For my newly minted Lou Lamoriello Tight-Lip Award, Chris Drury is a runaway winner.
So far, Chris Drury has refrained from making a deal, and the Rangers should be secure in the knowledge that he'll keep his first-place team intact.
Trouble is this feeling of security is about as secure as typing paper in a typhoon.
For my newly minted Lou Lamoriello Tight-Lip Award, Drury is a runaway winner.
Every once in a while, I get the urge to hire a good ventriloquist to get behind Chris and give us some quacky-wacky quotes.
This means that for all we know, Sir Christopher is working on a blockbuster trade to end all 2,000-pounders. (Like Andy Bathgate to Toronto or Brad Park to Boston.)
We know that Colonel Christopher is not going to touch his Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dee goalkeepers because their play makes them sacrosanct.
Igor Shesterkin has regained what's roughly equivalent to his old-time Vezina form. And Jonathan Quick is not -- repeat, not -- going anywhere, except perhaps to that cheesecake joint in Westchester, made famous by one Man Mountain Matt Rempe visit.
Granted that Mika Zibanejad is not having an Artemi Panarin season, but then again, who is a better Blueshirt offensive weapon than The Breadman? Nobody.
He's leading the team in goals, assists, and points, not to mention newspaper and website columns about whether he'll fizzle again when the famous games start in the playoffs.
There's been some griping and moping and snide-remarking that number one center
Mika Zibanejad is having only a number one-and-a-half season. Big deal!
In some quarters, that would make him trade bait, but The Maven doesn't live in those quarters.
As I look at Peter Laviolette's lineup, I see no flaws and, really, only one question: What are we to make of the Matt Rempe Effect?
My astigmatic vision nevertheless tells me that the Man Mountain's Line -- along with
Man Hill, Adam Edstrom, and that good man, Barclay Goodrow -- are just plain solid. (Solid, I say, solid!)
The forechecking is fabulous, net disturbing is better than average, scoring chances are decent for a fourth line, and goals against are tolerable to commendable.
Apart from his "Made In Hollywood" personality, Rempe is just "one of the boys" who happened to parachute into Drury's backyard with the seeds of fourth-line stardom.
WHOA! Wait a minute. This just in: The Maven's extremely expensive Thought-Recording Machine (TRM) has been repulsed by Drury's cranium. TRM has nothing to report.
Frankly, I'm thinking of trading it in for a good ventriloquist, but I'm gonna wait until the Trade Deadline before I make such a drastic move.
By that time, we'll know what we don't know now -- precisely what Duke Drury has on his mind.
At least when it comes to an uncomplicated guy like the Rollicking Rempe, we know what he's thinking, don't we?
Cheesecake, pally, cheesecake!
After all, what else matters on an off day?