October. At their current pace, they’ll be in danger of surrendering the Central lead by (runs numbers) 2032. So we can go ahead and call tonight’s game against the Washington Capitals a must-win. In other news, this was cool. *Goals differential without counting shootout decisions like the NHL does for some reason. Not ranked: Boston Bruins – Yeah, I have no idea. I’m not sure I ever did. Or at least, none of the ideas I had about this team are turning about to be right. I had them penciled in to be a bad team that wouldn’t be quite bad enough to land the top pick. They even cracked the bottom five for a week back in October, right around the time they were 4-7-0. When a team that finished last in their division a year ago and sold heavy at the deadline starts slow, it’s not hard to figure out what’s going on. They’re bad. Of course, they followed that 4-7-0 start with a seven-game win streak. Then they managed to pack both a four-game win streak and later a six-game losing streak into December. And now they’re unbeatable again, winning six straight to move back into a wild-card spot. They’re only four points out of having home ice in the first round. Oh, and that six-game streak has included two shutout wins, a game where they scored ten goals, and a combined score of 27-7 that’s pushed them into the conference’s top four in goals differential. If they’re going to keep the streak going, they’ll have their work cut out for them, as this week’s schedule brings the Stars, Knights and Habs, but at this point who’s going to bet against them? None of this makes much sense, so let’s enjoy it while it lasts. It was an interesting week in Boston, with a number retirement and a minor trade. It might get even more interesting; as Harman notes, the Bruins are one of several teams with some tough decisions to make as the deadline approaches. Don Sweeney already got to enjoy one deadline as a seller in a buyer’s market, and he knows what kind of windfall those deals can bring. Then again, if his team is in the playoff mix, doesn’t he owe them a chance to see it out, if not reinforcements? I’m not sure, because I clearly don’t understand this team. I’m not convinced Sweeney does either, if we could get him to be totally honest, but that’s fine. The Bruins have been trying to tell us who they are all year long, even if the messaging has been mixed. They’ve got a few more weeks to nail it down once and for all before Sweeney has to make his call. The five teams headed towards dead last and the best lottery odds for the top pick in this year’s draft. The Senators lost again and the frustration over the goaltending is rising, to the point where “you’ve got to make more than 10 saves to win a game” might become the season slogan. But this was pretty sweet: 5. New York Rangers (21-22-6, -20) – When someone tells you who they are, believe them. And when a last-place team tells you that they’re throwing in the towel on the season, put them in your bottom five already. The Rangers are our 15th different team to show up in this ranking, breaking the record previously established in 2018-19. 3. Chicago Blackhawks (19-22-7, -20) – With a murderer’s row of Carolina, Tampa, Florida and Minnesota up next, tonight’s game against the Jets could be a crucial one in terms of lottery odds. 2. Calgary Flames (21-23-4, -17) – I think they did fine on the Andersson trade, getting two high picks, a useful player in Zach Whitecloud and a prospect. That’s not bad for a guy in the last year of his deal who wasn’t coming back. Now we see how much further the teardown goes. 1. Vancouver Canucks (16-27-5, -53) – Is this good? I don’t think it’s good. Meanwhile, Drance just keeps lobbing truth bombs. Not ranked: Philadelphia Flyers – OK, let’s huddle up and regroup here. The Flyers have been a tough team to figure out pretty much all season long. Just about all of us figured they were a rebuilding team that would be a playoff long shot even if everything broke just right. But after finding their footing relatively early in the season, they’ve been a surprise contender ever since, holding down a playoff spot for most of the season. After beating the Ducks two weeks ago, they were sitting at 22-12-7, good enough for second in the Metro and third in the East by points percentage. That was fun. Except since that Ducks win, they’ve lost six straight, the last five in regulation. Worse, those five regulation losses have seen them give up 29 goals, so they’re getting their doors kicked in. In a parity-soaked Eastern Conference where everyone seems to be collecting points at all times, this streak has been disastrous for the Flyers’ playoff hopes, dropping them outside the top eight. Oh, also everyone is hurt, the goaltending is a problem again and Matvei Michkov is bad now. So … good times. I’m starting to think Rick Tocchet might not win the Jack Adams after all. If all of that feels like an overreaction to six bad games, well, it probably is. The losing streak has come against a Leafs team finding its game, the unbeatable Lightning, the only-slightly-less unbeatable Sabres, and then Friday to the surging Penguins. And then on Saturday, they lost to the Rangers, who were presumably inspired by the power of open letters to the fan base. The point is that every team goes through a tough few weeks during a long season. The Flyers are no different, so maybe we should all take a deep breath here. Except … well, the whole “rebuilding long shot” thing may have been accurate, and if so the margin for error in Philadelphia was always going to be razor-thin. Even when they were authoring that first-half surprise story, our model never loved their playoff odds — they’d been climbing steadily through November and December, but had peaked at just under 40 percent around the start of this losing streak. Saturday’s embarrassment against the Rangers dropped them all the way down to 10 percent. In other words, these last two weeks really have undone just about all the progress of the previous two months. And this week, they head out on the road to play Vegas, Utah and, gulp, Colorado. Good luck with that trip. I’ll admit, I’m tempted to write the Flyers off, if only because my brain can’t handle this many teams competing for wild-card spots and needs to thin out the field. But I also have to humbly accept that I’ve been wrong about this team for most of the first half. So I’m opening the floor to you, Flyers fans. If you think this team still has a shot to make the playoffs, head down to the comments and let me know. I’m not seeing it, but I’m willing to be convinced.