Post-Game Talk: L’s @ RANGER

[SnowblindNYR]

So funny little tidbit, I was looking at the 2014 NHL draft and Michael Bunting who scored the 3rd goal today was the pick right before Shesterkin.

 

[jay from jersey]

Such a typical response on this forum. I've been watching the Rangers my entire life. I'm always anticipating that 10 game losing streak, the death knell injury, whatever. But I can count on one hand the amount times I've felt this way about a team.

Yea. You can tell it’s a tight knit group that plays for one another. And they like their coach.
Plus, I don’t know if any of you guys have been at the garden lately.
It’s electric. There’s a certain air about the place.
I don’t think any of us would have predicted them to play as well as they have and win as much. We all expected playoffs.
But sometimes, things just click for some reason. Even if they weren’t supposed to yet...
It’s a big reason why this team will be buyers. Hopefully, they won’t and shouldn’t go overboard though.
Sometimes you just gotta ride the wave

 

[TominNC]

Fair enough. My eyesight sucks.

But I agree with you.

 

[Clark Kellogg]

It's because I peaced out and watched Netflix at 2-0, guys. They always do good shit when I quit early.

(I actually checked in every 10 minutes and even saw the GTG and GWG, but still, I'm taking credit.)

We’ll all have to chip in and send you to the Maldives for the SCF series.

 

[ohbaby]

Still a long way to go. Haven't hit the halfway point yet.

Odds makers put the Rangers at better than 95% in making the playoffs. It's almost a foregone conclusion two weeks before the all-star break.

I break it down here.... This is a good hockey team

 

[egelband]

Go read the Leafs board if you somehow feel bad about this win.

I had a peek. They’re giving the rangers a ton of credit. Which is nice to see. I wasn’t expecting that.

 

[Alluckks]

Ok, it's time to say it: Strome is really good and I would play Tetris to extend him.

Strome has developed into someone that I actually trust to pretty consistently make the right pass in high paced offensive zone plays, he can finish plays off pretty well, doesn't detract from other stud linemates (obviously), can play a harder game if teams try to goon it up, and evidently has been a great teammate.

I have gone from whatever with him, to skeptical and critical, to being a relatively decent supporter now.

If we could get him for something like 5 years and 5.75-6.5 per year, I'd be happy with it I think.......

 

[ohbaby]

Hopefully he’ll be able to fully take over for trouba in a year and a half-2 years time

I keep hearing this. Is Trouba going somewhere? I thought he was under contract?

I love Schneider, and think he is the real deal, but why is everyone willing to throw Trouba under the bus? He's 27 and playing the best hockey of his life. He has a lot more than two good years left.

 

[jay from jersey]

I keep hearing this. Is Trouba going somewhere? I thought he was under contract?

I love Schneider, and think he is the real deal, but why is everyone willing to throw Trouba under the bus? He's 27 and playing the best hockey of his life. He has a lot more than two of three good years left.

Well in theory, Schneider shouldn’t hopefully need more then another 2 seasons to assume top 4 minutes.
Trouba has def been a beast, but having Schneider in the fold let’s NYR move his 8 mill cap hit off the books.
At that point trouba will no longer have a nMC, it will be a MNTC.
He should also bring back some value to a playoff team looking to add a top 4 minute eater at age 30 whose only signed for 2 more years.
He’ll likely still be playing at a high level. Still be physical, still will be a able to move the puck, and eat about 20 min a night against tough competition.
So for all those reasons, I think it’s highly likely we see Schneider as the eventual trouba replacement.
Right now, there’s absolutely no need for Schneider to be thrown in top 4 min. Let him get his feet wet on 3rd pair, get some playoff experience, and gradually have him take over the role.
Plus getting trouba to waive earlier then 2 years likely affects any possible return, assuming he even wants to be moved in that timeframe.
Right now, for the next seasons, barring any injuries fox-Trouba-Schneider is your likely right side.

 

[Alluckks]

Rangers didn’t win. Toronto lost.

Toronto's first goal was 3 minutes into the game where an errant pass hit off a player and took a wild bounce in front of Igor, who made the save and a flailing Toronto player put in a rebound. The 2nd goal was a highlight level behind the back pass followed by an upper 90 snipe while on the powerplay. Toronto's 3rd goal was another errant rebound.

Toronto's first 2 goals were in the first 5 minutes of the game as well. Rangers scored 5 unanswered as they won.

Shot counts be damned, we outworked the hell out of them and Igor stepped up huge in the 2nd and especially 3rd without losing his composure.

Guys like Fox did what they do best. But even more so, the team is more complete top to bottom so that even when they go down the games don't slip away so we get a real shot to mount wins like this whereas we couldn't in the past. Maybe last year the Rangers cut it to 3-2 against and then Howden throws an awful turnover that makes if 4-2 and the momentum ceases.

There was certainly a lot of good to take away from this game.

 

[TheDirtyH]

 

[tlk]

How long before there is a main board post calling NHL out for not knowing a kicking motion vs a redirect?

In the GDT

Also in the Leafs PDT the first reply goes to length to moan about the decision. Quite incredible lol. As soon as I saw it I thought well if that's not kicking, then ditch the rule altogether.

 

[Unpredictable1]

I purposely didn't go into the GDT during the game because I was certain some clowns in here were somehow blaming Shesterkin for the 3 early goals. I truly hope I'm wrong.

What a game.

 

[ohbaby]

Well in theory, Schneider shouldn’t hopefully need more then another 2 seasons to assume top 4 minutes.
Trouba has def been a beast, but having Schneider in the fold let’s NYR move his 8 mill cap hit off the books.
At that point trouba will no longer have a nMC, it will be a MNTC.
He should also bring back some value to a playoff team looking to add a top 4 minute eater at age 30 whose only signed for 2 more years.
He’ll likely still be playing at a high level. Still be physical, still will be a able to move the puck, and eat about 20 min a night against tough competition.
So for all those reasons, I think it’s highly likely we see Schneider as the eventual trouba replacement.

It's a nice thought, but what makes you think an 8 mil contract would be attractive to any team? We would likely have to eat half his contract.

 

[egelband]

Toronto's first goal was 3 minutes into the game where an errant pass hit off a player and took a wild bounce in front of Igor, who made the save and a flailing Toronto player put in a rebound. The 2nd goal was a highlight level behind the back pass followed by an upper 90 snipe while on the powerplay. Toronto's 3rd goal was another errant rebound.

Toronto's first 2 goals were in the first 5 minutes of the game as well. Rangers scored 5 unanswered as they won.

Shot counts be damned, we outworked the hell out of them and Igor stepped up huge in the 2nd and especially 3rd without losing his composure.

Guys like Fox did what they do best. But even more so, the team is more complete top to bottom so that even when they go down the games don't slip away so we get a real shot to mount wins like this whereas we couldn't in the past. Maybe last year the Rangers cut it to 3-2 against and then Howden throws an awful turnover that makes if 4-2 and the momentum ceases.

There was certainly a lot of good to take away from this game.

I was being facetious. Replying to a facetious post. But yes, I agree. It was a great game.

 

[Alluckks]

I was being facetious. Replying to a facetious post. But yes, I agree. It was a great game.

I know it was tongue in cheek, but it was a good entry-way to some of that that I wanted to say haha

 

[egelband]

I know it was tongue in cheek, but it was a good entry-way to some of that that I wanted to say haha

Fair dinkum!

 

[Vitto79]

McKegg had a good game and won’t leave the lineup. Kinda funny after we all likely questioned the lineup

 

[Row I Goon]

Watched the game again tonight.

Second period was one of the best of the season - Shesty never dropped his head and the D tightened right up.

The last period was just sauce for the goose - a delight to watch. Rewound some of the cellys and the boys looked as pumped as the Leafs were dejected.

An added gift was Austin’s sullen facade when they had the goal disallowed. Feck “em.

We looked rubbish in the first but that #noquit is ringing true……huge win!

 

[TJHKY]

 

[Ola]

Great game, great talent on the ice.

First, one little observation -- regarding a subject that will play a bigger and bigger role in the game going forward, its the area were there just is more room for development -- is just how talented these players are becoming in terms of handling the puck. On the called off goal, Tavares waits for the puck to drop below the crossbar and then just brings it down perfectly and gets it to Matthews. The kick isn't easy in itself.

I remember in like the mid-90s there were a lot of talk around the NHL how the Eastern block players and younger players in general would try to do things with puck nobody tried at all just 5 years ago. Gretzky would compliment someone saying stuff like 'what a stickhandle move, I would never dare to try that'. The game takes these big steps. Go back 20 years, blocking a shot was still a thing. A player could be described as someone who 'will block shots'. It impacted the game so much. Guys like Ortmayer and co in NY lead the charge a bit. The last recent change is definitely how players have stopped paying attention to not making plays around the offensive blueline.

Plays like the Zegras pass becomes the poster boy for these things, but they are really all over. For example, if a "normal" player is about to pick up a puck bouncing of the boards, you will skate up to the puck and break, because if you don't get it the first attempt, you are right there and get take another swat at it. Right. Now, many players are skating fast into the situation. If the pucks bounces over their stick, they will have overskated the puck and won't get a second attempt at it. But they don't, their teammate aren't counting on it and neither are they. These small things really pushes the pace on the ice. When I played, if I saw a team mate skating into a bouncing puck with speed, I wouldn't have set of to get a odd man rush, I would have thought defense because 90% of the time my teammate wouldn't have been able to control the puck. These things take root in your backbone.

In Swedish, there is a better word for this then I know of in English, bollkänsla, which basically translates to 'feel for the ball'. Some guys just have it. You know the type who may be good at like hockey or soccer or basketball or whatever, but they are also great at everything else like table tennis and what not. Makes amazing tricks when warming up and so forth. There have of course always been players that are fantastically talented in this regard in the NHL -- but boy are the overall skill in this regard on the ice sky-rocketing.

Ultimately this will up the requirements and become an expectation on players, whereas today its more about guys like Fox, Panarin and co recognizing that they are both capable of the same things and taking that into the calculation on how they expect the other to play.

Second, I love how well balanced we have become when "chasing" a goal. Remember 1-2 years ago when it sometimes felt like we could come back while down 3-4 goals, but at the same time we could also give up a goal at any time which at the start of things probably were the reason for why we were down with 3-4 goals. We can now be solid defensively and still be really dangerous. Kudos to Gallant.

Third, our Ds are regularly thrashed, anyone can thrash our Ds if they feel like it, but facts are that as a whole our blueline is really strong. Toronto pressured us 5 on 4, but never really got much of a grip of us at all 5 on 5. That is a great performance from our blueline as a whole, and certainly not something Toronto faces every night.

If you have a D that just throw the puck up ice, you will get 15-20 low danger shots on net and give up 40. Look, in the NHL today -- no ifs or buts about it -- you must have a blueline that moves the puck and manage it well. Sometimes that means making a simple N-S pass that is tipped up ice, when you have players in position to chase after it, sure. But there are also a lot of timing with those plays.

Just throwing the puck up ice -- has never -- been about anything else than cutting down on mistakes and giveaways. Don't be fancy with the puck in your own end. Well -- as a concequence -- when you request unconditionally that your D must manage the puck, which is an absolute condition in the game today, you will also see more giveaways. Start taking a note every time Fox gives away a puck, it happens every single game. 2-3 times per game. And Fox is jeddi like at not giving away the puck. Best ever or close to it lol. How many times should we expect Lindgren, Trouba, Miller, Nemeth and Schneider to give the puck away per game, 5-6?

My point is just, raise your threshold as to how many turnovers should be marked down as a negative. By a lot. We easily have one of the best bluelines in the NHL. That is a fact. How can all players on it except one suck?

Fourth, Trouba destroys Reilly on a hit. Last year, three TML players would be chasing him around the ice for the rest of the game. What have changed? You know it, and BTW, happy birth day Reevo.

 

[Kovalev27]

Man keefe calling out his team as soft after the Rangers mowed over them all night has to be the extra dagger for those guys tonight. Ouch

 

[Chimpradamus]

Let me say this and some won’t like it. But a game like tonihjt is why Shesterkin imo will win a Cup eventually where Hank didn’t.

if Hank had a first period like Igor did tonihjt he’d never recover or he’d be pulled. He just such an emotional player. Igor just has ice in his veins. He just went into that second period cool as a cucumber and shut it down. Awful first period for him but he has the ability to stop the bleeding and reset in a big spot.

again I’m going to say something people aren’t going to like. If he can stay healthy he’ll go down as the better goalie of the two.

You cannot ignore the quality of the teams Hank had in front of him couldn't even hold this team's jockstrap. If Hank would've allowed three there's no way his teams would score 5 unanswered goals. Heck, if he allowed 1 goal it was a mountain to climb for the team, if he allowed 2, the game was over.

 

[Mike in Houston]

McKegg had a good game and won’t leave the lineup. Kinda funny after we all likely questioned the lineup

Is there a chart somewhere that shows how shitty he really played last night?

 

[cwede]

A note from game article in Toronto Star:"The Rangers are the only team this year to beat the Maple Leafs twice"