NY Rangers (5-7-2) vs Florida Panthers (4-7-1)
Our boys are looking to extend their winning streak to season high three games. Can they keep their composure and continue their commitment to defense first approach against a much less successful opponent than the previous two? We will find out very soon.
Looks like the same 6 D-men and Paul Carey is replacing David Desharnais, so DD along with Smith are prucha’d.
What prompted AV to sit DD last game, who is now also scratched, remains a mystery to me. Desharnais has been a rare pleasant surprise to date.
If anyone wants to do a review tomorrow morning, email it to me anytime at ilbster@yahoo.com
247 responses to “It’s Go Time!”
Yes Coos, I was talking about Hank and Giannone. I always appreciate John’s willingness to ask some tough questions. I also appreciate Hank always facing the music after the games – good or bad he doesn’t hide. Seem to recall Giannone writing a column about that last year for his MSG blog.
giannone and henrik
Yes, Hank, Nash, and the Captain always available through thick and thin. Admirable. Don’t know if I could stand up to it certain nights.
I still see a team win one, lose one as the season progresses. 90 points would be miraculous.
every team gets a point every night. 90 should be just about right.
The Cavity Driller, Crosby, Stills & Nash and No Food Today
Another average game by Hank. They will lose more of those than they win. The short side goal from below the dot is becoming a pattern. They hung in and came back, but, they won’t get 4or 5 every night. Thursday’s Hank makes them a pretty good team. Tonight’s Hank makes them struggle to make the playoffs.
that’s very fair.
Please go get a center!
Carp 90 points will surely get us another elite late 1st rd draft pick! Of course that’s if JG doesn’t trade it at the deadline. “Same old story same old song and dance.” It goes on and on and on and on!
Waiting for Hank to flip a switch and be great again is not going to happen. This is year three of this kind of goaltending. It’s time to face the fact that this is who he is. An average goaltender, who sometimes can go on a streak.
Last nights game was very familiar. It reminded me of the Ottawa series. Rangers battle, and take a lead in the third. Hank gives up a softy. Rangers regroup, and take the lead again. Hank gives up a softy late. They go to OT. In the playoffs, Hank usually gives it up in OT. Regular season, and a crappy opponent, Rangers win.
Good morning BDL, Hank doesn’t just need a switch he needs some plutonium and a nuclear reactor to generate 1.21 gigawatts in this:
https://www.battery.com/powered/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/BackFuturePhoto3.jpg
While we are on three year slides, this is now year three of Zucc and his slide. The first year was excusable, he was coming off an awful injury. Though he did score 26 goals, he barely tried in his own end. Last year he continued his slide. Going for long stretches without scoring a goal. Yes he had assists,but his overall play was eh. This year it’s even worse. There are nights you don’t even notice he’s playing.
You interrupted me James.
Can’t you see I have a lot to say this morning!
Calling the last 2 goals Florida scored “softies” is a bit of an exaggeration I think. 3rd one deflected off Mika’s skate and turned into a knuckler (someone said it ticked off Holden too making it a double deflection, but I didn’t see that). 4th one was a really good shot. Both were “stoppable” but I don’t think that equates to “soft” or “bad” – Hank was strong for the most part and unlucky on the 3rd. Bears remembering that he has never been a fast starter and he has had exactly one sub-par year out of 12. Still not ready to put him on life support, but I definitely agree he needs to be more consistent as the season goes on.
The only way the goaltending situation can improve-given Hank’s cap hit-is for his ultimate replacement to come in on an ELC. I don’t think the Russian kid is available for 2 more years. The Ranta loss is looming large now. Maybe more so than Stepan. Pavelec doesn’t seem like a viable option to take on more of the load now. We can hope for Benny to work more magic, but, hope is not a plan. The situation is likely to get worse over the next couple of years.
BDL, I’m curious why you think Hank’s season in 2015-16 was subpar? 35 wins, .920/2.48, 4 SO, and he led the league in even strength sv% while facing highest number of high danger shots against. Not looking for a squabble – genuinely curious…
Do those high danger shots factor in juicy rebounds from low danger shots and misplaying the puck leading to turnovers around cage?
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Lies, damn lies and statistics…
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Henk is no longer elite and has never been worth the Cap Hit regardless of level of play. Just cannot pay a goalie that amount in a hard cap league with very limited Cap increases.
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Another drunken Sather signing.
Good morning, boneheads!
NEW POST
HS,
I don’t mind a good squabble. My memory of that season is Hank carrying them for the first 20 games. Then Hank started to become the Hank we see now. Soft goals, big rebounds, all around average goaltending. And that’s not even including the performance in the playoffs. Hank started all 5, not sure how many he actually finished.
BDL, he had a great start and then a rough 5 week stretch from Thanksgiving through Xmas. Then he was pretty terrific again with a few normal bumps along the way for the rest of the year. Playoffs. Easy to forget (given how bad the last 2 games were) that he stopped all 10 shots he faced in Game 1 before getting speared in the eye, and was .933/2.0 in Game 2 and .935/2.0 in Game 3. But yes, he and the entire team, were horrible in Games 4 and 5. Still think he had an overall good regular season borne out by the dreaded “fancy stats!”