Post-Game Talk: #23 - 11/27/19 | hurricanes @ RANGERS | 7:00 - MSG

[n8]

I thought Lindgren had a great game. He got out of many difficult situations to transition the puck out of the zone. Situations where in the past, when you'd see Girardi with the puck, you're sphincter would clench.

 

[Rempe73]

Just finished watching the game. Wow. What a 1st period. Rest of the game was not bad. We were leading so it’s fine.

Hank was amazing. Neither of the goals were his fault. That save made my jaw drop and obviously made the difference. And then he shut the door the rest of the game.

Fox just keeps impressing me. I would give up a 4th-5th overall pick for him. Getting him for two 2nds is still unreal to me. He played like a superstar. Offensively and defensively. No question our best defenseman, although I’m loving the improvements I’m seeing from Skjei and Trouba. Add to that a steady Lindgren, a better game from Hajek, and DeAngelo, who is hopefully returning to form, and we have a defense.

Chytil and Zibanejad were great. I liked Kreider and Lindgren. ADA had his moments. I kind of want to keep him on the 2nd power play unit to keep his points, especially secondary assists, as low as possible.

1. Hank
2. Fox
3. Panarin

HM: Zibanejad, Chytil, Skjei

 

[Rempe73]

Howden is Quinn's Glass isn't he?

I love Quinn, but I absolutely HATE the Howden obsession. That’s one of my few complaints about him. Don’t get me wrong. I like Howden and I think he can be a fine 3C in the future, but man is it annoying.

 

[Rempe73]

That third period gave me leprosy but I'll give it a Donnie just because it's Thanksgiving

I’m more of a cat person, but there’s something about that dog, man.

 

[ohbaby]

I think today we should all give thanks for landing the 2nd pick in the draft, the top free agent on the market, stealing Adam Fox in a trade, and most recently seeing the return of Zucc and Zibad to the Garden. What a difference a year makes.

 

[wolfgaze]

 

[Larrybiv]

If Kakko was playing with 2 Lemmys I'd be more inclined to agree here. Howden shouldn't even be on an NHL team right now. I just don't see future 35-goal Kakko thanking Howden for anything.

But we're coming at this with two different opinions. Long term, this might be the right move? I don't know, I can't guess the future, but right now I just don't see how this is helping his confidence. We can agree to disagree.

Gonna interject here.
Maybe "in the long run" its better that he isn't pressured by being on the 3rd line, and even though it may be a struggle with "lesser linemates" and point production isnt a necessity, whereas rounding out his game is the focus.
Personally, I am not crazy about it, but i suppose patience is due here. There will be a spot open when Kreids is supposedly gone and he will then hit the ground running, playing with more talented linemates.
We are scoring goals and winning, no need to "force" anything.
Also, I felt like Kakko and Panarin were becoming a "thing" a little too much.......east/west, west/east. Forcing passes that didnt connect and screwing up possession on the PP. Sure it looks great when it works, but it wasnt often enough.
Maybe this was Quinn's way of breaking that up. Could be wrong but thats my opinion of that possibility.

 

[Larrybiv]

Just finished watching the game. Wow. What a 1st period. Rest of the game was not bad. We were leading so it’s fine.

Hank was amazing. Neither of the goals were his fault. That save made my jaw drop and obviously made the difference. And then he shut the door the rest of the game.

Fox just keeps impressing me. I would give up a 4th-5th overall pick for him. Getting him for two 2nds is still unreal to me. He played like a superstar. Offensively and defensively. No question our best defenseman, although I’m loving the improvements I’m seeing from Skjei and Trouba. Add to that a steady Lindgren, a better game from Hajek, and DeAngelo, who is hopefully returning to form, and we have a defense.

Chytil and Zibanejad were great. I liked Kreider and Lindgren. ADA had his moments. I kind of want to keep him on the 2nd power play unit to keep his points, especially secondary assists, as low as possible.

1. Hank
2. Fox
3. Panarin

HM: Zibanejad, Chytil, Skjei

I cant even conceive of the idea that that is the thought process. So we wouldn't have to cough up big bucks for him come contract time? I have to believe there is a future contract already in place. He took what they could afford with a promise attached.
If your scenario is the case, then why play him on 2PP at all? Or, better yet...... maybe even bench him?
I am so intrigued by a Fox/Tony pairing. How dynamic would that be when we NEED a goal? Using them in O.T. was brilliant, not sure if that was planned but doesnt really matter.

 

[NCRanger]

Forslund and Tracy were raving about Howden, so there’s that.

 

[Larrybiv]

3 in a row and with a bunch of games in hand on a few teams, sitting 5 points out of a playoff spot.

Would really do the young guys wonders to be in important games in February and March

4 wins in a row at home, 3 scores of 3-2, and a 4-1 win over Caps.
Only 5-4 with Marc out of lineup.
He should NEVER EVER play against Carolina again. Marks 2x now, he was injured during a match up. Still cant get over that it was his own brother that kind of ruined his career.

 

[JHS]

Great job holding on for the win. I really LOVE what I’m seeing from Fox. He’s recognizable for positives each shift.

3 straight wins— starting to build something here!

 

[Kovalev27]

The Rangers blueline have scored 21 goals which leads the league in goals by defensemen passing Carolina.

 

[Ola]

CF% is a trash statistic for evaluating an individual player. It's much more useful when applied to a team as a whole.

Yeah, and also a unit.

Its hard to say that a unit with CF% of 20-30 over 5 games haven't had any problems.

It does however -- exactly like you point out -- entail very very little about the individual ABILITY of each player on that unit. Now there is so much data around that its impossible to dispute that. But it is also pretty much common sense if you know how the game works, have a general feel of what the impact of a player can be in certain situations and so forth.

I think a good example of this is like the talk of Marc Staal at times early this season. Early this season he was blamed solely for some really poor performances by our top unit. Even if someone watch the game, if they don't really take in what is happening, they might watch naturalstatstrick and think that it solely (or to a very large extent) was Staal's fault. But if you watch the game, and is able to record what is happening, and see that all kinds of plays are made (or not made) resulting on that this unit on a shift by shift basis loses the match-up they have, you could tell that it obviously wasn't "only" Marc Staal's fault, and this unit would have -- much, but not all of, -- the same problems no matter if Marc Staal played there or like Roman Josi played there.

And of course, a few months into the season the same unit against the top opponents has had the same problems no matter if Staal played next to Trouba or not.

If Hank lets in a bouncing puck cleared from the attacking zone nobody will blame the defenders on the ice. But if we end up playing 3 shifts in a row in our own end, due to forwards losing pucks at the wrong area of the ice, against the top lines in the NHL like Boston's 1st, McDavid in EDM and co, the fact that the unit's CF - CA = is like minus 12 for those three shifts can be blamed on the LD.

And this explains the discrepancy between many amateurs Corsi Scouting a few years ago and the people running the teams. The coach will see these things and provide him with a clear picture of what is working and what is not. That is what working 45,000 hours with something will give you.

Then its of course perfectly possible that the coach makes mistakes, and that just about anyone can be right about something the coach is wrong about. You could ask 31 coaches to create 4 lines and 3 pairings and 2 goalies of a roster of 23 players and you would probably get like 20 different different set-ups. But Corsi Scouting is very flawed.

 

[kovazub94]

Chytil was beastly! Without a puck he’s on the ice exactly where he needs to be on pretty much every shift!

Buchnevich (especially) and Kreider made Zibanejad’s return easier.

Kakko’s “dip” coincided with him getting a flu. He missed two games (I think) so you can assume it was pretty bad. Since coming back he’s been playing with less energy. I bet he will start picking it up again soon.

Lindgren was solid, though this is the first game I remember where I saw him make 3-4 mistakes. It happens to a rookie. : )

 

[Shesterkybomb]

They get abused in the D-zone unfortunately.

Yes...THEY do...but it all gets pinned on Howden.

 

[howztheglass]

Have to admit even though I don't really want B Smith on the roster over some of the younger players I have to give him a ton of credit for the way he PK's.

 

[Metranger]

Great game.

Is it too soon to anoint Fox as the second coming of Brian Leetch? Probably but I think that is the path.

Defense still allows too many shots on goal.

Hank was fantastic.

I have to say, I really enjoy the Canes announcers Forslund and the other guy. Most enjoyable opposing team booth I've listened to. I didn't fast forward once because I enjoyed listening to their analysis. They knew the Rangers players games pretty well.

 

[bobbop]

They are very inconsistent and don't have much depth. They've also had a home heavy schedule to this point. Other than Zibby they've been pretty healthy so far. If two or three guys get hurt at the same time, which will probably happen at some point, they are going to struggle.

Ye of little faith...

 

[TominNC]

I had the Carolina broadcast last night too. They’re more fair than the NBC crews.

 

[Harbour Dog]

Just finished the game. Was good to see Quinn start the third with the original lines again. Was there any word after the game why Buch had gotten benched as well as Lemieux?

We are a good team, but it's easy to tell how young we are. We still seem to lose ourselves in momentum swings quite frequently.

 

[kovazub94]

Just finished the game. Was good to see Quinn start the third with the original lines again. Was there any word after the game why Buch had gotten benched as well as Lemieux?

We are a good team, but it's easy to tell how young we are. We still seem to lose ourselves in momentum swings quite frequently.

Culprits to too many men penalty

 

[Harbour Dog]

Culprits to too many men penalty

Ah, that makes sense. By Quinn's reaction on the bench, I thought Lemieux was the only guy at fault.

 

[Brooklyn Rangers Fan]

Just finished the game. Was good to see Quinn start the third with the original lines again. Was there any word after the game why Buch had gotten benched as well as Lemieux?

We are a good team, but it's easy to tell how young we are. We still seem to lose ourselves in momentum swings quite frequently.

Culprits to too many men penalty

Ah, that makes sense. By Quinn's reaction on the bench, I thought Lemieux was the only guy at fault.

Buch served the penalty, didn’t he? Don’t remember him being benched otherwise, though I may have overlooked it.

 

[bobbop]

Forslund and Tracy were raving about Howden, so there’s that.

I’m in Carolina and saw the same broadcast. The hate of Howden here is somewhat amusing and really exposes some shallow thinking. If you want to talk about Rangers who are turnstiles in the neutral zone, you’ve got Kakko, Strome, whoever is playing on the fourth line tonight and to some degree Lemieux. Howden is trying to cover a lot of sins out there.

 

[kovazub94]

Buch served the penalty, didn’t he? Don’t remember him being benched otherwise, though I may have overlooked it.

Buchnevich served, Lemieux got an earful and missed a few shifts.