GDT: ECF: Game 2 - New York Rangers vs Florida Panthers, 8pm ET, ESPN

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MyLoveIsBlue

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Feb 20, 2015
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irishlaxburger2

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Someone mentioned in one of the postgame threads that we actually play better when we take more penalties. I was skeptical, but after doing some research, here are our records when we have 12 or more PIM in a game (league average is around 9 btw):

NYR: 18-3 (1 of the losses was a shootout loss)
FLA: 26-17 (1 of the losses was a shootout loss)

Those numbers include regular season + playoffs. That's the best winning % in the league by quite a bit. I'm not saying we should goon it up like the Charlestown Chiefs or something. But if the refs seem compelled to even up the power play opportunities--and indeed, in those 21 games we played in which we had 12 or more PIM, the opposition also was given 12 or more PIM in 71% of the games--then it wouldn't hurt to get a little nastier. If your special teams are only so-so then it's kind of playing with fire. But when you have a PP and a PK that are both in the top 3 of the league it might be worth a shot.

And even if you don't score at least you get some good looks and build some momentum. Even though we didn't score on the PP last night we started to play better after it ended and the crowd was at least getting into it a bit.
That was me who called it out. The reality is NHL referee game management is a real thing. If the Rangers commit 20 penalties and Florida only commits 2, what will likely be called is closer to 8 and 6. And we win almost all of our games when we’re given 6 PP opportunities.

You can’t take advantage of a special teams advantage if only three penalties are called all game. You can if 12+ are, even if the proportion of them is slightly out of our favor.

Go dare the refs to call 10 Rangers penalties and 1 Florida penalty. Even if it should happen, it won’t. Because game management is real and honestly stupid. The refs will want to keep it somewhat even. And less 5v5 time is also beneficial for us too.
 

irishlaxburger2

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I also get that you can’t make panic changes at the first sight of adversity. It’s a delicate situation for Laviolette. They were good enough to win last game, just no luck.
He did panic last game, and not because it's his first sight of adversity. This hockey team has been brutal 5v5 the last 3 games other than a 9 minute span. I know we won game 6 and the Kreider heroics, but we generated absolutely nothing in that game (much like game 5) for the first 47 minutes.

Laviolette sees the writing on the wall that this team has gone ice cold 5v5. And I'm glad he's not resting on his laurels and noticing the cross-game trend to find an answer quickly. Most fans haven't put together how awful we've been 5v5 now for a pretty long stretch of hockey. At least in playoff standards.
 
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