Post-Game Talk: Blues @ Rangers Nov. 1

[SnowblindNYR]

Just came back from the game. What a friggin game. This game looked like the Blues were trying their hardest but couldn't do anything.

I've never seen the Rangers with an offense like this in my life. I thought they were really good to start last year but it was smoke and mirrors. How about one stat. The Rangers have scored 4 goals per game, that's a full 0.5 goals per game more than #2 in the league! I don't think we'll finish with 4 goals per game at the end of the year but that's crazy, even in 10 games.

But perhaps the best news is that Lundqvist looked like vintage Lundqvist and if that's the Lundqvist we get with this offense and a D that's playing better than expected this team could win another Presidents' Trophy, IMO.

 

[Holocene]

This team is so damn fun to watch. They're not gonna score 5-6 goals every night but that's okay because they'll still be fast, fun and entertaining.

 

[itsPLkielbasa]

This team is so damn fun to watch. They're not gonna score 5-6 goals every night but that's okay because they'll still be fast, fun and entertaining.

All of these high scoring games... I'm gonna get fat with all of these Papa Johns 50% off coupons. Keep them coming!

 

[Ola]

Hayes and Vesey singing here after trading away all those 1sts is hilarious and satisfying. The feeling is Grinch-esque (surely there's a German word to describe this )

Lol, can see Gorton in front of me as the head speaker at our organizational meeting: "Wir möchte lebenraum zu getten! Arian junges. Das ist der wahre und ehrenwerte Lebenskampf! Kevin Hayes, Jimmy Vesey, arian junges. Jahwhol!"

Then Slats kids goes, why is Gorton speaking German and why has he grown a little black mustache? Did he consider a man-bun?

 

[Ola]

My best players were Step, Vesey and Skjei. Could have voted Hayes too for sure, but wasn't sure who he was, the German Viking? Cyclops? Zucc was very good too.

By far the most happy to see Chris Kreider. How relaxed he is with the puck, following his instincts instead of being somewhat lost.

 

[Ola]

Sky is the limit as far as I'm concerned. Yes the scoring will come down a bit but if stl and Washington and Tampa are the cream of the crop? Then wtf are we because we are hammering really good teams here. No one can skate with us 4 lines deep no one.

Yeah, but to be honest, nobody wins a Cup in November. Look at how some Islander teams the last years have looked at this point of the season.

We can play this game, that is for sure. Nobody can play this game all season. Can we also grind it out and get wins? And so forth. We have a lot left to prove.

But with that said, its the depth we have that is driving us.

 

[wolfgaze]

We're passing so well that Sam Rosen thinks we have a new player called Score. Stepan passes to.... score! Vesey to Miller to.... Score!

I liked that exchange between Sam & Joe after the Hayes goal....

Sam: "Is that beautiful?"

Joe: "YES!"

 

[ncdoc]

Vesey.

Making the playoffs last year and being given (earning) a 1st round top 10, dare I say top 5, pick.

Exciting team. Not sure what kind of trade I would consider right now with these pieces.

ncdoc

 

[darko]

That feeling when you get home after a long day and your team spanked a very good team 5-0

 

[Brooklyn Rangers Fan]

My best players were Step, Vesey and Skjei. Could have voted Hayes too for sure, but wasn't sure who he was, the German Viking? Cyclops? Zucc was very good too.

By far the most happy to see Chris Kreider. How relaxed he is with the puck, following his instincts instead of being somewhat lost.

Hayes was Kevin Spicoli. (Fast Times at Ridgemont High reference.)
Viking was Klein. (Check out photos of him off the ice.)
Cyclops was Staal. (Because one eye.)

C'mon, Ola, these aren't hard!

 

[mandiblesofdoom]

So what can we complain about tonight? Did AV chew his gum too hard?

MSG play-by-play was atrocious. It was like "Story time with Uncle Sam & Uncle Joe." They made little attempt to describe what was happening - just kept talking about how good the team was playing.

Other than that, though ... wow. Love how Hayes, Kreider, Nash, Zucc, McDonagh are playing.

 

[Savant]

All of these high scoring games... I'm gonna get fat with all of these Papa Johns 50% off coupons. Keep them coming!

Can we charitably donate the papa johns to a homeless shelter or something?

 

[Irishguy42]

Papa John before the Rangers repeatedly scored 3 or more goals:

Papa John after the Rangers repeatedly score 3 or more goals:

 

[nyr__1994]

Not to rain even a drop on the Rangers, who put in really solid game yet again, but I did not think much of Hitchcock's game plan. If I was Blues player, I might even be a bit pissed off at what I was told to do, which looked to me like basically watching the Rangers run past you for much of the game.
It was great. I loved it. But Hitchcock does not look good.

The game before Tampa forechecked very aggressively and the NYR were able to break through that and had how many odd man rushes? Hitch probably saw that and came in with a passive/trapping plan and the Rangers speed busted right through that too...

Two games, two very different approaches by the opposition and yet the same result. The Rangers were able to impart their will on the game and dictated the last 120 minutes of hockey against 2 very good teams.

Good Stuff!!!

 

[JanErixon20]

My only complaint thus far is no McIlrath he brings what is sorely missed and I have been rooting for him since day one..Other than that it is fun scoring 5 a night

You need to move on. Have a cream soda and enjoy last night.

 

[Waivers]

Everyone played great, Holden was solid this game, even when McD was out for the limited time, was bringing the plays to the offensive zone, skating it confidently, good defensively

 

[Brooklyn Rangers Fan]

The Rangers are now leading the league in goals for (and every team within striking distance has played the same number of games or more), are sixth in goals against (and four of the five above them have played fewer games), and (not surprisingly) lead the league in goal differential.

This makes me happy.

 

[GordonGecko]

The people who over the summer were calling for it to be completely blown up were off base. Just very beaten down from the previous season and the thought these days is that you're either a contender or if you're not that you're better off tanking.

I said all along I thought this team has a strong core, just with the right re-tooling can be right back to being a contender. It was just a matter of Gorton going about it the right way and I think largely he did.

Gorton is a hockey genius

 

[Brooklyn Rangers Fan]

Regarding the "and some of you wanted to blow it up " comments:

I was one of those people. But here's the thing. Firstly, we're only 1/8 of the way into the season, so let's not get too cocky, but leaving that aside, I feel Gorton has already managed a great deal of the work needed for a "blow up" already in one offseason. When we were having that debate, we had not yet made the Zibanejad deal, and had not yet signed Vesey. Those were both HUGE steps in the process. Essentially, those two moves achieved much of what needed to be redone in terms of turning over the forward group - it's why I was going bonkers over the Zibanejad deal (still can't believe WE got a 2nd round pick as well!) while everyone else was gnashing their teeth over losing Brassard. And then the backfilling that Gorton did of the rosters with guys like Pirri, and earlier in the process, Grabner was huge. Now, we just need one or two more moves on D (Trouba is the obvious candidate) and the job is arguably complete.

Look at how much the roster has turned over already. Look at how much younger, bigger and faster it is. I had (and have) faith that Gorton would be able to complete the job in 2-3 years. It's now looking like he has a chance to get it done in 1.

Let's hope!

 

[Gardner McKay]

Hank skated over to the bench during the 2nd period and got what looked like a Tums from Jim Ramsay

Reminds me of when Tukka Rask had to leave the game for ****ing his pants a year or two ago.

 

[Larrybiv]

Regarding the "and some of you wanted to blow it up " comments:

I was one of those people. But here's the thing. Firstly, we're only 1/8 of the way into the season, so let's not get too cocky, but leaving that aside, I feel Gorton has already managed a great deal of the work needed for a "blow up" already in one offseason. When we were having that debate, we had not yet made the Zibanejad deal, and had not yet signed Vesey. Those were both HUGE steps in the process. Essentially, those two moves achieved much of what needed to be redone in terms of turning over the forward group - it's why I was going bonkers over the Zibanejad deal (still can't believe WE got a 2nd round pick as well!) while everyone else was gnashing their teeth over losing Brassard. And then the backfilling that Gorton did of the rosters with guys like Pirri, and earlier in the process, Grabner was huge. Now, we just need one or two more moves on D (Trouba is the obvious candidate) and the job is arguably complete.

Look at how much the roster has turned over already. Look at how much younger, bigger and faster it is. I had (and have) faith that Gorton would be able to complete the job in 2-3 years. It's now looking like he has a chance to get it done in 1.

Let's hope!

Awesome, but especially agree about the Brass deal. Brass was my 2nd fave (Zuccha), but i was smart enough to realize that I had always liked from afar that kid Zib. Yippee! Was my final answer.

Just would like to add that Gorton's signing of Raanta has gone unnoticed/unrecognized and soon will become one of his best moves. I feel comfortable with him as our backup, and he will be every bit integral to this team, as Talbot was 2 years ago when we won the prez.

Remember Hank played in the world cup and he already has 8 starts. That needs to change to at least a 7-3 ratio, or better yet a 13-7 ratio. We'll win regardless of who is in goal.

 

[eco's bones]

Regarding the "and some of you wanted to blow it up " comments:

I was one of those people. But here's the thing. Firstly, we're only 1/8 of the way into the season, so let's not get too cocky, but leaving that aside, I feel Gorton has already managed a great deal of the work needed for a "blow up" already in one offseason. When we were having that debate, we had not yet made the Zibanejad deal, and had not yet signed Vesey. Those were both HUGE steps in the process. Essentially, those two moves achieved much of what needed to be redone in terms of turning over the forward group - it's why I was going bonkers over the Zibanejad deal (still can't believe WE got a 2nd round pick as well!) while everyone else was gnashing their teeth over losing Brassard. And then the backfilling that Gorton did of the rosters with guys like Pirri, and earlier in the process, Grabner was huge. Now, we just need one or two more moves on D (Trouba is the obvious candidate) and the job is arguably complete.

Look at how much the roster has turned over already. Look at how much younger, bigger and faster it is. I had (and have) faith that Gorton would be able to complete the job in 2-3 years. It's now looking like he has a chance to get it done in 1.

Let's hope!

Generally I had the impression that a very large majority of Rangers posters here thought that getting Zibanejad and a 2nd for Brassard and a 7th was taking Ottawa to the cleaners. I mean I really liked Brassard and all but we dumped about 2.5 mil of cap hit for a bigger, stronger, younger and all situations player who was pretty likely to match Brassard's offensive output besides and to get a 2nd to boot to me it's close to robbery on the scale of McDonagh and Higgins for Gomez. I think I would have traded Brassard for Zibanejad straight up. Anyway there were a handful that were really unhappy about it and some of them made a lot of noise but that was a great deal for the Rangers.

As for Trouba--I don't know if I'm all that interested in moving JT anymore. He made a large step forward last year and it looks like he's going to take another large step this year. And it's not just the points--he's taking on a pk role and he's one of our more flexible (can play all three forward positions) and physical forwards.

 

[Gardner McKay]

People keep talking about how the defense has adjusted their style of play and that has been part of the reason why we are successful. I'll say this, although AV's personnel choices at times is still baffling, the team has definitely made adjustments in their style of play. AV deserves credit for that.

 

[Machinehead]

Sticky all of the Machinehead compliments to Ranger players.

So we can tell him that he's not a grinch at Christmas time.

I'm a delightful person.

Especially around Christmas time!

 

[Kovalev27]

The adjustments are evident and the forwards are helping the D a lot more here. But having said that to me the biggest thing is mcdonagh Staal and Girardi are all healthy and had a full offseason to recover and train. With how deep we've gone year after year and the injuries these 3 have had to play thru no one has had time to have a normal offseason to get strong. That wasn't the case this summer. All three got healthy trained hard and look significantly better than last year. Girardi included. I've seen him railroad a few guys that just wouldn't have happened a year ago. Staals skating looks like he's 24 again. And mcdonagh looks like a Norris contender.

Like let's be honest we're 7-3 but should be 10-0. We've absolutely dominated every night. Goaltending was shaky if hank is back and from what I saw last night he's definitely on track, well man our D is more than sufficient to win a lot of games with this offense.

We should not overpay for any D man. If we can make a fair trade great but I'm not giving up miller AND skjei for trouba or anyone.