Really Hard to Win when a team is 4/7 scoring on High Danger and 1/2 on Mid — Goalie needs to help the team more than that. Turnovers were terrible – But the reaction to last night seems overblown.
✍️ Scoring Chances Report @NYRangers vs @Canucks#NYR
Data Courtesy of @csahockey pic.twitter.com/le8BRrtt7A
— Stephen Valiquette (@VallysView) January 9, 2024
by elfinito77
17 Comments
Rangers gave up too many 2-on-1s down low, but the bottom-line in Hockey is that you need your Goalie to make a few big saves in almost every game. (especially against the elite teams — they will get chances.)
Too many of that same 2-on-1’s lately — and that weakside open man needs to be addressed. (very often with either Key or Gus seeming to be the main culprit, but I could be reading the coverage wrong)
But – they also need better goaltending than they got last night to be a cup contender. None of the goals are “on Igor” (Though the 5th was mid chance and a backhand he has to save there. Goals 3 and 5 at the ends of each period were absolutely brutal).
I am sure Igor wants a couple of those back — Certainly the 5th goal, and you’d expect a Goalie of Igor’s quality to save the 1st and 3rd goals — or at least one of those.
Vancouver played an amazing game, and we played a bit sloppy (bot not low effort) — and the end result was a Game that came down to goal-tending.
We usually beat ourselves. Against fast and good teams our bottom 6 is seriously exposed. They are not good on either side of the ice. We need to get Kakko and Chytil back. Wheeler is done. If he can’t produce getting all that ice time with Mika and Kreider then he should not be dressing. I have yet to see him beat someone when he has the puck and his defense is nonexistent. This experiment needs to be over.
The other player that I have some serious concerns about is Schneider. He cannot move the puck and often gets pinned in the zone. Defensively he has to be a huge negative. We cannot keep rolling him out there without him improving. He gets beat too often and it has really cost us the last few weeks. I’d like to see Jones play in his place for a few games. Otherwise we may need to go out and get a defensive defenseman for the playoffs.
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I also do not get the narrative of “nobody trying” and “no heart.” (TO BE CLEAR – THIS TEAM HAS HOLES THAT NEED TO BE FIXED, AND WEAKSIDE D-ZONE COVERAGE THAT NEEDS TO BE ADDRRESED. I AM NOT SAYING THERE ARE NO HOLES/ISSUES OR THAT THE TEAM IS AN IDEAL PLAYOFF TEAM RIGHT NOW)
This was not a game of low effort. The Rangers kept skating, and generating chances all game (until the EN goal).
They made mistakes, that lead to defensive breakdowns – and they need to be better defensively and with the cross-ice passes. BUT – you do not expect 5 Goals on 8 bad mistakes.
Vancouver’s “cash in” rate on the Ranger’s mistakes last night was insane — and that is inflating the perception how bad they played.
Vancouver just tried to clog the whole 3rd period — and they Rangers still generated chances.
I think its really sad how fast this Fan-base was to turn — and start booing them on home ice, cuz they lost.
Don’t follow the Rangers closely, but been somewhat of a fan since I was a little kid. Read on another site this morning they have a negative goal differential at 5-on-5 despite being top 5 in league standings pretty much since the season began.
Is this a recent thing? Or was the team heavily reliant on the power play in October-November?
I agree with you. Doomers have been really bad this season despite the really impressive record. Every game lost seems blown out of proportion. Lets see how the team looks a few weeks before playoffs. Honestly after our first round exit last year, Tampa’s in 2019, and Bostons last year too…..a little adversity/loss is good. They need the sting of losing to handle the playoffs.
I agree right now I think the goaltending has gone down just a bit recently and it’s making a difference
One thing that Vancouver did really well last night (I mean, they did a lot of things well) was picking off Rangers passes. The Rangers have this style of being a “quick strike” team – when they get the puck they try to make a very quick pass to start transition. That’s ok, it’s part of what Lav coaches. But what was happening last night was the Rangers were getting the puck and then instantly flinging no look passes into space just hoping that it would start a transition attack. The Canucks picked off a ton of these, when Vancouver gave up the puck they’d all look right at the Ranger with the puck and jump on that first pass. Because a bunch of the first passes were, frankly, stupid no look passes to nobody, that’s easy pickings for the opponent. Lav has to get them thinking that a “quick pass” still has to be a pass to someone. You can’t just fling it blindly into the slot and hope it’s a Ranger that gets it.
Rough night for Igor but he’s been good recently. VAN has been on a shooting heater basically all season, I’ll give Igor benefit of the doubt
The defense was atrocious last night but I give the Canucks credit. They created a lot of high danger chances and made those chances count.
This team is not as good as the fans think they are. In the last 16 games the Rangers have a 4.0 goals against. And are minus 10 in goal differential. They can’t score even strength and there are a lot of mental lapses. Turn overs, defensive mistakes etc. This team is not built to grind it out in the playoffs. Some key pieces are missing for that.
Giving up 13 goals in the last three games – getting blown out by Van and Car, Just worrisome about the team defense.
When teams are on fire they steal games, winning when they probably should lose. When teams are struggling they get games stolen from them, losing games they probably should win. Last night looked like those two forces coming together for a perfect storm.
I like seeing the expected goal numbers reflect that we actually did play decent and Vancouver actually did cash in more than maybe one would expect. But it also backs up my point that we’re easy to steal games against right now. At the moment, we probably won’t cash in on all our opportunities. And we probably won’t get outstanding goaltending. So even if we do enough right things, we’re going to have to overcome giving up a goal more than we should, and scoring one less than we should.
To be clear Shestys job (the job of a starter on a contender) is not simply to make the expected saves. The job is to consistently be great. To make a bunch of saves per game that aren’t expected or routine (on top of being a brick wall against the easy ones). We absolutely must clean up our defense, and at the same time Igor absolutely must bail us out more than he has been when a mistake or bad bounce happens.
Likewise the job of our top 6 is to cash in. Zibby absolutely must hit his one timers for us to have success. Laf has been playing amazing, but yes even he has work to do: he needs to be able to finish against a top goalie.
We’ll get out of this rut, but I don’t feel like it’s one player or one aspect. It’s our whole game right now. We’re an easy team to steal wins against – our forwards won’t finish their high danger chances, our defense won’t protect against rushes, and our goalies won’t make the big save when called upon.
Positive note: https://allstarfanvote.nhl.com/submitted Vote for our guys minus panarin he won’t play since his wife is about to have his 2nd breadwoman
I don’t think there’s any way to interpret that data and say Shesty did his job well.
Hate to say it but Miller’s been hurting more than helping. Several big mistakes last few games, he’s on for too many goals against and turning over the puck or getting beat to the net.
“**Goalie needs to help the team more than that.**”
Shesterkin just has not been as good since maybe 3/4 through last season and I don’t know why
People blaming Shesterkin are clueless. The Ranger’s defense is average and goals were scored against us that wouldn’t have looked different if only Canuck skaters were on the ice. Point blank shots with no defense covering anyone. Our defense is not very good and the offense can overcompensate except against teams like Vancouver. It’s a wonder they have done as well as they’ve hD with this D.