The outcome sucked, but they fought back from 2-4 and 4-5. Ain't nothing over yet, and you greatly overestimate Tampa as a team.
Yeah, I said the Rangers lost that game just as much as Tampa won it. Credit to them for taking advantage of the Rangers' plethora of fuck-ups, but Tampa is beatable.
I get a kick out of the posters who weren't on Ranger threads all year, show up in the playoffs and then at the first sign of adversity go into "GAME OVER. SERIES OVER. SEASON OVER." mode.
BTW, I try hard not to project emotions on players since I don't know shit, but I felt Lundqvist looked really shaky during all three games. He's flopping around and no longer playing his strong technical game.
Also, he's due for a fucking shutout. Averaged one every 9.2 games this regular season and hasn't had one yet these playoffs.
The outcome sucked, but they fought back from 2-4 and 4-5. Ain't nothing over yet, and you greatly overestimate Tampa as a team.
Their one weakness is their inexperience. Even the coach says "we're only in year 2 of this thing" They arent particularly deep on the blue line, and they arent particularly battle tested.
You beat them with experience and attention to detail. My concerns is we havent done that all year against these mother fuckers... for whatever reason... and for reasons i dont understand, we just havent looked right this entire postseason.
Nice comeback against Washington - but come on, that series never should have been so close. They have 2 maybe 3 guys on their entire roster that can score and they dont have a top pair D-unit.
My only conclusion is that our stars havent played like stars - Nash, MSL, McD. Maybe they can turn it around, but clock is ticking boys - its been 15 games now. Get your heads out of your asses.
he's flopping around because they keep giving up cross passes to wide open guys in a scoring position.
It is a combination of terrible D and crisp passing that is killing the Rangers right now. Bottom line is that TB is converting a lot of open looks while the Rangers aren't. MSL whiffed on an open look and we continue to have those 1-2 breakaways a game that aren't converted.
Lundquist gave up a soft OT goal, but he's not been terrible. The high goal totals are a combination of too many PP chances and a D that is having problems with gap control. In the past two games, he's had a bunch of pucks get behind him that he any goalie would have a difficult time stopping.
We needed to come back to MSG 2-2 to take home-ice advantage back. Hank knows more than anyone how bad he is playing right now and he is the ultimate competitor. I want to believe that he and the defense cant get their shit together and right this ship. The offense is coming around.
This team has had their backs against the wall before, and more often than not, they have responded. I am going to give them the benefit of the doubt here. Just take Game 4 and all will be right again.
Where it looks like none of the defensemen have played together in their lives. It's irritating. Good for Tampa for taking advantage, but the Rangers are making it easy for them.
RE: RE: I will tell you who is certainly getting pulled
There have been several occasions where TB swung the puck to a wide open guy on the right circle who unloaded it towards an open net, more in game 2 than game 3 IIRC.
It's like the Rangers are still getting used to TB's speed after those plodding series against Pitt and Washington.
There have been several occasions where TB swung the puck to a wide open guy on the right circle who unloaded it towards an open net, more in game 2 than game 3 IIRC.
It's like the Rangers are still getting used to TB's speed after those plodding series against Pitt and Washington.
They play like the old Penguins. Everybody looks to cut to the net.
at least with the confidence they're playing with right now compared to how our top forwards are playing.
But we are capable of defending at a much higher level than them. Their Stralman/Hedman pair is excellent. It's pedestrian beyond that on D. We should be the better defensive team. We saw it in game 1 (which feels like a lifetime ago now). It is possible against this group. But that one fucking line is just killing us.
My point is, we know our group is capable of preventing goals at a higher level than this. We just saw it as recently as two games ago. This is still a competitive and very winnable series if we can get back to that.
Don't forget, we still put up 5 on them last night. Bishop can be beaten and when we get the forecheck working on their D, we generate a ton of chances. Powerplay has been very successful too in this series.
Don't forget, we still put up 5 on them last night. Bishop can be beaten and when we get the forecheck working on their D, we generate a ton of chances. Powerplay has been very successful too in this series.
That forecheck is both helping and hurting though right? When it doesnt generate the turnover or disrupt, they are generating odd man rushes and converting at an unbelievably high clip.
Honestly, when your goalie is playing poorly, AV's system - which i otherwise like - can look ugly at times. We rely so much on Hank back there and he usually delivers. ughh.
And man we need Zuccs to come in and replace MSL. I need some good news today - he travelled with the team, maybe he'll skate with the team today or something.
and God willing hopefully he can walk again one day.
No thanks - Fear the Beard.
Blame Ryan McDonagh.
You know, the guy who lifted Hank's mask just enough to let the puck almost kill him, the guy who sniped Zuccarello in the back of the head, fell asleep at the wheel in the closing seconds of Game 1 vs WSH and the guy who has fucking sucked for the majority of the playoffs.
Someone needs to take fuckin' control here. I got this shit.
Don't forget, we still put up 5 on them last night. Bishop can be beaten and when we get the forecheck working on their D, we generate a ton of chances. Powerplay has been very successful too in this series.
That forecheck is both helping and hurting though right? When it doesnt generate the turnover or disrupt, they are generating odd man rushes and converting at an unbelievably high clip.
Honestly, when your goalie is playing poorly, AV's system - which i otherwise like - can look ugly at times. We rely so much on Hank back there and he usually delivers. ughh.
And man we need Zuccs to come in and replace MSL. I need some good news today - he travelled with the team, maybe he'll skate with the team today or something.
Yeah I don't wanna say we should start playing Trotz or Torts style hockey and just clog it up. Because that's not this team's style and it's not what got us here. But maybe the pinching should be limited to guys like McD, who has the skating ability to do it. Or guys like Boyle, who has shown pretty good instincts for it and has actually scored some net front goals, like last night.
We're just giving up way too many breaks or odd man rushes the other way and it feels like they're literally scoring on every one of them.
That top line is just way too comfortable right now. I would say to get physical with them, but that's not really how our D plays. And we saw what happened when Kreider when out of his way to hit one of them on the 5th goal.
He had some games that were the primary reason we are even still playing. That said, he does deserve some blame. There is no question the D played terrbily in Games 2 and 3. However, a few of those goals were ones Hank should have stopped and normally would have stopped, regardless of the play in front of him. But, there is no way in Hell I have anyone but him in net for any remaining games. And, as long as the Rangers keep a game close, I am not pulling him either.
His game 7 record is practically superhuman. It just hasn't all come together for his teams at the same time to result in the ultimate goal, for whatever reason.
His playoff numbers are excellent across a large sample size. He just had a bad game last night. It doesn't have to be more than that. Unfortunately it came at a terrible time.
and God willing hopefully he can walk again one day.
No thanks - Fear the Beard.
Blame Ryan McDonagh.
You know, the guy who lifted Hank's mask just enough to let the puck almost kill him, the guy who sniped Zuccarello in the back of the head, fell asleep at the wheel in the closing seconds of Game 1 vs WSH and the guy who has fucking sucked for the majority of the playoffs.
Someone needs to take fuckin' control here. I got this shit.
Fell asleep in game 1, made a shit effort on Ovechkin's goal in game 2, had a terrible turnover that led to the GWG in game 4, made numerous terrible plays (and terrible turnovers that eventually led to a PP TB scored on) last night...
that he sucked. The OT goal was a killer and shouldn't have gotten past him, but he stopped a breakaway moments before. TB is literally shooting on him at point blank range for most of the game and is getting wide open looks. Very few goalies can stop those shots.
If a guy has time to pinpoint his location and shoot it with speed, there is little Hank can do. That's on the D.
yes, last night was a gut shot, and seeing Hank turn in back to back clunkers is weird to all of us
But this series is far from over. We tighten things up a bit, win game 4, then face a 3 game series with 2 games at home
Yes, it sucks that the 2 big guns we brought in who were supposed to deliver this time of year (Nash and MSL) are MIA...but it's also been fun to see guys like Stepan, Brassard, Moore, and Fast grow up during these playoffs
my man-crush on Lundqvist is thoroughly unhealthy. There hasnt been an athlete i wanted to see win a trophy more than this in maybe my lifetime (Eli was still pretty young when he won his).
He's awesome - he's the only reason we're here - he's stolen us lots of games in the past. No one is disputing any of this.
But they scored him 5 goals last night - legends and champions dont blow that. He did. He's still got a chance to get us back in this thing, and hopefully he will.
win or lose, I still love the guy and want him to retire a Ranger. That's not the point.
He gave up 6 goals, at least two of them were directly his fault and the other 4 - well there is a very fine line between Champions and really, really good players.
Yes, the D can be better in front of him too.
I dont doubt a lot of this is bad luck - i just think Champions rise to the occassion and play their best when the stakes are highest. Eli has. Jeter & Rivera have. I'd love Hank to join that company.
RE: The first goal was really bad too, not just the OT goal
I dont doubt a lot of this is bad luck - i just think Champions rise to the occassion and play their best when the stakes are highest. Eli has. Jeter & Rivera have. I'd love Hank to join that company.
Pretty must spot on and I agree with your passion for seeing Henrik win one. It's a 7 game series. He'll bounce back. Don't forget Rivera also blown a couple saves that would have gotten the Yanks another shot at adding another ring. He bounced back. So will Henrik.
Rangers in 7.
RE: RE: It wouldn't have been a crime to let Talbot start the 3rd period
Lightening power play has been superb, not just against the Rangers, but everybody. I've never seen Lundqvist let in so many goals in back to back games -- but, even if he put together two games where he was less than great, I do not think it's all on him. The D just has to be better. Those passes in the Rangers' end have to be interrupted, challenged more. Game four is pretty much a must win.
Will go down as the greatest Rangers player whether he gets a cup or not. He's done everything he can possibly do to win a cup. He had 2 bad games back to back, shit happens. Dont quite get the if he deserves a cup he needs to step up.
FMIC is right with the defense being bad. Your team wanted to play this style of hockey but maybe they should try to change it to the grinding playoff hockey that they have dominated the past few years in the playoffs. If they can get into that style vs tampa they could probably be winning 3-1 games. Bishop can be beat.
he's up there and i know the Rangers have a pretty sad history so bar fairly low..... but "Greatest Ranger ever"?
I do think you've still got to win one to claim that. Whether its his fault or whatever, that's just the way it is. Many people i know still consider Richter to be the best Rangers goalie ever, let alone player.
Ridiculous, I know - Richter for his career was 90% save pct and 2.9 GAA... but this business is about championships, fair or unfair. Is what it is.
Yeah, I said the Rangers lost that game just as much as Tampa won it. Credit to them for taking advantage of the Rangers' plethora of fuck-ups, but Tampa is beatable.
Bishop played worse than Lundqvist last night.
Good stuff.
Also, he's due for a fucking shutout. Averaged one every 9.2 games this regular season and hasn't had one yet these playoffs.
Staal taken the Body...
Their one weakness is their inexperience. Even the coach says "we're only in year 2 of this thing" They arent particularly deep on the blue line, and they arent particularly battle tested.
You beat them with experience and attention to detail. My concerns is we havent done that all year against these mother fuckers... for whatever reason... and for reasons i dont understand, we just havent looked right this entire postseason.
Nice comeback against Washington - but come on, that series never should have been so close. They have 2 maybe 3 guys on their entire roster that can score and they dont have a top pair D-unit.
My only conclusion is that our stars havent played like stars - Nash, MSL, McD. Maybe they can turn it around, but clock is ticking boys - its been 15 games now. Get your heads out of your asses.
It is a combination of terrible D and crisp passing that is killing the Rangers right now. Bottom line is that TB is converting a lot of open looks while the Rangers aren't. MSL whiffed on an open look and we continue to have those 1-2 breakaways a game that aren't converted.
Lundquist gave up a soft OT goal, but he's not been terrible. The high goal totals are a combination of too many PP chances and a D that is having problems with gap control. In the past two games, he's had a bunch of pucks get behind him that he any goalie would have a difficult time stopping.
This team has had their backs against the wall before, and more often than not, they have responded. I am going to give them the benefit of the doubt here. Just take Game 4 and all will be right again.
Quote:
Brett.
Nice 1-2 playoff performance this year asshole.
I'm 2-4
I thinks it's Arcs turn. He is 3-1. Bring it home tomorrow night Arc.
No thanks - Fear the Beard.
It's like the Rangers are still getting used to TB's speed after those plodding series against Pitt and Washington.
It's like the Rangers are still getting used to TB's speed after those plodding series against Pitt and Washington.
They play like the old Penguins. Everybody looks to cut to the net.
But we are capable of defending at a much higher level than them. Their Stralman/Hedman pair is excellent. It's pedestrian beyond that on D. We should be the better defensive team. We saw it in game 1 (which feels like a lifetime ago now). It is possible against this group. But that one fucking line is just killing us.
My point is, we know our group is capable of preventing goals at a higher level than this. We just saw it as recently as two games ago. This is still a competitive and very winnable series if we can get back to that.
Don't forget, we still put up 5 on them last night. Bishop can be beaten and when we get the forecheck working on their D, we generate a ton of chances. Powerplay has been very successful too in this series.
Don't forget, we still put up 5 on them last night. Bishop can be beaten and when we get the forecheck working on their D, we generate a ton of chances. Powerplay has been very successful too in this series.
That forecheck is both helping and hurting though right? When it doesnt generate the turnover or disrupt, they are generating odd man rushes and converting at an unbelievably high clip.
Honestly, when your goalie is playing poorly, AV's system - which i otherwise like - can look ugly at times. We rely so much on Hank back there and he usually delivers. ughh.
And man we need Zuccs to come in and replace MSL. I need some good news today - he travelled with the team, maybe he'll skate with the team today or something.
Other than the OT goal, it is hard to find "soft" goals he's allowed.
Not that monday mattered anyway - he could have held them to 4 and we still would have been beaten easily.
All that said, he'll be fine and I fully expect this team to come out flying and take Game 4.
No thanks - Fear the Beard.
Blame Ryan McDonagh.
You know, the guy who lifted Hank's mask just enough to let the puck almost kill him, the guy who sniped Zuccarello in the back of the head, fell asleep at the wheel in the closing seconds of Game 1 vs WSH and the guy who has fucking sucked for the majority of the playoffs.
Someone needs to take fuckin' control here. I got this shit.
Quote:
Don't forget, we still put up 5 on them last night. Bishop can be beaten and when we get the forecheck working on their D, we generate a ton of chances. Powerplay has been very successful too in this series.
That forecheck is both helping and hurting though right? When it doesnt generate the turnover or disrupt, they are generating odd man rushes and converting at an unbelievably high clip.
Honestly, when your goalie is playing poorly, AV's system - which i otherwise like - can look ugly at times. We rely so much on Hank back there and he usually delivers. ughh.
And man we need Zuccs to come in and replace MSL. I need some good news today - he travelled with the team, maybe he'll skate with the team today or something.
Yeah I don't wanna say we should start playing Trotz or Torts style hockey and just clog it up. Because that's not this team's style and it's not what got us here. But maybe the pinching should be limited to guys like McD, who has the skating ability to do it. Or guys like Boyle, who has shown pretty good instincts for it and has actually scored some net front goals, like last night.
We're just giving up way too many breaks or odd man rushes the other way and it feels like they're literally scoring on every one of them.
That top line is just way too comfortable right now. I would say to get physical with them, but that's not really how our D plays. And we saw what happened when Kreider when out of his way to hit one of them on the 5th goal.
No one's expecting him to be perfect. But he sucked last night. Both him and the D were huge issues last night.
His playoff numbers are excellent across a large sample size. He just had a bad game last night. It doesn't have to be more than that. Unfortunately it came at a terrible time.
Quote:
and God willing hopefully he can walk again one day.
No thanks - Fear the Beard.
Blame Ryan McDonagh.
You know, the guy who lifted Hank's mask just enough to let the puck almost kill him, the guy who sniped Zuccarello in the back of the head, fell asleep at the wheel in the closing seconds of Game 1 vs WSH and the guy who has fucking sucked for the majority of the playoffs.
Someone needs to take fuckin' control here. I got this shit.
Fell asleep in game 1, made a shit effort on Ovechkin's goal in game 2, had a terrible turnover that led to the GWG in game 4, made numerous terrible plays (and terrible turnovers that eventually led to a PP TB scored on) last night...
If a guy has time to pinpoint his location and shoot it with speed, there is little Hank can do. That's on the D.
But this series is far from over. We tighten things up a bit, win game 4, then face a 3 game series with 2 games at home
Yes, it sucks that the 2 big guns we brought in who were supposed to deliver this time of year (Nash and MSL) are MIA...but it's also been fun to see guys like Stepan, Brassard, Moore, and Fast grow up during these playoffs
He's awesome - he's the only reason we're here - he's stolen us lots of games in the past. No one is disputing any of this.
But they scored him 5 goals last night - legends and champions dont blow that. He did. He's still got a chance to get us back in this thing, and hopefully he will.
win or lose, I still love the guy and want him to retire a Ranger. That's not the point.
Alex?
You're like the talking mailbox.
He gave up 6 goals, at least two of them were directly his fault and the other 4 - well there is a very fine line between Champions and really, really good players.
Yes, the D can be better in front of him too.
I dont doubt a lot of this is bad luck - i just think Champions rise to the occassion and play their best when the stakes are highest. Eli has. Jeter & Rivera have. I'd love Hank to join that company.
I dont doubt a lot of this is bad luck - i just think Champions rise to the occassion and play their best when the stakes are highest. Eli has. Jeter & Rivera have. I'd love Hank to join that company.
Pretty must spot on and I agree with your passion for seeing Henrik win one. It's a 7 game series. He'll bounce back. Don't forget Rivera also blown a couple saves that would have gotten the Yanks another shot at adding another ring. He bounced back. So will Henrik.
Rangers in 7.
Quote:
Maybe it would have shaken them up a little, given Lundqvist a break.
Yes it would have been a crime. This is just stupid.
Really, you've never seen a team do that? Give their # 1 a break when losing late in the hope it creates a spark? And give their #1 a breather?
And could the outcome have been worse?
Quote:
In comment 12296006 Victor in CT said:
Quote:
Maybe it would have shaken them up a little, given Lundqvist a break.
Yes it would have been a crime. This is just stupid.
Really, you've never seen a team do that? Give their # 1 a break when losing late in the hope it creates a spark? And give their #1 a breather?
And could the outcome have been worse?
You've seen this in a one goal game where it's a HOF level goalie getting pulled?
Steve Yzerman is from Detroit.
More importantly than the offense he's implemented is how Detroit would counter teams doing the same thing.
Anybody remember Scotty Bowman's famous Left Wing Lock he introduced to Steve Yzerman's Red Wings?
LWL Solution - ( New Window )
FMIC is right with the defense being bad. Your team wanted to play this style of hockey but maybe they should try to change it to the grinding playoff hockey that they have dominated the past few years in the playoffs. If they can get into that style vs tampa they could probably be winning 3-1 games. Bishop can be beat.
I do think you've still got to win one to claim that. Whether its his fault or whatever, that's just the way it is. Many people i know still consider Richter to be the best Rangers goalie ever, let alone player.
Ridiculous, I know - Richter for his career was 90% save pct and 2.9 GAA... but this business is about championships, fair or unfair. Is what it is.
Same thing with Ewing.
Also, I'd put Moore on the power play instead of St. Louis and have him take faceoffs. It seems like the team seldom wins facoffs on the power play.