Post-Game Talk: St. Louis Blues @ New York Rangers - 10/10/17

[Larrybiv]

Good thing we benched Smith and ADA

Yeah, I hear you. What AV is trying to prove is beyond me. These are 2 players that we are counting on moving forward. Benching Smith 1 game should have been enough. So yeah, bench ADA and that hurts the PP......so yeah, smart move.
Other than that, not gonna bash AV too much. It takes a little time with all these moving parts.
On paper we "should be" better. Thus far we are not.
I mean......what substantial players did we lose? Dan and Oscar? Should we be worse off then what we've added?
Jesper being out does hurt though. Nasher seems to be busting his ass out there, just not getting too many prime opportunities.

 

[Mac n Gs]

Don't tell that to the Stats guys. Vesey throws lots of pucks towards the net, therefore law of averages deems he will ultimately be successful.

I don't think I need to reply to this again.

But yeah, if Vesey finishes off those two chances or connects on Hayes' one-timer, the law of averages will deem him to be successful. Carey's penalty led to the GWG for the Blues. Hope your angry sarcastic tirade is over

 

[Larrybiv]

Let’s not fall apart so fast. I’d rather be able to snatch up Trotz or Quenneville in the off-season than be stuck with ruff.

I could probably deal with "Q", but "no neck" I'd be laughing every presser. Sorry, just can't do it, no matter how good he is.

 

[Irishguy42]

Blues scoring that goal 15 seconds in isn't on AV, tbh

 

[Larrybiv]

As an objective fan who was at the game tonight, I thought you were the better team, tbh. Just one of those nights...

Sometimes I wish I could take myself out of my body and mind and be "objective" while watching a Rangers game. I try but somehow I always see all the negatives and all the positives in 2 different lights and they seem to not come together.

 

[Larrybiv]

Before the season started, someone here explained to me how improved the Rangers youth is. I would call it easily below the league average. One decent line and Skjel is all I see.

Take a look around the league. There are young budding players everywhere on almost every team.

Absolutely! Every team also has to "gel". Why are we different than any other team and using the excuse of needing "time" to gel. That crap is on AV. He should have already figured out basic pairings......shouldn't be major shuffling around .......give players a chance to adjust. He is constantly looking for magic. Make the players WORK for their ice time and continuity.

 

[Larrybiv]

It could be worse - Zib could be cold and off. Let`s hope he stays hot - until AV figure out line chemistry with our 3 remaining NHL lines.
Any eta on J. Fast injury?

I love Jesper, but if we are looking at him to be our savior.....then we are in deep doggie doodoo. Yes he will replace someone crappy and maybe even re-align lines 3 and 4. Will help the PK.....but will that fix our crappy play to this point?

 

[mandiblesofdoom]

Don't tell that to the Stats guys. Vesey throws lots of pucks towards the net, therefore law of averages deems he will ultimately be successful.

Stats guys aren't crazy about Vesey. Vesey gets a longer leash than other young players. He's earned AV's trust, not sure why.

 

[Synergy27]

Those of us that have seen it before were warning about the dangers of roster turnover all summer. There's a lot to be said for continuity on a hockey team, and it's going to take this team awhile to gel, especially playing this system.

That said, AV is going to make it even harder. His constant tinkering is annoying, but it's downright negligent in a team that's trying to integrate a bunch of new faces. He's got to let the key guys play together, a lot, and find their stride.

I'm not confident he makes that happen.

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

Blues scoring that goal 15 seconds in isn't on AV, tbh

It's always AVs fault. And never Lundqvist's. Get with the program

 

[Larrybiv]

Stats guys aren't crazy about Vesey. Vesey gets a longer leash than other young players. He's earned AV's trust, not sure why.

He's AV's nephew from his half brother's sister.

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

He's AV's nephew from his half brother's sister.

Considering how long his leash was last season, I get why people were saying this.

 

[East Coast Bias]

It's always AVs fault. And never Lundqvist's. Get with the program

Hank is on the decline, no doubt.

And marching Steve f***ing Kampfer out there to cover up for that is like fixing broken windows with a grenade launcher

The d is even more important now than it ever was. And he's marching out guys for 18 mins a night that wouldn't even be the best Dman in Hartford.

This isn't a new trend.

 

[Nickmo82]

Blues scoring that goal 15 seconds in isn't on AV, tbh

No, it isn't but crazy stuff like that is bound to happen occasionally. However, night in, night out AV makes decisions/runs a system that actively hurts the teams chances of winning.

 

[CasusBelli]

Stats guys aren't crazy about Vesey. Vesey gets a longer leash than other young players. He's earned AV's trust, not sure why.

This. And, oh yes, there is no such thing as a "law of averages" (also called the gambler's fallacy) in the real world. Sure, one shot will eventually go in, but we don't know when -- especially not when dealing with such low-percentage shots (and from an unremarkable shooter to boot).

In statistical terms: we don't know the conditional prior distribution for such a case. And, while we could estimate a posterior distribution, a given outcome is guaranteed only when the number of trials reaches infinity (i.e., never). I suppose my other point is that a proper statistical analysis goes beyond looking at charts and tables. Significance testing, distribution fitting, etc. are crucial to any reliable analysis.

 

[Kovalev27]

What's going on with Smith? Why is he in the dog house??

Maloney reaffirmed what I had assumed on nhl radio yesterday. Brendan Smith partied a little too hard this summer with his new money and new wife and showed up completely out of shape. That’s why he’s not playing. When he proves he is a pro nhler again to the coaching staff he’ll get back in. Unacceptable from him

 

[RangerBoy]

It’s not Vigneault’s fault the Rangers traded 4 straight #1 picks and they lack the high end young players. The system is barren except for a handful of players. Two of them were added in June. The Rangers need to keep and add draft picks. They need to make one more Brassard for Zibanejad trade.

 

[Irishguy42]

Maloney reaffirmed what I had assumed on nhl radio yesterday. Brendan Smith partied a little too hard this summer with his new money and new wife and showed up completely out of shape. That’s why he’s not playing. When he proves he is a pro nhler again to the coaching staff he’ll get back in. Unacceptable from him

If true, that's unfortunate, but makes the benching justified.

 

[offdacrossbar]

It’s not Vigneault’s fault the Rangers traded 4 straight #1 picks and they lack the high end young players. The system is barren except for a handful of players. Two of them were added in June. The Rangers need to keep and add draft picks. They need to make one more Brassard for Zibanejad trade.

yup. and then when we have a 1st rounder we cannot afford to go fishing for a project. you draft BPA no matter what position that is. take talent and make room. good problem to have.

this draft was solid. keep the top picks and take as many top 50 players in every draft as possible. thats how you build from within. adding young talent to a roster every year eventually pays off.

and cut the dead wood. rick nash needs to go. move him for picks and a player. cap relief is life.

nash score card so far. ZERO.

 

[ColonialsHockey10]

Maloney reaffirmed what I had assumed on nhl radio yesterday. Brendan Smith partied a little too hard this summer with his new money and new wife and showed up completely out of shape. That’s why he’s not playing. When he proves he is a pro nhler again to the coaching staff he’ll get back in. Unacceptable from him

Why am I not surprised.

This team has a fetish with acquiring players like this. They're so pathetic.

 

[NYR Viper]

It’s not Vigneault’s fault the Rangers traded 4 straight #1 picks and they lack the high end young players. The system is barren except for a handful of players. Two of them were added in June. The Rangers need to keep and add draft picks. They need to make one more Brassard for Zibanejad trade.

I agree. I have a feeling this team will get back on track somewhat but this was always going to be a bit of a transition year.

 

[Kovalev27]

The positive is we have a legit first line with high end talent right now. It’s amazing what showing up to camp in NHL shape has done for Buchnevich. He looks like a beast out there. Zibanejad shooting the puck like he is and kreider being the power forward that he is. This has been a team based on committee right now we have an actual first line.

I have a lot of faith in Miller Nash Zucc to perform at a second line level.

Grabner and Fast will do their jobs.

The real problem I have is with the rest.

Vesey Hayes Carey Cracknell and Desharnais have all been horrendous. Excruciatingly so for Vesey and Hayes. Two guys that MUST step up for us to have a decent year. Vesey couldn’t possibly look worse than he does right now.

I think we need more skill I’d bring Lettieri up and demote Carey who just isn’t an nhler. Cracknell can be the spare if lindy ruff likes him so much. Puempel too id bring them both up.

Grabner Hayes Lettieri
Vesey Desharnais Puempel for now until Fast is back

Cracknell the spare

I like Lettieri’s grit And shoot first mentality. Get the kid up here.

 

[Off Sides]

First Blues goal, Skjei makes a ill attempted pass into Grabners skates. Turnover, Shattenkirk follows his man out to almost the blue line, Grabner follows him too, Nash who was apparently watching all this from outside the zone by the boards slowly comes into the picture to add a third man near their own blues line, Miller goes to cover nobody in the corner, the Blues have a 3 on Skjei and goal is scored. Talk about Benny Hill stuff.

Kampher draws a PP, Shattenkirk shoots, it gets it through for rebound, Buch makes great pass, Zbad nice shot Rangers score.

Carey takes a bad penalty, on the PK Nash runs into Grabner for some reason over by the boards, Kampher throws it in that area for no good reason, Holden gets turnstiled, shot missed, hits off back boards, Lundqvist gets hit on back with puck, puck goes in.

Empty net, lose faceoff, can't keep puck in by pinching, it's over.

While it's simple to just say Holden, Kampher, and AV stunk, and they did at times especially on that PK, other players like Nash, Miller, Skjei, Grabner also are just as guilty. Nash had one of his worst games I have seen in a while.

 

[kovazub94]

Before the season started, someone here explained to me how improved the Rangers youth is. I would call it easily below the league average. One decent line and Skjel is all I see.

Take a look around the league. There are young budding players everywhere on almost every team.

Seriously? You don't see significant improvements from Zibanejad and (exponentially) from Buchnevich? And 4 games into the season is enough for you to make a conclusion re. Miller (who has been good), Hayes, Vesey?

 

[sbjnyc]

As an objective fan who was at the game tonight, I thought you were the better team, tbh. Just one of those nights...

As a slightly less than objective fan who was at the game I think the rangers may have been the better team for no more than 10 minutes.

BTW after the Blues iced the puck with a bit over 2 minutes to go, Tarasenko went to the bench to change his stick but the ref wouldn't allow it. I can't remember seeing that before. Is that a new rule?