I didn't get a chance to comment after the game. Glad we won. Great to see Laffy look so good. But I personally found the first period and part of the 2nd very frustrating. The team in the first period was dominating possession at times 5v5. They had good zone time. Yet towards the end of the period, the shots were like 8-6 us. And 6 of our shots were on the PP.
I get that we have a lot of high skilled players, but the over reliance on making the perfect finesse plays at 5v5 are a real problem. We would gain the zone, enter it, get control of the puck and then literally just skate around the boards and blue line like we were drawing an outline around the zone. We turned away from shots if they weren't perfect. Players without the puck veered away from the front of the net. We were not trying to set up any screens, deflections, anything. It was a very indirect style of hockey that was easy to defend as the Wings could defend the center of the ice, just sorta let us tire ourselves out and then could counter when opportunity presented. That game should NOT have been close. We out possessed them for large stretches, but we are falling back into the rut of last year where we don't attack the middle of the ice enough and we then don't defend the middle of our ice enough.
We were also not simply getting pucks in deep. We were turning pucks over in dangerous spots which meant more rushes the other way. We were doing much better earlier in the year at puck management in general and we looked faster. We're looking a bit slower and a bit easier to defend by adding in too much east west in the NZ and OZ. And it's no mistake that players like Cuylle look a little less effective. Luckily the 4th line still plays N/S and more direct and you can see they've become one of the more effective 5v5 lines.
2 of our 3 goals were those pretty plays where we pass across the royal road. The Vesey goal, which turned out to be the game winner was one of the few times when a player (Laff!) decided to take a shot eventhough he knew it had no chance of going in and it created a rebound that Vesey converted cause he drove to the net.
The sky isn't falling. We keep winning. But we need some correction. This style works ok the first 50 games of the season. But it won't work down the stretch and it won't work in the playoffs.
Finally, someone mentioned, I think it was Brooks, that the Rangers have always had more finesse teams. It's true. Aside from black and blue rangers years. But it's also interesting to note that the Garden ice is notoriously shitty and filled with ruts (see kakko's latest injury) and it's amazing that Rangers teams don't bother to adapt their game to fit their home barn a bit more. IT's just harder to play a finesse game on bad ice. And it's fun to note that the black and blue shirts were by far the most successful run of hockey outside of 90-94 in my lifetime and I'm nearly 50.
In any case, I hope coaching staff is rectifying and finding ways to be a little smarter about their 5v5 play style. Gonna bite us biiiig time in playoffs if we aren't used to playing a playoff brand of hockey come postseason.
