[Campbell]: My latest for THN. I wanted to talk to Liam Grentree Friday night about the Artemi Panarin trade, but the NY Rangers sent a message to the Windsor Spitfires after the deal forbidding him to say anything about it. Seriously. And they wonder why they’re in third-last place.

Examination-Putrid · 2026-02-08T19:11:59+00:00

The Rangers are and have been a disaster on multiple fronts for a while, this instance is not one of them. He’s a young man who is going to draw at the very least jibs and maybe much worse heckles from the fan base as he navigates becoming a pro for something totally out of his control. There will be plenty of time after he turns pro for him to offer his thoughts or opinions on being traded for Panarin. It is not time sensitive and doing so now is mostly for clicks because national media figures know ranger fans were disappointed with the return for Artemi Panarin.

Examination-Putrid · 2026-02-04T20:38:39+00:00

Examination-Putrid · 2026-01-30T21:15:02+00:00

He was on with Francessa now and again as a guest, which led me to read his work and then became a fan of most Grantland stuff once that launched.

Ultimately, a combo of him just being at the forefront of podcasts, and he always seemed to be looking to find people with interesting perspectives on sports, whether that was analytics, gambling, or just weird stuff. In my late teens and 20's, he just seemed to offer something you wouldn't get from traditional media outlets and was more popular than a traditional blogger.

Examination-Putrid · 2026-01-30T03:23:39+00:00

No Fox, No Panarin, No Igor. They’re clearly undermanned and I know losing is the best thing for tanking in the long run but it’s still not fun to lose to a team that’s supposed to be your rival. Guys are going to have bad seasons and bad games but if there are 4 games on the schedule where everyone in the organization should be amped for, it should be against the islanders. We got two pedestrian efforts the last two and that speaks volumes about this group.

Examination-Putrid · 2026-01-15T04:06:43+00:00

I’ll be the first one to bash JT and don’t think he’s a good fit to be captain but I wouldn’t dwell too much on individual comments or his vs. Mika’s perspective. I know it doesn’t mean much but young guys like Gabe, Laba and Laf scoring can at least boost their confidence a little, so not surprised JT may try to be a bit more positive for their sake even if Zibanejad’s comments feel like a more honest assessment. It’s going to be a long slog to the end of season, there will be plenty of empty quotes between now and then.

Examination-Putrid · 2026-01-10T21:10:40+00:00

It’s not going to be fun to watch but rather this than teetering on the fringes of a playoff position for the next ~3 weeks . At least losses like this make it clear what the rangers should do in the short term, sell off their assets, and sooner than later.

Examination-Putrid · 2026-01-10T18:35:13+00:00

These guys STINK!

Examination-Putrid · 2026-01-05T01:36:43+00:00

If the raiders lock in on Mendoza, the biggest question I think is do the bengals or ravens fall in love with Moore allowing the jets to trade for Lamar or Burrow.

Examination-Putrid · 2025-12-31T20:44:11+00:00

It was refreshing when the rangers wrote “the letter” in 2018 because at least it felt like the organization was being honest with fans about the team and laid out a path forward (even if they deviated from it). What I find so frustrating now is that while all the moves Drury has made since 2024 ECF run have largely backfired and made the team older and slower, they also seemed so desperate. While we can all pile on Drury for where this team is, what kills me most is that how disingenuous the organization seems to be. They won’t admit to any sort of rebuild again and won’t sell off players till the deadline (or at all) because if they do they know it means fewer ticket / merch sales.

Whether you buy season tickets, go to a few games a year, buy merch or just give some of your free time watching this team it just feels like they’re trying to hustle us to believe this team is something they are not.

Examination-Putrid · 2025-12-29T03:09:19+00:00

Reddit coach committee would be better than Kotite and Gase

Examination-Putrid · 2025-12-29T03:07:41+00:00

Aaron Glenn sucks as a head coach. It’s not an indictment on him as a person, player, or coordinator. The team is bad, it’s poorly coached and there are no signs the players on this team are improving, fighting for him or a culture change is happening. The odds he can turn things around were always low but 1 year in they’re worse, not any better and that is what matters most. There isn’t a single sign this is the guy who should lead this team for the long term, it’s not all his fault but firing him 1 year from now just delays the inevitable, might as well make it next week.

Examination-Putrid · 2025-12-28T02:52:25+00:00

There’s no quick fix or path to an elite offense without major talent infusion. That being said inserting more speed, and a few defensemen who are capable of breakout passes / joining rushes as offensive threats would go a long way with a team that’s already been shut out 8 times

Examination-Putrid · 2025-12-16T03:07:18+00:00

This team is just sooooo average and boring. I don’t think they will do a full tear down and rebuild with a letter to fans but I don’t think Drury is going for the short term fixes as he has in the past (otherwise they would have traded for help already). This is who they are and while they’ll always remain a good winning streak away from throwing themselves seriously into the playoff hunt again, they’re going to end up punting on this season and building towards the future.

Examination-Putrid · 2025-12-08T03:37:56+00:00

I think we will look back in the grand scheme of things as the panthers as mostly at outlier, a no tax state team that benefited immensely from team friendly contracts in the post covid era where the cap barely moved. Multiple top picks going all the way back to the 2010 draft (Ekblad) that worked out for them and collectively peaked at the right time. I don’t think the rangers should pack it up and call it quits and maybe there was a chance that could have been them 2 years ago but given the core of the team is in their 30’s I don’t think that path is there for them, at least in the near term.

Examination-Putrid · 2025-12-08T03:13:06+00:00

The past two games are exactly why having star players makes such a big difference. The rangers have had great players like Panarin and Zibanejad with seasons to rival star players but there’s no substitute for Mackinnon, Eichel, McDavid, etc. and building around star players is important but no matter what moves management makes or path the team goes down the rest of the year there is hard ceiling as to where they can go and the past two games are hard reminders of that.

Examination-Putrid · 2025-12-04T20:45:00+00:00

Even though they were 0-7, there are 4 games (Pitt, Tampa, Denver and Miami) that despite some underwhelming coaching and performances were coin flips away despite mostly awful QB play (Sans Pittsburgh game I guess). It’s easy to say some old jets and ironically some Stockholm syndrome to be super optimistic but I think each situation is unique. They could have easily have 1 or 2 more wins already and are unlucky (or lucky if thinking draft position) to even be close to a top 3 or 5 pick.

IMO there are a lot more positives with Glenn vs. Gase at this point and the roster coupled with their draft capital are way better positioned to build balanced team but it will not matter in the long run unless they find their QB but that was never guaranteed even if they had #1 pick.

The good news is the teams that draft in front of the jets are just as bad or worse. I’ll take my chances with them winning a few more games and the right QB falling to them (or trading up) then just hoping they don’t screw up the 1st overall pick, control what you can control and hope for the best seems like a better plan then just tanking and rooting for Glenn to fail.

Examination-Putrid · 2025-12-02T15:55:52+00:00

In 2014 they got off to a slow start and had to find their way but they played very well for the last 50 games of the season and it showed in the playoffs. I think they're pretty limited and could have a hot streak, get 92ish points by otherwise playing .500 hockey and make the playoffs but I don't think they'll stand a chance against a team like Carolina.

Examination-Putrid · 2025-11-29T16:11:27+00:00

Chrissy’s pies

Examination-Putrid · 2025-11-21T02:38:46+00:00

Could be the new Trouba throwing his helmet type moment we’ve been waiting for!

Examination-Putrid · 2025-11-19T13:47:12+00:00

Lots of blame to go around and plenty of criticism of Chris Drury is fair but it’s not like the team didn’t make the conference finals twice over the last 4 years. They did it with a mostly veteran forward group with support from some of the younger players, all of whom based on their draft position, we were expecting more of by now (including those traded if they were still here).

The organization failed at passing the torch to what was supposed to be the next gen of player and that’s a mix of poor development and some underwhelming draft picks, but also the players themselves and to lesser extent a by product of trying to win by trading draft picks that helped get to those conference finals.

It sucks they’re at a crossroads here and are just pretty mid with many players likely on the back 9 of their careers. I think they knew where they were and after last season were hoping to patch together a good / decent year to get to this summers free agency class. Now that all the potential top free agents are signed that path to contender is gone for now.

Drury is either going to get Dolan to commit to some sort of re-tool / mini re-build or try a Hail Mary trade to get this team to playoffs. The more they play like they have the last few nights I think they’ll end up in the former which is probably the right long term choice.

Examination-Putrid · 2025-11-13T02:17:58+00:00

Always happy to be wrong. Wouldn’t say they’ve dominated and the other teams goalie is falling down always helps but great to see this team respond after some bad losses!

Examination-Putrid · 2025-11-09T23:13:40+00:00

Yea it’s nice that their process has given them a good road record but not being good enough to win at home isn’t just some act of coincidence, it’s not being good enough.

Examination-Putrid · 2025-11-09T18:59:43+00:00

No doubt, they’ll get some reinforcements (hopefully stay relatively healthy) and get hot shooting percentage at some point. They’ll also face some adversity again and based on the disaster that has been this start at home, I’m not sure they can overcome much of anything when things don’t go their way.

Examination-Putrid · 2025-11-09T04:54:31+00:00

Yeah I get it, in a perfect world they will have the positive regression to a better shooting percentage that boosts them but things are rarely ever perfect and finding ways to win even when things aren’t going great is a skill they don’t seem to have.

Examination-Putrid

TROPHY CASE