Post-Game Talk: Canadiens @ Rangers - November 25

[Metranger]

Just want to post some random stats from the game today. Truly awful is the Giveaways.

We had 17 Giveaways

17

Is it me or is that number extremely high?


These numbers, IMO, are also notoriously under-recorded. For instance, Boyle is listed as having committed only 1 turnover, and I remember clear as day a turnover behind the net on the PP and another one in the third where he put the puck right on a Canadien's stick. Klingberg in yesterday's Stars game was listed as having 1, and I specifically recall 3.

God knows how many turnovers we truly had tonight.

Staal is listed as having given the puck away 3 times. Not good. Funny though, I looked up the Giveaways per 60 this year for all of our defenseman, and Staal is by far the least turnover prone. He was averaging about 0.82 turnovers per 60 coming into the game and the next best had been Klein, who was 1.3 something. Yandle and McD were by far the highest, but that's expected, as they try and move the puck more often via stretch pass, etc...

We had 7 Takeaways. Of those 7, 3 were Lindberg's and 2 were Zuuc's. Neither Lindberg or Zuuc committed a Giveaway. Not bad.

~End of useless stats post~

The Rangers are a skilled team of lightweights. They can't beat the tough teams.

They need new personell. I don't see any battlers. They're sort of playing like no contact Scandinavians.

They'll accumulate points but that's about it. They need to shake it up.

 

[Doctor King Schultz]

JT Miller in his last season as a Ranger

 

[aufheben]

The Rangers are a skilled team of lightweights. They can't beat the tough teams.

They need new personell. I don't see any battlers. They're sort of playing like no contact Scandinavians.

They'll accumulate points but that's about it. They need to shake it up.

It was the Montreal Canadiens?

 

[RangerBlues]

It was the Montreal Canadiens?

And they got pushed around all night.
And if Hank did not pull off a circus act the Preds were the better team for large portions of that game.
And Tampa. A team of depleted midgets.

 

[aufheben]

Maybe those teams were just better?

 

[Machinehead]

The Rangers had a large edge in hits tonight. It's like a reflex to say "THE TEAM IS SAWFT" to avoid talking about real issues.

 

[Revel]

The Rangers are a skilled team of lightweights. They can't beat the tough teams.

They need new personell. I don't see any battlers. They're sort of playing like no contact Scandinavians.

They'll accumulate points but that's about it. They need to shake it up.

We're 16-4-2. Don't you think that's a bit of an overreaction? How about we make an attempt at a little conscientious discipline before we start hacking off our toes?

 

[RangerBlues]

The Rangers had a large edge in hits tonight. It's like a reflex to say "THE TEAM IS SAWFT" to avoid talking about real issues.

Point me out the last big hit or the last time some 4th line ham-n-egg got punched out for taking an extra wack at Hank.
Teams are skating around like its practice.

 

[Revel]

And they got pushed around all night.
And if Hank did not pull off a circus act the Preds were the better team for large portions of that game.
And Tampa. A team of depleted midgets.

I'd say it was more like they skated circles around us.

 

[Raspewtin]

Montreal "roughing us up" is a really funny way of saying "they were better than us".

 

[Machinehead]

Point me out the last big hit or the last time some 4th line ham-n-egg got punched out for taking an extra wack at Hank.
Teams are skating around like its practice.

 

[Ola]

There were some bad defensive plays, sure, but nobody will look good trying to recover from a 1-3 goal deficit against Montreal. Montreal hits he ice and pwns us because they are better with the puck and faster, and then they expose us when we scramble to even the score.

We are trying to be something we maybe must be but that we are not. We make a lot of "not good" plays with the puck. A team like Montreal, Tampa, Chicago and co don't do that. Klein has as much hockey sense as a brick. McD makes a good move once in a while, but not often. Girardi has Torts hockey in his back bone. Boyle and Yandle isn't playing, you can't be a PMD on a 3rd pairing... We're getting very little poise from out blueline with the puck.

 

[Ola]

Look I really can't get into the semantics of calling the team with the best defensive record in the league as having the worst defense in decades.

But they fell victim to MTL's pre-scouting. This hockey team under AV has shown the inability to adapt mid-game.

The Rangers needed to play a chip and chase, grind it out hustle hard and hit everything game against that team and they didn't.

MTL is a faster and quicker team than the Rangers top to bottom. The Rangers needed to do what LA did to the Rangers when LA was the bigger and slower team... throw it on the corners, and battle.

The Rangers biggest issue is that they have several players, including some big boys, that don't do that. Looking at Hayes, Nash, Kreider, Yandle and so on.

TB did the same thing, the Rangers lost two games against two of the other ECF finalists the last two years by trying to beat those teams at their own game.

AV needs to be able to implement that change in systems play to be more like Joel Quenville in CHI whose teams can play any which way they need to.

Now I guess you can all reconvene calling the team with the lowest GA in the league as having the worse defense in more than a decade... you know the ones with Redden, Purinton, Bickel and co.

I am sorry but teams that play like this don't make it to the POs for a reason. And you are selling LA pretty short, they had the best 1st line in the game that played great no matter what, Doughty who was a great force on the blueline with and without the puck, Voynov who was a great PMD for them, great depth, a 70s line that played anything else than a dump and chase game and so forth and so forth and so forth.

LAK pwned us in front of their net and in front of our net, no doubt. But it's not correct to claim that they played a dump and chase game and grinder it out.

We cannot play that style either and expect to have -- any -- success against Montreal or any other team.

The best teams in this league is the team that plays the best hockey, no doubt. We just must play better hockey. Maybe find ways to cut down on Kleins ice time because he is just too dumb for the role he play. Try to get Yandle out there much more. Fans can cry about the odd give away in November, but if you cannot play the game with the puck you are ****ed to be frank, sorry it's not going to work. Hate to burst the illusions of Torts hockey winning us a cup in this league.

I also think you need to sit down and really think through what you have in Stepan and Kreider and consider what you want for them and what is reasonable to expect. I'll leave it at that.

 

[Leetch66]

Well....that was test # 2 that we failed . Loss to a depleted TB squad...and then a S**t kicking against the Habs who quite obviously have a better all around club then we have . Oh well...we are still a superb regular season club ....who cares about the playoffs anyways ...right ?

Now for the serious stuff...once again AV did not have his team ready to play nor did our leadership crew step it up....since we have nobody that can do that . We took the loss very well...that is a nice trait for a contending club NOT ! Geesh...no pushback whatsoever .....bunch of momma's boys .

Some posters had talked about a tone setter....this club is in need of somebody that can provide a spark in anyway in games like this .

 

[Chimpradamus]

You need to have defensemen that are constructive with the puck as much as possible if you want to be a puck possession team. That's why dumping Strålman while keeping Staal and Girardi was such an idiotic move. I simply don't get it. Didn't NYR fire Torts and hire AV, who lost the memo? Why dump one of the best possession D-men we had on the squad?

That's why Girardi is such an awful possession player, he employs the "get it ooouut!" strategy every time. I rather have defensemen that plays the game so we don't even have to defend. Staal tries to be constructive, but he's sadly not good enough to be that at this point. That he only has good vision on one eye is a huge part of the reason.

 

[bl02]

Agreed. I thought Hayes had a dreadful game.

Hayes was horrific! Not blaming all of it at him not being at center but have no doubt he will continue to struggle at wing. Get him back at center. When's he's creating and playing well it's a center. Seems to lose all of that ability at the wing position.

 

[mandiblesofdoom]

I'm talking about when Girardi lobs it out of the zone like Torts is still behind the bench. Yandle does it, everyone does it. But Girardi does is constantly. He does it multiple times, every single night; his first instinct is always to simply get the puck out of the defensive zone.

Staal had a memorable random puck fling that led to a goal last night. I guess it was in the third. He was skating toward his own goal, had time to make an actual play, and instead threw it up the boards behind him without even looking.

Joe called him out on it.

It's frustrating to see these guys do this stuff continually.

 

[mandiblesofdoom]

Point me out the last big hit or the last time some 4th line ham-n-egg got punched out for taking an extra wack at Hank.
Teams are skating around like its practice.

Covering the front of the net would be nice.

Last night wasn't a question of soft. The problem was the Rangers let the Habs hang out in front of Hank uncontested.

Don't need to punch them, just need to to cover them.

 

[Ola]

You need to have defensemen that are constructive with the puck as much as possible if you want to be a puck possession team. That's why dumping Strålman while keeping Staal and Girardi was such an idiotic move. I simply don't get it. Didn't NYR fire Torts and hire AV, who lost the memo? Why dump one of the best possession D-men we had on the squad?

That's why Girardi is such an awful possession player, he employs the "get it ooouut!" strategy every time. I rather have defensemen that plays the game so we don't even have to defend. Staal tries to be constructive, but he's sadly not good enough to be that at this point. That he only has good vision on one eye is a huge part of the reason.

Yeah, and I just cannot understand why this isn't a bigger issue in NY?

AV must just find ways to get Yandle on the ice more and Klein, Staal and Girardi less. The relics from the Torts era is just not good enough with the puck.

The thing is, especially the reporters around this team don't understand this part of the game. Last night Hank made a bad play early on behind his net, I think he passed it past Yandle, and Klein got the puck. Montreal had dumped the puck in and had zero pressure on us, but Klein as usual never lifts his head and makes a short pass up the boards to Dom Moore, who happens to have a Montreal player breathing down his neck. Montreal gets fresh players on the ice, keep the pressure on us for a prolonged time again early on, and boom they basically won the game right then and there.

Klein made a pass stick to stick, what is the problem?? That is what someone like Zipay or Brooks and co would ask themselves. But getting those types of plays right is the key to be a successful hockey team in this league. Klein could have stopped and scratched his belly button for 5 seconds literary before if nothing else putting a teammate in trouble -- if he just lifted his head. This mistake by Klein is easily on par with Ozolinsh's worst mischief in NY, you just cannot be this detached from what is going on in front of you on the ice. But nobody will mention it. If a D however under pressure, for the 10th time in a row, makes the right call and tries to make the right play, but god forbid happens to have one pass picked off, he will get hanged for it. Its never forgotten.

 

[Ola]

Also, what is going on with Kevin Hayes? Someone must get to him and make him STOP firing the puck all the time. He is turning himself into Dave Steckel II just because he had a couple of lucky shots go in. Every time he gets into the zone he have stopped creating space for himself or making those productive passes, instead he just puts a soft wrister on net giving the momentum to Montreal..

 

[Ola]

Covering the front of the net would be nice.

Last night wasn't a question of soft. The problem was the Rangers let the Habs hang out in front of Hank uncontested.

Don't need to punch them, just need to to cover them.

Micheletti is pretty clueless lol. Montreal blitzed us, we didn't have someone in front of the net because we "played with the puck" when Montreal scored their goals, or all but two at least.

We can't have someone in front of our net when we have the puck, what is this 1978??? The key is to get the puck up ice and attack against Montreal when we have the puck, not loose it.

 

[ArPanet]

Some of these guys look like they're expecting to be shopped at some point, and they're ok with it.

 

[pld459666]

I'm chalking last night up to one of those games that demonstrates the need to play better. It was a game that was building with poor play for about 4-5 games.

 

[nevesis]

@HockeyStatMiner: According to @war_on_ice , the fourth one was only Lundqvist's 2nd "low-danger" goal allowed this yr (202/204 total)

 

[NikC]

ill say one thing... with Dan Boyle announcing retirement at the end of this season, he sure is playing with fire in his eyes... it's cup or bust for this guy...

Other teams sign veteran players who want to win it all at the end of their careers like R.Bourque, Selanne, Recchi

We get Boyle, who at this point in his career cant seem to find his game...

Dear departed MSL, who came to NY more because of his situation with Yzerman than his determination to win a cup in NY.

Hope Gorton starts doing due diligence regarding where these vets heads are before they sign here...