Filip Chytil
Registered User
- Mar 3, 2014
- 5,649
- 5,594
Literally: Please. There's a certain level of intensity that should be brought in every playoff game. Why? It's a damn playoff game. This isn't rocket science. If I have to explain that, then this is a lost conversation from the get go.
You think they brought it in Game 2? In Game 5? Ha! They laid back in Games 2 and 5. Tampa played a playoff game. We did not. Look, we saw it perfectly in Game 5. Series tied at 2-2. Heading back to the Garden after a huge victory down in Tampa. Tampa knew what that Game 5 meant. The Rangers should have as well. 3-2 lead is huge. Tampa played like they knew what the game meant and the Rangers never looked like they got going. Classic mental test. It's that situation where, "Hey, we got it tied up 2-2. We got a big win in Game 4. But it doesn't mean anything for Game 5." You know, sooner than later, the Rangers "lay back attitude" after a win is going to come back to haunt them. Great teams will capitalize big time on that.
Don't put words in my mouth. I never said the players are robots for goodness sakes. That's coming from left field and you know it. There's a level of competitiveness that I expect each and every night. What's so hard about that? Why can't people understand that? Does that mean I expect them to win every game? No. I expect them to play hard and look as if they're playing a god damn playoff game and not some regular season game in Buffalo in the middle of December.
The Rangers bring it one night and they lay back the next night. We see this time and time again. They think they've earned the right to lay back, while they've earned nothing.
Look, what AV does best is he doesn't panic. Sometimes it's his Achilles heel (Not making adjustments when they should be made). Other times it's his bread and butter (Keeping players' minds clear). Rangers lose Game 5 with a disheartening performance, but AV won't storm into the locker room screaming profanities and throwing tables. He's calm, cool, and collected. He's a free coach. He believes the players know what's at stake. Torts is a screamer. He screams at everything and in the beginning, the screaming worked. But over time, it loses it's effectiveness. With AV, he's calm and patient and he doesn't scream very often. But when he does, the players know it means something. We'll see how effective everything is tonight.
