Series Talk: ECSF: New York Rangers vs. Carolina Hurricanes (NYR Lead 3-2)

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

Hurricanes need to try to play this series at 5v5 as much as possible. Every time it seemed like they were establishing their game a penalty was called.

It's smart for the Rangers to continue to play on the edge. They shouldn't worry about taking too many penalties, because the refs tend to even things out, so they'll get a lot of PPs. I believe the Bruins used to do this, knowing they were a good special teams team.

This should be a fun series.

Is Tony D a starter when everyone is healthy? I can't imagine that being the case

Pesce is hurt.

 

[The New Russian Five]

Hurricanes need to try to play this series at 5v5 as much as possible. Every time it seemed like they were establishing their game a penalty was called.

It's smart for the Rangers to continue to play on the edge. They shouldn't worry about taking too many penalties, because the refs tend to even things out, so they'll get a lot of PPs. I believe the Bruins used to do this, knowing they were a good special teams team.

This should be a fun series.


Pesce is hurt.

Yes, all 2 rangers power plays really disrupted their 5v5 flow...

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

Yes, all 2 rangers power plays really disrupted their 5v5 flow...

It's not just Rangers PPs, their own PPs also killed their flow.

 

[94leetch]

It does seem Lafreniere might just make a lot of people eat crow very soon

He already is.

 

[Leonardo87]

Rangers can’t turtle against this Carolina team. I don’t think they turtled against the caps, they just shut them down, but Carolina has 3 lines that will come at you, and they just are on you so quickly with little time to move the puck. Special teams was the difference last night which is why I’d like the Rangers to play a little more solid at ES.

It’s pretty clear Fox is not 100 percent, other D are going to have to step up. Also, If this is the Mika we are getting, I’m feeling pretty good about this series. Even Panarin is much better than last years playoffs and is scoring big goals.

I think Vinny Trocheck will be a critical piece to this series, and can be the deciding factor if the Rangers are going to take this series.

 

[BTO]

The game showed again weaknessess both teams have had

For Carolina it’s the lack of game changers on offense still. Hard to see them to all the way to the Cup because of it, they are an elite team but struggle to score when it really matters the most

What’s the Rangers’ weakness?

 

[The New Russian Five]

It's not just Rangers PPs, their own PPs also killed their flow.

I usually respect your opinion but this is a ridiculous statement. You're effectively saying "Carolina would have had a better chance of winning that game if they weren't on the PP so much!"

 

[Big Daddy Cane]

Carolina has a top 1 PK every regular season, but then playoffs start and they fall apart

They’ve had the misfortune of regularly going up against all-time great playoff PPs. Crazy stat: among teams with 8 wins or more (Conference Finalists) since tracking began in 77-78, Boston 2019, Tampa 2021 and New York 2022 are 3-5 respectively in PP%. Not just the Canes being victimized. Vasilevskiy was recognized as the best goalie in the world, and therefore the best PKer in the world, 2 years ago; the Rangers converted north of 30% against him too.

I don’t know that there’s anything they can do other than to hope that a team like the Rangers has a bad week in that regard. Their own PP’s inability to be anywhere close is what really hurts. Trying to win a series with a 30/10 split is a steep climb.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

I usually respect your opinion but this is a ridiculous statement. You're effectively saying "Carolina would have had a better chance of winning that game if they weren't on the PP so much!"

They did go 0-4 on the PP, so it's not like those PPs really helped them out. Often times, a bad PP can build momentum for the other team, and I think we saw that several times yesterday. I don't think they were winning that game regardless, the Canes have no one to blame but themselves for not taking advantage of those opportunities. But they are a team that relies heavily on establishing their forecheck to create extended shifts in the offensive zone, and it seemed like every time they started to get to that in the first 40 mins of the game, a penalty was called. The third period was the best stretch we saw from them, and was coincidentally the longest stretch without PPs.

 

[TGWL]

What’s the Rangers’ weakness?

5 on 5 sustained pressure. Battles along the boards.

For Carolina, I watched when they played NYR. I've watched when flipping through hockey night on NYR off days. I've seen games when I'm sitting at the bar after my hockey game watching them play a local area team. We're looking at 15-17 games, max, and most not being a complete game. So I don't know if they tend to play up high by the blue line or if this was just a rare occurrence from them, but for some reason they took their chances up high instead of battling down low where they would have had more success against us. They lost zone pressure numerous times here. I expect that to change. I'm sure they got an ear full for that if it's not how they always play.

Rangers can't try to protect the lead in every game like they're up by 4 goals.

 

[BTO]

Sustained 5 on 5 pressure. Battles along the boards.

For Carolina, I watched when they played NYR. I've watched when flipping through hockey night on NYR off days. I've seen games when I'm sitting at the bar after my hockey game watching them play a local area team. We're looking at 15-17 games, max, and most not being a complete game. So I don't know if they tend to play up high by the blue line or if this was just a rare occurrence from them, but for some reason they took their chances up high instead of battling down low where they would have had more success against us. They lost zone pressure numerous times here. I expect that to change. I'm sure they got an ear full for that if it's not how they always play.

Rangers can't try to protect the lead in every game like they're up by 4 goals.

Guess the Bruins or Panthers better stay out of the box against them in the ECF then.

 

[clmetsfan]

I don’t know how the Rags were home dogs in this series. Excellent at home. Better goalie. Great depth.

Ehhhh the depth part, not so much, especially with Chytil still sidelined, which forces either Rempe or Johnny Brodzinksi into the lineup. Rempe's not gonna be seeing third period minutes unless the game's already decided, so some Ranger forwards are gonna be double shifting pretty much every game.

 

[Shesty31]

I firmly believe that even if the Rangers were up 3-0 in the Cup Final, people would still be posting here about how flawed they are and how they aren’t built for the playoffs.

Legit if we did win the cup you would still have people on here calling them overrated due to 5v5 play.

 

[Cuckoo4Kakko]

For all of the 5v5 needs to be better crowd:

Rangers expected goals was better than Carolina 5v5. Even with Carolina needing to come from behind and controlling pace of play at the end because the losing team often looks good analytically when they have a few goals to come back from and control the 3rd. They had the puck and did nothing with it. Carolina won the deserve to win o meter because of all the power play time.

 

[patnyrnyg]

5 on 5 sustained pressure. Battles along the boards.

For Carolina, I watched when they played NYR. I've watched when flipping through hockey night on NYR off days. I've seen games when I'm sitting at the bar after my hockey game watching them play a local area team. We're looking at 15-17 games, max, and most not being a complete game. So I don't know if they tend to play up high by the blue line or if this was just a rare occurrence from them, but for some reason they took their chances up high instead of battling down low where they would have had more success against us. They lost zone pressure numerous times here. I expect that to change. I'm sure they got an ear full for that if it's not how they always play.

Rangers can't try to protect the lead in every game like they're up by 4 goals.

Carolina had 12 SOG through 2 periods. Thinking sustained 5 on 5 pressure was a problem for them, as well.

Canes had the #2 PP and #3 PK in the league (could have those backwards, my apologies if I reversed them). With that in mind, if their specialty teams were both better than the Rangers and their 5-on-5 is as far superior as many like to claim, shouldn't their GF and GA be reflective? Rangers outsored them 278-277. ES outscored them 205-199. Carolina won the GA 226-220 and the ES GA 168-184. Is 16 goals over 82 games, that big of a deal?

 

[Profet]

Carolina has a top 1 PK every regular season, but then playoffs start and they fall apart

During the regular season advanced scouting/prep is very minimal.

A team's special teams getting shut down in the playoffs is usually a sign of a coach that can't adapt/change.

 

[newsportsfan123]

First game cockiness seems to be happening after a home game. Same shit happened two years ago.

 

[Fitzy]

First game cockiness seems to be happening after a home game. Same shit happened two years ago.

It happens in every series.

It's often a little embarrassing when it comes from your own side, but you learn to roll with it.

 

[TGWL]

Carolina had 12 SOG through 2 periods. Thinking sustained 5 on 5 pressure was a problem for them, as well.

Canes had the #2 PP and #3 PK in the league (could have those backwards, my apologies if I reversed them). With that in mind, if their specialty teams were both better than the Rangers and their 5-on-5 is as far superior as many like to claim, shouldn't their GF and GA be reflective? Rangers outsored them 278-277. ES outscored them 205-199. Carolina won the GA 226-220 and the ES GA 168-184. Is 16 goals over 82 games, that big of a deal?

They had more sustained pressure. That didn't lead to more higher danger chances and credit to NYR for taking away the middle, but they had more sustained zone pressure. As I said before, for some reason they decided to keep the puck up high and play with it near the blue line rather than force us to defend down low.

If we want to talk about the season and compare them them at ES, PK and the PP, the difference isn't much. But in the playoffs it gets tough trying to achieve that with 1 or 2 lines when the other team is rolling 4 lines, achieving that pressure on ES. The overall numbers are fine but watching the season, you can see the ES struggles through-out the rest of the lineup.

 

[patnyrnyg]

They had more sustained pressure. That didn't lead to more higher danger chances and credit to NYR for taking away the middle, but they had more sustained zone pressure. As I said before, for some reason they decided to keep the puck up high and play with it near the blue line rather than force us to defend down low.

If we want to talk about the season and compare them them at ES, PK and the PP, the difference isn't much. But in the playoffs it gets tough trying to achieve that with 1 or 2 lines when the other team is rolling 4 lines, achieving that pressure on ES. The overall numbers are fine but watching the season, you can see the ES struggles through-out the rest of the lineup.

ESPN kept posting the "zone time clock", but what good is pressure if you can't use it to generate shots and scoring chances? How many times have we seen the Rangers cycle the puck and cycle the puck on a shift, but then lose it before getting off a shot? Too many for my liking,

 

[Levitate]

They had more sustained pressure. That didn't lead to more higher danger chances and credit to NYR for taking away the middle, but they had more sustained zone pressure. As I said before, for some reason they decided to keep the puck up high and play with it near the blue line rather than force us to defend down low.

Carolina does this to every team though and it's their big strength and perhaps weakness. They dont' generate enough high danger scoring chances for all the pressure they maintain. They throw the puck from the blueline a lot like you said. Even the chances they setup down low tended to be ones that didn't have the goalie having to move far across to make a save. We've seen this enough from Carolina to know that's just who they are and how they play against anyone.
It might be enough to get them through, I'm not saying "they suck and can't beat the Rangers" but the obvious downsides to it are still obvious and are the reason they haven't gotten over the hump in previous years

 

[noncents]

Yes I wrote it, I can't be bothered to say the same thing in a different way.

"Moral victory"? How silly, this was a hockey game and the final score is the score. But based on your own press I was expecting more from the Rangers. Where';s the carnage? To me, it looked like your standard, 21st century hockey game with a little bit of this and a little of that.

do you not watch hockey? maybe you don't watch other teams than the hurricanes? fyi there's plenty of highlight packages and game footage available online for you to peruse.

Maybe after doing so you'll be able to develop your own understanding of what the rangers are and aren't, and have an expectation of what the series might be like that isn't based on whatever bombastic press clippings you're clearly relying on now.

I assure you you'll feel like your expectations match results much more accurately if you do your own research.

 

[T REX]

Freddie isn't good enough to outduel Shesty.

That, IMHO, will be the deciding factor.

 

[blue425]

That didn't lead to more higher danger chances and credit to NYR for taking away the middle,

Rangers defended the house really well yesterday. Curious to see how the Canes respond in game two.

 

[GG96]

They did go 0-4 on the PP, so it's not like those PPs really helped them out. Often times, a bad PP can build momentum for the other team, and I think we saw that several times yesterday. I don't think they were winning that game regardless, the Canes have no one to blame but themselves for not taking advantage of those opportunities. But they are a team that relies heavily on establishing their forecheck to create extended shifts in the offensive zone, and it seemed like every time they started to get to that in the first 40 mins of the game, a penalty was called. The third period was the best stretch we saw from them, and was coincidentally the longest stretch without PPs.

It was also the last period and when they were down 2