Game #11: Chytil, Georgiev and Strome lead new look Blueshirts to impressive victory over Nashville

Posted on November 3, 2019 by Derek

Jacob Trouba gives Filip Chytil some love following his goal in a Rangers 2-1 win over the Predators. AP Photo by Frederick Breedon courtesy Getty Images

This one was a statement. If coach David Quinn was looking for more consistency from his young team, he sure got it. Led by a trio of young players, the Blueshirts posted a solid effort to edge one of the West’s best in the Predators 2-1.

The hard fought one goal victory got the Rangers back to NHL .500 (5-5-1). It might not seem like much, but to follow up what they did at MSG against the Lightning by edging one of the better teams in very competitive fashion on the road at a lively arena, was impressive.

Filip Chytil, Alexandar Georgiev and veteran Ryan Strome starred in this one. Their fingerprints were all over the place. For a second straight game since his recall from Hartford, Chytil scored. Maybe he’s here to stay. Two games and two goals. That’s a major statement for the suddenly confident 20-year old center. The finish was sweet too.

I love how patient Chytil was on the rush. He wisely waited for the defenseman to go down and went around before whipping a nice wrist shot by Nashville backup goalie Juuse Saros. He got the start for the Predators and played very well. It was an excellent goaltended game.

Georgiev was superb throughout. Making his second consecutive start while Henrik Lundqvist had a nice view from the bench, the second-year netminder made the difference between the pipes. While counterpart Saros made his share of big saves to finish with 28, Georgiev did his part with some clutch ones of his own to wind up with 32 stops. That earned him the game’s number one star.

Might this get him another start against Ottawa on Tuesday? In my honest opinion, it should. You gotta stick with the hot hand. That also goes for rookie defenseman Ryan Lindgren, who turned in another steady game this afternoon in place of well respected veteran leader Marc Staal.

It’s definitely a tough time for the warrior, who was a big part of the three runs the old Rangers made. I don’t see any reason to put him back in with the team playing well. Staal is a team guy. I hope they can find a taker and pick up part of his salary. He’s been a good soldier. Don’t forget it.

In the second period, Micheal Haley and Austin Watson went at it. I didn’t catch much of the early portion. So here is a look.

Apparently, these two had a history. Haley is a tough son of a gun for his size. He knows his role and plays it effectively. The Sharks actually miss his energy. They stink. There’s nothing wrong with having a veteran that can jump into the lineup and play six to seven minutes.

A couple of minutes following Haley’s decision over Watson, this happened.

Just an all around tremendous play. Great teamwork. Tony DeAngelo didn’t get credit for an assist, but he started it with the quick pass up to Jesper Fast, catching Nashville in a line change. The passing between Fast and Artemiy Panarin to Strome for his fourth was picture perfect. You can’t draw it up any better. For the Strome detractors, that’s now a career high six-game point streak (4-5-9). He continues his fast start.

That’s 11 points (4-7-11) in 11 games. Not bad for a versatile forward, who’s shifted to center without any issue. Once Mika Zibanejad returns, they will have a good problem due to Chytil looking much better, and Strome continuing to pile up points while being trusted by Quinn in every facet. You don’t get rid of that. If things change down the road, we’ll see. He’s 26 and making GM Jeff Gorton look very smart for stealing him for Ryan Spooner. Strome is a RFA next summer.

Let’s also give the coach some credit for putting Strome between Panarin and complement Fast, who is once again proving how valuable he is. On another team, he’s a third liner. Maybe even fourth line. However, the hard working 27-year old Swede is eerily similar to Carl Hagelin. A popular speed demon, who fueled transition while playing responsible defensively at five-on-five and on the penalty kill. You can plug Fast anywhere. He’s healthier too. It’s a contract year for Quickie. Do they keep him? Don’t worry. That’s to be determined.

After Strome made it 2-0, the Preds turned up the heat. They really started dictating play with strong puck possession and hard forechecking shifts in the Rangers end. That’s where Georgiev shined. He made some strong stops. That included getting a glove on a high shot labeled. He’s very poised for someone unheralded. I have no idea what’ll happen. But I want him here with Igor Shesterkin eventually. I know it’s probably unrealistic. How can you not love how composed he is?

Georgiev wasn’t the only star in net on Saturday. Yes. Saros had a very good day. For someone that had struggled early on, he was sharp in a well played second that favored the Preds (14-8 shots edge). He thwarted Kaapo Kakko on a breakaway. Kakko got some quality chances. He was previously set up in the right circle on the power play, but his one-timer missed its target. Hit the net and it’s in. Instead, Nashville turned it into a pair of shorthanded bids that Georgiev was ready for.

That wasn’t the only big scoring chance the Rangers misfired on. Chris Kreider continued his frustrating start by ringing one off the goalpost on a clean breakaway. He shook his head on the bench. The same guy everyone wants to move to the Blues due to the Vladimir Tarasenko shoulder surgery, was seen on the bench chatting with Kakko about his close call. It looked like a friendly chat. For those who think Kreider isn’t a leader, you’re wrong. I hope he hits a good stretch soon. My fantasy team needs it. I also have Kakko.

Penalties got the Rangers in trouble late in the period. With DeAngelo off for interference on Rocco Grimaldi that was all caused by a poor Brady Skjei turnover, Viktor Arvidsson snuck in to tip in a Filip Forsberg pass from Roman Josi at 14:36. That cut the lead in half. During a scrum at the buzzer, Strome picked up an unnecessary cross-checking minor in a battle eith Mattias Ekholm.

Fortunately, the penalty kill picked him up along with Georgiev (11 saves in the third). As a team, the Blueshirts blocked 16 shots. That included a key one from Jacob Trouba, who was battling a Predator in front. Nashville makes it tough. Nothing about their style is easy. That’s why this was a good win.

The Rangers had to kill off two more penalties down the stretch on Brendan Smith and Libor Hajek, who had the only assist on Chytil’s goal. They got the job done. Despite being on the penalty kill three different times including in crunch time, they outshot the Preds 15-11 in the final stanza.

Despite getting out-attempted 69-55, they more than held their own earning praise from a pleased Quinn. He should be. Now, we’ll see if they can build on it. They got the Senators next. A classic trap game. Let’s see how they handle prosperity. Win and that’s three in a row. That’s called a winning streak. It has happened before.

It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out what favorite Major League character I am quoting. ☺️😀 So let’s jack it up! Let’s see some hustle!

Okay. That’ll do it for now. All in all, a happy recap on Daylight Savings day. Happy November!

Battle Of Hudson 3 🌟:

3rd 🌟 Filip Chytil, Rangers (2nd goal in 2 games, 4 shots, +1 in 16:34)

2nd 🌟 Juuse Saros, Predators (28 saves including 15/15 in 3rd)

1st 🌟 Alexandar Georgiev, Rangers (32 saves including 13/14 in 2nd, 11/11 in 3rd, 2 GA on 63 shots in last 2 starts)

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Groundhog Day in Newark

Posted on November 2, 2019 by hasan4978

These days watching the Devils feels like Bill Murray stuck in a near hopeless loop in the ’90’s comedy Groundhog Day, reliving the same nightmare over and over and over again. Devils take lead(s) in a home game, lose leads including one in the third period, then lose the extra OT/SO point for the icing on the cake. So far the team’s played eight of its eleven games at home and only has two lousy one-goal wins over the Rangers and Vancouver, the only games they did manage to hold onto third period leads. In the other six games?

  • Lead the Jets 4-0 with seconds left in the second period during the season opener, lose 5-4 in OT in a tone-setting defeat
  • Lead the Panthers 4-1 in the second period, lose the game 6-4 in regulation
  • Take three leads over the Oilers, lose them all including the last one with less than two minutes left in regulation, then proceed to lose the shootout
  • Take early 2-0 and 3-2 leads over Arizona but bad goaltending from Mackenzie Blackwood sinks them this time in a 5-3 loss
  • Take a 5-3 lead over a struggling Lightning team in the third period, lose that lead then after miraculously tying the game again with seconds remaining lose the game again in OT.
  • Last night? Score first and take a 3-2 lead over the Flyers after a potentially season-turning Taylor Hall goal in the middle of the third period, only to lose it ninety seconds later on another sketchy Blackwood goal allowed and then lose the shootout – again.

Notice the pattern?

Granted, as a Devil fan I’ve been complaining about blown leads on and off since the 2005 lockout, and am constantly told ‘new NHL brah…teams can’t hold leads the way they once did’. Which is true – but this season and coach John Hynes’ entire tenure really is beyond the pale of any reasonable margin of error holding leads. When you take the lead in eight home games in a month’s span and can only win two of them (including four multi-goal leads), that’s a real indicator of a problem.

From here on in whenever someone tells me the coaching’s fine, it’s the players that are the problem – specifically the goalies (who I’ll get to in a moment) – last night’s game will be among the first I cite to tell them they’re out of their mind. Fans do tend to spend a disproportionate amount of attention worrying who’s on the fourth line or third defensive pairing, I admit that. That said, using the current fourth line of Miles Wood, Kevin Rooney and John Hayden as a shutdown, energy line thinking they’re some cross between John Madden/Jay Pandolfo and the Crash Line in their heyday is just mind-bogglingly dense. First off, they’re not even that good – Rooney’s a marginal NHL player, Hayden probably not even that and Wood has been a massive dissapointment since signing his four-year contract last offseason.

In a larger sense though, you use your fourth line at home against other teams’ fourth lines. You do not use your fourth line at home against other teams’ first lines. Sometimes it’s unavoidable on the road, but at home with the last change there’s no excuse. Throwing out the fourth line automatically after our power play, when the other teams are likely not using their first liners so they generally get thrown out after a penalty kill is over with, is bad enough. You could at least justify it after a long power play when likely eight of the top nine forwards play a power play. Sometimes that’s unavoidable too. But if you’re automatically going to use the fourth line after every goal that’s scored, other teams have already started to notice that and run to throw out their top liners, which is usually why every time Hynes throws out the fourth liners after a goal they get pinned in and in a couple of instances have given up the quick retaliation goal.

Alain Vigneault did something nearly impossible last night and out linematched another coach on the road. Of course you could say Hynes out linematched himself. Especially late in the second period which was the worst instance of all, and only by a perverse stroke of luck didn’t result in a goal against. When you have a defensive zone faceoff in the final half minute of a period, with the last change, you DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT put out the darn fourth-liners! If there’s ever an instance where another team will deploy its top line automatically it’s in the last half minute of a period in the offensive zone. When you see the other coach has Claude Giroux and company on the ice in the offensive zone with seconds remaining, any normal human being is not looking at it and saying oooh I can get Kevin Rooney on the ice to match up! Even though the fourth line somehow escaped disaster there, it wasn’t by much and probably lost me for good in terms of believing this coaching staff can ever get it turned around.

Hynes’ defenders (yes, believe it or not there are still defenders) will point to the goaltending of Blackwood and Cory Schneider and say how can any coach win with this type of goaltending? And clearly the goaltending has not been good enough, which is putting it mildly – and probably the reason GM Ray Shero traded for Tampa’s Louis Domingue last night for depth, to put the top two guys on notice. As Corey Masiak pointed out in the Athletic with the below blurb posted for emphasis, the Devils’ .856 team save percentage going into last night’s game is on par with the expansion Washington Capitals of the early ’70’s, generally cited as the worst team in NHL history.

Assessing a goaltender’s performance is never easy, with things like fluky bounces and poor play in front of net affecting the results. Still, there is no way to write off New Jersey’s .856 save percentage after 10 games. No team has finished with a save percentage worse than .884 this century. The 1974-75 expansion Washington Capitals had an .855 save percentage. That team won eight games.

Woof. And considering save percentages have only skyrocketed in the last fifty years, the .856 save percentage now would probably have been closer to .820 back then. Last night wasn’t much better. Blackwood is obviously better than Cory at this point but that’s like saying MS is better than brain cancer, one just kills you slower than the other. You would have certainly liked a save on the tying goal on Joel Farabee barely thirty seconds after Hall’s lead-grabbing (and ear-grabbing) goal in the third period last night.

And yes, let’s get to the suddenly enigmatic star. I didn’t see this ear grab in real time, like most of the crowd I was just excited about the goal and how Hall had somehow scored while being crosschecked into the ice from behind. It looked like Adam Banks’ goal against the fictional Hawks in the first Mighty Ducks movie lol, only thankfully Hall’s head didn’t quite hit the post the way the Banks’ did in the movie. Even now I’m not going to assume that Hall meant it as a taunt of the crowd the way many fans are now going nuts assuming he did.

That said, this is why you don’t go down the road of criticizing the fans lightly…because every little tick will now be taken as a slight or perceived slight, whether irrational or not. And IF Hall did actually mean it as a ‘you ******** like me now moment?’ rather than as a ‘let’s ****ing go, let’s hear it, boys!’ type mechanism to pump up the crowd more, then he is every bit as petulant and moody as he’s currently being made out to be. And if he thinks our crowd is tough and surly, well go back to Canada or go play in some other big market where they’ll boo you before you blink once you sign an $80+ million deal and don’t produce there.

I probably didn’t even get into the crowd thing as much as I wanted to Thursday morning cause I just wanted to get to sleep, and I don’t doubt there are some yahoos who just go to get hammered and look for attention doing or saying something stupid. Every crowd has them, some more than others. And to be fair last night after Hall’s contreversial comments on Wednesday, there was a smattering of boos the first time he touched the puck last night, but they quickly got drowned out by a ‘Let’s Go Devils!’ chant once the majority of the crowd realized what was happening. Even as annoyed as I am at Hall for what he said, I wasn’t going to go down that road. At least not last night. If he petulantly taunted the fans? Then next time might be different. And it doesn’t look good when the team’s clip of the postgame interview with Hall cuts out right before he’s about to answer a question about his goal celebration.

Lemme just say this though, the majority of fans do NOT go to games wanting to boo, or wanting to be on their smartphones for the whole game cause the team sucks and isn’t worth watching, or stay home entirely because it just isn’t worth the aggravation anymore. We want to be there and cheer, we want to have something to get excited for, we want to enjoy the atmosphere with our friends and families. I don’t want to have to worry about giving away or selling tickets for $12.50 apiece in freaking November. I want to have moments to get excited about. We as a fanbase haven’t had enough of that in the last eight years. The spring of 2018 was a nice, brief taste of the glory days again but that’s literally all we’ve had since 2012 in terms of tangible accomplishment. And even that team was in and out of the playoffs almost as quickly as this year’s Devils blow a two-goal lead.

This year’s team was supposed to represent the biggest step forward under Shero and finally a return to relevance for good, but instead has turned into a massive embarassment where nobody seems to be accountable, except from the fans (which is another reason why Hall’s comments rankled me – the fans are the only ones who HAVE been the least bit critical of this team and we haven’t even been that critical compared to most markets!). Certainly the staff’s allowed to continue making constant in-game mistakes, run a pond hockey system and leaving talented players in the stands who can get better with time to develop, while overplaying grit guys who can’t. The players themselves…where’s the accountability and leadership in the locker room? In the previous Hynes years when you heard of someone calling a team meeting or someone having critical comments about the team’s performance after the game, it wasn’t from milquetoast captain Andy Greene or supposed leader Hall. It was from role players like Brian Boyle, Ben Lovejoy and Drew Stafford (none of whom are here anymore by the way). That’s a problem too. Not every leader has to be Scott Stevens but you need a bad cop in the room somewhere, and not one that’s an expendable back end piece.

If fans can be irrational at times, well as I said above the fans are the only ones taking this team to task at the moment. Shero having his assistant GM go down on the bench really did very little to change things other than the first couple of games briefly. Trading for a borderline NHL goalie to put the top guys on notice was a good start but hardly a brushback fastball upstairs to suggest five years of mostly losing is enough. And forget the media…the local media is mostly useless in terms of asking tough questions, not only that but Chris Ryan and Abbey Mastraco seem to be better at getting snarky with fans on Twitter than their actual jobs. Yes, Chris people are going to complain about the fourth line when they get used in the way they got used last night. And yes Abbey, people are going to complain nobody asked Hall a tough question about his own performance the other night when there’s no video on the question you supposedly asked or quote of the answer he gave. I’m not asking for a vulture media like Montreal, but how about a cage-rattler like Larry Brooks (yuck I feel dirty saying that)? Your job isn’t to carry water for the team when things are going badly, it’s to get answers to stuff the fans want to know. Is that too much to ask in 2019?

UPDATE: And sure enough the Hall response to the celebration was…not good.

https://www.nj.com/devils/2019/11/what-devils-taylor-hall-said-about-hand-to-ear-celebration-following-goal-vs-flyers.html

When asked about the celebration, Hall laughed, saying there wasn’t any ill will behind it.

“I thought I heard, I thought I was getting booed in the second period there,” Hall said. “So just making light of that fact.”

Welp add another few thousand boos to that next time then Taylor, including mine. If you want to play the heel you’d better be an MVP and not flop the way you did in the shootout last night. Otherwise das vidanya, comrade!

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Rangers Stuff on Staal/Lundqvist and Kravtsov in visit to Nashville

Posted on November 2, 2019 by Derek

This afternoon in Music City, the Rangers visit the Predators for a 2 PM (1 Local Time) matinee. I don’t know how much I’ll watch. I’m not a fan of early games. We’ll see. Either way, I’ll have a game review tonight.

Let’s jump right in on some key information about today’s game against a very good opponent.

Nashville should be upset after taking the third period off to blow a 4-1 lead in a perplexing 6-5 overtime loss to the Flames. They got beat at the buzzer basically by a between the legs highlight reel Matthew Tkachuk goal. It was a game they once had a 27-9 edge in shots.

Even though they haven’t played since Tuesday, the Rangers could be getting the Predators at the wrong time. You have to figure they’ll be on edge following such a bad loss in Smashville. Especially where they have great fans. For that reason, I don’t have great expectations.

Don’t forget how deep that roster is. Adding Matt Duchene to Ryan Johansen, Kyle Turris and surprisingly red hot Nick Bonino gives them a huge edge at center against most teams. Don’t forget the versatile Colton Sissons and Calle Jarnkrok, who have three of their four shorthanded goals. Filip Forsberg could return too. Along with Viktor Arvidsson, this is a tenacious group of skilled forwards that will make life difficult on goalies.

Long story short, the young and younger Rangers defense will have to do a good job in front of Alexandar Georgiev. That means limiting the Nashville attack by boxing out and keeping them to the outside. It won’t be easy. Especially with arguably the league’s best defense that’s led by overlooked star Roman Josi. It’s Ryan Ellis and Josi who top the Preds in scoring. They’re 1-2 with underrated Mattias Ekholm a key contributor.

There aren’t many weaknesses with veteran coach Peter Laviolette’s balanced roster. They haven’t missed PK Subban, who continues to make more headlines off the ice than on it. That’s not a ringing endorsement. Dante Fabbro is the fourth defenseman. Only 21, he’s considered the next good blueliner for the Predators.

Considering that Nashville doesn’t have a back-to-back with the struggling Red Wings next in Detroit on Monday, I wouldn’t be surprised if Laviolette goes back to ace Pekka Rinne. Still one of the league’s best netminders despite sheer lunacy from detractors, the former Vezina winner is off to a great start. In nine starts, he’s yet to lose in regulation, boasting a 7-0-2 mark with a 2.19 GAA, .920 save percentage and two shutouts.

He turns 37 tomorrow. The same age as Henrik Lundqvist. The difference being Lundqvist was drafted at 18 in the seventh round of ’00 while Rinne waited until 21 as the last overall pick (258) in ’04. If you want a good comparison, go look at both goalies. Each has a Vezina and Stanley Cup appearance while putting up eerily similar numbers.

Juuse Saros hasn’t yet fulfilled expectations. He’s gotten into four games and only has one win which was his last start against the bumbling Lightning on Oct. 26. After allowing 14 goals on 95 shots in his first three starts, Saros stopped 28 of 30 in a 3-2 victory last Saturday.

I laid out how good Nashville is. To David Quinn’s credit, he’s sticking with the same lineup that made the Lightning look bad. Mika Zibanejad will miss a second consecutive game (UBI). That means more of Filip Chytil centering the second line while Ryan Strome draws first line duty. If you subtracted Strome, where would they be? Don’t answer it.

I wonder if Quinn will again have Jesper Fast on that top line as a matchup player while shielding Kaapo Kakko on the third line to keep him away from being exposed. He had a better game on Tuesday. It wasn’t only that he scored his second goal on the power play. He played with more poise and looked confident. Exactly what you want to see. My guess is the forward lines won’t change.

Kreider-Strome-Fast

Panarin-Chytil-Buchnevich

Lemieux-Howden-Kakko

Haley-Andersson-Smith

Given the success he had, Kakko should stay put on the top power play unit. A good development. That means Pavel Buchnevich on the second unit. I like it better along with promoting Tony DeAngelo to that first unit. He has the right instincts. Jacob Trouba just didn’t fit due to Zibanejad and Artemiy Panarin. It’s better off this way. I also like seeing Adam Fox get power play time. He’s gonna put up more points.

With Quinn wisely opting to ice the same lineup, that means Marc Staal sits out again. He said all the right things about it yesterday. Obviously, he’s not happy. However, the prideful vet understands why Ryan Lindgren has replaced him. He’s anxious to get back in.

By ego, I’m referring to how demonstrative Lundqvist acts when things unravel. While I get the frustration, he has to understand what’s going on here. This is a Rebuild. There are going to be mistakes. Even though he was right about last Sunday’s humiliation, he should realize the situation. This isn’t a playoff contender. They’re likely gonna miss the postseason a third straight year. This is all part of the process.

When you listen to Staal or watch him during a game after a mistake or goal against, he doesn’t sulk. He’s a good team guy and true unselfish leader. That’s the only reason he’s still here. That isn’t the case with Lundqvist, who rejected a chance to waive his no-trade clause when approached by the organization over a season ago. He chose to stay.

Henrik’s loyalty reminds me of countryman Mats Sundin. The Maple Leafs became a horrible team with the great Hall of Fame center still their captain. He never wanted to leave Toronto. It wasn’t until after his contract expires that he played half a final year in Vancouver. His final postseason appearance, Sundin showed he still had it going 3-5-8 over eight games in the 2009 NHL Playoffs. His previous appearance was with the Leafs in ’03-04 before the lockout.

Igor Shesterkin lost his first game with Hartford in a 4-1 loss to Laval on Wednesday. He allowed three goals on 23 shots. In the rematch, the Wolf Pack fell in a shootout 2-1 to the Rocket. Defense prospect Joey Keane had the lone goal for the Pack. He has five. Adam Huska made 27 saves in the loss.

Finally, KHL reporter Gillian Kemmerer had a nice update on Vitali Kravtsov. Ironically, it comes from former Rangers assistant Mike Pelino, who coaches HC Lokomotiv in Russia. I think what he had to say is worthwhile.

That final part where he mentions having “unreal expectations,” is true. Especially when it comes to an impatient fan base in NYC. In many aspects, that applies to what we are seeing with the amount of venom that’s destroying the fabric of the city. Young people have no respect for anything these days. It’s embarrassing.

Updating this post, this happened earlier:

Nice to see Kravtsov get on the board for Chelyabinsk Traktor.

Getting back on topic, I really enjoy Gillian. If you aren’t following her already, you should. She’s great.

That’s gonna do it for now. Until much later. 🙂

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An embarassment on and off the ice

Posted on October 31, 2019 by hasan4978

Through ten games the Devils’ season so far has been blown lead after blown lead with brain cramps, bad play and hideous coaching galore in a nightmare that just won’t end.  Or just as accurately, we’ve become an endless loop of Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown right as he’s about to kick it, emblematic of the blown lead syndrome.  Each blown lead and near miss has seemingly been more frustrating than the last, although it’s still hard to top Opening Night for sheer horror.  Tonight was pretty close though, against a quasi-rival in Tampa.

Not that it really should have been a great shock we managed to blow another multi-goal lead, even against a Tampa team playing without their best defenseman and at basically half speed still slogging through the hangover of last year’s playoff washout.  Don’t be fooled by the shot total, yeah the Devils played well in stretches but honestly it reminded me more of a late February game between two non-playoff teams just throwing up crap against a wall and playing pond hockey.  For a game that ended up with the score it did, you would have figured it was at least exciting but it was sloppy with spasms of good play followed by a bunch of nothing.

If the game mattered more I might have enjoyed the wild swings of momentum, but I’ve already been beaten down so much by this team and the losing over the last several years that even when Kyle Palmieri miraculously tied the game with under ten seconds remaining with a hat trick goal, I couldn’t muster much more than a clap for the player himself.  Not after the Devils had already blown a 5-3 third period lead to go behind 6-5 in the first place.  I’ll give the crowd credit in that the 11000 people there were into the game emotionally, although like me they’re on their last nerve with this team and there was plenty of booing during the game, for the most part when it was deserved (more on that later).

There isn’t much I’m even going to bother to recap although I’ll say this, other than Palmieri the Devils’ so-called best players and veteran leaders really need to start acting like it.  So far P.K. Subban has been a massive dissapointment, but there’s only so much I can really get on him because at least (unlike a certain other big star on the team who I’m getting to soon enough) he’s more self-aware to realize he’s not playing well and take responsibility for it.  We definitely need better from PK though, other than the Ranger game he really hasn’t had much of a positive impact at all.

As much as I’ve bagged on Cory Schneider in recent years and it’d be nice to get a key save more than once every few months I can’t really blame tonight on him to be honest, the breakdowns when they happened were truly spectacular, as were a couple of the odd deflections that got by him.  Plus he’s self-aware likely to his detriment in taking his share of the blame for the disaster that is this team.  I can’t get on Andy Greene too much because it feels like picking on a senior citizen at this point, at least a senior citizen in NHL years but this team’s lacked leadership in a lot of recent seasons and that you can get on the captain for.  Travis Zajac really hasn’t done much either (one goal and four points in ten games).  All that is true.

And yes, the coaching staff is a disaster but what’s the point of rehashing that?  I feel like I’m going to die holding my breath wondering whether John Hynes or Adam Gase bites the dust first, but in both cases seemingly competent GM’s are undermining themselves with loyalty to a horrible coach.  In the case of Devils GM Ray Shero though, he’s had five seasons here and now it looks like more than ever we’re going to need a second rebuild to get out of our current cycle of suck.  That the GM needs to take responsibility for whenever (or if) he finally decides to make a change behind the bench.  Because even if he does make a change it’s extremely unlikely the team’s going to make the playoffs at this point.  I hate to wave the white flag before November but what in this first ten games would suggest the team as currently constituted is capable of a massive 72-game run needing a pace just behind Tampa’s President’s Cup season last year to make the playoffs?

That said, none of these guys are looking for an $80+ million deal this offseason.  If you’re just looking at stats and see Hall has nine points in ten games you might think things are peachy, but the 2017-18 MVP really hasn’t been playing anywhere near as well as that number would suggest, starting with the fact he only has one goal himself.  It’s one thing to be in a slump scoringwise and maybe have your timing still off due to not playing for about nine months because of his injury issues last year.  It’s another thing to just be careless and stupid like he was on the fifth Tampa goal, the one that tied the game when he turned the puck over, then tipped a perfect deflection past his own goalie matching his offensive goal total for the season.  For a supposed leader on the team that’s bad enough, reminiscent of the bad old days in Edmonton and his first year here when he would sulk around regularly.

When you compound all that with just being absolutely tone deaf enough to rip the fans for booing after yet another hideous loss (which you were a main culprit in) when you have two wins in ten games, then Houston we have a problem here.

As a fan who was there…yes the fans booed one or two of the power plays – which by the way Taylor was 1-5, not 1-3.  And which has been operating at a wonderful 10.3% clip on the season (good for 26th in a 31 team league).  So yes one lousy goal early in the first period – after which you blew that lead anyway – wasn’t exactly enough to get people off a hideous PP’s back.  More to the point though, how can you rip the fans for voicing their displeasure of a dissapointing team that has two wins in ten games and has blown a billion different leads when you haven’t even been pulling your own weight?  Not to mention it’s not like things have been going so much better for you on the road with no booing home fans to worry about where the team is sucking even worse for a second straight season.

Yes nobody can ever take 2017-18 away from you Taylor…but right now you’re just confirming the bad press you were getting on the way in here, and when it looks like when you have one foot out the door to boot.  I’ll be honest for the last couple of games I’ve been wondering silently whether it’s even a good idea to re-sign him, now after tonight’s wonderful on and off ice display I’m saying the silent part out loud.  As much as it annoys me to do so because trading Hall means rebuild 2.0, but really what other outcome could this season have at this point anyway?  This team’s running out of time to change the narrative, beginning a stretch of 15 games in 30 days the losses could come fast and furious if something doesn’t change, and soon.

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Game #10: Chytil and Georgiev highlight a great win in honor of Dan Girardi

Posted on October 30, 2019 by Derek

The game’s first star Filip Chytil celebrates a Rangers win over the Lightning with Alexandar Georgiev. AP Photo via Getty Images courtesy New York Rangers.

On a night they honored one of the toughest players in franchise history, the Rangers were whole again. Playing easily their best game, a focused and scrappy bunch of Blueshirts beat one of the NHL’s supposedly best teams by outworking and outplaying the Lightning.

The end result was a well deserved 4-1 win that got plenty of cheers from a pleased crowd at MSG. All 18 skaters and the goalie played with laser focus and the kind of determination and intensity that would make Dan Girardi proud. The former Ranger and ex-Lightning defenseman was on hand for an emotional video tribute and ceremonial face-off drop of the puck between former teammates Chris Kreider and Ryan McDonagh.

It was all very nice for the Black and Blueshirts Iron Man. Number 5 was all smiles along with his family. Even though close friend Marc Staal was a healthy scratch, it would’ve been a nice touch if he were out there for that. When I think of Girardi, I am reminded of the physical battles in the postseason both defensemen battled along with McDonagh.

I understood why Staal didn’t play. That lineup decision was a good one by coach David Quinn. He hasn’t been consistent. With Ryan Lindgren back up from Hartford along with Filip Chytil, it made perfect sense to see what Lindgren could finally do on a very young defense that featured three rookies including Adam Fox and Libor Hajek. Brady Skjei, Jacob Trouba and Tony DeAngelo were the veterans. Well, Trouba has the most experience.

This one started off with some snarl. Less than two minutes in, Micheal Haley dropped the gloves with bigger Stanley Cup hero Patrick Maroon. The former St. Louis Blue was getting the better of it until Haley landed a right to the side of the helmet that knocked Maroon down. Unfortunately, that punch injured him. He was wobbly going off and never returned. My guess is concussion. I hope he’ll be okay.

Following the fight, there was some more rough stuff after Luke Witkowski boarded Lindgren from behind. After things settled down, the Rangers were unable to capitalize on the two minute power play. Personally, I think any boarding penalty should be either a double minor or major. They just suspended Adam Lowry for a nonsensical hit from behind in the Heritage Classic between Winnipeg and Calgary at Saskatoon in the snow. It was only two minutes after he injured Flames defenseman Oliver Kylington. What a joke.

In this game, Quinn made another smart move by putting prize rookie Kaapo Kakko on the top unit. Even though it didn’t pay early dividends, he would be heard from later. Just moving him up seemed to give the teenager an extra jump in his step. He was much more noticeable throughout. Nobody seemed to mind that Kakko played on the third line at even strength with Brett Howden and Brendan Lemieux. His five shots led the team and he tied in attempts (6) with Artemiy Panarin.

Despite playing well, a lousy line change cost the Rangers the game’s first goal. For some reason, all five skaters went to the bench without getting the puck in deep. Instead, Brayden Point raced up ice and turned on the jets to set up Nikita Kucherov for his fourth from Stamkos at 15:44. It was a bad moment for a young team. I didn’t quite get why both Hajek and Trouba came off with the forwards. The D are supposed to make sure a quick transition doesn’t happen.

An irate DeAngelo slammed his stick and was fortunate he didn’t receive a delay of game minor for shooting the puck down ice. Showing remarkable restraint, the officials made him get it. So, five new skaters all wound up with a big fat minus due to the embarrassing wholesale change. The good news is that was the only puck that got by Alexandar Georgiev. Making his first start in three games, he was remarkably sharp throughout. In particular when the game opened up, his lateral movement and rebound control were superb. He finished with 29 saves to earn the game’s second star.

As good as Georgiev was, Russian counterpart Andrei Vasilevskiy was better. The rating Vezina winner was at his absolute best in this one. With his team down two men after top defenseman Victor Hedman left the game in the first period, Vasilevskiy made several outstanding stops. He played extremely well and was the only reason the game was close. He faced a barrage throughout as the Rangers outshot an opponent for the first time all season. Vasilevskiy finished with 39 saves and to me, was the game’s number one star. They don’t reward brilliance to a losing goalie in a 4-1 road loss.

The game wasn’t without another learning moment for Kakko. After failing to clear the zone, he slashed Kevin Shattenkirk to earn a minor penalty late in the first. Speaking of which, fans didn’t have much reaction to Shattenkirk playing his first game against his former team. It wasn’t surprising as everything that could go wrong did in his two years in the big city. He’s off to a better start with Tampa. He entered play with four goals and three assists to resemble the offensive player he’s supposed to be. Ironically, he replaced Girardi twice. Here and in Tampa. Go figure.

As for the penalty, a disciplined penalty kill picked up Kakko to help the Blueshirts conclude the period only down one. They held a 14-11 edge in shots. Jesper Fast returned and was utilized on the top line in a checking role. He played with Chris Kreider and Ryan Strome. They had a quietly good game at five-on-five. It was by far Kreider’s most complete effort. He was more aggressive looking for his shot and came back hard defensively. Strome was a beast all night logging over 22 minutes while dominating on draws where he went 17 for 29. He also had another good offensive game.

With Mika Zibanejad out, Chytil centered a very effective second line between Panarin and Pavel Buchnevich. In his season debut following a impressive nine game stint with Hartford, Chytil was much more visible throughout. In all facets, he looked like a different player. He had superb chemistry with Buchnevich. The two played off each other well by working give and goes. They generated a lot of scoring chances that a sharp Vasilevskiy denied.

Ironically, it was Kakko who drew a interference minor on Mathieu Joseph that got the game tied up. Following a undisciplined slashing minor on Ondrej Palat that gave the Rangers an abbreviated five-on-three for 20 seconds, it was Kakko who stuck with it to score his second goal in the remainder of a five-on-four power play. Following missing an open side on a surprising Panarin feed, Strome made a good pass across to an open Kakko, who patiently outwaited a Tampa defender by going around. He fired a shot that took a funny carom off both Vasilevskiy and defenseman Braydon Coburn before the puck went in to tie the score at 9:37. Kreider did a nice job screening.

The rest of the second was each team trading chances. On a rare Lightning power play, Georgiev was at his best making at least four big saves to keep the contest even. He was very good in a key spot against some elite talent. Overall, he stopped 11 Tampa shots in the stanza with nearly half on that one man-advantage.

It was the Rangers who came hard in the second part of the period. However, Vasilevskiy had other ideas. He stopped them in their tracks to keep the game tied. Whether it was due to his team being short two men, or the players having a hard time getting up for one of the league’s doormats, Vasilevskiy did his best to bail out the rest of a disjointed Lightning. They don’t look like they’ve recovered from last Spring’s shocking first round sweep to Columbus. Something is off. I’ll be curious to see what they bring into the second game of a back-to-back at the Devils. Curtis McElhinney should be in net.

In the third period, the refs hung up their whistles. Phantom hooks and holds were let go. They let the teams decide the outcome. This was a refreshing change from most games today. What you got were two teams skating and countering each other while going for it. It made for fun hockey.

Both netminders stayed on their toes. I loved how aggressive Vasilevskiy was challenging shooters. Kreider was a bit unlucky on a two-on-one so his perfect shot clanging off the crossbar. That’s how it’s gone. However, he didn’t let it bother him. When he’s more active during shifts as he was tonight, that’s a good thing for the Rangers. Maybe wearing the ‘A’ in place of Staal helped. He was focused.

Chytil had already been robbed once by Vasilevskiy. I tweeted this earlier.

He got his goal on a beautiful one handed deflection on a great pass from Buchnevich. It was well executed by both young players. Buchnevich pulled up inside the Tampa line and found a cutting Chytil behind the defense with a good pass down low that the second-year center tipped in past Vasilevskiy. That gave the Rangers a well deserved 2-1 lead with 7:14 remaining.

In his season debut, Lindgren played over 15 minutes and didn’t look out of place. It was a subtle defensive play at the end of a shift that led directly to a special moment for Fox. He made a smart pass to Kreider while changing to trap two Lightning players. Kreider came in two-on-one with Fox. He wisely aimed low for a rebound and it went right to Fox for his first career NHL goal. That made it 3-1 good guys with 2:36 left in regulation. It was also a career milestone for Lindgren, who picked up his first NHL point with the secondary assist. Good for both.

With the Tampa net empty, it was Strome that sealed it from the red line for his third at 19:14. That gave him a goal and assist. He is 3-7-10 in the team’s first 10 games. That’s only one point behind Zibanejad for the team lead. Not bad for a hard working versatile guy, who some NYR bloggers wanted to get rid of for nothing. I’m glad they’re not in charge.

Along with Panarin, who quietly has 10 points (5-5-10), Strome has been one of their best players. A player who can be trusted in any situation including the penalty kill. He can also slide back over to the right wing once Zibanejad returns. That’s valuable.

This was a feel good win for a young team searching for an identity. That doesn’t take away from what Girardi and soon Staal gave this franchise. Let’s see how they follow it up at Nashville.

I’m not usually the guy who’ll get into the whole goalie debate. But based on Tuesday’s performance, Georgiev deserves another start on Saturday. Why not? They played well in front of him. Stick with a similar lineup even if Zibanejad is ready.

Battle Of Hudson 3 🌟:

3rd 🌟 Adam Fox, Rangers (1st NHL goal, 4 shots, +2 in 24 shifts-16:16, continues to improve daily)

2nd 🌟 Andrei Vasilevskiy, Lightning (39 saves including several big ones)

1st 🌟 Filip Chytil, Rangers (1st of season for GW, 3 shots, 2 takeaways, 2 blocks, +1 in 21 shifts-17:27)

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People who celebrate Marc Staal’s demise are frauds

Posted on October 29, 2019 by Derek

For the first time this season, Marc Staal will be a healthy scratch. It’ll be rookie Ryan Lindgren taking his place.

I want to emphasize something I said on Twitter. It’s not something to celebrate. Too many fans are guilty of taking shots at the veteran defenseman, who’s given his all as a Ranger.

I blame other bloggers for this mindset. They are a bunch of obnoxious people with nothing better to do. If you root for this team, then you cheer for everyone who plays. Even if it’s the 32-year old Staal, who hasn’t been the same player in quite some time.

There are a lot of frauds wearing Rangers jerseys and merchandise. These are the same people who will tell you Pavel Buchnevich is a superstar. Do they actually watch each shift? Not unless it’s part of their biased agenda.

It’s sad that Staal gets singled out on a night one of his close friends and former teammates returns. However, I have no problem with David Quinn taking a closer look at his very young blueline that includes elder statesmen Brady Skjei at 25. Yikes.

This is about the mentality on social media. It’s mean spirited and wrong. Screw BSB and the other arrogant clown that made a dumb comment about Dan Girardi’s return.

It’ll be interesting to see how such a young D fares against an elite team like the Lightning, who may play without Brayden Point. They’ll have three rookies (Lindgren, Fox, Hajek) on the blueline.

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The best thing I saw today on Dan Girardi returning to MSG with son Landon

Posted on October 29, 2019 by Derek

When the Lightning visit the Rangers at MSG tonight, it’ll mark the return of Dan Girardi. The recently retired former defenseman, who was such a big part of those classic Black and Blueshirts teams, will be honored before the game by the classy former organization he broke in with.

It’s hard to express how I feel about this emotional moment later. There’ll not be a dry eye in the arena or most households, who haven’t forgotten what Danny G meant to our team. He was the blood and guts of some very good teams that put their hard hats on. There was nothing number 5 wouldn’t do to help the Rangers win hockey games. Well, literally.

Selling out with the game over at the House of Horrors on a deadly PK Subban shot. Yikes.

Doing whatever it takes to keep Game One of the 2013 Eastern Conference Semifinal versus Boston tied up to force overtime and draw a classic reaction from Pierre McGuire. The late Dave Strader had the call. I sure miss him. Cancer sucks. 😧

Yes. Occasionally, he could do this. But it wasn’t what he was known for. That overtime winner at the Nassau Coliseum against the Islanders was pretty memorable. Great call too by Sam and Joe. Listen to that crowd.

Great tribute video by Zak of all that Girardi embodied for the Blueshirts. It included his first ever NHL goal along with some of the biggest hits and blocked shots. Plus a couple of sweet finishes by Martin Brodeur.

The game is airing on NBCSN at 7:30 PM later. Even though MSG Network won’t have the call, you gotta think they’ll show a few clips of the Dan Girardi tribute. They’re usually pretty good with that stuff. This morning during the skate, nine-year old son Landon got reacquainted with Henrik Lundqvist. It was a cute photo op and reunion.

These days, Girardi is enjoying retirement while having his own podcast with his last team, the Lightning. He may have finished his career there along with Ryan Callahan. But he’ll always be a New York Ranger.

https://twitter.com/Kovy274Hart/status/1189211365396926467?s=19

No. 5 Dan Girardi

NYR 788 GP 46 goals 184 assists 230 points +54 275 penalty minutes

TBL 139 GP 10 goals 24 assists 34 points +24 39 penalty minutes

NHL 927 GP 56 goals 208 assists 264 points +78 314 PIM

NHL PLAYOFFS

NYR 122 GP 6-27-33 -1 36 PIM (20 GP 3-9-12 +6 3 GW in 2012)

TBL 21 GP 2-1-3 +1 6 PIM

Career 143 GP 8-28-36 Even Rating 42 PIM

HITS & BLOCKED SHOTS

Reg. Season 2046 hits and 1913 blocked shots (NYR 1762 hits/1650 blocks)

Playoffs 378 hits and 362 blocked shots (NYR 336 hits/326 blocks)

Career Total 2424 hits and 2275 blocks (NYR 2098 hits/1976 blocks)

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Kravtsov signs with Chelyabinsk Traktor for one year, Early observations on Kakko

Posted on October 29, 2019 by Derek

Vitali Kravtsov returned to Chelyabinsk Traktor of the KHL. It’s not a big deal. Plus some hard hitting thoughts on Kaapo Kakko and Igor Shesterkin. AP Photo via Getty Images courtesy tsn.ca

On Monday, Vitali Kravtsov made it official. He re-signed with his KHL team Chelyabinsk Traktor for one year.

The 19-year old New York Rangers top prospect will rejoin Chelyabinsk and likely play out the rest of the season in Russia. This likely scenario had been rumored for a while. It is a two-way deal, which means the Rangers can recall the forward at any time. That isn’t realistic until sometime next year.

After spending training camp in New York, Kravtsov got a good look in preseason. He scored one goal and showed off some of the potential that made him a first round pick in the 2018 NHL Draft. The Rangers took him ninth ahead of current Islander forward Oliver Wahlstrom. He isn’t getting a lot of ice time under coach Barry Trotz either.

Development takes time. That’s a harsh reality many fans and even some in the NYR blogosphere don’t want to face. You can’t rush kids who aren’t ready for the NHL. It’s the best league in the world. If you’re one of those impatient fans unhappy with what coach David Quinn is doing with the lineup, take a closer look at second overall pick Kaapo Kakko. I watched his shifts very closely on Sunday night at the game. He looked lost.

And for those doubters which have even included yours truly in this space, Kakko played on the top line against the Bruins. We saw what happened. They got completely exposed by a much better team that could win the Stanley Cup. It wasn’t just Kakko, who struggled mightily. Even Jacob Trouba had issues against the vaunted Boston top line. I don’t feel like repeating their names. It’s tiresome.

If you want further proof, look at Kakko’s numbers. Through nine games, the highly rated Finnish right wing has one goal and one assist. He’s a team worst minus-12. Some will argue that he hasn’t been put in position to succeed. However, that would ignore his defensive issues. Like most first-year players, it’s taking him more time to learn on the job. He’s only an 18-year old teenager. Playing in North America is way different than dominating in Europe. The smaller ice surface and faster speed means less time to make plays. Decisions must be quick and instinctive. Especially in the defensive zone.

I fully understand why Quinn originally had Jesper Fast penciled in with Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider. The veteran alternate captain is a two-way player, who’s defensively responsible. Not having him or Zibanejad after the first period left the Blueshirts fragile. They were out of their depths.

The truth is while it’s easy for us to sit on the sidelines and criticize the second-year coach, he was right to protect Kakko against such quality competition. Looking to get favorable match-ups can work well and help improve the rookie’s confidence. Even if he doesn’t lack it, he has to realize by now how challenging the league is.

Don’t forget when he sees the uber talented Lightning tonight, Steven Stamkos once went through similar growing pains in his rookie year. That was as the number one overall pick of the Bolts in 2008. He improved as the ’08-09 season went on, finishing with 23 goals and 23 assists for 46 points with a minus-13 rating over 79 contests. The next year, Stamkos erupted for 51 goals and 95 points to become one of the game’s brightest new stars. He had a dominant three-year stretch where he scored 156 goals from age 19 thru 22 by the conclusion of ’11-12.

We should be so lucky. I won’t be dropping Kakko anytime soon in my keeper league. I know better. Plus my team is off to another hot start. 😬

All of this is why nobody should be upset over Kravtsov. There’s nothing wrong with going home to play in a pro league he’s more familiar with. He’s young. He won’t turn 20 until December 23. Let him regain his confidence. Let’s see where he is in a few months.

That goes for Kakko, Lias Andersson and just recalled center Filip Chytil. It certainly applies to young defensemen Adam Fox, Libor Hajek and Ryan Lindgren. We’re still seeing Tony DeAngelo progress and he just turned 24. He’s on his third organization with the difference being he’s listening to Quinn and maturing.

I also want to finish this post by taking the anti Henrik Lundqvist fanclub to task. Sure. In a perfect world, our proud 37-year old goalie would’ve accepted a trade to a contender. He had that opportunity presented to him after the purge in ’17-18. He doesn’t have any interest in moving on. So, they’re stuck with his $8.5 million cap hit through 2021.

I’m friendly with one of the Lundqvist detractors on Twitter. He has his own blog. We exchange our posts following games. The difference between us is I’m realistic about the situation. It’s not a good idea to rush Igor Shesterkin up right now. I understand how good the 23-year old Russian is. The 2014 fourth round pick is off to a great start with the Wolf Pack. In his first five starts, he’s a perfect 5-0 with a 1.18 GAA, .953 save percentage and a shutout.

Before you crown him, how about we remain patient? There’s nothing wrong with letting Shesterkin continue to get acclimated in the AHL. Especially when the team in Hartford is much better than the current state of the Rangers roster. Or did these experts forget about Dan Blackburn? That was another brilliant job of management during the Dark Ages.

Besides, it’s better off with Lundqvist and steady backup Alexandar Georgiev take the bulk of the remaining 73 starts. If something happens to one of them, then by all means they can call up Shesterkin. I don’t want him too exposed to the current roster. There isn’t much talent and not any consistency. That’s why they’ve lost five of six.

Like the Guns N’ Roses hit song “Patience,” our fans must “use a little patience.” It’s a process. There are going to be more stinkers like we witnessed the other day. That’s part of it.

I’ll have more later.

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Rangers recall Chytil and Lindgren and why it’s not a big deal

Posted on October 28, 2019 by Derek

Fans are celebrating the recall of Filip Chytil and Ryan Lindgren from Hartford. Such is life on NYR Twitter. A crazy place where people go from down to up to down again rooting for this team.

I’m not going to overreact. Not after that bleep storm last night. The stench is still fresh. How’s that for brutal honesty? You’re not gonna get balloons and flowers on this blog.

Nothing about Sunday’s embarrassment to the Bruins top line should be forgotten. Otherwise, they won’t learn from it. The Rangers have the Lightning visiting tomorrow. They’re not as tough to play against as Boston. No disrespect. But anyone who thinks Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point and Steven Stamkos are in the same league as David Pastrnak, Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand, are off their John Rocker.

Are they super talented? Sure. The Tampa trio has yet to kick it into high gear. That should be a warning for overly excited fans and bloggers about the 10th game, which could feature Chytil and finally Lindgren, who should’ve been with the team from the beginning.

Both prospects played well for 8-0-1 Hartford. Chytil led the Wolf Pack in scoring with nine points (3-6-9) and Lindgren was 1-1-2 with a plus-eight rating in the nine games. Each is young. Lindgren is 21 while Chytil turned 20 last month. They’re key players to the team’s rebuild. So, it’s important how they’re developed and used.

After making an initial splash as a teenager last year with a few highlight reel goals, Chytil struggled when he was moved back to center after the team moved on from Kevin Hayes. In 75 games, he went 11-12-23 with a minus-22 rating. Points were hard to come by in the second half. Maybe that should’ve been a warning sign to the organization that the number 21 pick in 2017 wasn’t fully ready for the top six center role they projected for him. A disappointing training camp led to him being sent down.

With top pivot Mika Zibanejad uncertain for Tuesday, we could get to see the future on the number one line. It’s possible that Chytil could center the top line while recent number two pick Kaapo Kakko moves up. Will it be Artemiy Panarin, who would be ideal over Chris Kreider? Let’s hope so. There is nothing wrong with Kreider playing on a second line with Ryan Strome and Pavel Buchnevich.

Though I’m curious if Jesper Fast returns, will David Quinn have the gritty, defensive minded Quickie on the first line as part of a match-up to slow down Stamkos, Point and Kucherov? I now understand why Fast was originally penciled in to play with Zibanejad and Kreider yesterday. The coach was thinking about the best way to slow down that dynamic Boston line. By the end of one period, he was without both. We saw what happened.

Encouraging is that it doesn’t sound like Zibanejad will be out for long if he sits out tomorrow’s match. That’s a big break for the team. Also, new enforcer Henrik Lundqvist sounds like he should be okay. As expected Alexandar Georgiev gets the start against the Bolts.

Regarding Lindgren, I’d like to see him play at least on the third pair. Here is a question for the coach. With Libor Hajek having his worst game of his career, does Lindgren replace him in the lineup? They’re different style defensemen. Hajek is more of a skating type while Lindgren is more physical. He had a good camp.

Or would they actually consider scratching Marc Staal? Not saying it was his fault last night. He somehow managed to finish plus-one. As has been noted everywhere, the well respected 32-year old veteran is slowing down. Like Lundqvist, it could be the final two seasons for him. I wish the turncoats didn’t dump on him as much. Don’t forget how good a player he was during those three playoff runs. What he also overcame. Some people have short memories.

I don’t see Brady Skjei coming out of the lineup. He wasn’t the issue yesterday. Consistency is something the 25-year old must find. He’s been around long enough.

My guess is they’ll hold out Zibanejad as a precaution. I’m just gonna take a guess on the lines.

Panarin-Chytil-Kakko

Kreider-Strome-Fast

Lemieux-Howden-Buchnevich

Haley-Andersson-Smith

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Game #9: Rock bottom for humiliated Blueshirts in ugly home loss to Bruins

Posted on October 28, 2019 by Derek

AP Photo via Getty Images courtesy WEEI

In the twenty plus years I’ve attended games with my family, I’ve seen my share of stinkers. The Dark Ages (’98-04) were full of them. Tonight’s abysmal second period may as well have been during that horrorbull error era. It was embarrassing. With the lone exception of Brendan Smith, who was somehow the team’s best player, this was a total humiliation.

By the end, the Bruins had so outclassed the Rangers that the final tally of 7-4 didn’t do it justice. The really pathetic part is when we got back to the car following the long walk after Boston’s sixth goal, you heard the clowns on MSG radio try to go full spin mode due to a pair of goals in garbage time. I want to single out former Rangers playoff hero Pete Stemkowski for not being one of those jokers. He told it like it was. So does John Giannone and Dave Maloney. That’s it.

Rather than do a full recap of the mess that was left behind at Madison Square Garden, I want to reveal what Henrik Lundqvist said about how brutal the effort was in the pathetic second period that started with a strange Patrice Bergeron goal after he was bumped into by David Pastrnak. The great Bruins finisher was tripped up from behind by Libor Hajek, who was one of a few kids who got badly exposed against that Boston first line of Bergeron (hat trick), Pastrnak (5 assists) and Brad Marchand (2-3-5).

In a very serious tone, a frustrated Lundqvist discussed at length how they have to compete better. Especially when it comes to top tier opponents like tonight’s opponent. He made sure to praise the Bruins top line for how good they are. Utterly dominant and complete in all facets. He also indicated that they must keep it simple to have a chance in these games. He’s right. Even if he showed clear frustration over getting bowled over by Pastrnak on Bergeron’s tying goal 11 seconds into the second period (incidental contact should’ve wiped the goal out), Lundqvist spoke about how they weren’t even close to where they need to be. It was 💯 percent truth.

This wasn’t about the goalie on Sunday evening. Rather about the team and how disappointing they played. They should feel ashamed too. Boston was the team playing a second consecutive night following a 3-0 shutout of the Blues in a Stanley Cup rematch. The Rangers had over 48 hours to prepare. It really did them a lot of good.

Jesper Fast didn’t play. It was for personal reasons. Boy was he lucky. They could’ve used him actually. He plays with lots of grit and hustle. There wasn’t much of that at The Garden. Other than Smith, goal scorer Micheal Haley and Lias Andersson, there wasn’t much compete from the other skaters. I hate to say that, but it was that bad.

Adding further insult to injury, top center Mika Zibanejad left the contest during the first period after taking a Bergeron hit. I saw him bent over in the far corner and knew it wasn’t good. He still was in the same position at the bench. Coach David Quinn did indicate that it isn’t a concussion during the postgame. Hot tip to Rick Carpinello. What the injury is we don’t know. Hopefully, it’s not serious. They’d be in big trouble without Zibanejad.

Before I get into the rest of the awful middle period where it looked like most of the players forgot to take their Zoloft, I’d like to give some credit to the fourth line. For half the first period, there wasn’t much going on. The Rangers were without a shot until Smith wisely threw a simple low one on Jaro Halak that he butchered. That allowed Haley to score his first on a rebound for a 1-0 lead. Andersson drew an assist for his first point of the season. He played hard throughout, but like many teammates, got lost in coverage on a Boston goal.

It would be easy to point to the controversial first Bruins goal as the turning point. However, Jacob Trouba was culpable after going for one of those big hits on Pastrnak and coming up empty. He took himself right out of the play and the end result was Pastrnak with a strong drive to force an off balance Lundqvist save. Due to a sliding Hajek tripping him up, that allowed Bergeron plenty of time to backhand in his first of the game. Rather than debate further on it, I want to single out Trouba. He had a bad game. He’s supposed to be the man on the defense. He finished minus-three while younger partner Hajek looked overmatched.

On the Marchand goal at 1:08 that suddenly gave Boston a 2-1 lead, nobody laid a body on him. Both Tony DeAngelo and Pavel Buchnevich were there, but had a communication breakdown at the wrong time. The end result was a layup for Marchand. More confusion due to nobody being able to recover and clear the puck following a pair of Lundqvist saves resulted in Charlie Coyle making it 3-1. This was brutal. The less said about it, the better.

What followed was the very interesting sequence between Lundqvist and Pastrnak. Perhaps due to being out of his mind, he went after Pastrnak and landed a right shoulder into the shocked Bruins power forward. This wasn’t no accident. Lundqvist went for the hit and landed, leading to some chaos with an incensed Marchand. In a rare occurrence, Lundqvist and Marchand were given matching roughing minors.

Of course, Marchand scored his second of the night as soon as he returned. On another sustained Boston attack, Coyle circled the net and was able to find an open Marchand for an easy finish. At that point, Quinn had seen enough. He used his timeout and did some screaming at the bench. It was too late. I thought he should’ve took it after the third straight Bruins goal. They were teetering against one of the league’s best teams.

Lundqvist got the third off. Alexandar Georgiev replaced him and was rudely greeted by a wicked Zdeno Chara one-time blast off the post. Pastrnak set him up at 43 seconds. At 5-1, I knew we weren’t staying for the whole thing.

A nice dish across from DeAngelo led to Buchnevich burying his second to cut the deficit to three. Artemiy Panarin set it up to earn the other assist. As for Buchnevich, he had a weird game. He went for a big check early and got the worst of it with Charlie McAvoy. He blew an assignment on a goal. He also stripped Marchand and had a clean breakaway, but somehow missed the net with the entire top staring at him. I have no idea how he didn’t score. In the same shift, he drew a tripping minor on Pastrnak. Then finally scored later. In his fourth season, the talented Russian remains a frustrating player. Some shifts, it’s there. Others, he floats. He needs to shoot the puck more instead of making the extra pass. One sequence with Ryan Strome was ridiculous.

When Pastrnak and Marchand combined to set up Bergeron’s second on another easy play that made one wonder if they were practicing, that was enough. Who cares about the goals Chris Kreider and Skjei scored. They came with under two minutes left. I don’t care to look. I’ll see a replay.

All it did was lead to Bergeron scoring an empty netter to complete his hat trick. The game’s best two-way center of this generation is a great player. Also happens to be one of my favorite players to watch.

That will do it. No highlights. No GIFs. No postgame. This was totally embarrassing. At least I met some cool Finnish hockey fans in our section, who appreciated my old school Starter Esa Tikkanen home white jersey. Nice fans. I also had a cool conversation with a MSG employee about Derek Sanderson and the first Expansion. Good guy.

Battle Of Hudson 3 🌟:

3rd 🌟 David Pastrnak, Bruins (5 🍎, +4 in 17:05)

2nd 🌟 Patrice Bergeron, Bruins (hat trick, #’s 3, 4, 5, 15/20 face-offs, +3 in 18:08)

1st 🌟 Brad Marchand, Bruins (2-3-5, +5 in 17:05)

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