How Good Are the 2013-14 Rangers (Part II)

[OverTheCap]

I get what Raspewtin is saying. We already saw last season that having secondary scorers like Brassard and Boyle carry the team offensively is not enough. We will need more contributions up and down the lineup and especially from primary scorers such as Nash, Stepan, and MSL.

 

[jerseyjinx94]

I get what Raspewtin is saying. We already saw last season that having secondary scorers like Brassard and Boyle carry the team offensively is not enough. We will need more contributions up and down the lineup and especially from primary scorers such as Nash, Stepan, and MSL.

Okay.But what he said is we need to be firing all cylinders. That all need to perform.

If Stepan and MSL light it up, and Nash doesn't, and our role players contribute with timely goals and what not, we're cooked according to that post.

 

[True Blue]

I don't understand how you can say we need our stars to play well to win in the playoffs and then you cite two teams who had a star do nothing and go far. That doesn't make sense.

It does when you compare the overall talent level of the teams to the Rangers.

 

[RGY]

I think, and I do not speak for him, his point was that Boston and Chicago are much more talented as a whole. If Toews disappears, Chicago still has other uber talented players that are as talented as any in the league, for example.

While I agree a team like chicago has sharp, kane, and hossa...we still have nash, st. Louis, stepan, and richards, albeit to a lesser overall talent level, but still nonetheless able to compete. I also believe our overall 6 defensemen are better than most teams.

 

[Raspewtin]

Okay.But what he said is we need to be firing all cylinders. That all need to perform.

If Stepan and MSL light it up, and Nash doesn't, and our role players contribute with timely goals and what not, we're cooked according to that post.

Are Stepan and MSL really enough? I'm not convinced.

We had secondary scoring carry us to a 5 game elimination last year. 2011-2012 we had secondary scoring carry us to two absolutely brutal series', that should've been 5 or 6 game series. Gaborik played with one shoulder that year.

The Rangers don't have a good enough overall talent level to have anyone sleep through the playoffs.

 

[Raspewtin]

While I agree a team like chicago has sharp, kane, and hossa...we still have nash, st. Louis, stepan, and richards, albeit to a lesser overall talent level, but still nonetheless able to compete. I also believe our overall 6 defensemen are better than most teams.

The Rangers' top 6 couldn't hold a candle to Chicago's top 6. Not even close.

 

[Jersey Girl]

The Rangers' top 6 couldn't hold a candle to Chicago's top 6. Not even close.

Bruins, Ducks, Sharks, Kings - the list goes on.

Whenever you read declarations that the Rangers 'something' is the best or one of the best in the league, you always have to wonder how much the person saying that actually watches the rest of the league.

 

[Raspewtin]

I don't understand how you can say we need our stars to play well to win in the playoffs and then you cite two teams who had a star do nothing and go far. That doesn't make sense.

It does when you realize that I wrote that Chicago and Boston had players that filled in for their underperforming stars. Here's an example. Last season, Brassard was 1/3rd responsible for that win against Washington. Nash vanished, Outside of two (albeit clutch) goals, Stepan vanished. Callahan vanished on the scoresheet. Richards played worse than he ever has in his career. Washington was hot at the time, they weren't a good team. The Rangers ran into a good team, Boston. Brassard lost the space that Washington gave him, and not surprisingly he didn't do much against Boston. That was a quick series.

Toews played horrible last playoffs and Kane + Bickell shouldered a lot of the load. Where's this team's Kane? I don't see one.

Boston is loaded with players who play big in the playoffs. They could afford to have Seguin play bad when their entire top 6 was playing great.

 

[Blue Blooded]

If the Rangers are able to "fire on all cylinders" throughout the playoffs they will win the cup without a doubt. I don't think any series goes past 6 games in that case.

The problem is, teams VERY rarely do. The only team that I can think of that did it recently is the cup winning Kings. They were at legitimately good team (top-5 in the league) that underperformed in the reg. season and "fired on all cylinders" throughout the playoffs absolutely steamrolling everything.

Think about what that would mean for the Rangers: Nash and MSL scoring at PPG. Stepan, Zuccarello, and Richards just below. Hagelin, Brassard, Pouliot, and McDonagh just above 0.5 PPG. Hank puts up 93%. Our possession game runs at 55-60%. No team in the league (unless they are also firing on all cylinders, and then only a few) can stand against that over a 7 game series.

We have enough depth to handle a disappearing act or two. Arguably we can handle more disappearing acts than most teams. But it's tough when our most prolific scorers are the ones disappearing.

I've been a big proponent of this team and I still think we can go far, but not playing the way we have been for the past ~15 games. Sure our record is good, but our possession game has dropped off significantly and our best players haven't been playing near their potential.

This is a good team at it's core, but it needs to start playing like one again if we want to contend.

 

[Raspewtin]

Good post BB. Basically how I feel.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

I'm being cautiously optimistic about how well our depth players will do in the playoffs. Will Brassard pull of his heroics from last year? Because without them the Caps could've beat us in 5. Does anyone think Brassard will repeat that?

What happened last year when Nash and Stepan were largely kept off the score sheet most of the playoffs? Out in 5 against a better team. The addition of Pouliot doesn't solve that in my opinion, I have doubts about how effective his line will be when their space is largely taken away. MSL can't keep up this disappearing act if the Rangers want to get far.

Basically what I tried to say is that another superstar disappearing act will have us out just as quick as last time, when we face a good team.

We played a completely different style last year, you can't just subtract Brassard's scoring and say this is what the team will be like. I remember at one point counting how many of the goals against Lundqvist were a result of the collapsing defense, where pucks went off our D-men. It was a lot. The VAST majority. Also we spent the entire game in our zone, in every game but maybe 2 of them. That's not how the Rangers play now. I don't know how you just factor that out. Totally different team.

 

[Bleed Ranger Blue]

Okay.But what he said is we need to be firing all cylinders. That all need to perform.

If Stepan and MSL light it up, and Nash doesn't, and our role players contribute with timely goals and what not, we're cooked according to that post.

Obviously not every player will be firing on all cylinders at all times, but the Rangers have less room for error when compared to the top teams in the league.

 

[Jersey Girl]

Obviously not every player will be firing on all cylinders at all times, but the Rangers have less room for error when compared to the top teams in the league.

Yeah, I mean if the Flyers are firing on all cylinders we can easily be a quick one and done.

 

[Bleed Ranger Blue]

The big question that will feed into who or who is not "firing on all cylinders" is how this team handled the type of game in the playoffs; where, most often, physicality ramps up and time/space is taken away.

Is this team well-rounded enough to adjust to it?

 

[True Blue]

While I agree a team like chicago has sharp, kane, and hossa...we still have nash, st. Louis, stepan, and richards,

Come on. You cannot possibly line up those names next to each other.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

If the Rangers are able to "fire on all cylinders" throughout the playoffs they will win the cup without a doubt. I don't think any series goes past 6 games in that case.

The problem is, teams VERY rarely do. The only team that I can think of that did it recently is the cup winning Kings. They were at legitimately good team (top-5 in the league) that underperformed in the reg. season and "fired on all cylinders" throughout the playoffs absolutely steamrolling everything.

Think about what that would mean for the Rangers: Nash and MSL scoring at PPG. Stepan, Zuccarello, and Richards just below. Hagelin, Brassard, Pouliot, and McDonagh just above 0.5 PPG. Hank puts up 93%. Our possession game runs at 55-60%. No team in the league (unless they are also firing on all cylinders, and then only a few) can stand against that over a 7 game series.

We have enough depth to handle a disappearing act or two. Arguably we can handle more disappearing acts than most teams. But it's tough when our most prolific scorers are the ones disappearing.

I've been a big proponent of this team and I still think we can go far, but not playing the way we have been for the past ~15 games. Sure our record is good, but our possession game has dropped off significantly and our best players haven't been playing near their potential.

This is a good team at it's core, but it needs to start playing like one again if we want to contend.

I don't know, we had a stretch of 3 games where our possession has been God awful, outside of that I don't see the problem. Sure we had some bad periods, like period 1 against the Flyers, but on the whole I think that we still out-possess almost every team that we play. The Sharks may be the best possession team in the league and we put up 41 shots on them and outshot them by over 10 (granted they were on a grueling road trip). My worry is more finishing and the team's propensity to have games where they look like the 3 stooges when they DO get into their zone.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

Yeah, I mean if the Flyers are firing on all cylinders we can easily be a quick one and done.

I take the Rangers firing on all cylinders against the Flyers firing on all cylinders because I think McDonagh will still make Girioux his ***** that way.

 

[Jersey Girl]

I take the Rangers firing on all cylinders against the Flyers firing on all cylinders because I think McDonagh will still make Girioux his ***** that way.

All of a sudden it feels like this conversation its taking place at a high school freshmen lunch table or something...

 

[SnowblindNYR]

Honestly, I think if we have just 5 players firing on all cylinders, top 2 D pairings and Lundqvist, we will be an incredibly tough team to play against. Though, I doubt it would be enough because then we will look similar to the 11-12 team that couldn't score. My point is though, the top 2 pairings and Lundqvist playing at a high level and you can count on 1 hand teams that will be harder to score on.

 

[Holocene]

Bruins, Ducks, Sharks, Kings - the list goes on.

Whenever you read declarations that the Rangers 'something' is the best or one of the best in the league, you always have to wonder how much the person saying that actually watches the rest of the league.

Except that we actually do have one of the best blue lines in the league which is what he said. From top to bottom who is better than us? Chicago and St. Louis? Boston's D is basically just Chara, Boychuk and a bunch of kids this year. LA is up there but they're not deeper than us.

 

[Jersey Girl]

Boston's D is basically just Chara, Boychuk and a bunch of kids this year. LA is up there but they're not deeper than us.

If you're making comments like these, well, I could not possibly disagree with you more. In my opinion these comments are ridiculously misguided. Let's just agree to disagree here and move on.

 

[aufheben]

Every positive post about the Rangers in the history of time has been ridiculously misguided for you. It's really cool man, to rip on the Rangers, man.

Is Lundqvist not a Ranger?

 

[Holocene]

If you're making comments like these, well, I could not possibly disagree with you more. In my opinion these comments are ridiculously misguided. Let's just agree to disagree here and move on.

LA's defense is not better than ours. Drew Doughty isn't even better than McDonagh this year. Boston benefits from playing a complete team defense and their forwards and system cover a lot of the mistakes their young inexperienced dmen are making this year. Depthwise? We're better than both of them.

 

[RangerBoy]

I love Stepan but his playoffs need to be much better. Nash was terrible in the playoffs. MSL has played in the playoffs once in the last 6-7 years. 2011. An Olympic year. 38 years old. No Kreider. He raises his game in the post season. Toews didn't do much in the playoffs last spring. Kane had one great series. Sharp came up huge. Bickell played the best hockey of his career. The Rangers need their big guns to fire for them to win. You have a lot of faith in Nash? The games will be close because of Lundqvist and their D but when it is time to score that huge goal who is scoring it? The numerous small players is a major issue. Whenever the Rangers have advanced into the conference finals,the Rangers were a big team. Bigger bodies.

 

[Megustaelhockey]

This thread needs to close at this time. Too much flaming; not enough discussion.