delneggs

Another great defensive period by the stick checking softies.

The NY Softies have zero shot at a cup if this is how they choose to play. Unless they rediscover their balls and decide to play a much more physical game, the first round is where they exit.

Exactly right.

Men vs women.

Canucks finishing hits whenever possible and Rangers avoiding contact whenever possible. Way too soft Rangers showed up to the 1st period.

Another 3C option the Rangers have in-house is Wheeler, but that leaves a hole at RW on Mika's line, but when Kakko comes back they could put him back with Mika and Kreids and move Wheeler to 3C between Othmann on LW and Vesey on RW. That leaves Cuylee/Bonino/Goodrow for a solid 4th line. Just an option that doesn't cost them any assets in a trade to try to fill the 3C hole.

Nice debut by Othmann, kid played a solid game. And props to Wheeler for not taking crap or backing down from Tinordi and standing up for himself. Team needs more of that.

Agree, we will have to wait and see.

No where near a ledge. They are a very good team. The point I am making is they don't have what it takes to be successful come playoffs or win a cup. Not enough grit/jam/nastiness/whatever. COULD they be those things? Of coarse, anyone can, but you have to want to, and I have seen enough of this core to know, they don't want it that bad and are not willing to get dirty to win a cup. Hope they prove me wrong. Guess we shall see.

You would hope a new coach could alter their mindset some and get them to play a more effective style of hockey. Doesn't appear that it has however. They still love the perimeter and east/west cross ice passes rather than going to the scoring areas in front of the net and battling to score dirty goals. It does not seem to be in their DNA I guess. They are also way to soft defensively. I can count on one hand the times they stepped up at the blue line this season and took away a rushers time and space, or god forbid, hit them. Fox has gotten even softer, if that's possible, and as I said before, Lindgren seems gun shy now and even Trouba is less physical. IMO, there is no way a team this soft finds success in the playoffs. They have the size to change that, but do they have the heart and will? My guess is no. So they will feast on other less skilled soft teams and lose to skilled teams that forecheck them hard and hit them consistently.

Last several seasons. They have never really fixed the problem.

The Rangers biggest problem is lack of determination and lack of grit or jam or whatever you want to call it. They would rather skate around the perimeter in the O zone and make behind the back passes and east/west passes all day long rather than crash the net on a consistent basis. They make life for the opponents D and goalies way to comfortable. In their own zone, they simply back in and let teams waltz on in and then just want to stick check and try to strip pucks that way or block shots. They don't hit anyone. They don't stand teams up at the blue line, ever. Even Trouba is less physical this season and Lindgren has been domesticated by other teams targeting him. And they don't do much more than hurl insults at the other team when one of their own takes a cheap shot. And they never get even. They are just too nice for hockey. They will get bounced in round 1 if this is how they they think they can win a cup.

The way too soft Rangers got out work, out hustled, out played at home and I guess are OK with the knee to knee hit Aho hurt Fox with last game since they did nothing about it, as usual. They have the talent to win a cup, but not the fire in the belly or the balls.

It's hard to complain much about a team that is in first place at the holiday break. They have some weak spots for sure, but so far they have far more strengths going for them so I disagree that their record is luck. Good teams find ways to win games, even when they are not playing that well, and they have been doing this lately. Keep in mind they are doing it with Bonino at 3C with Chytil out for 23 games now, and with Brodziniski instead of Kakko for a while as well. Plus Fox was out for about 10 games and Igor missed a few, so their depth has really stepped up and delivered, and good teams need good depth. In my opinion, after the break they need to improve their effort game in and game out and stop showing up for 20 or 40 minutes some games and play a full hard 60 minute game, every game. They also need to stop being so soft as a team. Outside of Trouba and Cuylee, nobody has played physical games consistently. Pitlik does sometimes, goodie, sometimes, Lindy sometimes, but its far to little. Soft hockey won't fly come the playoffs so they better wake up and start hitting someone or trade for a few guys that will.

Stick checking twats get what they deserve.

NHL should change the penalty for challenging a guy to a fight just because he delivered a good, hard, legal check to 5 game suspension for 1st offence and you would see that crap stop. Players should not have to be confronted and challenged just for a legal check.

The way too soft Rangers showed up.....never win a cup playing this soft. Stick checking twats.

Quick has been amazing. Drury's cheap free agent signings are making him look like a genius.

Nothing better than a payback win.

PP goal!!!

Fing beautiful goal by Schneider

He has been making a lot of lazy, bad passes lately, that's for sure.

Agree

The 4th line of Pitlick/Goodrow/Vesey has been really good. If Chytil ever comes off the IR and plays again this year. I hope Lavi leaves the 4th line as is even if it means sitting Bonino.

What I like about Brodzinski is he shoots first....i wish our other forwards had that attitude.