At the risk of being a Debbie downer, I standby what I wrote the other night. The Rangers have not been playing well recently despite finding ways to win games (which again is a big credit to their mental toughness and fight). They have been a mess with the puck, and in their own zone for a while now, allowing over 3.5 GPG for the past 7 or 8 games. Maybe it is because the teams they are playing are desperate to get into the playoffs, and the Rangers are in already. Maybe when the playoffs start, they will tighten up and flip the switch. Maybe they will battle back again tonight. I hope the answer to all of those maybes is yes. But as I have been saying they have not been playing well recently, despite finding ways to win, and tonight is no different so far. The only thing I will caution everyone on, is when you play poorly in your own zone, and don't value the puck, bad habits set in, and it isn't easy to get out of them. I hope they start to tighten up, play a structured game, and value the puck.
Something is just off defensively for them. Like I said earlier, they were more sound defensively when Trouba and Lindgren were out. Not sure if there’s time to figure this out for them. At first I thought maybe Trouba was still injured but that’s not the case. Rangers are going to have to make changes to their defensive pairings. Can’t go into the playoffs with these defensive lapses happening every single game.
Trouba has been a mess since he has been back. Maybe he is not fully healthy or is rusty. I guess you can make the case let him play his way through it now, but he needs to start playing much better, he has been terrible in his own zone. Tonight's game is far from a must win for the Rangers, a loss isn't a huge issue, win 2 of their last 3 games and they will be in a good spot, but you want to play better than they have been recently IMO.
You have to drop Trouba. Scratch him even. Let him get his legs back in practice or something because all he has shown since he’s come back is he shouldn’t be back.
If it were me, I never would have messed with the Miller/Schneider pairing. We'll see if it pays off for Lavy. Isles with 18 shots in the first period, what a mess this team is defensively right now.
18 shots to 9. What a fucking miserable period. Maybe if I stop watching they’ll find their game and come back.
This one game is not a big issue to me. The Rangers are in a very good spot to get the top seed in the East win or lose tonight, and the Isles are hot and desperate for points. My concern is the Rangers haven't played well in their own zone for a while now, and that will get them knocked out early if they don't get it fixed. Also, root for the Canes to beat the Bruins, and no OT in that game.
I had a feeling this might not be a good one. A desperate Islanders team, on their home ice and playing the Rangers.
Much better period, maybe the best defensive period they have played in a long while. Let's see if they can win the 3rd period and get at least a point. Canes up 2-1 on the Bruins after two periods, hope they hold on. That would mean we get 3 of 6 possible points after tonight, and the Bruins are done, and the Canes would need to go 6 for 6 to tie us (assuming we lose tonight). Caps up 2-0 in Detroit in a huge game, would move them into playoff position. And the Flyers are totally finished, about to lose their 8th straight, down 6-0 in Montreal, wow. We need to continue their terrible streak on Thursday night, and inch closer to locking up the top seed in the East.
The benching of Couturier, whether warranted or not definitely turned off a lot of the players. It's insane how dramatic their fall in the second half of the season has been.
