fletch

Shesterkin sharp, some tough saves

I can’t think of a NHL team that plays more like its coach played than Carolina. Never an easy out in the playoffs

Big goal to end the first. Make the Canes stew during the break.

No surprise playing Carolina is a grind.

2 games. And hope he has some staying power on the Rangers roster.

Online is NHL NET game, not cool. I beat the shit out of the Devils with the Rangers in NHL 24 to help contribute. Also, the Monday after losing an hour of sleep. Living in Arizona was great because we didn't have this nonsense of daylight savings time. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/states-without-daylight-saving-time/ According to the Department of Transportation, which oversees the nation's time zones, [these] do not observe daylight saving time. Arizona (with the exception of the Navajo Nation) Hawaii American Samoa Guam Northern Mariana Islands Puerto Rico U.S. Virgin Islands. All those places sound like nice retirement destinations, for any of you that are tired of snow and can afford to retire. I can retire at least 6 months before I die, but I haven't figured out how that translates to when I should retire. Enjoy the game, and the (hopeful) annihilation of the Devils.

1. Artemi Panarin 2. Chris Kreider 3. Vincent Trocheck 4. Igor Shesterkin 5. Alexis Lafrenière 6. Adam Fox 7. Mika Zibanejad 8. Jonathan Quick 9. K'Andre Miller 10. Ryan Lindgren 11. Kaapo Kakko 12. Jimmy Vesey 13. Will Cuylle 14. Braden Schneider 15. Matt Rempe +1 16. Erik Gustafsson 17. Jonny Brodzinski 18. Barclay Goodrow 19. Alexander Wennberg +1 20. Zac Jones 21. Jack Roslovic

good jump. I miss Edstrom.

When I watch Florida and Colorado, I see different styles that translate to winning hockey in the playoffs. MacKinnon and Tkachuk get to the net and create chances in different ways, and are the most visible examples of how their teams play. The Rangers would have a puncher's chance against either team in a 7 game series. Or, a lower seed could shut down the Panarin line, our goaltending could revert to average, and we can get bounced. We'll see. I've consistently said I hope I'm wrong and the Rangers will go on a deep run this year.

Rangers hockey is entertaining. I don't have to think that they are a serious Cup contender to watch and enjoy.

There are holes in the roster because of injuries, selection of players/contracts inked, and the NMCs, which are problems management helped create. Drury is slapping some spackle on a flawed team with structural issues. We can be happy that he didn't sacrifice much of our future for a Rangers team that is going to struggle to advance in the playoffs. Zib and Kreider are aging... our skill players prefer the perimeter and avoiding the physical contact that most reliably produce goals in the postseason. Management can tinker, coaches can juggle lines, but when your core vets don't have the fire to consistently elevate their game to match opponents in 7 game series, it's not going to end well.

Which is fine, but we shouldn't be blowing sunshine up Drury's ass, or planning the parade because we picked up Wennberg and Roslovic.

OK, thank you for clarifying

I find this to be faulty reasoning. You've got correlative evidence and you are suggesting causality. I'd suggest that Drury did what he could. He missed on Guentzel. Given the NMCs and other roster restrictions he did his best.

What Vegas, Carolina, Florida, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Colorado are doing is substantially improving their roster. https://www.tsn.ca/tradecentre/trade-tracker What the Rangers are doing is tinkering with their lineup at the cost of a few draft picks for Wennberg and Roslovic. I'm relieved that Drury didn't make major sacrifices to tinker. But let's be real - the Rangers lost ground in the quest for a Cup this year because of what other contenders did to improve compared to what the Rangers did to improve.

Definite upgrade for Carolina to pick up Guentzel and lose Bunting. https://www.espn.com/nhl/player/stats/_/id/3149603/michael-bunting Bunting got a cup of coffee with Arizona in 2018-2019 (5 games) and slightly more time in 2020-2021 (21 games). Toronto for 2 full seasons. Carolina for 60 games. Now on to Pittsburgh. That's his fourth NHL team in 5 years. He's an agitator that from my perception of rumblings may not be the best teammate, no source, just my perception and the fact he's bounced between so many teams.

Mostly to post the link for tsn trade tracker and trade bait site, here is take on Wennberg trade to stay within content for thread https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/new-york-rangers-acquire-alex-wennberg-from-seattle-kraken-for-draft-picks-1.2085647 Other links for site - and they include a red highlight for trades they consider major https://www.tsn.ca/tradecentre/trade-tracker https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/tsn-hockey-s-trade-bait-board-1.2079080

disappointing third with where we were after two periods

WTF Igor

With the NMCs, we are committed to our core, which was a management not a coaching decision. If coaches/management aren't satisfied with what they're seeing on the ice, they can juggle lines, change power play1 and power play2 groups, change the penalty kill groups, and reward performance with ice time. The Rangers have chosen to use these motivation tools over the years (time on ice, power play ice time in particular) with younger players (Kakko, Laf) but veterans have largely been exempt, which gives tacit approval to veteran on-ice and leadership performance because it hasn't been criticized. Other organizations Vancouver (Tocchet), Pittsburgh (Sullivan) and Tortorella in his various spots have used ice time and healthy scratches with young players and veterans. The answer isn't to have the coaches and management shrug their shoulders and keep the status quo because we're racking up regular season wins despite Kreider and Zib not meeting expectations, and then have them shrug their shoulders when the Rangers are eliminated again early in the playoffs. The answer is to correct deficiencies in on-ice play with any player (young or veteran) by having the player juggled to a lower line, have less ice time, get dropped from PP1 to PP2 or from PP2 to no power play. And it's more important to correct problems with core leaders because they are setting the tone for the whole team, and if you let a player wear a leadership letter while not performing as needed, that sends a message to the whole locker room as well.

With Kreider and Zib, the fix is to find a time machine to go back 5 years. The organization has enabled their attitude. They've handed out plenty of no move clauses. The organization has gone through coaches, in order to try to find the right system, to get better post-season results. The organization has listened too much to exit interviews, without demanding accountability for on-ice results from players. Clean scratches, decreased ice time, shaking up the lineup are all tools that could have been used over the years. Instead, Kreider and Zib have been gifted the comfort of their place in the lineup, on the power play, and as leaders in the locker room - regardless of their performance/effort level and on-ice results. In some organizations, the Devils series would have been a catalyst for heads to roll, roster changes, and remaining players to be put on notice. Gallant to Laviollete was the only real change. Zib and Kreider are going to give effort when they feel like it, and aren't going to elevate their game enough in the playoffs to be the key contributors that are needed for the Rangers to make a deep run. And that's not a Laviolette failure, just like it wasn't a Gallant failure, just like it wasn't a Quinn failure... it's a Rangers organization failure. The Rangers have setup the locker room culture where they have to beg the team to play hard for an entire 60 minutes, and the finger should be pointed at the core leadership of this team, as well as the management for roster construction.

Typical team construction for forward lines: 1. Scoring line 1 2. Scoring line 2/better 2-way players for defense 3. Checking line/defensive stalwarts 4. Checking line/cyclers/physical punishers/leftover that didn't fit in the other 3 lines that get more minutes The Rangers are winning, evolving toward 1a. Scoring line 1 (Panarin-Trocheck-Laf) 1b. Defensive line and PP-PK specialists (Kreider-Zib-Kakko/Vesey) 3a. Cuylle-Brodzinski-Vesey/Kakko (leftovers that don't fit) 3b. Edstrom-Goodrow-Rempe (Physical Punishers) In the playoffs teams play with more intensity, more structure, and more strategy. The regular season is about accumulating points to get a playoff spot, finish up the standings to get more home ice, figure out line combos, build team strategy and structure, and prepare for the playoffs. The playoffs are about the matchup with a series opponent, who is hot/not (scoring, goaltending), who gets to play their style more often (home-ice/last line change helps), who gets puck luck, intensity/raising compete level, and execution. The reason why 2 scoring lines is important is historically teams with 1 scoring line can get negated by defense focus by the opponent - Colorado and Edmonton have had to decide about whether to put their elite players on the same line and challenging the opponent on stopping them, or spreading the talent between multiple scoring lines so the opponent can't focus on just stopping one line. Back in the day the decision for Pittsburgh was whether to have Crosby and Malkin on the same line or split them up. Recent trends (I'm thinking St Louis) is that you can win a Cup by rolling 3 or 4 forward lines with scoring threats and wear out your opponent; elite talent helps but isn't necessary. Instead of giving 2 scoring lines a majority of the ice time, with checking line for defensive zone face-offs and situationally, and fourth line largely benched, with occasional opportunities to stir things up physically and jolt some energy into the team. So my concerns for the Rangers for the playoffs: 1. Average or below average goaltending (Shesterkin has been playing elite lately, but has been pedestrian for most of the year. If Igor has a bad game or two in the playoffs, how patient are you before Quick becomes an option, and Laviolette has difficult decisions about who to start). 2. Defensive zone lapses - sloppy puckhandling, bad turnovers, Igor straying from the net and being out of position when the opposition gets the puck, failure to mark or physically body opponents, losing battles near the net. 3. Inadequate backchecking - forwards getting caught too low in the opponent's zone, getting beat back to the defensive zone, bad line changes, all leading to odd-man rushes. 4. Kreider/Zib/Panarin - how much can they elevate their game from regular season to post-season intensity. 5. Young players - how much can they elevate their game from regular season to post-season intensity. 6. Scoring production from other lines other than (Panarin-Trocheck-Laf) - assuming opponents focus on neutralizing this line, what other players/lines are going to score. 7. Will the Rangers play direct hockey, firing the puck on net with screens - or will they button-hook, fling cross-ice passes, and overpass rather than shooting? I'm assuming that the trade line will be tinkering rather than a major acquisition based on our salary cap situation and the team's recent run of success - if we'd lost 10 of 11 than I'd assume Drury would feel more pressure to make a major move.

1. Artemi Panarin 2. Chris Kreider 3. Igor Shesterkin 4. Vincent Trocheck 5. Alexis Lafrenière +2 6. Adam Fox 7. Mika Zibanejad 8. Jacob Trouba 9. Jonathan Quick 10. Ryan Lindgren 11. Kaapo Kakko 12. K'Andre Miller 13. Jimmy Vesey 14. Will Cuylle 15. Braden Schneider 16. Jonny Brodzinski 17. Erik Gustafsson 18. Adam Edstrom 19. Matt Rempe 20. Barclay Goodrow 21. Zac Jones 22. Alex Belzile Laf with a 3 point night against the Leafs, the time was right to move him closer to linemates Panarin and Trocheck.

Ok killed the 7 second pp. now the skills competition for the random bonus point

Yeah baby, chance for another win