Post-Game Talk: Game # 47 - Rangers vs Flyers - 7pm - MSG

[LokiDog]

I guess I should add the caveat that Quinn would probably trust his younger players more by next year. (One would hope).

Like 4th year Chytil getting 11 minutes in his 177th NHL game? So Laf with 56 and Kakko with 115 next year will only be 70-100 games away from being trustworthy-ish?

 

[SnowblindNYR]

The lack of meaningful ice time for Kravtsov is what's truly bewildering. I get why Quinn is hesitant to use the youngest guys in the heat of trying to win a game and leans on vets, but Kravtsov has been invariably noticeable in a good way and looks surprisingly polished defensively. He looks more dangerous at ES than the current version of Kreider, Blackwell, Kakko or Laf. It's like Quinn doesn't have a good in game read on which players are going.

It's mind boggling, he finally made the change down 3-1, with 4 minutes to go. If he's good enough in that situation why not start the game? Blackwell has played admirably but he's a JAG. He hasn't been even scoring in a while.

 

[CLW]

I guess I should add the caveat that Quinn would probably trust his younger players more by next year. (One would hope).

Why would he? Next year Kakko will get the Chytil treatment of today. Laf will be the new Kakko. That's Quinn's brilliant game plan. Or maybe it is wrong, and he actually adjusts it for next year, but then that means THIS year was a WASTE.

 

[will1066]

Dude, if Seattle is reading this then you just alerted them not to select him. Good job.

Chances are, they're not.

 

[eco's bones]

Kreider is not playing nearly well enough but he had two of the five hits by the forwards and Mika had the other three which is to say the forward group never established a physical game or a forecheck. Maybe it was the team living off the idea that we are a better team because we were able to put up 17 goals against them in two successive games earlier in the season and just didn’t put up the effort needed but we weren’t engaged enough. Defensively we were playing two rookies one in his first NHL game and three second years one of whom might as well be playing his rookie year and one vet with a penchant for taking unnecessary penalties. Miss Trouba much? Yeah we did and not to take anything away from Zac Jones who did fine for his first game but down the stretch of the season we absolutely need Jacob in the lineup.

 

[Tob]

What's going to be hilarious is the next coach is going to get to dunk on Quinn's grave by simply putting Kaapo, Alexis, Vitali, and Filip on a functional combination of PP1 and PP2 and watch them rack up the points and the Rangers fan base can all ape and scream I TOLD YOU SO, 50,60,70 point center, top 6 power forward, play maker.

 

[egelband]

I don't really see this success. I guess with the defensemen and Buchnevich, but the way he has handled Kakko, Laf, Kravtsov, and Chytil leaves a lot to be desired.

I just think all he has to do is point to a winning record during a rebuild on top of the prospects generally developing. I also think a lot hinges on what the players say in the yearly exit interviews. But if they like him there’s really not much grounds for a change. Again, maybe if things don’t keep progressing next season- sure. Then I’m probably onboard too. But for now I see no clear reason to rock the boat.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

I just think all he has to do is point to a winning record during a rebuild on top of the prospects generally developing. I also think a lot hinges on what the players say in the yearly exit interviews. But if they like him there’s really not much grounds for a change. Again, maybe if things don’t keep progressing next season- sure. Then I’m probably onboard too. But for now I see no clear reason to rock the boat.

How many years off Panarin and Mika's prime are we going to waste? And if we are, we better make sure that the 4 youngsters are mentioned are progressing. And no not become elite checkers like Kakko seems to be doing. In my view you either accomplish development and his record is mixed, playoffs, or ideally both. Three strikes against him.

 

[2014nyr]

you could feel this one coming. there was some good - the mika line had chances. for the first time all year there laf was ready and looked really good there. he was on the puck, created, battled...he looked the part. jones looked ok, he's not as fast as i thought he was, but he was confident with the puck and played a solid game overall, could see he's a heady player. kravtsov was again excellent. the kids overall were good.

there was real bad. on the flip side the strome line was an absolute calamity. couldn't get out of their zone all night. kreider is a disaster. the d was nowhere near their usual without trouba and the pairings scrambled.

i think overall we showed we're not a playoff team. thats fine, it was always a stretch, i do hope we can right the shift enough to keep games meaningful to the end. not making it is fine, theres been a lot of overall progress, the youth is legit. but what is concerning is the lack of an attitude, like we need this we're taking it sort of persona from the older players. obviously you have to envision the kids like laf and kakko have that kind of fire when they grow into it, but its disappointing that hasn't been evident in any of the vets. its been good to see us not let anyone push us around this year, but thats not enough...any good team needs to be able to take on that mentality to take it to other teams. to be clear i'm not looking for hits and scrums etc...ideally you have more elements than 0 that add some presence there, but what i mean is a team taking control. forcing the issue, forcing the game they want to play on the other team - driving through players, consistently winning puck battles etc. we're improving but if we want to compete for real next year that has to change. its a stretch to think the kids are ready for that, so if the mika/buch/kreider/strome group isn't capable of showing signs of that, i think there's significant changes coming. i don't know what that could mean, but thats certainly going to be addressed.

 

[huerter]

Fox looks gassed to me. He should be. Quinn plays him like he's the only option all of the time. If this were an 82 game season, he would come crashing to earth like a meteor coming down the stretch from overuse. Jones was good to watch but he's not ready. It will be good to give him a few games to see what he's up against and then go have a real good off season training and getting ready. Even in his first game, he's a better option than KAM on the PP. The vets seem to be the ones that are coming unglued, taking bad penalties, etc. Anyway, it's been a good run, but alot of shit beyond control went wrong. I'm proud of the boys anyway.

Fox is 70th in the league in even strength TOI/G and 61st in PK TOI/G. Get serious.

 

[Tob]

Gorton and management had the presence of mind to sell and start the rebuild 3 points out of the playoffs. Ice time and role in the final 8 or 9 games certainly is not as monumental of a decision but the state of affairs for this organization in the next 10 years starts with how we choose to utilize Kaapo, Vitali, Filip, Alexis plus Julien etc. etc. and whether or not we give them more ice time and role in the next 3 weeks. It's not just to keep young players happy either. They're the future. They've tried to do whatever Quinn has insisted upon for 3 years now with no offensive breakthrough. It's not for a lack of effort or heart. Coaches and Gorton can't claim development isn't linear and takes time but also deny the youngsters the opportunity, liberty, and leash to show exponential growth, especially now that playoffs are a virtual impossibility.

How Quinn conducts himself with ice time and roles in the next 9 games should be a point of focus for the fans, management, and the players and their agents. As far as I can tell, Quinn has been mostly allergic to giving the young players leash and a top 6/PP1 role in his entire 3 year tenure here. It took a few games before Kaapo's promotion at the hands of Knoblauch was reverted once Quinn returned. The kid line struggles at times and Panarin-Strome meant more productive players and massive ice time boost for Kakko but it didn't last. If not now with 9 games left and nothing to play for except the future, then I suspect Quinn will never give these players the opportunity to play with established top 6 talent until their development is past a critical period.

 

[egelband]

How many years off Panarin and Mika's prime are we going to waste? And if we are, we better make sure that the 4 youngsters are mentioned are progressing. And no not become elite checkers like Kakko seems to be doing. In my view you either accomplish development and his record is mixed, playoffs, or ideally both. Three strikes against him.

Well, You might be right. But I think it’s very tough to be so sure. If you’re worried about wasting the older player’s prime years, that’s more of a FO issue, in my opinion.
Anyhow, I don’t think this team is in a markedly different spot with another coach. And just as likely, the results are worse.
I guess that’s my main dispute with all the people calling for Quinn’s head. It’s on the players. And if you look at everything, we’re about where I expected we’d be. Not where I had hoped we’d be, but I think we’re basically around fifth in this division and I expect better next year.

 

[Rempe73]

For my money Fox lost us this game with his careless penalty. After that goal the Rangers were dominated. He needs to do A LOT better than that.

Yea but as a team, we often have trouble dealing with adversity. Big injuries and goals against deflate us. That needs to be fixed asap. I mean ASAP. That’s on coaching.

 

[Rempe73]

Gorton and management had the presence of mind to sell and start the rebuild 3 points out of the playoffs. Ice time and role in the final 8 or 9 games certainly is not as monumental of a decision but the state of affairs for this organization in the next 10 years starts with how we choose to utilize Kaapo, Vitali, Filip, Alexis plus Julien etc. etc. and whether or not we give them more ice time and role in the next 3 weeks. It's not just to keep young players happy either. They're the future. They've tried to do whatever Quinn has insisted upon for 3 years now with no offensive breakthrough. It's not for a lack of effort or heart. Coaches and Gorton can't claim development isn't linear and takes time but also deny the youngsters the opportunity, liberty, and leash to show exponential growth, especially now that playoffs are a virtual impossibility.

How Quinn conducts himself with ice time and roles in the next 9 games should be a point of focus for the fans, management, and the players and their agents. As far as I can tell, Quinn has been mostly allergic to giving the young players leash and a top 6/PP1 role in his entire 3 year tenure here. It took a few games before Kaapo's promotion at the hands of Knoblauch was reverted once Quinn returned. The kid line struggles at times and Panarin-Strome meant more productive players and massive ice time boost for Kakko but it didn't last. If not now with 9 games left and nothing to play for except the future, then I suspect Quinn will never give these players the opportunity to play with established top 6 talent until their development is past a critical period.

Yea if there’s any significant development from our young players, it’s not because of Gorton/Quinn. It’s because the players are either working extra hard on their own (which they should) or developing in another league (NCAA, AHL, KHL, etc.). Once they reach “impact player” level, then and only then does Quinn choose to consistently play them more.

 

[Rempe73]

Just finished watching the game, and all I gotta say is I hate hockey.

Except for Valiquette. He makes me happy.

 

[GbgRanger]

Fire Quinn, he will be fired anyway at some point next season, no reason to not fire him at this offseason.

How long does he have left on his contract anyway?

 

[GbgRanger]

Igor looked great and this team just let him down.

Wow. That means a lot coming from you

 

[Rempe73]

Strome and Kreider over your "Future"
not one of them could see the ice with the goalie out?
how is this possible. We have the first overall and second overall pick on the bench for the entire final two min plus

And they were literally our best players. Better than Fox. Better than Zibanejad. Better than Kreider. Better than Strome. WAY better than Panarin. I mean, seriously. Lafreniere and Kakko made Panarin look like a useless bum who doesn’t have a clue what NHL defense is. And yet, he scored. And the kids didn’t. That just shows you how good he is and how he can turn it on any time he wants. That’s the frustrating part. It was too late tonight.

But for real our 1OA and 2OA looked exactly like they did dominating in their respective draft seasons. That’s a huge positive and gives me the tiniest bit of hope than Quinn will finally give them more ice time consistently.

 

[KevinFinnerty]

Rather miss the playoffs and get a higher pick to draft a C

 

[TriFF51]

Just finished the game...Poor Igor was under seige with all those penalties, he played great still....damn that was a boring ass game though.

 

[Smart Alek]

And they were literally our best players.

Kreider was one of the best players? Chris Kreider? What expression were you wearing when you wrote this?

 

[jay from jersey]

I'd like to point out that this team's procession to the penalty box in the 2nd started with a careless hook by Kreider. And people post we lack on ice leadership. /s
Kreider has been playing low intensity, polite, country club hockey since signing his extension. Not that he was a fireball of energy before, but at least he used to show up more than half the time. Has Kreider been noticeable in even a third of our games this year? He showed up for 1 of 3 bubble games against Carolina, so he's probably done that much overall this year.
Our younger and peripheral guys are likely taking their cues from Chris. Is that good leadership going forward?

Either he’s injured or severely unmotivated. This is the longest stretch of his career where he’s been almost useless. Usually at least when he’s not scoring he’s using his speed, driving to the net,etc right now there’s no life in his game. Not even effectively screening the goalie. This is a big problem with a leader for the kids

 

[jay from jersey]

I guess I should add the caveat that Quinn would probably trust his younger players more by next year. (One would hope).

I wouldn’t count on it. If the Seat isn’t already hot this offseason it will be hotter next year. And with the influx of more rookies on 3rd pair and other parts of the line up I’d expect a heavy dose of more of the same. People scoff when I say Quinn doesn’t have control of the room, but at least in some players eyes young and old he has a problem motivating them and getting them prepared to play. It’s pretty obvious. The bigger the games the bigger the popcorn fart effort is. Plain as daylight

even in the devils series it was apparent. We took 4 of 4 which is no easy task so it won’t get talked about. You take the W and move on, but let’s not pretend in more then 1 game things could have went the other way. The effort and preparation was poor as well but superior talent playing against an AHL team plus 5-6 up and coming kids is the only reason for the victories. It’s not like they won all 4 games easily like Boston is going to do to Buffalo most likely. I get we are young and there is a learning curve but I have been citing poor effort and preparation the entire season. I’m told it’s growing pains. Effort is not a growing pain. You can lose with effort and still be proud.

 

[The S5]

Team blew too many easy chances to bury the Flyers early. Perfect example of letting a team hang around.
More concerning is the lack of intensity when they need to turn it on. You hope that would come from the veterans. With so many young players, this team needs a true leader. I don't see it in Kreider or Zib. As great as Panarin is, he isn't the locker room leader. Maybe its Trouba? If he grows into a leader, it might help justify the contract.
A dream scenario is the Rangers acquiring a true 1C. I just don't have faith that Mika is that guy.
Jones gave me a bit of a Torey Krug vibe. Maybe I'm off, but thats what I thought watching him.

 

[JHS]

Kakko and Breadman miss 2 open looks and the game is over. Brutal- so soft( I thought the management wanted to address that...oooppps) so unprepared( I thought management wanted to address that....ooopppps) so unable to elevate their games- a consistent mark against the top names on the roster.