Disappointed but not as much as last year. They outplayed the Kings the majority of that series and got hosed by bad luck and officials. This year they got outplayed in 2 series. They didn't deserve to win this series.
The biggest reason I am down is because I truly think this was their best shot. Things were setup so perfectly. The East was in transition. They were # 1 in the regular season and had home ice. They had gone through the long run and coming close that you usually need to make the full run the next season. They added a guy like Yandle to help the D. Hank got a break in a weird way and had a 2 month rest. All was lined up this season, and they didn't get it done. Now the East is going to step up next season. Isles will be better, Caps as well, TB as well, I'm telling you watch our for CBJ, next season will be very tough on us after coming so close this year and last year...very hard to get that motor going again after ALL these games the past few seasons and not getting it done. The only teams close to us are the Kings and Hawks, and they both won cups AND both also had down seasons in the mix, Kings no playoffs this season. So that is my biggest reason for being down after last night...I really see things getting MUCH tougher for us to try and do this again next season...it concerns me greatly. This was our best shot I believe. I think there is at least a decent shot we look back and say 2015 was Hank's best chance to win a cup after losing the prior season in 5 in the SCF. 34 next season...clock is ticking...maybe 2 or 3 more real top years...takes him to 36...and if next season will be tough maybe 2017 is the shot or bust.
Dont make it out to be more than what it is. Perhaps Columbus gets better, still young and unproven to last a full season, perhaps the caps get better but OV is another year older, holtbie maybe takes a step up but that team still lacks depth, sure Tampa looks great but do you really feel bishop is this monster goalie? The Icelanders... Eh can they put it together for a full season? Now let's look at the rangers... Hayes, maybe ran out of gas as this was his first pro season.. Would expect bigger and better out of hin Miller... Another player who can be a good two way player who maybe finding his way to be consistent Fast imo can replace hags who should be shopped perhaps with Talbot Zucc hopefully comes back and helps score more dirty goals.... Kreider has to step up as we lose production in msl not coming back Full year with yandel hopefully reducing the need of Boyles minutes Imo there is no reason why this team can't compete again next year. Solid 6 d men World Class Goalie There is offensive depth Couple of tweets.. Maybe Lindberg gets a look... Maybe Talbot and hags brings back a top 6 wing... Never say never
There really is no point debating the talent we have Al, no one would argue that or say we don't have the horses, that is not the issue. The issue is when you play all these games season after season, and go through the grind season after season, and go deep into the physically draining playoffs season after season it wears you down. It is so hard to grind deep into the NHL playoffs season after season. That's the issue, not the talent. If you saw the posts between Mess and I this AM that's how we feel. We all know the talent is there, our biggest concern is doing the grind AGAIN...that is so difficult. As for the rest of the East, we disagree there. CBJ, the Caps, the Isles, sure the Habs, TB all are growing teams that will improve. Not saying we cannot beat them, just saying the East is trending up around us not down, no way to debate that IMO. Lastly on Talbot, anything is possible, but I doubt we get that kind of player for him. Maybe a decent pick and/or decent prospect. Maybe a lower top 9 forward. Doubt we get some big top 6 winger that is going to be a game changer or 25 goal guy for him. But I do think he will be dealt and I do think we can get some value back for him. Maybe in a package we can get a better winger back, we'll see.
We do agree that there will be tweaks not big moves. MSL should be gone. Hags could be gone. Maybe we buy Boyle out. Maybe we can get rid of Glass. We will deal Talbot for a player or maybe a pick/prospect. Not sure I see major moves. We'll see though.
Examples of that point...it is hard to come back from this especially after last season: Following the Rangers elimination last night, Derek Stepan said “I don’t feel mad, angry or sad. It just sucks right now. It just sucks.” (NY Post) Dan Girardi said after the game that it’s “going to be tough” knowing that the team had a “really good chance to have a really good run.” (Newsday) Girardi added, “I thought we had the team to do it this year…we have such a great group of guys here, so it’s so disappointing”(NYR)
As time passes things will fade and they will feel better, but it is going to be real hard to get up for it all again next season. At the very least I think we won't be nearly as good during the regular season. Remember what happened at the start of this season until mid December. I could see that again except for longer next season.
The Blackhawks have shown that it's possible to grind it out year after year... 2013- SCF 2014 - WCF 2015 -WCF/SCF It's possibke the team can win next year... If they won last night I think they would have beat the ducks and 50/50 with the Hawks They really were that close, sucks they couldn't extend the elimination game record by 1 more game
They are not Stanley Cup playoff ready. They are unable to do, or do not want to do the things that are needed to win a cup. IMO they are not going to win a cup with Nash, or Stepan. Or, they will win a cup with one (or both), but they will not play a significant part in winning it. And don't get the wrong Idea, I am not blaming just those two. This was a team loss, in a situation where all they had to do was raise there game up just a little to get one win at home. I single out Nash and Stepan because they are the players I expect to do the little things that are needed in the playoffs to get playoff wins. They play soft. As a team, yes they let the fans down, but more importantly they let themselves down. Each and every player needs to be questioning the effort they gave, and not just in the Tampa series, but the Washington and Pittsburgh series as well. Just another black eye on this organization
Whats so disappointing about the way they lost was they got shut out at home twice by a team that isn't at all known as a good defensive team. If I am coaches around the league I use that blueprint every single time I play the Rangers. All the remarks from players I am reading is about how hard Tampa made it for them to score by stacking up their guys in front of the net. I read it from 6 different guys. It is exactly what they did in game 5 so you would think the coaching staff would have found some sort of answer to that but we don't have the right players to combat that style I guess. You lose 3 home games you deserve to go home..
You want to hang your hat on one team strud. One team that has crazy high end talent. One team that fell to the bottom and got top picks. One team that actually has won cups to help guide them to these long runs, while our team has not done that which could beat them down mentally. One team that struggled in the playoffs after their first title. One team that who knows may not make the SCF again this season. So yes one team has done it year after year for the most part. A team that won a couple of cups to help strengthen them, unlike our team AND a team with a ton of high end talent and high picks, unlike our team. Like looking into a mirror...LOL.
The answer is to be much more physical. You hit, and you hit and you hit some more. You force your way to the front of Bishop, forcing there defense to have to consistently pay attention to you. That way it is not only you who is screening the goalie, but one or two members of the Tampa defense who are screening him as well. Then, just throw the puck at the net. Rangers consistently tried to be to cute, at a time when they could least afford to be. At this point of the season, you want players on your team who not only look forward to contact, but go out of there way to inflict contact. Games 5 and 7 were games where the Rangers needed to have little Flyer in them. Instead they played not to lose (how often have we seen that?) instead of going for it, and because of that style could afford to make few mistakes. And of course they made costly mistakes, and that's how teams end up going home earlier than expected. Hey, but at least they won the Presidents cup. Maybe next year they can play like they deserved it ...
I agree jam. Step and Nash can be frustrating. Step had a great few game run end of Caps series/start of TB series, and then him and his line went quiet. Nash was great in games 4 & 6, which is more than you could say in any other playoff season, but had zero points in 6 of the last 8 games outside of those two games. It is frustrating and I do think it has something to do with having that firery attitude. Both of those guys are good guys. Really nice guys. I 100% believe they want to win, but are they like Hank? Are they like Kreider even when he plays his game? The more I think about it what I think this team needs to get over that final hump is maybe a firery type of guy to get the room going. Maybe that is where we missed Zucc most of all. I think with Step/Nash/Brass/Zucc/Miller/Hayes/Kreider that is an excellent 7 to start with. Need two more guys to complete the top 9. Maybe 1 is Hags or MSL back (cheap), but I think the 9th is a guy we must add this summer. A firery gritty top 9 righty winger. That would complete us and maybe get us over that hump.
Right now for fans and the team its emotional of course it looks impossible to get back. It's very hard but let the offseason play out. The core of this team isn't old and is under contract. Our window is 4 years. Still time despite the disappointment.
No doubt the biggest downer with losing is how we went out with nothing. To get nothing on Bishop and get shutout for the last 144 minutes on home ice is pathetic. I don't want to be so blunt about a team that has been so great to us fans the past few seasons, but that's the reality of it. Going out like that without so much as a whimper is sad and pathetic. Game 5 and game 7 were the same games. PP's killed us. We had AT BEST a small handful of decent shots on Bishop, and that may be generous. The fact that we allowed ourselves to be punked again in game 7 exactly how we were punked in game 5 is SAD and angers me. We came out the exact opposite way we should have. We should have come out feeding off the energy from the crowd. Pushing everything. Attacking everything. Being crazy aggressive. Instead we came out tentative and feeling things out. Like we were afraid to make a mistake in game 7. That's EXACTLY what the road team in a game 7 wants...EXACTLY. We fed right into it in games 5 & 7...and that is SAD. I am curious to see how the Ducks come out tonight, because they came out like a home team should in game 5 and pressed the attack. Curious to see if they do it again in game 7. We took the crowd and flushed it right down the toliet with our soft passive start. And that is SAD. And it goes exactly to my previous point about what I think we are lacking to take that last step. Get me a firery type leader guy to complete the top 9. A Hank of the skaters if you will. I now think that is what we lack to take that last step.
I think our true window could be 3 or 4 more seasons as Hank gets to 36 or 37. We clearly have the talent as I just listed. We clearly have the youth with a bunch of players 25 and under, and a whole bunch of player 27 and under. YES we can do it again next season, if there is a team I believe can do it this is the team. But I also know it will be darn challenging to make another run. I also know the East is trending up for sure IMO. And I also know this was the perfectly setup season for us to win the cup...and we blew it. That I know. I also will predict right now that we struggle in the regular season for longer than we did this past season, which was until mid December. I don't see us finishing 1st. I see us slipping in 3rd in the Met or as a WC. And maybe that is fine since we are a good road team, and always have been, and home ice doesn't mean all that much anyway. Just get in and anything can happen, but I really think we struggle some in the regular season as the East gets better and we try and recharge after this downer ending. Boston fades. The Kings fade. The Hawks had some tough playoffs after their 1st cup. It is not easy to do it year after year after year, and that is what makes me most down after last night.
I don't want to see the Rangers go out and pick up a free agent center who will pound his way to the front of the net. Instead, I'd like to them develop that type of player(s). I don't understand why any team needs a player who has a firey attitude. Game 7, at home, where the winner goes to the Stanley Cup final, every player on that team should have that firey attitude. That's like fans blaming AV, for not motivating his players. Why the heck would any player in that situation need to be motivated? They lost 3 or 4 at home, because they failed to play at the level to which you need to play to win in the NHL. You can't coach that, you either have it or you don't. They obviously don't. If they had it, they wouldn't constantly play in as many game 7's as they do. Was Tampa lucky? No, they earned their was to the finals. But I also feel that each and every Ranger needs to honestly look at himself in the mirror, and admit that they could have and should have done more. I watch these games as a coach, and If I'm honest I'm telling my team that THEY blew a golden opportunity, and I hope they learned something from it and will never again leave anything on the ice after a game.
Well jam, it didn't happen in game 5 or 7 did it. You can expect all you want, but if it isn't there it isn't there. I wouldn't go add a free agent C either. Step/Brass/Hayes are really good down the middle. We need another top 9 winger, hopefuly a righty shot, and that's what I would add. Make it a guy with some fire and grit as well, and call it a day. Hags OR MSL (cheap) back and there is your top 9. 4th line is Lindberg/Fast/Moore/Glass/Sheppard some trio from that group. D stays the same (or maybe Boyle gone and let a kid take that spot). That is all. Just some minor tweaks needed.
