Speculation: 2018 Off-Season: We fell short again... now what do we do?

[Kakko Schmakko]

The only ex ranger I would take right now is Marty St Louis. We need to stop the ex Rangers thing. It's not working. At all. McDonagh and Miller were disappointing. Callahan is 6M 4th liner and Stralman was inconsistent. I like Stralman but I think hes lost a step to where he's now primarily a 2nd pairing guy or at least that's where he should be to get the most out of him. I love Callahan but the contract looms over his head. We could really use the cap space. Verdict is out until next April if McDonagh was worth it or not.

I'm not even looking forward to October, just bring on April and stop playing with my emotions.

that MSL trade was one of the worst trades ever for the Rangers.

 

[DownIsTheNewUp]

Yeah so what? There's over a dozen players that anyone would build a team with before Stamkos. He's not an ideal building block by any means.

I agree there might be a dozen other guys. There are 31 teams so he could be a be a building block for somebody, but nobody competes because of one guy anyway (just look at the Oilers). The more absurd thing was the other poster called him nothing more than a decent player, which is ludicrous.

 

[Bolt 45]

Ok, I hate to agree with McGuire, but he hit the nail on the head here. When every player on a team of stars looks awful at the same time, maybe there's a problem with the system. Did all of our roster suddenly suck at playing hockey or was Cooper outmatched?

The trap's made countless elite forwards look lost over the years. Coop maybe could have adjusted to it better, but where talent is close to equal there's only so much you can do if a team's committed to playing it. We needed to score first to stand a chance.

That being said, the trap isn't the reason we lost so badly in the games we lost. Our guys didn't play anywhere near hard enough, and, in hindsight, a little more effort might actually have swung this one.

 

[Fabiobest]

It's the 3rd round...nobodies completely 100%, didn't stop Ovechkin and Oishie from blocking shots with their legs and bodies.

Kovalchuk dragged NJ to the finals with a broken back, Karlsson got closer then us last year with one foot.

Yes, but Thornton, last year, with ACL and MCL torn, has lost against Oilers, early.
It depends: the situations are very different.
Btw, I've not said we've lost because of that.
We sucked in Caps series. Without any doubt.
But can I have one year without any serious problem? Only 1

 

[These Are The Days]

Those theories go out the window.

I don't know if that's more damning to the players or Cooper

 

[Volodya Krutov]

I don't know if that's more damning to the players or Cooper

That's the million dollar question mate and that's kind of frightening.

 

[Bolt 45]

I don't know if that's more damning to the players or Cooper

Does it matter at this point? Damn it all. Damn the whole damn thing.

 

[The Gongshow]

I checked out the playoff record for the past four seasons (since 2014-2015), despite missing out last season we are:
- Second in playoff games, with 60 games, only Pens with 66 have played more. Caps 58, Preds 55, then it starts to drop with Ducks on 44 3 etc.
- Second in playoff wins with 36, Pens are best with 39. Caps 32, Preds 30, Ducks 24 etc

One Stanley Cup final, two conference finals in four seasons, only missing out when we didn't make it to the playoffs last season.

With the parity in the league that is damn good, only the Pens are better than us in that regard.

Pens also won two cups, we came up short 3 times. We've become the Ducks/SJ of the East.

 

[Volodya Krutov]

I just read Kovalchuk somewhere, now that's intriguing. Has he already signed a pre-contract or something with the Rangers yet ?

 

[Stammertime91]

I just read Kovalchuk somewhere, now that's intriguing. Has he already signed a pre-contract or something with the Rangers yet ?

Wanted him last year. Not now. Stop bringing in big names cause we just bottle it. Cooper would probably put him with Killorn and Callahan and throw him on the 2nd PP unit.

 

[Master P]

Wish we had someone like Wayne Simmons.

 

[FinnLightning26]

No words for this...

Solid analysis there Coop.

So the coaching staff will stay the same or at least that's what I read between the lines with Yzerman's interview. Coop isn't going anywhere but what in the hell is the reason to keep Bowness? The defense and PK have been a mess for as long as I remember. You don't need to overreact but you can still make changes. For f***s sake, Yzerman..

 

[Volodya Krutov]

Pens also won two cups, we came up short 3 times. We've become the Ducks/SJ of the East.

We're becoming a dynasty at our own expense, we're the Premature Ejaculators of the East, always blowing our load before the last bang.

 

[DownIsTheNewUp]

No words for this...

Just being honest, this isn't a rhetoric question. Does anybody ever remember Cooper taking responsibility for anything? He throws a lot of blame on his players (justifiable at times), seems to blame destiny in this case. Does he ever say, "I wasn't good enough" or "that's on me".

 

[Stammertime91]

We're becoming a dynasty at our own expense, we're the Premature Ejaculators of the East, always blowing our load before the last bang.

That was poetry.

Not sure I'm high level enough to have ever put it like that.

 

[T REX]

2nd best goal scorer of the past decade. HOF career trajectory.... Decent player

He seems to be a shell of his former self. I love the guy but he flat out wilted out there. Sad.

 

[Volodya Krutov]

That was poetry.

Not sure I'm high level enough to have ever put it like that.

Art comes from sadness I guess. Since November I thought it was our year, but God did they break our hearts.

 

[HoseEmDown]

Is Stamkos not the captain? When a team plays flat isn't it his responsibility to try and get them going? The coach has some responsibility for how the team is prepared but Stamkos is supposed to be the leader on the ice and he doesn't inspire confidence. Ovechkin willed that team through 3 rounds, they were arguably not as talented as any of the teams they beat but they wanted it more than those teams. If we aren't winning with skill we aren't winning, Stamkos doesn't have that other level to go to to carry a team on his back. Would be best if we just demoted him to 2C and an assistant captain so he doesn't have to be the man which he isn't and maybe he can play like he did when he was younger.

 

[TeslaCoilFan]

He actually averaged over 19 minutes in the Washington series, which is definitely too much. I totally agree on the Hedman part and I think it would be huge to have a stable top 4 and not this constant pair shuffling.

That's why I was hopeful in the regular season when McDonagh came in and they put him with Girardi to start with, probably because they already had played together. That let Strålman move from sheltering Sergachev back to being with Hedman giving some nice stability to the top pair/four. Strålman still gets the best out of Hedman as a partner, imho. But it didn't last long because the McD/G pairing was...less than successful. So Stråls was moved to be with McD and G got his limited minutes time with Heddy swapping partners in and out.

As Macho Man pointed out before, Heddy is good enough that he could kick major butt regardless of who his partner was. And it seemed to work fine for a while. Just like the McD/Stråls pairing seemed to work fine for the first two rounds. That third round though... I hadn't realized Girardi's average TOI was 19+ in the WSH series. That might explain some of the bonehead plays he began to make more frequently. He can do okay with limited time.

I've liked Sergachev with Coburn as they've ended up being a pretty decent third pairing for the playoffs. Hell of a lot better than seeing Sustr or Dotchin out there. Sergy has come SO FAR from his first games this season! He's going to be an excellent top pair dman and probable #1D eventually.

 

[DownIsTheNewUp]

Is Stamkos not the captain? When a team plays flat isn't it his responsibility to try and get them going? The coach has some responsibility for how the team is prepared but Stamkos is supposed to be the leader on the ice and he doesn't inspire confidence. Ovechkin willed that team through 3 rounds, they were arguably not as talented as any of the teams they beat but they wanted it more than those teams. If we aren't winning with skill we aren't winning, Stamkos doesn't have that other level to go to to carry a team on his back. Would be best if we just demoted him to 2C and an assistant captain so he doesn't have to be the man which he isn't and maybe he can play like he did when he was younger.

Some of that can fall on both Cooper and Stamkos. I think as fans we overrate the importance of captaincy. The best thing Stamkos can do as a team leader is go out and work his butt off on the ice and I think he did that (I would say he and Point were the two forwards that looked like they gave it their all most of the time).
Ultimately it's on Cooper though because he has the ultimate trump card to motivate, ice time. If you aren't competing then you sit. Stamkos doesn't have that power.

 

[The Gongshow]

Wish we had someone like Wayne Simmons.

Inb4 we sign some 5'7 midget to fit with the rest of this midget based offence. Who's our tallest forward Stamkos at 6'1?

 

[TeslaCoilFan]

Point was the only one being effective but Gourde and Johnson tried to win those pucks too, but they were physically overmatched along the boards. Palat looked like a Nelwyn among Daikinis, Killorn is soft as **** for his size, Kuch was just nowhere to be seen.

Kuzya might not be a power forward, but he sure is one hell of a big athlete. And a gentle dose of athleticism in our top 9 is what we're missing against those trap teams. We don't need a PF, but we need more versatility to get more prepared against any type of system. As soon as our speed advantage is nullified we're becoming extremely vulnerable. That's being one-dimensional 101 to me.

What puzzles me is how they could take on and BEAT the Bruins who are without a doubt a very hard playing, physical & skilled team, yet couldn't pull off the same sort of attacking mentality against the Caps.

 

[Stephen]

Is Stamkos not the captain? When a team plays flat isn't it his responsibility to try and get them going? The coach has some responsibility for how the team is prepared but Stamkos is supposed to be the leader on the ice and he doesn't inspire confidence. Ovechkin willed that team through 3 rounds, they were arguably not as talented as any of the teams they beat but they wanted it more than those teams. If we aren't winning with skill we aren't winning, Stamkos doesn't have that other level to go to to carry a team on his back. Would be best if we just demoted him to 2C and an assistant captain so he doesn't have to be the man which he isn't and maybe he can play like he did when he was younger.

Stamkos has issues getting going by himself as an impact player shift to shift in heavy games. I appreciate that he takes the effort to throw the body around, especially in the Bruins series where you'd see him finish some heavy checks on the forecheck but what he's really slipping in is his ability to handle the puck and create plays out there which diminishes whatever impact he has as a player. He seems to be getting worse at that as time goes on. The Tampa transition game almost exclusively bypasses him. He doesn't have very much control over the game.

 

[Kakko Schmakko]

Rick Nash and Grabner will be UFAs, I think you could actually use their sets of skills.

 

[Stammertime91]

Rick Nash and Grabner will be UFAs, I think you could actually use their sets of skills.

Hard pass. Nash is gonna cost a lot and Grabner was terrible for the Devils. Don't think either one fit what we really need. Not ideally. Both are good players but Grabner isn't someone I want to throw 3-4M at who was practically invisible in his postseason as well.