Dave Maloney, Rob Greschner, Kelly Kisio. Why am I even participating in this ridiculous conversation?
You make a fair point about Dave Maloney. Ron Greschner played in over 1,000 games over 16 years with the Rangers. He is 7th all time in Rangers history in points and assists, and was a five-time all-star. Kelly Kisio played 336 games as a Ranger amassing 305 points (.907 ppg) and a Rangers career +/- +30 He was also nominated for the Selke Trophy Twice. Jacob Trouba has played 192 games as a Ranger, and has amassed a total of 79 points (.412 ppg) and a +/- of +37. Since joining the Rangers, he has not made the all-star team, nor has his play earned him any nomination for any major award. BTW, all stats, courtesy of https://www.hockey-reference.com/ Obviously, you needed the history lesson.
Panarin is playing on another level right now. He has as much pure talent as any player I have ever seen play the game.
Rangers depth looks pretty good right now. Kakko on line 1 and Lafreniere on line 2 has opened up some real possibilities for solid 3 line play. Blais - Chytil - Kravtsov is one possibility with some upside.
I think putting Blais on the fourth with Goodrow on the 3rd is better. 4th line of Blais — Carpenter — Reaves is pure GRIT.
So the impulse is to say that a couple of vets really are not performing well at this point. Chris Kreider had a good 3 games and then has gone silent. Last night he looked lost on the ice. The Avalanche are a fast and heady team and he looked out of place against them. Ryan Reeves has looked slow all season. Obviously he's there for something other than his smooth skating but to be -4 7 games in at 8 minutes a night is pretty telling. However there are other issues not related to individual play that are kind of troubling at this point. The Rangers are still like a sieve in front of Shesterkin even with all the young talent on defense. Panarin's line is still getting outplayed on a regular basis at even strength. Great individual player but he and Trocheck are both -3 at this point which is not where you want to see them. Right now this looks like a team that is on the bubble for the playoffs and we're months away from the trading deadline that might firm things up a bit. I think there is a pretty good incentive right now for the Rangers to maybe move Lafreniere up to the 1st line with Zibanejad. I think there is a reasonable argument for moving Kakko down to line 2 with Trocheck to see if the two of them have some chemistry as forecheckers. Panarin doesn't necessarily want to play with Kakko however he's not getting a lot out of Laffy despite some real effort on both players parts to make that happen. There's maybe even an incentive to switch Kreider and Lafreniere, putting Lafreniere back at LW on line 1 and putting Kreider at RW with Panarin to feed him. Trocheck and Kreider might also be a good pairing as forecheckers in the offensive zone.
This was as bad a regular season performance from this team that I can recall from the past three years.
You must’ve blocked out the St. Louis Blues game last year where the Rangers gave up 5 goals in the first period. The Rangers had 40+ shots on net. Sorokin is a really fucking good goaltender. The Rangers didn’t play a bad game. Outside of the third period vs. San Jose and the CBJ game, the Rangers have been playing really good hockey.
No question, that is a very good example that you bring up. My thought pattern is this: I can see ways that it is possible for the Rangers players not to "get up" for a game against the Blues, or come out overconfident. There is no excuse for not being jacked up to play against your hated rivals in their building. None.
But I don’t personally think the Rangers played poorly against the Islanders. They put up 40+ shots and had a handful of high danger chances that Sorokin saved or went off the crossbar. The second goal from the Islanders that Bailey scored was also a sick play; sometimes you do have to tip your cap. I understand the frustration, but the Rangers are playing pretty good hockey right now. 3 goals scored on 118 shots in their last 3 games is unbelievably unlucky and is well below the average shooting percentage in the NHL. Things will balance out.
What are you talking about? He’s been one of the Rangers best forwards so far. Points DO NOT make a player good or bad. But if we want to have that conversation, he should’ve had 3 assists tonight but Kreider and Lindgren can’t handle a cross ice pass. Both him and Laf are going to have low point totals, they don’t get PP1 minutes.
Two thoughts: 1) I did make that post prior to last night's game. He was definitely hustling last night 2) The purpose of a first line is to score points. Points DO NOT make a player good or bad if you are on the THIRD line of a team. When you are on the same line as the top two goal scorers on the team, and you have amassed three points in 11 games, that is inexcusable.
He’s been playing like how he played last night, in every single game this year. He’s a puck magnet and is a big reason why the first line is able to have such good, sustained pressure in the offensive zone. The amount of times he sets up Kreider with a beautiful pass only for Kreider to miss is ridiculous, it’s at least 5 or 6x where it SHOULD have been a goal if Kreider got his stick on it. His expected goals scored (xGF, blue bars) is the inverse of his actual goals scored (red bars). His points are coming. He’s been fantastic.
Was a good game last night until it wasn't. Trocheck is flying around the ice. I think he's a clear upgrade on Strome at this point. One thing that I've noticed is that Panarin tends to recede into the background when things get chippy, violent on the ice. He was having a great game last night until the twin fights and then he just faded.
