As for the Rangers, who’re in a spot they could never have predicted just eight months ago.
1. So if the Maple Leafs, losing 3-0 to the Panthers and battling Wednesday night in the second round in Sunrise, Florida, fall with no significant answer, will General Manager Kyle Dubas return along with his expiring contract and more to the point, what about the way forward for head coach Sheldon Keef?
Are you able to see where we’re going here?
If the 42-year-old Keefe parted ways with the organization, he would likely turn into an individual of interest in the Rangers coaching quest.
Toronto was weakened by the inability of the team’s best players to be the team’s best players in the playoffs throughout Keefe’s four-year tenure. The Maple Leafs were too talent oriented, attempting to patch up the grimace problem. All of this may occasionally sound familiar.
In any case, it could be a disqualification for a coach whose team went 0-7 in the potential series winners for 4 years before finally beating the Lightning on the second try in Round 1 to take their first series win since 2004.
But Keefe has experience coping with party players. There’s a structure in Toronto. He has experience in the highlight with an influence 100 times greater than that of Recent York.
And he will surely be a much smarter coach with Igor Shesterkin as the No. 1 coach than the conglomerate of Freddie Andersen, Jack Campbell, Ilya Samsonov, Matt Murray and Joseph Woll he worked with in Toronto.
![Sheldon Keefe coaches the Maple Leafs during Game 3 against the Panthers on May 7, 2023.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000010793607.jpg?w=1024)
2. The biggest mystery of the season is how, immediately after a trade, and only immediately after a trade, Sammy Blais became the player GM Chris Drury coveted and the Rangers needed when the winger was signed from St. Louis to trade Pavel Buchnevich in July 2021?
Not only was Blais the form of player the Rangers needed two years ago, he is strictly the form of player the Rangers need now.
Someway Blueshirts keep coming up on the flawed side of this drum.
There was a difference in odds when Blais was a part of the February 10 deal for Vlad Tarasenko and Niko Mikkola, and a difference in circumstances. The Blues cleared and dropped out of the playoffs very like the Blueshirts of the 2017–18 season aside from no letter.
![Sammy Blais (left) returned to form with the Blues after being traded back by the Rangers.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000009321139.jpg?w=1024)
There was no pressure when Blais, who had spent most of the last 15 months in rehab after PK Subban damaged his knee, checked himself into St. Louis. His time on the ice increased from 9:38 to 14:36. He went from playing fourth unit to top six with Brandon Saad and Braden Schenn as linemates. Average 1:35 per power play.
After missing a goal in 40 games this season and in the 54 games that made up his Broadway run, Blais scored nine goals in 31 games under the Arch and can represent Canada at the upcoming World Cup.
The Rangers wanted Blais to complete in the top six. He opened training camp to the right side with Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad. But he couldn’t sustain. There wasn’t a player Drury invested more in given the controversy surrounding Buchnevich’s trade.
The Rangers gave Blais a spot in the second power-play unit for the November–December period. Didn’t work. Nothing happened. Blais tried, he was physical, but he just couldn’t make an impression. His time on the ice declined, his confidence wavered, he was scratched six times in 21 games after which he was traded.
And he immediately became a player the Rangers could use against Recent Jersey and could use him next 12 months after which the next.
3. By the way.
In the 13-day period starting July 17, 2021, Drury added 4 strikers with sand, sandpaper and a mean attitude that everybody agreed the Blue Shirts desperately needed.
There was a trade – and immediate extension – of Barclay Goodrow, followed by the acquisition of Blais, the signing of a free agent take care of Dryden Hunt and the acquisition of Ryan Reaves.
![Barclay Goodrow (left) of the Rangers battles Kevin Bahl (right) of the Devils during Game 5 of the First Round on April 27, 2023.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000010273879.jpg?w=1024)
All but Goodrow are gone, and at a time when the Rangers need more forwards like Goodrow again – who stood there and valiantly battled the giant Kevin Bahl, attempting to inject some life into his moribund Game 5 squad – there is a excellent likelihood that Goodrow himself could have to be sacrificed on the altar of caps this summer.
And the means of finding guys to make the Blueshirts a tougher team to play could have to start out all all over again.
Yes, Will Cuyll appears on the horizon, and this appears to be a lifesaver.
4. Here’s an interesting one.
Prior to Patrick Kane’s acquisition, Rangers’ Power Play was 23.1 percent.
After the deal, excluding the two games No. 88 missed at the end of the season, Rangers’ Power Play was 23.1 percent.