Post-Game Talk: PS #1 - 09/18/19 | devils @ RANGERS | 7:00 - MSG

[HFsNumber1Heel]

Was at the game tonight and all in all a fun experience. It's only preseason and Game 1 so no need to go crazy with overanalyzing everything and worrying about the PK yet.

As for individuals:

I thought Kaako played very well. Very comfortable on the PP and his offensive instincts and board work are great. The only think I'd say is he needs more reps and his reaction time to plays needs to improve both offensively and defensively but that will come. Take a guy like Ziba for instance who is cat like in his reactions. He's been in the league a lot longer.

Fox looks like a very solid modern NHL DMan. Good puck decisions.

Hajek is great. Only "issue" I have with him is he takes a beating every shift and I don't know how sustainable that will be for more than 5 seasons at this level. The guy literally will take WWF stlye bumps to get the puck out of the zone and out from behind the crease. He's a very solid all around meat and potatoes DMan.

Trouba gave it a full 49.85% tonight. Hel'll be better but he reminded me of one of those old school veterans shaking the rust off.

I'd love to talk to Skjei for five minutes and tell him stop trying to be an actor who does comedy or a comedian who tried to act. Stick to what you're good at. He's very solid when he's just trying to defend and worry about his own zone and he'll rack up many secondary points that way. When he does his Bobby Orr stuff, bad things happen. Always. Why was he better end of last year? He stopped trying to be an offensive DMan.

Anderson looks much better. What I mentioned above for Kaako about reacting to the play, Lias was excellent at. Made a lot of good defensive plays and he looks faster/stronger. If he scores 20+ garbage goals every year while being a middle six shut down center, I'll take it. Let's see how the preseason goes for him. Last year he started wearing down a little at the end of it but this year I think will be different because he's physically matured.

Kravstov has tremendous skill and thinks the game very at a very high level. He's not consistently strong enough to win board battles yet and that will have to improve before he can be an every day NHLer. I think for him some time in the AHL playing in all situations with pros like Zolnyerchuk and O'Regan will benefit him. With Panarin probably not getting into games until maybe Saturday (9 days of rest) I'd give him some more chances to shine and see if he can adjust. Regardless, I think he'll see time with the big club this season.

McKeg is a sparkplug. Very valuable player to have. Don't let the age label him as an AHLer, he's a late bloomer. Quinn gave him lots of ice time tonight and I think he is your 13th forward energy guy.

I liked Jones's game. Hopefully they give him an ELC and one of him/Gettinger/Fontaine can develop into a solid 4th liner.

As for the goalies, not worried about Georgiev. He's a slow starter and he just needs more reps. He'll be fine. That first goal was just a ridiculous midseason deflection. Shestyorkin had a lot of good but still needs to adjust. He's improving and will continue to do so but he's starting in the AHL is my guess.

Nothing much else to say other than Brendan Smith still taking dumb penalties and having long convos with the refs. He made 1-2 good plays but he really shouldn't be on this team opening night.

 

[Machinehead]

For an 18 year old child-man taking NHL for the first time, Kakko shattered my expectations.

 

[bl02]

Was at the game tonight and all in all a fun experience. It's only preseason and Game 1 so no need to go crazy with overanalyzing everything and worrying about the PK yet.

As for individuals:

I thought Kaako played very well. Very comfortable on the PP and his offensive instincts and board work are great. The only think I'd say is he needs more reps and his reaction time to plays needs to improve both offensively and defensively but that will come. Take a guy like Ziba for instance who is cat like in his reactions. He's been in the league a lot longer.

Fox looks like a very solid modern NHL DMan. Good puck decisions.

Hajek is great. Only "issue" I have with him is he takes a beating every shift and I don't know how sustainable that will be for more than 5 seasons at this level. The guy literally will take WWF stlye bumps to get the puck out of the zone and out from behind the crease. He's a very solid all around meat and potatoes DMan.

Trouba gave it a full 49.85% tonight. Hel'll be better but he reminded me of one of those old school veterans shaking the rust off.

I'd love to talk to Skjei for five minutes and tell him stop trying to be an actor who does comedy or a comedian who tried to act. Stick to what you're good at. He's very solid when he's just trying to defend and worry about his own zone and he'll rack up many secondary points that way. When he does his Bobby Orr stuff, bad things happen. Always. Why was he better end of last year? He stopped trying to be an offensive DMan.

Anderson looks much better. What I mentioned above for Kaako about reacting to the play, Lias was excellent at. Made a lot of good defensive plays and he looks faster/stronger. If he scores 20+ garbage goals every year while being a middle six shut down center, I'll take it. Let's see how the preseason goes for him. Last year he started wearing down a little at the end of it but this year I think will be different because he's physically matured.

Kravstov has tremendous skill and thinks the game very at a very high level. He's not consistently strong enough to win board battles yet and that will have to improve before he can be an every day NHLer. I think for him some time in the AHL playing in all situations with pros like Zolnyerchuk and O'Regan will benefit him. With Panarin probably not getting into games until maybe Saturday (9 days of rest) I'd give him some more chances to shine and see if he can adjust. Regardless, I think he'll see time with the big club this season.

McKeg is a sparkplug. Very valuable player to have. Don't let the age label him as an AHLer, he's a late bloomer. Quinn gave him lots of ice time tonight and I think he is your 13th forward energy guy.

I liked Jones's game. Hopefully they give him an ELC and one of him/Gettinger/Fontaine can develop into a solid 4th liner.

As for the goalies, not worried about Georgiev. He's a slow starter and he just needs more reps. He'll be fine. That first goal was just a ridiculous midseason deflection. Shestyorkin had a lot of good but still needs to adjust. He's improving and will continue to do so but he's starting in the AHL is my guess.

Nothing much else to say other than Brendan Smith still taking dumb penalties and having long convos with the refs. He made 1-2 good plays but he really shouldn't be on this team opening night.

Nice job. Great analysis. Good take on Hajek. He does absorb a lot of hits. Seems like he does the basics well in his own zone and sometimes has to physically absorb some big hits.

 

[aufheben]

Andersson looks like a new player.

I have yet to see Adam Fox play a game where he doesn't look like an NHL veteran.

Hajek, Kakko, Kravtsov, GREG f***IN' MCKEGG, all looked good.

Panarin...I feel silly for ever questioning that whole thing.

We're gonna need f***ing King Arthur to pull Brady Skjei's head out of his ass.

 

[Pizza]

Ok sure.

Lol.

+1

 

[The Crypto Guy]

Where is the poll?? Jesus it’s preseason, win or loss put it up

 

[wolfgaze]

Sam's first pronunciation of 'Igor SHESTERKIN' could not have sounded more uncomfortable

 

[Pizza]

You watch Kakko on the right side during the PP and you have to kick yourself to remind you he's just 18.

Incredible poise. So relaxed. Looks like a vet out there.

I'm thinking he has a shot at 20 on the PP this year.

My God, he's ours. Just incredible.

 

[aufheben]

Where is the poll?? Jesus it’s preseason, win or loss put it up

Only since you asked so nicely.

 

[Ola]

For an 18 year old child-man taking NHL for the first time, Kakko shattered my expectations.

I’ve not had time to see the entire replay, but you can basically take the bolded part and apply to all players interesting to follow.

On Kakko, it’s one thing to make great plays, but how he picked his spots when moving the puck around on the PP was nothing short of remarkable. It was obvious that he didn't want to gamble and be the one who gave the puck away, he still managed to make very high caliber small marginal passes.

Daneyko ducked the question but I can answer it, nope I’ve not seen anything like it. Not that maturity in combination with the skill. Don’t necessary say something directly about the end product. But remarkable nonetheless.

Panarin exceeded my expectations. He just get better and better the the older he get. If he keeps this up, NY is a big stage. Hopefully he won’t get targeted too much. He is hard to catch, but nobody is impossible to get to.

Lias played well which is encouraging.

Lias has one problem and it’s one I’ve seen before, should have a name lol. But seriously, when a kid (15-16 y/o) turns pro it’s easy that they play very safe without the puck and let loose when they get it. Like that is just natural, right? But when doing that, they can at times fall a little behind in their ability to follow the play around. Like look at Lias play without the puck. He often skates right into his guy. He’ll feel his guy breathing 90% of the time. And that is how a 16-17 y/o kid will play in the SHL. They aren't there yet in many areas without the puck, but they want to show the coach that they can be relied upon without the puck, and make the job easy for them by picking up one guy and hence making sure that its at least an even playing field out there when they defend. And the coach won't mind either. They'll tell the 16 y/o, great, just take your guy and follow him around.

Let’s say we did the opposite experiment, played someone like Lias with 15 y/os. What would he do? He would stay pretty far from his guy, because he would have things under control tempo wise, the game would progress really slowly for him, and he could still get to that guy in time, right?

The negative with being to close to your guy is that you lose speed, and you lose ability to react to things happening around you. We can discuss Lias speed, he is quicker than he gets credit for, but is of course no world class skater. I always think “speed” is overrated. I think playing fast is something totally different. And the above makes Lias play a little slower than he have to do. He is too focused on just taking out his guy. You need to gamble a bit more. Stay a little farther away from your guy. Try to get a bit more speed under your skates, so that you can get a jump on things if a puck bounce loose. Of course, its a fine balance.

I didn’t 100% like a comment DQ made about Lias in this regard. He said something about how the big challenge for Lias was if he could learn to track the puck around fast enough at the NHL level. That was so clearly a comment about the symptom, not the cause for it. Lias needs his coach to tell him that he can gamble a bit more, they won’t kill him if his guy gets loose. It’s very important that he gets enough support here.

Due to the different structures, I’ve seen this happen quite often in Europe. It’s of course fixable. But in the NA, someone like Quinn of course don’t have experience from working with someone that played pro from when he was 16 y/o.

I love Fox. Sure there are some issues, and I don’t think any of the flaws pointed out in his game back during the summer was incorrect. But for me his strength — his hockey sense — and overall ability to perform and execute just out weights the negatives. Guys like him very often manage to just get it done. Reminds me a lot of Marc Savard in that sense actually.

It’s misleading to say that Fox offensive instincts is good/great. A bunch of kids got great offensive instincts. Fox’ offensive instincts are as good as I’ve seen any kid have in NY since Savard was in camp like what 15-20 years ago. That is the difference maker, and what makes him special.

 

[ohbaby]

I revved myself up so high before this game, I can't help but feel a bit let down afterwards. As I wrote earlier after the game, we got outplayed defensively. Now that might be because NJ played some excellent D? Cause I can't remember not one quality chance we had 5 on 5. No odd man rushes, no quick transitions or anything like that. So maybe I shouldn't be so harsh on the Rangers effort because NJ defended really well. That said, I would really like them to play more like NJ did. They had strength in numbers, played more as a unit of 5 supporting one another. You look at the majority of play during the game, NJ had more players around the puck than we did. Now I know this is just one game, but I can't help but feel jealous of their play.

I know the coaches are evaluating individuals, but I also want to see improved play as a team. Otherwise, it won't really matter how well Kakko or Panarin plays. I just thought we would see a better team effort. But I guess that is just me.

I want the Rangers to do well this year. They need to work on this. They play NJ again on Friday and I hope to see a better effort.

 

[Uncle Scrooge]

Really like Kravtsov and he seems like a great kid but wondering if some time in the AHL to start the season would be good for him? I know he is north america for good but just don't wanna rush him.

My guess, really since at the start of summer, is yes.

Knowing Kakko is a lock he doesn’t have a spot in the top 6, and they don’t necessarily need him in the bottom 6 right now.

Also plenty of kids on the team as is, plus he never produced big numbers in the K. Let him boil in the minors.

 

[Miamipuck]

My one take from this game, the Power Play is going to be helluva good time this year. Wow that first unit has that "take you out of your seat" ability. To be honest, I haven't been this excited about the PP since Leetch and Zubov manned the point.

This is a different kind of PP then that, but every bit as encouraging.

Holy smokes it has players that can one time it from either side, elite passing. If the point players can keep up with the forwards (creatively) it is going to be an elite PP unit.

 

[ohbaby]

My one take from this game, the Power Play is going to be helluva good time this year. Wow that first unit has that "take you out of your seat" ability. To be honest, I haven't been this excited about the PP since Leetch and Zubov manned the point.

This is a different kind of PP then that, but every bit as encouraging.

Holy smokes it has players that can one time it from either side, elite passing. If the point players can keep up with the forwards (creatively) it is going to be an elite PP unit.

This was definitely a bright spot. Kakko ran that PP like no one I ever seen. This PP will be effective as long as Kakko is around to run it. Of course Panarin can't be discounted as a huge part of its success going forward also.

 

[Ola]

In addition to my comments on the individual players above, what I saw from the team is exactly what I think we -- must -- expect this season. Can the highs be high? You bet. That is what Panarin and co. more or less -- guarantees -- you. But, getting a lot of pts during a regular season in the NHL is just not about having high highs so to speak. Its about never giving anything away, turn everything into coinflips at worst, get the loser pts on most bad nights, win games when you face a team that don't get it done.

We have had an extreme turn-over on our roster, impacting the core of all lines and all special teams.

Take Trouba for example. I've said this several times over the years, it takes much longer for Ds to adjust to a new team than it does for forwards. Its just so obvious when you look at deadline acquisition and stuff like that. A D that gets on a new team will be far from 100% at least the first couple of months.

You never know how a season will play out. All of a sudden we luck out and win 10 straight to start the year, and everything just keeps falling into place. But I also think that the odds are pretty great for that we will see a lot of struggles, missed pts, more pressure due to a exposed position in the standings, turmoil and so forth. And its also a given what the general notion around this team will be, when we struggle it will not be attributed to the team having had a lot of turnover nor to the fact that we have a lot of kids and things are falling into place -- instead everything will be blamed on 2-3 players just being among the worst in the NHL at their position in the entire NHL, and almost surely also on Quinn (Ruff?) for being a horrible coach. But that is what it is, Rangerland won't change in that regard...

 

[Ola]

My guess, really since at the start of summer, is yes.

Knowing Kakko is a lock he doesn’t have a spot in the top 6, and they don’t necessarily need him in the bottom 6 right now.

Also plenty of kids on the team as is, plus he never produced big numbers in the K. Let him boil in the minors.

From my POV its clear -- can Kakko play on a 1st line in the NHL? No doubt. Lol, he can easily do it. But -- can he do it at the level he wants to for 82 games during a NHL season, for what can be a pretty up- and down team? That is another question. And if we want to err on either side, its of course the side of caution.

 

[Irishguy42]

Burn it all down. Start from scratch.

 

[Kovalev27]

Wanted to clear something up. Carpinello confirmed the SKA rink last season was in fact Olympic sized. They have transitioned to NA ice this year along with a few other teams and that’s continuing but Shesterkin did play on bigger ice last year.

As joe said it’s not so much the Angles but the pace of play on the smaller rink. The chances are fast and furious and more high danger than Iggy (I cant call that 23 year old kid Igor) is used to so that’s will come with time. But in fairness to him he did not play on smaller ice last year for his home games.

 

[Kovalev27]

From my POV its clear -- can Kakko play on a 1st line in the NHL? No doubt. Lol, he can easily do it. But -- can he do it at the level he wants to for 82 games during a NHL season, for what can be a pretty up- and down team? That is another question. And if we want to err on either side, its of course the side of caution.

Honestly what I saw was the puck glued to kakko’s stick and panarin without out it. You don’t want that. Spread that out. The two of them are drivers of their lines. Break them up, take some pressure off kakko and let Buchy thrive on that right side of the top line. It’s smart by Quinn to recognize it

 

[frozenrubber]

Lias played well which is encouraging.

Lias has one problem and it’s one I’ve seen before, should have a name lol. But seriously, when a kid (15-16 y/o) turns pro it’s easy that they play very safe without the puck and let loose when they get it. Like that is just natural, right? But when doing that, they can at times fall a little behind in their ability to follow the play around. Like look at Lias play without the puck. He often skates right into his guy. He’ll feel his guy breathing 90% of the time. And that is how a 16-17 y/o kid will play in the SHL. They aren't there yet in many areas without the puck, but they want to show the coach that they can be relied upon without the puck, and make the job easy for them by picking up one guy and hence making sure that its at least an even playing field out there when they defend. And the coach won't mind either. They'll tell the 16 y/o, great, just take your guy and follow him around.

Let’s say we did the opposite experiment, played someone like Lias with 15 y/os. What would he do? He would stay pretty far from his guy, because he would have things under control tempo wise, the game would progress really slowly for him, and he could still get to that guy in time, right?

The negative with being to close to your guy is that you lose speed, and you lose ability to react to things happening around you. We can discuss Lias speed, he is quicker than he gets credit for, but is of course no world class skater. I always think “speed” is overrated. I think playing fast is something totally different. And the above makes Lias play a little slower than he have to do. He is too focused on just taking out his guy. You need to gamble a bit more. Stay a little farther away from your guy. Try to get a bit more speed under your skates, so that you can get a jump on things if a puck bounce loose. Of course, its a fine balance.

I didn’t 100% like a comment DQ made about Lias in this regard. He said something about how the big challenge for Lias was if he could learn to track the puck around fast enough at the NHL level. That was so clearly a comment about the symptom, not the cause for it. Lias needs his coach to tell him that he can gamble a bit more, they won’t kill him if his guy gets loose. It’s very important that he gets enough support here.

Due to the different structures, I’ve seen this happen quite often in Europe. It’s of course fixable. But in the NA, someone like Quinn of course don’t have experience from working with someone that played pro from when he was 16 y/o.

In hindsight, it would of been better to keep Lias Andersson in the AHL all of last year. Drive play, offensive zone starts, throw everything his way.

I don't think anyone was giving up on Lias in the Rangers brass last year, but it would surprise me if their thoughts between draft day and end of season evolved into seeing him more of a defensive+ center, opposed to the rounded prosect they'd projected at #7.

As much as the Rangers are talk of the town with prospects right now, there was a period of time it was just Chytil and Andersson. Does it mean they were rushed, no, but if there was a Kakko in the system, I'd think management would of been more patient in total development.

Outside of physical specimens like Kakko, I'd love a system that you didn't see a single prospect play a NHL game until they were 20.

 

[Uncle Scrooge]

From my POV its clear -- can Kakko play on a 1st line in the NHL? No doubt. Lol, he can easily do it. But -- can he do it at the level he wants to for 82 games during a NHL season, for what can be a pretty up- and down team? That is another question. And if we want to err on either side, its of course the side of caution.

Yeah. By the way i phrased that poorly, i was saying since Kakko is a lock to play in the top 6 (at least to start), it makes sense to send Kravtsov down. Rangers have the guys to play bottom 6 without him.

Can always call him up. If Kakko is struggling give Kravtsov a bit of a spark in season and call him up.

 

[Kaapo Cabana]

Wanted to clear something up. Carpinello confirmed the SKA rink last season was in fact Olympic sized. They have transitioned to NA ice this year along with a few other teams and that’s continuing but Shesterkin did play on bigger ice last year.

As joe said it’s not so much the Angles but the pace of play on the smaller rink. The chances are fast and furious and more high danger than Iggy (I cant call that 23 year old kid Igor) is used to so that’s will come with time. But in fairness to him he did not play on smaller ice last year for his home games.

I'm starting to wonder is Shesty's lack of any real adversity in the KHL has been a detriment to his development.

all of a sudden he is not on the best team in the league by a mile.

The good news is we have the best goalie coach in the business, and he will get plenty of reps playing here. I'm not worried long term.

 

[Shesterkybomb]

Kakko and Panarin absolutely should be split and they will be, Quinn has repeatedly said Buch is on the top line, I suppose until he loses it. I think what they were doing last night was seeing who would be a better fit on the 2nd line more than the first as it was likely either Kravtsov or Kakko with Chytil and Kreider. I'm assuming that was answered as it looked like Kakko can handle the NHL and Kravtsov will start with Lias/Howden and Namesnicov on the 3rd line. The 4th line will likely be Howden/Lias with Fast and Lemieux. To me Nieves and McKegg are on the outside looking in because smith is our extra forward/D.
Skjei Trouba
Hajek(hopefully instead of Staal) Fox
Staal Deangelo/Keane

 

[NYR Viper]

Not to harp but DeAngelo needs to get into camp. The Rangers left side is going to be a work in progress this season. Skjei, Staal, rookie. The right side will have to do much of the heavy lifting. The future looks brighter on the left side but this team is going to need Fox, ADA and Trouba to carry that left side a bit

 

[chosen]

1 preseason game and a groin strain for 11 mill+ isssss not good

It's never too early to tremble with fear.