PP time is huge for a player's offense and consequent confidence. To Dump's point, a significant portion of players' points come from the PP. Of the top 15 scorers in the league right now, almost 1/3 of their points came from the PP. The % is much higher for our own top scorers. 45% of Panarin's points came from the PP. 42% for Zib, 45% for Fox and 48% for Kreider.
Exactly 31. It's not rocket science but for some reason a huge % of our fan base are dumb fucks and can't grasp that. So they expect Kakko ande Lafreniere to be putting up a lot of points. Not realizing that their offensive confidence not being on the first PP unit is going to suffer on a consistent basis.
Even more than that. How about never playing McKegg or Hunt over Barron. Barron looked so much better than those 2 guys, exspecially assclown Mckegg if I was Drury, I would release McKegg today.
To further the point....it's painfully obvious that Laf doesn't have this type of game consistently so to try to dunk on it after one game is a stretch.
Lafreniere has actually played this well for 5 games in a row. Incompetent Zibanejad and Kreider haven't been able to cash in on his plays at even strength because for the most part they are below average players at even strength. Without the PP Zibanejad would have 9 g 22 A, Kreider would have 17 G 8 A . Lafreniere has 15 points at even strength getting 6 minutes less of icetime than Zibanejad and 5 minutes of icetime than Kreider. Plus, playing on a crap line most of the season.
What is the point ....pp is 5th in the league...so let's tinker with it..why...because we have young players that need to be breast fed with pp time. Because people on here feel the need to have laf or kakko score points that's more important than winning.
Winning is great but you have to develop the young players on the roster....the older the Zibs, Kreiders, and Panarins get the less they will produce...to maintain success you need the younger guys to improve and take their place. Kreider is never going to have the season he is currently having again...he just isnt. And his reduced production needs to be made up for from other players. The guys you have to lean on are the Lafreniere's and Kakko's...to make up the difference if the Rangers are going to maintain their level of success.
Yep. Panarin is a top offensive player but his decision making is moronic a lot of the time. He makes a ton of low percentage passes each game and he is undisciplined with his shift lengths. That usually cost you in the playoffs. It is crucial that Kakko and Lafreniere continue getting better and get more icetime. Including first PP unit time. Chytil is a pussy. Guy never plays. Time to sell on him is now. Gourde is the guy to get. Then you have Korczak at center and Othmann and Cuylle coming on wing in a couple years.
On a side note, Hasek is either a booze hound or is on drugs. I agree Ovie is a Putin loving pussy. However, wanting all Russian players to be suspended. Find your brain Hasek you fucking whacko. You don't deprive somebody of their livelyhood because the country they were born in is run by a maniac. What a nutcase.
I get that, however, they are learning a lot to be able to play two way hockey, their skills don't diminish just because they aren't playing 5 on 4. The rangers have a nice luxury that they don't have to force feed kakko and laf.
But when you have the #1 and #2 picks, you need to focus on helping them reach their potential as much and fast as possible, and you do that by giving them 18+ minutes a game and ton of PP time, even if it means other veteran players' ice time goes down because of it. Beyond the limited ice time LaF and Kakko have been getting, we are also asking LaF right now to adapt his game to play RW. IMO, it should be the other way around and have Kreider move to the right. To me, Lafreniere and Kakko should have been our priority and instead we chose to focus on getting as much as we can out of our vets and those 2 were just along for the ride, and IMO it is to the team's detriment. Next year when Kreider comes back to his career averages, LaF or Kakko may not be far enough along in their development to make up the difference in production, and that will be the team's own fault.
God forbid 31 you actually talk with common sense. You will be lectured for it. The Rangers have been a moronic, incompetent organization developing Kakko and Lafreniere. That one timer Lafreniere had vs. the Canucks. There might be two forwards on our team who would have any prayer of ever scoring on a shot like that. Yet, Gallant keeps putting retards like Hunt on the first line and Strome on the PP. There is a reason this organization has one cup in over 80 years. They are fucking stupid. You are never winning the cup with the Kreider's and Strome's of the NHL. It's that simple.
The Rangers need another scorer or need to improve their even strength scoring. Otherwise, come the playoffs they're in the sakme spot they were when Hank always had to stand on his head. It's not fair to expect Igor to win every 2-1 game.
