Rangers Roundup: Breakup day schedule, plus Bolts’ Jon Cooper praises Blueshirts

By 
Jun 12, 2022
new york rangers
Jun 11, 2022; Tampa, Florida, USA; New York Rangers left wing Chris Kreider (20) speaks at a press conference after losing to the Tampa Bay Lightning in game six of the Eastern Conference Final of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Amalie Arena. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports
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The New York Rangers will launch their offseason on Monday at noon. They already got started by signing Vitali Kravtsov to a 1-year deal on Sunday.

Breakup day with the media will include interviews with head coach Gerard Gallant and several players at the MSG Training Center in Tarrytown.

One of the big topics that will be asked of Gallant is his decision to scratch Kaapo Kakko in favor of Dryden Hunt. That move was extremely scrutinized with Ryan Strome nursing an injury that limited his skating ability and eventually forced him to miss the third period of Game 6.

When asked after the game about his lineup decision the head coach was in no mood to discuss it.

“I’m not going to talk about it,” Gallant said in a firm tone. “Today is not the time for me.”

Other items expected to be discussed are what injuries the team was dealing with. GM Chris Drury is not currently scheduled to speak.

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Jon Cooper praises Rangers

Jon Cooper Gerard Gallant
Jun 11, 2022; Tampa, Florida, USA; Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper and New York Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant shake hands after game six of the Eastern Conference Final of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Amalie Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

After the Tampa Bay Lightning advanced to their third straight Stanley Cup Final on Saturday night, their head coach was extremely complimentary of the Rangers.

“That Ranger team– Gerard Gallant is going to be sitting here in not too long a future. But it’s hard. When you go seven [Penguins], you go seven [Hurricanes] and you go six [Lightning]. That was their 20th playoff game in 40 days. It’s hard to play 20 regular-season games in 40 days, let alone playoff games. For them to get as far as they did– I’m amazed by what they did, let alone what we did. The playoffs at times can be a war of attrition, and I think in the end the layoff helped us. It didn’t early. But no layoff hurt them and the long series. Listen, these games are 2-1, 3-2, they’re all extremely tight games. They gave us everything and like I said, they had to play a lot of games and it benefitted us at the end.”

Note: You can hear the Cooper’s full comments at at 4:55 minute mark of the video.

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By Anthony Scultore

Anthony Scultore is the founder of Forever Blueshirts and has been covering the New York Rangers and the NHL since 2014. His work also appears at YardBarker and MSN. Some of his past features have been linked on Sportsnet, NBC, TFP, NY POST, NEWSDAY and more.