To quote JD. This team needs to get tougher

[mike14]

Clone Haley, problem solved...

 

[aufheben]

Guys this team is supposed to have problems.

 

[Machinehead]

Guys this team is supposed to have problems.

This is not a problem the team even has.

 

[Machinehead]

My thing is it’s not about toughness because NYR has enough players that are tough/grind (Lemieux, Smith, Fast, Trouba, McKegg, Haley, Lindgren, DeAngelo, Staal, Strome) & out of those we have some bruisers in Lemieux, Haley, Lindgren, & Trouba in some cases. But let’s not let toughness camouflage the fact that this team is not defensively structured. A lot of the time there is so much puck watching & not enough board battles to help out defensively. It’s more zone hockey & that’s how theses chances are happening for the opposing offense. A tighter structure needs to be influenced. Being physical & tough along the boards, winning board battles in the process, will signify more opposition turnovers than blocking a shot or being in a lane.

With that said, we also have to take in the fact that most of the team is 24 years old & younger. In circumstances like Hajek, Kakko, Howden or Chytil, they’re still developing on their growing bodies. It’s encouraging to see Howden & Chytil attempt to win board battles, but they aren’t necessarily winning them either. Hajek needs the work still. It would be nice to see Kakko do something in the corners, though, but he’s 18. Fox the same, however he’s pretty good with his awareness to overcome a turnover. It’ll come.

I think all in all the defensive structure of this team is lacking & with three goalies (one who is crashing from a HoF career to a second or third year goalie who has his ups & downs to a rookie who has looked really promising in a very small NHL sample size) they need to have help. They don’t have a keeper who can keep them in games night in & night out & that’s why you see games like last night.

Another thing, not totally unrelated to the toughness thing, is the fourth line. IMO, the fourth line lacks so much in a scoring atmosphere that it gives more time for an opposing team to create in NYR’s defensive zone. I feel if they had a line that had the tough/grind aspect, but be able to put the opposing team on their heels a bit & create chances, it would leave less defensive responsibility & another chance to catch really good teams on the defensive. It could really change an entire game by having a reliable fourth line to play while resting some of NYR’s better players/keeper.

Great post.

 

[Cag29]

Always posters here complaining about posters stating we draft too many soft euro's. Fine. We draft too many soft players. First thing JD said was this team needs to get tougher. It was obvious watching the Blues we are soft as a team. Size does matter on defense. Look at the Blues. I am confident that Gorton and JD will use players like DeAngelo, Buchnevich, Georgiev and perhaps Fast to upgrade our pansy forward unit and start building a legit bottom 6 forward unit as well as perhaps adding a top 6 forward.

Good thing is that this team has players that teams already with size and toughness could use because they need a little more offensive skill. As well as a goalie in Georgiev. This loyalty to Staal needs to stop. He makes ZERO sense here. From all reports Rykov is playing very well. Bring him up. Put Staal in the stands.

Well said. Skill with grit should be the theme moving forward. We have skill but St. Louis day is what ever they wanted in our zone last night. All poke checks except Trouba. We need players who can skate play the game go into the corners and drive to the net. Hopefully we’ll find some.

 

[Cag29]

Great post.

Great post.

Well said.

 

[Leetch3]

when did JD talk? Is this referencing his interview with pierre?

 

[leetch99]

When is Lemieux expected back ? Any news on that front ?

 

[mike14]

When is Lemieux expected back ? Any news on that front ?

I haven't seen an update but the original reporting was 3-4 weeks out and it's only been 2.5 so far

 

[leetch99]

I haven't seen an update but the original reporting was 3-4 weeks out and it's only been 2.5 so far

Thanks...not what I wanted to hear...but it is what it is . Would have been nice to have had another player that could have played the same style and we could have plugged in for Isle series coming up. He will be missed .

 

[haohmaru]

This team needs to get tougher, all right. Defensively. Sticking to a system. Being tough to play against because of attention to detail making the right play. Coaching.

We don't need tougher guys. We need to stop the bone-headed giveaways, stick checking, and losing guys in coverage. Toughness in that the team coming in is sick of you constantly being up their asses.

 

[Blueblood2]

the team throws the softest checks if they check at all. goals in this league come from turnovers and mistakes. easiest way to manufacture turnovers and mistakes is to throw the body and have defensemen thinking they are gonna get hit everytime they touch the puck. Fast plays that game consistently but hes only one guy. has to be a team mentality

Agreed. I cant tell you how many times you see an easy opprtunity to check someone which would at least cause them extra time to recover and get back to where they need to be in the flow of the game and our players just dont make an extra effort.

 

[Blueblood2]

My thing is it’s not about toughness because NYR has enough players that are tough/grind (Lemieux, Smith, Fast, Trouba, McKegg, Haley, Lindgren, DeAngelo, Staal, Strome) & out of those we have some bruisers in Lemieux, Haley, Lindgren, & Trouba in some cases. But let’s not let toughness camouflage the fact that this team is not defensively structured. A lot of the time there is so much puck watching & not enough board battles to help out defensively. It’s more zone hockey & that’s how theses chances are happening for the opposing offense. A tighter structure needs to be influenced. Being physical & tough along the boards, winning board battles in the process, will signify more opposition turnovers than blocking a shot or being in a lane.

With that said, we also have to take in the fact that most of the team is 24 years old & younger. In circumstances like Hajek, Kakko, Howden or Chytil, they’re still developing on their growing bodies. It’s encouraging to see Howden & Chytil attempt to win board battles, but they aren’t necessarily winning them either. Hajek needs the work still. It would be nice to see Kakko do something in the corners, though, but he’s 18. Fox the same, however he’s pretty good with his awareness to overcome a turnover. It’ll come.

I think all in all the defensive structure of this team is lacking & with three goalies (one who is crashing from a HoF career to a second or third year goalie who has his ups & downs to a rookie who has looked really promising in a very small NHL sample size) they need to have help. They don’t have a keeper who can keep them in games night in & night out & that’s why you see games like last night.

Another thing, not totally unrelated to the toughness thing, is the fourth line. IMO, the fourth line lacks so much in a scoring atmosphere that it gives more time for an opposing team to create in NYR’s defensive zone. I feel if they had a line that had the tough/grind aspect, but be able to put the opposing team on their heels a bit & create chances, it would leave less defensive responsibility & another chance to catch really good teams on the defensive. It could really change an entire game by having a reliable fourth line to play while resting some of NYR’s better players/keeper.

Good post. The only thing I am not sure if I buy into is that they cant win board battles because of their age. I tend to think it more of a mindset. Some of the best forecheckers often are small sized guys. Also, I know this example probably has a lot to do with talent but our 2 best board players are Panarin and Zibby. Panarin is probably 170 lbs soaking wet.

 

[Machinehead]

This team needs to get tougher, all right. Defensively. Sticking to a system. Being tough to play against because of attention to detail making the right play. Coaching.

We don't need tougher guys. We need to stop the bone-headed giveaways, stick checking, and losing guys in coverage. Toughness in that the team coming in is sick of you constantly being up their asses.

Exactly.

People are confusing lack of cohesion for lack of tenacity. You look like you don't care when you're barely playing the sport you're supposed to be playing.

 

[NYSPORTS]

Evidently we haven't moved pass the get rid of Staal and there will be world peace mentality.

keeping him really helps

 

[Whoot Whoot]

Yeh imagine if we had graves

 

[Richard Banger]

I think we need mental toughness more than physical. Be able to lock down a game. Accept the need to sacrifice for the chance for the win. Being prepared and being consistent each game instead of riding the flows.

 

[eco's bones]

My thing is it’s not about toughness because NYR has enough players that are tough/grind (Lemieux, Smith, Fast, Trouba, McKegg, Haley, Lindgren, DeAngelo, Staal, Strome) & out of those we have some bruisers in Lemieux, Haley, Lindgren, & Trouba in some cases. But let’s not let toughness camouflage the fact that this team is not defensively structured. A lot of the time there is so much puck watching & not enough board battles to help out defensively. It’s more zone hockey & that’s how theses chances are happening for the opposing offense. A tighter structure needs to be influenced. Being physical & tough along the boards, winning board battles in the process, will signify more opposition turnovers than blocking a shot or being in a lane.

With that said, we also have to take in the fact that most of the team is 24 years old & younger. In circumstances like Hajek, Kakko, Howden or Chytil, they’re still developing on their growing bodies. It’s encouraging to see Howden & Chytil attempt to win board battles, but they aren’t necessarily winning them either. Hajek needs the work still. It would be nice to see Kakko do something in the corners, though, but he’s 18. Fox the same, however he’s pretty good with his awareness to overcome a turnover. It’ll come.

I think all in all the defensive structure of this team is lacking & with three goalies (one who is crashing from a HoF career to a second or third year goalie who has his ups & downs to a rookie who has looked really promising in a very small NHL sample size) they need to have help. They don’t have a keeper who can keep them in games night in & night out & that’s why you see games like last night.

Another thing, not totally unrelated to the toughness thing, is the fourth line. IMO, the fourth line lacks so much in a scoring atmosphere that it gives more time for an opposing team to create in NYR’s defensive zone. I feel if they had a line that had the tough/grind aspect, but be able to put the opposing team on their heels a bit & create chances, it would leave less defensive responsibility & another chance to catch really good teams on the defensive. It could really change an entire game by having a reliable fourth line to play while resting some of NYR’s better players/keeper.

It's kind of like when the Rangers brought in Noonan and Matteau. They had size--weren't afraid to use it. They could kill penalties--work the wall--contribute 35 to 40 points a year--well Noonan anyway though people remember Matteau more. The Blues have about 4 or 5 guys doing that for them now and it allows them to roll line after line game after game.

The Rangers are still about developing a team though---the Blues not really. They're much more than less a veteran team. Their window is open and ours still needs time to reopen. Some of our young guys are making real progress this year and some of them not. Going by our under 25 group--DeAngelo, Fox, Lindgren, Lemieux, Chytil, Buchnevich and Georgiev have proven they're NHL worthy players and you know Kakko and Shesterkin are going to get there. Howden and Hajek are more iffy but leaning towards proving it. Andersson is the one who took a step back. We have another big wave coming. To me it's not about the coach it's about sorting shit out which means pushing players to win as much as possible to see how far the group can go but also with an eye on moving the older players along so others can get opportunities to fill their places while the above named develop and move towards their primes. We do need to upgrade our bottom 6 forwards though.

 

[NYSPORTS]

But let’s not let toughness camouflage the fact that this team is not defensively structured. A lot of the time there is so much puck watching & not enough board battles to help out defensively. It’s more zone hockey & that’s how theses chances are happening for the opposing offense. A tighter structure needs to be influenced. Being physical & tough along the boards, winning board battles in the process, will signify more opposition turnovers than blocking a shot or being in a lane.

.

so much is right in your post

cherry picking these points I agree with. This is a wide open, cross ice passing, little back checking, no board battling team. I don’t know if they are playing this style so the kids get comfortable or confident at the NHL level but I cannot see this team succeeding if they ever make the playoffs. All these cross ice passing lanes would be gone, the ice would shrink and I’m not confident they could battle on the boards or suddenly be disciplined defensively.

 

[Leetch3]

This team needs to get tougher, all right. Defensively. Sticking to a system. Being tough to play against because of attention to detail making the right play. Coaching.

We don't need tougher guys. We need to stop the bone-headed giveaways, stick checking, and losing guys in coverage. Toughness in that the team coming in is sick of you constantly being up their asses.

spot on. playing tougher and being tougher to play against isn't about fighting and tuffness...that can be part of it but it probably more about a mentality than anything

 

[NYSPORTS]

It's kind of like when the Rangers brought in Noonan and Matteau. They had size--weren't afraid to use it. They could kill penalties--work the wall--contribute 35 to 40 points a year--well Noonan anyway though people remember Matteau more. The Blues have about 4 or 5 guys doing that for them now and it allows them to roll line after line game after game.
.

4 or 5? Most of that team hits and battle the boards. The Blues are built like the Kings who beat the Rangers in the finals. They’re huge, battle the boards and have sharp shooters.

This team is a long way away. That Rangers 94 team added Noonan, Mattheau to a roster already with Graves, Larmer, Tikkanen, Beukeboon, Wells, Gilbert and a grizzled Messier. Heck, this team has Lemieux, Trouba hits sometimes and Lindgren runs a few guys. That’s about it.

like that Blues team though. Tough

 

[n8]

There is so much gaslighting on this site.

you sir, are a pumpkin. a beautiful, beautiful pumpkin. happy summer solstice.

 

[RangerBlues]

Sounds like a slight change is drafting philosophy on the horizon

 

[ReggieDunlop68]

you sir, are a pumpkin. a beautiful, beautiful pumpkin. happy summer solstice.

I made a wise choice. cya guys.

 

[JimmyG89]

They'll be fine in this regard over time. You have a bunch of guys getting used to the league overall.

They'll learn how to use their size. Hell, the guys that you could see it from were the best players last night. Chytil, Kakko, and Howden are used to being able to burn a lot of players before being NHLers. It'll come.

But we do need more sandpaper guys willing to get in and do dirty work. I'm sure they'll be targeting that at the trade deadline