Post-Game Talk: duck @ RANGER

[Unpredictable1]

Beginning of 93-94 was very different team than end of that year.

Beginning had amonte, gartner, graves, messier, kovalev, tikannen, leetch, zubov, James patrick and Darren turcotte. Tons of firepower and speed for era. But by end of year half of those guys were gone and replaced by harder to play against vets - larmer, noonan Matteau, mactavish, olczyk, etc. just a very diff squad. Plus only a year or two earlier they had traded away weight for tik.

That team was a juggernaut offensively but Keenan wanted to remake the squad for the playoffs. Traded away so much skill. We likely over did it on getting rid of youth and skill for grit and as a result limited our window and wasted a bunch of richter and leetch’s prime for one shot at cup.

This team currently has similar firepower to pre-playoff push 93-94 squad, but shesty is better than Ricky (though Ricky was a make a big save when you need one type who had tons of battle). Zubov was a true x-factor as we suddenly had two high end puck movers. But bottom 6 on those squads was really skilled with tik and nemchinov. I would give 93-94 squad an edge in offensive depth but we need to see how the kids develop. So many differences in terms of eras of hockey and salary cap.

I will say, Rangers have never had a 21 year old kid who looked as dominant on the boards as Kakko since mid 80s when I started watching. Graves was closest. Kovalev was more dipsy do than bull in china shop. Kakko is one of a kind.

You really dusted off some parts of my brain with portions of this post (thank you! lol) and agree with everything.

Leetch and Zubov on the point were a cheat code of sorts.

 

[Kovalev27]

Trochecks skating is making us a much much faster team. Including on the PP. he’s always moving and it’s opening lanes.

They need to tighten up defensively a bit but the possession change here which I expected with this move taking him from Carolina is big. He was a big driver of Carolina’s speed and puck possession too last year.

 

[irishlaxburger2]

Just a casual 37 scoring opportunities. 16 high danger. Not a big deal.

 

[Larrybiv]

Don't want to over react but Panarin will break the single season pts record and game point streak

You're not over reacting. Expected as much. This is NOT the player that played in last year's PO's.
Was it because of Strome?
Was he injured? (haven't heard a peep about that, unless I missed something)

I NEED answers!

 

[haohmaru]

Don't want to over react but Panarin will break the single season pts record and game point streak

124 points? Tough ask.

 

[Larrybiv]

Mika and CK got 81 goals last year. It it too ridiculous to say they can get 90?

an emphatic......NO! Mika 50, Kreids 40. Throw in Panarin's 30, and Trochek's 35, and whatever the kids wanna kick in with, lol.

 

[Larrybiv]

Is Laf next year gonna make a jump like Kakko has this year? If so, sorry nhl.

think he's only 1/2 season behind him. He gets it, you can see that. Those passes he's been making have been Marvelous.

 

[McRanger92]

I love the move Gallant is using every game where he gives the Kid Line a full shift together after PP1 plays the majority of the 2 minutes. Throwing Laf-Chytil-Kakko out and getting tired players stuck on the ice will lead to lost of goals for the good guys.

 

[Glen Sathers Cigar]

I hope the irony was not lost on Strome that his replacement scored an easy empty net goal to open up the scoring.

 

[McRanger92]

I hope the irony was not lost on Strome that his replacement scored an easy empty net goal to open up the scoring.

Strome is counting his millions in the best weather cities in North America, but it has to be killing him that he's not going to be here for the Rangers peak. He was a good Ranger and he had nothing but good things to say about us though and for that I will always respect him.

 

[Kodiak]

Yeah Lundqvist was the same way. Played better the more work he got and the more games he played.

Igor will be fine. No denying he was poopy tonight though. At least they were able to score their way out of it though.


The main boards and hockey twitter will still be saying the Rangers are all PP and Igor and suck at 5v5 until they’re number one in all fancy stats.

This team not only has a lethal PP but they’re getting insane chances 5v5 too. The top 6 is basically two first lines and having that 1-2 punch all night just completely overwhelms the other team. You don’t need to be first in Corsi when you have the elite talent the rangers do. Their cross seam pass work and roving in the offensive zone to confuse the defense is some of the best in the league. The amount of slot passes they can pull off really creat such high quality chances.


Also, I thought Blais was strong tonight. I really like him as a flank for Chytil.

The fancy stats look pretty good so far. It's still early in the season, so it's too small a sample size to get a legit comparison. The Devils, for example, are 0-2 but killing it in the fancy stats.

4th in ES CF%
7th in ES FF%
9th in ES xGF%

And here's the kicker, 21st in ES PDO with 0.994. The analytics proponents always seem to like to point to the PDO when the Rangers are performing well to say that their success is based on luck and cashing in on an abnormally high percentage of chances. This year's team is just generating chance after chance.

 

[Larrybiv]

We don't even talk about Adam Fox anymore. Anyone notice that? He doesn't need to carry any offensive load now.

Funny, I said that last night to GF. Where's Foxy? Quiet night from him thus far, barely noticed him. lol

 

[Kodiak]

Are you sure Igor is not the one who was shipped to Colorado ?

An elite goalie clutches that initial shot to his chest and gets a whistle. As we have seen a thousand times, Georgiev created his own scramble moment with poor rebound control.

 

[duhmetreE]

124 points? Tough ask.

215 pts

 

[Larrybiv]

Unfortunately the report from Canes fans was lots of great things mixed in with lots of boneheaded defensive lapses. We’ll see if that holds.

oh please, saw many many games with Panthers here in Florida. He's gotten better, and needless to say FAR better of an offensive threst than Stromer, let alone his FO's being much better.

 

[duhmetreE]

You're not over reacting. Expected as much. This is NOT the player that played in last year's PO's.
Was it because of Strome?
Was he injured? (haven't heard a peep about that, unless I missed something)

I NEED answers!

Yes

 

[Raspewtin]

some thoughts to this point in the season

• I think there's a conscious effort to be more shoot first and to crowd the slot/net front, which to me is a great shift in strategy. they still do their fair share of cross-ice tomf***ery but they are shooting from different angles and getting more players to the net. I pointed out how frustrating it was that they try to force pucks to the slot, but I understand why they're doing it and think they will improve a lot. it helps that players like Chytil, Kakko, Laf, Troch, Vesey, and Blais are swarming the net constantly looking for tips and second chance opportunities. I also think this is why some of them have taken some really awkward shots and put themselves into weird positions for chances, this is counter to what a lot of them have played like the last few years. think it needs time
• I appreciate how aggressive our D have become but they absolutely need to find some kind of balance. IDK what Miller was thinking last night when he pinched 20 billion times up 4. No need for that. I have NO idea what Lindgren was thinking on that 3rd goal. Like his brainstem disconnected. Jones is trying to thread the needle a biiiiiit too much sometimes and it's getting him into some trouble. I like the desire to be aggressive and not sit back, I really do and I think that's how you win in this league, they need to go over it though.
• I like the concept of the third line a lot. it's a great grind line, especially with Blais on it. Chytil's improved physical play and worksman attitude with two bonafide grinders with juuuust enough skill to cut it has been fun to watch. they're strong defensively and usually get the puck to the other side of the ice. also helps that Chytil has been really good on faceoffs so far. I wish they were more of a scoring threat though, it would be ideal if Krav could make an impact and bump down Vesey. not that he deserves it, I don't think, but vesey is probably the least offensively gifted of this group.
• I don't know who upped Kreider's xanax prescription but whoever did it, f*** you. looks like he's slept all summer and we just woke him up and threw his equipment at him. he is the clear weak link on the 1st line and is just.........not moving his feet. at all. I know he's not a trailblazer in speed anymore but this is pathetic. time to get going, the season started.
• PK isn't good. we're relying too much on igor and need to support the slot area more (this goes for ES as well)
• It feels like in a lot of areas this team is deprogramming from things they used to do and they're appearing very sloppy for it. I think if this game was against another team we probably lose. we played with our food which is pretty much never a good idea in this league. I'm really happy with certain areas of our game but I think they need to keep it up and sharpen up defensively and with their passing.

 

[haohmaru]

215 pts

Needs 216 to put Gretzky in his place

 

[McRanger92]

Funny, I said that last night to GF. Where's Foxy? Quiet night from him thus far, barely noticed him. lol

Fox has somehow become the most underrated defenseman in the league

 

[LOFIN]

An elite goalie clutches that initial shot to his chest and gets a whistle. As we have seen a thousand times, Georgiev created his own scramble moment with poor rebound control.

That's not really nothing new for the Avs coming out from Kuemper lol. Georgiev has played well for the Avs so far and good for him. He's not an elite goalie, but good enough for the Avs and that's what they were looking for.

Not that many goalies that I would consider being elite or great in this league in this day and age. Vasy, Shesty, Hellebuyck, Saros... Starts getting pretty slim after that doesn't it? I mean those are the goalies that I would really like if I had to start a team today.

 

[hackeyman]

Just noticed now......24 votes for Frank Vatrano !

 

[Unpredictable1]

Can Hank come out of retirement and instead of getting paid he donates $1 million towards salary cap. We get him a few games here and there then he sneaks onto the Cup.

Since he's plain clothes now (and very dapper I might add), keep him around MSG as the resident emergency backup goalie but only for NYR

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

The fancy stats look pretty good so far. It's still early in the season, so it's too small a sample size to get a legit comparison. The Devils, for example, are 0-2 but killing it in the fancy stats.

4th in ES CF%
7th in ES FF%
9th in ES xGF%

And here's the kicker, 21st in ES PDO with 0.994. The analytics proponents always seem to like to point to the PDO when the Rangers are performing well to say that their success is based on luck and cashing in on an abnormally high percentage of chances. This year's team is just generating chance after chance.

Devils have played a pair of cupcakes with Detroit being on the back end of b2b's. Hell they get another bad team tonight in Anaheim on the back end of b2b's.

Their goaltending will continue to suck and the defensive additions they've made the last few years have been really overrated. They've compiled like a who's who of guys I'd never want on my team, with Marino and Hamilton leading the way.

 

[will1066]

Im hearing on the wire that Eriksson Ek is still chasing Kakko for the puck

 

[McRanger92]

An elite goalie clutches that initial shot to his chest and gets a whistle. As we have seen a thousand times, Georgiev created his own scramble moment with poor rebound control.

I laughed out loud at the initial rebound he gave up. Elite my ass. As you said, that's a quick whistle with any goalie who isnt doing the backstroke in his own crease