@DevilDog99 @RangersFan1994
I have no idea why I keep answering low effort, troll posts, but I'll give it a go.
Getting rid of Miller doesn't make this team better, nor will it fix anything.
I've agreed that Miller has made some bad plays, but you know what? Everyone on this team makes bad plays. In fact, bad plays happen in the world of hockey. It's okay to gripe about a bad play a player makes, but you guys act like Miller pissed in your morning coffee because you seem to make it a personal slight that Miller is even alive and breathing. Not going to point the finger at who, but I remember seeing a negative comment on Miller when he tried to handle the puck on the blue line, his stick blew up on him, and that was
still somehow
his fault.
Now, in my opinion, there are two other defensemen on this team that are far worse than Miller ever was. Calling Miller a 7th D is as absurd as saying the team should trade him like it's going to f***ing fix the middling defense on this team. You want Jones to play 23 minutes against top offenses? Fine. Still not going to fix the defense. The outcome of our play will still be the same.
The team's defense is broken, although I think it's been broken for years and years. The D on this team make the same mistakes as well as the forwards. The Rangers are incapable of:
1) Defending off the rush. Our D gives up the blue line constantly. We do not challenge the puck carrier ever, and instead back all the way to f*** all and it gives room to the opposition to basically do what they want to do. I think it's the primary reason why we give up so many shots. It's because we simply bend over and let them have the ice they want.
2) Forwards backchecking. This team is the worst at racing back to challenge the late man. If it does happen, there are missed assignments. The center is the 3rd D-man, so when we whine about our D chasing the corner sometimes, it's usually the center covering the gap. However, the wingers need to help out as well.
Just a complete defensive breakdown, and we're up a man!!
3) Puck retrieval and breakout in our zone. What further exasperates our broken system is that once our defense gets the puck in the defensive zone, if they hear a player fart behind them they will ring the puck up the boards to no one. Teams with a strong defensive system will get two players as pass options down low for support. However, it seems up the boards into no man's land or a clear to the neutral zone via a useless puck flip are the options we seem to choose the most, and aggressive teams bring it right back in again before the team can set itself.
You want to know what a real 7th D play looks like? Trouba can bumper the puck behind him to Tro or slow pass to Lindgren if Lindgren hustles to the boards to support him. However, he tries to ring it around the boards to the left while Laf and Panarin are thinking offense for some f***ing reason when there are three players between them and the goal, and it gets picked off and kept in the zone at the blue line.
What starts out as a 3v3 somehow becomes a 4v3 against. The Laf line is the WORST at backchecking. Absolutely terrible. They are barely in the zone when the goal is scored. The Oilers even make a change and the late guy
coming off the bench is allowed to walk in and score because our two wingers don't hustle to even try and pick him up.
To answer your question
@DevilDog99 , no one except our goalies do anything great or at least try to game in and game out. No one. RAH.
Defensive lapses like the examples I give happen so much I can't comprehend why you guy spend your time and energy harping about one player's mistakes like
he's the root cause of this team's issues. You can pick apart forwards individually because individual offensive skill can turn the tide on games, but even that doesn't matter when your entire team is a defensive liability.
