Post-Game Talk: ECQF Game 2: Rangers @ Capitals 5/4/13 - Lundqvists 0 - Capitals 1

A reporter did ask that during practice today. Torts response was essentially, "I would do it again."

Doesn't be preach during the season about short shifts? Keeping yourself fresh and conditioning? What is he talking about he would do it again?

Torts meet my last nerve.
 
As sad and pathetic as this is, here is how I see the impending Rangers Playoff Torture:

crapitals are not really good enough to sweep us with Hank in the net, and Holtby is due for a bad game, maybe even 2.

We will one or both games at home and this series will go at least 6 games. We will be teased and taunted. There will be flashes of offensive prowess which, when viewed through our "blue" eyes, will give us excitement and hope. (If we can just play like this in EVERY GAME we can beat anyone!!)

Then after we have turned the tide and even the NBC commentators are saying "This is the team that was predicted to win The Cup!" we will fail to show up for 2 periods in the "must win" game and fall short in the 3rd, hitting a post and a cross-bar on a 5-on-3.

Lifted high only to disappoint once again.

They wont make it easy. They wont just lose the next 2 without ever even being in the game. They will make it just interesting enough to watch again.

It's really getting old.
 
As sad and pathetic as this is, here is how I see the impending Rangers Playoff Torture:

crapitals are not really good enough to sweep us with Hank in the net, and Holtby is due for a bad game, maybe even 2.

We will one or both games at home and this series will go at least 6 games. We will be teased and taunted. There will be flashes of offensive prowess which, when viewed through our "blue" eyes, will give us excitement and hope. (If we can just play like this in EVERY GAME we can beat anyone!!)

Then after we have turned the tide and even the NBC commentators are saying "This is the team that was predicted to win The Cup!" we will fail to show up for 2 periods in the "must win" game and fall short in the 3rd, hitting a post and a cross-bar on a 5-on-3.

Lifted high only to disappoint once again.

They wont make it easy. They wont just lose the next 2 without ever even being in the game. They will make it just interesting enough to watch again.

It's really getting old.

Sounds about right. Rangers typical.
 
The series is winnable???

I don't belive this place.

It better be winnable. We have rebuilt for ten years. We have one of the most valuble players in the league in Hank. We have Nash. We have a bunch of home grown chaper players that gives us depth in a cap world. We are playing the Caps, hardly a power house in this league.

We could potentially win? It's nothing but a fiasco if we don't win.

Rangers have the superior team and I agree it's a fiasco if the Caps win this. Rangers should honestly have taken this in no more than 5 or 6. If the Rangers lose, I don't see the Caps being able to beat any other East team in the playoffs.
 
With the zuke-Nash-Richards line, You control zuke then You control the whole line..

A pretty brutal game by zuke, but he did scruf around a little with Green I saw..
 
Effort, sand paper, jam, unity or whatever word someone wants to apply the rangers need is not the issue.

The problem is that the Rangers need TACTICAL answers and aren't getting them from their coach. I don't think its a lack of effort or work ethic with this team. In fact, if anything, I think they try TOO HARD. They have to work their butts off just to execute simple plays.

Its buffoonery. How can anyone look at our D corps and say "Ya know what those guys don't try hard enough"?

I'm not sure if your insinuating my view that the team isn't all in is buffoonery? If you are IMO that's a very oversimplistic take. Effort, sand, jam are very important assets in playoff hockey. Ya know those guys may try hard but they let 5'7" zuccs get roughed up multiple times without helping him. On the whole the d is the least of our problems but lacks sand. Mac will help bigtime.

If I've misconstrued your last few sentences.....peace. If not it pure buffoonery!:D
 
I'm not sure if your insinuating my view that the team isn't all in is buffoonery? If you are IMO that's a very oversimplistic take. Effort, sand, jam are very important assets in playoff hockey. Ya know those guys may try hard but they let 5'7" zuccs get roughed up multiple times without helping him. On the whole the d is the least of our problems but lacks sand. Mac will help bigtime.

If I've misconstrued your last few sentences.....peace. If not it pure buffoonery!:D

Nah, I wasn't applying that to you. I was indicting Torts approach to this team. The team doesn't need more character, they already got enough of that.
 
With the zuke-Nash-Richards line, You control zuke then You control the whole line..

A pretty brutal game by zuke, but he did scruf around a little with Green I saw..

Its not Zuc fault. Honestly, its no players fault. Zuc has no business grinding along the boards in the Ozone.

Because our system is grinding down low in the zone below the goal line, Nash is the only one who can do that. So, he gets smothered since Richards and Zuc can't help him all that much along the wall.

Its fing stupid to watch. In a puck possession system Zuc would look awesome. In this system, his size makes it almost impossible for him to be effective in playoffs.
 
As sad and pathetic as this is, here is how I see the impending Rangers Playoff Torture:

crapitals are not really good enough to sweep us with Hank in the net, and Holtby is due for a bad game, maybe even 2.

We will one or both games at home and this series will go at least 6 games. We will be teased and taunted. There will be flashes of offensive prowess which, when viewed through our "blue" eyes, will give us excitement and hope. (If we can just play like this in EVERY GAME we can beat anyone!!)

Then after we have turned the tide and even the NBC commentators are saying "This is the team that was predicted to win The Cup!" we will fail to show up for 2 periods in the "must win" game and fall short in the 3rd, hitting a post and a cross-bar on a 5-on-3.

Lifted high only to disappoint once again.

They wont make it easy. They wont just lose the next 2 without ever even being in the game. They will make it just interesting enough to watch again.

It's really getting old.

Yeah, this is looking a lot like the 2011 series. Our only win was when Lundqvist stood on his head and we got a fortuitous bounce for the GWG.

 
crapitals are not really good enough to sweep us with Hank in the net
.

Unlikely for Henrik to score a goal though...

Yesterdays loss was tough. McD is a young Star player. He has earned every red cent of his contract. He is a GOOD KID WHO SHOWS UP EVERY NIGHT FOR HIS TEAM.

But the Hockey Gods are humbling, and yesterday the Caps exploited a costly MISTAKE. They deserved the W.

I'm sure McD will benefit from the experience, and those benefits will in turn help the Rangers down the road....

Not sure just why this team struggles to score year in and year out. Not the coaches fault, not really the players fault yesterday. I saw a lot of excellent effort, a lot that will to win. Again, sometimes the hockey Gods are humbling. A post here, a blind save there...


Recipe for success in game 3:

A. More Pucks to the Net.

4 shots for Richards

3 shots for Nash

1 for Hags

1 Steps

0 Brassard

0 McD

It's one of the simple mantras of goal scorers.
5+ shots and you are likely to pot one. Ask Mike Gardner, Mike Bossy, #99, #68... Guys with a focused mindset on scoring goals every game KNOW FOR A FACT. YOU HAVE TO TAKE THE SHOT.

Easier said then done? Sure but so is winning the cup.


B. Are they getting pushed around

The Rangers were a BETTER team when they were a more intimidating opponent physically. I know you don't want to play down a man vs the AO/Green show but if we're going to beat this team the Rangers are going to have drop the gloves and get into some real blue collar hockey.

Teams need to know they will pay for every shift. It creates doubt, space and eventually mental fatigue that pays off in long OT games...
 
I reviewed the game log last night. If I read it right, the Rangers went the last 17:53 of the game (3rd and OT) without getting a single shot on goal. Whether you blame the coaches, players, or both, that simply cannot happen in the playoffs. That's basically an entire period.
 
I reviewed the game log last night. If I read it right, the Rangers went the last 17:53 of the game (3rd and OT) without getting a single shot on goal. Whether you blame the coaches, players, or both, that simply cannot happen in the playoffs. That's basically an entire period.

That's including 2 full power plays.

Fun fact: Caps were 27th in PK this season.

But this team never changes with Tortorella. I remember in 2011, we were 1 for 20 or 1 for 21 against the Caps in the playoffs.
 
The end result is affecting your view of the game.
If Nash's shot is 1 inch to the inside, we'd all be talking about Hank's performance and Nash's clutch.

...and if my aunt had balls she'd be my uncle.

When you don't get a SOG in the last half of the 3rd period it's not a good game.
 
Curious, if Clowe does get ready. Who gets moved out of the roster.

Dorsett or Zucc are the most likely candidates no ?
 
http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=669308&navid=nhl:topheads

"It wasn't a very straining game on a goalie," a relaxed Holtby said of how he felt following the Washington Capitals' 1-0 overtime win at Verizon Center.

The Rangers made it that way. They know it, too.
"If he's thinking that then we've gotta be better, go to the dirty areas, make it hard, make it so he can't get out of his crease," defenseman Ryan McDonagh said after practice Sunday. "That's one area we can focus on that might help us to have a puck deflect in off somebody or something like that. In this series it's tough for both teams to get goals, so maybe we just need to put a couple more bodies around the net and throw it there."

Wait wait wait, what took them this long to realize this?
 

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