How is Paul Ranger playing this year?

[snizzbone*]

Rielly is never going to stick on this team if he doesn't have a competent d partner.

 

[Nithoniniel]

Do you people defending this guy actually watch the games .... Solid first shift ....

Those of us that defend him are perfectly capable of saying his first half of the game was bad. It's the "RANGER DANGER"-crowd that is unfortunately completely unable to see how solid his overall game is outside those mistakes.

But yes, he had a bad game. Pretty discouraging.

Not sure how much longer this can last, he can't be in our regular 6 if this keeps happening.

If he reverts to having bad games like this, you're right. If he can minimize them and we continue to not get hurt by them, then he'll stay around for sure.

It becomes a bit ridiculous in GDTs though as he gets blamed for everything that goes wrong when he is on the ice. Rielly chipping a puck towards the knees of Ranger when he was already getting pressured resulted in 1½ pages of people blaming Ranger, despite the fact that all he did was try to clean up Rielly's mess.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

Solid third pairing guy or useless/fringe ahl player?

absolutely USELESS, for some reason he decided to take a 100% COMPLETELY unnecessary penalty by punching clutterbuck in the head,game was 3-1 at the time

 

[Nithoniniel]

absolutely USELESS, for some reason he decided to take a 100% COMPLETELY unnecessary penalty by punching clutterbuck in the head,game was 3-1 at the time

It was a retaliatory hit for Clutter headbutting him. It was stupid, sure, but it should have become a 4-on-4. Not really worth mentioning.

 

[Celly Hard]

Hes sucking horse balls every game. For every good play he makes, he messes up 10 times.

 

[therealkoho]

Rielly is never going to stick on this team if he doesn't have a competent d partner.

reilly is 19, he's not ready for a full time job yet and besides are there any competent Dmen on the Leafs

 

[Rogie]

It was a retaliatory hit for Clutter headbutting him. It was stupid, sure, but it should have become a 4-on-4. Not really worth mentioning.

Yup, he was headbutted - it was pretty clear it was a dirty play by Clutter. I'm glad he retaliated the way he did; a softer player likely wouldn't have.

 

[DaveT83*]

Worst player on team by a country mile. Guy is such a liability. Nothing has changed since game 1.

 

[Rogie]

I'll admit Ranger makes bonehead plays. The difference is he's a good player and gets away with them often. But, they're still bonehead plays.

Now, Franson, (with no time left in the period practically and with Gardiner pinching in to his left) tries to shoot it through Zizikas (sorry sp?) and Zizikas has his two legs in the blocking position, so, he's not even hardly moving, then, proceeds to blow by Franson. Zizikas is at our blue line before Franson barely gets over the red line.

The point is that Ranger might have caught the guy, or at the least he would have made that now famous, falling/diving, throw/swing your stick around and knock the puck off the other guys stick move. TRUE STORY I THINK!

 

[Asif16*]

The funny thing is...i dont know if people remember but Mark Fraser was one of our best defenders the first two games of the season (Montreal and Philly). He was getting quality minutes before he got injured by rosehill.

Ranger at the time, was one of our worst. So, If fraser actually didnt get hurt....it would have been RANGER that rielly came in for, and not fraser. There was no way in hell fraser was gonna come out at the time.

I rememeber people were mad when fraser got injured in the "injury report thread". Becuase he was one of our solid defenders.

So i guess what im trying to say is, when fraser comes back....ranger needs to be benched. And we need to go with a Rielly-Fraser pairing WHICH WAS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN.

Ranger should be thanking fraser, because if it wasnt for his injury, ranger would be in the pressbox

 

[Johny Drama]

Ranger has lost his confidence at the moment. He's not a bad player, we saw that with the Marlies and in the pre-season, but his decision making is slow and he is tentative with his passing. I have noticed too, when he makes a mistake early in the game, his game seems to slide. Its a shame really, as both Liles and Brennan have looked great for the Marlies and probably deserve a shot in the NHL.

 

[HockeyGuruPitka]

Sure it was a dumb penalty last night, but one thing this team ABSOLUTELY lacks/lacked (see game 7 against boston) is a menacing asswhole to clear out the front of the net. IF you watch him closely, he’s constantly making life miserable for the oppositions net front guys. Traffic on Reimer and Bernier has been weak, allowing them to make easy saves. Sure he takes a few bad penalties, that one penalty although hurts the team sends a message that the forwards on the opposing team cant roam around the net to do whatever they please. Notice how clutterbuck was essentially USELESS last night?

Leaf fans like to always have 1 whipping boy. Clarkson has on numerous occasions taken moronic penalties, that we do not hear a peep about.

Ranger is solid as an ox, and hopefully can iron out the kinks. His mobility and puck moving ability is 10x better then what Komisarek had.

 

[EdBelfour20]

I don't mind Paul Ranger one bit.. He makes a few mistakes but so do all of our other dmen! even Dion. (especially Dion actually) but you don't hear about them. it's all RANGER DANGER!

 

[pspot]

He's a 7th defensemen

considering where he was that's necessarily a bad thing either

 

[Diamond Joe Quimby]

For what he's being paid, I have no complaints.

 

[cookie]

He's like a mini-Phaneuf. I don't mind his play actually. For all the crap thrown at him, he returns it thrice-fold with good, solid plays. He is an excellent bottom pairing defense man with a kind of attitude that makes opposing forwards think twice about coming near him. His offensive game is miles better than Fraser and he's getting better day by day. A solid replacement if one of our defense men get injured.

 

[Ari91]

I've never been one to single out a whipping boy and I'm not going to start now. Ranger has kinks to his game that he needs to sort out but he's not nearly as bad as people make him out to be. He makes mistakes but a lot of times he's working his butt off to make up for those mistakes and so far his mistakes haven't really cost the team. I'm not sure why Franson gets a pass (when his mistakes seem to end up in the back our net) but the guy who hasn't played in the NHL for 3 years gets kicked and spit on for every little thing he does that isn't perfect.

I can't see how anyone can be genuine when they say that Ranger has shown no improvement. That's simply not true. Last night was a tough game for him but before that he had several games where he played well. It's ridiculous that people are throwing their arms up in the air and complaining about how he can't take a pass or can't make a pass or can't clear the zone - the team regularly seems to have their lapses where they can't seem do it any of those things, it's not just Ranger.

 

[boller4president]

For what he's being paid, I have no complaints.

This. It's just not fair to heap all these expectations on a guy who got paid one million as a free agent.

He's been a mediocre starting defensemen at this point. Which is actually a pretty damn good bargain in todays NHL.

Tell me who would have you rather signed instead? A 38 year old Hal Gill like the Flyers did?

 

[Penalty Kill Icing*]

I've never been one to single out a whipping boy and I'm not going to start now. Ranger has kinks to his game that he needs to sort out but he's not nearly as bad as people make him out to be. He makes mistakes but a lot of times he's working his butt off to make up for those mistakes and so far his mistakes haven't really cost the team. I'm not sure why Franson gets a pass (when his mistakes seem to end up in the back our net) but the guy who hasn't played in the NHL for 3 years gets kicked and spit on for every little thing he does that isn't perfect.

I can't see how anyone can be genuine when they say that Ranger has shown no improvement. That's simply not true. Last night was a tough game for him but before that he had several games where he played well. It's ridiculous that people are throwing their arms up in the air and complaining about how he can't take a pass or can't make a pass or can't clear the zone - the team regularly seems to have their lapses where they can't seem do it any of those things, it's not just Ranger.

Completely agree with you.

Bottom line is... Ranger's mistakes don't end up hurting as much as Franson's mistakes do.

 

[Intact]

Ranger is much better than Fraser that's for sure, he'll keep his spot in the lineup all season IMO

 

[Mystifo]

I will take Ranger over Mark Fraser at this point. At least Ranger knows how to play the puck of the boards.


Also to everyone who is critiquing him. He had a bad game last night but it is not like he has been doing it a lot as of late. For a good amount of time he was playing like a solid 3rd pairing D man and for 1 million on a 1 year contract I am not going to complain.

 

[mikebel111*]

Guys i love rielly.

But he is making same errors that ranger makes, yet paul gets the hate?

 

[pacdunes]

Where is all this "give him 50 games, and he will get his legs" bs being fed 2 months ago? He's a bonehead making bonehead plays - every single game.

He just doesn't look so bad , when we have another bonehead called Gunnarson doing the same at 3 times the cost.

 

[Michael Gary Scott]

He's had, maybe 2 good games this season by my count. The rest have either been mediocre or abysmal. He can just be OK some nights, and then one play will change everything. He'll make one small mistake and then for the rest of the night he cant do a thing. I dont know, its odd.

 

[Michael Gary Scott]

Guys i love rielly.

But he is making same errors that ranger makes, yet paul gets the hate?

Rielly is 19, never played in the NHL before. Ranger is 29-30, and has played hundreds of NHL games. Yes, I know he was off for a long time, but hes still played there and knows what to expect. Thats the difference. 19 year olds are going to make 19 year old plays.