Injury Report: Ryan McDonagh (Practicing with Team, Full Contact)

[Glen Sathers Cigar]

McD has shown how much of a dumbass he is over the last few seasons. No need to block that ****ing shot and he blows his team's cup chance over something like that.

I feel like he's constantly making ill advised blocks. Poor choice of when and which shots to block, and poor execution.

Say what you will about Girardi, but one thing he's clearly amazing at is knowing how to block shots without getting injured. I'm not arguing the merits of blocking shots or not, but we're always seeing McD going down hard after blocking shots and Girardi is like wolverine with nothing hurting him.

Girardi we see a lot of one knee, compacting himself together and turning to expose the side of his body and leg.

With McD I feel like we see a lot of him reaching and exposing his limbs. He's had multiple blocks in the past where he blocked the shot with his hand and arm, it's just not smart.



The best hope now is that Marc Staal becomes Marc Staal 2012 and Keith Yandle plays well.

Tbh I feel like Staal has been coming around lately, I think he's looked good ever since the Anaheim game, so maybe this will be good for him.


Either way it's a massive blow. McD is the worst skater to lose, now in two straight playoff seasons.

 

[Player big P]

not sure how its dubinsky's fault that mcdonagh is an idiot and blocked a shot with his hand

Oh, because I don't like him. I said that.

 

[HockeyBasedNYC]

If it is a broken meta, get past the first round and hell be back for the second.

 

[romba]

This team needs to stop sliding over the ice to block low percentage shots. Let Lundqvist handle them.

Absolutely. Players should rarely leave both feet to block a shot anyway which they for the most part have stopped, but some habits from the Torts days die hard.

If we win without him it'll be on the shoulders of Hank and because the team D dramatically improved to compensate for the loss.

 

[Glen Sathers Cigar]

Thinking of hockey gods, they're really setting this one up on a silver platter for Washington, aren't they?

Look at all the Eastern conference injuries:

Pittsburgh: Malkin, MAF, Maata
Islanders: Halak, Hamonic, Grabovski (Berube?)
Rangers: McDonagh
Tampa: Stamkos, Stralman
Florida: Mitchell, Trocheck
Philly: Del Zotto, Neuvirth

I mean those are some ridiculous key players to all be injured going into the playoffs.

 

[NYRFAN218]

Thinking of hockey gods, they're really setting this one up on a silver platter for Washington, aren't they?

Look at all the Eastern conference injuries:

Pittsburgh: Malkin, MAF, Maata
Islanders: Halak, Hamonic, Grabovski (Berube?)
Rangers: McDonagh
Tampa: Stamkos, Stralman
Florida: Mitchell, Trocheck
Philly: Del Zotto, Neuvirth

I mean those are some ridiculous key players to all be injured going into the playoffs.

Which will make it even more hilarious when they find a way to blow it again.

 

[Oscar Lindberg]

Haha this sucks

 

[Son of Steinbrenner]

McD has shown how much of a dumbass he is over the last few seasons. No need to block that ****ing shot and he blows his team's cup chance over something like that.

Yes, the Rangers chances are blown because McD got hurt. Forget the other issues the team has had for the past 75 games. It's all McD's fault for reacting to a shot. As if he knew he would get hurt. As if he thought "how can I **** up my teams playoff chances?"

Something like this is an injury on a hockey play. This isn't a selfish move by a player that got him injured. It's not like he got drunk and slipped getting out of a cab or something. This happened and now the Rangers have to figure out how to replace his minutes. It really is THAT simple.

Unless of course you think McD is just an idiot, a careless person who just hurts the team for the **** of it. Do you think that?

This injury is devasting to the Rangers chances to advance beyond the 1st round. Why can't it be as simple as that? Why turn this into an indictment of a player who accidentally got injured? Are you that upset about the injury you can't actually see this for what it is? How sad....

 

[JT Kreider]

Which will make it even more hilarious when they find a way to blow it again.

I truly truly believe the Flyers can beat them.

 

[FLYLine27*]

Lol at posters who think Yandle will step up and could even hold McD's jock when it comes to the DEFENSIVE side of the game.

Yandle would be grossly exposed vs another teams top line for 25 minutes a game.

Staal would be the better man for that job, as he proved yesterday night.

 

[FLYLine27*]

McD has shown how much of a dumbass he is over the last few seasons. No need to block that ****ing shot and he blows his team's cup chance over something like that.

That type of play happens 10x a game without injury. Calling him a dumbass for it? Wow.

 

[eco's bones]

And yet, you completely disregard the fact that he has, throughout his career not be tried there. You are also making an assumption that DT didn't play him there because he was bad at it. My guess would be, since Yandle was basically playing an average of 24 minutes a night over the course of the season, he needed to give him some minutes to rest. Obviously there's no debate that his offensive skills are in the elite level for D-Men (unless you're really dense). Maybe DT just wanted to utilize his Ice time in those situations rather than "wasting" him on the PK.

And herein lies the problem with AV. He doesn't give Yandle 24 minutes a night. In his short time last year he averaged just under 20 and this year he is averaging 1 second over 20. If you're not going to give Yandle those 4 extra minutes in offensive situations than he should be trying him on the PK.

My argument isn't "should Yandle be used on the PK" my argument is, it's possible he's not as potentially awful as everyone thinks, since frankly, we don't know.

I beleive and the metrics back my eye test up, that this team is better when Yandle is given more minutes. Unfortunately our moronic coach only does that when McD is out of the lineup. I don't think Yandle is a better overall D-Man than McD, but I also don't think it's as far off as many beleive. Yandle rarely plays in his own zone and that in and of itself is a form of defense. McD may be better at structural facets of defense but he plays in his own zone far more and is not nearly as effective when moving the puck (this isn't to say he isn't good--I think he is fantastic). If McD was at the level he was 2 seasons ago, I wouldn't be discussing this, but he hasn't been able to consistently play at that level again.

Regardless, this isn't about McD or Yandle. Obviously this team is strongest when both are in the lineup and utilized properly. However, our coach hasn't come close to doing that ths year.

And don't get me started on Girardi. He is horrendous as this point. Whether we're talking ES or PK. Yandle could be awful on the PK and still be nearly as effective as Girardi. His one skill is shot blocking and clearly that hasn't helped what has amounted to the worst season for our Pk in over a decade.

Or maybe you're just looking under rocks to see if you can find gold. There are situations where the defense is short and what happens? The same under Tippett as Vigneault. They look down the bench--they don't even see Yandle. It's got nothing to do with his taking an average 24 minutes of ice time for what was usually a pretty mediocre Coyotes team. Even Tippett didn't see him on his PK--no matter how many D were in the box or if one of them were injured to boot.

Yandle is an offensive d-man. If he could provide defense at or about the level of his offense he would be a legitimate star----and he's not. He's a good player and a real asset when used in the right situations. Penalty killing is not his situation. He is not the player McDonagh is--and he's nowhere near the player that guys like Subban, Doughty, Keith (just to mention a few) are. Those guys all have offense and defense.

 

[aufheben]

We can win without him.

I admire your optimism.

 

[SA16]

I'm not to assume anything right now about that rumor.

We'll see in a few hours what the official prognosis is.

The official prognosis is almost certain to be that he is out with an "upper body injury" and is either "day to day" or "week to week" or some other phrase that gives no information.

 

[Raspewtin]

Lol at posters who think Yandle will step up and could even hold McD's jock when it comes to the DEFENSIVE side of the game.

Yandle would be grossly exposed vs another teams top line for 25 minutes a game.

Staal would be the better man for that job, as he proved yesterday night.

Yeah Staal looks great for like the 4th game of the season against one of the worst teams in the league and Yandle would be a lost puppy

 

[BarbaraAlphanse]

Be smart about this. If AV was genuine about wanting home ice, he deserves to be fired. Florida isn't as explosive as the Pens. Young. Inexperienced. Flawed. Weak division.

Lose the next 2 games and get to WC1. Wait the McDonagh injury out. You can beat Florida without McDonagh. It's much tougher to beat the hottest team in the NHL without a captain than a team just happy to get in.

4 weeks would put us right around the start of series 2.

 

[FLYLine27*]

The official prognosis is almost certain to be that he is out with an "upper body injury" and is either "day to day" or "week to week" or some other phrase that gives no information.

Yup.

Ranger's aren't going to tell us anything. Probably end just lying and saying its a bone bruise and he's day to day...and that will end up being week to week.

 

[FLYLine27*]

Yeah Staal looks great for like the 4th game of the season against one of the worst teams in the league and Yandle would be a lost puppy

Yup.

 

[nevesis]

I admire your optimism.

We can. This is a team. It's not like old christmas lights where if one goes out, the rest of them do. You take the bulb out and replace it with another. Skjei is very similar to McDonagh (just younger and less experienced)

We still have 95% of the team intact, we are fine.

At most he misses the first round, win four games without him and he should be ready to go for the second round.

 

[aufheben]

Wasn't Yandle used in McDonagh's spot last time he was injured?

 

[mrhockey193195]

In the face of adversity, some players rise to the occasion. Hoping Staal and Girardi get their heads out of their ***** and pick up some slack. If they do, there's no reason we can't beat a PIT team that's missing Malkin/MAF/Maata, even though they're extremely hot right now.

 

[Irishguy42]

Wasn't Yandle used in McDonagh's spot last time he was injured?

Yes. With great success.

 

[BarbaraAlphanse]

We can. This is a team. It's not like old christmas lights where if one goes out, the rest of them do. You take the bulb out and replace it with another. Skjei is very similar to McDonagh (just younger and less experienced)

We still have 95% of the team intact, we are fine.

At most he misses the first round, win four games without him and he should be ready to go for the second round.

Right there with you.

Nev and I = the Rock and Samuel L right before they jump off the roof in the other guys.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Yup, aim for the bushes"
*fist bump*

 

[Raspewtin]

Wasn't Yandle used in McDonagh's spot last time he was injured?

yeah and he was our best player lmao

but it's ok Staal's corpse will lead us to victory!

 

[Edge]

(Sigh} Perfect.

Personally, I've never been a huge fan of blocking shots --- that's what a goalie is for. Especially an elite goalie.