The Playoff Push of 2008

I'll be honest with you, if you had told me 2 months ago today that the Rangers would be the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, I would have laughed thinking of such an occurence. The investments of Gomez and Drury were looking to be busts, and the 6 year, $6.875 million contract extension Henrik Lundqvist was given looked to be a mistake. Once 10th in the East, many of us were calling for the heads of Tom Renney and even Rangers GM Glen Sather. But here we are, in the beginning of April, with our team looking primed to be a tough team to beat in this year's playoffs. Here are a couple of factors that I attribute to the Rangers' surge in the past few weeks:

• The resurgence of Henrik Lundqvist as a top 3 goalie in the Eastern Conference: This guy has been playing out of his mind lately; a sub 1.00 GAA against key rival New Jersey, and most recently, earning his 10th shutout of the year, the best in the NHL and the most by a Ranger since the time of Bun Cook and Lester Patrick. In the contest today versus the Devils, he gave the Rangers a fighting chance to earn home ice advantage against the Devils in the upcoming Eastern Conference Quarterfinal Playoff series. With the exception of dropping a couple of eggs along the way, this man has been the team MVP next to Scott Gomez this calendar year.

• Trading for Christian Backman and the play of Marek Malik: Before you all bash me, let me say a few things. At the time of the trade deadline, the Rangers were wearing thin defensively with the injury to Paul Mara and the slight injury to Michal Rozsival. For a 4th round pick, the Rangers acquired their 3rd best defenseman in the past couple of weeks. After shaking off early nerves. Backman has turned into a reliable defenseman with some offensive upside. He is mistake prone, but there has only been one instance in which Backman could have cost the Rangers the game. Overall, a good trade by Sather, since mid-round draft picks are all relative in value. Onto Marek Malik, after being declared an "enemy of the people" by the Garden Faithful, he has stepped in the past few games and has done a solid job on defense. No glaring mistakes have been made, and that ever dangerous outlet pass has led to many Rangers scoring opportunities. Despite this, Malik is likely to be shown the door this offseason for salary cap reasons.

• Scott Gomez and Chris Drury earning their paychecks: What can I say, Scott Gomez has been the Rangers' best skater and leading point getter all season. He is a quick, dyamic player that creates a scoring chance on almost every end to end rush across the ice that he has become known for. With a bonafide sniper on his wing, Gomez is easily a point per game player, coming close to that rate with the likes of Nigel Dawes, Brendan Shanahan, and Petr Prucha as his linemates. Chris Drury has more than held up his reputation as "Captain Clutch" as a New York Ranger. Most recently with an OT game winner against Pittsburgh, his tendency for heroics will come in handy during the playoff run. Perhaps if he continues to maintain his reputation during this year's playoffs, it is possible that he will be awarded with a certain important letter on his sweater next year.

• The emergence of Nigel Dawes and Brandon Dubinsky: I always knew that Nigel Dawes would earn a roster spot on this team, it was just a matter of when. After this year, Nigel has rightfully earned his top 9 spot on the Rangers after toiling in Hartford for the past couple of years. I first witnessed his game in person at the first Rangers-Devils game at MSG this season. He scored 2 brilliant goals to give the Rangers a 2-0 win against Brodeur's Devils. At this point, I knew that he had earned his spot. He is a sniper with a very quick release that I believe is capable of reaching the 30 goal/65 point range in the very near future. Count me a very unhappy Ranger fan if he is at any point traded by Sather. As for Dubinsky, I don't think that any Ranger fan can say that this guy was going to come out of the gate like he did this season. He has been a very pleasant surprise for the Rangers this season, coming as close to a "five tool player" as you would call in baseball as any Ranger I can think of. His speed, shot, stickhandling, toughness (not to mention his willingness to drop the gloves), and responsibility in the defensive zone have catapulted him to the first line center job with Jagr. If he keeps improving, I see Dubinsky as a #2 center on this team with an A on his jersey in 4-5 years.

Outside of Staal's amazing rookie campaign and the consistent play of Tyutin and Girardi, that just about accounts for the improvement among the Rangers in the past couple of months.

I look to be posting again soon, probably in the next couple of days before Game 1.