The Carolina Hurricanes are now in the 4 spot....let that be a lesson to the rangers (carolina was father from philly when they started this run). The 4 spot was more than attainable, the rangers just have NOT been able to get it done on the road at all.
A lot could be talked about this game, but I have already spewed a lot of hate (see Staal and Girardi rant in post below). But the bottom line is, the rangers have 4 games left, and need to win 3 of them, and that is going to be VERY hard to do.
How does a team that started 10-1-2, and was leading the eastern conference in points into december, now need a late flurry just to survive and make it into postseason? The two main points from tonight, and pretty much all season, same story over and over:
1) A complete no show from the power play
2) AWFUL play on the road (usually spurred on by some awful defensive play)
Both are trademarks of a very young team, with no real leadership. While the rangers have a nice mix of some veterans, it is clear that their vocal, lockeroom leaders were Jagr and Shanny, and no one is stepping up to replace them right now.
Rangers had FOUR consecutive power plays in the first period tonight...and went 0-4. They could have buried this game in the first period, but didn't.
In the process, Hank got drilled by Ruutu. It appeared to be just a "stinger", common in football, but michelleti and rosen looked clueless. Hank got hammered in the head by a charging ruutu, which caused his head to snap back, and I am guessing a tremendous amount of pain and a pinching feeling into his neck. This causes lack of mobility and pain when moving the neck and shoulder area, but only last for about 15-20 minutes. Hank was able to recover after an on ice delay, and finished the game, though he never looked comfortable. (Although Rosen thought he did. But rosen also said late in the third period that this would be Carolina's 9th road win in a row. Not sure how that is possible playing at home. And he said after the game they have now won 10 home games in a row. So I guess they have won somewhere between 18-19 games in a row?)
The awful power play (where at times you will see THREE rangers in one of two places, 1) Out at the blue line, all of them in terrible position to shoot, meaning the only rangers in a possible position to score, are outnumbered 3-2 downlow by carolina, assuming one carolina defender stays up top as a courtesy to the 3 rangers jerking around the blue line; 2) And I saw this multiple times tonight, three rangers BEHIND the net. I have no idea how they are creating offense with all of the forwards behind the net, but it didn't work out too well. When you combine an awful defensive game, not just from girardi and staal, but from Redden again who was a complete non-factor and whose play SCREAMS, "I am doing everything I can just not to mess up". I can accept that from a 3rd line defenseman called up to replace an injured player, not a first line, 6 million a year defenseman. He has to be traded or cut in the offseason, but the contract is just to big to cut him and get nothing.
Anyway, if the rangers somehow don't make the playoffs, they have to look no farther than their road record. Some SHOCKING numbers here:
After that tough OT win in Chicago in January (some of you may remember, it was by far the worst officiated game of the year, a game where the blackhawks were somehow given FIVE, 5-on-3 advantage powerplays, still never seen anything like that) the rangers have just given up on the road.
From Jan 18 to Feb 25th, more than a month of the season, the rangers went WITHOUT A WIN on the road. Going 0-7-2 over 9 games. (2 points out of a possible 18. A VERY mediocre 8 points out of 18, a 3-4-2, still losing 6 of 9, would put the rangers at 95 points currently, in 4th place, with a realistic shot at 3, 3 points back with 4 games left) They ended that stretch with a win over the worst team in the NHL, the islanders. Who knows what happens if they had played in boston, or san jose, or detroit that night? How long would the skid have gone? (0-4-2 in the month of February, no road wins on the MONTH)
Since then, the rangers have picked it up a bit, to a completely unimpressive 3-4-1 since.
That means, since that night in chicago, when the Rangers were 27-15-4, and sitting pretty in the eastern conference, they have gone 13-14-5. Even worse?
In the 17 road games since that night, they are 3-11-3. Meaning they have gone 10-3-2 on home ice their last 15. Nothing wrong with that. Absolutely no reason to lose ground there. They have solely fallen from the top of the conference, to the 8 seed, on the back of getting just 9 points out of a possible 34 on the road since mid january. Winning just three out of 17 road games.
Put up or shutup, on the road, in Boston on Saturday. (Looking more and more like our first round opponent, which personally I kind of love, because I always like beating boston, especially in a classic "fairweather boston season" like this has become for a new wave of Bruins "fans" up in beantown. Saturday will be a good test to see what the rangers are made of, Hopefully hank will be in net)
A lot could be talked about this game, but I have already spewed a lot of hate (see Staal and Girardi rant in post below). But the bottom line is, the rangers have 4 games left, and need to win 3 of them, and that is going to be VERY hard to do.
How does a team that started 10-1-2, and was leading the eastern conference in points into december, now need a late flurry just to survive and make it into postseason? The two main points from tonight, and pretty much all season, same story over and over:
1) A complete no show from the power play
2) AWFUL play on the road (usually spurred on by some awful defensive play)
Both are trademarks of a very young team, with no real leadership. While the rangers have a nice mix of some veterans, it is clear that their vocal, lockeroom leaders were Jagr and Shanny, and no one is stepping up to replace them right now.
Rangers had FOUR consecutive power plays in the first period tonight...and went 0-4. They could have buried this game in the first period, but didn't.
In the process, Hank got drilled by Ruutu. It appeared to be just a "stinger", common in football, but michelleti and rosen looked clueless. Hank got hammered in the head by a charging ruutu, which caused his head to snap back, and I am guessing a tremendous amount of pain and a pinching feeling into his neck. This causes lack of mobility and pain when moving the neck and shoulder area, but only last for about 15-20 minutes. Hank was able to recover after an on ice delay, and finished the game, though he never looked comfortable. (Although Rosen thought he did. But rosen also said late in the third period that this would be Carolina's 9th road win in a row. Not sure how that is possible playing at home. And he said after the game they have now won 10 home games in a row. So I guess they have won somewhere between 18-19 games in a row?)
The awful power play (where at times you will see THREE rangers in one of two places, 1) Out at the blue line, all of them in terrible position to shoot, meaning the only rangers in a possible position to score, are outnumbered 3-2 downlow by carolina, assuming one carolina defender stays up top as a courtesy to the 3 rangers jerking around the blue line; 2) And I saw this multiple times tonight, three rangers BEHIND the net. I have no idea how they are creating offense with all of the forwards behind the net, but it didn't work out too well. When you combine an awful defensive game, not just from girardi and staal, but from Redden again who was a complete non-factor and whose play SCREAMS, "I am doing everything I can just not to mess up". I can accept that from a 3rd line defenseman called up to replace an injured player, not a first line, 6 million a year defenseman. He has to be traded or cut in the offseason, but the contract is just to big to cut him and get nothing.
Anyway, if the rangers somehow don't make the playoffs, they have to look no farther than their road record. Some SHOCKING numbers here:
After that tough OT win in Chicago in January (some of you may remember, it was by far the worst officiated game of the year, a game where the blackhawks were somehow given FIVE, 5-on-3 advantage powerplays, still never seen anything like that) the rangers have just given up on the road.
From Jan 18 to Feb 25th, more than a month of the season, the rangers went WITHOUT A WIN on the road. Going 0-7-2 over 9 games. (2 points out of a possible 18. A VERY mediocre 8 points out of 18, a 3-4-2, still losing 6 of 9, would put the rangers at 95 points currently, in 4th place, with a realistic shot at 3, 3 points back with 4 games left) They ended that stretch with a win over the worst team in the NHL, the islanders. Who knows what happens if they had played in boston, or san jose, or detroit that night? How long would the skid have gone? (0-4-2 in the month of February, no road wins on the MONTH)
Since then, the rangers have picked it up a bit, to a completely unimpressive 3-4-1 since.
That means, since that night in chicago, when the Rangers were 27-15-4, and sitting pretty in the eastern conference, they have gone 13-14-5. Even worse?
In the 17 road games since that night, they are 3-11-3. Meaning they have gone 10-3-2 on home ice their last 15. Nothing wrong with that. Absolutely no reason to lose ground there. They have solely fallen from the top of the conference, to the 8 seed, on the back of getting just 9 points out of a possible 34 on the road since mid january. Winning just three out of 17 road games.
Put up or shutup, on the road, in Boston on Saturday. (Looking more and more like our first round opponent, which personally I kind of love, because I always like beating boston, especially in a classic "fairweather boston season" like this has become for a new wave of Bruins "fans" up in beantown. Saturday will be a good test to see what the rangers are made of, Hopefully hank will be in net)
Posts
Nugman - great to see you hang in there and post after such a tough loss. I was worried you'd dissappear for a few days again. You're right - Hank was not the same after the injury - only maing 2 saves in the first period and having a save percentage in the low 80s for the game.
ReplyDeleteWe're in 8th now - and it's us or the Panthers in a do or die. We're 2 points up - they have the game at hand.
What do you think of this - the Rangers can hide their worst defensemen at home where they have the last line change. But on the road - opponents can but their best against our worst - exposing our weakness.
I think that's a very fair point dave, my only question, whose our worst defenseman?
ReplyDeleteOn a scale of 1-10, 10 being let's say Nick Lidstrom, and 1 being....tom poti? (I know many rangers fans couldn't stand poti, I always thought he was "ok", I disliked tyutin more) Anyway, if that's the scale, I'd go:
6 - Mara, Girardi (Yes, it starts at 6. Mara plays a strong physical game, and tries to pinch in when he can, has a decent shot, just can't get it on net. Girardi is usually in solid defensive position)
5 - Morris (If the rangers had any infront the net presence I would probably have him around a 7 or 8, because he would have 8 assists by now. Good low shot, and solid physical presence. Not enough games with team yet, but he's solid)
4 - Staal (Nothing on offense, absolutely nothing. On defense he has games where he is very physical, and has a frame that could become a big bruiser some day if he put on some weight, but gets caught out of position far too often)
3 - Rozsival (Almost no physical presence, plays soft, and has a great shot he refuses to use. He makes VERY slow decisions on offense, and his contract is killer)
1 - Redden (He has done NOTHING all season. He has given NO physical presence. Try and remember the last crushing hit redden laid out to keep a guy off Hank? His offense has been non-existent. He provides no leadership. He looks SCARED...and makes 6 million a year to do it)
I'm convinced Redden is the worst of our defenseman right now (all parts of the game considered). How do you hide 6 million a year?
I don't want to even comment about Redden, partly because of how HORRIBLE he has played this season and partly because he is under contract for 5 MORE YEARS
ReplyDeleteRangers can look like two different teams every game. Some times they look great - hustle, creating good shots, taking good shots, no stupid penalties - and then in a complete 180 they don't even look like they should be on the ice with other professional teams
I thought Tortorella was going to help the jekyll and hyde aspect of the team, but then before the 3rd period last night they put up some scary numbers - in 3rd period under tortorella rangers were being outscored 18-11 (now being outscored 20-11) and were 2-26 on the powerplay (2-26, are you Serieys?!?!?!).
I guess at this point, just have to make the playoffs and then hope Hank can play out of his mind and our powerplay can actually score some goals - then maybe, maybe we could win a playoff series
I just noticed - Nugman never had a number 2 on his list. Are those Potter/Sauer?
ReplyDeleteGood point Will, if we can sneak in at number 8 we have a chance of stunning the Bruins and getting on a roll from there. I don't think it's just us - all the teams in the East this year have some jekyll and hyde in them - Boston included.
ReplyDeleteAnd for every bad shift on the Power Play - we seem to have an amazing shift on the Penalty Kill. When we need - what we are dying for - is a big time goal scorer.
We could see several upsets in the opening round - because the teams 5-9 are all surging right now. I could see the Devils falling to almost anyone the way they're playing now.
Winning Saturday is HUGE. But they're all huge now.
True I didn't have a number 2 (also not a 7-10), I only went with what I consider to be the rangers "top 6" defenseman, with Rozsival returning in the next game or two.
ReplyDeletePotter had a very solid game last night, but couldn't have played much more than 5 minutes max. He won't be getting a lot of ice time, though he did score, and used the same nice shot fake he scored on later in the game to almost create a goal. Perhaps torts finds some room for him?
Sauer got send back down to make room for potter.