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Player Discussion Ryan McDonagh

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Something's going on with him, whether it's mental with him either not trusting his shoulder or not being able to fully handle wearing the C yet, or physically with him either being worn down or not 100% with the shoulder. Regardless we need him to figure it out because he's been pretty bad of late, granted him playing pretty bad he's still one of the better defensemen in the league but we have seen him play much much better than he has of late. He needs to figure it out especially down the stretch when things start tightening up, we need him running on all cylinders.
 
He's been unacceptably bad.

He has to be hurt. He's making poor decision after poor decision.
 
True Blue said:
Or not. I have always maintained that Brian Leetch was a better player without the C than with.
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Could be. Leetch never had the temperment to command a room. McDonagh strikes me as the same type of personality.

Or it could be an offshoot of whats happened to a lot of people who start making big money. As Marvelous Marvin Hagler said "Its tough to get up at 6am to train when you're wearing silk pajamas."
 
After watching him play the past few games, it has to be some kind of shoulder injury. I've never seen him play this horribly before. Doesn't seem to be anything mental, or cause he's the captain now (although, who knows).

Maybe we should have shut him down back in November, and had him have the shoulder surgery.
 
Rangerfan4life90 said:
After watching him play the past few games, it has to be some kind of shoulder injury. I've never seen him play this horribly before. Doesn't seem to be anything mental, or cause he's the captain now (although, who knows).

Maybe we should have shut him down back in November, and had him have the shoulder surgery.
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If that was indeed true, and IF this was known (which if it is serious, then I have a feeling it is known), then this is a HUGE **** up by management... Last offseason was a GREAT year for 1-year reclamation projects because of the compliance buyouts that were processed that offseason... If McDonagh was really hurt, NYR could have signed Erhoff to the same 1-year contract that he signed with the Penguins, while putting McDonagh on LTIR.

This would have given us more flexibility with players (Staal especially), and allowed McDonagh to heal properly.

I'm just speculating. If that was a known factor then McDonagh should have done the right thing and got Shoulder Surgery, and would have been ready for the playoffs of 2015-16 season
 
azaloum90 said:
If that was indeed true, and IF this was known (which if it is serious, then I have a feeling it is known), then this is a HUGE **** up by management... Last offseason was a GREAT year for 1-year reclamation projects because of the compliance buyouts that were processed that offseason... If McDonagh was really hurt, NYR could have signed Erhoff to the same 1-year contract that he signed with the Penguins, while putting McDonagh on LTIR.

This would have given us more flexibility with players (Staal especially), and allowed McDonagh to heal properly.

I'm just speculating. If that was a known factor then McDonagh should have done the right thing and got Shoulder Surgery, and would have been ready for the playoffs of 2015-16 season
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He reinjured the same shoulder in Oct of this season..... I think thats whats ultimately wrong with him right now
 
Glen Sathers Cigar said:
He looked really bad before re-injuring it too. Who knows, bottom line is for us to have any kind of success he needs to find his game.
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Exactly why I don't think it is an "injury." I think fans are reaching for something, when, in reality, he is just having a bad season and they refuse to see it. It's not like McDonagh has an elite track record, he is susceptible to bad seasons. He has one excellent season under his belt as a top-10 defense man in the NHL.

He looked brutal the first 10 games of the season before his injury, and he looks brutal since.

Staal, Girardi and Klein have all been vastly better than him. And when you can name three defense man on your own team who are having better seasons than the guy who is supposed to be your best, I think you are in trouble.
 
Fataldogg said:
Exactly why I don't think it is an "injury." I think fans are reaching for something, when, in reality, he is just having a bad season and they refuse to see it. It's not like McDonagh has an elite track record, he is susceptible to bad seasons. He has one excellent season under his belt as a top-10 defense man in the NHL.

He looked brutal the first 10 games of the season before his injury, and he looks brutal since.

Staal, Girardi and Klein have all been vastly better than him. And when you can name three defense man on your own team who are having better seasons than the guy who is supposed to be your best, I think you are in trouble.
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McD has always been a VERY GOOD d-man, and then had an elite year last season. He's NEVER looked awful as he has for the majority of this season.

So, either it's an injury he's playing through, or the pressure of being captain has caused a big mental strain (ala Brian Leetch).
 
I somehow think that the Captain thing is overblown. I doubt anyone plays the game thinking about being captain. Is it possible that Leetch playing poorly just coincided with him being captain?
 
not sure why there is a concern. McD has 15 points in 35 games and is a +9

Statistically, this is very close to a #1 defenseman.
 
SnowblindNYR said:
I somehow think that the Captain thing is overblown. I doubt anyone plays the game thinking about being captain. Is it possible that Leetch playing poorly just coincided with him being captain?
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I'm almost 100% sure the C is being way overblown. It's not like it's a bunch of kids and McD is the one voice of experience and reason suddenly because he wears a letter. He has Hank, MSL, Staal and Girardi as veteran voices in the room - MSL has seen more than most NHL players, and Hank, Staal and Girardi have been around the block with the same group of guys for a long time now.

The Leetch thing, whatever happened there, I really doubt it's a 1:1 comparison with a totally different human being in a totally different era of hockey just because they're both d-men and both wore the C.
 
I think regardless of who wears the C, Hank is the real leader in that lockerroom. If he does have that much responsibility it could affect the way he prepares for a game. I'm much more inclined to believe his shoulder isn't fully healed.
 
The weight of being captain is completely overblown.
He's not 100% and hasn't been.
If he doesn't improve it will probably factor in (along with some other players who need to pick it up) whatever the front office will do down the stretch.
Anyone have stats on how we stack up against the top 8 teams in the east?
 
I peg us a 6th rated team in the East with the way McDonagh is performing right now . If he can find his game from last season we can be bumped up a couple of pegs....
.
 
haveandare said:
I'm almost 100% sure the C is being way overblown. It's not like it's a bunch of kids and McD is the one voice of experience and reason suddenly because he wears a letter. He has Hank, MSL, Staal and Girardi as veteran voices in the room - MSL has seen more than most NHL players, and Hank, Staal and Girardi have been around the block with the same group of guys for a long time now.

The Leetch thing, whatever happened there, I really doubt it's a 1:1 comparison with a totally different human being in a totally different era of hockey just because they're both d-men and both wore the C.
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I think the "C" is one of the romantic things of past hockey lore that probably was overblown before but maybe useful to some extent but is not really that big of a deal anymore. More and more it seems like the C goes to the best player on a team rather than "best leader". I really think that hockey being a game of "toughness" and "leadership" is more and more becoming an archaic notion and now it's more about skill and if there's toughness involved, toughness with an actual purpose in the game, not some idiot throwing punches.
 
He should be benched a game to send him a message. That message is that he's sucked all season.
 
Need to seriously consider sitting him a game or two. He's plain awful and it's costing us games.
 
Lost confidence. He's not required to carry the team or jumpstart the offense. He's also been removed off the top PP unit.

Doesn't excuse the horrid defense though.

Who knows. Would be nice if the best writers dug into it, because, I don't know, its their friggin job? At least comment on it.
 
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