Br4d

Rangers were pretty sharp tonight. We had a few slip ups in front of Igor but we were taking good shots most of the night and not getting lazy on defense. Penalties are mostly lazy things where somebody loses focus for a moment and does the easy thing.

Tight game is keeping the lid on the other stuff. If somebody gets a 3 goal lead this is going to get very ugly very quickly.

How many of those "hits" are just Miller using his large frame to box an opponent out on the boards? He has a way of making contact that gets the job done but definitely does not leave the opponent regretting the contact.

Zibanejad is missing a power forward. That's what would make him great. Kreider is almost that at times but he takes a lot of shifts off. RW has just been a silent disaster.

The other thing is that your #3 and #4 defensemen play more minutes than anybody but your goalie and your top defensive pair. And if the #3 or #4 has a role on PP or PK they are probably your fourth most minutes on the ice. Miller is a decent offensive defenseman with a very big radius on the ice and he's only in his 3rd season. If he advances the way he appears to be at this point he's going to be a very good player. The kind of guy who sits in the top 5 of our little power rankings for a long time. He's not physical but he's also still a kid and we have no idea if he's going to establish himself as a more physical presence as he becomes a real vet. He's got the kind of frame where if he does any kind of strength routine over time he's likely to gain another 10 lbs of muscle.

If you're big and white and grinding on people at 13 odds are pretty good you have some other kids parents pissed at you. If you're big and black and doing that in a mostly white scholastic system odds are you have a perpetual complaint going against you.

Lindgren is the Rangers best defenseman in transition. He's the guy most likely to get back and break up a play. That's because that's his job and he has the speed to do it.

Miller is definitely a bit of a unicorn. Huge and soft with good puck skills and what will eventually be a booming shot when he gets the confidence to use it. What the Rangers need to do is figure out how to get him to use his size more effectively to dictate on the ice. He probably is reluctant to use his physical attributes because of the system he grew up in which would have put a premium on keeping him from beating on smaller white kids. He needs to figure out how to ditch that conditioning and really use his weight.

Maybe we should let Chytil go and move K'Andre to center? Just being facetious but it is amazing the number of talented offensive players the Rangers have developed and how few grinders alongside them. We're going to go as far as Shesterkin takes us this season (again) despite adding all the talent.

It's kind of tricky for GG at this point. He really needs to have the Rangers on the ice for more practice time together but they've just been through a really rough stretch of games, particularly the defense. He doesn't want to run them ragged. Also, Tarasenko and Kane haven't necessarily shifted out of going through the motions mode yet. They were playing for nothing but a trade up until a few weeks ago and now they got their wish and they need to find at least second gear for the run up to the playoffs and then the tournament.

The Rangers just managed to score 2 goals counting OT against a team that let up 10 the other night. Man they have stuff to work on if they don't want to get swept out of the 1st round.

Rangers are so sluggish in front of their own net. it's like they know they need to be there but they are skating on sand.

One of the questions that is going to come up pretty soon is "who wants to actually work while they're on the ice?" Right now it looks like Zibanejad, Trocheck and Lafreniere and not too many others in the top 9. Line 4 has to do it by default but a lot of the top 9 seem to be coasting right now.

The chemistry is not what it was earlier during the streak. The Rangers pinpoint passing has become much less so.

I think what Lafreniere and the other kids have been missing with us is the opportunity to be the man. If Laffy goes to a bad team he gets tons of ice time and is on the PP and he's probably a 30-30 guy by now but he might be a star. I don't think you get from the 3rd line to stardom very easily. I don't think that position and lack of PP time is really conducive to breaking out as a star. Like it or not that's what the kids have gotten with the Rangers and they got it from close to day one.

Kane with the trickshot!

I don't think the kids will have trouble against the 'Canes. They did just fine in the playoffs last season. I specifically think Panarin - Trocheck - Kane might get mismatched against a better larger checking line and have troubles.

CK to the Bruins seemed like such a win-win until they turned into Godfreakingzilla this year. Now the prospect scares me.

All I'm saying is that when you put 3 smallish guys out on the ice you're going to periodically get shat on when the other team controls the matchups as they do when you're on the road in the playoffs. The Rangers have pretty much owned the 'Canes the last couple of seasons but I don't have a lot of trouble envisioning a Panarin - Trocheck - Kane line having troubles against the constant forechecking and hitting the 'Canes are likely to subject them too when they control the matchups. Why do we need to think about this stuff now? Because we're building the lines that we hope will serve us best moving forward and it makes sense to get those lines firmly established in the time we have to do so.

This is a much better configuration because it distributes the Rangers physical players more evenly. Trocheck is actually a physical player but he's a small physical player and putting him between Panarin and Kane just makes that line smallish overall. Zibanejad is a big dude but he's more of a radius guy than a checker. Anything in his fairly large radius has a chance to be disrupted which is why he's good defensively. Put his radius up and down the ice between Panarin and Kane and you might have something even if none of them really wants to hit people.

If I'm Drury I'm going with "have a chance every season". When the stars align we'll get there. As the kids grow up there will be less and less of a need to rent a star every season at the trading deadline.

7, 9 and 10 is pretty good given the talent on the team. Hopefully we can navigate the NMC's well enough to keep all of them and get their prime seasons also.

Laffy was sparking last night. Canadiens are the team he grew up rooting for and you know they're his dream destination when his Rangers days are over - whenever that is.

Maybe the PP1 configuration is to force some of the usual suspects to stop with the pass-pass-pass and start shooting? For a lot of this season and last the Rangers were a pass too many and a shot short.

The problem with players like Panarin is that their contribution is sharply delineated by a few things that they do exceptionally well. In Panarin's case he sets up his mates very well for good scoring opportunities and he's really devastating on the PP when there are fewer defenders on the ice to hinder this primary ability. He's excellent when the Rangers have the puck, albeit probably shooting less than he ought to. However matched with that contribution are a lot of things that lesser players do better than him. He's a very non-physical player who avoids using his body to set the play. He's an uninspired defensive player who makes an occasional play but often just oles when in a critical situation in his own zone. He's not particularly good as a forechecker although he's great in the offensive zone *when the Rangers already have the puck*. When Panarin is motivated and skating hard he's one of the best players in the NHL however it feels like he is going at 90% most of the time. One of the problems with having a great player like this on your roster is that other players look to him for leadership and to set an example and if you can't do the things he does, which most players can't, you wind up emulating an imperfect play style and maybe not doing some things that you can do better.