You can't exactly wish this team anything else than what it is.
You either try to work within the confines or realism or drift into ideological normative arguments about what we "should" have done with this team. (Which are pointless)
Well what we should DO is play Staal and somebody else as the top pair until Girardi and McD can catch their breath. Put them on the 3rd pair.
what he said...
there is no reason Eminger should EVER be in the lineup, havent seen such a slow footed dman since Malik. he looks like he's riding a a bike up a really steep hill in the lowest gear possible when he skates. ill take stralman's turnovers any day over emingers turnover to blown tire move that he's seemed to master at this point. eminger sucks balls.
Haha, oh man, what a great mental picture.
__________________
"I used to pray for good things . I used to ask the Hockey Gods for puck luck for the NYR .
Now all I want is Torts the smug stupid goatee clown to be fired , . I hate Torts . Please hockey gods make him get fired. Please Sean punch him in face" -- Dorado
Congrats to the Debs for laying a serious smackdown on this team. The Rangers were beaten in every single aspect of the game. Started with the Dubi ass-whopping that somehow got worse after that. I don't mind losing a competitive game, but this was borderline abuse by one of their biggest rivals.
Debs fans should be proud of their team tonite. They deserve the **** eating grin they must have right now.Oh Well..
Its over. Should have been a mercy rule.
The word "talent" is going to come up again and again in the playoffs. Hoping for us that shotblocking and goaltending beat that...
Well hey at least we made progress going from being "a bad hockey team" to being "not a very good hockey team". Xanax would do you wonders.
Other than Lundqvist, there's nothing to consistently like about this team. Even Gaborik has stretches like he had before this game and disappears for long stretches of games. I watch this team day in and day out and I don't see anything that screams top team. They routinely get outplayed or even flat out dominated. They've relied on Lundqvist all season.
Some serious overreaction going on in here tonight. Probably due to the fact it was against the Devils, but really, it's one game of an 82 game season. Relax people, Christ sakes...
As bad as Girardi was tonight, Gaborik's turnover which led to the first goal and then his turnover that led to the powerplay for the Devils was worse. He should have been benched, but hey Torts plays favorites and always has.
Now Torts also needs to be benched cause his decision to play Scott, a player who provides nothing and deters nobody. How he can dress this bum is beyond me. The amount of ice time Scott saw was ridiculous. When will he put Rupp or Boyle in front of the net on the powerplay? Will the powerplay ever get it's act together, probably not as long as Torts runs it.
I just feel bad for Hank, no chance on the 2nd goal and he stood on his head for most of the game with little to no help.
Next game I am hoping to see this for defense
Stralman-Del Zotto
Staal-Bickel
McDonagh-Girardi (3rd pair minutes)
The team should watch a video with all their turnovers up the center of the ice, anyone makes a dumb pass through the center should be benched.
Torts looks up "skill" in the dictionary and always finds himself in the J section looking right at "jam."
Call up Newbury! top line: Rupp - Newbury - Scott
Anyone can look up my posts and see I'm not the biggest Torts' fan, but enough is enough. His stubborness with the dump and chase system is so frustrating. No one here can tell me Scott or Mitchell or Feds can bring more to this team than Zucc can. Look at the PP and then look at how many guys we have that can fight. We're not going anywhere grinding this long, it takes too much a toll on the players.
3 games in a row where lundqvist lets in 3+ goals..
Starting to get worried
I'm not worried about this one, I actually thought Lundqvist was sharp. If he wasn't they could have had 5 or 6 goals. Our defense, in my opinion, was that bad. I don't think we've seen that many turn overs right in front of the net or in the slot all season long.
Lundqvist played a solid game in Tampa, a solid yet shaky (if that makes any sense) game against Boston, and a real solid performance tonight. Like I said, it could have been worse.
What is more concerning is the teams lack of consistency with defense in the last three games. Lundqvist letting in more pucks is directly correlated to the defense in front of him, and the past few games, it hasn't been there.
I said it in the thread, whether people agree with more or not, I don't care, but we haven't played good hockey in the last three games (regardless of being 1-1-1). Not good hockey right now, plenty of time to bounce back though. Hard to be concerned.
Some serious overreaction going on in here tonight. Probably due to the fact it was against the Devils, but really, it's one game of an 82 game season. Relax people, Christ sakes...
Do you think we've played well the last month or so? I don't and even though we've been getting points that cant last forever. I understand the optimistic view but it can't last forever. At some point you have to be realistic and realize the team needs to play better.
Also I never want to see another person advocate trading Marc Staal ever again.
In fact, Sauer either. Sauer's non-presence is rearing it's ugly head.
Honestly, I don't know why we have Bickel in the line up. We have plenty of grit and size with players like Rupp and Scott.
Eminger is a much better defense man, and I have no idea why he has been a healthy scratch recently. He doesn't make that mistake on Clarkson in my opinion, and overall, brings a much more complete game to the table.
Well this was an interesting one, largely because you get to see from a very close perspective the kind of impact that fatigue can have on mental errors.
Really nothing majorly wrong with the team that can't be handles, but you're looking at a defensive tandem in McDonagh and Girardi that are past their second wind and into the dreaded tired phase.
I've been monitoring their ice time all season and been trying to guess exactly when it was going to kick in, and it appears that that time is here. Tortorella needs to find a way to limit their time and get them back to full strength whilst not completely crippling the team.
Other things... well obviously we were a man short tonight with Dubinsky going off with what will probably be a broken hand on an idiotic fight. Why he feels the need to drop the mitts when we have an entire line full of fighters on top of Bickel is nothing short of baffling, and he may not be back now until the first round at the earliest.
Callahan was obviously only at about 50-60%. Had difficulty with sharp turns, was not as physical, and didn't even look as enthusiastic about blocking shots. He played 20:20 in a game, where, frankly, he should not have played.
Staal was the best player on the ice for the Rangers tonight, though Stepan and Hagelin had some good moments.
Key turnover machines were Girardi, McDonagh, Gaborik, Richards, and Pruster. Too many icings and our defensive zone coverage was even suspect at times.
All in all you're looking at a situatio n where the Rangers have a ton of upcoming games with not much rest in between, most of them are against playoff caliber opposition. Biron is going to have another 3 starts this month, and the Rangers are going to need to try to find a way to play their game in order to stay in first place. Oh, and Brad Richards is going to have to show up.
Agreed on all points!
I've been saying for the past couple of weeks that Girardi (and McD)) has looked fatigued and making way too many lazy and uncharacteristc plays because of it. When playing at home you can match lines and this makes it somewhat easier to defend. Problem is, we have a few away games coming up against fast, skilled teams.
We missed a few glorious chances tonight, and although we turned the puck over way too much, we were a few bounces away from getting at least a point. However, that's what happens when you can't score consistently.
Looks like St. Louis is on its way to another game allowing few if any goals. Amazing that these teams were something like .03 GAA away from each other before the Tampa game. That team has Elliott putting up ridiculous numbers. We have friggin Lundqvist saving our *****.
Last edited by SnowblindNYR: 03-06-2012 at 09:13 PM.
Some serious overreaction going on in here tonight. Probably due to the fact it was against the Devils, but really, it's one game of an 82 game season. Relax people, Christ sakes...
Meanwhile every win brings a new '94 team thread. It's one extreme or another.
Stralman has 1 bad giveaway against Boston and he's a healthy scratch? Oh come on. If Torts made everyone who turned the puck over a healthy scratch next game, we'd only have Hank left.
And I know everyone here hates Johnny Malkin, but I take him over Scott any day of the week.
While Richards has been slow, his lower production this season has a lot to do with the wildly inconsistent power play.
I get a little disgruntles when I see his even strength play drop, and very recently it has.
I'm not saying that it will solve anything, obviously you can't be certain about such things, but I would like to see Zuccarello given another opportunity to try to spark some life into the power play. Even if it is simply as a second unit option.
We are really going to need our 3rd pairing guys to step up down the stretch.
Unfortunately, Stralman is starting to falter during the time we need him most. Some people are forgetting that the reason he didn't play tonight is because he made some bad turnovers on Sunday, which is exactly what plagued us tonight, so I don't think he would make that much of a difference if he played. Bickel decided to join the turnover parade tonight and he has taken penalties at inopportune times. I thought Eminger looked better than he did when he first returned from his injury, so maybe he can step up much like he did last year when we had injuries on D.
Does Henrik hold onto the Vezina? Quick's numbers are starting to creep in on Lundqvist and Rinne is a winning machine and work horse.
I really hope Lundqvist can hold on. I think he has played fine these three games, excellent tonight, but it shows that three straight 3+ goal games / sub .900SV% statistical performances can quickly impact the race.
When Lundqvist had a .940, it was his to lose. Just .005 in front of Quick, it becomes more interesting.
