Post-Game Talk: Panthers @ Rangers - Groundhog's Day/RIP in peace Papa John's

[Doctyl]

If the entire team sucks, how are we good?

 

[RangersOwnNewYork*]

i have no idea how anyone could be happy with this game....Henrik Lundqvist is the only reason we werent down a ton going into the 3rd...just an atrocious display of team defense tonight. ugh..

Well, I'm happy because they got 2 points and won 6-3. They played well for 40 minutes and poorly for the first 10 minutes of the first and last 10 of the second. Also, lets not make it like Florida is a terrible team either. They are a decent team who was desperate for a win that they still didn't get. Some people make it seem like players on other teams don't get paid.

 

[Inferno]

NO team in this league brings their A game every single night. No team in hockey goes thru the season undefeated and without certain players not playing well some nights. I could understand the incessant whining from some people if this team was bad instead of one of the top teams in the league. Some people need to give a rest.

i dont think its whining necessarily. its calling it what it is...a pretty horrific game that we probably didnt deserve to win.

Rangers played 20 mins and picked up 2 points.

Henrik was absolutely brilliant...this could have gotten out of hand very easily against a rather average team.

 

[Ori]

THIS. Going thru the game day thread you would think we were in last place instead of being 3 points from the division lead. The defense sucks....McDonagh sucks...Girardi suck....Stall sucks....MSL sucks....change the lines....Av sucks...Blah blah blah

lol, yeah, but all in respective - we're the Eastern conference Champions last year in 2014. I've a t-shirt and a Rangers mixing glass as proof - so this match in comparison to playoff hockey last year: Well, we pretty much sucked all night vs. a none playoff team Florida.
We need to start to play 60 min. hockey as Ryan Mc. mentioned after the match in an interview.
I'll take 2 pts. tonight, but I'm glad it's early february and not playoff hockey, because we're a much better hockey team than this.
We scored 6 goals and that's great, of course, but we let Florida into the game.. Although, I hope the last 20 min. will carry over -
to the next match on wednesday.

 

[Miamipuck]

Florida was very motivated tonight. I watched their feed for a few minutes and they said they the Rangers were the fastest team they played all year. They felt like they took a beating that New Year's eve and had something to prove. FWIW.

 

[RangersOwnNewYork*]

lol, yeah, but all in respective - we're the Eastern conference Champions last year in 2014. I've a t-shirt and a Rangers mixing glass as proof - so this match in comparison to playoff hockey last year: Well, we pretty much sucked all night vs. a none playoff team Florida.
We need to start to play 60 min. hockey as Ryan Mc. mentioned after the match in an interview.
I'll take 2 pts. tonight, but I'm glad it's early february and not playoff hockey, because we're a much better hockey team.

Yes, they are a very good team and when the playoffs near there is no doubt in my mind that they will be playing their best hockey like AV coached teams usually do.

 

[Glen Sathers Cigar]

i dont think its whining necessarily. its calling it what it is...a pretty horrific game that we probably didnt deserve to win.

Rangers played 20 mins and picked up 2 points.

Henrik was absolutely brilliant...this could have gotten out of hand very easily against a rather average team.

I think calling it horrific is a drastic overstatement. They didn't play the best, but they found a way to have a strong third and win the game. For a game in February, especially one where you're not playing your best, to be able to salvage it and win the game 6-3 is far from horrific.

Too many mistakes and sloppy play for sure, but not horrific.

 

[Ori]

You've a good point though; I'm not always patient, but I believe that MSL will bounce back soon. MSL is still an 'elite' player in consider his age and unlucky recently with his finishing.

 

[darko]

i dont think its whining necessarily. its calling it what it is...a pretty horrific game that we probably didnt deserve to win.

Rangers played 20 mins and picked up 2 points.

Henrik was absolutely brilliant...this could have gotten out of hand very easily against a rather average team.

Rangers played 40 minutes. Start of the game crap and the last 10 mins in the second period.

 

[Glennsoe]

With his New line, zuke has to rethink his game plan, before it was just "give the puck to Nash and watch him go"

Now he has to hold on to the puck a little longer..

So far so good..

 

[PromNite]

Rick Nash, on that ENG, shook off Brandon Pirri like he was a mosquito.

 

[TheTakedown]

I sign him and say bye bye to St. Louis if I'm the Rangers.

I'm getting on board with this. MSL looks really bad.

 

[Brooklyn Rangers Fan]

To read some of these ****ing posts--you would think we'd lost. I swear some people should just crack open a bottle and chill.

Good lord, THANK YOU, Eco's. Couldn't agree more.

How about this - the Panthers have some DAMN good kids. Barkov, Bjugstad, Huberdeau, Hayes, Gudbranson, Ekblad, Petrovic... they're all friggin' huge and they can all play. And Tallon has done a nice job of surrounding them with veterans. They were able to mount a comeback. I take a look at that roster and I'm not at all surprised.

The better team took their counterpunch in the second half of the second period... and then downed them with a haymaker in the third.

Are there aspects that could be improved? Of course. Do I want to see better play from MSL, Brass, Girardi and Klein? Absolutely. But I'm focusing on the positives.

- Nash was a beast (again).
- Hank was outstanding.
- John Moore had quite possibly his best game since 2013.
- McD started out poorly on the first goal against, but thereafter he got better and better, and by the third I thought he looked like his old self.
- Boyle was making a difference once again.
- MZA was dynamic for the first time in quite a while.
- Hayes and Fast continue to get better and better with every passing game.
- Step continues to quietly pile up the points.
- Dom Moore continues to do what he does.

Good stuff.

 

[Brooklyn Rangers Fan]

BTW, for all the gnashing of teeth about who's playing awful right now, do you know which players on the roster were the ONLY three to be minus players this game?

Hayes -2
MZA -1
Kreider -1

 

[nevesis]

If the entire team sucks, how are we good?

Haha...

 

[TheTakedown]

The real issue tonight was Girardi... My goodness, he was so bad in his own zone...

Klein and staal looked great in my opinion sans Staals **** up on the 2nd goal...

Glass was directly responsible for an instance in the 3rd where he missed the puck 3 TIMES, and each time panthers controlled for about 20 more seconds... Of course girardi was the idiot to start this...

Its concerning how bad girardi is... I'm so befuddled, he looks god awful...

McDonagh isn't off the hook either. He's either hurt or he's mentally fluking out... He just looks ****ing terrible.

Thought John Moore played a lot better defensively than I am used to seeing. I like when he focuses on defense instead of offense...

Boyle cannot keep his gloves on :p

Kreider and Zucc need to stay together. I like both Hayes and Brass centering him..

MSL needs to be matched with Hagelin on the 3rd line... He can't do top line competition anymore.

Stempniak needs a shot at the top line with Step... That's the only other RW player with the rep to play there.

 

[darko]

Sometimes this board falls into victim to groupthink, and that's really evident with the way people have been *****ing about MSL. Guy is still on pace for over 60 points, good for second on the team in points. And we saw how he gets up and leads in the playoffs.

All of you killing the guy, take a step back for a second and think things over.

Yeah lets leave MSL alone and start picking on Nash whom you still hate despite him having a career year.

 

[Glen Sathers Cigar]

The real issue tonight was Girardi... My goodness, he was so bad in his own zone...

Klein and staal looked great in my opinion sans Staals **** up on the 2nd goal...

Glass was directly responsible for an instance in the 3rd where he missed the puck 3 TIMES, and each time panthers controlled for about 20 more seconds... Of course girardi was the idiot to start this...

Its concerning how bad girardi is... I'm so befuddled, he looks god awful...

McDonagh isn't off the hook either. He's either hurt or he's mentally fluking out... He just looks ****ing terrible.

Thought John Moore played a lot better defensively than I am used to seeing. I like when he focuses on defense instead of offense...

Boyle cannot keep his gloves on :p

Kreider and Zucc need to stay together. I like both Hayes and Brass centering him..

MSL needs to be matched with Hagelin on the 3rd line... He can't do top line competition anymore.

Stempniak needs a shot at the top line with Step... That's the only other RW player with the rep to play there.

I honestly think McDonagh has been so bad that he's making Girardi worse. It's no secret that McDonagh has carried Girardi (Staal did before him) and that is true. However, this year McD has been so bad that I notice Girardi constantly having to cover McD's mistakes and thus making him look even worse because he's not that guy, the guy who should be covering for mistakes while playing on the first pair.

What he is, is a dependable minute eater, who as long as he's paired with a partner who's not playing like crap, is more than capable of handling tough assignments. We all know he's not the guy to carry his tandem, not in a first pairing role anyway.

I think the complaining about Girardi has reached hyperbolic heights that are heightened due to the group think mentality of a message board and twitter and such.

I saw someone tweet today: "Worse contract? David Clarkson or Dan Girardi?"

Girardi hasn't been great, but he really hasn't been bad either. And to compare him to a guy signed at a higher cap hit for longer term who plays in the 4th line? Come on.

During the dark ages if you would've told me we'd had an undrafted player come up and stay with the team for years and become a 1st pairing defensman and be rewarded with a nice contract, which has a pretty high caphit although in a few years it will be a good deal, as will Staal's you'll all see as contacts keep going up. And we kept this homegrown guy and gave him a nice deal to stay possibly a career Ranger, instead of trading him for an aging has been, wouldn't that sound nice?


Honestly, if Dan Girardi is the biggest thing to complain about, your team isn't that bad.

Speaking of the people on twitter, I've followed a lot of the big bloggers just because I like to get as much info and opinions as possible. The amound of constant negativity, *****ing and complaining about almost every player on the team sans Nash and Hank is insane. I swear, if you never watched a Rangers game before, but followed all of these bloggers on twitter, you'd think Dan Girardi and Marc Staal are two of the worst and overpaid defensemen in the league. People writing about what trades should've been made, even though they were far fetched rumors that never would've happened. No concept of rewarding homegrown guys with long term deals. Constant *****ing about cap hits that frankly in a few years are going to be less than the going rate. We're already seeing it with Orpik's contract. I take Girardi or Staal over Orpik every single day of the week. Our D corps is top 3 in the league and yet, it's constant *****ing about our defensemen, these two in particular, despite the fact that they play top 3 minutes every game. Staal has looked fantastic for like 25 games now and he has an off 2nd period tonight and everyone is out in full force trashing the contract with the sarcasm and condescending tweets. "That goal makes him worth his contract!" Give me a break. He's a rock of a defenseman, is almost back to his 2010 form and yet it takes one bad play and he's back to a scrub.

This short attention span era we live in and the group think and mob mentality that it breeds is so depressing.

 

[redfzn]

I can't believe we had two spectacular 3rd periods in a row. Should we be so honored?

3 stars to come. 6 more weeks of scoring!

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

I can't believe we had two spectacular 3rd periods in a row. Should we be so honored?

3 stars to come. 6 more weeks of scoring!

I can't believe we had two spectacular 3rd periods in a row. Should we be so honored?

3 stars to come. 6 more weeks of scoring!

 

[BlueshirtBlitz]

Nobody is saying the whole team is bad (edit: that's a lie, i'm sure there are plenty of people saying that ). Outside of October, Hank has been a top 3 goalie in the league as he has been for the past decade. We have a very deep forward group (outside of Glass) with a Rocket Richard contending two-way monster leading the way. Our special teams are top 10-ish in the league. The Isles and Habs won't be able to hold us to 0/1 goals for 4 games straight in the playoffs. I'm not worried.

That being said, McD is a HUGE disappointment and Girardi continues to decline. Staal and Klein have been good most nights, bur the top pairing won't be able to hang in the playoffs if they play like they have for most of the season. Stamkos, Tavares, Crosby and the like will feast on them.

 

[Rangerfan4life90]

Nobody is saying the whole team is bad (edit: that's a lie, i'm sure there are plenty of people saying that ). Outside of October, Hank has been a top 3 goalie in the league as he has been for the past decade. We have a very deep forward group (outside of Glass) with a Rocket Richard contending two-way monster leading the way. Our special teams are top 10-ish in the league. The Isles and Habs won't be able to hold us to 0/1 goals for 4 games straight in the playoffs. I'm not worried.

That being said, McD is a HUGE disappointment and Girardi continues to decline. Staal and Klein have been good most nights, bur the top pairing won't be able to hang in the playoffs if they play like they have for most of the season. Stamkos, Tavares, Crosby and the like will feast on them.

I really hope McD bounces back. He's the key to this. He bounces back, then Girardi in turn will bounce back, and we'll be in business.

 

[egelband]

You've a good point though; I'm not always patient, but I believe that MSL will bounce back soon. MSL is still an 'elite' player in consider his age and unlucky recently with his finishing.

I concur. He's a stud. Declarations of his demise are waaaaaaay premature.

 

[SixGoalieSystem]

I concur. He's a stud. Declarations of his demise are waaaaaaay premature.

Marty's a beast and I won't be surprised if he's still a useful player in this league in three years. Even in a season when he's not playing his best, he has 36 points in 48 games playing mostly 2nd line minutes.

 

[JHS]

I've been saying this all season even when the Rangers started off slow-- The sky is not falling here guys. The thing about NHL hockey is, it is a tough game to play. No one can bring their top performance every night. It's just not possible.

I firmly believe many Rangers learned what it takes to win last season and part of that process is to learn how to pace oneself for an entire season. How many times in last years playoffs were people saying the team looks tired, worm out and so on??? I remember AV saying it several times. These guys that a vocal few on here keep calling out did not forget how to play hockey all of a sudden. I'd venture to say that they are going through the typical flow of an NHL season.

A winnable game in February is not the time I want the Rangers peeking. Playoff games in May and June is when I want the Rangers peeking!