Pre-Game Talk: Game 3 @ Philly (Emery to Start)

[GraveyTrain9]

My vote is to swap Fast for Carcillo.

I'd rather not feed into the Flyers' goonery. In the end, they benefit from going down that road and not us.

 

[Fanned On It]

i agree completely with this post... plus, lets flip this around.

Flyers get all confident and think they are GOAT because they finally won a game at MSG... you think they are going to come out flying game 3? Maybe for half of the first period, but it will be an even period, they'll calm down, and that's when we take over.

I would not worry. Chances are philly is so high on this win that they aren't in reality. Reality is the Rangers are the better team.

Are we really the better team by a large enough margin that it matters? 2 points is what separated us in the standings, right?

 

[Fanned On It]

I have a feeling when all is said and done we're going to find out McDonagh is playing hurt.

He looks much slower than normal, and much less engaged than normal.

Hard to believe it is just rust.

It's not physically possible for McDonagh to not be hurt... He got hurt and missed 5 games. If this was the regular season he'd probably be out for way longer than that.

 

[The Lunatic Fridge]

Blow these clowns out in their old building...

 

[Zucc36]

Rangers 3-2. Zucc, Nash, D. Moore

 

[Ail]

Are we really the better team by a large enough margin that it matters? 2 points is what separated us in the standings, right?

Yes the Rangers are and where you sit in the standings is not fully indicative of the kind of team you are. If standings were everything they would just skip the playoffs and hand out the Stanley Cup along with the President's trophy.

 

[RangerBoy]

The Flyers made the adjustment taking away the pass in the slot. Emery can stop the puck when he is square to the shooter. Four of the Rangers six goals have come from having Emery go post to post. The Rangers need net presence. Not many players can do that. Kreider has a broken hand. Callahan is in Tampa. Pouliot. AV said Kreider has improved but he wouldn't elaborate. Kreider has been skating by himself but he is not expected to play in this series. The hand needs to heal. Kreider hasn't played since March 24. The Rangers are the better team but not by much. Its a toss up series. The better team doesn't always win. Teams aren't awarded an extra goal because they are the "better" team. Its 1-1. Game 3 is tonight. Game 4 is not until Friday. The Rangers are coming home tonight. After game 3,the games come fast. Friday. Sunday. Tuesday. Wednesday. The Flyers are a good team. There is another team playing in the series besides the Rangers. Giroux hasn't done anything yet and the series is 1-1. Nash will be "active" tonight and he will shoot the puck into Emery's stomach 3 or 4 times.

 

[Infinitum Vitae*]

Rangers 3-2. Zucc, Nash, D. Moore

Nash will never score

 

[Beer League Sniper]

This team needs better efforts across the board than Game 2. It's almost like they expected the Flyers to just roll over and die. Absolutely no urgency to their game. It's infuriating that this team needs extra motivation this time of year.

 

[HockeyBasedNYC]

The Flyers made the adjustment taking away the pass in the slot. Emery can stop the puck when he is square to the shooter. Four of the Rangers six goals have come from having Emery go post to post. The Rangers need net presence. Not many players can do that. Kreider has a broken hand. Callahan is in Tampa. Pouliot. AV said Kreider has improved but he wouldn't elaborate. Kreider has been skating by himself but he is not expected to play in this series. The hand needs to heal. Kreider hasn't played since March 24. The Rangers are the better team but not by much. Its a toss up series. The better team doesn't always win. Teams aren't awarded an extra goal because they are the "better" team. Its 1-1. Game 3 is tonight. Game 4 is not until Friday. The Rangers are coming home tonight. After game 3,the games come fast. Friday. Sunday. Tuesday. Wednesday. The Flyers are a good team. There is another team playing in the series besides the Rangers. Giroux hasn't done anything yet and the series is 1-1. Nash will be "active" tonight and he will shoot the puck into Emery's stomach 3 or 4 times.

Was going to post the same thing. They need to start going to the net and disrupting Emery. Nash is the X-factor for the Rangers. He really needs to step up. Its kind of embarrassing if you think about it. Hes not the only threat on this team. The Rangers have 3 scoring lines and a 4th line that you need to pay a little attention to. The Flyers have a good defense but they have to worry about a lot of forwards, especially when you put St. Louis on the other wing on the same line.

Nash needs to wake up and play these games like the Columbus game. Completely different player we saw then. Its frustrating to watch him out there when hes got the perfect combination of size and skills to do everything you are saying, including getting to the blue paint. If the Rangers lose this series theres going to be a lot of fingers pointed his way.

 

[Beer League Sniper]

Outside of the MSL goal and that one play when Nash bulled his way to the net and almost scored, I thought the Stepan line was trash. Really disappointed with the 4th line as well. Normally they come with way more energy regardless of what the other lines are doing.

 

[Bleed Ranger Blue]

Yes the Rangers are and where you sit in the standings is not fully indicative of the kind of team you are. If standings were everything they would just skip the playoffs and hand out the Stanley Cup along with the President's trophy.

Are we allowed to take Philly's horrid start off the ledger like we do with the Rangers when doing this analysis?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Bleed Ranger Blue]

Outside of the MSL goal and that one play when Nash bulled his way to the net and almost scored, I thought the Stepan line was trash. Really disappointed with the 4th line as well. Normally they come with way more energy regardless of what the other lines are doing.

I thought the 4th line was the best even strength line in game 1, very quiet in game 2 besides Dorsett being an idiot again.

I think MSL - Stepan - Nash are getting a bit better at ES, although Nash's straight up unwillingness to engage in contact is one of the most infuriating things I've seen as a Ranger fan.

The Hagelin - Richards - Fast line is largely a black hole.

 

[NYR Viper]

I thought the 4th line was the best even strength line in game 1, very quiet in game 2 besides Dorsett being an idiot again.

I think MSL - Stepan - Nash are getting a bit better at ES, although Nash's straight up unwillingness to engage in contact is one of the most infuriating things I've seen as a Ranger fan.

The Hagelin - Richards - Fast line is largely a black hole.

I still don't understand why MSL and Nash need to be on the same line.

Hagelin-Stepan-Nash
Fast-Richards-MSL
Pouliot-Brassard-MZA

The major issue, as you and I have both pointed out, is the lack of anyone willing to go the dirty areas to retrieve pucks and fight the tough battles. This team is all skill at this point.

Kreider is one of the only players capable of actually winning a physical 1 on 1 battle and he is out.

Nash shies away from all contact.

MSL and MZA attempt to battle but are 5'6.

The issue we saw coming reared its ugly head in Game 2. It's no secret.

 

[Beer League Sniper]

Are we allowed to take Philly's horrid start off the ledger like we do with the Rangers when doing this analysis?

Thanks in advance.

I truly believe that the Rangers are the better team. Flyers have the edge in offense, but the Rangers have the edge in both defense and goaltending. We need McDonagh to be McDonagh again and Lundqvist not to do a disappearing act. Our Top-9 is very small on the wings with Kreider sidelined, and is going to have trouble creating space this series. We need to clamp down big time on our side of the redline and capitalize on transition offense. I doubt our forecheck is going to win the series for us with the small lineup we have right now. We need to be winning games 2-0, 2-1. I doubt we score more than 2 or 3 goals in a game the rest of this series outside a defensive/goaltending meltdown from the Flyers.

 

[Beer League Sniper]

I thought the 4th line was the best even strength line in game 1, very quiet in game 2 besides Dorsett being an idiot again.

I think MSL - Stepan - Nash are getting a bit better at ES, although Nash's straight up unwillingness to engage in contact is one of the most infuriating things I've seen as a Ranger fan.

The Hagelin - Richards - Fast line is largely a black hole.

I should have been more clear, my comments were referring specifically to Game 2. I was happy with their play in Game 1. The problem is that we need a consistent effort out of that line if they're not going to score. They can't take games off.

 

[Beer League Sniper]

I still don't understand why MSL and Nash need to be on the same line.

Hagelin-Stepan-Nash
Fast-Richards-MSL
Pouliot-Brassard-MZA

The major issue, as you and I have both pointed out, is the lack of anyone willing to go the dirty areas to retrieve pucks and fight the tough battles. This team is all skill at this point.

Kreider is one of the only players capable of actually winning a physical 1 on 1 battle and he is out.

Nash shies away from all contact.

MSL and MZA attempt to battle but are 5'6.

The issue we saw coming reared its ugly head in Game 2. It's no secret.

Bolded the problems. Richards is useless 5v5, and Nash is just a complete enigma to me at this point. Just not an impact player at all. We all saw the Columbus game. He's capable of doing it, but just doesn't. You figure that, not having won jack **** his entire career, Nash would be hungry in the playoffs, but I sadly don't see it. If he played even a quarter of his games the way he played in that Columbus game, I think I would be happy. I don't even think he scored in that game, and he still had a huge impact. It's depressing.

 

[94wasagoodyear]

Pivotal game tonight. Must take advantage of Emery still being in net.

 

[pld459666]

anyone else think, since knowing Emery is slow side-to-side, that we were trying too hard on making pretty passes and could've been distracting/frustrating? It works on the PP/Rushes, but seemed to give us trouble 5-on-5

I don't think we did enough of that in game 2.

Having a goalie with limited mobility side to side would mean he's completely suseptible to the back door play on the PP.

Yet, they didn't try that.

Plus in addition to the side to side issue, you have to give the goalie and defenders something to think about in front which we were (it seemed) hell bent on not trying to get to.

And this is where I say that the team is mentally soft.

It takes a willingness engage physically to get to and stay in front of the net. The Rangers battle level is not where I would prefer it to be in that regards.

Kreider is sorely missed in this area. Aside from Zuccs and occassionally Pouliot, Kreider is probably the most eager player on the roster to get there.

 

[Jersey Girl]

Yes the Rangers are and where you sit in the standings is not fully indicative of the kind of team you are. If standings were everything they would just skip the playoffs and hand out the Stanley Cup along with the President's trophy.

The playoffs do not exist because the league thinks 82 games is not an accurate barometer of what kind of team you are. The playoffs exist to make money, plain and simple.

 

[Jersey Girl]

Pivotal game tonight. Must take advantage of Emery still being in net.

Totally agree with this. It's still Ray freaking Emery!

 

[BroadwayBlues]

I understand Giroux hasn't done anything either but he's facing a much better D pairing, compared to Nash. I just don't buy the excuse with Nash playing against the other teams top pairing to explain his lack of scoring. Especially when you're home and you sometimes aren't facing the top pairing.

 

[Bleed Ranger Blue]

I still don't understand why MSL and Nash need to be on the same line.

Hagelin-Stepan-Nash
Fast-Richards-MSL
Pouliot-Brassard-MZA

The major issue, as you and I have both pointed out, is the lack of anyone willing to go the dirty areas to retrieve pucks and fight the tough battles. This team is all skill at this point.

Kreider is one of the only players capable of actually winning a physical 1 on 1 battle and he is out.

Nash shies away from all contact.

MSL and MZA attempt to battle but are 5'6.

The issue we saw coming reared its ugly head in Game 2. It's no secret.

Hagelin is this team's best forechecker now. And its all about speed with him. I think putting him on a line with Nash would be the right move because, well, Nash ain't going into the corner to retrieve loose pucks.

Its clear as day what Philly did in game 2 and will continue to do - clog the middle of the ice and aim to win the board battles. Without a willingness to engage, the Rangers will be dead in the water.

 

[True Blue]

Totally agree. Rangers are the better team, and as long as we don't get outworked that will win out in the end.

I expect better effort. However, the question remains are they willing to get their nose dirty when the Flyers stack at the blue line? They will need to chip the puck past the defense and go into corners.

I expect Henke to have a better game. However, what I have my doubts about is can Nash finally get out of his comfort zone and drive to the net?

 

[True Blue]

So Carcillo is now the savior? Thank god we have him!

He is not the savior, but Fast has been utterly invisible. A complete non-factor.