Post-Game Talk: RANGER vs lightnings

[C Roc]

Brand new to this board but been kicking around Ranger message boards the last 15 years. A rare Ranger fan from the east coast of Canada.

Solid start last night. Kakko showed lots of confidence with the puck. The PP picked up where it left off. The PK looks like it will be a little more aggressive than in the past. Was happy with the kid Jones as well. Body positioning and having an active stick will be key for him to stand up to the big boys. Chytil was hurt a little by the rotating lines.

 

[egelband]

Against the lightning I can understand Gallant sticking with the matchups that were working. If Kakko and Chytil are still getting just 12 mins against the Jets, the Ducks, the Sharks, I’ll be concerned.
Not because of development. Because they’re effective players.

 

[Shesterkybomb]

Not having one week dman dragging the 3rd pair down helped this team immensely last night. Imo that was night and day the difference, Schneider and Jones both looked good.

Brand new to this board but been kicking around Ranger message boards the last 15 years. A rare Ranger fan from the east coast of Canada.

Solid start last night. Kakko showed lots of confidence with the puck. The PP picked up where it left off. The PK looks like it will be a little more aggressive than in the past. Was happy with the kid Jones as well. Body positioning and having an active stick will be key for him to stand up to the big boys. Chytil was hurt a little by the rotating lines.

Not that rare, N.S here

 

[bleedblue94]

ok yea i saw that quote...personally given the way hes talked about the growth of the kids i believe it just means if pp1 is clipping at 30+% again yea theyre gonna go out first and take a min to 1:30 when we get a pp. i mean youd be negligent to not do that. but.....but....going back to the way hes talked about the kids growth, over the course of the season, there's gonna be nights the top unit is awful on a couple and he pulls them early and throws the kids out first next. ideally over time they prove to be equals or close to it producing when they get chances...thats the way you earn it. personally i have zero issue with that. theres a high bar being set for them, make the most of pp time offered and i promise you gallant will go with the group who gives the best chance to score any given night. but pp aside, i mean last night was just a weird game when you have 11 forwards and all that special teams work....its just 1 game as it is and then accounting for krav going down early and the special teams volume its impossible to extrapolate any individual ice time and apply it to expectations for the next 81 games. a lot happens throughout a season. the pieces are here, theyll settle into place. no reason to sound the alarms over ice time after game 1, esp a game 1 the rangers dominated like that

lose kravtsov and you're down to 11 forwards you sit carpenter and reaves mostly. easy decision.

i understand what you are saying about the pp, but what my concern is that they went with that all last year, the 90/30 split, and the second unit never found even a hint of conhesion. then in the playoffs that had several instances where they needed something out of pp2 and they couldnt even gain the zone with possession and just killed momenteum. that is what bothers me. reg season is a time to work them in more so they can contribute when you really need it, and if you arent going to give them that time then work them into pk ice so that when, not if, a big game turns into a special team mess like last night you dont even up with them just sitting on the bench for two periods unable to contribute.

 

[Shesterkybomb]

lose kravtsov and you're down to 11 forwards you sit carpenter and reaves mostly. easy decision.

i understand what you are saying about the pp, but what my concern is that they went with that all last year, the 90/30 split, and the second unit never found even a hint of conhesion. then in the playoffs that had several instances where they needed something out of pp2 and they couldnt even gain the zone with possession and just killed momenteum. that is what bothers me. reg season is a time to work them in more so they can contribute when you really need it, and if you arent going to give them that time then work them into pk ice so that when, not if, a big game turns into a special team mess like last night you dont even up with them just sitting on the bench for two periods unable to contribute.

If the puck is iced after the 1 min mark of the pp the kids should get on, but if you can keep a tired pk unit on let it roll.

 

[Fitzy]

You forget how little effort the veterans put into preseason games until you see the final preseason game followed by the first regular season game. It really is night and day.

There were so many power plays last night that it's difficult to draw any inferences about the TOI or player usage. Half of Adam Fox's shifts were on special teams.

I thought Kakko struggled a little bit handling the puck, but he'll get back up to speed. The third pairing was heavily sheltered but it was nevertheless a promising debut. Clean zone exits continues to be the area of the game where we need to improve.

 

[FlyguyOX]

Really impressed with how Jones performed with tough defensive usage. Won multiple board battles and 1on1 open ice battles. The sick cross-seam pass in the O-zone was nice to see as well. Gellant needs to give that 3rd pair more ice time, but I can see the conundrum because K'andre miller is so damn good.

Looks like Kakko has his man strength now. Looked very confident in the O-zone, plus drew 2 penalties. Great to see.

 

[Unpredictable1]

Kakko and Laf got a bit of PK time and will hopefully get more if the coach decides to trust them more
Refs deciding to call a penalty fest after letting everything go in the first didn’t help

Also, McDonaugh was a better skater than Miller and defended better for sure (so far anyways)
His mobility and edge work was better than Millers and straight away speed was probably comparable. He was one of the best skating defenseman in the NHL and didn’t get a lot of recognition for it.
Not sure how good he still is today, haven’t watched him closely and he wasn’t playing the same kind of role in Tampa

I was going to say, I love Miller and the path he's on but many in here are forgetting how good McDonagh was. That guy could really skate. (I agree that straight away speed is comparable.)

I hope Miller continues though, his physicality is starting to show as well. Was it Hagel he absolutely tossed high in our zone after he had lost his stick? Loved it lol

 

[TominNC]

Now can we send Kravtsov to Hartford for conditioning?

 

[JHS]

if you want win at the end you need everyone able to contribute in multiple roles. it is shortsighted to just focus on the reg season and winning those games only. if you think it is okay for a guy like kakko to play 6 total minutes over the 2nd and 3rd period after he was one of our best players over 7 minutes in the first period then we just wont agree at all. I have been one of kakko's biggest critics recently but he looked engaged and confident, then they basically staple him to the bench. that does nothing to help bring him along. i am not saying they need to be playing 20 a night, but the staff can do better then they have at allocating minutes. we saw in the playoffs what a big affect these younger guys can have when they are going.

Penalties were being called at an alarming rate in the second and third period. Should the coach just run the bench like a 10U rec league team and say “next group you go out there” just so every kid plays around the same time or should he run the bench like an NHL team and put players into the game in roles they are ready for??? If a stat is out there that says “percentage of even strength time on ice” for those two periods I’d venture to say that Kappo played about 33% of even strength time” during those periods considering out of 40 minutes in question, something like 10 or more of those minutes were either the Rangers on the power play, short handed or 4 on 4.

Why let important facts get in the way of an outdated narrative designed to harpoon a coach that got the team to the conference finals last year and a team that just dominated the defending eastern conference champs??!?

 

[eco's bones]

Everyone played well with the exception of Kravtsov who hardly played at all.....going off with an injury very early. Tampa is a tough matchup to start the season with too. It was pretty damn close to a 60 minute effort which is what you want to see.

Speaking of Jones--he was quickly getting on top of his mark and taking away space and options. His reads were excellent and it negated power/size dynamics that some of them have over him. The third pair didn't get a lot of ice time but they were good. I was surprised after the game that Kakko did not have any shots on goal because eye test he looked like one of our best players all night.

 

[Daves a mess]

Sign me up for the Jones/Schneider pairing. I'm a fan.

4th line played well too. Kept it deep. Took bodies. Don't see any line up changes for GG other than VK.

 

[EdJovanovski]

You forget how little effort the veterans put into preseason games until you see the final preseason game followed by the first regular season game. It really is night and day.

There were so many power plays last night that it's difficult to draw any inferences about the TOI or player usage. Half of Adam Fox's shifts were on special teams.

I thought Kakko struggled a little bit handling the puck, but he'll get back up to speed. The third pairing was heavily sheltered but it was nevertheless a promising debut. Clean zone exits continues to be the area of the game where we need to improve.

Makes it even funnier that people were bamboozled by Vesey’s preseason performance, the guy was fighting for his last kick at the can

 

[SML2]

The first thought that came to mind was Jones is lefty Fox but not as good/unproven offensively and better defensively.

I think the sample size is too small. You're not going to see what he can do offensively until there's a reason Fox isn't on the PP.

 

[Fitzy]

Makes it even funnier that people were bamboozled by Vesey’s preseason performance, the guy was fighting for his last kick at the can

Of course, but that's also the case for Bartkowski, Tinordi, Gauthier, Rydahl- Vesey clearly outplayed them all except Gustav

 

[NYR Viper]

Kaako was a monster last night. I was a bit disappointed not to see him used on the PK however.

 

[Larrybiv]

Zbad has never looked this dominant early in the season. That’s some scary shit y’all.

GF was like "Mika cut his hair, Mika cut his hair at least 6"." I told Mika that last pre-season game. lol. Have to believe it got in his sightlines a few times and then came to that decision.
Or, does anyone know different? E.G. mgmt. "strongly" suggested it.
Got Mika right on 1st goal, even though I didn't make it official here. AND, also predicted it is MIKA's turn to get 50+ Kreids gets 35+ and PP reaches astounding 35-37%.
Vinny should be able to kick in more than a few, but what's most important, he is significantly better than Stromer on FO's.

 

[smoneil]

You probably knew the quote already I had to look it up lol

I'm a Shakespeare professor (that's why I live in Arkansas--got a job a few years ago at Arkansas Tech U), which basically means I have no life and have a head crammed with quotations, haha.

It's an oddly fitting quotation, though. It's a line from Miranda towards the end of the play. To that point, stranded on an island since she was a baby, she had only ever seen two men (her father and Ferdinand). She speaks those lines when a bunch of men from the ship come running on stage. So while we have seen the team with a couple of men (Bread, Zib), we are starting to see a "brave new world" with men all over the roster. The TL/DR is that it's basically a Shakespearean metaphor for "the team's balls have officially dropped" haha.

 

[smoneil]

Kakko should be on/get a try on the PK. He has the tools to be a very good PK'er.

I'd like to see them build a regular 3rd PK pair (Chytil/Kakko? Maybe Trochek/Kakko for faceoffs?). Get them some PK minutes in blowout games or against bottom-feeders. Then, down the stretch run, you can "rest" guys like Kreider and Zib by cutting back their PK time over the last 15-20 games so they aren't exhausted in the post-season. Kreider/Zib are too dangerous to take off of the PK altogether, but they CAN be spelled when needed.

 

[Unpredictable1]

Brand new to this board but been kicking around Ranger message boards the last 15 years. A rare Ranger fan from the east coast of Canada.

Solid start last night. Kakko showed lots of confidence with the puck. The PP picked up where it left off. The PK looks like it will be a little more aggressive than in the past. Was happy with the kid Jones as well. Body positioning and having an active stick will be key for him to stand up to the big boys. Chytil was hurt a little by the rotating lines.

Ahh yes I see you hail from the Republic of Newfoundland. Welcome!

 

[2014nyr]

lose kravtsov and you're down to 11 forwards you sit carpenter and reaves mostly. easy decision.

i understand what you are saying about the pp, but what my concern is that they went with that all last year, the 90/30 split, and the second unit never found even a hint of conhesion. then in the playoffs that had several instances where they needed something out of pp2 and they couldnt even gain the zone with possession and just killed momenteum. that is what bothers me. reg season is a time to work them in more so they can contribute when you really need it, and if you arent going to give them that time then work them into pk ice so that when, not if, a big game turns into a special team mess like last night you dont even up with them just sitting on the bench for two periods unable to contribute.

i guess it comes down to 2 things where we might not be in agreement on....main one being that after 1 game i cant draw any hard conclusions on how the kids will be used. did see laf get some pk time tho, a little surprised kakko didnt since hes arguably the stronger def player though laf being more physical prob helps earn some pts w/ gg. not a chance in hell do you consider chytil getting pk time tho.

big picture dont disagree with where youre going about wanting to see the kids get pp time for experience playing together, obviously familiarity and having success to build on and mistakes to learn from when it means less can make a diff long term.

but then the other part im not sure we see the same is the way i read gallant and how he intends to deploy the kids. the way hes talked about them so far is markedly different than at any point last year, to me its clear they have earned his confidence and he intends to provide more opportunity throughout the season. he sees what we see and much more from much closer, and hes been around the nhl a long, long time. guys love playing for him, hes been pretty successful....i trust gallant. ive never heard of anyone around the league no loving playing for him and i think that speaks a lot to guys feeling like theyre treated fairly. so when he talks about their growth and how they need to be a big part of this season, i think thats honest. idno how it plays out, who gets opportunities when etc...i just know he sees laf/kakko/chytil as a big piece of this puzzle if were gonna be playing in may / june, what that looks like and when they claim those im just not worried about in october. if were sitting mid january and they cant get into the top 6 or over 13 mins a night and arent producing 1- it means well suck and 2-alarm bells will begin to ring ... but im not bringing that evil into my thoughts. 1-0....positive vibes

 

[smoneil]

Kaako was a monster last night. I was a bit disappointed not to see him used on the PK however.

Not too surprising. Tight game against a very good team. If they are going to ease the kids onto the PK (and I think they are), they'll probably pick their spots (blowouts, bottom-feeders, etc). At least at first.

 

[smoneil]

I was going to say, I love Miller and the path he's on but many in here are forgetting how good McDonagh was. That guy could really skate. (I agree that straight away speed is comparable.)

I hope Miller continues though, his physicality is starting to show as well. Was it Hagel he absolutely tossed high in our zone after he had lost his stick? Loved it lol

Pre-injury Marc Staal was up there as well. The amazing thing about Miller is his reach. He can pick your pocket from two counties away. Add that reach to a skill set like McD's and you'd be stacking Norris Trophies end over end. If Miller continues improving, I wouldn't be shocked to see him collect a Norris at some point in his career (though it might be tough with all the amazing D in his generation--it might be a Richter situation. An amazing player who never got quite the recognition he deserved because he happened to play in the same era as several of the best goalies of all time).

 

[FultonReed]

when is the last time this team had 3 formidable pairs of defenders?

 

[nyrage]

Felt like we were watching a bunch of pros who've been here before. They were efficient, smart, relentless and skilled with one of the best goalies on earth being the only thing separating them from having a 4 or 5 goal lead. That was a really encouraging game.

I loved when Miller stayed with someone entering the zone early in the game. He gets the puck away and then decides "F*** this guy". Sumo rushes him and bullies him onto his backside with a quick push.

I hated Chytil brainfarting himself into that really bad holding penalty late.


Undefeated in the regular szn since I arrived, too. (what an ego)

One of my favorite moments of the night