Post-Game Talk: Game 5

[DelZottoHitTheNetJK]

Honest question. Does Guentzel in roslovics spot catapult this team past FLA????

I have no doubts when I say, the cup winner is 99% should be from the east.
I know Dallas is a good 5v5 team, and otter is a solid goalie.
I know edm has talent and the best player in the world and they are going to try and out score you every game.

I don’t think either of them can take what FLA-NYR has given each other thru this series so far.

It’s an honest debate????
Does adding Guentzel+wemnberg

Instead of Ros+ Wennberg

Give this team enough clutch scoring at the right times of games to take the east(????

ATM, I don’t have the answer. Interesting debate though

Unequivocally, yes.

It's not just about the scoring that Guentzel brings. It's puck possession and the ability to make a pass. It's the matchups the other teams have to throw at him that let the rest of your lineup eat. Do you think Maurice is worried about matching up on Jack f***ing Roslovic? A wet paper bag on ice skates? All of that in addition to his playoff production throughout his entire career both with and without Crosby takes some pressure off your defensemen who aren't top tier to begin with.

And here's the part everyone on here will love: Kaapo Kakko was supposed to be that guy as a 2nd overall pick back in 2019. Here we are 5 years later in 2024, he should've easily been able to grab that top line RW spot by the nuts and become some version (different player obviously) of a Jake Guentzel.

Am I gonna hate on the kid for producing relative to his cap hit? Not even close. But his lack of development based on his draft position is KILLING this team.

This goes without saying that Lias Andersson, Kravtsov, and the list goes on were also hot garbage picks that could've been in that spot. Othmann looked like dirt in Hartford this year.

Drafting in the early part of the first round has been this teams achilles heel since Adam and Eve. Lafreniere, whatever he turns out to be, smacked us in the face and there were no decisions to be made there.

Edit: here's a fun list of some of the guys picked after Andersson in 2017

Necas, Mittlestadt, Tippett, Vilardi, Robert Thomas, Jake Oettinger, Morgan Frost, Nick Suzuki

You're allowed to whiff on 1 top 10 pick in the draft. You whiff on 3? Not only should your entire scouting department be relegated to working at Walmart, you don't deserve to win shit.

And here we are, likely not winning shit because we're missing a top 6 forward to fill out the lineup

 

[AK 27]

I share a lot of the frustration for Mika that you all do. But I will say this - at least he kills penalties. When Pan is not scoring what the hell else is he doing? He was a liability in the playoffs last year. This year he's cut down on his bananahead mistakes but he's still losing the puck a lot in the offensive zone. And I'm not trying to make an equal comparison between the two players. All I'm saying is that at least Mika is multi-dimensional. Pan is either hero or zero.

 

[duhmetreE]

Honest question. Does Guentzel in roslovics spot catapult this team past FLA????

I have no doubts when I say, the cup winner is 99% should be from the east.
I know Dallas is a good 5v5 team, and otter is a solid goalie.
I know edm has talent and the best player in the world and they are going to try and out score you every game.

I don’t think either of them can take what FLA-NYR has given each other thru this series so far.

It’s an honest debate????
Does adding Guentzel+wemnberg

Instead of Ros+ Wennberg

Give this team enough clutch scoring at the right times of games to take the east(????

ATM, I don’t have the answer. Interesting debate though

No. It doesn't change Mika

 

[NikC]

I don't have any issues with Kreider. I've been a Kreider stan since 2012. I used to interject on the hate on him in 2014 the same way I have for Kakko (we're all wrong sometimes) and Lafreniere since they showed up here. And I've said it before, after that 3rd period hattrick, Kreider could go scoreless and -10 the rest of the way idc, that was too clutch.

Panarin is another story. He's not been as bad as Mika, maybe he hasn't even been bad. But he hasn't been a difference maker. He's certainly been several tiers below his regular season (again), and he's clearly the third wheel on his line. He's a much less valuable player in the postseason than Carter Verhaege, and for 11.6 it's not acceptable to me.

As far as big picture... I don't get worked up because nothing ever changes. You're right that a healthy Fox may have been enough which is really a testament to how special that player is. But I just don't have anything left for #93.

You may not think he's our 1C, but our coach, GM, our roster, and all the other coaches, GMs, and rosters think he is. He gets the matchups, he gets the half wall on the PP, he gets the Pk minutes, and he wilts every time he's not facing a 3rd string goalie. My feelings about and assement of Mika actually speak directly to how opposite my opinion of Kreider is. That guy is amazing and he's had to carry around this loser for years.

the heck is a Krieder stan?

 

[AirGut]

I know I'm not being clear-headed here out of frustration but I really think if this series is over on Sat it'll sting me more than 2014 did

 

[will1066]

We win Game 6 or @Tob buys Sex Panther

And deletes his account

 

[Peltz]

I know they had a shitty third period but the idea that you can't blame the huge elephant in the room for losing this game is preposterous. I'm really tired of our goalie giving up goals on nothing shots that go through him. Really tired of it. And no him being great the rest of the game doesn't absolve him. It just means he CAN make those saves but like clockwork doesn't. And no we weren't good in the third but it wasn't some ridiculous domination like last game. This wouldn't have even been a steal if we won it.

I'll fight you on this in every post.

You can't expect to win by only scoring 1 goal in regulation against a team as good as Florida. Just can't happen.

Zero PP goals, zero even strength goals. One goal on a turnover on PK.

They just don't generate enough consistent offense to win. That's the elephant in the room. Not the guy with a 9.24 save percentage.

 

[DumpnChase12]

Pure horseshit.

Won two, same as either Dallas or Edmonton after tonight.

Every game has been close.

Their effort has been fine.

People here complain about how crap Rangers personnel is AND say their effort sucks. That should add up to losing in 4 and being outscored 32-3.

When I mentioned the Dallas - Edmonton series I never said anything about scoring goals or winning games. Its HOW they play playoff games. They Rangers are not playing with the playoff drive that the other 3 teams play with

 

[Machinehead]

the heck is a Krieder stan?

A person who is good and correct. Is smart and probably likes animals.

 

[TheDirtyH]

I also kind of take the approach that you don't know what's going to happen. There isn't always this binary between "this team is it" and "this team isn't it so I'm going to stop doing it."

We rebuilt and we got competitive again, but we didn't get competitive because we rebuilt. Fox forced his way here and winning the Lafreniere pick was pure luck following a season where we had a winning record. Everyone we drafted because of the rebuild ranged from disappointment to complete bust.

The successful cores around the league aren't rebuild products. Teams like Florida, Dallas, and Vegas acquired most of their good talent.

I do think we need to be aggressive and make some real changes.

Start with having NO BAD PLAYERS and then go from there.

Vegas is its own thing as an expansion team. But dealing with the other two, they have made tough calls and displaced "star" veterans from prime minutes when they stopped being effective in them or someone else deserved a look. Heiskenen comes in and Klingberg is ousted. Benn and Seguin move over for Hintz and Robertson -- and now Wyatt Johnston is immediately getting 20mins a night over Hintz.

Why hasn't Lafreniere taken Mika's spot on the PP yet? Why haven't Mika and Kreider ever been separated? It took 5 years and 3 coaches just to get Lafreniere on the RW for christ's sake.

And it's the same story on defense. Heiskenen over the last two seasons has played 3:30 and 5:00 more than the next guy on his team most of that difference coming at 5v5. Adam Fox plays 1:20 and 2:10 more than the next guy on our team and plays less minutes at 5v5 than another defenseman both years!! That's two different coaches who have Adam freaking Fox and decide to play another player who is not Cale Makar more than Fox at even strength.

I'm not saying that we've had all these stars-in-waiting (Dallas clearly out-drafts us and everyone else in the league, frankly) but seriously we've been getting the same mediocrity from the same stale stars (kreider excluded, as always) and their same stale roles and have shown 0 interest in even attempting to reduce or change those roles.

 

[Peltz]

Igor is amazing but he has not yet had a game this series where he straight up says you are not beating me tonight.

Bobrovsky did.

Brobrovsky isn't even breaking a sweat out there my man.

 

[HFsNumber1Heel]

Gorton had some warts but for me a majority of all the bad decisions and the rushed rebuild falls on JD once he arrived here.

Gorton had about nine players who were signed throw fits and leave the organization or have their contracts terminated. He brought in and drafted some soft headcases. He also basically got down on one knee and begged Quinn to coach here. He didn't do anything about Ciaccao. Hartford was a mess. There were a lot of problems before Wilson.

 

[Peltz]

It's called the salary cap, brother. The Florida teams have been cheating it for years with their team friendly deals and no state income tax on 41 games. It's not a coincidence that Vegas and both Florida teams are perenially in the conversation if not winning the cup.

I've stated this about a hundred times well before the series, so no, it's not a "because we're losing" thing. It's a fact.

Chris Drury... this is on you brother. Just like every other year. You went out and went bargain bin shopping because you didn't want to outbid Carolina for Guentzel or pay for Vatrano. Jack Roslovic and Alex Wennberg... not good enough my dude. Said it at the deadline and it's rearing it's ugly head. We are literally a Guentzel or Vatrano type away from getting it done

Or maybe a Buchnevich? Not sure whether we ever discussed that trade on this board.

I feel bad for Zibanejad.

Commence with the personal attacks because you built this guy up and didn't listen to the people who told you he was a 2C for an eternity and a half.

And guess what? Vincent Messier fell from the sky and now ZIBANEJAD IS OUR f***ING 2C!!!!

Does it matter? No. We're still not getting it done because the top of the lineup isn't the problem.

Everyone said Colorado's core was just a loser. They got a bunch of really effective depth and won the Cup.

They also had an elite 1C... and still do.

 

[Machinehead]

Vegas is its own thing as an expansion team. But dealing with the other two, they have made tough calls and displaced "star" veterans from prime minutes when they stopped being effective in them or someone else deserved a look. Heiskenen comes in and Klingberg is ousted. Benn and Seguin move over for Hintz and Robertson -- and now Wyatt Johnston is immediately getting 20mins a night over Hintz.

Why hasn't Lafreniere taken Mika's spot on the PP yet? Why haven't Mika and Kreider ever been separated? It took 5 years and 3 coaches just to get Lafreniere on the RW for christ's sake.

And it's the same story on defense. Heiskenen over the last two seasons has played 3:30 and 5:00 more than the next guy on his team most of that difference coming at 5v5. Adam Fox plays 1:20 and 2:10 more than the next guy on our team and plays less minutes at 5v5 than another defenseman both years!! That's two different coaches who have Adam freaking Fox and decide to play another player who is not Cale Makar more than Fox at even strength.

I'm not saying that we've had all these stars-in-waiting (Dallas clearly out-drafts us and everyone else in the league, frankly) but seriously we've been getting the same mediocrity from the same stale stars (kreider excluded, as always) and their same stale roles and have shown 0 interest in even attempting to reduce or change those roles.

This is very reasonable. I guess sometimes I see "vets" and I take it to mean Kreider and it's not always.

Kreider is sometimes annoying but at his skillset and pricetag, he's not a guy expected to be perfect. He always gets it done when we need one. I barely reacted when he scored last night. It was like "of course he did."

I'm not gonna sit here and go on about how Laviolette is a war criminal, but you're right. This organization as a whole needs to ride their horses more.

I don't know if the problem is so much that Mika and Panarin are on the team, (Trouba, definitely, but that's another deal) it's that there's no meritocracy and no willingness to see them in a different role with different linemates.

The best thing that happened to us this year was finally moving Laf to RW and sticking with it. That should make us wanna shake things up more often.

 

[cwede]

probably, for the entirety of his tenure as coach, no matter how long,
I will never think Lavi made a more harmful, wrong-minded decision
than last night, pulling Igor so (too) early

NYR were playing (just) well enough to not to add the high risk of the Empty Net so soon
IMHO they would have had a better chance of forcing OT if he'd waited

 

[Peltz]

BTW, if you're an executive at a company and do 9 things right but the 10th is really bad something tells me you get criticized. The coddling if Shesterkin because he does his job and does well most of the game but shits his pants on easy shots regularly is ridiculous. Why is a director at some mid sized company not immune to negative feedback but the millionaire goalie on the Rangers is?

Because an executive at a midsized company is a dime a dozen that is replaceable. You're not finding another Igor anytime soon.

 

[HFsNumber1Heel]

If this team plays with a just screw it attitude tomorrow, they might be ok.

I'm not expecting much, but a lot of these guys remember two years ago when they were in the same boat. Wouldn't it be bonkers if they "Hulk'd Up" tomorrow?

 

[Metranger]

I have absolutely no issue with getting rid of Mika if that presents itself as a possibility.

My problem tends to be that it extends out to Kreider and Panarin because of this big boys/country club meme.

Panarin has been fine and Kreider has literally always been an effective 5v5 player which is something we desperately can't afford to get rid of right now.

It's like people just wanna get rid of all our scoring and we already don't get enough scoring.

I don't think getting rid of Zibanejad is even on the team's radar to the point where it's not getting worked up about, but ideally, I'd like to get another center and reduce his role. We came into opening night with Chytil centering Panarin and Trocheck on the "third" line. I don't know what Chytil is anymore with all these injuries, but I'd like to come into next year with something similar, but with Mika and Trocheck swapped.

Put Kreider with Trocheck and Lafreniere and let them have a 112% xGF. Put Panairn with Chytil which I loved before Chytil got hurt. Let Zibanejad play on the third line with weaker matchups and fewer 5v5 minutes.

I think it can work. I guess my issue is the insistence that we have to now hit reset because "tha core" sucks. Meanwhile, people said similar things about every team and their players until they won it one year.

We came way too far with Fox on one leg to blow up the team.

I think the 1st 5 games were on the players. Game 6 is on Laviolette. Either make the big line changes or be another AV or Gallant. If he rolls out the same garbage lines, than F him. He has no ingenuity and was outcoached....It's on him.

 

[Peltz]

I have absolutely no issue with getting rid of Mika if that presents itself as a possibility.

My problem tends to be that it extends out to Kreider and Panarin because of this big boys/country club meme.

Panarin has been fine and Kreider has literally always been an effective 5v5 player which is something we desperately can't afford to get rid of right now.

It's like people just wanna get rid of all our scoring and we already don't get enough scoring.

I don't think getting rid of Zibanejad is even on the team's radar to the point where it's not getting worked up about, but ideally, I'd like to get another center and reduce his role. We came into opening night with Chytil centering Panarin and Trocheck on the "third" line. I don't know what Chytil is anymore with all these injuries, but I'd like to come into next year with something similar, but with Mika and Trocheck swapped.

Put Kreider with Trocheck and Lafreniere and let them have a 112% xGF. Put Panairn with Chytil which I loved before Chytil got hurt. Let Zibanejad play on the third line with weaker matchups and fewer 5v5 minutes.

I think it can work. I guess my issue is the insistence that we have to now hit reset because "tha core" sucks. Meanwhile, people said similar things about every team and their players until they won it one year.

We came way too far with Fox on one leg to blow up the team.

I think you may be right about all of this. It's just... Mika in a 3rd line role at that cap hit just sits so poorly with me. That's a big-time player contract. And he's showing he's not that guy.

 

[Brutananadilewski]

Because an executive at a midsized company is a dime a dozen that is replaceable. You're not finding another Igor anytime soon.

We don't need an Igor. We need a Duncan!

And an average walrus is between 7-12 feet long, about 5,000 LBS.

 

[Machinehead]

I think you may be right about all of this. It's just... Mika in a 3rd line role at that cap hit just sits so poorly with me. That's a big-time player contract. And he's showing he's not that guy.

To be fair, real top guys are easily getting 10+ now.

 

[Machinehead]

We don't need an Igor. We need a Duncan!

And an average walrus is between 7-12 feet long, about 5,000 LBS.

I'm convinced the walrus might handle the puck better too

 

[chosen]

When I mentioned the Dallas - Edmonton series I never said anything about scoring goals or winning games. Its HOW they play playoff games. They Rangers are not playing with the playoff drive that the other 3 teams play with

Pure horseshit redux.

Every team is driven.

To get to the final four, you're very driven.

The same fans who say this guy sucks or that guy sucks and then question their effort are contradicting themselves and are just bitter that reality doesn't match what they want.

 

[HFsNumber1Heel]

I think you may be right about all of this. It's just... Mika in a 3rd line role at that cap hit just sits so poorly with me. That's a big-time player contract. And he's showing he's not that guy.

Mika is going to be a 1A/1B center for the next 2-3 years. The only way that changes is if they draft one or BMB who is the only center prospect in the organization gets super powers out of nowhere.

 

[Foxy]

I think the 1st 5 games were on the players. Game 6 is on Laviolette. Either make the big line changes or be another AV or Gallant. If he rolls out the same garbage lines, than F him. He has no ingenuity and was outcoached....It's on him.

He wasn't out coached. All Florida did was role four lines and say try and beat us, that's not coaching.

Laviolette did all the coaching he could, he doubled Laf and Panarian, sat the 4th line for extended periods of time and used every opportunity he could to get the bread line away from Barkov and Tkachuck. I think he honestly did the best he could with the players he has.