Reasons we lost, what we could of done to get the job done and the future

Its really simple guys, one or two bounces and we win the cup but theres a reason we are here, and first mistake we did was trade gabby away and traded for nash, lets face it guys its ok to admit it, gabby was the scape goat, he was run out of town for no reason and if he was on our team with his 14 goals to nashs 2 we are raising the cup.... gabby would flurish in av's system and torts fucked this guy up for us. F U TORTS.

Our best players didn't play better then there best players, our top guys nash, stepan, giradi didnt play up to par, our top scores were hagelin, and zucc.. krieder did ok and is great on the PP but our our 2 mil dollar players were our best players, imagine if our stars stepped up., its promising for future but it is what it is.....

we are too small, we get bullied, and it shows when the kings push our guys around and score, eat some wheaties,

our special teams is so much better man, thank god..... our PP is light years better then last year and our PK somehow has a lot of SHG.

Moore is good keep him here no way why he has been on 7 nhl teams jesus

get a D that can get a shot on net and score, somebody like mathew shneider from back in the day would be amazing.

a center please, a real center, one who wins faceoffs and can set him his teamates, stepan is a 2nd or third line center.....

thats my rant

 

It was a great year based on the roster they had, and with the buyout and a few additions there's no reason they cant be right there with Boston in the East. AV knows what's still missing. We dont have any real high end prospects but Miller, Lindberg and maybe Haggerty/Fast could push for a spot. Who knows with McIlrath i'm not holding my breath.

 

I guess you could say they caught a break not getting Boston but i had them losing to Mtl.

 

yes its true, we got some breaks to get here, but it happens every year, our road was easier then others, we made the best of our opportunities, but it doesn't mean we can't do it again, boston is on the decline, chara is getting older, they made a mistake by trading seguin away.... im not as worried as i once was about them, we should be in the top 3 of the east next year, im not sure how pitts going to look with a new coach and a decent goalie, if pitt gets somebody like ryan miller........ we are going to have our hands full... i mean there are good coaches out there that can be put in that situation and make that team scary....

so as we could of won game 1 and 2 against the kings and be up 3-2 it didn't work out for us... the kings are a great team lets not take anything away from them.... they had to go through hell to win the cup and getting 40+ shots every game is telling.... but thats just going to make our team better and more confident, we can hang with them and with a couple more pieces we can contend for a cup. it was a hell of a ride and nothing to be ashamed of

 

i think they'll atleast be in the conference finals next year. Gained a ton of experience

 

Agree with a lot, don't agree with some.

Our PP was awful against the Kings, 2-22. 7:30 in OT PP time and nothing. Our PP was awful all playoffs really outside of 3 or 4 games.

It may have come down to a bounce here or a break there, but you earn those bounces and breaks, they did and we didn't. That's the way it is.

At C, we will be okay. Richards will be an ex-Ranger within 10 days or less. We'll add someone to take his spot.

Nash is going to be an issue with his 5 goals in 41 playoff games. Not much we can do with him. At least we got 3 solid players for Gabby.

On D we MUST add a top 4 big physical dman...MUST. McDonagh will be a Norris finalist next season IMO. 17 points in 25 playoff games, and that is after his awful start. He will score 50 + points next season, no doubt in my mind.

Upfront we could use a big body at C and/or wing. We need another guy with size to go with Kreider and Nash (who is big but plays small).

Questions, what do we do with Stralman (I say gone), Brassard (back unless he gets a huge offer), MZA (back with a raise as a RFA), Kreider (back with a raise as a RFA), and Boyle (I say back around 2 mill per for 2 years).

Lastly, yeah we will be good next season, I think we all believed AV needed a year to get his team in place, so we were ahead of the curve this season. BUT the issue is how difficult it is to make this run back to back. It will be 6 years since a team went back to back to the SCF. It is not easy. Team is drained by this. Plus the East is getting better IMO. Going to be really difficult to make this run again next season.

 

If the Rangers are going to make another run next year, then they will have to get bigger and much more physical. Can't go through the playoffs taking more punishment than you are able to dish out. They lost to the Kings because they couldn't match them physicality wise. Yeah I know, with some breaks they could be up 3-2, or they could be celebrating right now. But you create, and finish a certain amount of your breaks, and we saw how that went. The Kings are BIG, and were able to go to the goal and as the game wore on, it became tougher for the Rangers to deny them. They didn't score pretty goals, they scored Stanley Cup Champion goals. Going to the net, and fighting for rebounds. For this team (any team really), getting to the finals is a great accomplishment. They played with heart, emotion and left it all on the ice. I look for them to get bigger, and better next season.

As for Gaborik, he went to a great situation, and in my opinion it was a situation he greatly deserved. He's in a system where he's not the only goal scorer, and the Kings can protect him from an opposition who decides to try and punish him for 60 minutes. IMO I think he would benefit under AV's system, but I seriously doubt he would have put up 14 playoff goals. If they switched teams, with Gaborik in New York and Nash in L.A. Nash would be the one benefiting. The Rangers need to get bigger, and stronger where they look to HIT, instead of looking to just bump.

 

How would Nash benefit, would him being on the Kings make the opposing teams net a lot wider?

 

For one thing it would make it a lot easier for him to go to the net, and get shots off of rebounds. Which is pretty much the way the Kings score. Everybody hits (hard), and they all go to the net, screening the goalie and creating trouble for opposing defenses.

 

Gaborik did well in LA because 1) he had frickin Kopitar as his center and 2) he wasn't depended upon as the #1 guy on that team. Hell, he's probably barely their 5th best player. (Behind Kopitar, Doughty, Quick, and maybe Carter.)

We lost because the team is too inconsistent on offense in terms of finishing and because our defensemen played like absolute horseshit in the finals. And even with that, we were pretty damn close.

I'm really hoping Kreider lives up to his potential and finds a way to be that consistent goal scorer we desperately need. A 30 goal season out of him next year would be nice.

 

AV showed what an overrated chump Torts was, Torts nonsense set the Rangers back a few years with player development and led to his quick dismissal in Vancouver. The fact that AV was able to get the team to buy into his system which was a full 180 from Torts' system is also testament to his coaching ability. I did have a problem with some of his personnel decisions with prospects but hope with a full offseason guys like Miller & McIlrath will work their way into the lineup. You can't knock a guy who did what no other coach had done for the Rangers in 20 years by taking them to the Cup.

I always liked Gabby, the guy played hurt when he could have easily sat in the press box and he kept his mouth shut when Torts did his finger pointing. Good for him getting his name on the Cup.

Defensively beyond McD & Girardi there are a lot of questions. Staal played like garbage after the Philly series as he enters the last year of his contract, Stralman turned down a more than generous $3 mil/year offer which I can't imagine Glen would sweeten, Klein is mediocre at best but can you justify paying him $2.9 per year for steady play when McIlrath or Allen are cheaper alternatives? J. Moore and Falk are also RFA's who are younger, can be resigned for less and seem to have more upside than Klein. Diaz is an UFA who I can't see them resigning if AV was so reluctant to give him postseason ice time.

I agree that Richards is soon to be an ex-Ranger, even Glen can't be that dumb. Glen has a lot of work to do this offseason, might have to put the fishing boat in dry dock or better yet retain the title of President and turn the GM responsibilities over to new blood. This should be an interesting summer.

 

It will be an interesting summer for sure.

UFA's of note: Brassard, Pouliot, Boyle, D. Moore, Stralman
RFA's of note: Kreider, Zucc, J. Moore

I would expect all the RFA's will be back with raises. What about the UFA's though that is the question.

My guess is Brass back if he stays reasonable. Maybe a low 4 mill or so cap hit per season.
Pouliot I am not sure. I want to say yes, but he may get too much money. If we can get him in the low 2's yes. If he wants 3's I say no.
Boyle and Moore I would try and bring back. Moore in the 1's somewhere. Boyle around 2 or so.
Stralman I think will be gone, and hopefully replaced with a bigger more physical guy to complete the top 4.
And Richards is 10000000000% gone within 10 days or so. No doubt about it.

We'll see, but interesting for sure.

 

Chuck, agree on all rfa's. I think only question is if sather tries to save a little future money and attempts to tie up kreids for more than the usual 2 year bridge ala mcdonagh. Agree strahlman can be replaced both defensively and offensively, I hope brass and poulliot will both be back but wouldn't be shocked if one isn't. I hope they can resign moore cheap, Boyle will prob price himself out for what he does and I hope dorsett is gone. Team needs to incorporate miller on this team next year and hopefully fasth which could make a good 4th line with moore centering them. I really hope that AV follows bill parcells philosophy he had with dave meggett that he was playing him until he couldn't stand it anymore with Mcilreith next season. We need the kids size and toughness and to start protecting some of our stars like nash and stepan and mcdonagh from getting Run. to me klein and moore can both be easily replaced and should be for young tough d-men like big mac and allen. Like you I'd like to see another top4 nasty d-man brought in via trade or free agency but not as high on orpik as he is another concussion sufferer. However sather does it either needs to sign stasny or my preference over that would be to trade for kessler. We are very close.

 

Klein is a good value for what he is, a solid defensive guy. They should let Falk go he sucks and bring back Diaz as the 6/7.

 

chuck if you take out that 0-40 pp droubt we go 13 for 61 roughly 21 percent, it was light years better then years past, it wasn't top tier like LA but it has poetential, krieder in front, mcd in the back take richards POS out, idk we scored some nice goals on the PP this post season and had some potential, of course every PP isnt going to go as planned i can easily take LA and point out some terrible PPs they had, im happy with what they have done so far,

i dont think miller has a spot here, i really don't, i really don't want him on the 4th line i think our 4th line had chemistry, i would use him as trade bait, he just isn't physical enough or big enough. isn't that what are are trying to be bigger stronger faster?

brassard zuc and pouliut need to stay guys, thats our best line...... why would we break them up

 

Can someone please explain to me how the non interference call/goal in game 2 that changed the series is an earned bounce or break. Or the Zucc penalty in game 5 that led to the tying goal was earned. I understand refs are human and make bad calls but those 2 calls were an embarrassment to the NHL. They changed the series. The Rangers would be playing Mon night if the NHL didn't desparately want LA to win. And helped LA get there.