In lieu of how well Dylan has played (to me right now our best RD) what does AV do when Girardi and Klein come back and Boyle suddenly playing well? Options as I see them: 1) Rotate dylan, girardi and boyle at RD. 2) Cop out and say Dylan is a kid still coming along but still learning and I'm playing my vets. 3) Gorton trades either klein or Girardi to open up a spot for Dylan or 4) Make the astute judgement that Dylan has earned his spot on the ice with what he brings to the team and rotates Girardi and Boyle (don't see any way he's rotating klein). What do you guys think?
5) play 7 dmen and scratch Etem or Glass or Hayes to get him right. I choose 5 if a trade cannot be made.
This situation will obviously tell if the old man Sather is still in charge. If the option is to sit a young much improved kid who provides grit and toughness for an old broken down Girardi, you know Sather is still in charge. No doubt whatsoever the kid should play but I think he will be the odd man out.
Oh i can, i can definately see him deferring to the overpaid vets as to not anger them or indirectly make it seem like they're failing.
Problem is, while McIlrath has been decent as a rookie he's still just that and i don't exactly think he's all that much an upgrade at this stage. I think that Skjei could be given a 2nd look or trade for a vet making 2-3m for the bottom pair.
Wow. 71, don't know quite what to say. Big mac has been more than decent, he's been their best RD for about 3 weeks now. The kid is getting better every day. Theres a reason other teams don't get the shots they do with our other d-man in front. The reason is dylan is there and knocks them on their ass and takes the puck. Anyone even in the crease whether bothering hank or not gets met by dylan with bad intentions. And if you've noticed they take one look at who pushed them and instead of engaging they say no thanks and skate back to their bench. Dylan is showing some offensive moves now and if AV was smart he would play him some at the point on our 2nd PP to take advantagem of the kids howitzer of a shot. Another words to watch Dylan play and not be excited but think he isn't much of an all-around upgrade over girardi and boyle is hard to fathom
I was with you until the last line mel. We need to slow down here. I like the kid and see no way AV scratches him when Klein and G come back, but this short amount of time into his career McIlrath is not better than Girardi. He may get there, but I am not giving up on Girardi after 30 games +/-...especially when he was clearly hurting during his last couple of games when he was awful.
Being very objective, it is not just the past 30 games with Girardi. He has been miserable the last 30 but been on a slippery slope the past 2 1/2 years !
I respect what Girardi and Staal have done here. However, one of them has to go. Giving them NMC's and limited NTC's was moronic. I guess if you tell Girardi and Staal that are going to deal them after the 3rd years of their contracts, they might say screw it, do it now so I can settle in. Or if they aren't playing, they might ask for a trade. With Staal, I just wouldn't play him. I would play Skjei. Better yet, you could send him to the minors if possible. There are a lot of ways to get him to accept a deal. If you don't do that. You have to deal Yandle. Honestly, if Gorton doesn't make a team take Glass in the Yandle deal, he should have his nuts cut off.
Girardi is so unappreciated in here. I don't agree JD. Girardi has played major minutes against the best forwards on the other team year after year. For the most part he has done that and played very well. Is it possible that he comes back next week and still struggles and he has hit some wall now...sure anything is possible, but until I see over the long haul I cannot put McIlrath ahead of him after a handful of games for McIlrath. Is Girardi as good as he was 2 or 3 years ago...maybe not, but he is still a darn good dman who is as usual underappreciated by the fan base.
The Staal resigning was the bad move here I think. It is what makes the Yandle move a bad move as well because we cannot keep him with Staal here. If somehow someway we can get Staal to agree to a trade I think it would change everything. Then we can get something back for Staal AND we could clear some cap space AND we can resign Yandle. I hope that is Gorton's focus, but something tells me Staal doesn't want to go anywhere and we are F'd with him and will look to flip Yandle...especially if we continue to struggle.
Our dumbass fan base has been bashing our defenseman so long that other boards think all our defense suck. Which is comical considering the only reasons why this team won any playoff games was Hank and the defenseman. However, this year the defenseman do suck other than a couple.
After seeing how the defensemen have been going down year in and year out, the Rangers will need every able defenseman they have......... a rested Girardi is better than a hurting one!
Girardi may be under appreciated according to fans...most defensive defenseman are. The fact he got the contract extension(and terms) is just another brain dead move by Sather. Girardi WAS a top notch performer under the shot block system of Torts but clearly has floundered toward the end of the last few years including horrible playoff perfromances, which is what it's all about. The guy is beaten up and has slowed to a crawl. Seeing him dive/flop to the ice and float around the D zone is hard to watch. He does not deserve to play against the other teams best anymore. Take a look at the career of Ron Greschner who played in every situation and was the go to D during his years. He was done by age 32 b/c of back and leg problems(although he started his career earlier). He hung around for a few yrs past that on an awful team and was a shell of himself. The time for this team is the next 2 yrs at most. If Girardi is struggling now, what will he look like in 4 months when the team is playing every other night in a playoff series. Probably the same as he has looked the past 2 playoff years !
Respect your opinion, but agree to disagree there JD. I have no issue with Girardi's contract outside of the NTC. He is a good solid dman, and even if he slips some as the contract goes on I expect he will still be a solid 2nd pair guy.
JD, very perceptive and on target re: Girardi.....the guy has been a stalwart D man, but injuries have limited his on ice performance. This brings about a key question........ How does AV handle this situation? Most NHL head coaches are only concerned about how the team performs. With Girardi out, AV takes what the Ranger system has..........he's juggled Skjea & Summers with little success. My point. This team never has enough defensemen and Girardi needs to get better for this team is to gain a stable playoff position.
