Post-Game Talk: Blue Waffle

[17futurecap]

Positive is, Les will be gone as soon as this weekend with the Kakko return, Brodzinski will hopefully be gone as soon as Pitlick is ready.

Then you hopefully get Chytil and/or a trade asset back to get some of these other clowns out of it as well.

Too much crap right now to draw any real conclusions about the team.

 

[Shesterkybomb]

Obviously Mika will be back soon, just need a viable 3c if Chytil doesn't come back. Goodrow is going nowhere this year.

I'm usually willing to give him the benefit of being a vet that might find his game but he was our worst player tonight and it wasn't close.Goodrow may not go anywhere but this team needs another center

 

[BleedBlueNYR]

A Hallmark movie?

No.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

Just checked my FB memories, on this date in 2012 i wrote: "Rangers looked like shit tonight"

 

[PuckLuck3043]

I'm usually willing to give him the benefit of being a vet that might find his game but he was our worst player tonight and it wasn't close.Goodrow may not go anywhere but this team needs another center

As a 4th line center with Vesey and Pitlick we can get away with that but Bonino centering the 3rd line absolutely needs to be upgraded.

 

[80shockeywasbuns]

Leschyshyn grabbing whatever amenities and bags of snacks he can for the apartment back in Hartford.

I hope someone gives him a swirly in the plane toilet

 

[Kovalev27]

https://x.com/louiebellina/status/1745664776074658211?s=46&t=QUcCtS0WrUbUSXL4U-JD-A

These stat lines for Igor are ridiculous

 

[80shockeywasbuns]

Bonino 6:16 at five on five, one awful penalty 0 shot attempts for 7 against.

Completely useless player and a waste of minutes for anyone who’s deployed with him. Every season they waste hundreds of minutes on these bottom of the barrel plugs like Bonino, Mckegg, Reaves, Rooney, Goodrow, Leschyshyn etc. and NYR fans jump through hoops to dismiss the impact it has on the teams ability to win, both short and long term.

Why can’t we just waste the same minutes on younger players, who have actual track records of lower level production, who could at least conceivably be good? Guys like Gauthier/Kravtsov become memes on here and NYR fans basically brag about how happy they are that theyre gone meanwhile the team is serving them shit on a plate (Bonino) and they eat it up like it’s filet mignon. Every bottom 6er Drury has moved out (Gauthier/Krav/Barron/Blais) would be an improvement to the current team when fully healthy and wouldve looked like Gretzky in tonight’s bottom 6

 

[Gordon Bombay]

Trocheck calling Mika "our number one center" isn't that cute

Wish Tro would stop line numbering

 

[Mike in Houston]

 

[mas0764]

Igor has been bad, the team at 5v5 has been bad, penalty kill and power play are dropping off. We are in a slump for sure but it's also eye opening that Laviollette hasn't fixed the 5v5 issues.

It's a personnel thing.

 

[Mike in Houston]

Igor has been bad, the team at 5v5 has been bad, penalty kill and power play are dropping off. We are in a slump for sure but it's also eye opening that Laviollette hasn't fixed the 5v5 issues.

It's a personnel thing.

 

[McRanger92]

Just checked my FB memories, on this date in 2012 i wrote: "Rangers looked like shit tonight"

They finished that season as the top seed in the East. Good omen?

 

[leetch99]

I understand players are hurt. I don’t understand why we’re running out so much washed up garbage every night.

Other teams that have injuries have prospects ready to fill in.

Hire 2-3 scouts for Western Canada and listen to them . This team SUCKS at scouting . We have money to burn and they don't invest in team infrastructure ......scouts are the foundation of any good club . We should have the best .

 

[majordomo]

Hire 2-3 scouts for Western Canada and listen to them . This team SUCKS at scouting . We have money to burn and they don't invest in team infrastructure ......scouts are the foundation of any good club . We should have the best .

Dolan controls the purse strings and we know where his sympathies lie...

 

[Graves94]

Igor has been bad, the team at 5v5 has been bad, penalty kill and power play are dropping off. We are in a slump for sure but it's also eye opening that Laviollette hasn't fixed the 5v5 issues.

It's a personnel thing.

Agreed with this totally!
What's surprising to me and disappointing, is that they can't tighten up and play a boring, defensive system when they're struggling mightly defensively. That's how they will need to play in the playoffs to be successful. They were playing that way early in the season, but it seems with a couple of injuries, the defensive system has fallen apart...not good!
Also, agreed with another poster about the scrap on the bottom six that we deploy year after year, terrible, that's on Drury, not the coach. The bottom six needs to contribute once in a while to take pressure off the top six, it's logical. So if the bottom six is not contributing, they need to play shut down hockey, stop the other teams top 6 or top line, but guess what, that's not happening either...We got beat by Vancouver's top line and we got beat last night by the Blues top line...terrible!
All of the above is irrelevant if your goalie can't stop a puck, and let's be honest Igor has been a very average goalie, aside from a two week stretch, no way this team is winning anything if he plays like this.
We are all fooling ourselves if we think getting the injured players back will fix the above issues.

 

[will1066]

Just hang on if you can till Kakko returns. Even if he doesn't light it up, he will at least bring stability to Kreider and Zib and to 5v5 play. The stability trickles down because it'll make everyone else in the forward group slot more appriopriately.

It's ugly right now.

 

[Kovalev27]

Bruins just lost their third in a row for what it’s worth. Kings just lost like 7 in a row. Something wild. There are ebbs and flows in a season. I frankly don’t think we should have lost any of these past 3 games. The goaltending didn’t make a save. That left the team scrambling. That’s what happens when u don’t get a save the structure disappears. You start chasing the game. No one wants to say it but that’s reality.

Binnington made a lot of saves. Rebound saves. Saves thru traffic. We hit 3 or 4 posts.

So we were better than these 3 losses. What I don’t understand is why Lavy doesn’t pull Igor in these games for Igor’s sake and to settle the team. Is it injury concern for Quick? Might be. If that’s the case that’s not good in a back up.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

Heres a hot take.

Rangers have looked better in their last 2 losses (and most of the Montreal game) than they have in most of their wins this season.

It looks worse than it is because almost every single mistake is ending up in the back of their net and Igor can't stop anything right now, but they stomped both Vancouver and especially St Louis.

The mistakes need to be cleaned up, but all of these games would have been wins if we got decent goaltending (maybe not last night, we got goalied and puck lucked to hell.)

 

[will1066]

Bruins just lost their third in a row for what it’s worth. Kings just lost like 7 in a row. Something wild. There are ebbs and flows in a season. I frankly don’t think we should have lost any of these past 3 games. The goaltending didn’t make a save. That left the team scrambling. That’s what happens when u don’t get a save the structure disappears. You start chasing the game. No one wants to say it but that’s reality.

Binnington made a lot of saves. Rebound saves. Saves thru traffic. We hit 3 or 4 posts.

So we were better than these 3 losses. What I don’t understand is why Lavy doesn’t pull Igor in these games for Igor’s sake and to settle the team. Is it injury concern for Quick? Might be. If that’s the case that’s not good in a back up.

Definitely there were some inexcusable goals. But some others would be tough for any goalie. Skater coming in alone with plenty of time and space and also moving cross crease. Team defense left the goalie scrambling, which left the team scrambling in return.

Heres a hot take.

Rangers have looked better in their last 2 losses (and most of the Montreal game) than they have in most of their wins this season.

It looks worse than it is because almost every single mistake is ending up in the back of their net and Igor can't stop anything right now, but they stomped both Vancouver and especially St Louis.

The mistakes need to be cleaned up, but all of these games would have been wins if we got decent goaltending (maybe not last night, we got goalied and puck lucked to hell.)

Also need to score in order to win. As @mas0764 pointed out, the special teams were carrying the group for a long time, and they are both slowing down.

 

[McRanger92]

Heres a hot take.

Rangers have looked better in their last 2 losses (and most of the Montreal game) than they have in most of their wins this season.

It looks worse than it is because almost every single mistake is ending up in the back of their net and Igor can't stop anything right now, but they stomped both Vancouver and especially St Louis.

The mistakes need to be cleaned up, but all of these games would have been wins if we got decent goaltending (maybe not last night, we got goalied and puck lucked to hell.)

Vally posted his chart and the Rangers had 6.5 expected goals last night. Offense isn’t the issue. Poor puck management and loose defense is. That’s correctable obviously because they were much better before they had the Hartford top 6 playing in the NHL. Mika Kakko Pitlick hopefully back by the home and home against the Caps. Reinforcements are on the way at least

 

[Glen Sathers Cigar]

Losing a game when having north of 6xG is ridiculous.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

Definitely there were some inexcusable goals. But some others would be tough for any goalie. Skater coming in alone with plenty of time and space and also moving cross crease. Team defense left the goalie scrambling, which left the team scrambling in return.


Also need to score in order to win. As @mas0764 pointed out, the special teams were carrying the group for a long time, and they are both slowing down.

Mas is just trying to play I told you so.

Heres the thing, the 5v5 play HAS picked up, they've just run into hot goaltending and shitty puck luck while their own goalie can't stop anything that is of even slight difficulty (if that, both the 1st goal yesteday and the 5th goal vs Vancouve were shit goals.)

 

[will1066]

Mas is just trying to play I told you so.

Heres the thing, the 5v5 play HAS picked up, they've just run into hot goaltending and shitty puck luck while their own goalie can't stop anything that is of even slight difficulty (if that, both the 1st goal yesteday and the 5th goal vs Vancouve were shit goals.)

The first goal last night was admittedly terrible. It destroyed the vibe of the Fox early goal. But we could've gone back up if Laf had potted one instead of hitting the post again. Also, we are ceding way too much as the other team gets through the neutral zone and gains our blue line. The gap control has been terrible during this stretch. They visibly tried to play a more simple game in the offensive zone by throwing pucks on net, but pucks couldn't get through, there was hardly anyone in Binnington's grille for rebounds and it was mostly harmless perimeter play.

 

[Ail]

Trying to not overreact until the fallout from players getting healthy and the TDL settle. If after that our bottom six is still two AHL lines and Vesey it might be time to panic. Record schmecord, just need to get in and get healthy. I think the fact they were the best team in the league by standings going into 2024 exacerbates everything. I never thought this team was winning the division let alone the President's trophy so whatever. The Igor conversation is going to get really interesting depending on how the rest of his season goes. Unfortunately Drury doesn't strike me as the type who looks at the G position and thinks it's a crapshoot so he shouldn't throw money at Shesty regardless of his very mediocre season.

We've been so spoiled by the consistency of Henrik year to year we often forget most elite goalies have incredible years and then look average or worse for entire years before suddenly deciding to be elite again.