Post-Game Talk: Rangers @ Avs

[Hunter Gathers]

I love Richards and always defended him...but man...it's time for him to go... I'd take the money and explore options

I've always said I am fine with getting rid of him if we replace him with something that's not JT Miller.

 

[*Bob Richards*]

Powerplay has been a joke lately as well.

Did some quick number crunching (so don't kill me if its not 100% ) but our PP since the Olympic break is 7/58. 12%.

 

[Blueshirt Believer]

True. I'm a fan of Nash so I may be biased, but I really like him on the PK. I feel like he does a good enough job defensively when he's out there and he adds an offensive element to our PK, which has burnt some teams over the past few games.

Nash needs either a better center or a dominating physical wing to play with. One or the other imo.

 

[NYR2007]

I'm not blaming him. Did you not see me blaming Moore in the main thread AND in this thread? It's even in the post you quoted.

I had something like 10 posts ranting about Moore.

How do you blame Moore ? Girardi is the one pinched with two forwards behind him. You don't blame the closest guy to the goal ... mistake was made in the offensive zone

 

[Doctyl]

Nash needs either a better center or a dominating physical wing to play with. One or the other imo.

Steps been very good since January. He's fine.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

Yeah, Nash has been awesome on PKs. I love him there.

He made one total boss play on the PK, where he just used his long reach to take the puck on a pass and went the other way.

 

[Blueshirt Believer]

I love Richards and always defended him...but man...it's time for him to go... I'd take the money and explore options

Yeah, they definitely can use the money. I really thought when we acquired MSL that it would revitalize Richards.

It didn't. So give him the boot.

 

[Glen Sathers Cigar]

I'd legitimately recall JT Miller and scratch Richards. Can't score, can't win a faceoff, can't win a battle on the boards, slow, can't play defense. Just horrible.

Did you miss AV's comments about him? He's not happy with Miller. Brad honestly hasn't been half as bad as people make him out to be. I think his mistakes are magnified and people are already looking at him negatively because of his season last year.

Give it a rest, Richards>>>Miller right now and it's not even particularly close.

I think Miller and John Moore have the same tunnel vision problem. They get the puck and no matter where they are or who is open they try and do it themselves and force a bad shot. Moore does it all the time and I notice it a lot from Miller, he doesn't use his line mates enough and forces shots, which was very evident in the Calgary game.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

Nash needs either a better center or a dominating physical wing to play with. One or the other imo.

Stepan has been the least of our problems. He's been playing almost as well as he played last year. 19 points in the last 19 games.

 

[Hunter Gathers]

How do you blame Moore ? Girardi is the one pinched with two forwards behind him. You don't blame the closest guy to the goal ... mistake was made in the offensive zone

How do I blame Moore?

I know how to play defense. How can you NOT blame Moore on the 1st goal? Go back and read through the game thread and you can see my breakdown of the play. I'm not going to re-hash it here.

It was a laughably bad job by Moore on defense. Disgraceful, really.

 

[Hunter Gathers]

Did you miss AV's comments about him? He's not happy with Miller. Brad honestly hasn't been half as bad as people make him out to be. I think his mistakes are magnified and people are already looking at him negatively because of his season last year.

Give it a rest, Richards>>>Miller right now and it's not even particularly close.

I think Miller and John Moore have the same tunnel vision problem. They get the puck and no matter where they are or who is open they try and do it themselves and force a bad shot. Moore does it all the time and I notice it a lot from Miller, he doesn't use his line mates enough and forces shots, which was very evident in the Calgary game.

The problem with Richards is he's just been "there." People want more than that. If he's not noticeable, it means he's had a bad game. I thought he was OK if nothing special tonight.

But yeah, Miller is obviously not thrilling Rangers management.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

BTW, Richards should never try deking in a shootout. Just shoot, he's good at that.

 

[Cake or Death]

Stepan
Lundqvist
Pouliot

A real crap effort in the third, but a huge point in the standings.

 

[Jabroni]

How do I blame Moore?

I know how to play defense. How can you NOT blame Moore on the 1st goal? Go back and read through the game thread and you can see my breakdown of the play. I'm not going to re-hash it here.

It was a laughably bad job by Moore on defense. Disgraceful, really.

Moore overcommitted to the shooter. He should've stayed more in the middle. Cover the pass and let the goalie take the shot.

 

[NYR2007]

How do I blame Moore?

I know how to play defense. How can you NOT blame Moore on the 1st goal? Go back and read through the game thread and you can see my breakdown of the play. I'm not going to re-hash it here.

It was a laughably bad job by Moore on defense. Disgraceful, really.

LOL you know how to play defense ? then you would know that G made the mistake to make it a two on one. the Avs had the whole zone to make that pass... yes Moore didn't look that comfortable but you can't blame him when G is the one that pinched on a play he didn't have a chance of getting too the puck

 

[varanger94]

Redden= AV

Richards on final FO
Richards on final shootout

Took the words right out of my mouth. And Richards single-handedly ruined our last PP also. Terrible shot followed by a terrible pass, ate up 1:40min. Please let him go next year and resign Callahan.

No problem with the tie. We're almost there.
The Hank bashers make me laugh. How many teams would die for him.

 

[haveandare]

The thing that really bothered me in the third period was that Rangers never adjusted from the Avs stacking the boards on the forecheck.

Rangers kept trying to clear the puck along the wall where they were outnumbered. AV needed to adjust there.

Oh my god, this. How did AV, or any of the players, not notice that? It was so, so obvious.

 

[*Bob Richards*]

Our remaining schedule is:

Senators
Hurricanes
Sabres
@Canadiens

Not trying to downplay our opponents but we ain't exactly running the gauntlet there. Like I said earlier, sucks to lose out on the two points but we need what? Two to clinch? I think we will be okay barring some epic Maple Leafs-esque play.

 

[rvdnsx]

If Hank is out a couple feet on that tying goal, it becomes a routine save. It's not like the shot was like picking a corner, it went by his pad cuz he was playing deep and was down. Upright and square and playing a normal distance from the goal line would have meant 2 points.

 

[Hunter Gathers]

LOL you know how to play defense ? then you would know that G made the mistake to make it a two on one. the Avs had the whole zone to make that pass... yes Moore didn't look that comfortable but you can't blame him when G is the one that pinched on a play he didn't have a chance of getting too the puck

Spoken like someone who's never played.

I'm sorry, but two-on-ones happen. All the time. Many times during a game. Girardi's pinch was fine. If anything, the bigger blame would go on MSL.

Moore's lazy, lazy, lazy play on the 2-on-1 was terrible. He played the passer (which is risky in the first place) so poorly. If you're going to play the passer, you need to go down or at least make it difficult on him. He lazily drifted towards the passer and stuck his stick out. It gave the passer all the ice in the world to make a play.

The normal play there is to push the passer to the outside and take the potential shooter. Let the goalie deal with the passer. The riskier play is to play the passer. But if you're going to take that risk, you need to do it correctly. Moore was so poor on that play it's not even funny. The mistake he made was something that should have been corrected in his game when he was a pee-wee.

There's no defending that horrible, God-awful, lazy ass play by Moore. None. Anyone who has ever played defense in their life should be pissed at him for that garbage.

But yeah. Clearly all on Girardi. Give me a break.

 

[5 4 Fighting]

Posted this in the Avs board, debating whether or not they will beat the. Hawks in the playoffs.

Crawford is a sieve against us. He has a career 0.866 save percentage in 10 games. By far the worst of any opponent of his.

Wow .866? That's beyond terrible, lol. Not even AHL numbers. To be honest, even teams that sweep others in the regular season, sometimes lose in the playoffs. Lets look at the match ups against the well-oiled machine that is the Hawks, shall we?

Offense- slight advantage to the Hawks (which is a compliment to you guys)
Defense- as much as you guys play great team D, the Hawks are a top 3 unit in the league, but where you guys do have a advantage is in net with Varly. If you guys haven't seen his playoff series in '09 against the Pens, please do, he was a savage on the ice. Like Freudian pointed out, he is one of the most intimidating goalies out there. 1.Rask. 2. Smith. 3. Varlamov 4. Quick. 5. Lehtonen

Moving on, as much as I think the Hawks have 2 advantages in offense and defense, I still can see the Avs extending the series on pure heart, faster younger legs, and Roy's ballsy, strategic coaching. Wish you guys the best of luck and we had a hell of a back and forth series this year!

 

[Hunter Gathers]

Moore overcommitted to the shooter. He should've stayed more in the middle. Cover the pass and let the goalie take the shot.

Yep. And I don't even mind him overcommitting to the passer. But if you're going to do it, do it right. Don't just lazily glide over to him and stick your stick out praying that he'll hit the blade of your stick instead of using all of the other ice you've given him to make a play.

As stated in the GDT -- I'd of benched his ass for that play.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

BTW, the Rangers have an 86% chance of getting the 2 seed.

 

[CDiablo]

37 Shots against. Unacceptable.

 

[NYRSchrute217]

True. I'm a fan of Nash so I may be biased, but I really like him on the PK. I feel like he does a good enough job defensively when he's out there and he adds an offensive element to our PK, which has burnt some teams over the past few games.

Most people's (including mine) problem with Nash is that he is so damn talented but a lot of the time he looks like he wants no part of playing hard. Something about the way he composes himself I guess. I don't dislike Nash but he's very frustrating.

Then again playing with a true, elite, #1 center could really be what he needs to be a PPG player, but we obviously don't have one of those.