Tag: New York Rangers

Jacob Trouba trade grades: Who won the Rangers and Ducks deal?

Who won this deal?

It’s finally happened.

After a day of drama with the New York Rangers, captain and veteran defenseman Jacob Trouba is off to the Anaheim Ducks.

It’s a sad ending for that whole situation, with Trouba wearing the “C”  and helping the Rangers contend for the past five-plus seasons with some offensive game and a physical presence that developed in recent years. But Trouba struggled mightily this year and it was time for a trade.

For the Ducks? It’s a young team with a rebuilding core that will learn from a wily vet, and that’s especially true for their defensemen.

Let’s hand out some grades:

The Rangers and Ducks trade details

The Rangers get: D Urho Vaakanainen and a fourth-round pick

The Ducks get: D Jacob Trouba

Rangers grade

It stinks that the Trouba era had to end with this messiness and in this way, but with him and the Rangers struggling it was necessary to get him off the roster.

Vaakanainen is a former first-round pick of the Bruins who was part of the trade that sent Hampus Lindholm to Boston, and he’s not known for his offensive game as much. When he returns from injury, he might slot in as a third-pairing defenseman.

But this was more about subtraction than addition, and that might help the Rangers on the ice, even if it hurts in the locker room.

GRADE: B

Ducks grade

Trouba isn’t a move to necessarily turn a last-place team into a contender. It’s to help the team grow. Young defensemen like Jackson LaCombe and Olen Zellweger will get some help from having Trouba there, so this could be a smart move for the Ducks long-term.

GRADE: B

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Senators staffer responds to Brady Tkachuk trade rumors with a perfect tweet

Ooo DRAMA.

Could the Ottawa Senators really trade captain Brady Tkachuk to the New York Rangers as the latter franchise deals with a mess as of late that includes the Jacob Trouba situation?

That’s the talk from the New York Post’s Larry Brooks, who reported this on Friday: “Blueshirts targeting Brady Tkachuk in trade talks in what would be a whopper.”

Getting a bruising forward like Tkachuk would absolutely be a whopper of a deal. But Sens VP of communications Ian Mendes had a very funny response, posting a picture of the synonyms for “whopper,” very much implying that it was an “untruth.”

Well then!

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The Rangers did nothing wrong with Jacob Trouba

This situation has gotten ugly, but it’s not unprecedented.

The New York Rangers and Jacob Trouba are finally breaking up.

And with news on Friday that the Rangers were removing him from the lineup for “roster management,” there’s been some talk that forcing him out was somehow wrong. Either they’re going to trade their captain and veteran defenseman — potentially forcing him to waive his modified no-trade clause — or they’ll waive him.

And given his play this season, in which he has struggled mightily and hasn’t been as much of the physical presence he’s been for the franchise on the ice, it makes complete sense with the Rangers in complete disarray as of late.

But I’ve seen some folks thinking that it’s wrong to force Trouba out by  circumventing his no-trade clause. That’s absolutely not the case, especially when it felt like a trade this summer fell by the wayside because of that clause and his wife’s medical residency in New York (side note: I saw some fans say some awful things about that situation earlier this year, and how wrong was that? He exercised his contractual right to stay and that was that).

Now? This is a business move, and it’s not unprecedented! If you’re not performing, you get traded or waived. That’s it. The Rangers have given him more than enough opportunities to rebound, and unfortunately, it’s come to this. It’s ugly and sad, especially for a player who has given a ton to the franchise that he’s captained.

But the Rangers have done nothing wrong here.

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Rangers’ Jacob Trouba revealed the gnarly injury he played through during New York’s playoff run

Hockey players’ pain thresholds are insane.

NHL players are well-known for their extraordinary pain thresholds, especially in the playoffs. Every year, we hear about someone playing through an absolutely bonkers injury with the aim of hopefully hoisting the Stanley Cup.

But what Jacob Trouba willingly endured this spring is still unfathomable.

On Tuesday, the New York Rangers defenseman revealed that he played through a broken ankle injury suffered earlier in the regular season. Remember, the Rangers played all the way to Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals. So, he played with a broken ankle for roughly two months, if not a little more. That’s amazing and horrifying at the same time.

What’s more, Trouba clarified that a “big chunk of his ankle came off.”

WHAT? What does that even mean?

OK, that’s just absurd.

Look, I have mad respect for NHL players who sacrifice everything for their team. But I gotta be honest: If I had a broken ankle, I’m not gonna keep playing just so I could maybe have the chance of touching a big silver cup with a lot of names on it.

Guys like Trouba really might be built differently.

Chris Kreider casually tossed Matthew Tkachuk’s mouthguard into the Panthers crowd

YEET!

The New York Rangers and Florida Panthers Eastern Conference playoff series has gotten chippy, and now that’s included a … thrown mouthguard?

Yes, that’s right. As Rangers vet Chris Kreider had a little face-to-face with his counterpart Matthew Tkachuk, it looks like he grabbed the mouthguard out of the Panthers star’s mouth and tossed it into the crowd.

LOL! I assume Florida’s equipment manager has spares for each player, but still!

When asked about the incident after the game, Kreider said he didn’t remember that. Seems like something you’d definitely remember, but with the Rangers losing Game 4, maybe he didn’t want to talk about it.

Here’s that moment:

 

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Watch: Bob Wischusen calls overtime game-winner for Rangers

Watch: Bob Wischusen calls overtime game-winner for Rangers in Game 2 of Eastern Conference Final

Bob Wischusen is well-known by Jets fans as the main voice for the team’s radio broadcasts during the season. His work reaches far beyond just the Jets.

Wischusen also calls numerous events for ESPN, including baseball and hockey. He worked Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Final between the New York Rangers and the Florida Panthers on Friday.

With the game in overtime and the Rangers down 1-0 in the series, fourth-line center Barclay Goodrow sent the Madison Square Garden crowd into a frenzy with the winning goal to tie the series 1-1 heading to South Florida for Game 3 on Sunday.

Check out Wischusen making the call that got the Rangers back into the series.

The Rangers’ Jacob Trouba scarily diving headfirst into the boards became an instant meme

This could have gone so badly, but instead, it became meme.

Jacob Trouba has been known to throw a big hit or two … and sometimes one that isn’t legal.

The New York Rangers captain tried to get Marty Necas in Tuesday night’s double-overtime thriller in Game 2 of their playoff series, but Necas somehow ducked down and hit the ice before Trouba could nail him … and Trouba tripped over his body and went full horizontal into the boards.

Trouba was OK and played the rest of the game, but the move caught everyone’s eye on X (formerly Twitter) and became an instant meme.

Here’s a sampling from that dangerous play that could have been worse:

ESPN accidentally cut away from the Hurricanes-Rangers playoff game in the final minute of regulation

Okay, this is not cool.

Carolina Hurricanes and New York Rangers fans got a genuine scare from ESPN on Tuesday night during the final minute of regulation in the second game of the Eastern Conference’s second round.

As the two teams battled with a 3-3 tie, the Rangers were on the power play and the clock was ticking down the last minute of the third period. However, the ESPN game broadcast briefly cut away and sent viewers to Dallas for the night’s Stars playoff game against the Colorado Avalanche.

Thankfully, the broadcast cut back to New York before the clock hit zero, and fans didn’t miss any goals as the team went to overtime.

However, the heart palpitations and swear words had to be plentiful as fans were undoubtedly startled at the idea they might miss a game-winning goal in playoff hockey. Good on ESPN for getting this resolved quickly.

What a scary couple of seconds for hockey fans at home.

Feature image courtesy of ESPN.

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The Rangers and Devils started an all-out line brawl the second the puck dropped, resulting in 8 ejections

Boy, that escalated quickly.

Well, the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils proved on Wednesday night that they really do not like each other.

Right as the puck dropped at Madison Square Garden for the late-season battle, the gloves came off as a five-on-five line brawl erupted on the ice.

Literally, all of the Rangers and Devils players just started going at it in a fight. The second the puck hit the ice, absolute mayhem broke loose.

It got so bad that this opening brouhaha sparked eight ejections and an actual shouting match between Rangers coach Peter Laviolette and Devils interim coach Travis Green.

Fighting is a part of hockey, but whatever in the world sparked this had to run deeper than a typical scrap between two players. This got ugly fast.

The fighting didn’t even stop after that bizarre opening brawl.

In the first five minutes of the game, a whopping 25 different penalties were assessed between both teams, per SPDN Sports’ Drew Livingstone.

NHL.com’s Dan Rosen noted before the game that both teams started their fourth lines, so something had to be up before this even started.

Maybe this is just part of an intense rivalry, but getting into a fight like this literally at the point of puck drop just doesn’t happen every day.

Perhaps it has something to do with the last time these two teams played on March 11, a game where Rangers forward Matt Rempe earned a four-game suspension for elbowing Devils defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler and giving him a concussion.

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Justin Thomas tried to chug a beer at a New York Rangers game and it didn’t go well

A for effort, D for execution.

The late, great Toby Keith has a song that goes, “I ain’t as good as I once was, but I’m as good once, as I ever was,” and it’s a thought that many of us in our 30s have when we try and do things that came naturally in our 20s.

I can only imagine a similar thought was going through the head of Justin Thomas on Tuesday night. The two-time major champion is having himself a week in the Big Apple. On Monday Thomas was a guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and attended a New York Knicks game. On Tuesday he went to a New York Rangers game and was put on the jumbotron.

As one does when holding a beer in front of tens of thousands of fans, Thomas attempted to down his drink in one swig (keyword attempted). The 15-time PGA Tour winner was off to a great start before he ended up wearing the last third of his beer on his shirt.

A for effort, D for execution.

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