The Rangers outplayed the Bruins in every game last year yet were swept. Meanwhile before that, they were like 6-1 against the Bruins the two years before that.
And it's one game against Columbus.
You seriously must have this exact phrase on your clipboard constantly. Because it's all you complain about, no matter how a loss goes, this is always your go to complaint. It's convenient too, it's not like anyone will remember two specific board battles won that they can point to. Yet I don't see any complaining about Girardi and Staal being braindead with the puck and not being able to transition for their damn lives. I don't see any complaining about Ryan McDonagh having his head so far up his ass he can see his own stomach. I also don't see any complaints that Tanner Glass by himself makes every line he plays on worthless.
Winning battles is directly correlated to gaining the puck. And, god damn did we have the puck a lot those last two periods. We must've watched two different games because IDK what you were watching.
Yup, couldn't transition for ****.
Conversely, I don't know how you could possibly come up with "size" is the problem after last night.
I'm just glad someone sees it the same way I'm seeing it.
The way the Islanders won is the same way Ottawa has been winning in MSG for the past six years. Speed and pressure on the forecheck. Has nothing to do with size. The Tortorella teams were constantly abused by talentless hacks with speed. The difference is, the Islanders, Tampa, and Boston aren't talentless.
The common denominator is Girardi, Staal, and to a lesser extent, McDonagh.
The slower teams are afraid to pressure the Rangers because of the Rangers speed.
The Rangers lost one ugly game to Tampa where Lundqvist **** the bed. The other two were much closer; the one in Tampa could have gone either way until the refs showed up. They've lost badly to the Fishsticks twice at home, and the bad game in Boston.
Adding size wil actually make the problems worse, as Ranger pressure in the offensive zone really wasn't a problem and it could limit the team's speed. One could argue, however, that they aren't "dirty" enough, and that's a fair criticism. This is where Hayes, Stempniak, D. Moore, etc. have to be a bit more physical.