With the same old excuses of "well the Devils always play this game like it's a Cup game" and "were coasting because we're locked into a playoff spot" excuses. This team is soft and makes consistent mistakes in the offensive zone and defensive zone. Not to mention our coach is an idiot. Plays Glass against Minnesota and other skill type teams, sits Glass against the Devils. Unreal with this organization. This team has gotten worse every year under him. You can bring up his record the first 4 years, but he's gotten worse results each year to the point where we are most likely one and done and unlikely to win more than one game in a round. I will continue to watch and root for this team despite the coach and would love to be shocked, but this team makes defensively moronic plays all the time and equally stupid offensive plays. The fact that Arneil still has a job with this organization with how AWFUL this PP has been says all you need to know about this franchise. Dolan doesn't care about his franchises because no matter what, they are going to bring in a ton of money. Therefore, that creates a lacksadasical front office that we've had to deal with under Sather's watch. It's why, despite having one of the best goalies in recent NHL history, we haven't won a Cup. Change for this organization needs to start at the top with Dolan (which will never happen) and work it's way all the way down to the AHL coaches and scouts.
Well, there is something you don't see every day. 717 not having a clue what a team built for the playoffs looks like.
So you think the Rangers, who have been playing .500 hockey for the past month are as good as the Blackhawks, Penguins, Capitals and Blue Jackets is what you're saying. This seems reasonable. I must've forgotten all the Cups they automatically give out when your team wins the Presidents Trophy and has a lot of wins but is collapsing heading into the playoffs. I get that we have a ton of injuries, but even before all the injuries this team was making boneheaded mistakes. They coast out there and then expect to just turn it on but forget that there is another team out there that can also raise their game another level. The worst thing that has happened for this team is that they haven't had to play a "meaningful" game lately because it's allowed them to slack off even more than usual and allowed a LOT of bad habits to form and become the norm This team, as is if they don't straighten out and play up to their potential, is going to get embarrassed in the playoffs. If they can get it all together and figure it out then they can certainly make it to the conference finals. Sadly, they've allowed too many bad habits to creep into their games on a nightly basis and those are hard things to change this late in the season. Like I said, I'm going to keep supporting this team regardless of what they may look like out there, but I'm also a realist and can see the mulititude of flaws this team has currently
I agree that the lack of meaningful games and the coasting for a month now is a problem, which I posted about this past weekend. But given the successes this team has had recently, given the position they are in right now, given the quality hockey and playoff runs we've gotten to see, the rest just seems very dramatic. I would expect Avalance fans to have this mentality. Coyotes fans. Hurricanes fans. Devils fans. Are we that spoiled that because we're not the clear favorite to win the cup, everything therefore sucks? We have playoff hockey coming again, which is awesome. We're in the perfect playoff position. We have Henrik. Let's relax and see what happens.
I agree with pretty much everything 223 just wrote. We differ a little on the bigger issue being the lack of meaningful games and coasting though. I agree with 94 on that. The continued D zone breakdowns, PK issues, lack of weak side coverage in our own zone, and leaving guys wide open in the crease way too often is very troubling, and is more than just coasting and meaningless games. We have seen this for at least 2 years now, and that is a trend and lack of structure/attention to detail, not coasting, So that concerns me greatly. We saw it last night on the Devs 1st goal...where was Miller going on that PK? He literally was on the opposite side of the near boards hash marks and there was no one on the Rangers on the other side of the ice, that is very troubling. It is also why I am starting to question the coaches here. They should be showing videos like that, and lord knows there's enough of them, 10000000 times every day. These guys skate into corners and leave the slot and weak side wide open all the time, it has to stop. Sadly I have seen no evidence it will stop. That last man has got to stop chasing the puck and stay in front/on the weak side. With that said, we are so spoiled in here as 223 said. Stop complaining all the time and enjoy the games. We can beat Montreal in round 1, so look forward to that. Sure we could lose also, but enjoy the ride. This is a good solid team, 5th or 6th best team in the NHL IMO, so enjoy that. Not the best, not the Pens and Caps and Hawks, but real good. And we'll be in the correct bracket in the playoffs, so enjoy. And if they lose early you will all have plenty of time to complain all summer long...so enjoy for now.
The reason I complain and think AV needs to be gone is because a lot of the mistakes the players make are coachable mistakes. However, to see the same mistakes over and over again one must question if it's the players (despite players not all being the same) or the system/coaching. It's worth discussing over the summer after a hopefully long playoff run.
