Hard to blame anyone on the ice for the second goal against, but it sure wasn't Marc Staal flailing like a ding dong as the puck bounced off him and in the net.
No, it was Marc Staal on the right side (why?) giving Regin too much time to put a shot towards goal. The first goal against was Marc Staal coughing up the puck and then borderline giving up on the play instead of busting his ass to get it back.
Marc Staal has been directly responsible for a LOT more goals against this season than any other Rangers defenseman, and for a guy whose best attribute is his defense, that's alarming. I don't know if it's his eye, adjusting to playing with a visor or just a rough start, but something is wrong there.
Okay great he gets the +1 on the same goal he assisted on so his stat line looks nice on paper because of one good shift in one game. In reality for most nights this season he has shown that his confidence level is zero and he cannot handle passes at the blueline. His defense is suspect as well but considering the hopes people have for MDZ offensively his defensive play is largely irrelevant. As of right now the only reason he probably hasn't been traded or sat is because there is absolutely no one who can eat up his, or someone elses who replaces his, minutes. He is still useful in a defensive roll and until that ceases or they can replace that, he stays. His value is in being offensively minded and gifted, if he cannot deliver on that his usefulness to the organization is very little. He has more value as a turn around project who needs a change of scenery to another team, than as simply a top4 D who cannot overcome his mental issues to the Rangers.
He had more than one good shift. His defense has been fine this season. His offense has struggled, but again--he's a playmaker, and we currently don't have a ton of finishers healthy on this team right now. He doesn't need a change of scenery, unless that new scenery is on the left side of a pairing (again--he's looked his best, for prolonged stretches of time, playing a top 4 LD role filling in for Staal. He has never looked as good on the right side).
Move Staal before DZ? Maybe if they were going to rebuild, but in that scenario move both. The idea of moving Staal over DZ is a rather questionable stance to take.
A year ago I would have said the same thing. I've always thought of Staal as our best defenseman. Before the eye injury, he even looked like he was finally putting his offense together. I'm hoping it's just some minor stuff, but something is very different this season. He's just been horrid. He has literally been our worst defenseman, and it's not particularly close.
I'm not generally one to hit the panic button, but between the eye injury, the rough start to this season, the talk that he might want to leave to go play with his brothers, etc etc etc--I would be VERY hesitant to move MDZ on the basis of "well we have McD and Staal." McD, Girardi (for the most part) have both come around after a rough start. Staal still hasn't. It makes me nervous. If we could spin Staal off into a top 4 RD or a young forward and a good pick, I would actually have to think about it (whereas in the past it would have been a non-starter).
Frankly, I would call up Carolina and see if they would be interested in a Staal deal involving Lindholm (preferred) or Tlusty and a 2015 1st.
Then see if we could move Girardi to either Toronto (Gardiner + 2015 1st) or Colorado (Barrie + 2015 1st).
We don't lose much in the grand scheme of things. I think McI will be ready at some point this season, so we would still have a solid (and more balanced) D-core, while adding a piece or two to the offense and stocking up for what looks to be a great draft (2015).
The only problem with that would be that, at least until McI is ready, we wouldn't really have a RD to be part of a shutdown pair like AV likes to use. We could always wait until the deadline on the Girardi deal to see if McI is ready.
