Gotta give Florida some credit, they are a tough, solid team and their GM who understood that grit wins playoff games not speed and finesse. I'd attribute part of the Rangers performance to AV 2.0's obsession with winning the President's trophy and playing top players unnecessary regular season minutes, one of many ways coaching does influence player performance. There was a lot of excitement from the team this year and many young players to take Roslovic and Wennberg's spots to look forward to watching next year but Drury has to make some drastic roster changes at the top offensively and defensively to take the Rangers to the next level.
I think you can win with Panarin if you have enough secondary scoring and don’t rely on him solely. The rangers never have enough secondary scoring or other top guys falter like Mika and Kreider for example.
Agreed, Florida is a very good team, and they deserved to win, won't take a thing away from them. Still doesn't change the fact that the Rangers do the same thing season after season not scoring and wasting Hank and now Igor regardless of which team they are playing, but that shouldn't take away from Florida at all. I think it has less than nothing to do with the players playing in the last few games of the season. They had 5 days off before the playoffs, 6 or 7 days off before round 2, 5 days off before the ECF. So, I will disagree with you on that one. At the end of the day, just like last season, the players are not good enough and don't get it done in big spots in the playoffs, that is it. Your point on Florida nailed it. we need more of that, not guys like Mika and East West, regardless of who the coach is. Also agree on Drury, going to be difficult though with all the NMC's.
East West makes $11.6M to be THE guy, not so we don't have to rely on him. He is 1A to Mika's 1 on this per the usual rinse and repeat playoff failure.
They need to bring in Messier into the organization in some sort of way. He will have these softies like Mika on the first train out of Penn Station
I actually think that is not a bad idea. Bottom line is this team has ONE Cup in 84 years, and it is thanks in very large part to Messier. At this point I would like to know what the downside is of bringing Messier in to run things or be a big part of it. He is the best leader in sports, won 6 Cups, and we haven't done sh*t in 84 years outside of one year led by him. We have absolutely nothing to lose IMO, because it isn't working as is.
It would also be good for all the youngsters coming in the few years. They need a better leadership at the top.
New push, fire Drury who is in over his head, and hire Messier. Bring in a winner who is the one guy who actually delivered for the Rangers in 84 years!! Nothing to lose.
Honestly, Drury deserves to be fired. His Buchnevich trade was an absolute disaster. Not finding a way to keep Vatrano was an absolute disaster. His Tarasenko and Kane moves were moronic. Mainly Kane which wasn’t what they needed.
I agree, I didn't have an issue with the Kane deal given the circumstances, but it certainly didn't work out. His trade DL this year was a total disaster and worthy of getting fired for that alone, got nothing for Buch, let Vatrano who fit like a glove walk, not getting Buch or Vatrano back at the DL this year, gave out a bunch of NMC's. It is quite a list for a guy that never should have been Pres from the start, it is a job he was not ready or qualified for, GM okay that was his next step, but not Pres as well.
This is kind of why I said before OT in game 4 it's almost like a must win. They would've only needed to muster one win out of 3. Instead it's 2-2 and you have low odds of getting 2/3 against these guys.
Technically, they shouldn't have had to go up 3-1 to win this series, but we should have seen 1 and 0 goals coming when it mattered in games 5 & 6, because that is what they do. You were spot on, OT in game 4 was the chance, and we never really had a shot as Mika gave that up with a terrible play, and it was over in a blink. That was our chance. It is truly amazing how quickly things turn in the playoffs, 4 days ago we are up 2-1, now we are done again.
I think this article is spot on in many ways: Rangers eliminated by Panthers in Game 6 as long playoff run ends (nypost.com) One snip: Florida broke up every one of the Rangers’ East-West pass attempts, but at least there was occasional sustained zone time while goalie Igor Shesterkin stood tall at the other end. With less than a minute left in the first period, however, Erik Gustafsson’s weak backhanded clearing attempt — a Rangers trend all series — allowed the Panthers to barge back into the zone. Trouba went for the hit as Sam Bennett slipped the puck to Evan Rodrigues, who left a drop pass for the Panthers forward to one-time into the back of the net for the 1-0 lead.
