News Article: Vigneault: Rangers aren’t done with ‘unfairly criticized’ Girardi

TheTakedown

Puck is Life
Jul 11, 2012
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1,480
Whole body probably means lingering issues from broken knee cap that is prohibiting Danny G from being the player he was last year + possible lingering issues from concussion in Boyle hit?

If that's the case, he could be out indefinitely. That knee cap issue... it definitely has played a part in what he was this year.

Don't forget the ankle surgery last offseason too
 

Jaromir Jagr

Registered User
Apr 4, 2015
5,226
4,453
Long Island, NY
A coach doesn't rip his own player in print and some here go crazy over it.

I think you're looking at this the wrong way. Fans are upset because these comments allude to AV wanting Girardi back in the lineup. At this point, should we have faith in AV to do the right thing? I know I don't. He played Girardi in game 1 and he was the main reason we lost. We played him all season and he was absolutely atrocious in almost every single game.

People see blocked shots and think "warrior." You're right, the guy is a warrior. NO one questions that. What I do question is a guy who is blocking so many shots because he's ALWAYS pinned in his own end. I question a guy who's main defensive play is just to flick the puck out of the zone at all costs and it often ends up on the stick of a guy on the opposing team. I question a guy who has shown no offensive ability. I question a guy who seems to be unable to play at the top speed this game requires today. We've been waiting for two years for Girardi to get back to the level he used to play at and it's just not there.

AV can say he's being unfairly criticized, but what I see is a coach being fairly criticized. It's not Girardi's fault he's being put in a position that is far above his current abilities, it's AV's.

McIlrath is a better player than Girardi. Skjei is miles better than him. Both players have significant upside and will continue to improve the more they play and the more comfortable they get. This is not only good for those players, it's good for us. We need these young, cheap, cost controlled assets to become big parts of our team.

A guy who is now on the wrong side of 30 almost never returns back to the form that made him a good player. It just doesn't happen. Even more so if we are talking about a player with the miles that Girardi has on him. Unfortunately, a very good Ranger is done, and we are seeing a sad end in front of our eyes.

People are pissed at AV because he doesn't seem to comprehend what's best for the team. He's proven time and time again that he sucks at adjusting and it very well may lead to an early exit this season if he reverts back to using Girardi again. I don't know about you, but I don't want to waste one of the few times in our history that we've had a team that can contend for the cup, and the best goalie in hockey who has very few elite years left on dressing players because they've been good Rangers.
 

TheTakedown

Puck is Life
Jul 11, 2012
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I think you're looking at this the wrong way. Fans are upset because these comments allude to AV wanting Girardi back in the lineup. At this point, should we have faith in AV to do the right thing? I know I don't. He played Girardi in game 1 and he was the main reason we lost. We played him all season and he was absolutely atrocious in almost every single game.

People see blocked shots and thing "warrior." You're right, the guy is a warrior. NO one questions that. What I do question is a guy who is blocking so many shots because he's ALWAYS playing in his own end. I question a guy who's main defensive play is just to flick it out of the zone at all costs and it often ends up on the stick of a guy on the opposing team. I question a guy who has shown no offensive ability. I question a guy who seems to be unable to play at the top speed this game requires today. We've been waiting for two years for Girardi to get back to the level he used to play at and it's just not there.

AV can say he's being unfairly criticized, but what I see is a coach being fairly criticized. It's not Girardi's fault he's being put in a position that is far above his current abilities, it's AV's.

McIlrath is clearly a better player than Girardi. Skjei is miles better than him. Both players have far more upside as well and will continue to improve the more they play and the more comfortable they get. This is not only good for those players, it's good for us. We need these young, cheap, cost controlled assets to become big parts of our team.

A guy who is now on the wrong side of 30 almost never returns back to the form that made him a good player. It just doesn't happen. Even more so if we are talking about a player with the miles that Girardi has on him. Unfortunately, a very good Ranger is done, and we are seeing a sad end in front of our eyes.

People are pissed at AV because he doesn't seem to comprehend what's best for the team. He's proven time and time again that he sucks at adjusting and it very well may lead to an early exit this season if he reverts back to using Girardi again. I don't know about you, but I don't want to waste one of the few times in our history that we've had a team that can contend for the cup, and the best goalie in hockey who has very few top years left on dressing players because they've been good Rangers.

Totally agree with the last part. The east is horrible this year. Healthy or not, Girardi right now is a bad player, and McIlrath or Skjei are better than him. That said, there's no reason to play Girardi, and AV should be given a "Times up!" From Gorton, and Girardi should be sat.

I don't care if it's covered up, and I'm not saying AV should toss him under the bus. Unfortunately, in the past, AV has defended Girardi (sometimes overtly) and followed it up with shoving him right back into the lineup, and we see the same result -- crappy play, bad positioning, no stick handling capabilities, the list goes on.

I love G and what he's done. I loved when he was kept and resigned because his level of play was still at a formidable level... Unfortunately, he isn't that anymore. That's where I direct my blame to AV for playing him like he could play when he was 28... He simply can't do it anymore...

I'll tell you what the best solution is here. A handful of games the rangers should dress 7D and 11F, Glass being the scratch, and Girardi being the extra defenseman. It would not only help the PK (Girardi's only actual strength that's usable on this team), but it would also rest other players for 5v5 time.
 

Glen Sathers Cigar

Sather 4 Ever
Feb 4, 2013
16,499
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New York
I'm not sure why everyone is so riled up about this. It's just AV publicly defending a veteran leader who is respected in the room. After AV announced Girardi was not playing it seemed like every newspaper, blog, sports site all had articles about it that read as obituaries to Dan Girardi. Obviously AV just wanted to defend Dan publicly.

And I'm not shocked by any of those quotes. The coach isn't going to toss a well respected guy like Girardi under the bus and he shouldn't. He's going to defend his players. I'll reserve my meltdowns and criticisms until he's back in the lineup playing 20+ minutes.

Bingo.
 

egelband

Registered User
Sep 6, 2008
15,852
14,386
The best thing about AV is that he constructs a team as the season begins and lives and dies by it.
Its also the worst thing about him. It works great some years. Hard to argue with success.
 

eco's bones

Registered User
Jul 21, 2005
25,986
12,221
Elmira NY
Again someone decided that AV was sitting Girardi and claiming he was injured just to put a good face on it and at the same not embarrass him in public. Then a lot of other people started believing that line of horse ****----when the most likely by far reason that AV scratched Girardi was he was actually injured or banged up enough that AV thought McIlrath was a much better option.

Whether this all started with a newspaper article or whatever--you shouldn't believe everything you read but I get it--lots of Rangers fans wanted to believe it because they were already biased enough to believe it.

Once again Girardi was rag dolled into the boards about two weeks ago. It was an extremely violent crash. He was down on the ice for a long time and went off wobbly and lots of people then thought he had to be concussed. Not sure about that--he'd have to pass through the concussion protocol to have played that first playoff game but even so that doesn't mean he's not hurt in some other way.

As to the poster thinking that Girardi will be blocking McIlrath's progression next year---I think most here are figuring Dan Boyle is not returning. McIlrath should be a regular in our lineup next year--at least I'd hope.
 

NYRKindms

Registered User
Dec 16, 2009
989
188
Aren't the majority of our issues mitigated by going with 7 d ?

I mean it seems so obvious. 7D everyone can get sheltered minutes. You just roll the hot hand from the top 6 in the open slot on the 4th line. Have Tanner sit as that 4th line has been underwhelming so far IMHO.

Nash, Krieder, E Staal, Fast can all role nicely as a 4th.
 

Raspewtin

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May 30, 2013
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none of the quotes particularly bother me, just the laughable notion that the criticism of Girardi is in any way "unfair". Especially when, outside of the fans with no real voice, who the hell has criticized Girardi?

And even then you literally couldn't expect a different quote
 

5 4 Fighting

Registered snoozer
Feb 13, 2013
7,368
54
Bk all day
All coaches will have their moments where they give a player too much ice time or too long a leash based on what they were in the past. I can't remember a case as dramatic as the 1,500 minutes AV gave to this version of Dan Girardi this season.


Start Watching How Poor Dan Cleary hears his name so much on the Red Wings even he doesn't understand why lol
 

Chimpradamus

Registered User
Feb 16, 2006
16,634
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Northern Sweden
What do you mean AV won't throw his veteran leaders under the bus? How many times hasn't he publicly thrown Lundqvist under the bus this season? "Lundqvist had a weak game." Yeah and you have had a terrible coaching year. There we can talk about the blame game considering how the team in front of the star goalie was playing and that's on the coach, playing a strategy his defensemen can't play.

So fine, AV will publicly defend Girardi, even when everybody and their mother can see he's a shell of the player he formerly was. That's one thing. But to continue to give him tons of ice time?

What a circus coach. It's like he's unhappy his team made the playoffs and wants to personally hit the golf course ASAP. How far NYR will go this playoff is despite their coach. That's not a good situation. How long will it be until this clown is fired?

Quick, NYR won a playoff game! Let's throw Staal and Girardi out there for 18 minutes a night to guarantee defeat.
 

Don Jaroodi*

Guest
big minutes and playoff experience now for McIlrath and Skjei will be invaluable down the road. There is ZERO upside for playing Girardi.

It's an absolute JOKE, and I stand by this, as I always have. If I'm the GM I do whatever it takes to get him off this team after we lost to Kings in SCF. He basically cost us that series, period. If you don't want to ignore facts, cool, but there is no way I would have had him on my team after that. He was exposed as the TERRIBLE defenseman that he is.
 

Miamipuck

Al Swearengen
Dec 29, 2009
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Take a Wild Guess
big minutes and playoff experience now for McIlrath and Skjei will be invaluable down the road. There is ZERO upside for playing Girardi.

It's an absolute JOKE, and I stand by this, as I always have. If I'm the GM I do whatever it takes to get him off this team after we lost to Kings in SCF. He basically cost us that series, period. If you don't want to ignore facts, cool, but there is no way I would have had him on my team after that. He was exposed as the TERRIBLE defenseman that he is.

If you were Gm you just gave him a huge contract 4 months prior.
 

Don Jaroodi*

Guest
If you were Gm you just gave him a huge contract 4 months prior.

yeah I would not have done that. We got lucky finding a bargain bin player with tons of heart who grinded it out for years but it was clear as day the carriage was gonna turn into a pumpkin at midnight due to severe breakdown and a GLARING lack of actual talent and physical ability. He can't skate.
 

Miamipuck

Al Swearengen
Dec 29, 2009
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Take a Wild Guess
yeah I would not have done that. We got lucky finding a bargain bin player with tons of heart who grinded it out for years but it was clear as day the carriage was gonna turn into a pumpkin at midnight due to severe breakdown and a GLARING lack of actual talent and physical ability. He can't skate.

hahah I was just busting your hump man.

Although if you had the wherewithal to give Stralman money over Girardi or Stall, that would have been great foresight.
 

Don Jaroodi*

Guest
hahah I was just busting your hump man.

Although if you had the wherewithal to give Stralman money over Girardi or Stall, that would have been great foresight.

I just don't ever want to see him, again!!! Any GM with eyes should be literally rebuilding on the fly in real-time with players currently at our disposal!!

COMMON FREAKING SENSE!!

sorry I really hate Gorton, AV. It's not Girardi's fault he's broken down and can't skate. He's a freaking warrior for this team; as tough as they come. His physical limitations are not his fault.

He just shouldn't be playing...
 

frankthefrowner

Registered User
Jan 13, 2007
1,685
0
We cant just throw Danny G away.. however we also can just play him 12min a night like any normal #6 Defensemen.
 

TheTakedown

Puck is Life
Jul 11, 2012
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We cant just throw Danny G away.. however we also can just play him 12min a night like any normal #6 Defensemen.

I think the thought process behind playing him 20 minutes was to give the illusion that he'll go out on top instead of demoting him, and embarrassing him by giving him half the minutes he used to get.

What they should have done was masked his decline behind the up and coming McIlrath. That not only would have made it looked like the Rangers were banking on a young talent, but AV could have also easily disguised it as Girardi being "rested" on his off games.

The pairings all year should have been:

McDonagh-Klein
Yandle-Girardi/McIlrath
Staal-Boyle
Girardi/McIlrath
Skjei
Diaz

ALL YEAR.
 

Ori

#Connor Bedard 2023 1st, Chicago Blackhawks
Nov 7, 2014
11,578
2,173
Norway
Girardi has been awful major of the season - I`m surprised that some sport journalists don`t see that when asking stupid questions after playoffs games..

Quote.
Do you miss the warrior Girardi? Hank was asked earlier by a journalist..
Quote end.

Hank was probably confused as us and he probably knew that AV benched him due to a horrible game one..
I am surprised that other fans don`t see the same as us here on the HF Board. Girardi has declined to the bench just like Brad Richards years ago concerning playoffs.
 

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