Rangers Are Living Proof That the Trade Deadline Can Change Everything

[Phil]

 

[RangersIn7]

Amazing what happens when you actually have depth. 

[Valriera]

To be clear too, that's expected goals against without our goaltender on god mode like he has been all year. That number is easily around 1.3 with shesty back to early season form, which is a recipe for winning stanley cups. 

[Phil]

19 minutes ago, RangersIn7 said:

Amazing what happens when you actually have depth. 

 

*Quality depth.

 

They always had depth. It was just below replacement level. McKegg, Gauthier, Hajek, Tinordi, etc.

[RangersIn7]

5 minutes ago, Phil said:

 

*Quality depth.

 

They always had depth. It was just below replacement level. McKegg, Gauthier, Hajek, Tinordi, etc.

My response to that would be if you don’t have quality depth, then you don’t have depth at all. 

[Phil]

7 minutes ago, RangersIn7 said:

My response to that would be if you don’t have quality depth, then you don’t have depth at all. 

 

[Dunny]

*sss

[RangersIn7]

18 minutes ago, Phil said:

 

Lol

 

Yeah

 

I guess to amplify or expand, it’s nice to have actual bottom-6 guys playing there. Not a group of 13th and 14th forwards. 
Also, now I look at the group of guys who were playing there and are now pushed out of the lineup, and I see options I’m actually pretty comfortable with if someone gets hurt. 
 

It’s funny cause you hear the phrase, bottom-6 forward and most people think it’s a knock of sorts. It’s not. Not in today’s NHL. If you dont have guys that can legitimately play there and are appropriate for the role and style or system, you’re screwed, no matter how good your top-6 might be.

 

Igor and the special teams really made up for that this year. Top-6 quality and production notwithstanding, I can only imagine where they’d be without Igor having a Vezina season and the league’s best PP being there. 
 

Probably  looking at a WC team

[Pete]

Regardless of if you thought they were elite, good, average, bad, or whatever other label you want to personalize for your own belief system, we can all agree that the team pre-deadline was incomplete.

 

They are a much more balanced group now, just need to find the right combos.

[Phil]

35 minutes ago, Pete said:

Regardless of if you thought they were elite, good, average, bad, or whatever other label you want to personalize for your own belief system, we can all agree that the team pre-deadline was incomplete.

 

They are a much more balanced group now, just need to find the right combos.

 

Agreed. I maintain they were good, not great. Now they're, I'm not quite sure -- better than good but still not great. Either way, significant improvement.

[Pete]

8 minutes ago, Phil said:

 

Agreed. I maintain they were good, not great. Now they're, I'm not quite sure -- better than good but still not great. Either way, significant improvement.

I believe this group has the potential to do great things, but it's my opinion that Gallant should lean towards going back to the pre-deadline top 6 and see where the other pieces fit in the bottom 6.

 

I keep thinking of more even combos, this might be different from what I had elsewhere:

 

CK50 Zib Lafreniere

Panarin Strome Vatrano

Goodrow Copp Kakko

4th 

 

I don't know. 

 

[RJWantsTheCup]

Even though they improved the depth of the team at the trade deadline the 3rd line as currently consisted is a black hole still. 

[RangersIn7]

56 minutes ago, Pete said:

Regardless of if you thought they were elite, good, average, bad, or whatever other label you want to personalize for your own belief system, we can all agree that the team pre-deadline was incomplete.

 

They are a much more balanced group now, just need to find the right combos.

 

19 minutes ago, Phil said:

 

Agreed. I maintain they were good, not great. Now they're, I'm not quite sure -- better than good but still not great. Either way, significant improvement.

 

7 minutes ago, Pete said:

I believe this group has the potential to do great things, but it's my opinion that Gallant should lean towards going back to the pre-deadline top 6 and see where the other pieces fit in the bottom 6.

 

I keep thinking of more even combos, this might be different from what I had elsewhere:

 

CK50 Zib Lafreniere

Panarin Strome Vatrano

Goodrow Copp Kakko

4th 

 

I don't know. 

 

Incomplete is the best word to describe them, pre-deadline. And heavily buoyed by a really strong top of the roster, plus Igor and their special teams. 
Good team. Not great.

As said, now it’s a significant improvement. 

I think they need to keep Vatrano on the top line. But if they think he’ll be productive elsewhere and bump LaFreniere back up there to get him going some, then I’m good with it. Last 8 games he’s had 0 points, is minus-3, and has like 10 SOG. That would basically correspond though to where all these new guys got brought in and he got bumped down again. He had actually been starting to go pretty well prior to that. 

[RangersIn7]

14 minutes ago, RJWantsTheCup said:

Even though they improved the depth of the team at the trade deadline the 3rd line as currently consisted is a black hole still. 

That line needs some offensive output. No denying. 

[RJWantsTheCup]

They seem hell bent on keeping Lafraniere on LW so Kakko has to move up to play with Panarin & Strome.

Vatrano fits too well with Kreider & Zibs to break up at this point.

Leaves a 3rd line of Lafraniere Copp Goodrow.

[RangersIn7]

4 minutes ago, RJWantsTheCup said:

They seem hell bent on keeping Lafraniere on LW so Kakko has to move up to play with Panarin & Strome.

Vatrano fits too well with Kreider & Zibs to break up at this point.

Leaves a 3rd line of Lafraniere Copp Goodrow.

Given that Gallant trusts Goodrow so much, if they bumped him up to RW on the Strome line, it wouldnt surprise me. He’s played plenty up there already this year. 

[RJWantsTheCup]

8 minutes ago, RangersIn7 said:

Given that Gallant trusts Goodrow so much, if they bumped him up to RW on the Strome line, it wouldnt surprise me. He’s played plenty up there already this year. 

Lafraniere Copp Kakko isn't much of an improvement over Lafraniere Goodrow Kakko

[RangersIn7]

59 minutes ago, RJWantsTheCup said:

Lafraniere Copp Kakko isn't much of an improvement over Lafraniere Goodrow Kakko

Nothing will be until we finally get a 3rd line that starts doing something offensively. 
 

Obviously he’s keeping Zib and Kreider together. Same with Strome and Panarin. 
 

He has a host of options at this point, in terms of who he wants to put at the RW on either of the top 2 lines, who he wants on line 3, who he wants playing C on that line, and even what he’d like out of the 4th line and how that’s composed and who he wants up in the box. 
 

He needs to keep juggling some to get the right mix. But that’s tough. Can’t juggle too much. 

[Valriera]

The problem is just that kakko and lafreniere are both bad 

[RangersIn7]

10 minutes ago, Valriera said:

The problem is just that kakko and lafreniere are both bad 

Don’t lose faith brother. 

[jsm7302]

4 hours ago, RangersIn7 said:

Don’t lose faith brother. 

04 draft Penguins got a 2nd OA pick. 05 draft Penguins then a got a 1st OA pick.......Malkin and Crosby.

 

We get the same luck more than a decade later and we get Kakko and Lafreniere.....at this point, the names sound better as a law firm than hockey players....by the looks so far, they may even have better careers that way too.....

[RangersIn7]

1 minute ago, jsm7302 said:

04 draft Penguins got a 2nd OA pick. 05 draft Penguins then a got a 1st OA pick.......Malkin and Crosby.

 

We get the same luck more than a decade later and we get Kakko and Lafreniere.....at this point, the names sound better as a law firm than hockey players....by the looks so far, they may even have better careers that way too.....

Yeah… I understand the frustration, as I feel it too, and it’s a fair point.

But context…

 

Those guys also got big ice time with their teams best players, as do most top draft picks, pretty much right away, and their coaches didn’t go away from them.

These guys haven’t.

 

People make the argument that guys have to earn their ice time, and I don’t disagree, but look at all the top draft picks over the last 12-15 seasons that came in and played and look at the ice time they’ve averaged early on.

 

More than these 2 have gotten. Pretty much universal. Plus PP time.
 

That’s what teams do with these kids. They play them. As much as they can.

 

So… Just fucking play them. That’s the solution. But we can’t do that, cause we’re ahead of schedule and contending. So it’s paradoxical. 
 

Its also not list on me that it’s a chicken vs the egg argument. 
 

For what it’s worth, they bumped LaFreniere up to the top line and he had 12 points in 16 games. That’s half of his offensive output. 
 

You won’t them to produce, play them more. 

[siddious]

The right moves were made there’s no denying that 

[Ozzy]

....about that Kakko guy..... 

[RangersIn7]

15 minutes ago, Ozzy said:

....about that Kakko guy..... 

It’s encouraging.

 

But he did it vs a Flyers team that’s fielding half their roster from the AHL right now.