Speculation: Roster Building Thread LXXXI - All along the Watch Tower

[TominNC]

First off it's already been over 3 years and the timeline got vastly accelelrated by getting extremely lucky to get a 1 ovr, 2 ovr, and signing a MVP candidate. Secondly I can assure you I am more patient than most. I just cannot stand the attitude "Well nothing matters because we're not competing anyway so if we play Bitetto on the PP and if we play Staal (last year) and if we play Jack Johnson it's fine because we're not trying to win anyway" If you never try to win then it's just a self fulfilling prophecy and you never will. The team is trying to win. They have had a lot of things take place that should make it possible. The division is barely tougher than it would have been and a shorter season makes them more likely to make the playoffs than a longer season. If anyone has that attitude then I honestly don't understand why they are even here or even watching.

I watch because I like the Rangers and I'm interested to watch Shesterkin and Laf and Kakko and Chytil and Fox and Miller and the new guys that are coming and most of the vets. I don't get frustrated and bitch on a message board because lucky or not with draft picks the young players
still need experience and the dead cap space needs to clear so they can fill holes.

 

[RGY]

Zegras had 4:37 PP TOI. That was tied for 2nd on the team (with 2 other teammates) and accounted for a 3rd of his overall minutes. There was a lot of special teams play in the game due to penalties so it was a weird game from a flow standpoint. ANA had 5 PPs and ARI had 4 PPs. Zegras wasnt killing penalties. Bottom line is Eakins didnt hesitate to put Zegras out there throughout the 1st period with all the PPs they were getting. He was giving him his looks. Why cant our coach do that? What is the excuse here? Who is blocking Lafreniere? Ryan f***ing Strome? Blackwell? I mean cmon already.

 

[Tob]

As Diane Feinstein would say, David Quinn is too dogmatic. You gotta get out of your own way and just give some of these young guys the opportunity. Andersson stapled to the 4th line with 6-7 minutes a game until his demise. Vitali never got much of a look. Fil still hasn't been given consistent PP time or time with bread despite his only competition being Strome and this year, a deflated Mika. LFNR can't get many minutes either. Kakko's agent and management had to have a sit down to be promised more ice time and a bigger role to keep the player happy cus gorton and JD knows they cannot afford another disgruntled top prospect after Lias and Vitali bailed and almost bailed. Look how well Kakko has responded to being more ice time and more of a role instead of being punished by whatever college learning process Quinn has these guys on. Plus Quinn wouldn't even give the heir apparent the starting role and insisted on his ridiculous rotation scheme at the start of the season before backtracking. I bet Shesty's camp wasn't down with that.

 

[Mandar]

Just finished playing NHL 21. I have 231 goals and 131 assists in 66 games.

I expect each of my Ranger takes to now be treated as completely spot on. Don't be intimidated.

Yeah, but were you on PP1 or PP2?

 

[Daves a mess]

you should put it on pro

It is! I think. Whats the one above rookie?

 

[Daves a mess]

Watching the Wings/ Preds. Namestikov takes a lazy penalty. Preds on the PP take a shot from above the circles, and Marc Staal with a beautiful tip into his own net.
Best part to me was the head down, skate off the near post and behind the net skate of shame.
Oh the memories.

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

I wish he was. More like Mario hossa a garbage man in the Czech Republic

You mean Slovakia?

 

[jay from jersey]

You mean Slovakia?

Yea hossa Slovak Balej was Czech i believe

 

[UnSandvich]

So, for all of our talking about how...less than ideal our goaltending has been, between Georgiev running red hot/ice cold and Shesterkin's slow start, at least we're not the Canucks.

Demko: 4-7-1, 3.31 GAA, .901 sv%
Holtby: 4-5-1, 3.51 GAA, .893 sv%

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

Yea hossa Slovak Balej was Czech i believe

Also Slovak

 

[bobbop]

The cold hard truth is 4-5 missing players on an already thin roster really amplifies how far this organization still has to travel.

 

[Kovalev27]

The cold hard truth is 4-5 missing players on an already thin roster really amplifies how far this organization still has to travel.

And yet the first overall pick can’t get pp1 time

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

And yet the first overall pick can’t get pp1 time

You have 2 options as a coach. You can put your top prospects in a position to succeed, or you can do what Quinn does.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

So, for all of our talking about how...less than ideal our goaltending has been, between Georgiev running red hot/ice cold and Shesterkin's slow start, at least we're not the Canucks.

Demko: 4-7-1, 3.31 GAA, .901 sv%
Holtby: 4-5-1, 3.51 GAA, .893 sv%

What happened to Holtby?

 

[jay from jersey]

So, for all of our talking about how...less than ideal our goaltending has been, between Georgiev running red hot/ice cold and Shesterkin's slow start, at least we're not the Canucks.

Demko: 4-7-1, 3.31 GAA, .901 sv%
Holtby: 4-5-1, 3.51 GAA, .893 sv%

And a lot of them are seeing the real JT Miller. He’s showing up on the scoresheet but is playing with no drive and doing boneheaded things. Sound familiar?

 

[duhmetreE]

40 games left. 6pts out with 2 games in hand.

There most likely will be crazy swings through out the year. Any team that gets hot, can catapult.

It may make for an intense end of to the season.

This would be a great time for Zibs and Kreider to show up...

 

[Shesterkybomb]

Hopefully Mika is over whatever is bothering him, it would be nice for him to set the pace for Lafrieniere.

 

[Machinehead]

It's amazing that Balej only played 13 games for the Rangers because I like, distinctly remember him.

He must have been that bad.

 

[gravey9]

You have 2 options as a coach. You can put your top prospects in a position to succeed, or you can do what Quinn does.

The simplest way to understand how David Quinn treats rookies is to understand how most college coaches deal with freshman. (excluding Tony Granato of course). Shelters them, demands they play with structure and makes them bear down on their play away from the puck. Sorta ignores the offensive side completely. This is David Quinn's philosophy with young forwards in a nutshell. To a fault, he ignores their offensive output.

Mind you, i'm not saying this is a good or bad philosophy. Just pointing out what the philosophy is.

 

[Alluckks]

Rookie seasons:

Alexis Lafreniere: 16 games, 2 goals, 2 points - averages 14:30 mins a night

Andrei Svechnikov: 17 games, 4 goals, 6 points - averaged around 13 mins a night (ended the year with 0 goals, 7 assists on the PP in 82 games)

Aleksander Barkov: 17 games 3 goals, 7 points - averaged around 17 mins a night (ended the year with 3 goals, 3 assists on the PP in 54 games)

I remembered those two having slow starts off the top of my head because they looked like NHL players out there rookie years but didn't tear it up like Matthews or something

Regardless of the coaching arguments that are going nowhere, just wanted to put this out there; chill out some of you (not all of you, I get being like "ehhhh I'd prefer to just be seeing more")

 

[Alluckks]

The simplest way to understand how David Quinn treats rookies is to understand how most college coaches deal with freshman. (excluding Tony Granato of course). Shelters them, demands they play with structure and makes them bear down on their play away from the puck. Sorta ignores the offensive side completely. This is David Quinn's philosophy with young forwards in a nutshell. To a fault, he ignores their offensive output.

Mind you, i'm not saying this is a good or bad philosophy. Just pointing out what the philosophy is.

Also bear in mind that the Rangers front office decided on him knowing full well exactly how he planned to coach and they are evidently more than okay with it; for whatever that is worth.

 

[Reway10]

Yea hossa Slovak Balej was Czech i believe

Balej is also Slovak, although he's got czech spouse and they live in Brno.

 

[BBKers]

I have a very good friend living in Riga. He is extremely well connected. After my recent request, he checked into the environment of the bar of the Radisson Hotel, where the physical assult of the then 18 year old girl allegedly took place. And that statements circulate of such a high penalty fee of 40.000 € was paid out to someone (believe me, they would know this stuff... even this long afterwards). This guy would surely find out if there was anything there... He found... NOTHING. Nobody there had ever heard of this so called incident. I therefore doubt there is anything to this, but life has otoh taught me to never say never.

 

[jay from jersey]

I have a very good friend living in Riga. He is extremely well connected. After my recent request, he checked into the environment of the bar of the Radisson Hotel, where the physical assult of the then 18 year old girl allegedly took place. And that statements circulate of such a high penalty fee of 40.000 € was paid out to someone (believe me, they would know this stuff... even this long afterwards). This guy would surely find out if there was anything there... He found... NOTHING. Nobody there had ever heard of this so called incident. I therefore doubt there is anything to this, but life has otoh taught me to never say never.

That’s why the leave is so puzzling to me. If it was a woman that came forward with a accusation or some credible source I could see it, but not so a-hole who has an axe to grind with Panarin whose obviously gone out of his way in the past to say things about him. Panarin got lawyers and pr guys as do the rangers. You would think he would want to just go about his life as normal as possible. By interrupting his life, nazarov is getting what he wants

 

[Gordon Bombay]

Hagelin's premier skill was his speed.... Powerplay's are all about small movements in the offensive zone and quick passes for shots.

Hagelin had stone hands and his vision was terrible. He had a decent defensive stick and supreme wheels... neither of which matter on a PP.

I believe the word for all of this is jitterbug.