Post-Game Talk: 12/11/17 - Rangers vs. Stars

[NCRanger]

Dallas screwed us by playing as a really long team, ie a long distance between their Ds dropping back early and deep and forward hanging high up ice. When we made those cross ice passes our guys had Ds in front of them instead of next to them.

Playing the way Dallas did, you really open yourself up in the neutral zone and a good center would have had an Autobahn in front of him driving the puck up ice. But we really missed Ziba last night.

We tried to go long and when Dallas Ds won the puck their forwards had zero pressure on them in the neutral zone. We can blame AV for not adjusting, but OTOH without Ziba we are weak down the middle and it showed more than anything.

Which is why I commented last night that I have never seen a game like that in my nearly 40 years of watching hockey. I agree with you that Dallas' strategy, if you can call it that, was extremely dangerous, and sorry, I thought they were getting incredibly lucky with all the puck bounces. If the Rangers were able to get any control of the puck, the forwards had already flown the zone, long pass that connects, Lehtonen is facing 2 on 1's all night long. That's what happened in Pittsburgh. Sure, the Penguins were all over the Ranger d, but, when the Rangers did block a shot, or won a battle, they were able to spring a odd-man counter.

I actually thought the Rangers handled the initial shot and setup quite well. There weren't many primary plays that were very dangerous. It was the deflection off the block or a puck that squirted out from a board battle, that Dallas was first to, and the Rangers were running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

I also feel had the officials called Dallas for one or twelve of their interferences or hooks, the game would have been very different.

 

[ReggieDunlop68]

I'll rephrase

There is literally not a single player on the current roster who is not injured, who has a better shot than Nash on the PS, outside of Zucc and Buch. That is why I put Nash there.

If you feel you have something to contribute, contribute, don't just ***** at others for making a suggestion.

You must have posted the chart 11 seconds before I submitted my post. I didn’t quote you.

I was referring to several more extreme posts on how it was very clear on the choice to put Rick Nash in over DD.

Anyway, the game as a whole was so shitty, that simplifying it to swapping DD for Nash is not only way too reductionist, but it’s also hilarious because Nash has been shooting blanks on the shootout for years.

 

[NCRanger]

Believe it or not......this WON'T be our last clunker for the season.
Pittsburgh lost and almost got shutout by Colorado. Happens.
The Caps just barely beat us (or did we beat ourselves?)the other night........yet the Almighty HOME Islanders made the Caps look like an ahl team. This is a very good division, yet unpredictable.
This league is nuts, and I believe the same as mentioned above somewhere. Refs get a daily memo on keeping games close and exciting.

Like I said last night, you don't want to blame the officials in a game like that, but was the officiating part of the cause for the game situation?

I am convinced if Dallas was called for their infractions, the game would have been much different.

I also believe if the Capitals were called for the obvious penalty (someone blatantly took Carey down behind the net) right before their third goal, the Rangers pull at least a point out of that game.

 

[Maliks PlusMinus]

Did Vesey play? I don't recall his name being mentioned even once. Seriously. At least I saw Kreids screw up that play that Glen Sathers cigar mentioned. Yeah, if he wanted it bad enough, that is what he could've/should've done. Pisses me off. Yeah smart Kreids (disdain) give it up to a "gonna do nothing with it" DD. YOU had a much better chance you idiot.

Oh, he was certainly out at Honka's goal.

 

[Inferno]

I feel dirty defending a.v. but...none of u guys know Jack about how players do in shootouts...that takes going to practices and watching them there where they work on them. You don't choose shootout shooters based on how they played that game. Even in effing beer league my go-to shooter is a defenseman who doesn't put up a ton of points.


Shootout!=games

Enough with the ridiculous posts about who shoots and who doesn't.

 

[Gardner McKay]

Why the **** did Desharnais shoot and not Nash. **** AV so ****ing hard.

Forgive the poor comparison but complaining about this in the grand scheme of things is absurd. It's the same as being home in bed with the flu but complaining about a hang nail.

For how bad that game was, that is the least of our worries. The real question is who wants to put the thank you card together to send to Pavelec for the how he managed to steal that point for us?

I feel dirty defending a.v. but...none of u guys know Jack about how players do in shootouts...that takes going to practices and watching them there where they work on them. You don't choose shootout shooters based on how they played that game. Even in effing beer league my go-to shooter is a defenseman who doesn't put up a ton of points.


Shootout!=games

Enough with the ridiculous posts about who shoots and who doesn't.

Absolutely agree. The real concern was the 60 minutes of regulation hockey we played, not the 1 shoot out attempt that DD took.

 

[Maliks PlusMinus]

I've seen refs mess up games, but I don't think they did last night. Every penalty against us that was called should have been. There should have been a call against Dallas on Nash, but aside from that I don't think there were any nailed on calls. As for the refs doing it to make the game exciting, well, you'd've thought that would have got them to help us last night, not hinder us. Refs are crap, but last night they made maybe a couple of mistakes, our team made about 1000.

 

[Irishguy42]

Once we got to OT/SO, I didn't care about anything other than the one point we got. We could have very easily gotten 0.

 

[mandiblesofdoom]

Also hated it when Sam mentioned that Ruff has done an "outstanding " job as a defensive assistant. Based on what???

Based on the fact that Sam and Lindy both work for the same company.

 

[NCRanger]

I've seen refs mess up games, but I don't think they did last night. Every penalty against us that was called should have been. There should have been a call against Dallas on Nash, but aside from that I don't think there were any nailed on calls. As for the refs doing it to make the game exciting, well, you'd've thought that would have got them to help us last night, not hinder us. Refs are crap, but last night they made maybe a couple of mistakes, our team made about 1000.

Nash actually got hooked twice on that shift.

McDonagh was slewfooted in the first period.

There were also countless little hooks and picks that were completely missed.

The call to put the Rangers two men down was extremely ticky tack, as was the call on Boo, who was actually hooked before his "hook".

 

[Maliks PlusMinus]

Nash actually got hooked twice on that shift.

McDonagh was slewfooted in the first period.

There were also countless little hooks and picks that were completely missed.

The call to put the Rangers two men down was extremely ticky tack, as was the call on Boo, who was actually hooked before his "hook".

You have a case on all of those. I didn't see a replay of Nieves' call, but I saw him hook. Possibly he was hooked before that. I don't think what happened with McDonagh was a penalty, just a bad landing. I wanted a pen, but I don't think Ritchie kicked his leg away, they hit into each other with a bad result imo.

Fast did trip the guy to go 5 v 3.

 

[Larrybiv]

Will be interesting to see how the Stars fare against our rivals, playing the Isles Tom. and Devil's in 3 days.
Hasn't been a sweep of tri-state teams in a while.

 

[Larrybiv]

Oh, he was certainly out at Honka's goal.

Yeah, that's right. Caught replay with Stars announcers on NHL network. They said Vesey was cheating a bit and didn't cover who he should've covered, leading to Dallas goal.

 

[Kovalev27]

refs let many calls go uncalled against dallas and that may have hurt us a bit where maybe a powerplay turns the momentum and we get off and running early. but it never came and the momentum never came. that was one of the worst displays I've ever seen in all my years of watching this team. easily should have been a 6 7-0 blowout loss on home ice. a burn the tape type of game that you can't even think about the next day. everyone knows we are much better than that display.

pavelec stole a point we had no business getting. that's the bottom line. no one else played well not even remotely. MAYBE nash but that's it.

Ryan McDonagh right now is the worst player on the team. the WORST. I don't know what is going on with this guy but he is awful night in and night out. last night was his worst. his offensive game is completely gone. he has regressed BADLY. doesn't drive the play doesn't do anything. if he continues like this I trade him over the summer. dead serious

 

[Irishguy42]

"Regress" is not quite the word you're looking for here, but I understand what you mean.

This is not the normal for Ryan McDonagh.

 

[Kovalev27]

regress is absolutely the word I'm looking for. This guy was a top 10 dman in 2014 I was convinced we'd be back in the Finals again very soon because we had the goaltending and a stud number 1 dman with a solid forward group. Mcdonagh has not come close to that and has continued to get worse year after year. He's been HORRIBLE this year. HORRIBLE. doesn't even have a goal? that's a joke 30 games in. doesn't defend well unless its on the rush. I really don't know what this guy's problem is but if he were playing like a true number 1 dman we'd be in first place right now in the metro. Every partner we've given him the pairing looks bad. so at some point time to look at him.

 

[Mac n Gs]

Ryan McDonagh isn’t the worst player on the team, but he had an absolutely pitiful game yesterday.

 

[Kovalev27]

as I said RIGHT NOW Ryan Mcdonagh is the worst player on the team seeing that just showed me he played the worst game of anyone since 2007 lol. he is disgusting RIGHT NOW. but he has not been good. he was great then good then ok now he's bad. I don't think I pay him a dime come 2019 at this rate

 

[Doctor King Schultz]

as I said RIGHT NOW Ryan Mcdonagh is the worst player on the team seeing that just showed me he played the worst game of anyone since 2007 lol. he is disgusting RIGHT NOW. but he has not been good. he was great then good then ok now he's bad. I don't think I pay him a dime come 2019 at this rate

At this point he needs to be paired with a defenseman who is better than him. The times have changed.

 

[RangerLifer]

regress is absolutely the word I'm looking for. This guy was a top 10 dman in 2014 I was convinced we'd be back in the Finals again very soon because we had the goaltending and a stud number 1 dman with a solid forward group. Mcdonagh has not come close to that and has continued to get worse year after year. He's been HORRIBLE this year. HORRIBLE. doesn't even have a goal? that's a joke 30 games in. doesn't defend well unless its on the rush. I really don't know what this guy's problem is but if he were playing like a true number 1 dman we'd be in first place right now in the metro. Every partner we've given him the pairing looks bad. so at some point time to look at him.

McD hasn't been good since he got the captain's C in my humble opinion.

 

[Kovalev27]

we've put everyone with him and everyone we put with him it ends up being the worst pairing. look at shattenkirk as soon as they put him with skjei instantly a great pair. put either of those guys with mcdonagh its a fire drill.

that's been the story lately.

 

[DanielBrassard]

Actually Skjei-Shattenkirk has been a bad pair, 2nd worst xGA/60, CF% of around 48%, xG% around 46%. And I don't think they have been very good from the eye test, too many long shifts in their own end, weak on the boards, at least defensively.

 

[will1066]

Which is why I commented last night that I have never seen a game like that in my nearly 40 years of watching hockey. I agree with you that Dallas' strategy, if you can call it that, was extremely dangerous, and sorry, I thought they were getting incredibly lucky with all the puck bounces. If the Rangers were able to get any control of the puck, the forwards had already flown the zone, long pass that connects, Lehtonen is facing 2 on 1's all night long. That's what happened in Pittsburgh. Sure, the Penguins were all over the Ranger d, but, when the Rangers did block a shot, or won a battle, they were able to spring a odd-man counter.

I actually thought the Rangers handled the initial shot and setup quite well. There weren't many primary plays that were very dangerous. It was the deflection off the block or a puck that squirted out from a board battle, that Dallas was first to, and the Rangers were running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

I also feel had the officials called Dallas for one or twelve of their interferences or hooks, the game would have been very different.

Yep. And when they fly the zone, they don't come back. However, the long passes were not connecting because Dallas had a steady four-man box roving in the neutral zone for 2+ periods. One F high as the puck chaser as soon as our Dman or F gets the puck, funneling our man towards the boards and another Dallas F waiting at our blue line. If we managed to get by, their two D and other F get over to our man with their box. There was not any room in the neutral zone. They cut off the passing lanes and skating seams to prevent our long stretch passes. Stretch passes also require timing and rhythm, and we were disrupted all night so we never got into any good flow. We do not dump and chase until we are an absolutely desperate team with time winding down. It occurs again and again.

 

[Glen Sathers Cigar]

He also made a good move and Lehtonen made a good glove save I really don’t see the problem

Meh, he telegraphed his move and took too long to get it off. If you're gonna make that move you have to be super fast and get the puck up under the bar. Spezza's goal the next round is a perfect example.

 

[NickyFotiu]

LOL at Zooks in the shootout last night. The goalie must have been like hurry up and shoot already!