Running 2017-18 NHL thread

I still want to watch a game with you two. Pick one, there's three arenas near me

 

Waiting for the Rangers to announce their roster cutdown. They went from center being a position of depth to a question market. ... with Oscar Lindberg getting plucked in the expansion draft and the trade of Derek Stepan. They had 2 first round picks and chose two centers. Both 18. Lias Anderson, who was the 7th overall pick was supposed to be the more polished of the two. He looked OK in preseason to me, but not amazing. I just read they are going to send him back to Sweden for the year. Filip Chytil was supposed to be the more raw of the two, but with more upside. He looked really good in preseason, not overwhelmed at all, which was cool given that he just turned 18. I suspect they are going to keep him with the team, at least to start the season.

I think the Metropolitan Division is going to be pretty good again this year, so I don't know what to expect. The Rangers will be a different team. Not as deep offensively as they were, but with Brendan Smith sticking around and Kevin Shattenkirk signing, their defense, which sucked, should take a step up. Hopefully, they move the puck out of the zone more quickly and Lundqvist has an easier time of it. Plus. Ryan McDonagh won't have to play 200 minutes a night, run the power play, kill penalties and play both defensive positions (to compensate for Dan Girardi).

 

The Rangers had their last 2 preseason games against Philly, and Philly had made a lot of its cut downs already -- they probably wanted to have things in place quickly coming off a non-playoff season.

They actually played Claude Giroux on the wing in one of the games as an experiment. I think they were trying to decide whether the core of Giroux, Simmonds, Voracek, Couturier will be their key. ... or if they are going to need to rely heavily on some of the young players they have collected. They are stacked with young centers, which is why they were considering moving Giroux to the wing. I am not sure what they settled on. Their top pick in the draft, Nolan Patrick, might be REALLY good. Look out for him. I am so used to Philly's defense sucking eggs, and that could be different this year. Ivan Provorov will probably take a step up this year, Shayne Gostisbehere has always been solid and in one of the preseason games I watched, Travis Sanheim, a rookie, scored two goals. They'll be young, and I think they are going to have trouble competing in the Metropolitan this year, but they are a team that could be on the way up. I think their goaltending is going to be meh. Brian Elliot, with Michal Neuvirth backing him up.