its an 82 game season though, i get wanting certain guys to see time in bigger roles or feeling like theyve shown enough where theres no reason they shouldnt be but is it not splitting hairs to pick this game apart? i mean going to 11 fwds 5 mins in, refs sticking it to them all night, and the rangers completely mauled tampa anyway. now that also only means one game, but this was the kind of game we didnt get last year....just dominant in every sense where igor hardly had to break a sweat. the kids all looked a level up, kandre was a beast. the pp looked unreal but wasnt a crutch.
thought it was obvious gallant was looking for ways to get the kids on the ice. the pp is what it is, the top group was dominant tonight and probably deserved 2 more. the way gallant was deploying the kids i dont have any doubt on nights where pp1 is a mess theyll get tapped with a chance to state their case.
bottom line top to bottom this was just about as solid of an effort as we could have asked for from the entire roster. woulda been nice to get rewarded with a few more and for the refs to call it correctly so the special teams time didnt muddle time on ice but still. its 1 game. the game was a dominant 60 mins against a talented team where there were no weak links and no real periods of getting pressed. there will be plenty of games to lobby complaints but this aint one of em
It was a dominant win. I agree the kids will be just fine.
The PP scored, and I don't know how much clearer it can get. 4 out of 5 guys on of one of the top PP's in the league returned. They all acknowledged the importance and uniqueness of the bumper being a RHS based off how that unit plays, and how can you argue with the dominance and success we continue to see?
There will undoubtedly be nights where they suck and can't get in the zone for sustained pressure. The Kid Unit will see their PP time then. This will happen, because I remember countless games last season yelling at my TV for PP1's brutal breakouts or zone entries or forced plays resulting in clears right after entering the zone. Tonight just happened to be a night where nearly everything for that unit went right, and as a Rangers fan who likes to see my team win more than any indivuduals PP ice time be higher, I won't ever complain about the kids losing PP TOI to a unit that had 15 high danger shots on PPs and scored once tonight.
The kids look fine. Building off of last playoffs. Their TOI will be fine. Their unit will get their looks on the PP. Its early, in fact Game 1 of 82. And it went as perfect as it could go. Guess everyone can't be happy lol. Rangers hockey baby.
It's alos early in the season, where we always see elevated penalty numbers as refs try to set the tone for the year. Numbers will go down, which means ES TOI will go up. Chytil won't move from 3C, and currently 2/3 of Krav, Kakko and Laf are in top 6. If Krav falls out, I'm almost certain, like we saw tonight, that Laf will be the first to get the call for that 2RW spot.
Kakko played some PK, as did Laf, in pre season. GG showed a willingness to acclimate them to that. Maybe they will see more during season, maybe they won't. I can guarantee you though the PK TOI won't get them extra points, which seem to be the only thing half this fanbase is concerned about. Laf scored 19 ES goals last year, and looks better already this season. Kakko is on the top line. The Kid Line was reunited for a shift in the third. Progression is not linear. They're still all under 23. Laf is 21. Kakko is 21. They are clearly getting more opporunties, and getting better.
Some of this fan base just needs to chill.
