Chimpradamus
Registered User
So, basically half the shortened season in Bettman's special hattrick is gone. How have we faired? Here's my assessment. Scale 1-10. The grade is assessed based on overall performance and expectation. Overall performance as in how good/ bad they've performed overall and expectation is what you should expect from them (even though a good performance can somewhat also inflate the expectation grade). 5 is average.
Goalies
We have gotten just about what you could expect from our goalies, given the circumstances. I think both Hank and Biron have done what they can, considering what they have to cover for every single night.
Henrik Lundqvist: Performance: 8. Expectation: 8. Overall: 8. Sure, he's had one softie here and there, like the game winning goal against Winnipeg. He's been battling the puck here and there. But overall, he's been doing his job. Since the team debacle in the first couple of games, Hank has been back in old form and his numbers are up there. He's a .927 goalie not counting the first two games. He has allowed 4+ goals twice, all season included. There's not much to complain about. Zero shutouts, which says alot more about the team in front than Hank himself. They're not helping him out as you would hope, we've been back to playoff bubble hockey. You could argue his expectation grade should be lower, but since the team isn't playing better, it's not.
Martin Biron: x. Biron hasn't played much and it feels unfair to put a grade on that. He's had some game where he hasn't been able to shut down the lower part of the net, which I contribute more to a team playing like collective donkey ass than Biron himself. Extremely small sample, so no grade.
Defensemen
Our defense has overall been a disappointment. They aren't contributing offensively and when they try, we leave our goalie out to dry more often than not. One D has to cover for some dumb, failed pinch from the other. It's getting tiresome. They are awful at breakout passes and they aren't blocking shots anymore, but they sure as hell are still blocking our goalie's vision lane so he can't even see the puck. Something has to change, because this isn't working.
Ryan McDonaugh: Performance: 7,5. Expectation: 6. Overall: 7. McD has had great games and bad games. His breakout passes has lead to a dangerous scoring chance, you just don't know at which net. He can step up his game, but he has not been consistently dominant. His offensive contribution and pinching has been somewhat missing. Defensively, mostly solid with a couple of stinkers. He has another level and I'm sure he'll show it.
Dan Girardi: Performance: 7. Expectation: 5. Overall: 6. Girardi has been one of the worst breakout passers in the league. Defensively, when he hasn't the puck in our zone, he has mostly done his job. But for a supposed top 2 D-man, you don't get a pass in my book with a bottom 20 breakout pass. He's a +1 in total. Dan has another gear and he knows it.
Marc Staal: Performance: 8. Expectation: 8. Overall: 8. Staal has been our best defenseman according to me. He has been very solid defensively and has pinched offensively at the right occassions. Of course he was the one who had to be injured.
Michael Del Zotto: Performance: 5,5. Expectation: 4. Overall: 5. Michael has played like a double edged sword. He has dipped in blocked shots. For every smart play he does, he will make a dumbskull one that makes you cringe. He might cough up the puck at the blueline, make idiotic cross ice passes through three opponents and cost us a goal. He seems to never, ever be able to stop with his bad habits once and then. His game is effective when he's on and killing us when it's off. His defensive game is still inconsistent. I think the sword has been pointed against ourselves more this half-season than against our opponents. I have no clue why he's out on the PP. Del Zotto can play better than this.
Anton Strålman: Performance: 6,5. Expectation: 8. Overall: 7. Anton has been real solid considering what you can expect from him and is leading our defense in goals. He is playing like a top 4 D-man. He's the only D-man I want to see on the PP so far this season, the rest of them can take a hike.
Stu Bickel: Performance: 3. Expectation: 5. Overall: 4. Bickel has been bad. He can fight and take bad penalties. There ends his resumé. I don't know what Torts sees in him.
Gilroy and Eminger hasn't played that much, neither has Hamrlik. I actually thought Eminger looked like our #6, but according to Torts, apparently not.
Forwards
Again, an utter disappointment with a few exceptions. Our stars are looking like grinders and our grinders are looking like bad grinders. This can't go on either, something has to change. Gaborik's PP goal against the Isles was the first PP goal combined between Richards and Gaborik. Ridiculous.
Rick Nash: Performance: 8,5. Expectation: 9. Overall: 9. He was snakebitten but just kept going like the machine he is. With a couple of more goals at the start, his grade would've been even higher. To be a PPG player on a Rangers team speaks loads of how good he has played. He's pure danger with the puck and is together with Lundqvist the biggest contributors to this team even being in a playoff spot.
Brad Richards: Performance: 6. Expectation: 3. Overall: 4,5. I don't think I've ever seen Brad Richards having such a slow start, shortened season might have something to do with it, age, who knows? He has contributed the most to our PP by not being on it. I don't know what he does out there on most nights. He collects some assists to pad the stat sheet, that's all. Hopefully the goal last night can somewhat get him going again.
Marian Gaborik: Performance: 7. Expectation: 6. Overall: 6,5. Marian is what he is. Invisible when he isn't scoring, mainly invisible when he's scoring. His speed seems to have lost a step, his shot has lost a step and he isn't getting the chances. His goals are more the product of his teammates setting him up, than Marian contributing himself. If he's to contribute in a playoff series, roll a dice to see if he's on a streak or not. But, he still scores his goals and a goal is a goal. It's not like we have any options here, we can just pray he's on.
Ryan Callahan: Performance: 7,5. Expectation: 8. Overall: 8. You know what you get from Ryan. Hard work ethics and self sacrifice. Offensively, he can screen the goalie, he will get an easy rebound once and then, but you can't rely on him to create offense 5 on 5. An effective player in his areas, a hard working player that lacks soft hands, or at least hasn't shown them. He's potting goals that we sorely need. Ugly goals also count.
Carl Hagelin: Performance: 7. Expectation: 9. Overall: 8. This guy has been a catalyst. His speed is always there, so things will always happen on the ice when Carl is on it. The goal last night that Richards scored was a product of Carl's speed to chase down the ice. Excellent complimentary player. His shot isn't that good, his passing isn't exactly excellent, but his speed makes up for it. If he can improve his shot, he will be a dangerous player, a Gartner kind of guy.
Derek Stepan: Performance: 7. Expectation: 8. Overall: 7,5. This is where it gets difficult. I just don't know where this guy is. He's like a wild card. He has had an excellent streak, with Nash though. If he isn't playing with Nash, I don't what you can expect in the long run. He might be a second line center, but he's not in the upper echelon of second line centers yet. His passing game is solid, it's just not happening often enough. Some of you have argued he's playing the best hockey of his career. I don't know how much that has to do with putting pucks into open nets on passes received by Nash. He did manage to hit the open net though, which is alot more than you could expect from most players on this team. His offensive numbers don't have much to complain about right now, stat wise.
Bryan Boyle: Performance: 4. Expectation: 3. Overall: 3,5. He's gone this season if this debacle continues. He has gotten a fair share of ice time and has an assist and a team worst -7 to show for it. Maybe he stays as a 4th line center if we can live with the 4th line not contributing offensively, ever. On a cup aspiring team you can't live with that, so it's all about what the aspirations for this team is.
Taylor Pyatt: Performance: 5. Expectation: 7. Overall: 6. He scored three quick goals and has scored one on the next 20 games or so. Still, with this team's standard for bottom six players, he has stood out. Heck, with Brad Richards goal scoring standards this season, that's good. But on a good team? This isn't a good team right now, so we don't need to speculate.
J.T. Miller: Performance: 5. Expectation: 7. Overall: 6. Overall: "He can be a dummy sometimes". I think that is a quote that can be put on most players on this squad this season. He's doing his best and isn't neither standing out nor making a fool out of himself. Just where you would expect a rookie to be.
Darrol Powe: Performance: 4. Expectation: 5,5. Overall: 5. He is what he is. He can skate, he can hit, he can play the PK on a team that has had a shaky PK. You don't notice him out there, with the good and the bad. A warrior that will get a point when pigs fly. Again, what are the aspirations for this team? On an average team, Power has been just fine. His +/- is 0, so you cant' complain much about his play, he has done exactly what expected, just not with one single point. He kills ice time, so our top players can do the same when he gets to the bench.
Jeff Halpern: Performance: 4. Expectation: 5. Overall: 4,5. He wins his faceoffs and dumps the puck. That's Jeff Halpern. He eats ice time while the top guys rest. End of story. Likeable guy, but again, we have a plethora of bottom 6 guys who will never ever contribute offensively, how long can this team keep playing like this?
Team parts overall
Offense: Performance: 4. Expectation: 4. Overall: 4. We're 24th in the league, we have gone from 2,71 GF/ G to 2,48 GF/ G. How the hell are you supposed to win anything with a pathetic offense? I don't know. Our PP is Benny Hill Theme. We should supposedly have the top 6 to get the goals, while our offensive bottom 6 contribution is awful. 10 goals from our D, 10 goals from our PP, 7 goals from our bottom 6, where 4 of them comes from Pyatt (3 in the first four games) and the rest from players who are either injured or in Hartford. Unacceptable.
Defense: Performance: 7. Expectation: 4. Overall: 5,5. Yet again we're worse off. From a 2,22 GA/ G to a 2,39 GA/ G. Good, but not Rangers good. Our shot blocking is down, the strategy seems to be to screen Hank instead and make his life miserable. Not even our PK is like you would expect, we're losing track of positions and players all over as soon as we face a competent PP unit. We haven't consistently taken care of business. It's fairly disappointing.
Coaching staff
John Tortorella: Performance: 5. Expectation: 4. Overall: 4,5. Last season, he got out more from the team than the players on the back. This season, he's getting out less from the team than the names on the back. Last season, we were a team you hated playing against, we made our opponents earn their wins. This season, we're a cakewalk, an average team. Our record doesn't lie. We lost our warriors in trades and free agency, so we're a grinding team without grinders. It's a mess. Pathetic offense, pathetic PP, dented defense, bad transition game, bad breakout, bad, bad, bad. We have Lundqvist and Nash, that's why John still has a coaching job in New York.
Mike Sullivan: Performance: 3. Expectation: 5. Overall: 4. All hail our PP coach! Yeeaah... The reason he doesn't ge a lower grade is because it doesn't seem to matter which players are out there, which coach is here, or anything. The New York Rangers will have one of the worst Flower Plays in the league. End of story. When will they start playing the Benny Hill Theme in MSG when we get a PP, so the crowd gets at least some entertainment out of it?
edit: Alot. The numbers were somewhat in a mess, a number based on what? So I changed the criteria. I bashed some players more than they deserved. Thanks for your contributions!
Goalies
We have gotten just about what you could expect from our goalies, given the circumstances. I think both Hank and Biron have done what they can, considering what they have to cover for every single night.
Henrik Lundqvist: Performance: 8. Expectation: 8. Overall: 8. Sure, he's had one softie here and there, like the game winning goal against Winnipeg. He's been battling the puck here and there. But overall, he's been doing his job. Since the team debacle in the first couple of games, Hank has been back in old form and his numbers are up there. He's a .927 goalie not counting the first two games. He has allowed 4+ goals twice, all season included. There's not much to complain about. Zero shutouts, which says alot more about the team in front than Hank himself. They're not helping him out as you would hope, we've been back to playoff bubble hockey. You could argue his expectation grade should be lower, but since the team isn't playing better, it's not.
Martin Biron: x. Biron hasn't played much and it feels unfair to put a grade on that. He's had some game where he hasn't been able to shut down the lower part of the net, which I contribute more to a team playing like collective donkey ass than Biron himself. Extremely small sample, so no grade.
Defensemen
Our defense has overall been a disappointment. They aren't contributing offensively and when they try, we leave our goalie out to dry more often than not. One D has to cover for some dumb, failed pinch from the other. It's getting tiresome. They are awful at breakout passes and they aren't blocking shots anymore, but they sure as hell are still blocking our goalie's vision lane so he can't even see the puck. Something has to change, because this isn't working.
Ryan McDonaugh: Performance: 7,5. Expectation: 6. Overall: 7. McD has had great games and bad games. His breakout passes has lead to a dangerous scoring chance, you just don't know at which net. He can step up his game, but he has not been consistently dominant. His offensive contribution and pinching has been somewhat missing. Defensively, mostly solid with a couple of stinkers. He has another level and I'm sure he'll show it.
Dan Girardi: Performance: 7. Expectation: 5. Overall: 6. Girardi has been one of the worst breakout passers in the league. Defensively, when he hasn't the puck in our zone, he has mostly done his job. But for a supposed top 2 D-man, you don't get a pass in my book with a bottom 20 breakout pass. He's a +1 in total. Dan has another gear and he knows it.
Marc Staal: Performance: 8. Expectation: 8. Overall: 8. Staal has been our best defenseman according to me. He has been very solid defensively and has pinched offensively at the right occassions. Of course he was the one who had to be injured.
Michael Del Zotto: Performance: 5,5. Expectation: 4. Overall: 5. Michael has played like a double edged sword. He has dipped in blocked shots. For every smart play he does, he will make a dumbskull one that makes you cringe. He might cough up the puck at the blueline, make idiotic cross ice passes through three opponents and cost us a goal. He seems to never, ever be able to stop with his bad habits once and then. His game is effective when he's on and killing us when it's off. His defensive game is still inconsistent. I think the sword has been pointed against ourselves more this half-season than against our opponents. I have no clue why he's out on the PP. Del Zotto can play better than this.
Anton Strålman: Performance: 6,5. Expectation: 8. Overall: 7. Anton has been real solid considering what you can expect from him and is leading our defense in goals. He is playing like a top 4 D-man. He's the only D-man I want to see on the PP so far this season, the rest of them can take a hike.
Stu Bickel: Performance: 3. Expectation: 5. Overall: 4. Bickel has been bad. He can fight and take bad penalties. There ends his resumé. I don't know what Torts sees in him.
Gilroy and Eminger hasn't played that much, neither has Hamrlik. I actually thought Eminger looked like our #6, but according to Torts, apparently not.
Forwards
Again, an utter disappointment with a few exceptions. Our stars are looking like grinders and our grinders are looking like bad grinders. This can't go on either, something has to change. Gaborik's PP goal against the Isles was the first PP goal combined between Richards and Gaborik. Ridiculous.
Rick Nash: Performance: 8,5. Expectation: 9. Overall: 9. He was snakebitten but just kept going like the machine he is. With a couple of more goals at the start, his grade would've been even higher. To be a PPG player on a Rangers team speaks loads of how good he has played. He's pure danger with the puck and is together with Lundqvist the biggest contributors to this team even being in a playoff spot.
Brad Richards: Performance: 6. Expectation: 3. Overall: 4,5. I don't think I've ever seen Brad Richards having such a slow start, shortened season might have something to do with it, age, who knows? He has contributed the most to our PP by not being on it. I don't know what he does out there on most nights. He collects some assists to pad the stat sheet, that's all. Hopefully the goal last night can somewhat get him going again.
Marian Gaborik: Performance: 7. Expectation: 6. Overall: 6,5. Marian is what he is. Invisible when he isn't scoring, mainly invisible when he's scoring. His speed seems to have lost a step, his shot has lost a step and he isn't getting the chances. His goals are more the product of his teammates setting him up, than Marian contributing himself. If he's to contribute in a playoff series, roll a dice to see if he's on a streak or not. But, he still scores his goals and a goal is a goal. It's not like we have any options here, we can just pray he's on.
Ryan Callahan: Performance: 7,5. Expectation: 8. Overall: 8. You know what you get from Ryan. Hard work ethics and self sacrifice. Offensively, he can screen the goalie, he will get an easy rebound once and then, but you can't rely on him to create offense 5 on 5. An effective player in his areas, a hard working player that lacks soft hands, or at least hasn't shown them. He's potting goals that we sorely need. Ugly goals also count.
Carl Hagelin: Performance: 7. Expectation: 9. Overall: 8. This guy has been a catalyst. His speed is always there, so things will always happen on the ice when Carl is on it. The goal last night that Richards scored was a product of Carl's speed to chase down the ice. Excellent complimentary player. His shot isn't that good, his passing isn't exactly excellent, but his speed makes up for it. If he can improve his shot, he will be a dangerous player, a Gartner kind of guy.
Derek Stepan: Performance: 7. Expectation: 8. Overall: 7,5. This is where it gets difficult. I just don't know where this guy is. He's like a wild card. He has had an excellent streak, with Nash though. If he isn't playing with Nash, I don't what you can expect in the long run. He might be a second line center, but he's not in the upper echelon of second line centers yet. His passing game is solid, it's just not happening often enough. Some of you have argued he's playing the best hockey of his career. I don't know how much that has to do with putting pucks into open nets on passes received by Nash. He did manage to hit the open net though, which is alot more than you could expect from most players on this team. His offensive numbers don't have much to complain about right now, stat wise.
Bryan Boyle: Performance: 4. Expectation: 3. Overall: 3,5. He's gone this season if this debacle continues. He has gotten a fair share of ice time and has an assist and a team worst -7 to show for it. Maybe he stays as a 4th line center if we can live with the 4th line not contributing offensively, ever. On a cup aspiring team you can't live with that, so it's all about what the aspirations for this team is.
Taylor Pyatt: Performance: 5. Expectation: 7. Overall: 6. He scored three quick goals and has scored one on the next 20 games or so. Still, with this team's standard for bottom six players, he has stood out. Heck, with Brad Richards goal scoring standards this season, that's good. But on a good team? This isn't a good team right now, so we don't need to speculate.
J.T. Miller: Performance: 5. Expectation: 7. Overall: 6. Overall: "He can be a dummy sometimes". I think that is a quote that can be put on most players on this squad this season. He's doing his best and isn't neither standing out nor making a fool out of himself. Just where you would expect a rookie to be.
Darrol Powe: Performance: 4. Expectation: 5,5. Overall: 5. He is what he is. He can skate, he can hit, he can play the PK on a team that has had a shaky PK. You don't notice him out there, with the good and the bad. A warrior that will get a point when pigs fly. Again, what are the aspirations for this team? On an average team, Power has been just fine. His +/- is 0, so you cant' complain much about his play, he has done exactly what expected, just not with one single point. He kills ice time, so our top players can do the same when he gets to the bench.
Jeff Halpern: Performance: 4. Expectation: 5. Overall: 4,5. He wins his faceoffs and dumps the puck. That's Jeff Halpern. He eats ice time while the top guys rest. End of story. Likeable guy, but again, we have a plethora of bottom 6 guys who will never ever contribute offensively, how long can this team keep playing like this?
Team parts overall
Offense: Performance: 4. Expectation: 4. Overall: 4. We're 24th in the league, we have gone from 2,71 GF/ G to 2,48 GF/ G. How the hell are you supposed to win anything with a pathetic offense? I don't know. Our PP is Benny Hill Theme. We should supposedly have the top 6 to get the goals, while our offensive bottom 6 contribution is awful. 10 goals from our D, 10 goals from our PP, 7 goals from our bottom 6, where 4 of them comes from Pyatt (3 in the first four games) and the rest from players who are either injured or in Hartford. Unacceptable.
Defense: Performance: 7. Expectation: 4. Overall: 5,5. Yet again we're worse off. From a 2,22 GA/ G to a 2,39 GA/ G. Good, but not Rangers good. Our shot blocking is down, the strategy seems to be to screen Hank instead and make his life miserable. Not even our PK is like you would expect, we're losing track of positions and players all over as soon as we face a competent PP unit. We haven't consistently taken care of business. It's fairly disappointing.
Coaching staff
John Tortorella: Performance: 5. Expectation: 4. Overall: 4,5. Last season, he got out more from the team than the players on the back. This season, he's getting out less from the team than the names on the back. Last season, we were a team you hated playing against, we made our opponents earn their wins. This season, we're a cakewalk, an average team. Our record doesn't lie. We lost our warriors in trades and free agency, so we're a grinding team without grinders. It's a mess. Pathetic offense, pathetic PP, dented defense, bad transition game, bad breakout, bad, bad, bad. We have Lundqvist and Nash, that's why John still has a coaching job in New York.
Mike Sullivan: Performance: 3. Expectation: 5. Overall: 4. All hail our PP coach! Yeeaah... The reason he doesn't ge a lower grade is because it doesn't seem to matter which players are out there, which coach is here, or anything. The New York Rangers will have one of the worst Flower Plays in the league. End of story. When will they start playing the Benny Hill Theme in MSG when we get a PP, so the crowd gets at least some entertainment out of it?
edit: Alot. The numbers were somewhat in a mess, a number based on what? So I changed the criteria. I bashed some players more than they deserved. Thanks for your contributions!
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