That falls on Sather because he's the tool who went out and got or refused to trade Pyatt, D. Moore, Pouliot and Boyle. First thing AV needs to do is create a legit first line and put Nash with Stepan and Kreider. Let Nash play RW where he is at his best. Second line should be Hagelin-Brassard-Callahan. Move Richards to the third line with MZA and Dorsett. This is the best they can do unless a trade is made. Honestly, I would let Kreider start taking draws with his strength. He can't do worse than Stepan who blows in the dot. Kreider-Stepan-Nash Hagelin-Brassard-Cally MZA-Richards-Dorsett Pouliot-Boyle-Moore
I disagree with those lines dump. You do that and you'll have little scoring from your 2nd line, and no scoring from your 3rd line. I think you have to balance the lines a little. MZA has played well with Step and CK. Not going to beat this thing to death, but at this point it is clear we have flaws. We need a big physical dman. I would bring McIlrath up now and see what he can do. It is also clear we need more scoring. I would deal MDZ for that. Then I would take my chances. Scratching MDZ game after game is simply moronic. As a side note, it is time for Staal to play better. Yesterday he was terrible. Goal 1 he was checking the air right next to the goal as the cross ice pass was made and his guy was wide open for a goal. Goal 3 he weakly flipped the puck up the boards, stolen by Boston, one pass and goal. Time for Staal to get his game back like McDonagh clearly has.
I see you are on the pipe this morning Chuck. Newsflash. Brassard was our best offensive player in the playoffs and with more ice time, is better than Richards offensively. Callahan is the second best goal scorer on this team. Hagelin is a 40 point guy. So saying you won't get scoring from the second line is beyond wrong. Also, no great team in this league doesn't have a first line that wins them a lot of games. That is the only line that can do that for us. Kreider-Stepan-Nash
We'll agree to disagree, I know that is difficult for you and you prefer to call people names like a child...but I digress. That 3rd line would never score. The 2nd line would score a little, but no where near what a good 2nd line should score. I think it would be a bad idea to load up like that. You check the heck out of that 1st line and we are sunk IMO.
For today that line has looked great, no doubt about it. I am sure CK loves scoring against Torts...LOL. I also think if that will be your 1st line in the short term, I like playing Richards on the wing with Brass and Cally. That gives the 2nd line some scoring ability as well. That is smart by AV.
Kreider Hat Trick. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh Yeah. AV is right on the target about DESIRE TO WIN. It is about time a Ranger head coach stated this out loud. There is "deadwood" on this roster and they need to go.
I don't think it was a desire thing against Boston, they just can't hold up strength wise against them for 60 min.
You don't have to hold up strength wise against more physical teams. You need to outskate them, and not make mistakes. When you aren't as physical as a team like Boston, yet try to be as physical, you are playing right into their hands. They played stupid hockey against the Bruins, and paid for it.
The mistakes began in the 1st period, were kept up in period 2 and resulted in the loss in period 3. I'm not denying the Bruins are more physical, but mistakes made at the blue line, in the corners (trying to clear) and in the front of the goal contributed more to the loss than physicality.
Right but that also comes from pressure so it's all related. They simply blow too many odd man rushes with wasted shots, they need to add to the lead when it's 2-1.
I think its pretty easy to over analyze when they lose. They totally outplayed Boston over a week ago and lost because they couldn't lift the puck over Rask. Sure Boston is bigger and more physical but at the end of the day its about scoring goals and preventing goals. Rangers have played 2 games vs the bad Bruins and they dominated one even though they lost both. Need to score goals vs good teams
It doesn't matter who you play. If you don't come prepared to play, you wil make mistakes and more often than not, you will lose. There are other physical teams in the NHL, do we just figure those games will be lost because the Rangers aren't as physical? I don't care if the Rangers are playing 500 hockey right now, they are better than that. The Bruins games was a game that got away because of mistakes, and nothing more.
