Post-Game Talk: Duck Tenders

[RangersFan1994]

Did Mika play tonight? Sad when you dont notice him against a weaker less talented opponent? Kreider was noticable as was Smith. Mika’s best days are behind him. 6 more years

 

[Brutananadilewski]

don't have energy to have any thoughts on this besides Mika is lucky Aaron Judge exists or my shitlist would have him at an untoppable #1 rn.

Unfortunately for Mika, I'm not a Yankees fan.

...But luckily for him, I am a Giants fan: f*** YOU, JONES!!!

...But Jones is gone after this season, and we're still stuck with Mika for another 5 seasons....

The crosshair remains on Mika!!

 

[bl02]

Quick is now 20-6 with the Rangers.

 

[egelband]

I'm not a guy who likes to get on individual players when they're not playing well, but Mika is just lost out there. He doesn't seem to be doing anything with purpose, speed or decisiveness. Those last 90 seconds felt like he was trying to help Anaheim tie it up. Just brutal plays in his own end, losing faceoffs and puck battles.

I don't know what has happened to his game but it's very concerning.

On a positive note, the piles getting clowned by Florida after taking a 3-0 lead was entertaining.

Agree. The goal Anaheim scored came petty much as a direct result of Mika lazily missing a breakout pass. The pass gets past Mika to the ducks player coming the other way back at the rangers and bing, bang, boom, goal.

 

[80shockeywasbuns]

Agree. The goal Anaheim scored came petty much as a direct result of Mika lazily missing a breakout pass. The pass gets past Mika to the ducks player coming the other way back at the rangers and bing, bang, boom, goal.

Does this guy have Lou gehrigs disease??

 

[egelband]

Did Mika play tonight? Sad when you dont notice him against a weaker less talented opponent? Kreider was noticable as was Smith. Mika’s best days are behind him. 6 more years

Yeah. I thought Kreider was fine and especially when he played with Chytil for a bit at one point.

The Ducks look like they have a really bright future. I liked the way most of their young’s guns played, most notably Carlsson, McTavish, Mintyukov, and Zellweger. Zegras was totally unnoticeable.

Rangers were all over them and they bent but didn’t break. Pretty scrappy bunch. And a lot of talent bubbling up too.

 

[egelband]

Damn, I keep coming to these threads and seeing "Miller so bad" kinda takes yet he had the second lowest xGA among our Dmen, and the highest xGF.

He seems fine to me. I see the mistakes but he’s also push the attack which I like. He hasn’t broken out yet but I’m hopeful he will do so soon and the mistakes will be just a side note.

 

[chosen]

They had an AHL defense and zero offensive threats.

Zero offensive threats?

You mean verbal?

 

[chosen]

Damn, I keep coming to these threads and seeing "Miller so bad" kinda takes yet he had the second lowest xGA among our Dmen, and the highest xGF.

The problem is that he has such glaring bad plays once or twice a game. That said, I am very glad he's here.

 

[chosen]

Give me Rebecca Haarlow!

As an old-timer, this was the moment I realized, ah, so that's what it's for.

 

[chosen]

Does this guy have Lou gehrigs disease??

It's difficult to remember a Ranger's game going south so definitively and so quickly, without a known reason. I don't want to screw up the 3rd line but it's hard to not want Chytil and Zib switching roles.

 

[Boris Zubov]

Does this guy have Lou gehrigs disease??

 

[Row I Goon]

Was out bushwalking and missed the game. Watched the recap. When is the penny gonna drop for Lavi with Mika? Has Zibs got pics of the coach in drag or something? WTF?

 

[LOFIN]

Was out bushwalking and missed the game. Watched the recap. When is the penny gonna drop for Lavi with Mika? Has Zibs got pics of the coach in drag or something? WTF?

TBH, what are we going to do about it? The "third line" has already passed the "first line" in even strength ice time. And there's just no way you want to mess with the third line because they are playing so well right now. The PP is still decent as well.

 

[Maliks PlusMinus]

Our guys have been great to start the season.

The Trocheck and Chytil lines are ridiculous atm. Almost everybody has been very good including the much maligned guys.

Lindgren was excellent in all 3 zones last night. A few games ago Trouba was clearly the best D. Kakko is finding something I worried he never could.

 

[Synergy27]

I generally agree about staying positive, and if this game were an outlier for Zib, I'd 100% agree with you, but...there's a LONGSTANDING problem with Zibanejad.

Some food for thought. Going back to the playoffs, over the last 18 games (including tonight), Zibanejad has been spoon-fed nearly an hour of powerplay time (57:09 to be precise). In that hour of powerplay time? He has ONE assist. That's it. That's a pace for what, 6 or 7 powerplay points over a full season? While getting choice minutes with some amazing players? That's just not good enough.

Frankly, Kreider has been something of a problem on the PP unit as well (2 goals over the last 18 games). For as much as Lavi likes to say the PP1 unit has been succeeding, what he really means is that Bread (3G, 4A in the last 18 games) and Trocheck (2G, 4A in the last 18) have been succeeding.

On top of that, it's not even like Zib is on the top unit because he's a center. Trocheck takes the draws on PP1.

Zib is supposed to be balls on the defensive side of the puck as well. Well...no points again for him tonight, but he was on the ice for the ONE goal against--a goal where he made a dainty stick check on his man (the puck carrier) and then circled off to let someone else take care of him.

All of this is on top of the fact that Zib carries himself like he just doesn't give a shit. The whining to the refs all the time, the lazy plays on the ice. He has the talent. We've all seen it. He has the talent to be a top 10 center in this league. But he just doesn't seem to have the desire.

Again, don't get me wrong. I'm very happy that the team won. But they won a lot last year while ignoring the glaring issues with the roster, and how did that pan out for them? Mediocre teams are content to win. Championship teams fix what's broken. And right now? The supposed 1C is, and has been for a good long while, looking pretty broken.

Yeah. Our third line is mediocre.

 

[mandiblesofdoom]

Does this guy have Lou gehrigs disease??

all season it's like he waves at pucks but never gets them.

 

[eco's bones]

I swear there was one shift in the first period where Mika had 5 touches and he flubbed the play or pass every time. I don't think his linemates were the problem. They were more like the victims.

Dostal got into their heads a bit and our players seemed to be fine tuning and missing on a lot of their shots in the second period particularly. This where Cuylle driving the net helped us a lot. Got to go for the dirty goal instead of the pretty one. Chytil, Kakko, Cuylle were our best line. Chytil's defensive play has been outstanding.

 

[Harbour Dog]

The CuCK line just keeps on rolling.

This is the most confident I've been in us, as a playoff team, since before the retool at least. Might have to go back a decade.

 

[LOFIN]

The CuCK line just keeps on rolling.

Not sure what to make of this nickname

 

[Harbour Dog]

Not sure what to make of this nickname

The Zib line is stealing their ice time?

 

[DevilDog99]

I'm not a guy who likes to get on individual players when they're not playing well, but Mika is just lost out there. He doesn't seem to be doing anything with purpose, speed or decisiveness. Those last 90 seconds felt like he was trying to help Anaheim tie it up. Just brutal plays in his own end, losing faceoffs and puck battles.

I don't know what has happened to his game but it's very concerning.

On a positive note, the piles getting clowned by Florida after taking a 3-0 lead was entertaining.

Agreed. It’s not about being in a slump- he doesn’t even look like he is trying. At all.

Also, he was the same way last year…all year. So it isn’t a “slow start” either.

 

[mandiblesofdoom]

I swear there was one shift in the first period where Mika had 5 touches and he flubbed the play or pass every time. I don't think his linemates were the problem. They were more like the victims.

Yeah, I remember that. It's like coordination is gone.

The Lou Gehrig comment above is not, like, completely crazy. I wonder what the deal is.

 

[DevilDog99]

K’ still can’t play defense for shit.

 

[LOFIN]

The Zib line is stealing their ice time?

Haha, at least on our minds it is. But the "CuCK-line" has actually had more 5v5 time in the last 4 games at least. So clearly Lavy sees what we are seeing there.