What's Going on with the Rangers?

[ICanMotteBelieveIt]

There's quite a few reasons.


The Rangers lack true leaders if you ask me. They feel complacent, maybe they've grown tired of AV, who knows.

AV is stubborn as a mule and he has his favorites, which happens to be shitty players... he refuses to give up his man on man defense, even though they don't have the players for it.

And IMHO zone defense is much better, even if you have the players for man on man defense.

He constantly overuse shitty players. A few games ago he played Holden & Kampfer for +16 minutes each. DeAngelo got 3 min and 45 secs of icetime. Even if DeAngelo is shaky he's better than Holden who's a #7 d-man and Kampfer who's an AHLer...

He doesn't trust the youth. He's rather use an "ok" player who's physical and got the experience.. because, i dunno. No one does.


We also lost a lot of depth. Stepan, Lindberg out. Also Fast is injured. Cracknell, Carey and Desharnais in.

Horrible tradeoff ...


Also he juggles lines like he got dementia or something. So players never get to create chemistry, confidence or anything really.

The only thing AV is good at.. is chewing gum and running the team into the ground.



We'll probably make the playoffs or just miss it... it's still early but I'd rather suck so he gets fired and maybe get a bonafide top prospect a la Dahlin.


AV has got no structure and i think he has lost the room. The players need something new, the fans do too!

 

[PlamsUnlimited]

They can't properly execute the system employed by the coaching staff; they can't do man to man. Only loaded teams can do it. The Rangers are in somewhat of a transition and can't do it. They can't exit their own zone and their neutral zone play is bottom 3 in the league.

 

[Makar Goes Fast]

The last 4 years The Vezina winner
.920 .930
.922 .933
.920 .922
.910 .931

if not winning the vezina meant someone was done, there would be a lot of goalie turn over.

 

[Machinehead]

"The defense gets worse" says the advanced stats guy who hates Girardi and has a picture of Shattenkirk by his bedside.

Shattenkirk's analytics have been abhorrent, something that has never happened to him in his career. Only when he comes to an AV team.

Skjei, same thing. Suddenly can't leave his zone.

It's not like the Rangers bad defenseman here. That have guys that are suddenly becoming bad defensemen.

But we'll keep believing the coach has nothing to do with it.

 

[Lou is God]

Letting Carl Hagelin get away I always thought was a big mistake

 

[Tyrus]

So we all agree that Montreal's offence is garbage but Rangers fan try to argue that their coach is the problem ?

4 of the 5 last years they've had a 60 points forward as their best point producer, they're atrocious. They've been a score by committee and a low-offence profile team for years, there's no talent there's barely ever been the last few years.

 

[aufheben]

So we all agree that Montreal's offence is garbage but Rangers fan try to argue that their coach is the problem ?

4 of the 5 last years they've had a 60 points forward as their best point producer, they're atrocious. They've been a score by committee and a low-offence profile team for years, there's no talent there's barely ever been the last few years.

ehat

Watch one period of how the Rangers play in the D-zone. Man-to-man defense. No one is making anything up. It's hard to miss.

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

Shattenkirk's analytics have been abhorrent, something that has never happened to him in his career. Only when he comes to an AV team.

Skjei, same thing. Suddenly can't leave his zone.

It's not like the Rangers bad defenseman here. That have guys that are suddenly becoming bad defensemen.

But we'll keep believing the coach has nothing to do with it.

Shattenkirk was horrendous in the playoffs though. It looks like it's carrying over into this season. Wasn't a fan of the signing.

That said i don't doubt that coaching is the big issue here. The overall roster is not bad.

 

[Machinehead]

Who cares about the names at forward?

The Rangers have a four-year track record of performing extremely well offensively.

 

[Freudian]

Holden. The taint. You're it.

 

[zeke]

I think they had a pretty lucky first half last year offensively, and once that normalized they weren't very good the rest of the way.

I also think #1C Stepan is a much more important player than shattenkirk, who is mostly a pp specialist.

and i'm still boggled that they signed a career bottom pair borderline guy like brendan smith to that contract.

I look up and down the roster and don't like much on it except for McDonagh, who is awesome. Some decent forward depth too but not nearly as deep as last year with stepan gone.

 

[zeke]

Shattenkirk's analytics have been abhorrent, something that has never happened to him in his career. Only when he comes to an AV team.

Skjei, same thing. Suddenly can't leave his zone.

It's not like the Rangers bad defenseman here. That have guys that are suddenly becoming bad defensemen.

But we'll keep believing the coach has nothing to do with it.

they didn't suddenly become bad defensemen.

they were extremely sheltered defenseman with super soft usage, who are now being exposed under tougher top 2/3 man usage.

 

[Theo Von]

Lundqvist is done.

I was at the CBJ game... lund was brilliant for almost the entire game. Easily the Rangers best player and kept it from being a 5-1 game.

 

[Gospel of Prospal]

Along those lines of not picking at the top of the draft, how about not picking at all in many drafts until the third round?

Dylan McIlrath over Vladimir Tarasenko and Cam Fowler? Big whoops. Either of those players could've been cornerstone players
JT Miller is good
Brady Skjei is good
No first or second rounder in 2013
No first rounder in 2014 and a bust of a second rounder in 2014
No first rounder and a bust of a second rounder in 2015
No first or second rounder in 2016

Hopefully Andersson and Chytil pan out. We're certainly counting on them to.



And then let us not forget our trades:


We traded Hagelin and Cam Talbot for nothing
We traded valuable draft picks and a good prospect for a few months of Eric Staal (which didn't work out)
We traded a first and a second rounder and a very good prospect for Keith Yandle, which didn't put us over the hump




So far the only bad trade Jeff Gorton has made was the Eric Staal one (the jury is out on the Stepan/Raanta one), but Sather really screwed the team over with some of his trades and signings (i.e. extending Staal and Girardi and letting Stralman walk)


But this team, as constructed, is good enough to make the playoffs, IF A) We get a legitimate top-6 Center (big if and we also can't be giving away valuable assets like we've done in the past, so good luck making lemons into lemonade, Gorton.) and B) we fire AV. His message is falling on deaf ears and his stubbornness and unwillingness to adapt and change will be his downfall.

 

[Machinehead]

they didn't suddenly become bad defensemen.

they were extremely sheltered defenseman with super soft usage, who are now being exposed under tougher top 2/3 man usage.

They're not getting tougher usage

 

[Revelation]

Shattenkirk's analytics have been abhorrent, something that has never happened to him in his career. Only when he comes to an AV team.

His analytics are no longer amazing now that he's not ridiculously sheltered? Wow who could have ever thought that to be possible? Perhaps the people who use their eyes to hockey instead of Microsoft Excel.

 

[IranCondraAffair]

They'll bounce back eventually, but they were always a borderline playoff team anyway. They're re-tooling and getting younger with guys like Zibanejad, Skjei, Miller, Kreider, Hayes, and Shattenkirk instead of Girardi, Nash, Staal, Stepan, and Brassard.

It will take time but it is a necessary process. There will be bumps along the way.

 

[Machinehead]

His analytics are no longer amazing now that he's not ridiculously sheltered? Wow who could have ever thought that to be possible? Perhaps the people who use their eyes to hockey instead of Microsoft Excel.

Again, he hasn't had hard usage, but you'll pretend you didn't read that because people on this site have to hang onto their little usage like a security blanket.

 

[WesMcCauley]

When you tear down and rebuild the defense, and it gets worse, yeah, blame the coach.

But no, we'll keep talking about how bad the forwards are and ignore the people who actually follow the Rangers.

The loss of Stepan was huge. We lost a center who played all the hard matchups and had fantastic 5v5 on ice goals for/against numbers. You cant expect to be as good as you have been without replacing him with someone as good or better. We traded him for futures so ofc we are a worse team. He might not be an elite center but he is a damn good one who has been the #1C on one of the best teams in the NHL the last 5 years. He was damn effective in his role as a #1C when you think about him beeing a 55-65 point player. One of the most underrated shutdown centers in the league in his time with NY because he actually shut down other teams top lines compared to what his team did offensively with him on the ice 5v5.
We have had problems leaving our zone for years now, but our forward core is weaker than ever which is a huge problem because we struggle to create chances with sustained pressure. We have relied on scoring alot on the rush which isnt going to cut it unless Hank is a beast every night.
We dont have the depth we had last season after losing Stepan and Lindberg. Fast is also out because of injury.
We lack a legit #1C but Zibanajad can play in that role just as Stepan could, but we dont have a #2C when he has to be our #1.
Hank was solid tonight and has been decent enough so far but anyone who actually dont think he has declined the last 3-4 years are clueless. He is still a solid goalie, he just isnt an elite(top 5) goalie anymore.

 

[WesMcCauley]

So we all agree that Montreal's offence is garbage but Rangers fan try to argue that their coach is the problem ?

4 of the 5 last years they've had a 60 points forward as their best point producer, they're atrocious. They've been a score by committee and a low-offence profile team for years, there's no talent there's barely ever been the last few years.

Wtf are you talking about? NYR dont have an elite forward and hasnt had one for a long time but we have been a fantastic offensive team for many years now.

 

[Uncle Scrooge]

IMO loss of Stepan is hurting. If we look back Rangers were successful when they were firing on all cylinders. Having 3 good centers made it possible to have a very good scoring depth.

It's not that they lack skill, they just don't have a dominant player up front and right now can't make up for it with a balanced attack. Nor do they have that all-around center who they can use for match ups. It all starts from the C position.

Also Shattenkirk sucks defensively. Basically the Rangers D didn't improve in their own end, and Shattenkirk putting up some PP points doesn't make up for what they lost up front.

In other words every question mark we discussed over the summer is showing right now. They need to acquire that C otherwise it could be a long year. They're still a decent team, but will struggle against the top teams with the current roster.

 

[Coffey]

5 games into the season. Meh.

Let's see how they are 30 games into the season.

 

[Tryblot]

Shattenkirk's analytics have been abhorrent, something that has never happened to him in his career. Only when he comes to an AV team.

Skjei, same thing. Suddenly can't leave his zone.

It's not like the Rangers bad defenseman here. That have guys that are suddenly becoming bad defensemen.

But we'll keep believing the coach has nothing to do with it.

Shattenkirk has always been bad, or very bad in the defensive zone. He's one of the best offensive guys in the league, but his defense can be awful.

 

[EdJovanovski]

I think they're just having a slow start, I would be shocked if they missed the playoffs. I think most the blame lies on AV and if they got a new coach they could very well be a contender

 

[Machinehead]

Shattenkirk has always been bad, or very bad in the defensive zone. He's one of the best offensive guys in the league, but his defense can be awful.

He's never been a guy that's hemmed in his own end for long periods of time. Neither has Skjei. Neither has Smith.

This all happened overnight.