Eh, that rule is bullshit. Stamkos spit right in Lafreniere’s face in the playoffs last year and didn’t get shit. This league allows players to beat the shit out of each other after a clean hit and there’s no discipline coming down on it.
You can't even check a guy these days without someone from the other team challenging you. It's sad. I liked hockey a lot better 30 years ago (except for the two line pass rule.)
Trouba’s hit today was cleaner than clean and it resulted in Vesey and Hathaway (I believe) dropping gloves and fighting. Hockey is a fantastic sport; the NHL is a dumbass league.
Again, fully understanding that they got Patrick Kane for essentially a bag of pucks, it blows my mind that there was not a single trade made by this team geared towards bolstering what is at best a mediocre defensive corps, which is really saying something when they have a former Norris Trophy winner on the team. K'Andre Miller is also a very solid defensive player, but after that, this group of defensemen has the absolutely no consistency. I've said it countless times: Jacob Trouba has two talents: Taking awful penalties, and cleanly injuring opponents. Window-dressing him with the captains "C" changes nothing. Ryan Lingren has a ton of heart, and hustles his ass off, but you need talent to go with that effort, which he sorely lacks. The remaining two slots are filled by a revolving door of garbage. I am starting this think Mikkola was a salary dump by St. Louis. Braden Schneider showed flashes, and has disappeared. Ben Harpur is not a professional hockey player. Stevie Wonder sees the ice better than he does. I get it: The Rangers got Kane, the shiny new toy that everyone wanted. I can't help but feel that the lack of defensive depth on this team will prevent us from getting the REAL shiny toy everyone wants.
Bolstering the defensive corps was never more than adding a 6D. They added Mikkola who is a fine 6D. No team in the NHL is 8 or 9 defenseman deep. Take away Bertuzzi and McAvoy from the Bruins and let’s see how they fair. I bet you it’d look a lot like how the Rangers D looks recently. If they were going to “bolster it” like you wanted them to, it would’ve been a complete rework of the core defenseman. That wasn’t happening. Fox, Lindgren, Miller, and Trouba are all talented defenseman. The lack of defense is from forwards who are not defensively responsible and a lack of quality coaching.
1) I Don't know how you can say that Lindgren and Trouba are talented defensemen. Lindgren does a good job hiding his lack of talent with pure hustle and effort, so I give him credit for that. Trouba seems much more concerned lately with making highlight reel worthy hits than playing defense in any capacity. 2) I completely disagree with you about the forwards. Zimbanijads defense is possible the single most improved skill on this team from a year ago. Hell, even PANARIN is starting to play better defensively. 3) I do agree with you about the Coaching 100% Stop changing the damned lines every game, and let these players get used to each other. That will encourage everyone to be in proper position on the defensive side of the ice.
Not every forward is good defensively. Every line has poor defensive forwards. Tarasenko isn’t good defensively. Panarin and Kane are both massive defensive liabilities; like it’s so bad it makes the entire team look bad. And yes, Lindgren is talented. Sure, he’s not Cale Makar or Adam Fox, but he’s the perfect compliment to Fox. Look at how bad our defense has been with him out.
Zibanejad is just such a pleasure to watch. They should have a Zib cam following him around on the ice.
Fox looked tired a lot of the night and that hold in OT was a fatigue penalty. Miller looked pretty good his first game back. He's probably the only Ranger's defenseman who has his legs fully under him right now.
A lot of their poor defensive play is coming from the forwards. Horrendous zone exits, terrible turnovers at the blue line. Kane’s turnover on the PP that led to the shorty is a prime example. Shit like that happens way too much. Our defenseman are constantly put into these situations where they have to get back.
Zero argument from me here. That play by Kane was so bad, I wanted to throw my remote at the television.
He made up for it by scoring shortly after, but yeah, it was unbelievably frustrating. I think we need to see Trouba and Miller broken up. They’re an abysmal defensive pair this year. I’d like to see Miller with Fox and Lindgren with Trouba. I thought Trouba had a terrible 1st, but a much better 2nd and 3rd last night.
