Post-Game Talk: Game # 31 Rangers vs Buffalo - 7pm EST - MSG

[Larrybiv]

I can joke about Quinn with the best of them, but I think it's circumstantial evidence. Others have pointed out already that Kakko had spent time earlier in the season on that line and looked bad. Zibanejad had been getting better before Quinn went down. The timing just makes it seem Knob has the midas touch. Other than tonight, the power play has remained abysmal yet Knob has rolled the same unit. Miller's game is still shaky. People are just heating up at a time Knob is behind the bench. Pucks are now going in. We're still seeing over passing and cross crease prayer passes. Quinn has his failings for sure, but he wouldn't have line blendered the way he did if the team hadn't been a holy hell the first two months and rode on the backs of Blackwell, Rooney, and PDG.

Have a tendency to agree. Stop making Knoblach a Godsend.
If not anything else, its a little familiarity with some he has coached and everyone being on best behavior. If they werent winning, would it be Knob's fault?

 

[chosen]

Quinn had him on that line for a good bit before he got sick, no?

Get yer truth outta here!

 

[chosen]

Get a couple of practices in... I doubt Kravtsov will be ready to go by Quinns standards but hopefully Shesty is.

They might want to remove Shesterkins groin in order to prevent future injuries.

 

[Joe Ranger Fan 1960]

I got what I wanted. The kids drove the net. Simple but not easy. It makes a big difference.

 

[eco's bones]

Nice to see Kakko score two goals and hopefully that gives him a boost but last night was a game we had no business losing. Buffalo is probably the worst team in the league right now. It was a game that we had to win but as a team performance it lagged behind both Capitals games.

 

[will1066]

I want to use the Conan O'Brien waking up happy gif again, but it might be getting old lol

 

[kovazub94]

I love that when Strome finally shoots it from the right circle on the powerplay, we immediately scored a goal. If he's gonna be on that top unit, he needs to be more of a threat to shoot the puck.

Also, the underlying numbers were always there for Kakko this season, and the kid has looked more and more dangerous with each passing game. The points are going to start coming for him.

And Strome doesn’t need to be a lefty to shoot from there, but to keep his passing dangerous he needs to shoot more often. Valli previously broke the plan for this Strome spot on PP - almost skate out of the zone or at least move to the blue line to then accept the pass and or while moving with speed into the empty area from blue line to right circle.

 

[Leonardo87]

Was a good game overall. They let up a little letting Buffalo get some goals back, but if they didn’t put like 5 goals up against this putrid team would have been upset. Adam Fox is so Friggin good, and after reading people drool over the Hughes and Makar’s on the main forum, it’s nice we can appreciate how good Fox is and have some drool sessions of our own. I also am tired of hearing about he who shall not be named is better than Fox on the PP. Please stop! He gets the job done on there, makes great plays and also shoots. He is not the reason the PP has not been as good as it should be.

As per the Kakko thing. He didn’t deserve to be put back up on the 2nd line till this game, and when he got the deserved promotion, he took advantage of it. Will be up to him if he stays up there. Has to prove he can be consistent and bring it most games. Was very engaged last night. Laf not so much, but again it’s his 1st season in the NHL.

Playoffs are very reachable now, just have to keep pushing.

 

[kovazub94]

Strome a nightmare of a game still ends up with 2 points. It’s amazing lol


That fourth line got victimized for all 3 Washington goals i believe and 2 tonight. That’s not acceptable. If Brendan Lemieux can’t defend or score or do anything but yap get him out of here. Gauthier will end right back in the press box when you go -2 in 8 mins

Panarin even worse nightmare of a game. Giveaways galore

 

[kovazub94]

I would much rather have digiuseppe on the 4th line over Lemieux when he’s back. This fourth line can’t be trusted defensively they shouldn’t be dressed.

Same. PDG and Gauthier is a lot of speed to go with the size too. Rooney at center.

 

[CasusBelli]

Who the f*** sits?

Kravtsov is knocking on the door. Gauthier. Blackwell. Howden. PDG. Lemmy.

We know Quinny loves his hunting dogs.

In a normal world? Keep Howden, PDG and Blackwell for the fourth line, and go with three scoring lines and one checking line:

10 - 16 - 24
20 - 93 - 89
13 - 72 - 91 / 12
Whatever

48

 

[will1066]

Panarin even worse nightmare of a game. Giveaways galore

It's a live-with-it thing at this point. He and Strome produce together undeniably, warts and all. I wish they aren't so east-west but that's their game. The difference between the two is that Panarin backchecks way better.

 

[kovazub94]

Mika first 15 games 3 pts

Mika last 16 games 17 pts

And his one timer and first touch is coming back. This is who he is. Not the guy we saw in the first 15

Don’t think Zibanejad’s turnaround started 16 games ago. Probably more like 8-10 games ago but 6 points in one game surely helps with a lot of averages.

 

[Peltz]

Panarin even worse nightmare of a game. Giveaways galore

Panarin definitely tried to force things a bit too much last night. But he's earned the right to be a little "creative" out there and take risks. I'm sure he knows that he was forcing it too much and will adjust his game accordingly next game.

Overall, we gave up far too many odd man rushes against a team that we should have smothered defensively. People are praising Knoblach, but I thought the team played poor team defense against the most incompetent offense in the NHL and gave up 3 goals. They put Kincaid in a position where he was forced to basically steal the game for them.

I don't see that as good coaching. It was the sloppiest game they've played in a while now.

 

[Peltz]

In a normal world? Keep Howden, PDG and Blackwell for the fourth line, and go with three scoring lines and one checking line:

10 - 16 - 24
20 - 93 - 89
13 - 72 - 91 / 12
Whatever

48

Numbers instead of names? Who does that?

 

[Fitzy]

Nice to see Kakko score two goals and hopefully that gives him a boost but last night was a game we had no business losing. Buffalo is probably the worst team in the league right now. It was a game that we had to win but as a team performance it lagged behind both Capitals games.

Maybe.

I saw mental lapses and letting the foot off the pedal for a couple minutes at a time.

The sum performance was great, but the errors were very apparent. They stopped taking the Sabres seriously for a few minutes at a time and got burned.

That's a young team for you.

 

[GAGLine]

Kreider sure can drive you crazy. 40 minutes of ice time against the Caps, 2 shots no points.

tonight - solid.

what’s most frustrating is his game is the kind that “should” be reliable....reliably great.

Kreider's game is dependent on the players around him. Look at the goals he scored last night. One was a tip in and the other a rebound chance. He does his job in front, screens the goalie and cleans up the garbage, but other players have to get the puck to the net.

Yes, Kreider can also score off the rush, but it's usually because someone hits him with a great pass to spring him, so he can use his speed. Kreider isn't going to carry the puck end to end. He isn't going to dangle people.

He will always be a streaky goal scorer.

 

[PuckLuck3043]

We are 6 points behind Pittsburgh if we win the game in hand. We beat them in our final series, that's a 2 pts difference. Boston is unlikely but we'd need to get to 3pts behind into the final 2 games of the season.

The 2-game series make for a lot of weird standings possibilities. There little to no room for error on our part though.

That 46% still seems overly optimistic to me. We are 8 points behind Pitt and they have owned us. That's a lot of points to make up in the last 25 games. There is a reason that 78% of teams in a playoff spot on Thanksgiving make the playoffs during a regular season. It's just so hard to make up those points with all the 3 point games. I would love for them to sneak in but I'm not expecting it.

 

[kovazub94]

I find that hard to believe. We are 4 points behind Boston and they have 3 games in hand. I think the playoff ship has sailed. I would just like to see what this team could do with a complete roster.

It’s an uphill battle for sure but there’s a chance if the roster stays healthy and Shesterkin is back in the net ASAP. Boston used to be at the top of the East but has been trending down for awhile so I won’t given them any points for the three extra games until they earn them.

But first thing first - got to overtake Flyers first with two regulation wins.

 

[Anthony5967]

Wish we’d get Lafreniere-Chytil-Kravtsov and then Blackwell-Rooney-Gauthier

 

[kovazub94]

It's a live-with-it thing at this point. He and Strome produce together undeniably, warts and all. I wish they aren't so east-west but that's their game. The difference between the two is that Panarin backchecks way better.

No doubt. The post was just to (once again) underscore my awe of his talent - Panarin probably had at least 6 unforced giveaways and still contributed with multiple points. Amazing player!

 

[kovazub94]

Lafreniere, not only Kakko, looked better last night. Thinking it’s at least partially because of easier opposition than what they face otherwise. Still a good sign and hopefully we should see a bigger (up) trend as the season progresses.

 

[duhmetreE]

That 46% still seems overly optimistic to me. We are 8 points behind Pitt and they have owned us. That's a lot of points to make up in the last 25 games. There is a reason that 78% of teams in a playoff spot on Thanksgiving make the playoffs during a regular season. It's just so hard to make up those points with all the 3 point games. I would love for them to sneak in but I'm not expecting it.

I didn't believe the percantages at first... we were like 9-10% a week ago.

It has to do with the 'head to heads'. A lot of wacky stuff can happen. If we get hot right now, we could ride it into the playoffs.

If we sweep the PIT and BOS series, that makes up 4pts in the standings, onboth.. Those teams play eachother as well, so we'd hope 1 team beats the other consistently. Everything else then starts to look obtainable.

We have a lot of NJ, BUFF, WAS and PHI. Hopefully the Fishies don't screw us, but they usually fall of late season though. I'm pretty sure we went 16-9 at some point last year, or something relatively close to that... We would have to do something similar. 20-5. One game at a time.

We just need Shesty back

 

[will1066]

I didn't believe the percantages at first... we were like 9-10% a week ago.

It has to do with the 'head to heads'. A lot of wacky stuff can happen. If we get hot right now, we could ride it into the playoffs.

If we sweep the PIT and BOS series, that makes up 4pts in the standings, onboth.. Those teams play eachother as well, so we'd hope 1 team beats the other consistently. Everything else then starts to look obtainable.

We have a lot of NJ, BUFF, WAS and PHI. Hopefully the Fishies don't screw us, but they usually fall of late season though. I'm pretty sure we went 16-9 at some point last year, or something relatively close to that... We would have to do something similar. 20-5. One game at a time.

We just need Shesty back

Let me calm you down right now by saying we won't sweep both PIT and BOS, much less one of the two. Of course, I hope that my post ages really badly.

 

[CasusBelli]

Numbers instead of names? Who does that?

Lazy folks on their mobiles.