Post-Game Talk: Rangers at Jets - December 8

[darko]

Lundqvist, when he's on his game, is one of the top handful of goalies in the game and one of the best players in the world. He's been elite for over a decade. With what he's shown in his career, and with what the team has committed to him moving forward, you keep sending him out there until he either regains his form or proves he can no longer play at an elite level. You don't sit him though. That doesn't do any good.

What this guy said.

 

[ICdave]

Post-game audio: Hayes, Raanta and coach Vigneault.

To listen click here.

 

[SRTtoZ]

Raanta barely faced 20 shots I believe. PK was great tonight, as was our management of Laine. Raanta played a great game, but the team around him played much better than they have around Hank.

Yea but he made them look easy like they should have been. Hank hasn't been seeing the puck well and he makes easy shots look tough to stop.

 

[Inferno]

Plenty of goalies use time off to work with their goalie coach to rihht the ship. Henrik has been benched before and it worked. Just look at the results from a few years back where talbot played a few in a row while henrik got his game back togethwr. It worked wonders then.

 

[nyr2k2]

I guess it's subjective how you look at hitting posts. To me, it's binary. In or not, a hit or a miss. Makes a nice sound, though.
Really good win by the team!

You're absolutely right. A hit post is no different or "unlucky" than any other missed shot. The point is to beat the goalie while also hitting the net. Beating the goalie but missing the net isn't "unlucky," it's just a regular missed shot by a smaller margin. Luck has nothing to do with it.

 

[Inferno]

I thought laine was pretty crappy tonight.

 

[Anthony5967]

I thought laine was pretty crappy tonight.

thought the Ranger "AHL defense" as some on twitter think it is did a good job of limiting him tonight

 

[Machinehead]

thought the Ranger "AHL defense" as some on twitter think it is did a good job of limiting him tonight

They did a great job on him tonight.

Somehow I don't think that absolves the last nearly 120 games of our blueline being an absolute revolving door for opponents.

 

[Anthony5967]

They did a great job on him tonight.

Somehow I don't think that absolves the last nearly 120 games of our blueline being an absolute revolving door for opponents.

From 2011-12 to I would say...the exit against Tampa in game 7 this defense had years where it was strong and the forwards were not great. The d is not great right now and could use a top pair guy but it is serviceable. Pens proved that you do not need an elite d to win. The d has been fine this year. Last year it was a train wreck.

 

[RiceCooker]

Nice to pull out a victory especially with these injuries piling up.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

I've been very sick all day, I found it really hard to stay awake during this game, but the little I saw, I thought Raanta played very well. Winning with half the forwards injured is a good win. Ironic how our first win scoring less than 3 or 4 goals comes with Raanta in net.

 

[Machinehead]

From 2011-12 to I would say...the exit against Tampa in game 7 this defense had years where it was strong and the forwards were not great. The d is not great right now and could use a top pair guy but it is serviceable. Pens proved that you do not need an elite d to win. The d has been fine this year. Last year it was a train wreck.

The Pens were 12th in shots against and 6th in chances against last year. Wouldn't describe that as elite but it sure as hell isn't near the bottom of the league.

This D is not serviceable. It's near the bottom of the league in every category.

You can't point to any statistical improvement between this year's D and last year's.

You can't point to any personnel improvement either. Boyle became Holden which is a wash at best. Yandle became which Skjei is a significant downgrade. Klein got significantly worse.

Where on Gretzky's green Earth is this improvement people keep talking about?

 

[Machinehead]

Also from the day Johnston was fired through the end of the season, the Penguins were 7th in shots against and 4th in chances against, so can we stop talking about how they proved you can win with an average defense?

 

[Inferno]

Daley was a terrific move.

 

[Anthony5967]

The Pens were 12th in shots against and 6th in chances against last year. Wouldn't describe that as elite but it sure as hell isn't near the bottom of the league.

This D is not serviceable. It's near the bottom of the league in every category.

You can't point to any statistical improvement between this year's D and last year's.

You can't point to any personnel improvement either. Boyle became Holden which is a wash at best. Yandle became which Skjei is a significant downgrade. Klein got significantly worse.

Where on Gretzky's green Earth is this improvement people keep talking about?

Skjei is gonna have his ups and downs. Nowhere on this planet would I have given Yandle the deal he is getting with FLA. Skjei has been as good as Yandle this year. Holden has been better than some had expected and after 8 or so games has been fine. Skjei is also 22 and will have ups and downs.

 

[Kaapo Cabana]

Got 2 points in Lose-ipeg with this atrocious lineup. I'll take it

 

[Machinehead]

Skjei is gonna have his ups and downs. Nowhere on this planet would I have given Yandle the deal he is getting with FLA. Skjei has been as good as Yandle this year. Holden has been better than some had expected and after 8 or so games has been fine. Skjei is also 22 and will have ups and downs.

Yes Skjei is a young player and Yandle got paid. That's not what I'm talking about.

Is Skjei a better player? No.

Has this defense improved? No.

 

[Jaromir Jagr]

Skjei is gonna have his ups and downs. Nowhere on this planet would I have given Yandle the deal he is getting with FLA. Skjei has been as good as Yandle this year. Holden has been better than some had expected and after 8 or so games has been fine. Skjei is also 22 and will have ups and downs.

Saying Skjei isn't as good as Yandle has nothing to do with his ups and downs or his future. It's not debateable right now that Yandle is a significantly better player. It's also highly possible that Skjei never develops into the player that Yandle is.

Yandle was completely mishandled by AV (which everyone with a brain knows) and many fans seem to misconstrue that with him not being an elite offensive D-Man and a decent defensive one.

And this defense sucks donkey. They were **** poor last year, like AHL level. This year they are just as bad if not worse. It's honestly made me far more disinterested in this team than I have ever been before. Until this coach is gone, it won't turn around

 

[Anthony5967]

Yes Skjei is a young player and Yandle got paid. That's not what I'm talking about.

Is Skjei a better player? No.

Has this defense improved? No.

Here is the issue, Yandle was a good d man who can move the puck but there was no money to give him. The d was not gonna be fixed in one offseason like some hoped it would be. Plus, if they were to acquire a Shattenkirk or something similar who would this coach even sit? Klein is the only guy I could see him sitting.

 

[Machinehead]

Here is the issue, Yandle was a good d man who can move the puck but there was no money to give him. The d was not gonna be fixed in one offseason like some hoped it would be. Plus, if they were to acquire a Shattenkirk or something similar who would this coach even sit? Klein is the only guy I could see him sitting.

But we're not talking about Yandle's contract, or expectations for the offseason, or Shattenkirk, or AV.

People keep saying this defense has improved. Where?

 

[Anthony5967]

But we're not talking about Yandle's contract, or expectations for the offseason, or Shattenkirk, or AV.

People keep saying this defense has improved. Where?

Aside from some rough games with Skjei, I believe he is better defensively than Yands. I also think Holden is an improvement to Boyle. Boyle was undersized and poor in his own end and his offensive game was what people expected it to be at 39. Klein has been awful and Clen should be in over him. I think Staal and G have been better than last year for sure.

 

[Machinehead]

Skjei better than Yandle defensively? Good luck with that one. Enjoy.

Holden might be better than Boyle was last year, but it's negligible, and Boyle quietly finished the year very strong.

Staal has been better, absolutely. But that's negated by Klein falling down a manhole.

Girardi has been better and is still comfortably the worst player in the league, so....congratulations?

 

[Anthony5967]

Skjei better than Yandle defensively? Good luck with that one. Enjoy.

Holden might be better than Boyle was last year, but it's negligible, and Boyle quietly finished the year very strong.

Staal has been better, absolutely. But that's negated by Klein falling down a manhole.

Girardi has been better and is still comfortably the worst player in the league, so....congratulations?

The people who say this I flat out disagree with. Totally exaggerated. The guy had a good, solid game tonight. People will be dogging that guy until he is gone and it is a shame. Fans are somewhat like some players, mercenaries. G reminds me of Willy Lowman from Death of a Salesman. Everybody loved G when he was on top of his game and blocking shots and hurting himself to win games, now everybody wants to kick him to the curb and continue to rag on him like he is the scum of the earth.

 

[Boruto]

Very pleasant to see Yute Miglore, KPH, and Mikhail Grobner is having fun as a trio out there. Very encouraging to see a line with chemistry. If we can keep them together going forward and once the healthy bodies are back, we have a lot of talent to construct 2 other dynamite lines and a potent 4th line. It's been such a long long time since we've had the "If Grabner is in the top 9, which of Vesey or Buch plays on the fourth line?" conversation.

 

[Machinehead]

The people who say this I flat out disagree with. Totally exaggerated. The guy had a good, solid game tonight. People will be dogging that guy until he is gone and it is a shame. Fans are somewhat like some players, mercenaries. G reminds me of Willy Lowman from Death of a Salesman. Everybody loved G when he was on top of his game and blocking shots and hurting himself to win games, now everybody wants to kick him to the curb and continue to rag on him like he is the scum of the earth.

Because he sucks?

Yeah he hurt himself to win games. Thanks a lot.

He's lost us more being a dreadful hockey player.

I'm tired of hearing about what we as fans owe Girardi because of all that he's given us. He was the best player on the ice for LA in our only finals appearance in two decades and in the three seasons after that he's made my team almost impossible to watch at times. Yeah I'm going to have a problem with that.

I don't owe him a ****ing thing.