Post-Game Talk: Coyotes at Rangers 3/24/14

[fredrikstad]

Only seen first period, so my voting doesn't count.
Hank for big saves.
McD for always showing up
Zucc for point leader alongside D-Step, and a little patriotism to it.

 

[Ola]

Nah man I know. Just wanna keep Torts' name clear. Guy did some good stuff for us here, and there is no reason for anyone to rag on him. The guy doesn't go from hauling a ****** roster to the ECF to a ******** coach that can't break a 10 seed in 3 seasons. Granted, Torts' teams are generally lower-seeded in the standings, but Vancouver is just... not even comparable to that right now.

Poor guy has walked into a washed up franchise that hasn't taken care of it's players, hasn't constructed a decent roster in several seasons, and worst of all, hasn't made any changes to this dwindling organization (both on the ice and in the front office) since this has started. They peaked in 2011, never modified enough, and now they're paying the price.

Yeah, I get where you coming from and I haven't quite complied with it, ie I've brought up Torts several times.

The thing that really pissess me off is this. IMO it has been quite clear that the best way to play in this league after the lock-out has been to try to carry the play and take the puck to the other team. You can do it the Detroit way or the Boston way or whatever, but momentum is some kind of key that units all teams that has done well. I also think that its very obvious that this has nothing to do with talent, it doesn't matter if its the Islanders or lower pairing on the ice for some of the better teams, from a fundamental X and O perspective, the directions changed a lot after the lockout.

Despite this -- while doing many other things real well -- Torts went in the complete and utterly diffrent direction in NY. He de facto banned Ds from making certain standard plays with the puck, and only built towards getting it out of our end ASAP and down low, so that we could try to chase it down. The opposite of what any other better team in this team was doing. I mean, under Torts, if we had the puck and both teams changed lines, we routinely skated over the redline and gave the puck away. If that had been done by a player for any of the better teams in this league, they would be sat. No doubt.

That set us back for years. And what really pissess me of is that shows the ego on Tortorella. The entire freakin league is doing one thing, at least all better teams are doing one thing, but he insists doing the complete opposite. He believes he is right and everyone else is wrong.

1. That pisses me off.

2. It pissess me off that Slats can let it go on for so long.

3. It pissess me off that Slats and Torts barely faced any heat at all from the people paid to cover this team for it.

 

[HockeyBasedNYC]

I think we have to give some credit to AV and the leadership of this team to pull together after that first period and stage a comeback, twice. Regardless of Smith going down.

I went into this game thinking a point would be awesome, they havent played their best at home and after giving up two I thought ok, they've had some emotional games recently where theyve won but this will be the donut. We've seen it a hundred times with this team.

But they really gutted this one out. I think we can put the Cally leadership intangible loss to bed because they have shown no lack of it lately, in fact it looks like new leadership is stepping up. Im sure St. Louis was a part of that in the room. When he finally gets going - and he will - this team will be pretty dangerous.

I was going to post the other night and ask if I was the only one who thought McDonagh was getting better each game. The guy is a special special player. He should be nominated for the Norris one day and I have no hesitation in saying that. He is a better all around player than Karlsson. I dont think its debatable. He's the best defenseman to lace up the skates for the Rangers since Brian Leetch. I cant say enough about this guy. He could be a big threat in the playoffs the way he is playing.

 

[Lime]

29:16 and 28:17 for McDonagh and Girardi respectively, and there was only a little under 2 minutes of overtime. Monster numbers. Hopefully no one burns out on us like 11-12, if we make it that far.

 

[Ola]

related but not: it bother anyone else when other teams call us "rags" and we're not even in the same conference?

Nah, it don't bother me at all.

You want to be like Bayern Munich or Man United (before this season), ie hated. It works.

 

[Gardner McKay]

Regarding the Devils' fans' hate of Sam Rosen. It's not just the 12 year old Devils fans on their board. I went to our first playoff game since 97 when we lost 6-1 they were mocking Sam Rosen the whole game. I had the mispleasure (is that a word) of sitting next to the biggest ******* I've ever met at a game who when my friend offered a Nacho he yelled at him "no I won't have any of your Nachos!" I think people that think it's just a small sample of kids on a message board are giving them too much credit. It's most Devils fans. Unfortunately some of the best fans at HF are Devils fans and have to associate themselves with that cesspool. Honestly, Flyers fans have the rep but from my experience Devils fans are THE WORST. Flyers, Penguins, and Islanders fans wish they were Devils fans in that regard.

I disagree with you. After almost 7 years on HF boards I can say I have seen these boards change as a whole (which I take as an indicator of fan bases changing). I think we are lucky with our fans but even we have a few. It is this new crop of younger kids that became fans and signed on to HFboards over the past 2-3 years. People who have never heard the word respect or discussion in their life (let alone show any respect or engage in discussion instead of everything being "No. ROFL LMAO". Unfortunately it is the new generation and we just need to deal with it.

 

[Gardner McKay]

29:16 and 28:17 for McDonagh and Girardi respectively, and there was only a little under 2 minutes of overtime. Monster numbers. Hopefully no one burns out on us like 11-12, if we make it that far.

As long as we play 6 defensemen and not go with 5 defenseman after 30 minutes of hockey, we won't be burned out.

He leads by example...give him the "C".. Danny G the "A" and than staal of course

Staal should get nothing. McDonagh or Girardi with the C is fine for me.

 

[Bardof425*]

Really? We win a game and you guys all go over there to see if they're talking about us. And then talk about how pathetic they are because they're not praising us. Pot kettle black, Snowblind!

We won a fantastic game and there's 1-2 pages talking about the Devils around the NHL thread lol.

They chant "Rangers Suck" in every home game without regard to who the opponent is on that night. I was at the Ranger game last night; the Devils and their ****** little fanbase never entered my mind. How's that kettle now?

 

[Bardof425*]

What a game! I was at the game and as someone who has been to a bunch of GREAT games (if I may say so myself) that was one of the best. The guy in front of me was giving me good ribbing for bringing my HF negativity to the game. So glad to see the win and the ceremony and get a free poster to boot!

One question, IMO this was McD's best offensive game of his career, but did anyone think he started off a bit shaky defensively? I was a bit worried in the first period. Not bashing him, more shocked as I am every time he's not perfect defensively. Do you guys think the first goal was a mistake by McDonagh? It's just morbid curiosity as it's now a blip on the radar screen. It looked like he might have stumbled. I'm just confused from a tactical standpoint why he gave OEL so much room.

I was at the game and thought McD had the flu as well in the 1st period; the whole team looked horrible. On the first goal, Mac was inside taking away the center of the ice and Boyle was wide. I think he expected Boyle to skate and pick up the defenseman; OEL. Boyle didn't skate and Mac had to go to the boards after the entry. It was miscommunication and a great shot over the shoulder of a goalie that was too deep and on his knees.

 

[Bardof425*]

Spot on Snowblind, at least imo.

I'm not quite sure why McD gave OEL so much room, but it was certainly way too much room that allowed OEL (a fantastic skater in his own right) to skate by and get a shot off. I think McD just misread the play.

I'll look at some highlights, see if he actually stumbled.

Offensively, the guy is absolutely dynamite. He is SOOOO good at handling the puck and creating lanes to shoot to (he can stick handle really well in tight spots). His skating affords him SO many opportunities and allows him to take a lot more risks than most players, he'll rarely get burned.

Honestly, he just needs to keep doing what he is doing. His shot could be slightly more accurate (I remember a chance where he was like 10ft out right in front of the net, where I thought he should've scored. Not sure if it was deflected or not), slightly stronger.

He has a very good outlet pass. I think he needs to become slightly more creative and connecting on higher risk passes.

But these are all things that he has been doing and improving on, I have no doubt he will keep improving every facet of his game.

Edit: Replays don't afford a good angle. I think OEL sneaked up on him on his left side and he misread the play.

There's a replay from behind the net which shows how it went down.

 

[BarbaraAlphanse]

Seems to me that Diaz's spot on this team moving forward is entirely in his hands. If he continues to play the way he has, he'll get resigned, and likely be the odds-on favorite to be the 2nd pair RHD, next to Staal.

Stralman's poor play, coupled with this team's abundance of NHL ready defensemen ready to play the RHD, will likely mean that the team low balls him and he moves elsewhere to play.

Meanwhile, guys like McIlrath and Allen will also have to show the F.O what they're worth. If McIrath comes in next year and earns a spot, Klein/Moore's 3rd pairing minutes will likely be up for grabs. Not that I have anything against Klein, but in this scenario he'd be running into the same problem that he ran into this year in Nashville. Same with Moore, he'll have to play better than Allen.

We have an abundance of bottom pairing defenders. Allen projects to be a 5/6 for the rest of his career. McIlrath could project into a top 4 defender after a few years in the NHL. Klein's a steady defenseman, but at some point this team will need to go to one of those 2 guys to prepare them for the future - especially McIlrath who this organization has invested a lot in.

 

[Kokoschka]

I disagree with you. After almost 7 years on HF boards I can say I have seen these boards change as a whole (which I take as an indicator of fan bases changing). I think we are lucky with our fans but even we have a few. It is this new crop of younger kids that became fans and signed on to HFboards over the past 2-3 years. People who have never heard the word respect or discussion in their life (let alone show any respect or engage in discussion instead of everything being "No. ROFL LMAO". Unfortunately it is the new generation and we just need to deal with it.

Well, I'm just 25 myself, but I wouldn't be too hard on the "new generation", however you want to define it. Apocalypse has been proclaimed time and time again and it never happened. Give the kids some time, we've all been through this treaded phase between 12/13 and 16/17 years old. Otoh, you have very knowledgeable posters here, who are very young. I mean BrianBoyle is what, 18? So it isn't all bad.

Anyway on the game: McD hasn't been bad defensively. OEL's goal is an excellent play by an excellent skater. McDonagh hasn't been badly out of position, but a player like OEL will realize the tiniest mistake and jump on it. Anyway, I loved how McDonagh made up for that little miscue.

Also, full credit to Brad Richards for grinding it out on our goal in OT. He didn't get an assist, but he really should have. The other thing I liked was his willingness to go to the front of the net and take a beating to create a chance. I somehow always thought he'd have excellent hand-eye coordination. He needs to do this more often. He played an excellent game.

Girardi had a stellar game as well, I'd say he was our best player individually if somebody put a gun to my head. The guys just hasn't made one bad play defensively in ages. I thought with everything focusing on the transition game under AV, G might be on his way out. Instead, as soon as he learned to play AV's system, he has flourished.

I hope Stepan and St. Louis are back to full power on Wednesday. We'll need a great effort against the Flyers. If we play like we played the last few games, I'm slightly optimistic for this tilt.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

Really? We win a game and you guys all go over there to see if they're talking about us. And then talk about how pathetic they are because they're not praising us. Pot kettle black, Snowblind!

We won a fantastic game and there's 1-2 pages talking about the Devils around the NHL thread lol.

I go to all of our rival boards to see reactions. I meant that we don't hate them like they hate us. We don't care about their team. No problem laughing at a bunch of petulant 12 year olds.

 

[Ola]

McDonagh is in beast mode and should at least get a nomination, but i will literally **** my pants if he beats out Keith for Norris.

Stats has an impact on the Norris, but its the one trophy that to the biggest extent takes into account the actual play of a player.

And it seems like it takes a pretty good time for a player to let everyone know how good he is. I would be very suprised if McD could come from behind and even get the votes he deserves in terms of possibly being a runner-up etc.

 

[Kokoschka]

Also, please don't call McD "Mc God-ah" anymore. A "Goder", pronounced "Godah" is a double chin in Eastern Austrian dialect. So, unless you want me to connect McDonagh with Martin Brodeur, please don't do this anymore.

 

[Ola]

I think they are done. 5 point behind Detroit and Toronto. Still have to leapfrog Washington and Columbus. 10 games left.

Yeah, 2-3 pts only is a good amount with only 10 games to go.

Lets say you have 3 pts and ROW with 10 games to go. The team chasing has to go 7-2-1 to make it if the team ahead goes 5-4-1...

We are far from safe, but things are looking a tad better. Its going to take a bit of a mini-collapse I would imagine for us to not make it, but 3 of our last 4 wins has been darn close...

 

[haveandare]

What a character win.

I love that they went from being down 0 - 2 to not only coming back to win, but to win pretty much by outdoing Phoenix at their own game. D-men down low, outnumbering the other team, putting pucks in the net. Crazy. I did not see that coming after the first.

 

[ecemleafs]

Also, please don't call McD "Mc God-ah" anymore. A "Goder", pronounced "Godah" is a double chin in Eastern Austrian dialect. So, unless you want me to connect McDonagh with Martin Brodeur, please don't do this anymore.

McDeity is better.

 

[Levitate]

The thing that really pissess me off is this. IMO it has been quite clear that the best way to play in this league after the lock-out has been to try to carry the play and take the puck to the other team. You can do it the Detroit way or the Boston way or whatever, but momentum is some kind of key that units all teams that has done well. I also think that its very obvious that this has nothing to do with talent, it doesn't matter if its the Islanders or lower pairing on the ice for some of the better teams, from a fundamental X and O perspective, the directions changed a lot after the lockout.

I strongly believe this is the reasont he Rangers struggled against the Penguins so much under Torts. It wasn't even worth watching those games because the Pens would simply dismantle the Rangers because the Rangers wouldn't push them at ALL. Torts' strategy was so "just don't make a mistake with the puck, dump it and get rid of it instead of possibly turning it over making a play" that the Rangers barely had the puck and guys like Crosby and Malkin would just run wild

Despite this -- while doing many other things real well -- Torts went in the complete and utterly diffrent direction in NY. He de facto banned Ds from making certain standard plays with the puck, and only built towards getting it out of our end ASAP and down low, so that we could try to chase it down. The opposite of what any other better team in this team was doing. I mean, under Torts, if we had the puck and both teams changed lines, we routinely skated over the redline and gave the puck away. If that had been done by a player for any of the better teams in this league, they would be sat. No doubt.

Interestingly enough this is very similar to what Oates is doing in Washington right now. his players have said that the D have been told they have just a few seconds to either pass the puck or else they need to get rid of it, he had them playing a dump and chase game without possession for much of the season (might have changed a bit now), and at one point apparently it was said that he didn't like Mike Green coming down off of the blueline, which of course is how Green scored all those goals in his career...coming down off the blueline to the circles and sniping a shot top shelf against goalies.

2. It pissess me off that Slats can let it go on for so long.

3. It pissess me off that Slats and Torts barely faced any heat at all from the people paid to cover this team for it.

They nearly won the presidents trophy in 2012 and went to the ECF it's not surprising they didn't fire Torts earlier

 

[Raspewtin]

I strongly believe this is the reasont he Rangers struggled against the Penguins so much under Torts. It wasn't even worth watching those games because the Pens would simply dismantle the Rangers because the Rangers wouldn't push them at ALL. Torts' strategy was so "just don't make a mistake with the puck, dump it and get rid of it instead of possibly turning it over making a play" that the Rangers barely had the puck and guys like Crosby and Malkin would just run wild

The Rangers routinely got crushed by any good possession team. This especially included Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Ottawa.

It's just the way to win in the new NHL.

 

[Levitate]

We are far from safe, but things are looking a tad better. Its going to take a bit of a mini-collapse I would imagine for us to not make it, but 3 of our last 4 wins has been darn close...

Eh I don't know that the game in Ottawa was that close even though it was ugly. That was a weird one.

Tough games against Columbus and NJ doesn't surprise me and even though they were close games I find it more encouraging that they won rather than concerned that they lost. Columbus is a hard team to play against...very physical and in your face and always pushing things. Similar with NJ, very tough team to play against even though they struggle to score goals. Gutting out wins against them is a good sign rather than bad sign, even if they aren't in playoff spots right now. The NHL is a tough league and just because a team isn't in a playoff spot doesn't mean they're not hard to play. Good teams beat those teams, but no one should be saying that the games should be easy

 

[Levitate]

The Rangers routinely got crushed by any good possession team. This especially included Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Ottawa.

It's just the way to win in the new NHL.

Well, some teams weren't as good at scoring even if they had good possession stats and the Rangers were able to compete with them at least, but possession teams with skill would certainyl kill them

 

[sark76]

Next to the flyers game (the game where Carcillo drove Simonds Crazy useless), this was my favorite game of the year. My 3rd favorite game of the year was the last game against CBJ.

This game had everything, good plays, dumb plays, nail biting minutes for both squads, a comeback, intensity, hitting, sweet goals, ugly goals, raw emotion, good officiating, good goal tending, sick saves, speed, awesome passes, a O.T. goal, disappointment followed by excitement, a louder than usual MSG, great defense from both teams. Just an amazingly good game to watch...I feel bad for the poster that went to bed at 7:45. The only things that were missing from this game was a fight and a penalty shot...oh and MSL.

 

[Pizza]

So many positive take aways from this game. One of interest was the idea that the better match for a line mate with MSL is actually Hags. Hmmmm. We'll see what happens there.

Speaking of Hags. Wow. What a game from him. Really elevated his play. Just when I think he's stalled a bit, he comes back and proves that slowly, steadily he's adapting and improving. Very impressive performance from him.

 

[aufheben]

McDeity is better.

McNorris AINEC.