Post-Game Talk: ECQF Game 1: New York Rangers vs. Pittsburgh Penguins

[Ola]

Real kick in the ballz loss.

So much to be upset with regarding the ref's. The Trouba call is far froma given. But to some extent this doesn't qualify as things nearly as bad as the ones we have faced in the past (take Hagelin's 3 PO game suspension for an accidental elbow for example while Prust gets 2 for a headshot on Stepan). Ultimately its two really tough calls going against us while nothing whatsoever went in our favor.

But facts are that Kakko at best is 50/50 to avoid the goalie even if he isn't pushed, they have waived those plays off for a while now. The second the goal is in the net the first thing I am thinking ouch this will be a close call.

What sucks the most is that if it was the other way around we know that Sullivan would be throwing a tantrum and that Pittsburgh would get a boat load of compensational calls the rest of the night (often at least).

 

[JHS]

It was "conclusive" to the point that the goal was overturned. The refs called a good call initially. Toronto somehow determined otherwise even after a video review , which further showed proof he was pushed. How is it acceptable? NHL still has horrible rules and officiating. It seems like it will never change.

Yeah that's exactly my point- the rule is the problem in so much as there was anyway for Toronto to overturn the original call.

 

[Kocur26]

Are we about to be swept ?

Despite being robbed - we had our doors blown off for nearly 5 periods of hockey .

Not lost - BLOWN. OFF

Our puck possession game was Washington generals vs Harlem globetrotters like … we couldn’t get it - you pass it - Carry it - or win it .

In retrospect I’m not sure I recall a playoff team so outplayed.

Where do we turn ?

We have no answers in depth … no nifty forward on the bench - no banger to bring in …

Gallant wakes up today and says how do we win a FACEOFF …

 

[Ola]

1. I rarely complain on our Ds. But in this game I think they were a part of the problem. Guys were a little nervous, the ice was crappy like usual. We gave up a little too much and didn't do a quite good enough job keeping the puck within the team. For me its not the same swan song, I think they were pressed hard but I think nerves played a bigger part in this one and that it cost us a lot of flow. The cough ups and in hindsight not perfect coverage is 100% part of the game. If it werent, 1-2 goals would be scored by both teams per average per game, not 5-6. But we should be a little harder to create chances against than we were tonight and we should control a bit more of the game.

2. I guess I am going out a bit on thin ice saying this, its easy to be misunderstood, but these games you can't make costly mistakes. You can't have passes freely going through the bluepaint. This is a big reason for why we lost the game last night.

With that said, we in addition also gave up many chances that were lucked saved us. And the ones we created on the other side weren't quite as 'point blanc'.

I just say this to sort events out for myself to properly get a read on what can be expected going forward and properly evaluate things. I.e. it has nothing to do with blaming someone (Shesty/Schneider on the 3 on 5 goal, that was about as soft 3 on 5 goal to give up that I've ever seen).

Ultimately my take I land in the conclusion that the whole team faulted as a group in this one. And I would also object against the a description that we lose a game in which it was almost impossible to score against our goalie. Facts are that of 4 goals given up, 2 of them are most of the time never scored in the NHL because the goalie takes away that passing lane. Crosby is extremely sneaky scoring goals from that exact angle getting the goalie to give up the 5 hole to pick off a pass, while him putting a really hard and accurate pass/shot in the goalies skates. I don't know if his rep played a part here.

 

[FultonReed]

75 giveaways? yikes. I didn't know it was that serious

 

[Fitzy]

The tough thing is that this kind of makes Thursday nights game a must win.

You can see the experience with Pitt. Crosby was a force to be reckoned with all night long.

 

[ColonialsHockey10]

Being at the game live - the amount of chirping Jake Guentzel does after the whistle is fascinating. There was one okay where Miller touched the puck on an icing, the ref blew the whistle and after the play was dead Guentzel skated up to Miller and just grabbed his helmet and gave it a tug.

 

[bigdog16]

Powerplays 4-1, they get a 5 on 3 on a soft call, they overturn a late goal with no conclusive evidence to overturn. How can you not point your finger at the refs? Whens the last time a team went 106 consecutive minutes with only taking 1 penalty?

 

[ColonialsHockey10]

Also, did they ever say what the f*** happened to DeSmith.

I’m pretty sure they blew the whistle mid-play to let him off the ice. So either he was having a heart attack or diarrhea.

 

[Fitzy]

Oh and Chytil was 10% last night on faceoffs.

That absolutely will not stand in a playoff game. Goodrow needs to take the draws for the third line.

 

[Rangers in 7]

Schneider had a rough game, how both nemeth and him left malkin wide open in front on the winning goal is terrible.

Nemeth was at the top of the circles

Post automatically merged: May 4, 2022

On a good note both Kakko and laf were a force out there and I thought both played very well

 

[Ori]

Yes this loss is really bad 3 OT and used too much energy for only 1 game of playoffs. I still dont agree with all the OT content it is really tedious and ruin a good playoffs run for both teams. The quality of hockey is not that great in OT.

 

[Cmox]

Oh and Chytil was 10% last night on faceoffs.

That absolutely will not stand in a playoff game. Goodrow needs to take the draws for the third line.

He should be on the wing. Aside from the inability to win a faceoff he’s too easy to push off the puck to be center.

 

[Kocur26]

WTF is Gerard Gallant trying to say here regarding disallowed goal ?

“No, I’d like to say I do [have an issue with it],” head coach Gerard Gallant said after the loss. “But you know what, it was going the other way in a 3-3 hockey game and to me, it was 50-50 call, and I sort of felt it was going to go against us. I can’t argue with that.”
NYP

 

[Chalfdiggity3]

Sadly boys all this is a mute point. Series is over. Game 1 loss was massive in so many ways. Losing Lindgren and replacing him with Braun... lack of a true leader, best players shitting the bed, home ice gone. Lets just hope we can win a game or two so that the young players know what its like to win a game in the playoffs before being embarrassed the rest of these playoffs. Series over in 5. We hopefully win 1 damn game

 

[rangersfansince08]

I lost any confidence in this series

 

[Leonardo87]

They came out like a wrecking ball, hitting everything in site. I think once the adrenaline wore off they couldn’t handle the Pens counterattack. Shesty kept them in this as long as he could, not one bad critique about him on my mind, dude stood tall and showed why he will win the Vezina this season.

They lost that 2nd period which was the pivotal point of the game. I think this win was a result of a more experienced playoff team vs an inexperienced playoff team, and not even going to blame the reffing. There really is no excuses this team is stacked with skill and talent, should be able to overcome some bad ref decisions.

 

[Fitzy]

Sadly boys all this is a mute point. Series is over. Game 1 loss was massive in so many ways. Losing Lindgren and replacing him with Braun... lack of a true leader, best players shitting the bed, home ice gone. Lets just hope we can win a game or two so that the young players know what its like to win a game in the playoffs before being embarrassed the rest of these playoffs. Series over in 5. We hopefully win 1 damn game

Cmon Chalf.

This wasn't game 1 against the Devils where Jagr destroyed his shoulder and we were completely outmatched.

This was a back and forth game where we were outplayed by a bit on balance, but came very close to winning by having the better goaltender.

Lindgren has been playing at only about a #5 level this season. Braun has almost a quarter of our roster's playoff experience by himself.

 

[rangersfansince08]

f*** anybody shitting on Shesty for giving up 4 goals where he was left out to dry on all four.

He still had a .952 SV%.

Btw xG for the armpits were 8.99. 4.99 GSAE. And people still want to shit on him?

So f*** the rest of the team for how they played. Losers gave up 25 shots and 3 goals in the second period.

 

[Leonardo87]

f*** anybody shitting on Shesty for giving up 4 goals where he was left out to dry on all four.

He still had a .952 SV%.

Btw xG for the armpits were 7.5. 3.5 GSAE. And people still want to shit on him?

So f*** the rest of the team for how they played. Losers gave up 25 shots and 3 goals in the second period.

Shesty was not why they loss. Shesty was the reason they lasted as long as they did. Pittsburgh lost one of their Top 6 guys, and their 1st and 2nd goalie. Playing against a cold 3rd string goalie in the end.

 

[Machinehead]

I still think this is ultimately a learning experience in a larger project and that's all well and good.

That being said, I need to have one whinge. I've had it before and I don't think it's exclusive to the Rangers but I need to say it again: I f***ing hate our lines. Absolutely hate them.

The bloom fell off of Vatrano's rose in like the second week of April. That line is hot ass. The Kid Line has no offensive bite to it - you've got two 20 year olds and a decent middle sixer in Chytil (the grizzled veteran at 22) and we expect who exactly to take the initiative? The Panarin line was, I thought, fine. Any time Copp is around, Panarin just seems to go "oh yeah, hockey!" and cut the nonsense, so maybe stick with that. Strome on that line, while not terrible if Copp is there, just seems like a waste to me. It's too many cooks in the kitchen when other lines need skill. The 4th line, don't even get me going.

The reality is, Strome and Panarin together played their best hockey before f***ing covid existed. Think about how long ago that is now. Vatrano, again, isn't working anymore on his line. It's certainly not just Gallant and maybe it's not even just the Rangers but I'm a Rangers fan on the Rangers board, so here we are -- the Rangers have a nasty habit of doing something for five years because it worked for five minutes. McDonagh-Girardi, anyone? We had a star defenseman with more playoff wins now than anyone and a guy who, say what you will, had a 13-year NHL career, and we sat there for what SIX(?) years and watched them become one of the least effective pairs to ever see significant minutes. Why do we do this? Is it a Rangers thing? Is it an NHL coaching thing? BTW, while I'm on pairings, Lindgren-Fox started growing something green on it in like October and we're still throwing it back into the fridge every night.

I get sticking with what you know because it could go bad, but you reach a point where it can't be worse. 20-93-77 is not a f***ing factor at 5v5 and haven't been for weeks and they're getting massive minutes to do nothing at best and get suplexed at worst, because they had like, three good games after the deadline.

Kreider-Zibanejad-Chytil
Panarin-Copp-Vatrano
Lafreniere-Strome-Kakko

I don't care what order it's in. You play 45 minutes at even strength, it should be 13/13/13 and HUNT(!!!!)-Goodrow-Reaves can have the other six. Rooney can sell popcorn.

Our best out and out center who does center things such as winning faceoffs (absolute mad lad) is Andrew Copp and he doesn't play center.

 

[JohnC]

My morning after takes:

–the 4th line, 3rd pair, and 2nd line (to an extent) were big problems, as they were all season long.
–kid line will probably keep being used as the 4th line but it just can’t happen. They were the only line to make something happen every shift they were out there. Their continued sheltering in favor of that detrimental 4th line will lose us games.
–watching the Reaves line get fed O-zone starts was shades of AV feeding whatever line Tanner Glass was on O-zone starts.
–I thought Duomoulin did more to interfere with DeSmith than Kakko but whatev.
–still baffled by 1 Pitt penalty somehow.
–overall, we were easily the better team in the 1st and all 3 OTs IMO so if they can clean up some of the issues they had in 2 & 3 I think they’ll be fine.

 

[rangers1314]

Sure looked a lot like November after the 1st period.

 

[Kocur26]

“The Blueshirts fell back into their habit of looking for the perfect play instead of getting the puck in deep or to the net. Neutral-zone turnovers resulted. Shots from the middle of the ice were passed up in favor of passes to more acute angles. Opportunities were missed”
Larry Legend

 

[Mike in Houston]

Panarin, if you want to count the bubble, has played 4 postseason games with the Rangers and has one goal and one assist.