The coach's post-game comments were interesting. Think he's trying to get the players to play a more conservative system and some forwards (our overages?) aren't buying in.
I wish I could give this post multiple likes. It hit the nail on the head in every aspect. I believe Even Steven talked about the makeup of the team in earlier posts as well.
Spot started picking safe picks and it seems to have continued right up to the present. The physical element isn't there. I can only recall one hit late in the 3rd when Pinelli hit the Attack captain. Teams coming into the Aud do not have to worry about being knocked around. It would be nice to see a couple of gritty type players on this squad. Gets the fans into the game. I have never been enamored with Ranger scouting for years. I find Guelph and Owen Sound seem to pick more solid OHL type players. Just my humble opinion.
They have tried the bigger more physical player route for a while. Drafted Pedersen and Schmaltz and it failed miserably.
I've been harping on the play style redundancy in different terms for a while; and also the fact that we have a few players who have the tools to play a certain style (that we could really use) but continue to want to be something they've demonstrated they aren't (a couple guys who think they are offense first D who should be Defense first types, and a couple of forwards who think they are primarily offensive guys who need to be committed and engaged two-ways to be effective).
They didn't pound teams into submission early on and they "financed" some of those picks trading Merkley...was Hawel a completely different player in Guelph than Kitchener? A big gripe with him was he was a giant who played like a slim skill guy.
I think he got the C a year too early. Not sure if he's suffering the post-NHL camp blues or whatever that some guys coming back do when they have bad early returns, but I'm not seeing any improvement so far.
I agree about the C. Petizian was easily the heart and soul of this team last year. And Xhekaj up until he was traded.
My money has been on player development for a while. We've had different scouting strategies and different coaches, and different GMs (MM being arguably quite solid) but outside of a couple exceptions, have had the same type of disappointing problems time and time again starting in the Spott era.
Pinelli has looked dangerous at times just not on a consistent basis. Biggest problem IMO is lack of high end talent to work with.
From Josh Brown's latest article.....
Blues , one reason they failed with Pederson and Schmaltz was exactly what I pointed out about Spot. Taking 2nd and 3rd round players in the 1st round hoping they stick for 4 years. Surprisingly they turned out to be exactly that and he passed on decent OHL first rounders. Not saying we need a bunch of big goons. Just a mix of players with physicality added to the recipe.
Too many cooks in the kitchen? Too many guys hitching a free ride? Doesn't make sense to have among the "best" (in reality just translate to among the most resources) staff capabilities in the league, but failing to get the most out of your players, and in fact somehow getting less-than from them consistently.
I think their point is people seem to say "we need X not Y" then when we draft more Y and it doesn't work they say "we need more Y, not X". The fact is, with one or two years of exception, we've had similarly disappointing results and on ice play and product regardless of the scouting/drafting philosophy.
Part of the reason the philosophy lingers is we so seldom go outside the organization to find new coaches/GMs.
Eh this is the narrative from 4 years or so ago that doesn't hold. We did that with MM on GM which has been ok, we did that with Jay McKee which was a mixed bag, we did that with Chris Dennis and so far that's been a disaster.
I'm unsure what you're saying. MM is a promotion from within. He seems to have maintained the same philosophy.
Plus, the directors. I worked with a couple of unnamed directors. They were not in it for the sake of the organization.
If there is really such a thing as building through the draft a GM better make sure he doesn't screw up on both his first and 2nd draft picks. I believe the GM has the final say in the first pick. These are the usually the top players in the draft. Spot did this more than once and the powers that be recently have done this also. Either underachieving picks or no shows. It effects the success of the team going forward. In saying this it's still a crap shoot when trying to judge whether a young 15–16-year-old player will pan out three years later. Two of the Rangers biggest successes recently were undrafted Yantis and Jack Eye(sp).
