Watched the game tonight against the Pens. Pitts score the winning goal with less than two minutes. Again, number 20 invisible. Strome scored. Bread man missed open net with ten seconds left with would tied the game. I don’t think Quinn is the guy. Question: Why is Brit Howden playing? What do they see? Rangers are falling behind. Announcers make all kinds of excuses
Feel like a bounce or 2 could have gotten the ball rolling and they could have pulled away easy but of course it didnt happen.
Better goaltending would go a long way to helping, too. It hasn't been entirely their fault - there were weird fluky goals in both of the Pitt games, for example - but neither Georgiev nor Shesterkin have played particularly well overall.
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He was one of the top 5 centers in the league last year, and he’s off to a slow start after having COVID. He’s a leader on this team, plays both ends of the ice exceptionally well, kills penalties, scores big goals...5 bad games and we’re shipping him out of town? It’s not like he’s 33 years old, he’s only 27.
Brassard was 28 when we traded him
No disrespect to Brassard, but he was never the player Mika is on either end of the ice. Brassard was a 50-60 point guy who tapped out at 27 goals. Mika had 2 years in a row eclipsing 70 points and was on pace to go over 100 last year. Even if you look at last year as an anomaly, I think Mika is a point a game player and will be for the next 5 years. I am very comfortable paying him and keeping him around. He is the only real legitimate top 6 C on this team or in the pipeline. If they were as loaded at C as they are at W, I may be a little more likely to agree, but to me, trading Zibanejad would be a huge mistake. Also, if they were that interested in replacing him, I think they would have been more active in shopping the #1 pick with LA, so they could take Byfield or Stutzle. Mika isn’t going anywhere and he shouldn’t.
Youve got to be kidding Lafreniere critics!
My main concern right now is them being too cute with the puck on offense. It seems like they are being coached that. I legit threw my remote (against the couch....but hard) when Buch made that extra pass to Strome last night. I wanted to fight. But fortunately it was like 1 am and nobody was stirring around my buildimg. Lol
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In comment 15133819 ShockNRoll said:
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He was one of the top 5 centers in the league last year, and he’s off to a slow start after having COVID. He’s a leader on this team, plays both ends of the ice exceptionally well, kills penalties, scores big goals...5 bad games and we’re shipping him out of town? It’s not like he’s 33 years old, he’s only 27.
Brassard was 28 when we traded him
No disrespect to Brassard, but he was never the player Mika is on either end of the ice. Brassard was a 50-60 point guy who tapped out at 27 goals. Mika had 2 years in a row eclipsing 70 points and was on pace to go over 100 last year. Even if you look at last year as an anomaly, I think Mika is a point a game player and will be for the next 5 years. I am very comfortable paying him and keeping him around. He is the only real legitimate top 6 C on this team or in the pipeline. If they were as loaded at C as they are at W, I may be a little more likely to agree, but to me, trading Zibanejad would be a huge mistake. Also, if they were that interested in replacing him, I think they would have been more active in shopping the #1 pick with LA, so they could take Byfield or Stutzle. Mika isn’t going anywhere and he shouldn’t.
Not sure Stutzle is an NHL center. He's playing LW in OTT, and played LW all last year, and I think he can be a C, but it's not a slam dunk.
I think Kravtsov would be a good NHL center though.
I hate what the Rangers have done with him. He'll be in year 3 of his ELC before he plays in the NHL unless he plays here after the KHL season then he'll get a couple months of year 2.
He's also returned to NYC to be examined by the team doctors, so looks like it might be more than day to day.
link - ( New Window )
From what I've read, the plan is for him to come over after the KHL season.
I'm sure the Rangers have made their fair share of mistakes, since they've kind of botched many players' development, but a lot of the blame in Kravtsov's case falls on him. There was a guy who used to comment at BSB who had a very well-established track record for accuracy, and he filled in a lot of the details with Kravtsov.
When Kravtsov (and Chytil) were sent down to the A at the beginning of last season, Chytil took it in stride, played great at Hartford, and was shortly back in NY. Kravtsov sulked and pouted. He was not helped by his parents, who were described as "helicopter hockey parents from Hell", and who were constantly telling him that he was too good to play in the AHL and he should come back to Russia if the Rangers were going to do that to him.
Over his agent's strenuous objections, he did just that. Only problem was, he played poorly over there and was demoted from Traktor Chelyabinsk to the Russian minors. At that point, his agent was able to convince him to stop listening to his parents and return to North America with a better attitude. Upon his return, he played reasonably well in Hartford - not great, but decently enough and with a lot of effort compared to the first go round.
Could the Rangers have handled his situation better? Most likely. Could Kravtsov? Definitely.
I hope it can be worked out because he's a very talented guy.
My point has been though, that there is no more important asset to an NHL team than 1st round picks. the NHL draft is even more skewed than most other major sports the 1st round is where your talent comes from.
I would treat 1st round picks like investments.
There is not a universal approach, that's like saying every 18 year old man is the same and don't forget you're dealing with players who were 99% of the time to this point either the best player on the ice every time they stepped on the ice or close to it.
And add to that I absolutely HATE the AHL for developing young prospects. If you feel like it could help with getting used to North American rinks, fine, that's fair, but most of the players have been on NA rinks throughout their hockey careers for INTL tournaments.
The KHL is a far better league than the AHL, so I wouldn't phrase it necessarily like his parents, if that's true, but I do believe, especially for skill guys, the AHL is not the best spot for them.
Probably true for Lias as well (SHL better than AHL).
I would leave players in their home countries as long as possible.
The plan with Lundqvist in my opinion much smarter and I think the Rangers will reap the rewards, but they lost out on Lias and some of Kravtsov and that hurts a franchise.
And absolutely 100% this is at least partly on Lias and Vitali but that's not the point. It's the Rangers investment they should be protecting. If the players fails they fail - there are hundreds of first round picks, high first round picks who don't pan out, but the Rangers lose as much (or more in the case of Andersson). And most of the time when players don't pan out it's because their talent didn't develop as hoped (these are 18 year olds being drafted), so it hurts when a talented player fails and they still are talented if you know what I mean.
The team sent him down and he got an attitude. Damn kids nowadays.
Fox-Miller as the cornerstones for years to come.
The team sent him down and he got an attitude. Damn kids nowadays.
So it, all on Lias not on the Rangers in any way?
Let me ask you this, who stands to lose the most for Andersson not working out in NY?
We already know, it's the Rangers. Lias is in the NHL on the 3rd line with the Kings and the Rangers squandered the #7 pick in the draft. Of course there is the chance that William Cuylle pans out and softens the blow (I like his potential), but he's unlikely ever to reach #7 overall value.
And your assumption is no matter what the Rangers did, this was the definite outcome because Lias had maturity issues.
Maybe not signing him to an ELC at that time would have been a good option.
Maybe having him remain in the SHL another year would have been a good option
maybe put him in more of a position to succeed in the NHL like some teams do with youngsters (sheltered minutes, power play or pk, low pressure role with patience)
maybe avoid the AHL for a 19 year old "skill" player
maybe instead of the AHL suggest he could use the EAC and go to Sweden and work on stuff - the SHL is better than the AHL and he was clearly more comfortable there.
anyway, I've always said Lias shares the responsibility he always had an "edgy" attitude, he gained notoriety for throwing his silver WJC medal in the stands during the medal ceremony (which was obviously immature, but i had no real issue with - I like the competitiveness) - and let's not forget Andersson was the captain on that team - one with players like Rasmus Dahlin, Elias Pettersson, Jesper Boqvist, Alexander Nylander, Erik Brannstrom, etc. so in his native land the attitude wasn't such a negative, and he was still seen as a leader.
And Lias would not be the first high pick to fail, my point is teams (not just the Rangers) should do more to protect their investment
Sure, but he was a sunk cost.