SAM CARRICK
One never knows what’s going to turn a season around. A Trouba helmet toss is not an “every year” occurrence, sometimes it can be an overtime goal from an unlikely source.
Sam Carrick certainly fits that bill, and his goal in overtime last night against the New Jersey Devils gave the New York Rangers a 3-2 win and 40 points after 41 games. Remarkably, despite winning only 7 of their last 24 games, the Rangers are only 4 points out of the final Eastern Conference wild-card spot with half a season left to play.
Too early to start planning for the playoffs, but at least we can hold off on plans to sell at the trade deadline. As of right now, the Rangers are still in it, but they are going to have to play the second half of the season with a heightened sense of urgency.
The good news is the Rangers got Igor Shesterkin back healthy (21 saves), they got two more power-play goals (that’s 3 in 2 games after a long drought), and we are seeing signs of life from Adam Fox (4 points in 3 games), Artemi Panarin (5 points in 3 games) and Mika Zibanejad (5 game point scoring streak).
With all that star power, it was Carrick who scored the Rangers most important goal of 2025 off a nice feed from a rejuvenated Reilly Smith. Is this the start of something big? Too early to tell, but at least there are signs of life.
MATT REMPE
Including last night’s game, the Rangers are 17-4-2 when Matt Rempe is in the lineup. Which is one of the reasons why it is obvious that those around the league (primarily fans and pundits) who say he is just an old-time goon, are not watching the actual games. When he is on his game, like he was on December 20th against the Dallas Stars prior to his illegal hit on Miro Heiskanen, he is an effective forechecker, capable of causing turnovers, drawing penalties, and yes, creating fear in defensemen who are constantly turning their backs to avoid hits.
None of that excuses the hit for which he had to serve an 8-game suspension. It was avoidable and dangerous. Rempe says he is now a “marked man”, and we believe he fully deserves that distinction. It is up to him to play more games like he did last night, where he does his job (4 hits in 11 shifts) and doesn’t take reckless penalties.
He has the size, speed and work ethic to become an important player, but he must learn to play clean between the whistles. It’s up to him, he could become an all-time Rangers favorite like Nick Fotiu, or a footnote like John Scott.
ZAC JONES
The Rangers defensive play and positioning deteriorated so badly in December that it is hard to defend anybody that was taking a regular shift. For the last 7 games the Rangers’ coaching staff has put out the same 6 defensemen, and things have settled down considerably without Jones in the lineup.
Last week Jones spoke out, much like Kaapo Kakko before him, and many expect Jones to receive the same fate by being shipped out of town. In fairness, Jones didn’t say that he was better than any of the 6 players in front of him, he simply stated facts. He said it’s hard to play while looking over your shoulder and that he is young and needs to be on the ice.
The one thing I will say in Jones defense is that there were games down the stretch last season, and earlier this year prior to the Rangers structural collapse, when he was their best defensemen for big stretches of games. When Jones plays his offensive talent is obvious, and he does a pretty good job of positioning his body and stick to make up for his lack of size. With Fox still not back in his All-Star form and K’Andre Miller struggling, I would be hesitant to trade Jones unless another offensively skilled defensemen was coming back in the deal.
MIKA ZIBENEJAD VS JT MILLER
Speaking of “deals”, the reaction to the report that the New York Rangers offered Mika Zibanejad to the Vancouver Canucks straight up for JT Miller was comical. Industry sources felt that the Rangers would need to add to the package and social media deemed Chris Drury delusional.
Here’s the tale of the tape (which is boxing terminology predating UFC):
| ZIBANEJAD | MILLER | |
| Position: | Center | Center |
| Shoots: | Right | Left |
| Birth Year: | 1993 | 1993 |
| Draft Year: | 2011 | 2011 |
| Draft Position: | 6th Overall | 15th Overall |
| Games Played: | 887 | 828 |
| Goals: | 302 | 246 |
| Assists: | 400 | 422 |
| Points: | 702 | 668 |
| Annual Salary: | $8.5m | $8m |
| Contract End: | 6/30/30 | 6/30/30 |
Same age, same position, very similar numbers, very similar contractual status, both players headed to the “4 Nations Face Off” (Zibanejad for Team Sweden and Miller for Team USA). Want to dig deeper? Both players were considered “under-achievers” by their original team and dealt away in trades that their original teams regret. Both players became “glue” guys with their current team and play in all situations (penalty kill, power play, 6×5, 3×3, shoot out).
No doubt Mika’s struggles this year have been more pronounced, which is saying something considering Miller left the Canucks for undisclosed personal reasons from November 19th through December 12th. However, the fact that so many fans and members of the media reacted as if these players weren’t on the same level was shocking. As a rabid Rangers fans and burgeoning sports blogger, it upset me. Hopefully, it pissed Mika off and he uses it as fuel to continue to turn his season around.
2 thoughts on “4 (NYR) Things about the New York Rangers”
People act like Rempe is Matt Cooke or Todd Bertuzzi. Yes he’s hurt and injured a few people, but he never did it intended to injure, or went outside the lines of the game to make a bad play. Seigenthaler tried avoiding getting hurt and instead flinched and got himself injured. Bastian hit was clean. Van Reimsdyk hit was clean. Lyubushkin hit was clean. I’d also point out Neiskinen wasn’t hurt or injured, so I have to assume Rempe’s elbow didn’t hit him at all. Because there is no way a 7 feet tall guy skating in from behind you with an elbow in the face doesn’t knock out teeth, break a jaw, concuss you, realign your vertebrae, and leave you a disheveled lump of injury on the ice. If that was malicious he failed miserably since Neiskinen didn’t miss a shift.
I can’t believe we didn’t appeal on his behalf. A play that LOOKS* dangerous that results in no damage is a great “problem” to have, because it’s a non-issue. It’s like almost* being in a car crash. You don’t get a ticket of your license suspended because you changed lanes and someone speeding had to slow down or veer into a different lane. Hey, you almost* committed a crime! Here’s a punishment for a crime you didn’t commit, but were close to. WTF is that?
This is typically referred to as, “riding up a guys back”, or “riding someone into the boards”. It happens in every game in the NHL and no one is penalized let alone suspended. It’s a hockey play. Dangerous, sure, but its’ a hockey play. Wilson throws Panarin without a helmet head first at the ice, NOT a hockey play, repeat offender, absolutely no punishment. Make it make sense.
There is definitely inconsistency in regards to the NHL dishing out punishment, so unfortunately, we can’t make it make sense. We also agree that in some of Rempe’s prior incidents, there was incidental contact and a lot of the furor was unwarranted. Having said that, the reason we agreed with the suspension in this case was that Miro Heiskanen’s numbers were facing Rempe with plenty of time for him to curl off or ease up, and instead he accelerated through the hit. Looking at this particular incident in a vacuum, it was a play worthy of a suspension. But as we wrote, we think the kid can actually play the game of hockey and make an impact for the Rangers. He’s not a goon, but he does have to be smarter. Thanks for your rant!