Rangers (37-19-9) vs Penguins (33-22-10), 4 pm start, TV-TNT
Projected lineup:
Kreider-Zibanejad -Tarasenko
Panarin-Trocheck-Kane
Lafreniere-Chytil-Kakko
Vesey-Goodrow-Motte
Miller-Trouba
Mikkola-Fox
Harpur-Schneider
Brodzinski-prucha’d
Lindgren-injured
Halak in net
LGR!!!!!
197 responses to “It’s Go Time!”
FIRST!
That’s all. The rest – after the game…
Why?, because of bad gut’s feeling. Not to spoil blog by Nancy’s talk.
LGR! Heave ho! Three in a row…
Badrow penalty.
Phantom call!
Plenty of time
Is Bettman reffing
What the hell are they doing?
Are you kidding? Can’t make this up…
WHAT IN THE FUDGE US WRONG WITH THESE GUYS!!!!!??????
Ranger penalty parade.
Wonderful. How much do you want to bet that the refs miss about 45 straight penalties taken by Pissburgh
A lot of careless stick work will do them in today. This could end early. No excuse for it. Good teams don’t do that.
Three in a row – non stop. Hate those fat birds!
Sullivan’s chickens got early Xmass gift(s).
That’s not on the officials. They were careless, lazy plays by the rock stars. They need attention to detail.
Now the Rangers aren’t going to defend their goalie or anyone pushed around for great of the refs putting everyone in a white jersey in the box.
The tone for the rest of this game is already set and it favors the senior citizen team.
They are lucky to only give up one.
Trouba knows his teammates are wearing white, right?
Rangers now should pick up their rhythm…
Great! VZ!
Woot
Thanks Jarry!!
Goodrow atones for his sin.
Greasy goal
Greasy
4th line showing how it’s done.
Pens with 3 power plays and Sully hasn’t even started crying yet
Bread is quite the turnover machine.
I half expect the puck to land on my lap when he has it.
Play for the point!!!!
Shoot that, Trocheck! It’s ok to be selfish there, like you usually are the rest of the game. Lol
4th line showed up. The others not so much.
Birds defense looks porous – just have to exploit it. As well as their relative softness.
Hit them everywhere you can and every time you can.
Kane’s trying to match Panarin giveaway for giveaway.
If the Rangers start playing hockey they could win this game.
Fortunate to get of that even after the awful start. Let’s hope that’s not their good period.
How many opportunities did they pass up to shoooooot the puck? Geez.
Not a bad period really considering the crappie start.
Tree hat period was the best the Kane-era rangers have looked.
Mikkola has been a real nice addition
Whatever happened to good old fashioned shooting the puck looking for rebounds and such? All this foolish passing is making me dizzy…..and very ANGRY.
I HATE THE pens!
Crosby photos with whatever that guy’s name is care a little…..off…. salacious?
I hate the Pens as well.
Rangers and there giveaways and when puck ends up in front of halak the puck becomes a hot potatoe.
I thought panarin was bad with giveaways but he met his match and his name is kane.
Yellow chicken are vulnerable and beatable. Their previous experience and achievements are just that – FORMERS.
Pitt and Washington have these idiots with their horns…….ughh so irritating.
great
Auto goal by Mika.
Mallon interference uncalled before gosl
Is that a half goal for Zika
Nice goal by Shaggy……uhhhh. wait wrong net
Pits are getting gift after gift…
6 shots on goal. Good luck in the playoffs, boys. Smh
Stupid, easy goals…matching stupid comments.
Still one period left to be their good one
Glad there pointing out it was tarasenko with the bad and, not fox, tarasenko was blue line hugging.
Nice tip by Mika and Fox & Stinko not on the same page. Preseason game for the Rangers. The theme is “Getting to know you.”
Slick move by mottes berry farm, too bad he gave it away later
20 to 8 SOGs. Ugh.
They did miss th net high and wide 5 times
If anyone still thinks that getting Kane & Tarasenko was the right move… you’re delusional. This team is disjointed and boring now. Zero forecheck, zero mojo. Our GM pulled the plug on our season while trying to go for it. Not good.
This TNT broadcast has the feel of a Pittsburgh broadcast. That to is making me ANGRY.😡🤬
BTW, I don’t like the new lines alignments (except untouched 4th) – our offence is random and uncoordinated and acting mostly individually.
That stamkos hedman commercial is just too funny
Let’s be positive boys we still have a shot at the Bruins in rd 1.
Rangers love the flyby play. No one wants to stop in front of the net after putting the puck there. Smh
Soft as Doctors cotton!
Why are the pens fans saying troubs!!!!!!
I’ve noticed that too, Rich. I’ve been bouncing back and forth and every time I come back to the game, they sound like they care more about the Pissburgh Crysbys
Pens go to the net. Rangers take low danger shot.
These guys look like they don’t care because any of the other excuses are even worse.
Not exactly the best forward line combos for the rangers.
Crash the net. What in the world are they afraid of.
Chris Rooney sux
They’re still going to win this game watch something amazing happen.
Here comes the merry go round .
Rangers are in search of the perfect shot and don’t take the obviously good shot. Infuriates me.
Jesus Kreider
Kreider does a Strome. Last year that’s a goal.
Old sickness – too many senseless passes, to little decisive shots.
I hope they are better on Thursday. It’s our big night out.
Can’t take it I’m broken.
0 for 4 against the pens on the pp this season
13 shots on net.
Funny, I remember them outshooting teams until when…..? Give you two guesses.
Don’t worry St. Pete, they get to play the Pens two more times this week.
Trouboomed by the terminator
Should be two of them
Trouba hits hard but he hits legal. Quite pansy like the way other teams react to it.
Legal hit? Malkin with the sneaky hit from behind.
Cross check. Where’s our 5 on 3?
Better.
Maybe this gets them motivated a bit more.
Malkin is a piece of …..you know what.
The Rangers need to start playing as angry as a lot of us are starting to get right now
Kreider penalty for getting cross-checked
If that all happened to Pissburgh, for damn sure they’d have a 5 on 3 right now
Plenty of time…
The Rangers added a ton of offense to a team with plenty of it. Yet the math is now not adding up…..the offense had disappeared. This story is typical of our Rangers.
Colty the Penguin
Rich,
This isn’t hard to figure out.
They’re soft on the puck and can’t sustain any pressure in the o-zone. One and done and it’s coming back the other way. Zero forecheck. Oh, that and they want to pass the puck into the net.
This is karma. They didn’t need both Tarasenko and Kane. They needed one at most and they needed to NOT trade away Blais who would have been a good playoff performer. They then could have gone after a true 4th line center.
Chytil 4 – 0 at the dot today. Pretty even period. Bad luck on the Mika own goal following the Fox / Stinko cross up. Kreider foiled on 2 chances to tie it. They are still trying to figure out how to generate chances responsibly with this lineup.
Craig……plenty of merit to your comment……….sadly😞
“If Patrick Kane becomes available, you get him….”
They immediately gave up a 2 on 1 and then took 3 penalties. They have been much better since. There is still very little offensive cohesion. Everyone except the 4th line doing it on their own. Guess who has scored.
Guys.
We’ve seen this same darned tired story with the Rangers year after year after year…..
Having a pass happy offense that has a lot of giveaways is not a good combination.
Ricola takes the dumbest shots, especially when we’ve controlled the puck for a while in the offensive zone. He’s making up for Hajek
Gotta love the D in front of halak there. Two pens behind them.
Another stupid 1% chance shot from the point.
Jamesgeau
If we fall to the first wild card we can play Carolina in the first round and avoid the Derbils. 🤷🏻♂️
Lunch pail guys outplaying the rock stars.
IMHO, GG experiment with the lines should be considered a failure, Q.E.D.
This team should have a psychological study done on them. It could be in the periodical Psychology today.
At the risk of almost plagiarizing it could be titled
Rangers in search of self.
Stupid shot
Stupid shot
Stupid shot
Rinse
Repeat
No real sustained offense.
No jam from this group, aside from the fourth line.
Soul searching…It is over. Time for decisive actions.
VZ is the best player today. its not enough. Good for him, but what a shame…Anybody else
I hope they don’t put Kane on the 4th line. Then we’d have no offense at all.
Malkin goal for NYR!
Cheechoo
Woot woot
Me likey
Sit down, “Geno”!
Lmao!!
All that is exactly how it is done
Laying there trying to get a sympathy hit!
Malkin dive costs them. Love it.
Malkin flattened and a SCORE!
I’m happy we scored but that was dirty
If malkin hadn’t died, he could have played some D
Frankenbaby
Jones is so anti NYR it’s sad.
Trochek is the man!
Trochek and Malkin even on that exchange. Malkin embellished a bit.
They will have to kill a penalty now…Sully whining
Vaguely dirty hit, not dirty when comparing to dirty birds hits today
Dirty Grandpa Malkinstein got some taste of his own medicine.
Looked like Malkin was going to cry. Makes me so sad.
CK20 projected for 34.7878787879 goals this season!
Hang on, Jaro!
Good third so far. Let’s see if they can finish it.
Mikkola is a big elk. Fast too. With some taste for graze on a foreign territory…
Upstate…the mathematician.
Isaac Newton has nothing on you.
Why is miller on end of tie game
Halak is worth every penny he gets paid
The Rangers love playing OT lately.
Smart D by Trouba…not great decision by miller.
Miller has no hockey sense. He can’t get caught up ice in that situation. Halak bailed him out.
Play for the point!!!!!
Where is Coos to abuse Miller!
Play for the point.
Another dive by “Geno”
Dumb penalty
Shltski.
Oh well. We got a point for playing one period. Hopefully they look better against them later this week.
Terrible play by krusty
That was one of the most selfish plays I’ve ever seen a professional athlete in a team sport take.
Krusty needs to redeem himself with a jack in the box goal 😉
Lucky to get the point.
Another dumb penalty like every one they took today. And he gives them the point.
That shot had sizzle
Horse 💩
Good,point should have put them away in 3rd
Can we get Reeves back before the deadline
Let’s see how many post-regulation games we can play in a row🙄
1 point in the bank!
Next!!!!
Thursday could be ugly
The Kane Kreider Teochec combo looked good and so did 4th line…progress
3 out of 4 points in the back to back.
I’ll take it.
Better defensively today, but Miller was awful.
5 of 6 points on the road…I’ll take it!
Maybe the Rangers can learn something g by watching the tape on the Pens goals, Shoot the puck with a screen in front. So frustrating watching them continue with the east west pass game. Panarin’s turnover game will be a big reason why this team will not go far in the playoffs.
When Lindy comes back …time for Troubs and Mikkola pair up
Terrific 3rd period and good point. 5 out of 6 on the trip is fine. They appear to be making some progress.
Panarin is the Rangers’ equivalent to the Knicks Julius Randle. Flashes of brilliance mixed in with lots of truly dumb plays. Both of them include lots of turnovers in their games. His bone head play today gave away what had been a pretty good effort after a dreadful start. If Stinko doesn’t hit the post they could have won it in regulation. They’re getting a little better each game. Can’t have Kane and Panarin on together. They are both weak on the wall and the puck will never get out of their end.
Lindgren should be avaulable Thursday.
Turns out, that it could be absolutely winnable game if not for the stupidest Panarin act. 3rd period wasn’t bad at all with a positive phycological moment for the Rangers.
Was this a playoff game?
For Pittsburgh, this was a playoff game.
They’ve increased their lead over the Sardines (as have the Rangers, btw)
Thought stinko had a really good game.
I really hate the pens!
ECF
devils vs bruins
I’m sick of Panarin. I’ve been saying he’s a net negative for months now.
He was a net positive yesterday
Scottsdale
With Krusty it’s the Good the Bad and the Ugly!
Tell you what…. Trocheck can tro checks. He’ll be fun to watch in the playoffs at least.
You can be tired of Panarin, but he has a NMC, so he’s not going anywhere and not worth getting bent out of shape about.
LB bent out of shape because NYR goalies aren’t talking to the media after games.
Scottsdale……no one is going to want to have that salary added to their books. He belongs to the Rangers for better or worse .
New word! Nice
So we are going to have to add a Good Krusty or Bad Krusty question to the wrap-up of every game from now on. Three more years.
ORF
Seems appropriate. “If the shoe fits.”
Derbils will never lose another game apparently.
We all expected Panarin to tail off as the contract aged, but, it’s been on the defensive side of the puck where the drop off has been obvious this season. +/- is a lousy stat but the highest scorer on a good team can’t be a minus player and he hasn’t been in the past. He actually had the best +/- on the team last year (+21) and was +14 the year before. He is -3 this year and Trouba at -6 and Trochek at -1 are the only other guys in the top 9 or top 4 who are – players. I’m not sure if 5 on 5 scoring for him has just gone away or he has just making more bad choices with the puck. It does seem the whole league has started to play him the same way. When he has the puck he tends to stop either at the red line or just inside the blue and look for E-W passes. When he does that they attack him aggressively and that seems to be when the most egregious turnovers happen. Admittedly I didn’t watch it that closely in past seasons. He needs to change things up and be less predictable. They will come after him even harder in the playoffs and they can’t have a $11MM power play specialist.
Despite all the handwringing over Panarin, he did win the game Saturday with a snipe top shelf from the goal line in the corner. Not many players in the world can make that shot. And if Zibanajad doesn’t have a brain freeze and shoots the puck after an all world pass to him alone in front of the net from Panarin in 3rd period they win yesterday too.
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