Today We Learn Whether The Rangers Sink Or Swim

This much we know about the Rangers; they've  gotten themselves in deep NHL water. More than you know.

What we don't know –  and by that I mean ALL OF US – is whether they can sink or swim.

 The Maven knows that there are folks  who THINK the Blueshirts are drowning or, worse yet, have drowned.

I have a personal roundtable of consummate consultants who insist the Rangers are as dead as the St.Louis Browns.

"They are toast!" is exactly how Jess Rubenstein puts it.

"I've said for weeks if not months – and even made a bet with you – that they will not make the playoffs," insists Sean McCaffrey.

Down the line I hear the same desultory tune from David Perlmutter to Hutch Cohen to Mark Linde.  Done, done and done.

Of course they are wrong. DEAD WRONG!

The Beloved (Ha!) Blueshirts are at The Garden this afternoon for a test with the Vancouver Canucks, an eminently conquerable team because they're not led by J.T. Miller anymore.

And even if they should lose – check the standings – they still can turn things around.

Granted, up until now the Blueshirts have had train wreck written all over them; and a loss to the Canucks could send them steaming right over the embankment.

From what I've seen over more than half a century of watching this franchise, this particular  Rangers edition is the most unfathomable, inscrutable, unloving load of overpaid skaters of all-time.

BUT, with plenty of talent to spare; and to win. No, they are not toast, nor have they drowned. It just looks that way!

But it will look vastly different tomorrow if they win today.