Post-Game Talk: New York Rangers @ Philadelphia Flyers 4/25/14

[chosen]

What does that have to do with Lundqvist, the team stunk for at least one period, arguably another half the period offensively. But Lundqvist didn't face that many great chances. A superstar goalie should be able to be able to control momentum. Everything posted here has nothing to do with Lundqvist.

Sometimes you are difficult to fathom.

Who are the current superstar goalies?

Which active goalies are better than Lundqvist?

 

[BlaqICE]

We are all in for a rough stretch until like 2020 with that monster cap hit. What has he done for this hockey club exactly? Any cups? No? Ok.
Did he sign a good contract enabling us to ice a better roster? No? Ok. He needs to step the fug up in a big way if we are going anywhere in this new system. AV is a goalie killer, and Hank has been exposed as a top third goaltender as opposed to a top tier guy. I am sad to say that the rest of the league had a point when they stated ad nauseum that he was a product of a defensive system. He's a good goalie . Not a generational talent like we were convinced. Great goalies win cups. Period.
Seems like he's happy being the top paid goalie more than winning a cup. A Championship.
Pardon us for hoping, expecting and wishing he would play up to the hype and massive contract and shut the door more than he has.

I am no hank hater, but he has been merely average when we need him to be a star. He has been outplayed and out battled more this year than in the three previous combined. How many soft goals, failed breakaway stops, bad rebounds and mental gaffes are we to expect from him?

I really don't understand all of this Hank hate. Great goalies don't always win cups, great TEAMS do and the truth of the matter is that sometimes they have mediocre goalies in net when they do. Is Fleury a good goalie just because he has a cup? His playoff stats aren't good. Was Dominik Hasek a terrible goalie just because he didn't win a cup until 2002? If you suck in 95% of the games that you start in as a goalie, but have a hot streak in the playoffs one year and your team wins the cup, does that make you a great goalie? I don't think so.

Hank's playoffs stats are slightly better than his regular season stats, and no one seems to have a problem with his regular season performance. People say he doesn't come up with the "big save" at important moments. How about the save he made on Raffle with 13 minutes left in the third? If we manage to actually score to tie up the game and then win in overtime, people might be saying "wow, Hank really came up with that 'big save' to keep us in this thing." My point is that when you actually have a good team that scores more than 1 goal and wins games, it's easy to look back and FIND "big saves" that kept your team in the game.

People blaming Lundqvist are just using him as a scapegoat because it's much easier than trying to wrap their heads around the other glaring weaknesses that this team has. I mean, we're 0 for 12 in our last 12 powerplays.. but let's not talk about that.

 

[BerntBalchen]

Is there any gif available on Zucc leveling Giroux ?

http://makeagif.com/i/Fp8nHm A nice gif there. Slighty to big for the forum 500kb. Made it in 15 sec.

 

[Hi ImHFNYR]

Yeah, but you have to remember that the thing is -- he's not Fleury. He's not Mason. He should be outplaying these guys just about every night, game in, game out. So when you have a game like this where he gives up a goal like that, I think it's perfectly fair to get on him a bit.

This doesn't mean that the people here are incapable of overreacting. My point is simply that people are certainly doing so. Your response makes perfect sense when nevesis was trying to compare him to Mason but I'm not doing that. I was about to type "strictly held to his own standards people are overreacting" and in doing so I realized how absolutely egotistical that is for any of us to entertain fantasies that we hold him to any standard that he, his contract, his teammates, his coaches and his GM don't already hold him to.

Again though a lot of this is more about helplessness and control than it is about legitimately evaluating a player's performance. We receive no other benefits from doing so other than making it easier to accept failure. It's easy to see how this may be true for snowblind for instance and for nevesis on the other end of the pole

 

[Tawnos]

Yeesh. I was in SC doing a sediment study and had no cell service... didn't even have Wifi! It was kinda awesome. Somewhat glad I missed this.

In watching the condensed game, I have a serious question. Were the Rangers ever able to complete a second pass after the 1st period and before the last 8 minutes of the game? Their passing in the neutral zone looked like Tortorella-era.

 

[Hi ImHFNYR]

How is Hank supposed to play better? Does anyone realize how ridiculous it is to demand a goalie be better than 1.76 GAA and a .927 sv%? That's elite. You can't actually expect him to get a shutout in every game. It's absurd.

I was just talking about the absence of level heads when people around here are criticizing Henrik but the same needs to be said for some of the white knights here. Now for you particularly I don't think I've seen you doing this much but for this one particular instance you are using poor criteria. I say this because it is coming with zero context. This keeps happening with the WK's here and it's just as bad as the overreacting. It is important to a degree to note he hasnt been melting down but it is necassary to look at the actual goals individually. Your statement does not do that yet I get the feeling you feel like your stats are the be all, end all.

Something that is ignored by your general stat: He has not had to make a plethora of game changing saves. He has not had to make up for some of the goals being a little soft. In games 2 and 4 there were 3 soft goals combined. Take away two of them in game 2 and we win in regulation. Take away any one goal in either game and at least we hit OT. It is sensible for there to be some criticism here just not the wild, fanatical kind.

Separately it is ridiculous that the D has not been getting discussed much more and the PP and offenses inability to score in both losses is not being discussed more. Those who criticize the goalie THIS much in THIS situation while simultaneously ignoring these much larger and more glaring failures are more concerned with venting and making themselves feel better and seem smarter. It's much easier to look good by countering nevesis who is on the absolute extreme end of defending Hank

It is also much easier to say Hank is a choke artist simply because he never won the cup. It's also easier to ignore how bad several NYR PO teams were since 05 and blame that on the goalie too. So again it works both ways from a criticism standpoint and a defense standpoint