Player Discussion Nils Lundkvist

[Amazing Kreiderman]

Besides the miscommunication between him and Nemeth and some Jitters he looked alright his first game. I really enjoy that second power play unit with him on it

Can we also talk about the fact that our 2nd PP unit got serious ice-time and not just 10-15 seconds at the end of the PP? It was so refreshing to see the 2nd unit on with a minute to go.

 

[bubba5]

Boy this team has so many roster issues for a team that can’t win a game and that has not led in a game yet.

 

[Crease]

Boy this team has so many roster issues for a team that can’t win a game and that has not led in a game yet.

I don't think anyone came into this season expecting more than for them to push for a late playoff spot. I see a roster that can do that, assuming normal progressions from Laf, Kakko and Miller. I think Drury et al. did a nice job of upgrading their third line, fourth line, and third pair. The players now need to do the work.

 

[Kodiak]

There was a lot of little glimpses of what Lundkvist can be in his game last night. He showed some physical play. He showed a willingness to shoot the puck. He showed some good vision in the offensive zone. (PP2 in general looked light years ahead of PP2 from last year, but PP2 last year was just an absolute gong show.) He even had a couple of Fox-like moments where he was holding the blueline and breaking up the opposition's breakout before it could get going.

Was his play uneven? Yes. Did he get torched on that first goal? You better believe it. That's a rookie dman for you. There was a lot of promise shown last night.

 

[Rangers in 7]

I generally agree. You still need to know when to shoot though, contrary to the beliefs of the 20,000 idiots at MSG who scream SHOOOOT nonstop. Like you get Trouba, he has a very heavy shot, but he doesn't seem to know when to use it and frequently just fires it into th shinpads of the defender up top or shoots for a deflection with a guy that's tied up and it goes five feet wide and back out. DeAngelo was really good at picking his spots and getting his shot through. If Nils is going to be a shooter he should watch what DeAngelo did.

From everything I’ve watched of the kid I’ve seen him more as a deangelo type shooter then a trouba type

 

[GbgRanger]

Hopefully Fox can teach Nils some nice moves...

 

[nyr2k2]

From everything I’ve watched of the kid I’ve seen him more as a deangelo type shooter then a trouba type

He is for sure. Just saying, the traffic in front of the net is more compacted in the NHL and goalies are better so he's going to have to adjust. I'm sure he will. I don't think he'll be a 20-goal guy like he paced in the SHL but he will adjust.

 

[EdJovanovski]

The one game evals are in. He was shaky at first and settled down as the game progressed.

Nope

 

[ThirdEye]

To me Lunkdvist clearly needs to spend an entire season in the AHL. Confidence, strength and decision making just not there yet.

I'm officially going to stop getting hyped about our prospects until they actually show something at the NHL level. Been burned way too many time in the last decade

Jones is a much better fit for this team right now. It's sad it's taking the Rangers this long to realize it

 

[romba]

If they told him he'll be at the big show to get him over then how could they send him down? We can't have another upset foreign prospect bolting us again or bitching to the media. PR disaster. It might have been a mistake to promise him to be in the NHL based off SHL play but can't back off it at this point.

Rant:
Only Other Team's prospects seem to match or exceed expectations coming up to the NHL. I mean Miller did for a minute, and he's looked pretty good this year, but not game breaking talent so far. He's a big D so I'm willing to give him time to grow. Aside from him we got shit-all for all our high end skill forwards. Kakko still Flashing us with Stripteases, need more from him when he comes back, Laf is meh, Chytil still about to breakout any day, VK wants out, Lundqvist weak in the D zone and bad reads in the NZ showing nothing like he did in the TUF TO PLAY IN MENS LEAGUE SHL and Lundqvist is not getting any passes on PP2 to at least use his strongest asset- his shot- because of Trouba's laser focus on his own Big Bomb to show his value. We got excuses though! So young still! Covid! (Covid shortened season only affected NYR property, other teams managed to get through it just fine). XYZ and player on other teams broke out at 25-27, we still have plenty of time- that happens for like 1-2 out of 10 high end prospects, if that many! Why are we so sure ours will be that 10-20%, plus Panarin and Ziba will be shells of themselves at that point, Shesty will be making a mint if still on the team by then- wonder-freaking-ful our guys will breakout as our window closes, perfect!

 

[chosen]

If they told him he'll be at the big show to get him over then how could they send him down? We can't have another upset foreign prospect bolting us again or bitching to the media. PR disaster. It might have been a mistake to promise him to be in the NHL based off SHL play but can't back off it at this point.

Rant:
Only Other Team's prospects seem to match or exceed expectations coming up to the NHL. I mean Miller did for a minute, and he's looked pretty good this year, but not game breaking talent so far. He's a big D so I'm willing to give him time to grow. Aside from him we got shit-all for all our high end skill forwards. Kakko still Flashing us with Stripteases, need more from him when he comes back, Laf is meh, Chytil still about to breakout any day, VK wants out, Lundqvist weak in the D zone and bad reads in the NZ showing nothing like he did in the TUF TO PLAY IN MENS LEAGUE SHL and Lundqvist is not getting any passes on PP2 to at least use his strongest asset- his shot- because of Trouba's laser focus on his own Big Bomb to show his value. We got excuses though! So young still! Covid! (Covid shortened season only affected NYR property, other teams managed to get through it just fine). XYZ and player on other teams broke out at 25-27, we still have plenty of time- that happens for like 1-2 out of 10 high end prospects, if that many! Why are we so sure ours will be that 10-20%, plus Panarin and Ziba will be shells of themselves at that point, Shesty will be making a mint if still on the team by then- wonder-freaking-ful our guys will breakout as our window closes, perfect!

The sky is falling.

 

[OrlandK]

To me Lunkdvist clearly needs to spend an entire season in the AHL. Confidence, strength and decision making just not there yet.

I'm officially going to stop getting hyped about our prospects until they actually show something at the NHL level. Been burned way too many time in the last decade

Jones is a much better fit for this team right now. It's sad it's taking the Rangers this long to realize it

Agree 100%. I don't understand the desperation for every top prospect to forgo the AHL and go directly to the Show. Lundquist looks like a deer in the headlights to an extent. Nothing wrong with getting top pair and top PP minutes @ Hartford for as long as it takes to stand out and then come up. Agree that Jones looked better in his debut last season than Nils does now.

We've made this same mistake so often - Howden, Andersson, perhaps even Kakko and others. It's a huge adjustment, especially for those coming over from Europe. Let them get their feet wet and their confidence up before being thrown into the fire.

 

[NYR Viper]

I actually thought he looked much better in the last couple of games. It would seem he is improving every day. What also hasn't helped, I am sure, is that the team hasn't had very much practice time...

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

He can't defend and he can't move the puck.

Next one up please.

 

[romba]

The sky is falling.

Well we lost our last game

 

[Rempe73]

To me Lunkdvist clearly needs to spend an entire season in the AHL. Confidence, strength and decision making just not there yet.

I'm officially going to stop getting hyped about our prospects until they actually show something at the NHL level. Been burned way too many time in the last decade

Jones is a much better fit for this team right now. It's sad it's taking the Rangers this long to realize it

Agreed. The NHL is a tough, tough league to thrive in.

 

[HatTrick Swayze]

Hard to disagree that he should be in the AHL.

Understatement of the century to say how collectively disappointing the NYR prospects / young players have been so far. Though it's not like the top players (Panarin, Zibanejad especially) are fairing much better.

 

[NYSPORTS]

I'm officially going to stop getting hyped about our prospects until they actually show something at the NHL level. Been burned way too many time in the last decade

it

i gave up on the whole “xyz has played with men” hype from overseas.

i think he’s going to be a good player yet the hype is a bit much.

Meanwhile, J.D.s take for many of these prospects was “they might not be ready”. No sense of urgency with prospects in a Colorado imo yet in NY, geez.

 

[Crease]

Count me as someone who thought he would step right into a top-six defender role with the Rangers. The good thing is the Rangers have call-up options in Hartford. But Nils is a prime example why fans should not pencil guys into the lineup before they prove they are ready for those roles--if the expectation is that the team should be competitive.

 

[HockeyBasedNYC]

Everybody SUCKS

 

[Raspewtin]

I disagree that it's just Nils hurting that pair. Nemeth has been very poor this year. I don't think replacing Nils with Jones will fundamentally change much.

They've been a terrible, terrible pairing though. It's hard to stand out positively when a top 3 top pair in the league and a very solid (so far) 2nd pair are right in front of you but they have really done nothing positive.

 

[Gr8CornHolio]

I disagree that it's just Nils hurting that pair. Nemeth has been very poor this year. I don't think replacing Nils with Jones will fundamentally change much.

They've been a terrible, terrible pairing though. It's hard to stand out positively when a top 3 top pair in the league and a very solid (so far) 2nd pair are right in front of you but they have really done nothing positive.

Nemeth is a guy who served as a spot defender I believe the last two years for Detroit and Colorado.

expecting him to come to NY and be a full time players was a bit of a stretch

we really needed an NHL caliber starter to play this role for a year to help work with Nils not a fringe guy.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

I disagree that it's just Nils hurting that pair. Nemeth has been very poor this year. I don't think replacing Nils with Jones will fundamentally change much.

They've been a terrible, terrible pairing though. It's hard to stand out positively when a top 3 top pair in the league and a very solid (so far) 2nd pair are right in front of you but they have really done nothing positive.

Disagree with this completely.

A big part of the Nemeth-Nils pairing issue is that neither of them are moving the puck well at all so even if one of them ends up taking the puck away from the other team, it's quickly back on their opponents' stick and then back in their end. Nils has been the weaker link here where almost nothing in clean and even simple break outs are resulting in icings (he did the latter 4 times against Nashville.)

With Jones, that would happen less. Like maybe a difference where they're getting caved in 40-45% of the time which is still bad, but its MUCH better than the near 30% that the Nemeth-Nils pair has been so far. It's the same idea as we had pairing DeAngelo with Staal 2 seasons ago. TDA took Staal from being an abomination to just being bad. We don't need great from a 3rd pair, we do need way better than its been.

 

[HockeyBasedNYC]

I do think Jones needs to be paired with Nemeth.

I was willing to give Nils the start after he had a decent finish to the preseason but its really looking more and more like he needs time in the A just to sort things out on the NA rink.

His decision making with the puck is not fluid and hes thinking too much. He's also making bank and cross ice passes at the wrong times and his angles are off.

He's also had issues with his gap control and getting twisted around in open space on rushes. He's had some issues on the walls as well. To me that shouts ice surface and issues with the speed and strength of the NHL.

Listen, it's not an easy transition.

You want him to work it out, hes a talented kid. I think it would be ok to give him a game or two more, but he really should be down with the Pack right now until he dominates at that level offensively after he gets his vision and confidence back up. You need to be careful. When does it become a force feeding of NHL time and it becomes detriment to his development?

And Jones showed me more than enough last season and in preseason to be confident in him in that spot, no doubt.

The Rangers need to get serious about this now. Lets not go and f*** up a young top-flight D prospect just because you expect him to be here right now. Rely on your eyes and get real about whats best for the player and the team

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

Nemeth is a guy who served as a spot defender I believe the last two years for Detroit and Colorado.

expecting him to come to NY and be a full time players was a bit of a stretch

we really needed an NHL caliber starter to play this role for a year to help work with Nils not a fringe guy.

Nemeth was a regular with both and top 4 in Detroit.