New York Rangers @NYRangers 1h1 hour ago #NYR @HLundqvist30 named @NHL's 2nd star of the week! Henrik went 3-0-0, with a 0.98 GAA, and a .967 SV%.
9 games in 15 days is a lot, they looked tired, I was shocked at how heavy footed they looked. Not a typical ranger game, maybe they should cancel practice when they play that many games.
Ok, first off, big come-back win against a very talented Ottowa team last night. That being said, has anyone else noticed that as soon as this team caved to the whines and cries about how they don't play enough defense, and they give up too many goals, that was the point in the season where they started losing 7-2, 7-4, ect? This team needs to play to it's strengths, which for better or worse, is video-game hockey. Now, with the current injuries on this team, that may not be possible, but to suggest that this team should emphasize defensive hockey, is a joke. This team is not a defensive hockey team. However, when healthy, this team has as much offensive firepower as any team in the league. They should be focusing on outscoring their opponents, not shutting them down.
I noticed that when we played two of the best teams, we struggled. But that's about it. Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk
And I think the reason they struggled is because they weren't playing to their strength which is offense, and not defense.
thats ok for the regular season, but for playoff hockey, it doesnt bode well. flash teams usually get taken out, unless you're the Detroit Red Wings for a while, they were just too good, and the Rangers, these rangers are a far cry from the Red Wings
they werent all flash, the Pens had some grit to them, at least the '09 version they were. our beloved boys are soft and will get grinded to dust in the corners come playoff time. i hope im wrong, honestly i really hope i am. look at the president trophy rangers 2 years ago, they stopped scoirng once the playoffs started, even against the much weaker and defense depleted pens in the 1st round. they came to a halt. goals are at a premium at that time of year. i hear you Hack, its fun watching them go video hockey, and it is their strength you're right, i just dont think its what wins in the end. it can be neutralized.
Hack's right, but the problem is in order to play that way you need your defense to move just as fast, and be able to make the correct read with the puck to start the transition. The Rangers simply can't do that with so many slow plodding defense with little to no puck skills. Girardi is obviously a disaster and not anything near an NHL player at this point, but even look at guys like Staal and Klein. They both have their good qualities and are competent hockey players, but their two biggest flaws are the two things this team and system needs to be successful. You don't need (and rarely can have) 6 guys who are all quick puck moving Dmen, but it's really hard to compete at that level in this system with more than 1 sheltered guy back there. You can see it when we play Pittsburgh. Obviously they have two stars better than anyone we have, but they also have a D group that moves fast and reacts well. They're not all elite defensemen but they do the job of getting the offense and transition started right away. At least half our defense can't do that. It's been that way for years, and has gotten worse losing guys like Stralman and Yandle.
Girardi has gotten to be more like Del Zotto than McDonough, in that cutting him would absolutely be addition by subtraction. That is how badly he has played defensively. Other than that, we have one world class defenseman (McDonough), One "good" defenseman (Staal), One average defenseman (Klein, which remember, we traded Del Zotto to get - major upgrade), and the rest are a bag of who-the-fuck-knows. We should be rotating our younger defensemen in those other three slots to optimize the position before the trading deadline. One more thing - while I agree Stralman was underrated, I think you are vastly overrating Yandle's impact to this team.
Yandle's impact was limited because of the foolish way the coach used him, not because of his ability as a player, especially how badly we needed a player like him AND what we gave up for him.
