[Valiquette] Rangers had their 2nd flattest effort of the season — just 2 HD Scoring Chances at MSG after a gutsy comeback in Montreal. A step back.

7 comments

1. Too many chances given up early. Shesterkin was getting shelled in the first half. They kind of smothered them in the second half of the game defensively but it was too little too late.

   They NEED to find their finish and get things going in the o zone. Though I think Sheary still has some gas in the tank, he’s not a top six player no matter which way you look at it. Scratching someone out of him, Raddysh, or Pars and calling up either Berard (who has shown he has an NHL-ready shot) or Perreault for the 2nd line will be a step in the right direction imo.

2. These are the games I expect the team to lose. I do think it was a lot closer than the first 30 minutes showed though. It’s just kind of rough that they’re on a home game losing streak which makes this loss sting all the more

3. At this point, it’s a vet and skills problem. The system (at this current time) is not looking like an issue. It’s the players that just either can’t finish or put out a bad effort

4. Eye test agrees. Worst showing besides opening night. Igor having a Vezina calibre season so far though, would be nice to get him some support. He might win a Hart trophy with a losing record like ol Chuck Rayner did if we keep up this anemic offense.

5. Can we adopt a system where the puck goes into the zone, down low, maybe back up high to the D AND THEN BACK TO THE FORWARDS so it forces them to try to push towards the middle of the ice?

   I’m so sick of seeing a good forecheck go to waste because the puck goes to our D-men for soft wristers for deflections and net front chaos. This is good to do once in awhile, but our entire 5v5 offense feels like it’s built for deflections.

6. This is what happens when you soft as baby doo doo top scorers and about 7 4th liners in the lineup along with 5 defenseman who combined will have less points than Fox.

7. People are over correcting in both directions after every game it’s giving me whiplash. This is at best a wild card team (which is fine). They didn’t have a good effort last night. You have to assume getting trocheck back will allow us to at least ice 2 real top lines, and I really like some of the players in our bottom 6 and I like our defense. Hopefully Perrault can work his way onto the roster at some point this year, and Igor looks outstanding. This is a Rangers team from the early lundqvist days lol, not a team that’s gonna be 1 or 2 in the division all year long. It’s gonna be ups and downs and hopefully a path to the playoffs emerges and once you’re in anything can happen.

   Lafrenieres play has been unacceptable though.