Are We This Good or is Igor Just Stealing Us Games?

[Ruggs225]

Right. I really liked the look of the team coming into the year. I thought we had a good top six and some legitimate depth. Unfortunately, losing three players is going to hurt you in a big way.

Felt the same way coming into the season. Really sucks we lost Blais too for the entire year. We need his style of play. He woukd be a major improvement over Hunt if he were to be given a chance on that line.

Though kakko looked great on panarins line, and then was pulled for reasons.

Basically what i would like to see is us get 1-2 middle six players.

Kreid-zib-laff
Pan-strom-kakko
Trade-chytil/trade/- chytil/krav/trade
Goody-rooney- jonny bro

 

[nyr2k2]

It's mostly Igor and special teams

A decent amount could be solved by Gallant actually doing a good job at his Bottom 6 line makeup and TOI distribution. Also there is no reason for Reaves to have 15 minutes at 5v5 with Zib/Kreider on the season. Should be 0.

I think Gallant could do some things better, for sure, but I'm not sure that Scotty Bowman, Al Arbour, or Jack Adams himself would be able to coax much more out of a bottom six that regularly includes two fourth lines' worth of players (or straight AHL-caliber guys). The secondary effect of having a shit-tier bottom six is that when the top six is stagnant, you don't have anyone legitimate to move up to "shake things up," which is what I think he tried to do with Reaves. I mean shit, Dryden Hunt is already on the second line.

 

[TheDirtyH]

I think Gallant could do some things better, for sure, but I'm not sure that Scotty Bowman, Al Arbour, or Jack Adams himself would be able to coax much more out of a bottom six that regularly includes two fourth lines' worth of players (or straight AHL-caliber guys). The secondary effect of having a shit-tier bottom six is that when the top six is stagnant, you don't have anyone legitimate to move up to "shake things up," which is what I think he tried to do with Reaves. I mean shit, Dryden Hunt is already on the second line.

Not disagreeing at all, but there might have been an alternative: to distribute the talent differently across three or four lines. Gallant has been married to Kreider-Zibanejad and Panarin-Strome. I won't blame him for that, or criticize him for wanting to keep combos stable, but just for the sake of argument you could say that one potential way to deal with this particular problem would be to spread out the top talent, or even just change the combos there in order to shake something loose. Could Chytil have some success with Panarin? Would Strome work better facing bottom-six players and bottom-pair defensemen even without Panarin? Like I say, not disagreeing with your point, just suggesting another route. I think that's largely what Sutter did in Calgary this season for example.

 

[will1066]

Puckluck shuns this thread. All y'alls can consider yourselves shunned.

 

[Peltz]

I wouldn't say I have total faith in Drury, but I'm not really at the point of being skeptical, either. If you added Blais, Kakko, and Kravtsov to this current team, I think a lot of the issues we're seeing that are caused by no depth, would be alleviated to a large degree.

That's exactly my thought as well. rangers were supposed to be a lot more balanced before the season began. Things happened.

 

[Kovalev27]

double

 

[Kovalev27]

You know what that Dallas game is a good example of how good we are. We’ve been down before in Igor games and have stormed back. He shuts it down but we’ve been down 2-0 1-0 plenty and have won games when he’s had a slow start. Right now we’re short a couple of forwards 3 legit ones in Blais Rooney and Kakko. That’s tough on anyone. But we’re still winning games. Once we make a few moves and get a couple guys back we’ll see what this team really is. We are not a finished product before next week. Been saying this all year actually because we’ve had that cap space and assets to move.

 

[DialUp]

You know what that Dallas game is a good example of how good we are. We’ve been down before in Igor games and have stormed back. He shuts it down but we’ve been down 2-0 1-0 plenty and have won games when he’s had a slow start. Right now we’re short a couple of forwards 3 legit ones in Blais Rooney and Kakko. That’s tough on anyone. But we’re still winning games. Once we make a few moves and get a couple guys back we’ll see what this team really is. We are not a finished product before next week. Been saying this all year actually because we’ve had that cap space and assets to move.

we aren't a finished product probably before 2023-2024 in all reality. This year, and next year is playing with house money.

 

[Machinehead]

The teams performance without Igor is irrelevant since Igor will play every playoff game.

That's actually a good thing for them in the playoffs. Other teams won't "improve" as much by giving their starting goalie every game. They are 2nd in the league in PP% and PPs go up in the playoffs on average.

Our performance with Igor is what's relevant. Teams that lean on goaltending never do well in the playoffs.

 

[CasusBelli]

1. Igor
2. Power Play (ie Kreider and Mika)









Everything else











Georgiev

 

[LokiDog]

Weird year overall, but the standings are starting to settle in, especially with Boston rising and TML dropping. We should be able to hold off Washington unless they go on some crazy run. Regardless of record though, this is a 7/8 seed team under the old format, quality wise, everywhere else aside from goalie.

Every game won in the playoffs will be an upset, let alone series. Not from Igor's POV though. He's a stud and deserves every win he gets.

Unless something insane happens at the TDL, the high level of success we had so far and would possibly have in the playoffs rest on Igor alone. Without him, we are fighting with Columbus for 4th in the division.

See, I agree and disagree with this. The team needs to get healthy (just KK now, RIP Blais), and then it needs to AT MINIMUM add one quality middle six player. Adding KK and a quality third liner (type who can slot up and down) makes us a three line team again, pushes the crap back to Hartford and puts the 4th liners where they belong. That alone can go a long way to helping the top six get their production going at even strength because it makes it so teams can’t just hone in on 2-3 players in order to shut us down. If we add two third line types, there’s really no knowing what can happen. Kreider, Zib, Bread, Fox and Shesty are all having the type of seasons winning teams have on their roster. Trouba and Miller are strong and Schneider has been a pleasant surprise. Goodrow has had a career year as well. If we go into the playoffs healthy with:

Kreids - Zib - Lad
Bread - Strome - KK
Goodrow - Chytil - Jarnkrok
Hunt - Rooney - Reaves

We’re in much better shape than currently. In the playoffs it’s often the Goodrow and Jarnkrok types on the third line that move the needle in otherwise tight checking games where top lines are neutralized. If we make two additions and go in with something like:

K - Z - L
P - S - K
Jarnkrok - Chytil - Lehkonen
Goodrow - Rooney - Hunt

We’re even more dangerous. And you can throw Goodrow up on that third line if Chytil isn’t getting things done and really have an elite third line.


It’s way too soon to know how this all shakes out. We don’t need the big, costly top six addition. Two quality third line/middle six types can dramatically change the way our team looks right now.

 

[bernmeister]

Just wonder what you guys think, I mean we have a great team full of talent but you look at Georgie's numbers, we're under .500 with him in goal...is Georgie that bad or is this team just average and we have the best goalie in the world stealing us a lot of these wins?

We are good, with an asterisk. We suck 5 on 5 and bottom 6 needs work and that means dealing excess vets like Strome for improved youth, AND THEN GIVE THEM MEANINGFUL MINS.

to answer OP, yes, Shesty is stealing games for us

 

[Baby Duck Homme]

We are what the Mets would have been if DeGrom could have started 70% of Mets games last year. Historic dominant play by the guy who can prevent scoring most. That covers up many flaws but the team can crater if he gets hurt.

 

[DialUp]

We don’t need the big, costly top six addition.

My opinion, we won't win unless the big, costly top six additions are named Kakko and Laf.

Ultimately my thought process is that unless or until the above happens, OTHER teams are just better teams, even that won't last too many more years, and even if we absolutely do have elite players up front, on D and in goal. Strome I just have no confidence in come playoff time. Chytil I just don't even like to watch at this point.

I've said before, underdogs win all the time, I just think that is us.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

I really wanted to start a thread on this because this is important for everyone to see but out of respect to the rules of the board I'll put this here.

The Rangers with Georgiev this year are 8-9-2. The Lightning the last two years prior to this one (to make the sample size bigger and include his slightly better season) with Curtis McElhinney were 12-13-5. His GAA was better than Georgiev's over the two season average and save % was probably slightly worse although I didn't do the math. Stop with the nonsense that we're getting carried by Igor and we're somehow in a unique situation goalie-wise. I know McElhinney sucks but so does Georgiev.