New York Rangers: Who you should root for and against in the playoffs.
By Ed Stein
No playoffs this year for the New York Rangers. There are still things that can happen on the quest for Lord Stanley’s Cup that affects the team and their fans.
The New York Rangers missed the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs by a mile. That doesn’t mean there aren’t legitimate rooting interests for the Blueshirts. Several conditional draft picks the Rangers acquired could pay off big time in this deep draft
There are two teams the Rangers need to win and a few they need to lose. Here is a look at who to root for and against.
Root For
Dallas Stars
A fan favorite during his eight-plus years on Broadway, all New York Rangers fans would love to see Mats Zuccarello get a ring. The Norwegian Hobbit was a solid citizen. He was also a talented player for NYR, scoring 352 points in 509 regular season games. His prowess and hustle made him a three-time winner of the team’s Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award.
As nice as it would be for Zucc to get a Stanley Cup Championship ring, the reason to root for the Stars are more selfish. As part of the deal that sent Zuccarello to Dallas, the Rangers received a conditional second-round pick in this year’s NHL Entry Draft. That pick gets upgraded to a first-round selection should the Stars advance to the Western Conference Finals.
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No small task for the West’s First Wild Card Winners. To make the WCF, Dallas has to first beat the Midwest Division Champions, Nashville (100 points). Should the Stars pull off a major upset, they still need to beat the winner of the St. Louis/Winnipeg (99 points each) series. More on that later.
Tampa Bay Lightning
This one is pretty straightforward. On February 26, 2018, the New York Rangers sent Ryan McDonagh and JT Miller to Tampa in exchange for Vladislav Namestnikov, Libor Hajek, Brett Howden, TBL’s 2018 first round pick and a conditional 2019 second round pick. The condition is if the Lightning wins the Stanley Cup, that pick is upgraded to a first rounder, which would be 31st overall. So Put on a lightning hat and root for ex-Rangers McDonagh, Miller, Dan Girardi, and Anton Stralman.
Root Against
This section is much simpler than who to root for.
Winnipeg Jets
There are two reasons to root against Winnipeg in this year’s playoffs. The first is because they could wind up playing Dallas in round two and as mentioned above the Rangers need a Dallas series win. The second reason directly affects the Blueshirts. Should Winnipeg put it together and make the finals, the first round draft pick they acquired could fall from 22nd to either 30th or 31st. An undesirable outcome.
Zbad solidifying his case to wear Rangers "C" in 2019. dark. Next
New York Islanders
To start with, they are the Islanders, which is reason enough. Additionally, if they have a successful postseason, Rangers fans won’t hear the end of it for years.