Making snorky comments is not stating your opinion in my view. Dump is dump. He has been like this for years. Who cares at this point.
I mention it because I know for a fact that it has driven people from the boards. Eventually people grow up from those days and don't want to deal with that type of stuff anymore. Maybe ten plus years ago on the ESPN boards but not in a more intimate setting. The reaction to that was oh well they should grow up. Well they're no longer here regardless so it clearly worked out well. As for me personally I know his shtick but I'm not going to have some clown tell me to shut up and attack me without firing back. Clearly thinks who in the hell he is. Don't worry though. We will get some 4am 37 paragraph rant from Dump about how me and everyone else is a baby and how message boards wouldn't exist without him.
This team couldn't beat a Pitt team at home with the Penguins missing about 6 to 8 of their players and you call this a top team. You never learn.
D zone responsibility/structure/discipline/accountability Face-offs Special Teams Finishing more plays Issues that have plagued the Rangers for the past two seasons. A couple, PP and finishing, have plagued them for a lot longer. Hopefully some of that gets addressed this off-season. You have to think this is a summer of change on D if they lose to the Habs in round 1. Girardi would have to be bought out you'd think. Shatty should be here. Skjei should continue to develop. Graves should get a shot. And we'll see on Smith. The Rangers don't really have any main guys they need to resign this summer outside of Ziban. RFA's like Fast and Lindberg are secondary guys, and should be able to be resigned without getting crazy. And even if a Fast left, so be it. So there isn't much to do this summer on our own guys. Which means we can focus on the D as I mentioned. This team has been so undisciplined in their own zone for two years now that it has to be more than personnel. Total speculation, but aside from his GO GO system, I don't know if AV gets on the players enough for their breakdowns, and they are glaring breakdowns. That is why I have started to turn on AV, I'm simply tired of seeing guys wide open on the weak side or in the slot. Last night the Pens 3rd goal...player wide open skating down the slot...and I mean wide open. A few minutes prior to that the Pens hit the post...TWO Pens were all alone in front of Hank behind the closet Ranger Klein...TWO. That is ridiculous, and happens way too often. Then face-offs the team is an embarrassment, and has been for two years. Why their possession #'s are awful, hurts their PP and PK. And special teams continue to suck. Too much stuff for me to not start getting on AV now. With that said, I will see the playoffs play out first before I call for him to be fired (which will never ever happen anyway). I want to see how they play against Montreal and the Atlantic before I go off on AV. He deserves the shot, as does the team. Right now it is very difficult to see the Rangers winning that series with how they have played for a while, but the Habs are nothing special, and maybe playing in games that matter again will ignite the fire once more. We'll see, but that's what we cling to in here, because what we have seen for a long while from this team will get rolled by Montreal in round 1.
I have to disagree with 2009 on a major rebuild coming and a return to 2003. We have a handful of U-27 forwards and defenseman plus money coming off with Nash and Girardi etc in the next year or two. If they use the cap space right that will round out the roster better in HL last 3-4y. Plus factor in having 1sts that could help.
Girardi needs to be bought out. Staal needs to be dealt as Graves needs to take his place. Nash should be an easy deal with one year on his contract. He's had a good season when healthy. You might have to retain 2 million in a deal but so what. He should bring a nice return. Still say Stepan should be moved in the right deal. Gorton has a ton of work to do.
I think Girardi gets bought out for sure. I'd be surprised if they are able to deal Staal. Nash I could go either way on. No issue dealing him if the return was decent, but no issue keeping him one more year knowing it opens up huge cap room next summer. Stepan is a good solid two way player. 15 + goals and 50 + points. Issue is he sucks on draws, and is not worth a 6.5 mill cap hit. If he was down in the lower 5's (even 5.5 tops) it would make more sense, but at 6.5 it is too much. That's why I don't know what teams would want him. To me I would say a bad team might want him because they can't sign players, and on a team like that Stepan is valuable. But when does his NMC kick in? Can we even deal him this summer without his okay. I have faith in Gorton. Not sure why, but I think he'll make the right decisions for this team. We are good and deep and young upfront. Now we need to get this D worked out.
The team has done the best it can with the roster of players that they have. They overachieved even in their long playoff runs. Somehow the mindset of a segment of the fan base is that those long runs should be every season or else everything and everybody sucks. This team is never and has never been bad enough to get a chance at those franchise changing top players. It's not a shock that those teams that have like Pittsburgh and Chicago in the past and currently the Oilers and Leafs are showing success based off of that. When you have a Crosby on your team and he's playing like he is currently you're extremely dangerous. Even more so when fully healthy.
'Thought police are not necessary, simply ignoring posts of the offending party works best. Seems a little thin skinned to get chased away from a board over a few typed words. I thought the Rangers were better from the get go just by losing Boyle but Holden and Smith have been great acquisitions. Hayes, CK and JT have emerged as the players the Rangers hoped they would be. Their goaltending situation is better and their offense is better. Best team winning record on the road too. AV's weakness is defensive strategy as evidenced at the end of tonight's game when the goal was left wide open twice in the last minutes. Good home win against a desperate Philly team. Personally, I loved Smith's hit on that punk Voracek, good job by Hank and the Rangers bailing him out. I've been down on Danny boy so I'll give him credit for kicking up an assist too. 100 points for a team viewed by some as crash and burn material. I think they beat the Habs in 6. I go into every season thinking the team I root for has a chance, that's being a fan, that's why the Giants SB and Yankees WS wins over the years were so sweet. No problem if you can't even commit to the possibility that the Rangers can win the Cup to protect your message board prognostication accuracy. Same crap went on AV's first year when they went to the Cup. Let's go Rangers!
