Post-Game Talk: #1 - 10/04/18 | predators @ RANGERS | 7:30 - MSG, NBCSN

[Webster]

Copied from the media. And I agree with him, I feel much better about this season after last night

"I thought we played really well, actually. We fought hard. We have a new young team, staying on level with Nashville for most of the game one of the cup favorites I'd say we did a good job, thumbs up to the boys"

"I ask for some patience. It's never fun to lose, but we must look at the big picture. It was acceptable tonight with a new coach and all these young players. We must bring all the positive stuff from this game over to the next one, we just have to keep playing like this and good results will come"

- Alternate Captain Mats Zuccarello

 

[True Blue]

Henke made this game closer, especially the way that he played the first period. Skej was the best defenseman by far. McQuaid had a solid game. The rest of the defensemen did absolutely nothing. Pionk was bad. Staal was worse. No reason not to see what ADA can do. And Shattenkirk......wow. But then it's only game 1.

Vesey, Fast & Howden were the top forwards. Namesnikov was an absolute zero. Did nothing to assuage my feelings that he needs elite players to make him look good and brings nothing from the 4th line. But again, only game 1. Spooner was marginally better.

Quinn, I am beginning to like more and more. Like the hands on approach form him and the straight line, north south game he is installing. The defense, while poor overall, did not run around the zone like chickens without their heads cut off. Most important was that despite playing ability, the effort seemed to have been there.

Only game 1. Plenty more to go. No need to get too crazy, either on names or outcome. As long as the effort is there. As others have said: Trust the process.

 

[silverfish]

I mean there are the obvious ones, which are that these are bad teams

DING DING DING!

Bad teams pick 3OA. Bad teams are bad because they are run poorly. Bad teams are run poorly because they are bad. Each draft tends to have a "consensus" top 1 or 2 picks. The 3rd overall pick is likely less obvious. Teams may lean on their own internal opinions too hard. But these are bad teams that are run poorly. So sometimes, you'll get a player who isn't that good, but ends up playing a lot of NHL games because he was picked 3OA.

An interesting item to take a look at is going to past drafts, and looking at the success of players taken early in the 2nd round. Where the player pool is less obvious, but the poorly run teams are picking there.

 

[Mac n Gs]

Pionk does have real issues defending the odd-man rush, and with his gap control in general. Let's remember he's young and only in his second professional season. We have our "developmental coach," who can hopefully iron out some of these issues. This is a season of learning for these younger players, so we all have to be prepared to live with these things. It's part of the rebuilding process everyone wanted. At the same time, Pionk can sling the puck around pretty well and seems to have good offensive awareness. I think he can be an offensive catalyst from the back end, in time. Let's let it all play out. We'll notice plenty of warts on other young players as the season progresses.

I’ll give him some slack because he got dealt a crappy hand a few times (Staal’s bad pinch in the NZ, Lettieri losing the puck and bad backcheck, etc.)

I think he fan work on it because he’s smart with positioning and showed last year he knew how to block pucks without totally giving up his body and ability to recover and skate the puck.

I wasn’t a fan of him as a PPQB. Dumping the puck wasted a solid 35 seconds of their shift.

 

[Tawnos]

DING DING DING!

Bad teams pick 3OA. Bad teams are bad because they are run poorly. Bad teams are run poorly because they are bad. Each draft tends to have a "consensus" top 1 or 2 picks. The 3rd overall pick is likely less obvious. Teams may lean on their own internal opinions too hard. But these are bad teams that are run poorly. So sometimes, you'll get a player who isn't that good, but ends up playing a lot of NHL games because he was picked 3OA.

An interesting item to take a look at is going to past drafts, and looking at the success of players taken early in the 2nd round. Where the player pool is less obvious, but the poorly run teams are picking there.

I think this is going to become less and less the case, that it's mostly the poorly run organizations drafting there, only because of the lottery chance at picking in the top-3 that now exists. So we really should get something of a control group.

It's an interesting thing to look at. I mean, just as a 10-year window to check it out 2001-2010, 3 of the 3OA were Florida, 1 was Phoenix, 1 was Carolina, 1 was Atlanta, 1 was Colorado. Poorly run organizations in the time period we're talking about. Of the other 3, two were Chicago and 1 was Tampa. The best player in the group was Toews. There's definitely a chicken-egg situation with this (is it poorly run or bad luck?), but overall I agree with you.

 

[silverfish]

I think this is going to become less and less the case, that it's mostly the poorly run organizations drafting there, only because of the lottery chance at picking in the top-3 that now exists. So we really should get something of a control group.

It's an interesting thing to look at. I mean, just as a 10-year window to check it out 2001-2010, 3 of the 3OA were Florida, 1 was Phoenix, 1 was Carolina, 1 was Atlanta, 1 was Colorado. Poorly run organizations in the time period we're talking about. Of the other 3, two were Chicago and 1 was Tampa. The best player in the group was Toews. There's definitely a chicken-egg situation with this (is it poorly run or bad luck?), but overall I agree with you.

You're not wrong. It's an extremely interesting phenomena. And you're also not wrong that the new lottery may even this out in the future. Really interested to see how Kotkaniemi does compared to a guy like Zadina, hilarious Habs vs Detroit, who kinda are run like shit now, too.

 

[Off Sides]

The Habs and Wings, two teams that have been trying to remain playoff relevant and have been struggling to do so is not what did or would have happened to the Rangers?

 

[Tawnos]

The Habs and Wings, two teams that have been trying to remain playoff relevant and have been struggling to do so is not what did or would have happened to the Rangers?

We held on for about a year and a half. The writing was starting to be on the wall after getting trounced by Pittsburgh in 2016.

 

[Ola]

Henke made this game closer, especially the way that he played the first period. Skej was the best defenseman by far. McQuaid had a solid game. The rest of the defensemen did absolutely nothing. Pionk was bad. Staal was worse. No reason not to see what ADA can do. And Shattenkirk......wow. But then it's only game 1.

Vesey, Fast & Howden were the top forwards. Namesnikov was an absolute zero. Did nothing to assuage my feelings that he needs elite players to make him look good and brings nothing from the 4th line. But again, only game 1. Spooner was marginally better.

Quinn, I am beginning to like more and more. Like the hands on approach form him and the straight line, north south game he is installing. The defense, while poor overall, did not run around the zone like chickens without their heads cut off. Most important was that despite playing ability, the effort seemed to have been there.

Only game 1. Plenty more to go. No need to get too crazy, either on names or outcome. As long as the effort is there. As others have said: Trust the process.

One of the, if not the, main purposes with this season is to play vets on the blueline to make them look good so that we can get rid of their contracts. We have like the oldest blueline we have had in what a decade?

In that context I liked what I saw from McQuaid but also Smith. I think Staal is a lost cause.

Shattenkirk concerned me. Maybe it’s something wrong with me, but I just feel that you have to have rose colored glasses on to see Shatty play and be convinced that he easily can take the wear and tear of playing on a worthless team for 2-3 more years and still be tradeable with a contract coming in just north of 7m.

Does anyone of Staal, McQuaid, Shatty or Smith scream ‘wow this guy is so good and we should keep him to build a future team around’? I am sorry but I just don’t see it. Gorton should unload these contracts as fast as he can. Like right here and now I think a strong argument could be made that both our kids in the stands would have been able to play and not make us worse.

 

[Ail]

Copied from the media. And I agree with him, I feel much better about this season after last night

"I thought we played really well, actually. We fought hard. We have a new young team, staying on level with Nashville for most of the game one of the cup favorites I'd say we did a good job, thumbs up to the boys"

"I ask for some patience. It's never fun to lose, but we must look at the big picture. It was acceptable tonight with a new coach and all these young players. We must bring all the positive stuff from this game over to the next one, we just have to keep playing like this and good results will come"

- Alternate Captain Mats Zuccarello

Hey been meaning to ask, can I get on the mailing list for the more personal Zucc updates? I'd really like to know when he takes a shit or makes his bed. PM updates are fine. Thanks!

 

[Vinny DeAngelo]

If every game goes like this. I’d call the year a success. As long as we play hard I’m happy. I know we don’t have the pieces to be a contender

 

[will1066]

Vinny was there.

And he was between his man and Hank. I don't know how that's not close enough.

 

[Off Sides]

We held on for about a year and a half. The writing was starting to be on the wall after getting trounced by Pittsburgh in 2016.

I agree, but what if they do end up with the 3OA, are they a badly managed team who ended up there by being badly managed, or are they a well managed team who saw the writing on the wall and made some proactive moves?

 

[Ola]

Hey been meaning to ask, can I get on the mailing list for the more personal Zucc updates? I'd really like to know when he takes a **** or makes his bed. PM updates are fine. Thanks!

Lol it’s not a newsletter. There is a live feed from some web cam in his apartment and laptop, just google reddit and Zucc.

 

[True Blue]

Does anyone of Staal, McQuaid, Shatty or Smith scream ‘wow this guy is so good and we should keep him to build a future team around’? I am sorry but I just don’t see it. Gorton should unload these contracts as fast as he can. Like right here and now I think a strong argument could be made that both our kids in the stands would have been able to play and not make us worse.

Can't play all rookies on D. And getting rid of most of those contracts is virtually impossible right now.

 

[pld459666]

I may be in the minority here, but last night the Rangers did not look out of place on a sheet of ice with one of the best teams in the league.

That is with an atrocious defence that had poor performances by all four Vets and a top like that was MIA all game.

Will every night be like that, most likely not, but we played a damn good game and if both Vesey and Zuucs finish on any one of their multiple chances we get a point at least.

And let me add that while I do enjoy Zuccs as a player, someone needs to smack the piss out of him and tell him stop over passing

Shoot the Effing Puck Frodo

 

[True Blue]

I agree, but what if they do end up with the 3OA, are they a badly managed team who ended up there by being badly managed, or are they a well managed team who saw the writing on the wall and made some proactive moves?

I think that they held on a year too long. But at least they were not stubborn about it.

 

[Ola]

Can't play all rookies on D. And getting rid of most of those contracts is virtually impossible right now.

All rookies???

 

[True Blue]

Shoot the Effing Puck Frodo

One of the major and most maddening issues over the last 20 years. The refusal to simply shoot the puck.

 

[True Blue]

All rookies???

If you get rid of all of the contracts you want right now (providing that were even possible), what would you have left?

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

If you get rid of all of the contracts you want right now (providing that were even possible), what would you have left?

All Rookies+Skjei.

 

[Ola]

If you get rid of all of the contracts you want right now (providing that were even possible), what would you have left?

A better blueline with an average age of like 25... (and I am not even joking)

 

[Tawnos]

I agree, but what if they do end up with the 3OA, are they a badly managed team who ended up there by being badly managed, or are they a well managed team who saw the writing on the wall and made some proactive moves?

I suppose it depends on who they pick.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

I agree, but what if they do end up with the 3OA, are they a badly managed team who ended up there by being badly managed, or are they a well managed team who saw the writing on the wall and made some proactive moves?

Truth is, they won't know until we see what they have in a few years.

But had they continued to try and push for the playoffs, they would have fell under the very definition of a badly managed team.

 

[LORDE]

Sounds like you need to wake up and face the reality of the situation.

Losing does not guarantee you the #1 pick but I'm sure you're adamant about ignoring that very important fact..

I don’t understand why u keep saying this!!!! This entire board is WELL aware that u CAN NOT BE GUARANTEED THE #1 PICK!!!!! Stop saying it! We know.

We also know that if u finish dead last u have a higher chance of getting it.

Jesus u just post the same f***ing crap over and over and over again.

It’s like driving past the same billboard of Rosanne Barr screaming every time you post.

 

[Off Sides]

I am not disagreeing with any of those responses, more playing devils advocate, I've wanted them to rebuild maybe even before the Pitt series, I just am unsure if they ever thought that way until they retooled themselves into doing so more or less.