Speculation: Roster Building Thread - Part XXVI

[GoAwayPanarin]

People who were disheartened by last night are really just looking for reasons to complain.

Short 2 top 6 forwards, they were the better team, allowed very little against 5v5 and really took the game over in the 3rd when they needed to. It wasn't a cake walk blow out or even a comfortable win, but thats also because Nashville's goalie is good. It was far from a flawless performance, but it was certainly good enough.

The PP sucks, that will get sorted out. Panarin sucks, that will get sorted out. Guys are out right now who will return pretty soon.

There are things that are glaring issues which are going to be tougher fixes (the PK has been masked by Igor, Quinn habits of floating around and waiting for pucks and being pretty lax in the NZ, Our D being generally terrible at moving pucks up ice) but even there those areas should improve with time, at least to some extent.

 

[NYR2007]

It seemed like last night game was a game Reeves should have left his mark on. You had a cheap shot elbow to the face and a very physical game and Reeves seemed to be invisible in that department. I get he's not gonna fight every game but I don't remember a player like him ever going to a new team and not fighting or show anything in preseason or regular season.

 

[Thirty One]

Dominic Moore had good face-off years here. Betts was good too but had no offense at all.

The Rangers were a very good faceoff team in the dark years.

Look at 2002-03:
Holik: 58.2%
Lindros: 53.0%
Nedved: 53.0%
Messier: 52.9%

Those were the days.

 

[Bluto]

It seemed like last night game was a game Reeves should have left his mark on. You had a cheap shot elbow to the face and a very physical game and Reeves seemed to be invisible in that department. I get he's not gonna fight every game but I don't remember a player like him ever going to a new team and not fighting or show anything in preseason or regular season.

Reaves has been doing his job. Hes throwing his weight around, finishing checks, starting scrums, and is forechecking aggressively. I am pleasantly surprised by his overall game. No idea why you think he hasn't done anything.

 

[Crease]

I know that winning a game like last night and the one in Toronto can almost feel disheartening. What I can tell you is that finding ways to win ugly games, on the contrary, is quite a skill to have as a team. They will gel more and come together, and they will again find rough patches in the future. If we know they can find ways to win when they're in those rough patches, we're actually setting up to have quite a nice season.

To have the confidence that you can win NHL games even on an off-night is enormous for the club.

 

[duhmetreE]

Reaves has been doing his job. Hes throwing his weight around, finishing checks, starting scrums, and is forechecking aggressively. I am pleasantly surprised by his overall game. No idea why you think he hasn't done anything.

Because it's been nearly all road games and every team keeps their 'toughness' away from Reaves with the last change.

He's far exceeded my 5v5 expectations

 

[E-Train]

Because it's been nearly all road games and every team keeps their 'toughness' away from Reaves with the last change.

He's far exceeded my 5v5 expectations

Exactly right. No one can handle Reaves on any of the teams they have faced.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

Let me preface this post with this: I think Nils has done a really admirable job trying to push his way through the physical part of the game and I think his work rate has been as good as you could want it to be.

But its clear that he isn't ready for this level. He's gotten swallowed up by pressure and his puck moving, even when not pressured, has been abysmal. Assuming that he doesn't start to show some signs of progression, how long do you continue to run with him?

Overall, I don't really see a long term spot for him here. His strengths are really "nice to have" rather than a necessity and hes weak in areas where the team isn't collectively strong (or are just bad.) If we're going to carry a 2nd undersized D, it's gotta be a DeAngelo type where they're just zipping pucks up ice and they are catalyzing offense and transition where you can live with some of the other issues (on ice issues at least.)

 

[HockeyBasedNYC]

I

Once we're healthy, I think these lines make the most sense. Roll the first three evenly.

Kreider/Zib/Kakko
Laf/Chytil/Blais
Panarin/Strome/Goodrow
Hunt/Rooney/Reaves

Edit: I see the thread agrees on something for once.

I've seen this exact lineup posted 6 times

I think we are onto something.

 

[Bluto]

Because it's been nearly all road games and every team keeps their 'toughness' away from Reaves with the last change.

He's far exceeded my 5v5 expectations

He reminds me of a big Brandon Prust minus the PK savyness. Like what Prust could have been if he was huge.

 

[HockeyBasedNYC]

Reaves has been doing his job. Hes throwing his weight around, finishing checks, starting scrums, and is forechecking aggressively. I am pleasantly surprised by his overall game. No idea why you think he hasn't done anything.

He knows when to get off and not overstay his shift too, which is important.

I am also continually impressed with Rooney.

He has sneaky speed, isnt afraid to mix it up, goes to the net, goes to the corners and into traffic, disrupts in the neutral zone, plays a smart system game on both sides of the rink - whatever the coaches need and he'll pop in the odd goal consistently. I was hoping they would protect him and glad they did.

 

[LokiDog]

People who were disheartened by last night are really just looking for reasons to complain.

Short 2 top 6 forwards, they were the better team, allowed very little against 5v5 and really took the game over in the 3rd when they needed to. It wasn't a cake walk blow out or even a comfortable win, but thats also because Nashville's goalie is good. It was far from a flawless performance, but it was certainly good enough.

The PP sucks, that will get sorted out. Panarin sucks, that will get sorted out. Guys are out right now who will return pretty soon.

There are things that are glaring issues which are going to be tougher fixes (the PK has been masked by Igor, Quinn habits of floating around and waiting for pucks and being pretty lax in the NZ, Our D being generally terrible at moving pucks up ice) but even there those areas should improve with time, at least to some extent.

Let me preface this post with this: I think Nils has done a really admirable job trying to push his way through the physical part of the game and I think his work rate has been as good as you could want it to be.

But its clear that he isn't ready for this level. He's gotten swallowed up by pressure and his puck moving, even when not pressured, has been abysmal. Assuming that he doesn't start to show some signs of progression, how long do you continue to run with him?

Overall, I don't really see a long term spot for him here. His strengths are really "nice to have" rather than a necessity and hes weak in areas where the team isn't collectively strong (or are just bad.) If we're going to carry a 2nd undersized D, it's gotta be a DeAngelo type where they're just zipping pucks up ice and they are catalyzing offense and transition where you can live with some of the other issues (on ice issues at least.)

Back to back bangers. Agree with every word.

 

[Cag29]

It seemed like last night game was a game Reeves should have left his mark on. You had a cheap shot elbow to the face and a very physical game and Reeves seemed to be invisible in that department. I get he's not gonna fight every game but I don't remember a player like him ever going to a new team and not fighting or show anything in preseason or regular season.

No one wants to fight him. Very similar to when Kocur was here. Someone eventually will give it a go but Reaves is the champ at the moment.
I see a big difference in the team with him in the line up. Everyone is hitting.

 

[jay from jersey]

Because it's been nearly all road games and every team keeps their 'toughness' away from Reaves with the last change.

He's far exceeded my 5v5 expectations

It’s not a good day for the Tuba/Tuffness crowd when you see the advantages of having big physical players hold the lead in 1-goal hard fought games like these.
Trouba is really helping miller come in to his own and if he keeps developing like this he’s going to be a monster
Lindgren-Fox
Miller-Schneider isn’t an easy top 4 to deal with.
I’m happy our guys play like they have a pulse again.
Your right on about the last line change for the home team. I’m sure Reaves would have loved a scrap but he’s not risking an instigator penalty in a close game on the road. He’s too smart for that by now

 

[Crease]

It’s not a good day for the Tuba/Tuffness crowd when you see the advantages of having big physical players hold the lead in 1-goal hard fought games like these.
Trouba is really helping miller come in to his own and if he keeps developing like this he’s going to be a monster

What is the Tuba/Tuffness crowd?

 

[EdJovanovski]

It seemed like last night game was a game Reeves should have left his mark on. You had a cheap shot elbow to the face and a very physical game and Reeves seemed to be invisible in that department. I get he's not gonna fight every game but I don't remember a player like him ever going to a new team and not fighting or show anything in preseason or regular season.

Reaves has been doing his job. Hes throwing his weight around, finishing checks, starting scrums, and is forechecking aggressively. I am pleasantly surprised by his overall game. No idea why you think he hasn't done anything.

I agree as a player he's been much better than anyone could've imagined. There was a shift last game where he stripped one guy of the puck moving it ahead and then stripped the next guy of the puck too, he's been excellent on the forecheck. Whenever he's on the ice it's like the puck is in the other teams zone. But I definitely think he should've fought Wilson, or somebody, on opening night. Lots of guys who aren't even tough guys, do stuff like that in their first few games to show the team they've got their back and want to be part of the family. Let alone the toughest guy in the NHL in a game that was supposed to be the most heated game of the season. I definitely expected more, hopefully he does it next time we meet them at the Garden in front of the home fans & when we have last change and can force Wilson to meet him.

 

[EdJovanovski]

It’s not a good day for the Tuba/Tuffness crowd when you see the advantages of having big physical players hold the lead in 1-goal hard fought games like these.
Trouba is really helping miller come in to his own and if he keeps developing like this he’s going to be a monster
Lindgren-Fox
Miller-Schneider isn’t an easy top 4 to deal with.
I’m happy our guys play like they have a pulse again.
Your right on about the last line change for the home team. I’m sure Reaves would have loved a scrap but he’s not risking an instigator penalty in a close game on the road. He’s too smart for that by now

People dislike Tuba because he has rocks for brains, is a bad skater & has a bad contract. Not because he's tough. His physicality is the one redeeming quality he has in my eyes lol. Other people who dislike Tuba may be that way but I don't think that's the majority. I'm one of the biggest advocates of toughness on our board and also the biggest detractor of Tuba.

 

[Fitzy]

I'm of the opinion that Trouba is currently the second best defenseman on the team.

He just makes very visible gaffes occasionally instead of small mistakes constantly, which causes people to overestimate his error propensity.

Michal Rozsival had the same issue.

 

[jay from jersey]

The Rangers were a very good faceoff team in the dark years.

Look at 2002-03:
Holik: 58.2%
Lindros: 53.0%
Nedved: 53.0%
Messier: 52.9%

Those were the days.

Man I can’t believe Nedved was 53%. I knew he played above his head here, but damn he was a pretty well rounded player.
I remember going to rangers/devs at the garden in the blue seats. Guy seating behind was in his 50s, season ticket holder, and absolutely permanently shitfaced during the dark ages.
Nedved was getting abused by Arnott I think all game. It was tied up in the third, Nedved got the puck and saw arnott steaming towards him. Instead of trying to take him 1 on 1 and make a move to the net, he gently dumped the puck in the corner.
This guy lost it. He starts yelling Boo! Friggen Boo! Nedved you f’ing nerd!.
To a kid then, trying to take in that terrible period of hockey when we were just so stale, it was a small moment of joy.
Of course. The rangers lost the game too.

 

[deathb4disco]

It seemed like last night game was a game Reeves should have left his mark on. You had a cheap shot elbow to the face and a very physical game and Reeves seemed to be invisible in that department. I get he's not gonna fight every game but I don't remember a player like him ever going to a new team and not fighting or show anything in preseason or regular season.

Igor took a shot when he went to go clear the puck. To me if your goalie gets hit you have to respond. I have been impressed with Reeves play so far though much better player than I thought.

 

[Kravtsov420]

Let me preface this post with this: I think Nils has done a really admirable job trying to push his way through the physical part of the game and I think his work rate has been as good as you could want it to be.

But its clear that he isn't ready for this level. He's gotten swallowed up by pressure and his puck moving, even when not pressured, has been abysmal. Assuming that he doesn't start to show some signs of progression, how long do you continue to run with him?

Overall, I don't really see a long term spot for him here. His strengths are really "nice to have" rather than a necessity and hes weak in areas where the team isn't collectively strong (or are just bad.) If we're going to carry a 2nd undersized D, it's gotta be a DeAngelo type where they're just zipping pucks up ice and they are catalyzing offense and transition where you can live with some of the other issues (on ice issues at least.)

Idk, I’m thinking Jones is a better fit for us if we’re being real honest. Great at the transition game and can help the 2nd power play

 

[RangerBoy]

Dominic Moore had good face-off years here. Betts was good too but had no offense at all.

Eastwood wasn't a very good player. He was great on face-offs. He had one good skill.

 

[EdJovanovski]

He knows when to get off and not overstay his shift too, which is important.

I am also continually impressed with Rooney.

He has sneaky speed, isnt afraid to mix it up, goes to the net, goes to the corners and into traffic, disrupts in the neutral zone, plays a smart system game on both sides of the rink - whatever the coaches need and he'll pop in the odd goal consistently. I was hoping they would protect him and glad they did.

I hated Rooney last year but like him this year. Ever since "the hands" emerged on that penalty shot LOL

 

[jay from jersey]

What is the Tuba/Tuffness crowd?

They’re out there. If you haven’t seen them yet, you will shortly. Not likely until we drop a game or maybe 2 in a row

 

[jay from jersey]

Igor took a shot when he went to go clear the puck. To me if your goalie gets hit you have to respond. I have been impressed with Reeves play so far though much better player than I thought.

I’m of the same mindset. Only thing I can think of Nashville had the last change and wasn’t putting anyone out to answer the call with Reaves, and in such a tight game, Reaves didn’t want to be given an instigator penalty and cost the team.
But your right, especially the way shesty is playing, guys have to take umbrage. It should be met with some retaliation/retribution either right then or later on in the game