172 thoughts on “Go time”

  4. I hope Rangers show some heart in the third period as they showed little in the second period. How do you continually get out hustled, out skated and outworked by your biggest rival in almost every game they play. There is no good reason why this team can’t show the same passion that the Islanders do every time they play the Rangers.

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  37. I haven’t seen much whining here but I guess the trick is to not comment about parts of the game while you watch it and then come here and bitch about people that do.

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  52. What bothers me that Rangers play with their full and best roster (Klein notwithstanding and BTW, Clendening is not one bit worse), against the Isles who are without 3 key players and in place where there are 50% (at least) Rangers fans.

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  55. Carp
    I answered your question on last thread…repost
    Carp
    To answer your question…depends on if anything else comes back (ie burrows and 3rd for a 2nd…maybe), but not for a 2nd straight up. Depends also on what player/prospect goes the other way (fast, pirri, puemple, ronning…yes, but not that they’d want any of those).
    –
    There are several other rats/pests I’d rather have than a 35 year old burrows (5 years ago totally different story).

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  93. This is the reason I never go to a Ranger Islander game. It’s not worth the money when you know your team is not willing to raise their level of play to beat the other team. Even though this is their “game 7”, it’s still disgraceful that the Fishsticks consistently play with more heart and compete level. Rangers were out worked and out muscled for every 50-50 puck. Their defense is unwilling to put anyone on their wallets, they would rather make snow angels. Hank was hung out to dry tonight. If this is the way they compete in “big games”, then Gorton should be a seller next week, position properly for expansion draft and build for a year or two down the road, with some young talent with size, grit and heart.

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  98. Staal “i have to get past getting my aasen kicked by semin. I need to realize that continually losing 50/50 battles to players smaller than me is not a good thing. Physicality is my friend, shuffleboard bad!”

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  107. Alex is correct, everyone does make a bad play…from time to time.
    –
    Problem with staal (and others imo) is his compete level (or apparent lack thereof) the majority of the time. No way he should lose as many wall battles and position battles (ie competitive situations) as he does.

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  109. Now, I’m just trying to “interpret” norm’s post (so I could be wrong) but I think norm is saying 2 things…
    1) because the rangers lost tonight, the 6 game win streak doesn’t matter.

    2) the rangers out worked the isles tonight.

    I very respectfully disagree with both of those opinions of norm’s

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  117. Wicky – I’m including ability and effort. Overall game. There was a few games he missed with concussion and the results were plain to see without him.

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  123. SN

    I go by the eye test. Not by corsi and that sort of stuff. I’m not saying you or anybody here goes by those stats. Like I said above all payers have their bad moments. His are not nearly as frequent as you believe.

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  127. SN on Staals 3 best parts, he’s slow, loses every puck battle, and can’t make a pass! On top of that he can’t see! Definitely a top pair D man on this cotton candy team!

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  130. When is this team going to look across center ice at the fishsticks at the opening face off and say this time it’s our game seven and trash these cross town rivals!

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  131. Anyone who has ever played competitive sports knows that EVEN in high school, you can go to the State Championships and if your cross-town rival doesn’t even have a .500 season, but somehow manages to beat YOU somewhere along the line, you cannot live it down and you spend at least that miserable calendar year hearing from also-rans “we beat your ass.” I wonder if our boys even care. Doubt it.

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  133. Doodie – I thought I was being harsh on Sam but he was so off I was wondering if he had a couple of drinks with Charles Oakley before the game. Too soon?!?

    As for Burrows, I am passing. If the Rangers are going to trade prospects and/or picks for a forward it better be for a center who can win faceoffs. If the Rangers bring in Burrows that mean Buch gets prucha’d because AV is not going sit Fast.

    I bet da coach gets Pirri back into the lineup against the Caps and the question is does Buch sit again or does Lindberg find his to the bench.

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  135. Heard an interview yesterday with Charles Oakley. No idea of more than half of what he said though he’s rumored to be an American with 4 years of American college in his curriculum vitae.

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  138. They weren’t that bad last night. Their compete level was similar to the Isles’. They won games during the streak that they played about the same. Minus the three F-ups they didn’t give the Isles much. Staal used to be very good on the boards. I wonder if he can see the puck well at his feet now. Skeij is a big kid. He has to use his size to be stronger along the wall. The shorty was inexcusable. Everyone except Miller chased Tavares and the puck into corner. Miller stood in the crease and left the shooter “uncontested.” They were 5 on 2 in their zone and left someone uncovered. PP is a disaster right now and the Zika vaccine has been deployed. He has completely disappeared. Sit him a game to send a message or at least knock him down to the fourth line like he did with Miller.

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  142. Outside of some of the gaffes, didnt’ think they were intimidated or outworked, but missed 1st so there is that.
    Azzlanders missing 3 starters last night including top defender.
    4th line had some decent shifts despite Pimple getting run. Need another banger or 2 for that line.
    Henk was flopping all over the place, seemed to be lunging at the puck; D wasn’t helping much
    Shea had to hit Ladd on the 6v5 side wall puck battle before empty netter. Needs to be more physical
    .
    Charles Oakley went to Virginia Union; is that even a college?

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  147. FG
    That reminds me of college…when I was a senior a bunch of us took a criminal justice class (one of the classes that fell under what most students at the school called the “jockology” program) and the professor asked students to name U.S. cities with high crimes rates, one of my teammates blurts out “Texas” (sadly, he wasn’t trying to be funny)…the professor looks at him like seriously? My teammate then starts trying to justify his statement…I’m just listening and looking at him like wtf…idiot, finally I interrupted him and told him Texas was a state, not a city…
    –
    True story

    Liked by 1 person

  150. Prior to the 1994 playoffs, the Islanders won the season series from the Rangers. In fact, the islanders hadn’t lost to the Rangers in 17 games at the Mausoleum.

    So this Game 7 mentality against the Rangers is nothing new. It’s in their DNA.

    Playoffs, it’s a different story. It took the islanders 155 minutes before they scored their first goal against the Rangers, meanwhile, the Rangers had scored 15.

    The cumulative 22-3 score for the series was the second greatest margin of total victory in NHL history. The islanders were destroyed when it really counted.

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  152. SN, I thought Hank was overly aggressive at times too, but I put it down to the poor defensive play. On that 1st goal it looks like Lindbergh lost Lee (who scored) behind the net and got tangled in Hank trying to get over there. Prevented Hank from making a push across, but I don’t think he would have gotten there anyway. Other 2 goals, especially the shortie, were pathetic displays by everyone especially Staal, Mac, Zib, and JT. I thought Hank made some big “timely” saves, but when your team gives up those high danger chances right in front fuhgeddabout it. I’m just hoping that Hank doesn’t go down that rabbit hole of overcompensating going forward. If so, we are gonna get smoked especially by Ovi and co.

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  154. Re Henk; wasn’t referring to goals, but how he was losing his balance and jumping at puck. Seems to have been happening more often so guess they don’t want him sitting back. Funny how we dissect a goal but not the saves. Some saves are not that pretty but they are saves so the objective was met, but the process may be faulty.
    .
    All 3 goals were on the D, esp the shortie which was embarrassing. On the Lee goal, the opposition made a great play. Those were 3 good passes by their 1st line against the 4th line out there for an extended shift because of a dumb icing.

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  155. They come in riding a 6 game win streak against a team playing desperate hockey and let up a rare shortie and lose what’s a one goal game until the empty netter. You can’t put that on one player be it a forward a dman or a goalie. It used to be funny when after every loss there was sheer panic and disgust. Now it’s just weird.

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  156. To quote Dave Maloney, it’s easy to see a the warts on the team you follow. Regardless of who you guys put blame on, this team is still 10th out of 30 teams in goals against per game. To give you some perspective, Pittsburgh is 16th. And to boot the Rangers have been using Girardi on the top pairing, have had endless amounts of injuries and had to keep their heads above water while Lundqvist went through his slump. My eye test says that they’ve made something out of nothing a lot more often than they’ve paid the price for their warts thus far. I do find it very irritating that they keep losing to the Islanders though.

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  157. SN you’ve got a good point about dissecting goals but not saves. I forget where I heard it/read it but I do remember hearing something about how they wanted him challenging shooters more and it’s been something he’s been doing more since the all star break.

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  158. I said it last night, I don’t see this panic and doom and gloom some people reference…I just don’t.
    –
    I read the game comments again, i sure don’t see panic and doom and gloom. I see people making real time observations of a game they are watching, positive and negative.

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  160. The between periods stuff was pretty interesting. Right before a commercial break it was something like this, “The Rangers have been awful on the power play. But, good news. The Rangers start the period with the man advantage.”

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  161. They are going to get 100 points again and there is no way to catch the Caps so it’s hard to get too worked up about a loss when they didn’t play that poorly. They are in the preferred seeding slot at the moment and look to be locked in there. Sunday will be a measuring stick. They have to at least be competitive.

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  162. Wick, nothing wrong with positive and negative assessment. but there’s some hyper critical comments sometimes about the same group of players people don’t seem to have patience for. I’ve had my moments, not trying to act superior, just attempting to put things in perspective a bit. We’re in pretty good shape. Do I like losing to the Isles? hell no. Do I get tired of the things this defense does? sure. And Zibanejad is cold as ice at the moment. I get there’s stuff to be negative about. But in the grand scheme of it, there’s more to be happy about.

    By the way- Seems like Anaheim is looking to make a hockey trade and unload someone from their blueline. May be the ideal trade partner for this team.

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  163. ORF, I’m in favor of them staying in 4th. I dont believe in them tanking to stay there, but it’s obviously the better position. Even if they beat a team like Pittsburgh or Washington in a 6-7 game series, it doesn’t play in their favor the way a later round match up would. Also, I expect them to win against Washington Sunday.

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  166. SN, agree on Hank needing a balance between playing “on his toes” and being too aggressive. I thought he crossed that line a bit last night, especially in the 2nd period, and was out of position or flopping on some saves. I was just trying to say earlier that I thought he started doing that after some poor defensive play leading him to overcompensate for the lack of D in front of him. Problem is when he does it we usually end up getting burned…

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