Here is the holiday break edition of the weekly NHL.com mailbag, where we answer your questions asked on X and Bluesky. Send your questions to @drosennhl and @NHLdotcom on X, or @drosennhl.bsky.social on Bluesky, and tag them with #OvertheBoards.
What team firmly in a playoff position now will be playing golf at the end of the regular season? -- @ForeverSand
Man, you're really bringing the holiday cheer with this question.
The easy choice is the Ottawa Senators because they have so much to prove, but there's no team behind them in the Eastern Conference that screams out second-half surge. As long as the Senators continue to get saves from goalie Linus Ullmark, they're as good a pick as any to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
So instead let's look at the Western Conference, and the team to watch is the Vancouver Canucks. They're in the first wild-card position at the holiday break with 41 points (17-10-7) in 34 games, a .603 points percentage. They have one more point in one more game than the Dallas Stars (20-13-0), who are in the second wild card but with a .606 points percentage. The Calgary Flames (16-11-7, .574) and Utah Hockey Club (16-12-6, .559) are right behind. The Canucks, though, reportedly have had some turmoil inside the dressing room with forwards Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller. That has to get resolved. On the ice, they give up a lot. Their 3.12 goals-against per game is fourth most in the Western Conference, and among teams in a playoff position at the holiday break only the Colorado Avalanche (3.33) allow more. But Colorado also scores more (3.33 goals per game) than the Canucks (3.15).
In addition, Vancouver's schedule coming out of the break for the 4 Nations Face-Off includes two road trips of at least five games; a five-game trip from Feb. 22-March 1 with games against the Vegas Golden Knights, Utah and the Los Angeles Kings, and a six-game trip from March 20-30, including four games in the Eastern time zone. Five of their last six games are against Vegas, Dallas, Colorado, the Minnesota Wild and Vegas again. They still play Vegas, the Winnipeg Jets and Dallas three times each, and the Edmonton Oilers, Minnesota, Colorado, Los Angeles, Toronto Maple Leafs and Washington Capitals twice each.
Is it time to give up on the Rangers this season? Can anything fix this mess? -- @KREIDERMAN20
Don't give up on the season. That's certainly your right as a fan, but it's Christmas. Try to be merry. Try to be bright. Try to be hopeful. Think good thoughts. But be realistic. There is no quick fix, no magic eraser to the past month of the season, nothing that we've seen from the Rangers that suggests the messy situation they've gotten themselves in can be fixed this season. The Rangers have somewhat shockingly and somewhat completely collapsed.
The shocking part is how fast it has happened. They were 12-4-1 on Nov. 19; they're 4-13-0 since. They're under .500 (16-17-1) this late into a season for the first time since finishing the 2018-19 season 32-36-14.
The not-so-shocking part is the 12-4-1 start was somewhat of a mirage, with obvious struggles masked by elite goaltending and red-hot special teams; they were 24.4 percent on the power play and 88.9 percent on the penalty kill. The Rangers, though, ranked No. 21 in shot-attempts percentage (49.0 percent), seventh in 5-on-5 shooting percentage (10.1 percent) and sixth in 5-on-5 save percentage (.931) after winning 4-3 at the Vancouver Canucks on Nov. 19. They were giving up far too many high-danger chances and getting bailed out by goalies Igor Shesterkin and Jonathan Quick. They were turnover prone and generally inefficient offensively at 5-on-5. It was bound to turn on them, to bend the other way. It instead has broken them.
Their goaltending, by no fault of Shesterkin and Quick, has regressed as the chances against have continued to climb. They've combined for a .900 save percentage on 5-on-5 in the past 17 games. During that span New York's power play has plummeted to 13.0 percent. The penalty kill is still effective, but not as good (81.8 percent). Their 5-on-5 shooting percentage is 6.8 percent. They've been outscored 61-35. They struggle on breakouts and on in-zone defensive coverage. They lost 5-0 to the New Jersey Devils on Monday, when they had 12 shots on goal. It looked like there was hope, reasons for optimism, when they won 3-1 at the Dallas Stars on Friday, but they followed that with a 3-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes at home on Sunday and the loss to New Jersey on Monday.
Roster-wise, their captain, Jacob Trouba, and forward Kaapo Kakko have been traded. While the trades of those particular players is not surprising, the Rangers did not get better in either trade. Chris Kreider, New York's most tenured player and a member of the United States team for the 4 Nations Face-Off, was scratched against New Jersey. Mika Zibanejad hasn't scored a 5-on-5 goal in 17 straight games and his ice time has plummeted too. Alexis Lafreniere has five goals, 14 points and is a minus-15 in 27 games since signing a seven-year, $52.15 million contract ($7.45 million average annual value) on Oct. 25.
It has become messy, no doubt, and fixing it this season, while not hopeless with 48 games remaining, might not be possible. But it's Christmas, so be positive, think good thoughts, and maybe the Rangers will deliver you some holiday cheer when they come back from the break.
Do you think the Capitals have done a good retool for years to come as well as keeping competitive? -- @Seenseee
The Capitals did a masterful retool this past offseason to stay competitive now. It wasn't about years to come, it was about this season and probably next, keeping competitive and becoming a Stanley Cup contender again in the Alex Ovechkin era. Like it or not, we're nearing the end of the Ovechkin era. That doesn't mean the Capitals have to go into a full rebuild when he's gone, be that in a year, two, three or whatever. But their retool, which featured seven new players in the offseason -- forwards Pierre-Luc Dubois, Andrew Mangiapane, Brandon Duhaime and Taylor Raddysh, defensemen Matt Roy and Jakob Chychrun, and goalie Logan Thompson -- refreshed their roster and pushed Washington to be better this season than it was last season. They since have added forwards Lars Eller and Jakub Vrana to that mix. All of that combined with Spencer Carbery's smart coaching, Ovechkin's resurgent goal scoring before he got hurt, Aliaksei Protas and Connor McMichael's continued development into reliable point producers, Dylan Strome's playmaking, John Carlson's seemingly unending ability eat big minutes, and the solid goaltending they're getting from Charlie Lindgren and Thompson has pushed the Capitals toward the top of the NHL this season.
The bigger impact on Washington's future is their continued strong relationship with Hershey, their American Hockey League affiliate. McMichael, Protas, Lindgren and Ivan Miroshnichenko are products of that winning environment, including Calder Cup championships the past two seasons. So is Carbery. Vincent Iorio is a top defenseman in the Capitals system still developing in Hershey now. They play meaningful games in Hershey, a team that has built a culture of winning and development. It serves them well when they get to Washington.
In addition, Ryan Leonard, a forward at Boston College, is one of the Capitals' top prospects and arguably one of the best prospects outside the NHL. He'll be on display with the United States at the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship starting Thursday, where will be the captain for the defending gold medalists, and he could arrive in Washington as soon as late this season. He is a huge part of the Capitals' future.
So the Capitals retooled their NHL roster to be good this season, but they're set up with their younger players, a strong relationship with Hershey and their top prospects to be a competitive team for years.
Who has been a surprise breakout player, and who has been less impressive? -- @sahonig
Stefan Noesen had what was at the time his NHL high of 14 goals in 81 games with the Carolina Hurricanes last season. He already has 16 goals in 37 games this season with the New Jersey Devils. Noesen has played in 403 NHL games, so he has a track record. But he's breaking out as a potential 30-goal scorer this season playing in New Jersey's top-six forward group and on its first power play. He has seven power-play goals.
Hurricanes forward Jack Roslovic also is a candidate for surprise breakout player. He has 14 goals in 34 games, already the second most he's scored in a season behind his 22 in 81 games with the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2021-22. He had nine in 59 games with the Blue Jackets and Rangers last season.
Less than impressive are Buffalo Sabres forwards Dylan Cozens and Jack Quinn. Cozens is regressing. He has 17 points (seven goals, 10 assists) and a minus-7 rating in 35 games this season. He had 47 points (18 goals, 29 assists) in 79 games last season after he had 68 points (31 goals, 37 assists) in 81 games in 2022-23. Quinn has struggled this season with nine points (four goals, five assists) in 28 games. He missed 55 games last season because of injuries, but he still had 19 points (nine goals, 10 assists) in the 27 games he played. He's gone backward, as have the Sabres. But maybe their 7-1 win against the New York Islanders on Monday, which ended a 13-game skid (0-10-3), is a sign of good times ahead. Quinn had a goal and an assist and Cozens had two assists.
Are the Rangers harming Matt Rempe's career? They're not letting him develop his hockey skills in the AHL with Hartford and instead treating him like a yo-yo when they know he's clearly not ready for the NHL. -- @TrishTheMiddle
They're not harming his career by having him play in the NHL. Rempe can be impactful in his role. He forechecks aggressively. He creates some chaos. He can win pucks back. He has good hands and can be dangerous around the net. Rempe, however, is harming his chances of becoming a regular NHL player with his illegal hits, like the one on Dallas Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen that landed him an eight-game suspension from the NHL Department of Player Safety for boarding/elbowing. He needs to know, and should know by now, that when you see a player's numbers and you have time to adjust your angle, you need to do it. It was made clear on the suspension video put out by Player Safety that Rempe had time to adjust his angle before hitting Heiskanen. The video noted that from the time Rempe started to approach Heiskanen, all he saw was his back and yet he still drove hard into Heiskanen, with enough force to ride up, his elbow extended and his feet raising up off the ice. It broke several rules. If Rempe can improve that part of his game he can be an effective fourth-line forward in the NHL right now. He has said that his goal is to become a player like Winnipeg Jets forward Adam Lowry, a physical, bottom-six forward who can play in all situations and be effective. There's no question that more time developing in the American Hockey League is good for any player, but Rempe has proven that he can make an impact in the NHL if he stays on the right side of the line. He has to date been suspended for 12 games because he hasn't done that. If that changes, he'll be in the NHL.
