Post-Game Talk: Rangers @ Wild - December 17

[Trxjw]

Ugly game. Minnesota dismantled us like they'd done it a million times, and they completely shut down our one dimensional offense. The biggest problem is the number of players who are playing well below their abilities, and the players who have fallen back to earth. Stalberg was good for a few games to start the year, now he's back to being useless. Lindberg has quieted down. Hayes and Fast are having sophomore slumps. Kreider looks like he's completely lost. Zucc and Brassard can't make anything happen. Hank is slumping badly. Hell, Glass was the best player on the ice last night.

Unfortunately, the reality of the situation is there isn't really a shakeup to be made. Too few tradable assets and little cap space. I smell a shakeup this summer if they can't get it together. At least our 1st rounder is protected this year.

 

[Bleed Ranger Blue]

Ugly game. Minnesota dismantled us like they'd done it a million times, and they completely shut down our one dimensional offense. The biggest problem is the number of players who are playing well below their abilities, and the players who have fallen back to earth. Stalberg was good for a few games to start the year, now he's back to being useless. Lindberg has quieted down. Hayes and Fast are having sophomore slumps. Kreider looks like he's completely lost. Zucc and Brassard can't make anything happen. Hank is slumping badly. Hell, Glass was the best player on the ice last night.

Unfortunately, the reality of the situation is there isn't really a shakeup to be made. Too few tradable assets and little cap space. I smell a shakeup this summer if they can't get it together. At least our 1st rounder is protected this year.

One dimensional offense is a critical point. Can this team compete if they're not scoring with speed/rushes? The play below the hash marks is virtually non existent.

 

[Off Sides]

The Wild played well and have a good roster

Rangers played somewhat poorly and have roster issues.

There was a ton of trying to pass pucks through Wild players. They and other teams read that pretty easily at this point.

Shut down the Rangers transition, rush offense and they struggle. Management needs to figure out what type of team they want. Given that they have Stepan, Brassard, Nash, Zucc, Kreider as their primary forwards, get some players that either complement that or contrast them. In my opinion they do not have enough players with motors, they lost that partially with Callahan and Hagelin and only Zucc and to a much much lesser degree Glass, Moore have any. Problem is those guys usually are not very big, and the Rangers bigger forwards, Nash, Hayes don't play that way in terms of getting the puck back, so they'd likely need both, motors and bigger puck retrievers to play any different style.

The are no longer the quickest team to the puck and they don't have the guys to get it back without getting there first.

 

[Mac n Gs]

The Wild played well and have a good roster

Rangers played somewhat poorly and have roster issues.

There was a ton of trying to pass pucks through Wild players. They and other teams read that pretty easily at this point.

Shut down the Rangers transition, rush offense and they struggle. Management needs to figure out what type of team they want. Given that they have Stepan, Brassard, Nash, Zucc, Kreider as their primary forwards, get some players that either complement that or contrast them. In my opinion they do not have enough players with motors, they lost that partially with Callahan and Hagelin and only Zucc and to a much much lesser degree Glass, Moore have any. Problem is those guys usually are not very big, and the Rangers bigger forwards, Nash, Hayes don't play that way in terms of getting the puck back, so they'd likely need both, motors and bigger puck retrievers to play any different style.

The are no longer the quickest team to the puck and they don't have the guys to get it back without getting there first.

This is where the coaching staff needs to make adjustments. We tried forcing an east-west game throughout the neutral zone all night. Even entering the zone off the rush, we kept trying to play pond hockey and set up tic-tac-toe passes, but Minnesota maintained structure throughout the center of the ice and negated everything we threw at them.

They should just try to play how they played in the first period against the Islanders. Get pucks on net, try to wreak havoc down low. We overpass way too much.

 

[eco's bones]

The Rangers are missing two right D and their second line center. They're playing their best d-man out of position. So when a good team makes them look really bad all kinds of suppositions floating out in cyberspace are taken as proven.

I don't think some people here understand the impact to the team of taking Stepan out of the lineup--who not only makes our second line a lot stronger but plays in every situation and not so much because of an athletic gift but because he thinks the game maybe better than any other forward we have. Without Derek---1. Kreider is a lost human being 2. Hayes, Lindberg, Fast, Moore and Stalberg are thrown into different roles with some really mixed results. Without Stepan the impact is felt throughout the forward lines.

I really don't like Ryan McDonagh on the right side. As last night once again shows--on the right side he's an injury waiting to happen. He's our best defenseman. He plays the most minutes---he plays all situations--he's very good defensively--he's put up almost as much offense as Yandle who doesn't defend nearly as well. He's the one guy who shouldn't be moved out of his natural position.

The reason he's there are the injuries to Giradi and Klein. Hopefully both are back soon.

 

[Off Sides]

This is where the coaching staff needs to make adjustments. We tried forcing an east-west game throughout the neutral zone all night. Even entering the zone off the rush, we kept trying to play pond hockey and set up tic-tac-toe passes, but Minnesota maintained structure throughout the center of the ice and negated everything we threw at them.

They should just try to play how they played in the first period against the Islanders. Get pucks on net, try to wreak havoc down low. We overpass way too much.

I think though even when they play put the puck on net, if the goalie is good, it leads to them still not being able to get 2nd and 3rd chances because they do not have guys going to the boards after the initial shot who are going to win the battle retrieve the puck and be able to put it back at the net again often enough for it to not just turn into one shot and a somewhat easy out of the zone for the other team. They don't have too many guys who are going to also battle in front of the net for deflections, rebounds.

To me the defense has their own issues on their side of the corsi, but the forwards have theirs too. To this point the forwards were able to cover up their deficiencies by scoring off the rush because mostly the other team is not going to be as good as the Wild are at shutting that down, and the Rangers can play better and have, and they have had good shooting percentages here and there but against some of the better defensive teams even in the playoffs recently we usually saw the Rangers squeak out some games by playing solid D and scoring off their limited opportunities, not so much by scoring more goals than they have needed.

 

[DanielBrassard]

While I don't disagree that the Rangers are a team that relies on the rush too much, the problem is that they do dump the puck in a lot, but they don't have the people to thrive in that type of game. So they are a rush-based offense that dumps the puck instead of carrying with control. It's a team that is out of sorts.

 

[Trxjw]

One dimensional offense is a critical point. Can this team compete if they're not scoring with speed/rushes? The play below the hash marks is virtually non existent.

I think between last season and this one they've shown that's a major problem and that they can't really compete in slug fest. I don't think it's necessarily a lack of grinding forwards, but more of a result of being exhausted physically and mentally. They've played so much hockey over the last few seasons and haven't won it all. They look beaten down. There's no energy on the bench, particularly amongst the veterans. The lack of preparation for games is alarming as well.

 

[Leetch66]

Disappointment, as is Hayes, Miller and Fast

Yup...the shine has worn somewhat on them . Maybe we all were/are just expecting the moon from them ...especially the 3 you posted above as most of that trio have just a year of games in so far and barely wet behind the ears . Miller I think has improved a wee bit..but still risky guy with the puck in our end & Kreider is simply another story...just plain regressed . Somebody had said he got married in the off season....is that it ??? It is frustrating for sure .

 

[Gardner McKay]

I have done an absurd amount of traveling for business over the last 2 years (dating back to the end of 2013. For the first time in those two years I am not sad that I am missing this many games.

I don't know what it is about this team. I don't believe they are as bad as they are playing but it is obvious some changes need to be made. I don't believe a coaching change will do much though. I am kind of at a loss...

 

[TheDirtyH]

So Stepan coming back will help kreiders play? I wouldn't count on it. It's much more important that he has somebody on the other wing who can do something on offense.

 

[Leetch66]

The Rangers are missing two right D and their second line center. They're playing their best d-man out of position. So when a good team makes them look really bad all kinds of suppositions floating out in cyberspace are taken as proven.

I don't think some people here understand the impact to the team of taking Stepan out of the lineup--who not only makes our second line a lot stronger but plays in every situation and not so much because of an athletic gift but because he thinks the game maybe better than any other forward we have. Without Derek---1. Kreider is a lost human being 2. Hayes, Lindberg, Fast, Moore and Stalberg are thrown into different roles with some really mixed results. Without Stepan the impact is felt throughout the forward lines.

I really don't like Ryan McDonagh on the right side. As last night once again shows--on the right side he's an injury waiting to happen. He's our best defenseman. He plays the most minutes---he plays all situations--he's very good defensively--he's put up almost as much offense as Yandle who doesn't defend nearly as well. He's the one guy who shouldn't be moved out of his natural position.

The reason he's there are the injuries to Giradi and Klein. Hopefully both are back soon.

That is why they will just move a guy in and out of the lineup for the next couple of weeks or so and wait for injured guys to return and we play a few games and see just exactly who we are and where we are at that point . If we still look bad...they will have some huge decisions to make moving forward...and yes even though I advocate for trading Kreider I have been around long enough to know that the best trades are sometimes the ones that did not get made . Him alone will not return anybody that helps us long term .

Myself...after having my belly full and feeling much more rational LOL...I could handle just making the playoffs and going as far as we can while breaking in BS and DM on the blueline and without losing any younger guys again at the trade deadline and retool for the next 3-4 seasons via some solid drafting and a couple of minor signings/tweaks for some added leadership which the team lacks . I don't think a big turnover of roster players mid season will matter the way this season is shaping up .

We have played an extra season versus the rest of the NHL the last 4 or so years...maybe it has caught up for our club both on and off the ice . Hank should be good for 3 more years or so....even just a bit over average is all one needs anyways with the right club in front of him.

 

[Captain Lindy]

For what it's worth...I remember last season and the season before when they hit a funky spot, they always scheduled closed-door team meetings. I'm hoping when we get our injured guys back they do this again; then again, maybe they are just exhausted from all the playoff games the last few years. I hope that isn't the case though.

 

[Infinitum Vitae*]

For what it's worth...I remember last season and the season before when they hit a funky spot, they always scheduled closed-door team meetings. I'm hoping when we get our injured guys back they do this again; then again, maybe they are just exhausted from all the playoff games the last few years. I hope that isn't the case though.

Hawks sure look tired winning all those cups.

 

[TheDirtyH]

Hawks sure look tired winning all those cups.

Yeah all six who won them

 

[Holocene]

Hawks sure look tired winning all those cups.

Hawks have had major turnover after each of their cups. Maybe less so after 2013. LA sure looked tired as hell last year though.

 

[aufheben]

Hawks sure look tired winning all those cups.

Stupid Duncan Keith could stay on the ice for the whole game then go to the gym afterwards

 

[OverTheCap]

The one-dimensional offense has been a concern of mine since the Rangers were eliminated by the Kings. Each year, the team loses more players who can cycle, forecheck, and can win board battles. It seems like there was a conscious decision by the front office to become a team that is designed to score primarily off the rush while cycling/forechecking are de-emphasized. I know the foundation of AV's system is based on transition offense, but it's weird to ignore other fundamental aspects of the game.

 

[Captain Lindy]

Hawks sure look tired winning all those cups.

Well, they won, we didn't. Losing is more mentally tiring.

 

[Igor Shestyorkin]

I don't know if we need a 1C provided we have both Stepan and Brassard but we leave ourselves in a position where we're ****ed if one of them goes down.

Especially since Hayes has been struggling.

 

[aufheben]

Still 2nd in the division lirl

 

[cd211]

I think these past few weeks have proved how vital stepan is to our team. Having a key center out hurts all lines

 

[Loff]

I'm still chuckling over Staal getting beat at one point last night. It looked like his skates were stuck beneath the ice with the way his strides looked. It's sad to see how bad he has become and it's costing us chances and goals against every ****ing time.

 

[Gardner McKay]

I'm still chuckling over Staal getting beat at one point last night. It looked like his skates were stuck beneath the ice with the way his strides looked. It's sad to see how bad he has become and it's costing us chances and goals against every ****ing time.

Loooooofeen. Need moar GDT. I will put it up whenever you have it.

 

[aufheben]

Don't rush the man he's an artiste