LindG1000

He cleared. Tweet shortly.

I want the full story as to what's gone on and for how long before putting this on Quinn or Gordon. From our perspective - ADA was on his best behavior and at his best on the ice last season. It showed. He spent a nice amount of quarantine being a bit of a Twitter troll and messing with fans, which was in character for who he was, but not for who we thought he'd become. He came back to the bubble, had three absolutely terrible games (most of the team played like trash, but ADA got put on a poster), went into contract negotiations. Rangers apparently tried trading him pre-arbitration, then settled on a fair market value short term deal (reading between the lines - you don't go to arb with anyone you're trying to trade). He showed up to camp, was given the chance to play left side - played like shit. He got roasted in the first game - on ice, in penalty box - sat down, apparently had an internal issue with that. Came back on the ice after a loss, proceeded to suck giant donkey balls, got in a fight with his goalie. It kind of sounds like he wasn't a problem until he was a problem.

The most impressive thing about Lias Andersson is that the unquestioned highlight of his time in NY is him tripping over a wire during introductions.

That was separate. He was suspended under the OHLs inclusivity policy twice, a different time for official abuse, and - lest we forget - suspended AGAIN in the NHL for abuse of an official. Added bonus in there of our friend Adam Herman with a seven year old take on Tony. It's a longstanding, consistent pattern of being an asshole. Nobody quite knows what ADA said either time, but that his own coach basically said "we're handling this now" and slapped him with 8 games says more than enough to know it was quite serious.

By all means, when was the last time we had an outright fight between teammates in the hallways after a game? A legit one? How about caught on camera? It's been decades, if ever.

You do realize that we're talking about a professional hockey team and not a beer league, right? As in members of an organization. With a boss. And co-workers. And other teams contributing to the wellbeing of the franchise from scouts to trainers to doctors to coaches to marketing to HR to PR and so on. This isn't your kid getting into a dust-up. This is a grown ass man getting paid millions of dollars ignoring his boss, agitating his co-workers, instigating workplace violence. But, yeah, boss' fault and no consequences, right?

You can feel free to disagree, but workplaces have all sorts of different behavioral rules and levels of tolerance based almost strictly on location within the workplace for everything from acceptable behavior to data security to weapon/tool usage. So, objectively, yeah, location and context matter.

ADA is an asshole and doesn't know how to be a team player. He deserved his benching. He hurt the team. He responded by, allegedly, whining and pouting. Should Quinn not hold his people accountable for their mistakes? Should there be no consequences for taking unbelievably selfish penalties like that unsportsmanlike? What do you want Quinn to do here? "Well, I'm sorry you were so angry, here, have a Snickers and get back out there, champ" this one? More to the point, should Quinn keep rolling ADA out there when he's getting 70% offensive zone starts, has one point in six games, our PP looks the same with or without him, he's a -6, and when he's on the ice the Rangers are giving up a goal on every fourth shot (compared to every 10th for Trouba/Miller/Fox/Lindgren)? He's playing like rancid dog shit without Marc Staal. If he doesn't want to be held accountable to that, he can go play for a coach that won't hold him to the standard he met last year. ADA is not the victim here. Actions have consequences.

No. It's his job, and it's no different than you and I. Getting in a fight at practice is very different than picking a fight in the hallway after a game. Fighting is part of the game they play for work; off the ice, it's not.

Twice. He was suspended for an undisclosed incident in violation of the OHL's harassment, abuse, and diversity policy prior to the more infamous suspension he received for inappropriate comments to a teammate. We know they were racist in nature, but not what they were. He got his second chance - he was drafted. He was chased out of the Lightning's room, traded to Phoenix (third chance), chased out of their room, traded to the Rangers (fourth) and imploded like a neutron star. It's not a one-off thing, and Quinn said as much in today's presser (that it was a string of incidents that led here). How many chances do you give a guy to simply not be an asshole before you just accept that he's an asshole? He won't get claimed. He's done in the NHL, especially if he took a run at a teammate, doubly so if he picked a fight and lost spectacularly (as is alleged). He's going to have his contract terminated under the personal conduct clause, fight it in court, lose, and head to the KHL.

I hope you're wrong too, but as you said - ADA is done because of ADA. Quinn gave him more leash than almost any coach he's ever had, and he thrived offensively. I don't understand how this is on Quinn - if you get in a fistfight with a coworker, do you blame your boss? If you get feedback that makes you pissy, is that your boss' fault?

I'm not minimizing his skills at all. He's a below average defender with a strong offensive bent that benefitted massively from having outsized time, specifically on the powerplay, with two talents having career years last year. Nils Lundkvist and Zac Jones are of similar mold - actually, that's kind of untrue since both of them apparently actually know how to play defense in addition to being puck movers. Neither of them are assholes. Then we've got guys like Miller, Schneider, and Robertson who are all bigger bodies and can move the puck. They're probably not 50 point defenders, but again, not assholes and can play defense. By all reports we tried moving on from DeAngelo. We tried trades. We didn't want to do arbitration because we'd artificially tank his value. Nobody wants this "amazing 53 point defender" because he's such an unrelenting shitdemon. He's replaceable in our system. It does suck that we're getting nothing for him, but it's not as if we didn't try.

The Rangers have clearly found a way to strike oil on scouting defensemen. I'm not miffed that one of them didn't work out. There are smallish puck movers who aren't assholes in our system.

Realistically, there are four teams that could. Detroit, Ottawa, LA, NJ. Ottawa is on an internal budget. They're out. NJ is saving that cap space for Nico Hischier. They're out. I'd imagine it's really "does LA or DET want him" and I honestly don't know.

Did not see that one coming at all.

That third pairing on the Pens is Sam Rosen's nightmare. Good god.

As an aside, who here had "Colin Blackwell point-per-game pace" on their 2021 Rangers Bingo Card?

Quinn sees Blackwell as a hairier, American Jesper Fast. I'm not shocked he's out there. I'm much more shocked that it's actually working.

The plot thickens

Looking at the schedule and given our general compete level, I'm starting to wonder if he makes it to Valentines Day. This schedule isn't getting easier, and it's entirely possible we're more than 10 points off the playoff pace by next Monday. For a team this talented to be this random on a period-to-period basis is simply inexplicable.

The scene later on where he straight up asks if tea is England pranking the rest of the world because he can't honestly believe people like tea is equally amazing.

Roy Kent! Roy Kent! He's here! He's there! He's every-fuckin-where! Roy Kent!

Anyone else watching/have watched this? It's so goddamn good - funny, heartfelt, truly excellent. Highly, highly recommend for a million reasons. Oh, and free preview!

It's like 2017 in that there's a mess of players that could go between like 1 and 12. And it's like 75% defenders.

Okay, let's be real. No NHL established goalie, 2.5 NHL caliber defenders, and one and a half lines to worry about. Should be two points. Just not sure which team gets them.