Post-Game Talk: rongos @ Flyers

[HatTrick Swayze]

Initial data has as a surprisingly good game 5v5, even defensively (well, relative to how it looked). 77th percentile xGF (4th best performance of the year), 54th percentile xGA (8th best performance of the year).

Stars:
1. Kreider
2. Shesty
3, Fox
4, Zibanejad (graded on a curve)

Nice to type those 4 names.

View media item 8495

 

[CasusBelli]

Big brain move by DQ putting Lemmy out there in the final minute. I'm sure it'll pay off one of these days.

On a long enough timeline, all possibilities occur.

 

[2014nyr]

fox was unbelievable...his iq everywhere on the ice is special, as is his ability to handle crazy icetime

laf played one of his better games. i'm sure its largely confidence/nerves but one thing i keep expecting to take off is the ability to snap the puck off his stick to a spot. he got a few chances tonight and still rushes shots. the other thing is he's a very different player w/ say rooney and lemieux and then the top line. with the former he's so much more decisive - with the top line you can see him playing slower, thinking. he usually goes to the net but isn't overly physical there. its all part of the process though. he was better tonight and more involved, but still felt the glimpses on the other line were the player i'd like to see on the top line.

overall the forwards were good tonight. the d grinded out an ugly one. i know smith was a bit all over, but he was awesome. he may have gone overboard a bit, but i thought there was a period of the 3rd where over a couple mins he really charged up the bench. a few other guys got more involved.

mika looked like last season for the first time all year. igor was really good, coulda had the hayes goal. hajek on the whole played well...some blunders, but overall impressing.

brett howden with a free lane cutting across the slot...misses by 40 feet. he intended to hit the net - time to move on. hands like feet.

great effort from this group, really hope people start returning. so unlucky in every sense this year...scoring chances, refs, conference, almost every injury/lost time being for bigger pieces, esp kakko and chytil being young guys looking poised for a big step. would be nice to get some good news one of these days

 

[CasusBelli]

Probably didn't help that Buchnevich spent the whole night flinging backhand passes to nobody and taking bets on where they would land

Being a bookie pays.

 

[Cmox]

R Lindgren 14:45 minutes of ice time
Hajek 16
Bitteto 18

Crazy but not even undeserved, Lindgren sucked tonight. I don't think he got hurt or anything either, he just got benched.

Maybe he should’ve kept the beard?

 

[CasusBelli]

He won't work on that line. No one can retrieve the puck albeit Mika looked much better in that department. Honestly I don't know what line Lafreniere will work with anymore lol

Same. He’s supposed to be a playmaker. I would say a Kreider type of player — so maybe Goat? A destitute Kreider?

 

[Rich Nixon]

"rongos" is timeless hf. I still call them that in my head.

 

[CasusBelli]

R Lindgren 14:45 minutes of ice time
Hajek 16
Bitteto 18

Crazy but not even undeserved, Lindgren sucked tonight. I don't think he got hurt or anything either, he just got benched.

At one point I saw him playing the RW role in the OZ.

 

[CDiablo]

I'm more casual than most here but to me it seems like if the Rangers could consistently shoot like pro hockey players this is a completely different game(and season.) They blew at least one empty net gimmie shot(Blackwell.) It feels they miss an empty net at least once a game. They create plenty of good offensive chances but then it's usually a missed shot or muffin to the crest.

 

[The New Russian Five]

I don't think I've ever seen a 7man TMM. Good job Quinny

On a major positive.

Our 1-3-1 PP looked electric. Even though we choked on finishing... Imagine if we had a LHS, say someone like Laf, in Blackwells spot? Could have had another goal or two.

Kreider with his vintage dominating game

Shesty kept the game close. We should have given up double digits.

Wasn't the 1-3-1 what we played last year when our PP was one of the best in the league and then inexplicably dropped it this year?

 

[jay from jersey]

I honestly took enough positives out of this game to not care about the loss.
1. Mika looks much better
2. Kreider played like he should
3. Shesterkin kept us in the game.

That first period becomes a runaway if shesty doesn’t keep us in it. I hope he didn’t hurt his leg. He kept it close enough to keep hope alive for the rest of the team. They need to start games with more fire/ hunger period.

 

[CasusBelli]

Just noticed: thanks for the John Jackson nod. I was wondering if it would catch on.

 

[duhmetreE]

Wasn't the 1-3-1 what we played last year when our PP was one of the best in the league and then inexplicably dropped it this year?

for the most part. We were definitely tighter and had Zibs and Panarin shooting from the left dot. I have no clue why they changed it.

 

[Baby Punisher]

Well I guess ~25% into the season was as good a time as any for Mika and Kreids to show up

That's usually the time Kreider wakes up.

 

[mas0764]

Lafreniere tailed off for a little while but tonight he was back to "well, he had moments" which is good.

And we know the rest of the story.

... but does he look like he belongs???

 

[Jayan]

Sad that the Nolan Ryan winstreak came to an end.. i was just about to order the jersey.

 

[JHS]

The absolutely awful penalties need to stop. Like seriously stop— this has plagued this team all season. Gautier high sticks a guy in the offensive zone which crushed any momentum, twice pucks are fired over the glass in the defensive zone and careless stick fouls yesterday destroyed this team. Not even including the absolutely mindless too many men on the ice penalties that the Rangers had( the last one honestly looked like they just threw a 7th skater onto the ice just to see if they would be caught, and the first one they actually had 6 skaters involved in the play which seriously is stuff that most Bantam teams have figured out how not to have happen.) Absolutely 0 discipline. And I don’t want to hear anymore about how Quinn holds guys accountable. That’s simply not true- no one got benched for this parade to the penalty box. It’s absolutely unbelievable to me that any of the fan base still believes this guy legitimately hold players accountable for anything. Gauthier should have rode the pine for that penalty but not under “Mr Accountability” David Quinn.

Last nights game was destroyed by the bottom 6 forwards who all but Phil D and Rooney and maybe Howden belong no where near an NHL ice surface( maybe Lemieux). Seriously, all these guys have to do is go out there and not hurt the team, don’t turn the puck over, don’t take terrible penalties, keep the game simple etc... and somehow they are still incapable of doing even that!

Mica and Kreider clearly looked better. Fox is a gem and Igor, aside from the one soft one, stood on his head and kept it close. Truth is though, this team is a LONG way from where it needs to be and, in my mind, has taken significant steps backwards from last season- minus and improvement on the penalty kill and shots allowed per game. The shots allowed per game is not much to write home about since the absurdly high amount they often gave up last season.

 

[JHS]

Sorry- double posted by accident

 

[Flyer lurker]

I chuckled after the too many men

It’s only a matter of time with this squad

Someone explain to me why Quinn still has a job? I get the d that was on the ice last night does not remotely resemble the d you were hoping to have on the ice. But 8 penalties including 2 too many men on the ice and 2 delay of game penalties should not be happening at this point in the season.

 

[FUZfan]

I wish this team would shoot the puck more, especially on odd man rushes, instead of trying to make cross ice or drop passes. Especially when you're playing a goalie who's leaving juicy rebounds all over the place.

Smith was terrible and tremendous in this game.

Brodzinski was a train wreck.

Like others have said, I was happy that they fought hard and almost came away with points as depleted as their line up was in this game.

 

[The S5]

The hate will be far worse because of his contract. 8 goals in 17 games won't matter, just that he's making 6 mil per.

That throne is reserved for Trouba. Kreider is protected from contract criticism because of that $8M abomination.

 

[Larrybiv]

Ryan Strome Analytics Darling is my favorite lowkey subplot this year

Anyone can hate on Stromer all they want, but man is he playing inspired hockey. Still makes bonehead plays and misses sure fire goals, but he has been backing up his interviews lately, and trying to be a leader on this team.

 

[Raspewtin]

i'm a broken record but it's so, so hard to win games when you have the bottom 4 D we have right now.

Smith can be brilliant and simply awful at the same time. No in between

JMFJ needs absolutely no explanation

Bitetto sucks. Sucks bad. Terrible skater, terrible puck mover, bad positioning.

Hajek has his moments defensively but he's useless with the puck and is prone to huge gaps.

This D in a starting line-up is an automatic L every game as far as i'm concerned.

 

[ZiGOODejad]

Someone explain to me why Quinn still has a job? I get the d that was on the ice last night does not remotely resemble the d you were hoping to have on the ice. But 8 penalties including 2 too many men on the ice and 2 delay of game penalties should not be happening at this point in the season.

The too many men penalties seem to be happening to us more frequently. Guy doesn’t know how to prepare his team. They never come ready to play and it shows.

 

[Larrybiv]

Someone explain to me why Quinn still has a job? I get the d that was on the ice last night does not remotely resemble the d you were hoping to have on the ice. But 8 penalties including 2 too many men on the ice and 2 delay of game penalties should not be happening at this point in the season.

Agree that at this point in the season 2 many men should never happen, but I don't see how delay-of-game penalties make a difference on what time of the year it happens. It's a random play at a random time by a panicked player trying to get rid of it. When it happens & the Time of the Season is irrelevant.