Post-Game Talk: Devils @ Rangers

[NoQuitInNewMexico]

I'm assuming some pucks will plonk in, especially on the PP, and he'll end up with a halfway decent looking statline even if the team is bottom-10 and his overall play is still bad, but man, what do they do with Mika long-term?

I guess the comedy option is to sign the big extension tomorrow while he's playing like he's haunted

 

[Fitzy]

I’m not making an excuse. They didn’t play like a team that wanted to win in the third period.

But I also look at the roster they had in that third period and see what was already an uphill battle, without even taking that into consideration.

High emotions aside from a second, if I named a roster with some of the 6 or 7 names that we had for the third, what would your immediate gut reaction be?

Forget Quinn. Forget other things for a second.

Blind taste test: our roster includes Rooney, PDG, Howden, Hajek, Bitito, Lemieux, Blackwell, and Smith.

What’s the first reaction that pops into your head?

New Jersey was missing just as many important players as the Rangers.

And this isn't about one game. The first warning sign was the team's bubble performance. This atrocious start is strike two.

It's a quarter of the way through the season and our purported franchise savior is on pace for four points.

At a certain point we either have to admit the soil is rotten, in which case, might as well sell off Panarin and Zibanejad now, or try for something better.

 

[NYSPORTS]

And the last part is sooooooooo underrated. They said after the Carolina series that they needed to be tougher to play against. They are the easiest team in the league to gameplan. They're gutless, just like their coach.

where did the front office after the Carolina series go? They forgot everything when they won the lottery. Sure, they drafted toughness yet there is nothing tough added to the team Carolina pushed around.

 

[Tob]

I'm probably a minority here, but I also think we're seeing how much of an effect Lundqvist had in that room as a leader. I know we talked about Fast and Staal as well and their leadership, but I truly believe Hank held some guys' feet to the fire even once relegated to back up on competing to the level he knows they can.

Anyone else need a Maker's Mark poured?

Rangers management need to make a deal with the Caps for a 7th round pick to bring Henrik in as a guest motivational speaker.

 

[haveandare]

I'm a Rangers fan but they deserve this right now after the b.s. with DeAngelo. I've still yet to hear a good explanation as to why he was booted. Breaking a stick and pushing a teammate isn't near good enough an excuse.

What message does it send when you give up on your young players so easily? The idiot coach didn't like him so lets just kick him off the team. Yeah, great idea. No. Just no.

Anyway this isn't even a real season so who cares. Rangers selling "pods" now and there's all these stupid restrictions? Why would anyone in their right mind want to go to MSG?

You couldn't pay me enough. I'll stick to watching Messier and Leetch in the 90s on VHS, thanks.

We don’t know the details but you assume it’s a Quinn problem.

From insiders on here it was a repeated problem with him being divisive and distracting in the room to the point that teammates took him aside to talk about I multiple times, and then him choking a teammate.

 

[will1066]

The kids don't *look* bad but at the end of the day, if not for a tiebreaker exhibition, Lafreniere has 0 points in 14 games.

Offense is a team-wide problem.

Patience is good but we can't allow ourselves to slip into accepting any results because it's a rebuild.

They need to get it out of their rock thick skulls that lateral passes and drop passes at the offensive blue line is not a sustainable style of offense in today's league. Teams gameplan it and this team makes it easy.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

I'm a Rangers fan but they deserve this right now after the b.s. with DeAngelo. I've still yet to hear a good explanation as to why he was booted. Breaking a stick and pushing a teammate isn't near good enough an excuse.

What message does it send when you give up on your young players so easily? The idiot coach didn't like him so lets just kick him off the team. Yeah, great idea. No. Just no.

Anyway this isn't even a real season so who cares. Rangers selling "pods" now and there's all these stupid restrictions? Why would anyone in their right mind want to go to MSG?

You couldn't pay me enough. I'll stick to watching Messier and Leetch in the 90s on VHS, thanks.

I would be shocked if this had nothing to do with politics.

 

[PuckLuck3043]

That's not good enough.

Like I said, patience is one thing, but this is a results-oriented league.

Outside of Kakko and Fox, there's nothing good about this season at all.

What about Lindgren and Miller? Chytil was playing well too before getting hurt.

 

[Edge]

That's not good enough.

Like I said, patience is one thing, but this is a results-oriented league.

Outside of Kakko and Fox, there's nothing good about this season at all.

And there’s truth in that.

The question is whether changing coaches at this point changes anything.

Thus far the Rangers don’t think so.

So it’s not to say Quinn is the answer, but whether the Rangers believe the answer is out there right now.

 

[Machinehead]

They need to get it out of their rock thick skulls that lateral passes and drop passes at the offensive blue line is not a sustainable style of offense in today's league. Teams gameplan it and this team makes it easy.

There's no plan offensively at all

 

[DanielBrassard]

I'm assuming some pucks will plonk in, especially on the PP, and he'll end up with a halfway decent looking statline even if the team is bottom-10 and his overall play is still bad, but man, what do they do with Mika long-term?

I guess the comedy option is to sign the big extension tomorrow while he's playing like he's haunted

Pretty easy decision. I was already leaning towards that direction anyway but this season solidifies it for me.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

I don't think Laf's a bust and I don't think Kakko's a bust but there's no way that these guys should have 4 points between them. Quinn is going ruin them. He's riding this f***ing franchise back into the dark ages.

 

[Machinehead]

And there’s truth in that.

The question is whether changing coaches at this point changes anything.

Thus far the Rangers don’t think so.

So it’s not to say Quinn is the answer, but whether the Rangers believe the answer is out there right now.

Rebuild go one of two ways: you build something or you become a team that rebuilds perpetually for a generation.

You achieve the latter by kicking the can down the street.

At some point, the answer just becomes "not this."

 

[Edge]

I would be shocked if this had nothing to do with politics.

For the record, ADA’s politics are likely shared by roughly 30-40 percent of this locker room and about 40 percent of the league as a whole - higher among US players.

ADA isn’t being targeted for his political affiliation.

 

[haveandare]

I would be shocked if this had nothing to do with politics.

Since it’s only ever happened to TDA, I’m more inclined to think it’s a TDA problem. Just demographically, not even taking into account anything we know about other players on this team, the odds are extremely high that TDAs stances on politics aren’t unique to him at all, yet he’s the only player that had all these issues around him.

 

[Fitzy]

It doesn't exactly make a whole lot of sense that NYR would just wait until the "right" other coach was fired to fire their own.

 

[Edge]

Rebuild go one of two ways: you build something or you become a team that rebuilds perpetually for a generation.

You achieve the latter by kicking the can down the street.

At some point, the answer just becomes "not this."

And to answer the million dollar question, I don’t think the Rangers are that point.

That’s really the long and short of it.

 

[Machinehead]

What about Lindgren and Miller? Chytil was playing well too before getting hurt.

Chytil, yes. Lindgren is what he is, which fine.

Miller has been awful the whole of February.

Somebody said something about rotten soil?

 

[Machinehead]

And to answer the million dollar question, I don’t think the Rangers are that point.

That’s really the long and short of it.

Well they should hurry the f*** up.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

For the record, ADA’s politics are likely shared by roughly 30-40 percent of this locker room and about 40 percent of the league as a whole - higher among US players.

ADA isn’t being targeted for his political affiliation.

He's loud about it though.

 

[Slaydagnar]

Totally agree. D’angelo should be playing. I’m fed up with Gorton as much as I am the coach

Gorton needs to go IMO
Been icing the softest team in the league since he became GM. This team is not designed to ever win at Playoff hockey. The scouting and rooster moves promote fluff no character guys at all. Pathetic and tired of it

 

[Anthony5967]

You don't play in 16 days and your goalie was off for a month, you're still missing Hischier and you come out and give 60 mins of A-quality effort and win a road game at the Garden by three goals. We can say Ruff wasn't the right guy here, whatever, but that team clearly is a team that responds to a coach. Our coach is so lost and the team has no idea.

 

[Edge]

It doesn't exactly make a whole lot of sense that NYR would just wait until the "right" other coach was fired to fire their own.

I don’t think it’s quite that cut and dry for them at this point.

 

[HatTrick Swayze]

I don't get why this always needs to devolve into some "who's fault really is it" debate.

I agree Quinn has issues. It can be cliche, but in this case applies - what is his system? where is the team's identity? How can you drop a 5-2 stinker to a team that was off for two weeks. Kakko's development would seem a positive credit to Quinn, but Lafreniere's struggles and the pair's combined lack of production (Lafreniere on track for the worst rookie season for a 1OA in decades...he has been ok/good for the most part and needs better support but at some point numbers matter) beg the question of how exactly they are being coached.

On the flip side the NYR roster came into this season extremely top heavy, the youngest in the league, and has now for one reason or another subtracted it's Hart finalist, their 1A/1B KZB line, and a top 5 dman in scoring league wide last season. Oh and arguably their best C this season and 1.3 top 4 dmen tonight. I think there are a lot of useable parts on the roster but there just isn't enough talent throughout right now.

 

[Tob]

We should have at least hired a college coach that's actually won a college title. I'd hire whoever it was that coached Fox and whoever it was that coached Miller at this point.