2024 Off-season Thread: Burn in Effigy

[Dem]

5 hours ago, Bugg said:

His size and skating makes me think Duguay's idea about shifting him to wing isn't a bad one. He has a few brainfarts every night, like inexplicably messing with a puck Igor looked to have on the own goal in this series. Every error in an ECF is gonna get magnified, but Trouba makes enough weak blind clearing passes that the pinching D intercept,  and Miller has picked up that habit playing with him. Can picture opposing coaches looking at video saying "Dump it in the corner, and one of these 2 is gonna throw it up the boards; be waiting."

I'm not against the concept. He's not a defensemen for sure. Problem is do we need another forward who is contact adverse? He's a big kid but takes the body or takes a hit to make a play at best a couple x a game. 

 

It sucks he's promising but Everytime he touches the puck I cringe because 60% plus he turns it over. His judgement on pinching is absolute shit. 

 

I just feel it's time to move on I guess

[Blueshirts1926]

1 hour ago, Flynn said:

Jarvis is an RFA and Carolina has a shit ton of cap room. Raymond is an RFA as well..  In no universe are either of these guys either “cheap” or attainable. 

So they need to dump Trouba (his list and hope they take all 8 mil), Vesey and Brodz which gives them total 9,587,500 in cap room)

 

Trade Kakko

Do not resign

Roslovic, Jack

C, RW

NHL

Trade

27

UFA

Wennberg, Alexander

C

NHL

Trade

29

UFA

Wheeler, Blake

RW

NHL

Signed

37

UFA

Edited June 2 by Blueshirts1926

[RichieNextel305]

1 hour ago, Myusername said:

Holy hell, that is even more egregious on rewatch than I first thought. I mean, that this junior level stuff from him

I’ll be honest: same fucking thoughts.

 

I was yelling when it happened. Seeing the replay and knowing it was essentially a season dagger makes it so much worse.

 

You gotta get him off this team. He is so fucking bad.

[Br4d]

Trade Kreider early, somewhere attractive, outside the conference, where Mika will be fine joining him in a later trade.

[Flynn]

26 minutes ago, Blueshirts1926 said:

So they need to dump Trouba (his list and hope they take all 8 mil), Vesey and Brodz which gives them total 9,587,500 in cap room)

 

Trade Kakko

Do not resign

Roslovic, Jack

C, RW

NHL

Trade

27

UFA

Wennberg, Alexander

C

NHL

Trade

29

UFA

Wheeler, Blake

RW

NHL

Signed

37

UFA

That doesn’t change the fact they are RFA’s.. they will not offer sheet either

[BrooksBurner]

 

[ausman]

Looking back, things for the Rangers might’ve actually started to come apart after the 7 game win streak in the playoffs.  They then lost 2 to the Canes after going up 3-0.  Played one strong game to end that series, but then looked shaky thereafter.  Were arguably outplayed the whole series, losing game 1, winning 2 and 3 in OT, but lost 4,5,6.  The handwriting was apparently on the wall back in the Cane series after going up 3-0.

[Sharpshooter]

Panarin, Kreider and Zibanejad aren't going anywhere. Please stop. You can talk about it all summer until you're blue in the face. It's not happening. Don't bring back Gustafsson, Wennberg or Roslovic. Buy out Trouba if you can. Then enhance the depth with players who are better. Maybe Othmann and Edstrom are regular members of the roster by then.

Edited June 3 by Sharpshooter

[Sharpshooter]

3 minutes ago, ausman said:

Looking back, things for the Rangers might’ve actually started to come apart after the 7 game win streak in the playoffs.  They then lost 2 to the Canes after going up 3-0.  Played one strong game to end that series, but then looked shaky thereafter.  Were arguably outplayed the whole series, losing game 1, winning 2 and 3 in OT, but lost 4,5,6.  The handwriting was apparently on the wall back in the Cane series after going up 3-0.

I thought they perhaps peaked too early. This is even going back to that great run after the All Star break.

[Sharpshooter]

20 hours ago, RichieNextel305 said:

No.

 

This is the epicenter of disgrace.

 

55 wins. Franchise records everywhere. And still not good enough. Even after winning 7 straight to start.

 

Blow this team up.

Not really. Last season was one of the biggest choke jobs and collapses in team history. This year they had the best record and were a couple of wins away from a Cup Final appearance, just lost to a better team. I get being annoyed at a few players. They were not good. Still not as embarrassing or rage inducing than last year. That offseason was miserable and long.

[RichieNextel305]

5 minutes ago, Sharpshooter said:

Not really. Last season was one of the biggest choke jobs and collapses in team history. This year they had the best record and were a couple of wins away from a Cup Final appearance, just lost to a better team. I get being annoyed at a few players. They were not good. Still not as embarrassing or rage inducing than last year. That offseason was miserable and long.

Chokes happen. It was brutal, rage inducing, anger filled. But the only good to come out of it is that they seemed to take their medicine and come in with a renewed mindset to compete and to do the job. And for most of the year, they did. They really did.

 

What makes this worse, much worse, in my opinion is that this essentially confirms that this core is not good enough to get it done in the playoffs. This core isn’t going to win the Cup. Not without some changes to them, and not without some help. That is what makes this worse than last year. Last year, you hoped for a wake up call. It came. This year proved that changes have to be made. Because even though we were 2 games from the Finals, we were only in that position because of Igor, which is fine. He is a member of the team, I get it. But you can’t expect and rely on him to be superhuman every single night while you struggle to adjust or adapt to the change of pace. And all this run proved to me is that when the going got tough, this group melted and caved under the pressure. Got tough against the Canes, almost cracked there if not for a historic individual performance. And then all this series, couldn’t push back or adjust.

 

This year is worse because it shows we aren’t good enough. Just my $.02. Were good. But we’re not good enough. And that is a sad, tough reality to accept.

[Sharpshooter]

1 minute ago, RichieNextel305 said:

Chokes happen. It was brutal, rage inducing, anger filled. But the only good to come out of it is that they seemed to take their medicine and come in with a renewed mindset to compete and to do the job. And for most of the year, they did. They really did.

 

What makes this worse, much worse, in my opinion is that this essentially confirms that this core is not good enough to get it done in the playoffs. This core isn’t going to win the Cup. Not without some changes to them, and not without some help. That is what makes this worse than last year. Last year, you hoped for a wake up call. It came. This year proved that changes have to be made. Because even though we were 2 games from the Finals, we were only in that position because of Igor, which is fine. He is a member of the team, I get it. But you can’t expect and rely on him to be superhuman every single night while you struggle to adjust or adapt to the change of pace. And all this run proved to me is that when the going got tough, this group melted and caved under the pressure. Got tough against the Canes, almost cracked there if not for a historic individual performance. And then all this series, couldn’t push back or adjust.

 

This year is worse because it shows we aren’t good enough. Just my $.02. Were good. But we’re not good enough. And that is a sad, tough reality to accept.

Not good enough definitely. They're going to need to improve the depth and general toughness of the team. They are capable of winning, but unfortunately a lot has to go right for it to happen. This core is not getting blown up any time soon, if ever. No one is taking Zibanejad's contract, for example, with six more years left. Panarin is here for at least two more years. Kreider is here for the duration. There is nothing to blow up, only build up.

[RJWantsTheCup]

Does anybody realize if Roslovic knew how to settle a puck, Trouba doesn’t make a boneheaded play, the puck doesn’t bounce over Zibanejad’s stick and Chytil has some sort of clue who to cover they win 2-0 last night?

Everyone is acting like they got swept and killed each game.  This team isn’t that far off.  Take a deep breath and think about it.  If Drury can get rid of Trouba and figure out a top 6 RW & 3C they’ll be fine.  Let Drury get to work and see what he comes up with.  

[ausman]

Oddly, the Oilers-Stars series seems to be writing the same story.  Dallas was the better all season team and, while they’re playing better than the Rangers did, they’re already down 2-0 tonight to Edmonton at home.  Right now it looks like Panthers - Oilers, both not #1s seeds in their conferences.

[Sharpshooter]

1 minute ago, ausman said:

Oddly, the Oilers-Stars series seems to be writing the same story.  Dallas was the better all season team and, while they’re playing better than the Rangers did, they’re already down 2-0 tonight to Edmonton at home.  Right now it looks like Panthers - Oilers, both not #1s seeds in their conferences.

NHL playoffs are the hardest to gauge and predict in sports, to me. Dallas and the Rangers were looking great all year and neither could be playing for the Cup. Edmonton kind of took off at the right time. A lot of it is getting hot at the right time. Imagine Knoblauch taking over and winning the Cup in his first year in the league?

[RichieNextel305]

17 minutes ago, RJWantsTheCup said:

Does anybody realize if Roslovic knew how to settle a puck, Trouba doesn’t make a boneheaded play, the puck doesn’t bounce over Zibanejad’s stick and Chytil has some sort of clue who to cover they win 2-0 last night?

Everyone is acting like they got swept and killed each game.  This team isn’t that far off.  Take a deep breath and think about it.  If Drury can get rid of Trouba and figure out a top 6 RW & 3C they’ll be fine.  Let Drury get to work and see what he comes up with.  

Ifs don’t matter.

 

If Roslovic scores, is it a different game? Sure. They’d be the ones pushing there. But as they showed in this series, Florida had no issues pushing the pace and pushing us back on our heels. The same way they had no problems defending us when we were the ones chasing. They knew to keep pushing the play, winning or losing, whereas the Rangers would try and squeeze hold of a lead even as Florida pushed and pushed. Not gonna work against a ferocious attack like Florida has.

 

So for all those ifs, you can equally say it would likely not matter because they would have kept coming until they tied us. We didn’t defend one lead against the Panthers this year. Regular season, playoffs. Nothing. Any lead we had on them we never held on to win. Each win against them took overtime (and shootout in the regular season). We won 3 games out of 9 against them.

[Br4d]

54 minutes ago, ausman said:

Looking back, things for the Rangers might’ve actually started to come apart after the 7 game win streak in the playoffs.  They then lost 2 to the Canes after going up 3-0.  Played one strong game to end that series, but then looked shaky thereafter.  Were arguably outplayed the whole series, losing game 1, winning 2 and 3 in OT, but lost 4,5,6.  The handwriting was apparently on the wall back in the Cane series after going up 3-0.

 

I think things started to come apart when Laviolette began fiddling with the lineup along about game 3 of the Canes series.

[Sharpshooter]

Florida was the only team I thought the Rangers didn't have much of a chance against out of all of the teams in the playoffs, with the exception of Colorado and maybe Dallas.

[Scott]

2 minutes ago, RichieNextel305 said:

Ifs don’t matter.

This. 

 

If Igor doesn't have a save % of .935 we're most likely out even earlier. 

If our 5v5 game actually existed things may have been different. 

If our breakouts and zone entries didn't stink.....

If we.....

 

None of the ifs going either way matter.  The boys are heading home.

 

 

[RJWantsTheCup]

7 minutes ago, RichieNextel305 said:

Ifs don’t matter.

 

If Roslovic scores, is it a different game? Sure. They’d be the ones pushing there. But as they showed in this series, Florida had no issues pushing the pace and pushing us back on our heels. The same way they had no problems defending us when we were the ones chasing. They knew to keep pushing the play, winning or losing, whereas the Rangers would try and squeeze hold of a lead even as Florida pushed and pushed. Not gonna work against a ferocious attack like Florida has.

 

So for all those ifs, you can equally say it would likely not matter because they would have kept coming until they tied us. We didn’t defend one lead against the Panthers this year. Regular season, playoffs. Nothing. Any lead we had on them we never held on to win. Each win against them took overtime (and shootout in the regular season). We won 3 games out of 9 against them.

It’s really don’t matter but not sure how you can jump to the conclusion that the team isn’t good enough.  They won the President’s trophy.  Lost 3 games by 1 goal.  Don’t care if they looked overmatched the scoreboard is what matters.   Of course everyone is upset they didn’t win but they aren’t good enough is an over reaction.   Last year they weren’t good enough.  This year any of the 4 teams that were left is a deserving cup winner.  Not sure when the last time that happened.  The argument can be made that the last 8 teams standing were Stanley Cup caliber teams. It’s not the doom and gloom that so many are portraying.  Yes it hurts to lose.  But this team isn’t a bad team.  It had the best season of any Rangers team ever.  Yes it didn’t end the way we wanted it to, but you can’t discredit what they did.  

[RichieNextel305]

This is going to sound harsh and cruel. But Chytil being healthy actually throws a gigantic wrench into things. I still don’t trust him to stay healthy. I’m not meaning to sound cruel here, but if there was more of a question about his hockey future, you could have LTIR’d him and used that cap space to fix the problem at center a bit more. I just don’t know what to expect from him, and he’s another major question mark in this lineup. I don’t see any team willingly taking him via trade given his history. I hope he is healthy for his own sake. But him being more in the picture is a confusing proposition moving forward.

[RichieNextel305]

1 minute ago, RJWantsTheCup said:

It’s really don’t matter but not sure how you can jump to the conclusion that the team isn’t good enough.  They won the President’s trophy.  Lost 3 games by 1 goal.  Don’t care if they looked overmatched the scoreboard is what matters.   Of course everyone is upset they didn’t win but they aren’t good enough is an over reaction.   Last year they weren’t good enough.  This year any of the 4 teams that were left is a deserving cup winner.  Not sure when the last time that happened.  The argument can be made that the last 8 teams standing were Stanley Cup caliber teams. It’s not the doom and gloom that so many are portraying.  Yes it hurts to lose.  But this team isn’t a bad team.  It had the best season of any Rangers team ever.  Yes it didn’t end the way we wanted it to, but you can’t discredit what they did.  

I can make that conclusion because they weren’t good enough. We got outplayed and we got eliminated. The goal isn’t the Presidents Trophy and to win 10 playoff games. The goal is the Cup.

 

This team has significant holes in their mindset and their makeup, and they got exposed as the playoffs wore on.

 

Sure, the run is impressive. Most teams would be content and happy going this far. In 2022, I was fine with it. I thought that team, given their projection, maxed out and reached their apex; I was content.

 

Now? Coming off of last years wake up call, and the way they responded to challenges this year? More was expected. This was very much a Cup or Bust year. Anything short would be a disappointment. And we fell short, thus the disappointment.

[Sharpshooter]

2 minutes ago, RichieNextel305 said:

This is going to sound harsh and cruel. But Chytil being healthy actually throws a gigantic wrench into things. I still don’t trust him to stay healthy. I’m not meaning to sound cruel here, but if there was more of a question about his hockey future, you could have LTIR’d him and used that cap space to fix the problem at center a bit more. I just don’t know what to expect from him, and he’s another major question mark in this lineup. I don’t see any team willingly taking him via trade given his history. I hope he is healthy for his own sake. But him being more in the picture is a confusing proposition moving forward.

With Chytil I worry about two things. His health, and if he's going to be a good enough NHL player to make an impact if he is healthy. 

[Sharpshooter]

Just now, RichieNextel305 said:

I can make that conclusion because they weren’t good enough. We got outplayed and we got eliminated. The goal isn’t the Presidents Trophy and to win 10 playoff games. The goal is the Cup.

 

This team has significant holes in their mindset and their makeup, and they got exposed as the playoffs wore on.

 

Sure, the run is impressive. Most teams would be content and happy going this far. In 2022, I was fine with it. I thought that team, given their projection, maxed out and reached their apex; I was content.

 

Now? Coming off of last years wake up call, and the way they responded to challenges this year? More was expected. This was very much a Cup or Bust year. Anything short would be a disappointment. And we fell short, thus the disappointment.

It is a disappointment, but not one that needs to be blown up, only improved. Again, the contracts of these guys makes a true blow up impossible so it's a moot point anyway. They're also not going to blow it up when they have an elite goalie and in win now mode. They need more depth, size and to become a more playoff friendly team in a realistic manner.

[RichieNextel305]

2 minutes ago, Sharpshooter said:

With Chytil I worry about two things. His health, and if he's going to be a good enough NHL player to make an impact if he is healthy. 

Yep. I’m not trying to sound shallow or like a terrible person here. But it’s a discussion that needs to at least be had, I’m sure, within the organization. So I think it’s safe if we discuss it too.