Pre-Game Talk: Rangers vs. Flyers 11/19

[bl02]

They better not **** this up.

Thats ok Mr. Voracek will just go beast mode

 

[SA16]

Not quite sure why Talbot would play tomorrow instead of Friday in Buffalo but okay.

Third time AV has done this this year. I'll call it two and give him a pass on opening night.

 

[FLYLine27*]

Glad Claude is out tomorrow, we need every bit of help we can get till we get over this inconsistency.


Isles play well early on cause nobody takes them serious(plus I think they have faced the most backup goalies so far this season), once the big games matter, the second half the season, they crap the bed like always. They will be a bubble playoff team by the time its all said and done.

 

[ReggieDunlop68]

Glad Claude is out tomorrow, we need every bit of help we can get till we get over this inconsistency.


Isles play well early on cause nobody takes them serious(plus I think they have faced the most backup goalies so far this season), once the big games matter, the second half the season, they crap the bed like always. They will be a bubble playoff team by the time its all said and done.

I hate the Islanders too, but this is definitely wishful thinking mixed with the fear of a competitive Islanders while the Rangers aren't doing well.

 

[FLYLine27*]

I hate the Islanders too, but this is definitely wishful thinking mixed with the fear of a competitive Islanders while the Rangers aren't doing well.

Not at all. Wait till March and we will see where the Isles are and how they are doing. They will be around 7-9th place, they are a better team than last year, but they are nowhere near a top team in the east.

 

[ReggieDunlop68]

I think they will fall, but they are a much better team they've been in a long time.

 

[Mr Clutch]

I'm watching NHL rivals now on nbc sports rangers/flyers edition....man we better beat them tomorrow

 

[trilobyte]

Need to win. Not necessarily because it is the Flyers, but because they need to not stink.

 

[WeWillWinTonight]

The only bad thing the Rangers did this off-season were sign Glass and not resign Stralman. It's still yet to be seen if we can contend without Stralman. We'll see.

Stralman was great last year but if a lack of Stralman hinders your ability to 'contend', are you really a contender?

 

[aufheben]

People get upset when they're not taken seriously around here, but then they post stuff about how Hank is horrible.

The only bad thing the Rangers did this off-season were sign Glass and not resign Stralman. It's still yet to be seen if we can contend without Stralman. We'll see.

That's two things.

 

[Problematique]

Stralman was great last year but if a lack of Stralman hinders your ability to 'contend', are you really a contender?

Stralman was one of our most consistent D men last year, however the timing of injuries to McDonagh, Boyle and the suspension of J Moore really hasn't helped the pain of Stralman going.

Need the W tomorrow (in regulation please). Need a strong forecheck from the get go, some ****ing scoring from the 4th line for once would be nice too.

 

[ReggieDunlop68]

Stralman was one of our most consistent D men last year, however the timing of injuries to McDonagh, Boyle and the suspension of J Moore really hasn't helped the pain of Stralman going.

Need the W tomorrow (in regulation please). Need a strong forecheck from the get go, some ****ing scoring from the 4th line for once would be nice too.

This still doesn't bode well for a team that is supposed to be a contender.

 

[Nanaki]

This still doesn't bode well for a team that is supposed to be a contender.

Well the man brought in to directly replace him got injured like 10 minutes into the season. We really don't even know what we have with Boyle yet.

 

[Blue Blooded]

Stralman was great last year but if a lack of Stralman hinders your ability to 'contend', are you really a contender?

Losing an elite 5v5 and 4v5 defenseman and replacing him with an aging PPQB that is best fit for 3rd pairing duty 5v5 would hinder pretty much every team's ability to contend.

McDonagh and Strålman were the linchpins of the Rangers defense and we're currently without both of them.

Even with McDonagh back our defense is terrible, somewhere around 22nd-25th in the league, and with McD out we are probably closer to the 27th-29th range.

It's a shame we're wasting a ~top-5 forward corps (if AV would remove Glass from the lineup) and a top-5 goalie with this travesty of a defensive corps.

 

[AHB*]

Well the man brought in to directly replace him got injured like 10 minutes into the season. We really don't even know what we have with Boyle yet.

We don't know what we have in Boyle yet? The guys played 16 years in the NHL.

Anton Stralman is so underrated. He truly may be the most underrated player in the NHL. The fact that there are Rangers fans who watched him for multiple years and STILL can't comprehend his value is just insane.

I knew it would be bad losing him. I didn't think it would be this bad. He was one of the 5 most valuable Rangers last season and we let him walk for a completely affordable salary. Disgusting management. He is also better than Girardi and will certainly be once both their contracts have played out, barring serious injury.

 

[Mac n Gs]

Losing an elite 5v5 and 4v5 defenseman and replacing him with an aging PPQB that is best fit for 3rd pairing duty 5v5 would hinder pretty much every team's ability to contend.

McDonagh and Strålman were the linchpins of the Rangers defense and we're currently without both of them.

Even with McDonagh back our defense is terrible, somewhere around 22nd-25th in the league, and with McD out we are probably closer to the 27th-29th range.

It's a shame we're wasting a ~top-5 forward corps (if AV would remove Glass from the lineup) and a top-5 goalie with this travesty of a defensive corps.

Our defense is that poorly ranked based on what? They've literally played 10 minutes together and you can accurately make that statement? I get it, losing Stralman sucked. I wanted him re-signed also, but you're acting like losing one player makes our top 5 defense become a bottom feeder.

The team needs to be able to play team defense. It's what helped us be successful last year. They need a tweak to the 4th line, the rest of the team is back once McDonagh is back.

 

[pjr378]

We don't know what we have in Boyle yet? The guys played 16 years in the NHL.

Anton Stralman is so underrated. He truly may be the most underrated player in the NHL. The fact that there are Rangers fans who watched him for multiple years and STILL can't comprehend his value is just insane.

I knew it would be bad losing him. I didn't think it would be this bad. He was one of the 5 most valuable Rangers last season and we let him walk for a completely affordable salary. Disgusting management. He is also better than Girardi and will certainly be once both their contracts have played out, barring serious injury.

Tampa Bay in the off-season did exactly what we did under Neil Smith. Smith saw that Edmonton were letting go of a lot of their squad so he jumped on that and brought several core players to the team who already had experience playing together. We dealt Nicholls for Messier and added Graves, Beukeboom, Tikkanen, Anderson, and Lowe. The 93-94 cup team was in essence a transplanted Oilers squad.

The Lightning are trying a similar thing. Callahan, Stralman, and Boyle each offer quality in different areas and by having already played with each other, they lace the TB squad with stability in key positions. Callahan I think was overrated with us to a degree, but Stralman and Boyle never got the respect they deserved here. It's sad that Yzerman caught on before Rangers management on how valuable these guys are as players.

I'm curious how many more players will go to TB from us in the near future aside from the draft picks.

 

[ReggieDunlop68]

Tampa Bay in the off-season did exactly what we did under Neil Smith. Smith saw that Edmonton were letting go of a lot of their squad so he jumped on that and brought several core players to the team who already had experience playing together. We dealt Nicholls for Messier and added Graves, Beukeboom, Tikkanen, Anderson, and Lowe. The 93-94 cup team was in essence a transplanted Oilers squad.

The Lightning are trying a similar thing. Callahan, Stralman, and Boyle each offer quality in different areas and by having already played with each other, they lace the TB squad with stability in key positions. Callahan I think was overrated with us to a degree, but Stralman and Boyle never got the respect they deserved here. It's sad that Yzerman caught on before Rangers management on how valuable these guys are as players.

I'm curious how many more players will go to TB from us in the near future aside from the draft picks.

If the Oilers were a team that most likely only made the finals due to the emotion gained from a trade dead line added player's mother passing, and still lost in the finals, your analogy would fit like a glove.

I know everyone wants to pinpoint one exact reason, but although Stralman was an underrated player, I don't think we are floundering because of him, and if we were, it doesn't speak very well of this team.

 

[Cassano]

Losing an elite 5v5 and 4v5 defenseman and replacing him with an aging PPQB that is best fit for 3rd pairing duty 5v5 would hinder pretty much every team's ability to contend.

McDonagh and Strålman were the linchpins of the Rangers defense and we're currently without both of them.

Even with McDonagh back our defense is terrible, somewhere around 22nd-25th in the league, and with McD out we are probably closer to the 27th-29th range.

It's a shame we're wasting a ~top-5 forward corps (if AV would remove Glass from the lineup) and a top-5 goalie with this travesty of a defensive corps.

Yeah this defense isn't a fit for AV. Staal Klein and Girardi would perform way better with Torts.

Fire Sather/Gorton.

 

[AHB*]

If the Oilers were a team that most likely only made the finals due to the emotion gained from a trade dead line added player's mother passing, and still lost in the finals, your analogy would fit like a glove.

I know everyone wants to pinpoint one exact reason, but although Stralman was an underrated player, I don't think we are floundering because of him, and if we were, it doesn't speak very well of this team.

I think it's a little unfair to relate that entire run to Marty's mother passing away. The Rangers were one of the best teams after they got their game together come the second half of the season. They are a team that has played in the ECF 2 of the past 3 years. They are a good team, no matter how you want to slice it.

Stralman wasn't the sole reason we made the finals by any stretch, but in the playoffs, he was easily our 2nd most important defender and arguably our 3rd most important player behind Hank and McD. He was absolutely fantastic in the playoffs, even more so than he was in the regular season.

Continuity is a very important thing in professional sports. The Rangers never seem to comprehend that, while other, successful franchises and GM's do. Yzerman seems to understand that. He's done a great job with that team and instead of adding spare parts from other teams, he's added cogs from a successful team that all played together for years to the parts he's already built in Tampa.

Yzerman has done a wonderful thing, while the Rangers have continuously neglected the fact that keeping successful teams together is what created a consistent winner and winning culture.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

Amazing so many people love Boyle now when I had to see so much of the board endlessly rip the guy for most of his career on this team.