No idea why people feel that Stralman, who is a huge career nhl -, is going to be a huge upgrade defensively.
We are still going to be a 4 dman team when up by a goal with 10 to play. Stralman may just bring some more offense and hopefully, take some of the TOI load off of Girardi and McD by playing some 2nd team PP minutes.
"I think we have high confidence right now," he said. "We need to grow this confidence every game to play even better as a line. We need to keep an eye on the back of each other. If someone makes a mistake let's come back and go hard for him."
wheres mike1983 who took
a shot at Da Costa before the game? He was there most dangerous player in the last 5 min
Really? What is he your brother or something, did you really get all offended because I said in another thread: "Da Costa has elite vision? Then how come he only has 1 assist on the season?"
Tell your brother i'm sorry for "taking a shot" at him.
Richards, unfortunately was a no-show for the most part today. He had one really good pass to start a 2 on 1 and that was about it.
It was a mistake putting him on the same line with Dubi. Dubi likes to hold onto the puck and that doesn't mesh well with BR's strengths as a set up guy.
I'm having a hard time pinning that goal on Woywitka. The ice was terrible all night and it, unfortunately, the puck bounced along the boards all the way into the zone and up and over his stick. Ok, a better d-man might have been able to corral it, but it's not like it was an egregious error.
He is the reserve d-man. I'm sure he knows it would have taken a helluva game to keep Stralman from getting in anyway.
I'm not gonna kill him for it, but if he gets his body in front of the puck, he stops it. With the ice as bad as it was, he should have expected the puck might bounce on him.
No idea why people feel that Stralman, who is a huge career nhl -, is going to be a huge upgrade defensively.
We are still going to be a 4 dman team when up by a goal with 10 to play. Stralman may just bring some more offense and hopefully, take some of the TOI load off of Girardi and McD by playing some 2nd team PP minutes.
The difference with Stralman is that he can take 2-4 minutes a night from Girardi or McDonagh on the PP. IMO he should be used more as a PP specialist than anything else. Get him 4+ minutes on the PP and 8-10 minutes ES. Eminger and Woywitka don't play on the PP or PK so taking some time from someone there will only help decrease their minutes.
I still would like to get a Carkner-like player as the #6. Someone who excels at the PK but whose minutes can be lowered at ES. Use that 3rd pairing, for now, as a special teams unit more than anything else.
My other main issue is if Torts is afraid to play Eminger and Woywitka (~10 minutes each last game), then why not just call up a player like Valentenko and see what he can do for 10 minutes? I don't think he would be any worse than those 2.
How good would this look if BC gets knocked out early:
Anisimov-Stepan-Gaborik
Kreider-Richards-Callahan
Not very good IMO. Expecting Kreider to come in as a rookie straight from college and make an impact in our top 6 is a stretch, to put it mildly. And I wouldn't try it at the expense of burning a year off his ELC.
If his college season is done before the Whale are, I expect that he'll sign a PTO and practice/play with them.
My stars are the same everybody else's. Avery doesn't look remotely deserving of more ice time. He was ineffective and just plain bad defensively. He failed to clear the puck several times. Face it. The guy produces nothing, can't kill penalties, and isn't even a particularly effective agitator at this point. He gives us nothing.
Yeah, that's not even close to true. But if it makes you feel better to say it, go ahead. Last time we played the Sens Konopka ran Anisimov into the boards and got a game misconduct. Who stood up to him this meeting? Wake up. With decent linemates and reasonable ice time, he can make things happen. That will never happen with Torts as the coach but he wasn't anywhere near as bad as you're saying. In fact, these days he outplaying Prust by alot. And I love Brandon, but he cannot hold or make a pass and he's not dropping the gloves so I'm not sure what he brings outside of decent PK.
Other than them, no one else showed up. Lundqvist played a solid game, but that is about it. After those four, it was not a great performance.
Remember all of the fans hear clamoring to trade Gaborik because he was "weak" and had no "heart"? He's making them look like fools this year.
I thought Girardi and McD were very good (outside of McD falling). We are starting to take them for granted and for a second year D-man that is pretty impressive.
No idea why people feel that Stralman, who is a huge career nhl -, is going to be a huge upgrade defensively.
We are still going to be a 4 dman team when up by a goal with 10 to play. Stralman may just bring some more offense and hopefully, take some of the TOI load off of Girardi and McD by playing some 2nd team PP minutes.
I don't think many people expect him to be an upgrade at all defensively. I just think a bit more experience and skill on the blueline might improve the overall package.
A respectable PK is far more by itself than what Avery brings.
Stood up for Anisimov? In what world is losing a grappling match productive? I seem to recall Konopka running around in his usual form after he got out of the box. I'm certain that some more mean and nasty words from Sean weren't going to stop him doing anything in particular.
I dont think people "jumped off the bandwagon" as much as they were just pointing out how crappy the team was playing and were putting forth putrid efforts on offense.
I mean, it's just typical of a sport fan. If you start off 5-0-0, you cant help but entertain the idea of winning a championship, or at the least, being an "elite" team. If you start of 0-3-2, it's always "fire everybody, burn the arena down, call up the youngsters".
Personally, I'm still not that impressed, especially when you consider they still have a tough time dictating the play and out-chancing and out-shooting the opposition.
Still, I'll take 8-3-3.
It seems if you aren't waving the pom-poms then you're jumping off the bandwagon...did some people over-react to the start? of course they did...getting 4 SOG last night in the 1st period was not the sign of a dominant team, they didn't even break 20 SOG for the game.
I'm happy as well with their record but doesn't mean I'm going to ignore their flaws.
The difference with Stralman is that he can take 2-4 minutes a night from Girardi or McDonagh on the PP. IMO he should be used more as a PP specialist than anything else. Get him 4+ minutes on the PP and 8-10 minutes ES. Eminger and Woywitka don't play on the PP or PK so taking some time from someone there will only help decrease their minutes.
I still would like to get a Carkner-like player as the #6. Someone who excels at the PK but whose minutes can be lowered at ES. Use that 3rd pairing, for now, as a special teams unit more than anything else.
My other main issue is if Torts is afraid to play Eminger and Woywitka (~10 minutes each last game), then why not just call up a player like Valentenko and see what he can do for 10 minutes? I don't think he would be any worse than those 2.
The risk of losing him on waivers probably isn't worth the slight chance that he'd be a meaningful upgrade. That wouldn't be good asset management, IMO.
Yeah, that's not even close to true. But if it makes you feel better to say it, go ahead. Last time we played the Sens Konopka ran Anisimov into the boards and got a game misconduct. Who stood up to him this meeting? Wake up. With decent linemates and reasonable ice time, he can make things happen. That will never happen with Torts as the coach but he wasn't anywhere near as bad as you're saying. In fact, these days he outplaying Prust by alot. And I love Brandon, but he cannot hold or make a pass and he's not dropping the gloves so I'm not sure what he brings outside of decent PK.
Not getting into the Avery debate.
I posted in the GDT thread last night that it looked like Prust passed up a lot of opportunities to throw checks...wondering if he is having shoulder problems again...he seems to be getting a lot of "maintenance" days according to the beat writers tweets.
The risk of losing him on waivers probably isn't worth the slight chance that he'd be a meaningful upgrade. That wouldn't be good asset management, IMO.
I thought he didn't need waivers this season because he went back to the KHL and missed a year of eligibility. Maybe I'm wrong. If that's the case then I retract my statement.
A respectable PK is far more by itself than what Avery brings.
Stood up for Anisimov? In what world is losing a grappling match productive? I seem to recall Konopka running around in his usual form after he got out of the box. I'm certain that some more mean and nasty words from Sean weren't going to stop him doing anything in particular.
In this world! It's about respect and standing up for each other! I don't think Sean expected to win the fight against a much bigger guy, it's the fact that he dropped the gloves that's important. Tennis fan primarily?
I for one have always been a member of the school of though that says the best way to stop players from running your teammate/goalie is to run their teammate/goalie. Not with intent to injure, just to send a message that you aren;t going to play good guy. That was how I always handled it, rather than dancing around with a guy on the ice for 45 seconds without actually touching him, which is what transpired last night.
I don't think Eminger has been bad at all. I just think he is a #6 playing with a #7 which drags him down.
Get him a respectable partner instead of Woywitka and you're in decent shape. Mara looked a lot better with Morris than he did with Strudwick.
Agreed, Eminger played really well when paired with Sauer last season after Rozy's injury. He needs to be playing with someone better than he is. It doesn't help matters that both Eminger and Woywitka are slow and have a difficult time getting to loose pucks.
Having a mobile defenseman such as Stralman should help even out the pairing a bit, but I agree that he is not such of an upgrade on defense. He even admitted in an interview last week that he describes himself as an offensive defenseman and that defense isn't really his game. I hope he can do a better job defensively than Woywitka but I'm not sure.
I thought he didn't need waivers this season because he went back to the KHL and missed a year of eligibility. Maybe I'm wrong. If that's the case then I retract my statement.
I remember there being a lot of debate about this, but I seem to remember him needing to clear waivers when we sent him down. Maybe I'm confusing him with someone else, though.
I posted in the GDT thread last night that it looked like Prust passed up a lot of opportunities to throw checks...wondering if he is having shoulder problems again...he seems to be getting a lot of "maintenance" days according to the beat writers tweets.
I was sitting right beside the Ranger bench, and several times when Prust finished a shift, he came off grimacing and 'checking' that area (shoulder, chest). Didn't look comfortable at all. Pure speculation on my part, but he didn't look pain-free. Guy is an animal.
The difference with Stralman is that he can take 2-4 minutes a night from Girardi or McDonagh on the PP. IMO he should be used more as a PP specialist than anything else. Get him 4+ minutes on the PP and 8-10 minutes ES. Eminger and Woywitka don't play on the PP or PK so taking some time from someone there will only help decrease their minutes.
I still would like to get a Carkner-like player as the #6. Someone who excels at the PK but whose minutes can be lowered at ES. Use that 3rd pairing, for now, as a special teams unit more than anything else.
My other main issue is if Torts is afraid to play Eminger and Woywitka (~10 minutes each last game), then why not just call up a player like Valentenko and see what he can do for 10 minutes? I don't think he would be any worse than those 2.
That's why I'm a little worried McIlrath is gonna make the team next season.
And the best play last night was Girardi's defensive play on Gaborik's 2nd goal. Blocked the puck flawless with his stick on a saucer pass. What a player he's become.
