Post-Game Talk: I don't have anything clever to put in the thread title

[NYRFANMANI]

Welp ... crashed at 4 AM, start of the third. Up until then, we looked scared, flat, like the players knew.

Team with the better players usually wins and FLA had us beat by miles with certain positions.
We don't have a player of Tkachuk's quality, not by a long shot.
We weren't a deep team at all.

D is still a joke. Idk anything about coaching, but I think FLA played a 2-1-2 which just ate us up alive.
We looked again, less organized.

Maybe next year Laf will be a player that has that superstar caliber. Fox needs to stay healthy.

Trouba as C is not working, and I think only very few would have given him the C (we had a poll I member). Need to get rid of him ASAP.

 

[Row I Goon]

 

[egelband]

It was a great run. The boys were banged up. I don’t think we got to see them at full power but either way Florida was just better. Gotta tip my cap to them. I don’t even feel bad about it. Had we fallen to Carolina I’d have been upset. Florida was just in better form.

 

[Leonardo87]

I’m hungover, it’s only like 5am, have nothing to say, going back to bed….

But I did make a new Roster thread, last one was too long.

 

[chosen]

Fl was the better team , issue here is not losing its the way they keep doing it .It's not a coaching issue , it's a roster issue Trouba and Zib have to be gone at minimum. Team w/ this "core" has had enough chances . Would love if the team started to shift toward building around LAF

It's never a coaching issue. Lav went no further than Gallant.

 

[LOFIN]

Would love if the team started to shift toward building around LAF

Frankly, it's criminal that he wasn't given a spot on PP1 instead of Mika in the last few games. He was rocking, the mullet man wasn't.

 

[gabevh3]

wow, vally saying on the post game they need to make big moves this offseason and how you cant teach guys attitude of getting into the slot and dirty areas. And how basically its not the coach, its the core. Wow.

Then he should've played edstrom and rempe or some other black ace. I'm blaming the coaches for not even trying to play the right players in this series.

 

[gabevh3]

Plz elaborate

Man to man and how many players in the picture and always paying attention to neutral zone when in the defensive zone. They also rarely used 1 3 1.

 

[chosen]

I mean, I hate to say “I told you so,” but this is exactly what I’ve been saying for years here.

We are a very good team that’s just not in the upper tier. You can look at the talent and the 5v5 play on the ice. Teams like Tampa, teams like Colorado, teams like Chicago was, Los Angeles, etc. There are clear cut dominant teams and we just aren’t in that tier. And never have been. We are always the spunky undertalented team that needs favorable matchups to advance.

Our talent level and the 5v5 mediocrity reflected by that talent level is NOT GOOD ENOUGH. We do well enough in the regular season but special teams are NOT gonna get you through four rounds. Mika, Kreider and Panarin are power play merchants.

And no, wings are not just as good as centers. We need a fricking 1C.

Mika out and a top 10 center in would solve a LOT of problems on offense. Next would be that you have to get Trouba out and a decent defenseman to replace him in the top 4, preferably a guy capable of plying top pair.

And finally Kakko not developing has also killed us. Which is also what I said: you shouldn’t cut off a rebuild till you know you’ve got the elite young talent. That whole rebuild and all we might have is Lafreniere and Fox.

It’s not enough. Look at Florida. They have twice as much high end, highly drafted forward talent, and it’s all under 30. They are deeper on defense too. No wonder they kicked our ass.

Drury has done a shit job. No, his giving up firsts for rentals was not good value. It was shit.

He needs to find a way to win some trades this offseason moving out Trouba and Mika for sure, and taking calls on most everything else.

And I hate to break it to people but @Machinehead is right, Igor can’t carry us to a Cuo by himself either. And giving him a massive contract is just gonna hamstring our ability to get the forward talent we need. I’m not saying trade him at all costs, but that water should be tested.

Giving Bob that money didn't hurt Florida.

 

[94leetch]

Unless you have an overwhelmingly powerful offensive juggernaut of a team, you better be ready to turn a series against these guys into a f****** war. I didn't see that happen, they're not that team. Oh well.

 

[chosen]

Our top 10 picks combined for 16 points in the playoffs; Laf had 14 of them...
On top of other things, the absolute lack of secondary scoring and depth from those picks (or even useful assets outside of Cuylle) is a large reason with why we couldn't get it done.

Are you saying Cuylle was a useful asset in the playoffs?

 

[artoor13]

 

[chosen]

Rupp said the system was changed in the playoffs which made everyone confused... makes you wonder.

What are the details of the changes?

 

[chosen]

I'm just not excited about him.

I see him as another guy who's too slow and his hits won't do anything.

Sounds like Lindgren.

 

[savebyrichter94]

Too f***ing funny

 

[chosen]

Since it’s officially the off season let the wild stuff begin, how about trying Mika out on wing hopefully freeing up his offense more and less stress worrying about being so responsible defensively.

His defense was possibly the strongest part of his game.

Theodore, that season, was insane.

 

[mas0764]

Fl was the better team , issue here is not losing its the way they keep doing it .It's not a coaching issue , it's a roster issue Trouba and Zib have to be gone at minimum. Team w/ this "core" has had enough chances . Would love if the team started to shift toward building around LAF

It’s an issue that we (the GM, really, but us too) need to realize we are a very good team but not a great team and that places us on the outside looking in. We need luck to win like the Blues.

This series was not a toss up between two even teams that were equally good and one of them had to lose. This was a team that basically shut us down and beat us up and it was clear that we were just hanging on, just like Tampa two years ago. We required running into fellow underdog Montreal to advance past this level and when we did, we were dispatched in 5 games by a superior LA Kings team without that much of a fight.

No, the reason we are 1-4 in our last 5 ECFs is that we continue to construct rosters that are not good enough especially vis-a-vis 5v5.

This front office and the fan base doesn’t understand what a Cuo winning roster should look like. It thinks that because we finish with good regular season records due to PP/goaltending that we are “right there” and have “as good a chance as anyone.”

The results say that doesn’t work. We are an outsider team and the insiders keep kicking us to the curb. We need to join the insiders club and that means we need to get significantly better. Not a little. A good bit better. This is a significant hurdle for a franchise to get over.

We need more star power at forward, better star power at key spots, which people keep erroneously saying is “impossible.” It’s not, it’s just hard, and it means some fan favorites have to go and no one likes the sacrifice necessary.

 

[Shesterkybomb]

What are the details of the changes?

From my perspective they went to man to man d for some reason. Our defense looked out to lunch trying to chase guys around and forgetting their man

 

[chosen]

I probably need a few days to decompress before I can really think constructively about this team’s future.

Unlike last year, there is a lot to look forward to. We’re in a much better place. Laf was the highlight of the season for me. That’s good.

But I truly believe the Rangers lost this series more than Florida won it. There are some seriously rotten players on this core. No team is winning with Zibanejad and Panarin playing meaningful minutes. It’s like Matthew’s and Marner. These guys are losers - it’s their DNA.

I wish the Rangers had Matthews.

Said it the RBT but Sloth Tkachuk is probably pretty close to the attitude adjustment this team needs. A moose who plays like he actually wants it and is impossible to defend around the net. There’s a reason he owns us.

He owns everybody.

 

[Peltz]

New round, new avatar.

 

[Chytilmania]

Fox took dirty knees to both his legs and was our best defenseman by a mile all playoffs. Trouba should’ve handed him the C in the post game locker room

Both of our posts can be true at the same time.

 

[chosen]

From my perspective they went to man to man d for some reason. Our defense looked out to lunch trying to chase guys around and forgetting their man

Did any reporters ask Lav about it?

 

[94leetch]

From my perspective they went to man to man d for some reason. Our defense looked out to lunch trying to chase guys around and forgetting their man

Exactly what Boyle said on the podcast.

To be fair, I can't say enough about the Cats.
That team is firing on all cylinders and I have no problem rooting for them in the cup

 

[savebyrichter94]

It’s gonna be a bloodbath on here all summer and it’s gonna be glorious

Buckle up indeed

Stay Tuned

Kakko has drastically regressed. He showed promise with Martin as AC. Then things started to get worse. Now he's a marginal NHLer / AHLer for me. Wouldn't be surprised to see him in Finland again in a few years.

We all know he ends up scoring the winning goal in an elimination game against us and it’ll be the only important goal of his loser career

 

[RangerBoy]

The Rangers weren't good enough. Again. Bigger is better in the NHL.

Miller and Trouba, by the way, were the only Rangers defensemen to score a goal in the postseason and both were shorthanded. That is hard to believe.

The Rangers could not get to the inside just like the Rangers could not get to the inside against the Lightning in 2022. Maybe someone can sense a pattern. Maybe someone will acknowledge that size still matters as much as it ever did when it comes to the playoffs.

Rangers couldn’t match Panthers’ toughness as Stanley Cup drought continues

The Blueshirts battled here while facing extinction for the first time in Game 6. There was no quit in New York. But the Panthers were too tough.

nypost.com

The Rangers D produced so many points in the regular season. The Rangers power play dried up.

Florida has a big and heavy team. Those teams win in the playoffs.