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Rangers "aren't even close," says JD


Phil

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Trending is a big thing these days. Hashtag: The Rangers are trending in the right direction.

 

But, there?s a ?but.? And though you might not have expected it, that ?but? comes from John Davidson, the team president, who dealt in cold reality while accompanying his general manager on a Zoom call with the media on Friday.

 

?We?ve made good strides, but we?re not even close, yet,? Davidson said of his team, which improved from 26th to 18th in the overall standings and were evicted from the bubble in three straight by the Hurricanes in the qualifying round. ?I think we have work to do. I?m being bluntly honest.

 

?I?ve gone through [reconstruction] twice as part of organizations in St. Louis and Columbus. It?s really hard to win. We?re going to get younger ? and we?re thinking of the No. 1 pick. We?re still a young group, but that group has to go through the growing pains.

 

?A lot of times, you take one, two, three steps forward, you take one back; two forward, one back; three forward, one back. I hope we don?t take any back, but the point is that we have to go through this process to try to learn how to win. It?s hard. And it takes experience.?

 

Temperature check: It took the Lightning 12 years to win the Stanley Cup after drafting Steven Stamkos first overall and 11 years after drafting Victor Hedman second overall.

 

https://nypost.com/2020/10/02/rebuilding-rangers-still-have-work-to-do-not-even-close/

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Blueshirts Brotherhood mobile app powered by Tapatalk

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I mean of course he’s not wrong, but I don’t think it’s fair to use the Lightning as an example. We aren’t 12 years away and teams ebb and flow all the time these days. The Islanders were a series away from the finals, Vegas was in the finals year one. I get it, he’s not going to say we are a piece or two away because that would be very idiotic and add unnecessary pressure. Still though, we are pretty close to competing. We were pretty freaking awesome before January or so on until covid hit.
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I mean of course he’s not wrong, but I don’t think it’s fair to use the Lightning as an example. We aren’t 12 years away and teams ebb and flow all the time these days. The Islanders were a series away from the finals, Vegas was in the finals year one. I get it, he’s not going to say we are a piece or two away because that would be very idiotic and add unnecessary pressure. Still though, we are pretty close to competing. We were pretty freaking awesome before January or so on until covid hit.

 

Spot on.

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I don't think people really realize how weak this team is.

 

The bottom six forwards is comprised of two fourth lines when you look at last year's production.

 

Our top 4D are probably closer to the bottom 4D on good teams.

 

Our number one goalie has played about a dozen games in the NHL. While he looks to be a stud, he's still completely unproven.

 

Mixing some likely sophomore slumps next year... Competing for the Stanley cup is still around 3 years away.

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I mean of course he’s not wrong, but I don’t think it’s fair to use the Lightning as an example. We aren’t 12 years away and teams ebb and flow all the time these days. The Islanders were a series away from the finals, Vegas was in the finals year one. I get it, he’s not going to say we are a piece or two away because that would be very idiotic and add unnecessary pressure. Still though, we are pretty close to competing. We were pretty freaking awesome before January or so on until covid hit.

 

Lightning have also been legit contenders since, what, 2013?

They’ve had their shots in last 7-8 seasons.

Once both Stamkos and Hedman were there, they made Conference Finals within a year or two in 10-11 with those 2 plus the remainder of their previous core, and then bonafide contenders in their own right within another 2 seasons by 13

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I don't think people really realize how weak this team is.

 

The bottom six forwards is comprised of two fourth lines when you look at last year's production.

 

Our top 4D are probably closer to the bottom 4D on good teams.

 

Our number one goalie has played about a dozen games in the NHL. While he looks to be a stud, he's still completely unproven.

 

Mixing some likely sophomore slumps next year... Competing for the Stanley cup is still around 3 years away.

I mean they had 37 wins during the regular season. Only 9 teams had more and Dallas wasn’t even one of them. Im not necessarily saying we are near elite,

But calling this team weak just isn’t true in my opinion. Even if everything you say is true, they still had 37 wins and they weren’t fluke wins. They just lacked consistency and discipline, something every growing team does. The talent is there though and the results already are on the way.

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Lightning have also been legit contenders since, what, 2013?

They’ve had their shots in last 7-8 seasons.

Once both Stamkos and Hedman were there, they made Conference Finals within a year or two in 10-11 with those 2 plus the remainder of their previous core, and then bonafide contenders in their own right within another 2 seasons by 13

Yeah, the Lightning took so long more so for shooting themselves in the foot a few times along the way.

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I mean they had 37 wins during the regular season. Only 9 teams had more and Dallas wasn’t even one of them. Im not necessarily saying we are near elite,

But calling this team weak just isn’t true in my opinion. Even if everything you say is true, they still had 37 wins and they weren’t fluke wins. They just lacked consistency and discipline, something every growing team does. The talent is there though and the results already are on the way.

 

He’s just being tempered and conservative

Yes they’re missing pieces

Yes they’re still building

Yes the core is pretty young

Yes they’re still waiting on guys

Yes it will take time and there are ups and downs coming

 

But it’s looking good

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It's probably more fair to call them top-heavy. We have some pretty big depth issues, especially with our checking lines and on LD.

 

It's also fair that if you're wanting to call this a "5 years to competitive" plan, to recognize that we're in year 3 and we've made absolutely remarkable progress.

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It's probably more fair to call them top-heavy. We have some pretty big depth issues, especially with our checking lines and on LD.

 

It's also fair that if you're wanting to call this a "5 years to competitive" plan, to recognize that we're in year 3 and we've made absolutely remarkable progress.

 

Very much agree with that timeframe

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I think we are right on the precipice of being very good... But there is still a very big step between “very good” and the level of excellence you need to won a Stanley Cup.. Fortunately this window of opportunity is just starting to crack open- we are barely a letting in a draft..

 

Patience my friends. Patience.

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I mean they had 37 wins during the regular season. Only 9 teams had more and Dallas wasn?t even one of them. Im not necessarily saying we are near elite,

But calling this team weak just isn?t true in my opinion. Even if everything you say is true, they still had 37 wins and they weren?t fluke wins. They just lacked consistency and discipline, something every growing team does. The talent is there though and the results already are on the way.

It's easy to look back at the end of the season and forget that they feasted when other teams took their foot off the gas, and they were basically a four-player team with Bread, Zib, ADA and Fox.

 

it's a little bit revisionist history to act like they were one of the stronger teams in the conference.

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It's easy to look back at the end of the season and forget that they feasted when other teams took their foot off the gas, and they were basically a four-player team with Bread, Zib, ADA and Fox.

 

it's a little bit revisionist history to act like they were one of the stronger teams in the conference.

I’m not really saying they were one of the best, but the team turned quite a corner at one point during the season, and it equaled 37 wins The day we stopped while we were trending up. They had a pretty bad October and less bad but still not great December. They had a good period from like the very end of January until the end of February where they were something like 12-5 or so until it started to catch up to them with a ton of games being played. Even then they still ended up in very good position to get around 43-45 or so wins if they played their last 12 games. I don’t think looking at results is revisionist. It’s what we accomplished. Doesn’t mean we were cup contenders, but we certainly are pretty close to being a team that should expect to be in the playoffs.

 

I know we are two seasons removed from being basement dwellers but this roster is good, albeit top heavy like G1 said. That’s not much different than some other playoff teams in our division like the Caps and Penguins and they are getting long in the tooth. The top heavy problem is a problem because we rely on them for EVERYTHING. Get a real 4th line that can be trusted even just for minutes and to pk and you see a fresher top heavy team that will turn some of those losses into ot games to give us a good 7-8 more points than we had. Think we had around the lowest ot points in 19/20. You correct that and we easily get playoffs in my opinion.

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This team has no identity. None. They need some true character players to help grow the culture here and set some standards of play . Without Panarin this team very well may be basement dwelling with the Devils.

 

Not sure identity is all that important. But what it clearly is missing is both a serious step up in performance and toughness. There were too many nights when if Zib or Panarin did not get on the score sheet, nobody else picked up the slack. Too many nights when the bottom 6 forwards were mostly open skating. And as to toughness; Carolina exposed that this team is still tissue soft. They did not win many one on one battles. When the Canes defensed the big 2, nobody else did much. While a lot has changed about the NHL, in the playoffs you still need your bottom 6 to win puck battles in the corner and along the wall, go to the net and pressure the other goalie. You aren't going to make 3 or 5 tape to tape passes every break in.

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It's too early to say the holes in the roster going into next season will still be there and Gorton will have sat on his hands all off season. He's going to be making changes. He didn't create $23 million of cap space just to resign RFAs.

 

I'd argue the bottom 6 isn't nearly as bad as is being let on here. You'll be adding Lafreniere onto the 3rd line and moving Lemieux down to where he should be on the 4th. Lemieux on the 3rd and Fast on the 2nd last year was horribly exposing our lack of depth. They are good role players who were asked to play on a line much above their skill level and play style.

 

Lafreniere - Chytil - X

Lemieux - Howden - Gauthier

 

I'd like to see them bring Fast back and fill that spot, but they have to make sure they get someone of that ilk....or perhaps as others have suggested, get a guy like Koivu for 3C and move Chytil to the wing. I don't see a problem with that bottom 6.

 

The top 4D isn't good enough for contention, but Gorton has let on he'll be looking for defense.

 

Keirik is right, the Rangers were on a 2018-19 Blues-like stretch between Jan-Mar. The team was coming together even with all of their warts. Unless the offseason turns into an utter shit show where no moves are made, I don't see how the Rangers aren't in the playoffs.

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It's probably more fair to call them top-heavy. We have some pretty big depth issues, especially with our checking lines and on LD.

 

It's also fair that if you're wanting to call this a "5 years to competitive" plan, to recognize that we're in year 3 and we've made absolutely remarkable progress.

 

In our previous cup window, we were missing a Panarin type player. We had elite goaltending. We had the kind of depth that wins cups. The fact that our top guys from that window are winning cups elsewhere, as not the top guys on their teams, is evidence of that.

 

Now, we have Panarin and Zibanejad who has become a legit #1 C. Ow we just gotta wait for that supporting cast and goaltending to catch up.

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Yup. One more season and Smith is gone and a lot of the buyout money comes off the books. The kids are one year better and they can do some more meaningful depth adds. Then we can start to judge results.

 

Sent from my SM-G970U using Blueshirts Brotherhood mobile app powered by Tapatalk

 

I like next season to be a good time to evaluate the kids some more as well. I'm not expecting anything more than to be pumped to see more growth. Yeah, I would love to see them surprise the shit out of us and win a bunch, but if they don't, I wanna see young players making progress.

 

I am so happy to hear this from JD

 

I think he's being honest with us, and I think JD knows the NY crowd kinda gets it. He's been straight up with us since he got here and I absolute love him being in charge of this organization. The guy is a winner and he's building a beast for us all. We'll get there! ...just gonna take a little time....but we'll get there!

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I think they can certainly be in the playoff picture next year. As far as true Stanley Cup contenders go, I think that's at least three years away or so. The team is in very good hands and we should all be excited. Even though I know they won't be contenders for a bit, it's still going to be fun watching this team grow and so forth. That's a lot more than I can say from how it was in the late 90's and early 2000's where they were basically treading water with the same crap.
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I think he's being honest with us, and I think JD knows the NY crowd kinda gets it. He's been straight up with us since he got here and I absolute love him being in charge of this organization. The guy is a winner and he's building a beast for us all. We'll get there! ...just gonna take a little time....but we'll get there!

 

I was never suggesting we need 12 years to get to the promised land but In spite of the good run we had this season I don?t see us being that close when compared to teams in the finals. We?re not big, not nearly physical enough and we don?t have 12 forwards and 6 d-men working as a cohesive unit. I see progress for sure and our trajectory and timeline so far has been great but...excluding a Cinderella-like run were not a multi-year threat just yet. I?m being cautious in my praise ?out of an abundance of caution.?

 

 

(My NYR heart cannot take much more sports related disappointment.) ;-)

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