Another road win for the Rangers and it was nice to see a glimpse of the old Igor, he was incredible. The problem isn't the defense, it's the giveaways, the Rangers are 2nd in the NHL behind Montreal in that department. Panarin is the leading culprit with Kane and Trocheck but the surprising player to me was Fox at 4th, he has been a turnover machine this year.
To me Fox has taken a couple steps back since his Norris Trophy winning season. He looks slow, tired and inconsistent. He's a great puck mover with great vision but he is a far cry from where he was two years ago.
Yeah, and turnovers in the worst places. In their own zone, in neutral ice, or just at the other teams blue line. To me it stems from the same place, too fancy and pretty. They are ALWAYS trying to make a play, Panarin and Fox especially, and very rarely say hey isn't there live to fight another day, just make the smart/safe play and get it out or get it deep. It is a fine line with players like that, getting them to play it safe sometimes and fight another day. They are so creative and confident, that is their game, and you cannot take all of that away, you live with some risk for the reward, but a lot of times it is reckless now. Same convo with Josh Allen in football and his turnovers. Stay aggressive, you need to be you on some level, which is what makes them great, but you also have to be smart and understand what is a good risk, and what is reckless. I feel like we are seeing a lot more low % reckless this year, and we absolutely will get beat round 1 if it doesn't stop. Can Gallant bring them back a bit on the reckless - we'll see.
Fox just needs to mix in shooting a bit more which will generate broken plays even if he doesn't score. The team needs a little more net traffic too in general.
