We got screwed….again.? Sorry, I dont care what any of you say, the refs took this game into their hands and decided it.? Period. End of post game thoughts.
Lets look at the bigger picture though.? With 52 games played, the Rangers have earned 54 points, projecting out to 82 games that gives them about 85 points.? Assuming Carolina wins tonight (they are playing Boston…they definitely should win that) that ties them up with Pittsburgh, and Tampa for 8th in the league with 60 points.? Lets use Pittsburgh as kind of a worst case scenario.? 51 Games, 60 points, for 82 games that finishes their season with just about 96 points.? Meaning the Rangers would have to, hypothetically, finish the season with 97 points to beat them.? On a best case scenario, we will take the Canes. (still winning tonight, which wont be final for another hour) Using the same math, since the Canes have played more games, they will project out to about 90 points, meaning the Rangers would need to finish with 91 points to overtake them.? or about 6 points more than they are currently projected to finish with.
So on a best case scenario they need to finish with 91 points, and on a theoretical worst case, it is 97 points, and they are currently projected out to 85.? Meaning they need to finish anywhere from 6 to 12 points MORE than they are projected out to.? What does that mean?? Well, with 30 games remaining and 54 points in the bank, they need 43 more points on the high end, and 37 more on the low end.
Last season it took 92 points to get in the playoffs, so we can use that as further proof that this is for all intents and purposes a correct assumption.
Lets look at this one step further, the best team in the league right now is the Nashville Predators, who are averaging 1.415 points per game up to this point.? For the Rangers to finish with 92 points they will need to play at a 1.233 points per game clip on the LOW end, and 1.4333 points per game on the high end.? That means they have to play BETTER than that BEST team in the league for the remaining games just to sneak into the playoffs (on the high end) or, BETTER than the southeast leading Thrashers on the LOW end.
Simply put, I dont think it can be done.? I think the season is just about over folks.? Barring a miracle, I simply don’t think the Rangers can get 6 to 7 points every 5 games for the remainder of the season, I just don’t see it happening.
-Inferno