Post-Game Talk: Game 4

[LeetchisGod]

Puck moving defensemen. Need more of them. Need it to neutralize their forecheck.

Jones looked like our second best dman by the end of the season and Lavi refuses to play him.

 

[mike14]

you want to throw in an undersized defenseman who hasn't played in nearly 2 months into game 5 against a team who has all 5 forecheckers outskating all 5 rangers players on any given shift? One man is not going to help fix the breakouts when the entire team is being outskated.

Yes.
Let's see how he handles a playoff forechecking team. Let's see whether his passes assist the transition game. Let's find out whether he's part of the future here.
Despite having some wins in this series we haven't looked great and D has been bad, what do we really have to lose? Worst case scenario is that it looks a lot like this game...

 

[ReddestRum]

So much complaining about the refs, YOU GET THE CALLS WHEN YOU CONTROL PLAY THAT SIMPLE. YOU CANT LET THE OTHER TEAM HAVE THE PUCK FOR 90% OF THE f***ING GAME

This. I thought last game the tilt was bad in terms of the reffing, but you hit the nail on the head. We are playing scared and FL is controlling most of the play. When that happens, you're going to get the calls going against you.

 

[Kravtsov420]

Such p***y question from the media, all hacks

 

[CLW]

Can't play like horrific horseshit game after game and expect to pull out OT wins.

They can't pass.

They can't make decisions.

They can't handle pressure.

Feels like the collapse games against NJ. All headless chickens out there, three steps behind their line mates.

Forced passes. Basic hockey principles ignored leading to giveaway after giveaway, and pinned zone time.

That OT cough up at the blue line followed by that Mika hand over was absolutely infuriating. They should get absolutely chewed out.

Embarrassing effort on the national stage. This is why the Rangers are not the betting favorites. They look like shit for 55 minutes of the game.

Yeah but all this is coaching. Why is one team organized and support each other and the other team isn't and doesn't? There's more to hockey than just rolling out your core guys and see if their thing works. Lavi made this team deep and strong on special teams, but he didn't fix the piss poor transition game, o-zone organization, puck support etc.

 

[Jaromir Jagr]

Trouba getting handed the cup would be more of a travesty than anything else I can imagine. The guy is actively preventing us from winning.

 

[Rongomania]

That's it. Plus the *two other* blatant non calls ON THE SAME SHIFT against Zib and Trouba.

We got reffed, and I am certain knowing that the refs are not going to make calls against Florida influences the game for the Rangers.

That's not taking away from the brutal mistakes that lead to the OT goal tho. But that shouldn't have been the story line in the first place.

Whateva. I think we outplayed them twice in their house. Bring on these next three games.

 

[Chytilmania]

"Yeah but smoll players can't handle da heavy teams!!!"

Meanwhile 300 pound Trouba and 8'7" Miller having a laugh in this series.

I think Jones would be great against them. He would skate it out of the zone every time.

It's the Rangers beating themselves by burying passes into the feet of guys who are 5 feet away and covered by a defender.

 

[will1066]

Maurice couldn't get the Barkov line on the ice quick enough once he saw Trouba-Miller out there. they have no chance at retaining the puck from them. i guess the one chance we have is that we have 2 games at home out of 3.

They have to switch back to Miller-Schneider. Puck needs to get out of the zone with some pace.

 

[NickyFotiu]

Not exaggerating, once that puck hopped over his stick I said there goes the game.

It was a real let down because we were almost never in their end. In Fox's defense those things happen when your defense is exhausted.

Dress 7 Dmen!

 

[LiveLongandProspal]

I'm heated, and they looked like shit. Outside of Laf the God, Tro and Shesty being phenomenal.

BUT...it's f***ing 2-2. They're coming back to the Garden. They can still win this series. Just gotta get our top line to pull their heads out of there asses and play hockey. Easier said than done but there's WAY worse scenarios to be in than 2-2 with home ice.

Of course we can win the series, but Panarin is competing with his comrade Tarasenko to see who could be more useless in this playoff series and the butt-buddies on the first line are making snow angels instead of plays.

 

[mandiblesofdoom]

for the life of me i dont know how we can play a relatively even period or even one where we out play florida and then the very next period get absolutely pummeled like its USSR v romania.

FLA woke up

 

[NYRangers16]

Not sure how much gas they have left honestly

Feels like the Tampa series . Hope I’m wrong

Well if they are out of gas already, they'll never win a cup. 6 games left. They have another 3 major adjustments to go too. So...hate to tell myself/you/them, but time to grab on to Laffy's cahones and absorb by osmosis what he has going on. I am with you, I hope you are wrong.

 

[lakeshirts37]

I could think of a few ways to spend $16.5M in cap space better than Trouba and Zibanejad

Think how much you could do with Panarins 11.6 too!

 

[JaeTM]

Team needs to move their feet and make quicker decisions with the puck. They did it In the first period and reverted again to slowing the game down for some reason. When they get the puck they need to actually look up and TRY and make a play. The amount of blind passes along the board just praying a winger is there or it’ll exit the zone is a disaster. Schneider, Miller and Gus can skate with the puck and make a guy miss to open things up a bit.

Continue flinging pucks wherever and this will be over in 6.

 

[bl02]

Coaches love Trouba. They are gonna play him. Only one that can do anything is Drury in the off-season.

 

[will1066]

Even though Lindgren came back, I wonder if the coaching staff activate Jones, because Ryan must be banged up to all hell

 

[DelZottoHitTheNetJK]

I texted some people in between 3 and 4 that there was no way we're winning 3 OT games in a row; we were due for one. The Kakko non-call was bad but none of these refs have the spine to call anything outside actual murder that late in a critical game.

We've bounced back all year. They'll bounce back in Game 5. Here's the problem though: I think we're still cooked. This formula has to change. Florida will have no plans of changing anything nor should they. You cannot get caved every game and expect to win. The ECF would be a very unsurprising place for this style to run out of magic.

Florida has overwhelmingly been the better team and it's 2-2. That's a good thing for us. We need to be the better team on Thursday. For at least 40 minutes. It's unrealistic to expect to dominate a team as good as Florida for 60. Period 1 and Period 3 at the very least we need to own the puck. Period 2 can be 50/50 but we need to take 1 and 3. Panarin needs to show out.

Think this is probably the end of the road for us fellas. And unfortunately, if it ain't this year, it ain't happening. Kreider, Zib, Panarin... these guys ain't getting any younger and we have no replacements for them in the pipeline in the near future. It has to be this year or it has to be torn down again

 

[2Leetch_94]

Laf better get 20+ minutes the rest of the way. Time to take the baby gloves completely off

 

[PuckLuck3043]

Look guys no matter what happens, Mika has run his course with this team. I really feel he is our biggest problem. Our number 1 center cannot be this much of an emo bitch no show soft wannabe hockey player more concerned with whether Daft Punk is getting back together.

Trouba is by far the biggest problem.

 

[CLW]

Whateva. I think we outplayed them twice in their house. Bring on these next three games.

What pisses me off is that I thought half the team was really working their socks off and some "big" players were happy with the away draw waiting to get back on home ice (looking at you crumbles).

 

[Doctyl]

Think how much you could do with Panarins 11.6 too!

Nah, I’ll keep our 120 point player

 

[huerter]

Dan Rosen has to go. Vinny Mercogs has to go. JLaz has to go. Gianone has to go.

 

[Graves97]

This was the wakeup call

They should feel embarrased and will
Come out to play thursday.

Its gonna happen.

They should have been embarrassed after game 3, entire hockey world was shutting on them for the garbage 3rd period. Came out and played 1 good period. Thanks guys, this isn’t the regular season and it’s not going to cut it.

 

[NickyFotiu]

Excellent points, esp #1. It's hard to watch.

Its hard because those one on one puck battles are largely about who wants it more.