Jets 3, Rangers 1
Antti Miettinen's deflected goal off his body late in the second period proved to be the game winner in the Winnipeg Jets' 3-1 defeat of the New York Rangers Thursday night.
- Make that two consecutive winnable games that yield zero points for the Rangers. Players talked about it being a "big game" prior to tonight. Too many players played small and top players (Brad Richards) simply weren't good enough.
- Speaking of big games...considering how tight the standings are, every game has to be considered a big game or must win. It's playoff hockey from here on out.
- Once again New York has trouble sustaining any offensive pressure. Tough to score goals, draw penalties or tilt momentum if you're not forcing the opposition to outwork you. Torts preaches it constantly: be harder on the puck and win puck battles.
- Lost in the defeat was the sterling play of Henrik Lundqvist. Made some excellent saves to keep his team in a tight game. Certainly not on his shoulders.
- Tough to watch Marian Gaborik's failed penalty shot, but I have to give him some credit. He didn't slouch after it and actually had some quality chances. His play is maddening for sure, but it's not from a lack of effort. His confidence is just severely low.
- The Rangers in general missed the net way too much in this game. Golden opportunities went wide or shots were passed up. Those have to be converted.
- If the bottom six isn't going to score goals, or even be a threat to score, the Rangers aren't going to win many games.
- Really liked Steve Eminger's game. He's earned a spot on defense and the trust of the coach for now and he looks more assertive. It definitely shows in his play.
- Got a kick out of the Jets' fans chanting "Tortorella." That was all lost when they continued to mock chant Lundqvist when he appeared to be hurt after a shot.
- Road trip swings into Pittsburgh for a Saturday matinee.
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Kidding or not...Avery would be welcomed relief out there! Something or someone needs to be shaken up! Stats don't lie..we played better when he was a Ranger and the way they are looking, I'd drive Avery to the Garden myself...clearly, what we have, isn't working
Fun fact: we all know this, however the line has been used so many times it's just annoying now...
In 49 years of watching hockey, I never heard the fans chanting the coaches name the way the Jets fans chanted Torts name. ( It was kind of bush if you ask me.) I'll bet the rest of the legue will pick up on it and do the same.
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I stopped watching after the second. Can I ask why torts broke up the nash-step-hags line? They scored every night, and we won games and dominated teams, richie comes back and he breaks them up and we suck. Put richie with gaborik I dont care, if it aint broke dont fix it. Also nice to see nash get dumped after a whistle and no one there to do anything about it. Also why is nash no longer on the pk? AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO NOTICED THIS?
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Wait, why would they possibly want to/need to sign Zuccarello? Where could they play him? Who would they sit??
BTW, how's Parenteau doing these days, Torts!?
@TheNYRBlog I have about 10 minutes till I board on my flight back to ny? pic.twitter.com\/eHPF9y0EhcEhc
@TheNYRBlog it's frustrating, but I think they were counting on production from kreider and it just isn't there, complete lack of depth too
@edge2794 Lack of toughness and chemistry is huge reason for struggles. They could also use a little swagger. Talent is there.
%s haha yes it was...let's hope they give you something better to work with after the next game! %s
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The comments about his demoting people are fair, particularly JT Miller. For gods sake he is 19. If you are confident enough for him to be playing in the NHL you MUST let him (and expect him) to make mistakes. Having him play in a way that reduces his mistakes to your arbitrary and harsh level at the cost of losing his upside is just illogical. As a coach you MUST learn to drive the car you are given. Brian Billick was an OFFENSIVE guru but won the Super Bowl with a pathetic offense and dominant defense with the Ravens in 1999-2000. Tony Dungy was a DEFENSIVE guru who won the Superbowl with a horrible defense, but dominant offense with the Colts. They succeeded because they coached to what they had. Torts is too "big" for this team. I LOVE his belief in himself and his confidence, but as a coach those qualities have strangely become TOO strong and they will usher him to the end of his stay here if Sather is wise enough to see it.
Honestly, early on in the year, I was on the "If we don't make the playoffs this year, consider firing Torts" train, but now that my expectations have been reeled in from 47-0-1, I honestly don't think that would or should happen. Torts is a good coach that puts out disciplined teams. Maybe the memory of Tom Renney is still a little too fresh for me. Besides, where would we go from Torts? Lindy Ruff? Are you joking? I think it was Kevin that said definitely not after this season, but he's on the hot seat if next season starts off roughly.
(Fun fact: Every time Kevin mentions bringing back Avery, it's a joke, no worries)
Avery was staying in NY. He has two restaurants, one with Lundqvist. The Isles wanted him, but he gave the retirement speech. The problem with Avery is Torts. Torts wouldn't play him. We need a spark and don't have Dubi, Prust or Avery. It sucks.
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This team can be painful to watch. Their lack of offensive output is alarming and all too familiar.
They messed up big time with Kreider since they need his scoring. If they had just allowed him to play through his development while in the NHL he could actually be helping the team like he did in the playoffs. Instead, they brought up Miller who has to go through his own growing process. Not only is Miller doing nothing on the offensive end, but he is now giving up the puck numerous times per game in his defensive zone. For whatever reason Torts seems to give him a pass. When Kreider made these same mistakes he rode the bench.
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Some interesting stats on the Rangers. Last year they scored an average of 2.7 goals per game while giving up 2.3. So far this year they score at a avergae of 2.5 per game and give up 2.4. Really not much difference. The difference last year was Hank was playing ligjhts out so if he doesn't do that every game the Rangers margin for error and chances of winning are greatly diminished.
Now let me ask this, you add a scorer like Nash, already have Gabby, Cally and Richards all of whom have scored close to or over 30 goals in a season. How do you not improve offensively? To me it's the boring lack of imagiantion system that the dictator Tortorella insists on playing. He has ruined Gabbys confidence and probably Krieder's as well. He is about to do the same with JT Miller. The19, yes 19 year old turned the puck over and the Jets ALMOST scored. So what does the genius behind the bench do? He moved Miller to the 4th line! A 19 year old made a mistake if you want to call it that and he gets punished by this jerk of a coach. What purpose does that serve. IT's time for this coach to go. The Rangers with him and his system will never win a CUP!
Lundquist seems to come on stronger over the course of a game. He almost has to get scored on to play harder. He isn't mr. shutout by any means.
A lot of scoring chances where we just couldn't find the net. Frustrating ....
He kept them in the game but damn, his rebound control is attrocious lately and leads to more scoring chances where he then has to make some additional incredible saves. Some of it is his own doing
It's really a combination of everything. Bottom six forwards aren't good enough. Top six forwards aren't good enough either. In my opinion, Richards has been lousy ( anyone else notice how much less visible Nash has been since being paired with Richards as opposed to Stepan th last few games?). And gaborik doesn't just have a confidence problem. A deliberate effort to avoid all contact is killing his game. You say it's not a lack of effort on his part. I disagree.
@rangersfan NASH ALWAYS IS ON D BECAUSE RICHIE AND HIM HAVE NO CHEMISRTY SO THEY GET STUCK IN THEIR OWN ZONE HOW DOESNT TORST SEE THIS.
Not arguing about Gabby avoiding contact, but last night I saw much less of that from him. There were so many people to point fingers at last night, that Gabby was actually one of our better guys out there against the Jets and that's really saying something for the rest
Is the problem Torts? We have some good players, and we have a lot of grinders.I think Lundy was right when he said we have to get more people in front of their net and less in front of ours. Its MciIlrath time,bring him up and tell im to watch the penalties carefully-aka Haley- he can't be worse than our D has played at times.Maybe he can keep our crease clear.Ranger's D is hot and cold seriously. .I mean why not-if Torts can have Brian Boyle and Michael Haley out in the last 4 minutes when we need goals hoping for some miracle goal from them-why not give a crease clearing shut down rookie a cup of coffee?
For offence we have Christian Thomas, Zuccarello, Hrivik, Fast, Lindberg all in the pipeline.We'll have to add some of them and move roster players to 3rd ie Callahan when we can b/c our bottom 6 needs some scoring ability badly,and goal scorers don't grow on trees.CT played with effort in his one game, he deserves some ice with that dynamite shot of his. Krieder needs to be in AHL, maybe Miller too if he can't stop the turnovers.If they improve bring them up later.
We have some good players so I hope they don't blow up this team.I have to wonder as I said, is the problem the coaching? Because something seems to be missing from this team, and its definitely not the skill of the players.There is more to this than not finishing.Board work is good but the object is to get the puck and and get it on net.
The top players are holding their sticks too tight-especially Gabby-maybe thats on Torts.Hey Gabby, just shoot from the slot , don't bother dangling.
@trazjaxor -- it is so not mcilrath time ... if he were he would quickly show you what worse than our d looks like
@AG_Blue Could be but I dunno, he is green but has the basics .He isn't a slouch at D or dumb or anything .He probably wouldn't be a disaster and if he did manage well-we would be a stronger team.If not, send him back down.
@kicker75 @AG_Blue Your point about McIlrath not getting the minutes under Torts is a very good one and is a good long term argument not to bring him up, but my concern right now is selfish and short term -ie the Rangers need a crease clearing Dman cause there is no one on the team that does that-(man is Sauer ever missed.What a setback for the Ranger team.)
I'm just arguing for the 4 -5 game cup of coffee to see him and evaluate directly for everyone-If Segal Ferriero Mashinter and CT can get call ups why not Dylan-what the heck?This instead of getting salary or trading picks/ players for a dman who can housekeep properly.
@kicker75 @AG_Blue I'm surprised at the scouting reports because I watched a video of Dylan addressing this issue and he said himself that his skating has never been an issue at all.Someone else who watches CT games mentioned his first step and lateral movement needing more but then they just added a few days ago that it has improved a lot this year and is really not an issue anymore.I admit I don't watch a lot of CT whale video and am just going by what I have seen in Last year's Rangers preseasons as well as what some regular viewers of complete CT whale games have vehemently reported this year-basically that his skating and footspeed is a non issue.Myself I have seen him go nearly coast to coast and move up quickly to pinch in-he has good speed.Most importantly what I saw and it was last year-was really good basics on D. ie: Clearing the puck sharply and smartly when it had been fumbled by everyone in the zone.Clearing the crease effectively-even Lundy had to look twice a couple of times in surprise.
If McIIrath can do that without any penalties for the Rangers, Stu Bickel is not even in the same ballpark.I don't see BIckel as even having NHL solid basic D-skills. That said, I have to side with you in that McIllrath needs more development, but at this stage for the Rangers I don't see it hurting him to do that development with the big team if he can contribute right now.The only question is can he do it? I say why not find out and bring him up for a cup of coffee and see.
@kicker75 @AG_Blue This is where many people have been given false information,There is nothing wrong with Dylan McIIrath's skating or speed at all, in fact he is an excellent skater, -it's one of the attributes that caused him to be a first round selection.He is plenty fast enough for the NHL.As for decision making, he is a smart kid,but lots to learn of course.But as far as basics, he has those. Primarily though, his speed is the opposite of this myth that has been promulgated.He is a fast skater,no problem at all with quickness.He is a first rounder, and his excellent skating ability is one of the reasons for it.
@trazjaxor -- all reports indicate he's not even close. it probably would be a disaster as he would be repeatedly outmatched and out of position. he's where he needs to be to continue his development if he's ever going to make it here.
Did someone say we're sucking at the wrong time??? At least Hank's game is back where it should.
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@Betweentheworlds -- i think hank is most of the way there, but he needs sustained consistency too
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I had patience to this moment but it's time to fire Torts! F... you! You ruined Gaborik! Screwed Kreider with his 2 min per game! And benching everyone for every mistake except Richards! And then he insults legend Sam Rosen! What the hell?! That's not the coach i want for my team. We have unbelievable talent and skill on this team and we struggle. That's unacceptable. Other teams would kill to have Nash, Gaborik, Lundqvist, Girardi, Mcdonagh, Callahan... And we are not even in top 8. This is coach fault! I bet that Gaborik would produce if we had a new normal coach. Sather did his part good, getting Powe and Hamrlik. (sorry, but Gilroy wouldn't play on my team ever). We have good team but torts is killing it.
Still would make that Nash trade every time. We're not losing because we lost a few fan-favorite role-players, honestly. Much deeper issues at work here.
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if this game wasn't coming on the heels of the awful game in Buffalo, it wouldn't be too bad. We had chances, didn't finish. And unlike Buffalo, you have to give the Jets credit, they were really good.
I will say that I am officially on board with firing Tortarella. I don't think it will happen even if the team misses the playoffs, but I think he's done all he can here.
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@cb1 @Ty Galpin The Jets did play well. they were the hungrier team. The way you dismantle a team like that is quick decisive passing, speed and shooting the puck quickly. We had only one guy skating tonight (Hags), Then you get in and fore check. They had no flow, no sustained pressure and they wait too long for the point shots. Torts is a reactionary coach who who refuses yo see the big picture of his team and his league. His coaching style confuses the players and tightens them up, and they can't flow so they wind up thinking instead of playing in a game that's too fast for thinking and the magic is lost. I've always said that about Torts when most thought he was so great. He looked like a genius last year when he took a team that was forecast to finish last in their division and they finished first. It was more the players heart and soul than the coach but he adapted to his team's modest talent and high energy and together they had a nice run. He did a good job then. This year we have more scoring potential. We got Nashty and the kids are getting good, and we lost some energy players and this a-hole of a coach plays them like they're still the same inept offensive team of 1 and 2 years ago who can only win by defense and energy.. A coach that can't adapt to his personnel has no business coaching in this league in my opinion.
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@cb1 well its going to be 3 in a row when Pitt smokes us, and we have 2 tough games monday and tuesday which if we lose both could be a shot to the gut of our playoff aspirations.
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@slapshot13j knowing our team, we'll probably beat Pitt, lose to Carolina, beat the devils and get shutout by florida.
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Brian Boyle and Brad Richards are the reason this team is not playing well right now. Boyle has 2 points and is a -7 that is unacceptable... He shouldnt be in the NHL let alone getting 12+ minutes a night. Hope that you can ship him out for Clowe and get it done.
Brad Richards I think could play better if paired with the right players. I would like him with Gaborik and Cally, but give it 5 games to see if they can gel not 3 shifts. Then you have the Nash Stepan Callahan line. 3rd line can then be Miller Kreider Clowe because I think Kreider has to be brought up asap. 4th line with Pyatt halpern haley/powe. That is the team we need, also for the people that loathe Kreider I dont think this team goes anywhere without him scoring... scary to say because he is in the AHL right now but he could be an Xfactor down the stretch for us.
@slapshot13j Have to agree with your Boyle and Kreider comments. While I think Kredier needs to be in the minors working on his game, as well all know this team needs scoring from the bottom 6. Kreider needs to be able to get 12+ minutes a night, and score from the 3rd line. The first problem is Torts won't give him that much ice time, and the second problem is that if he did, he'd have Brian Boyle as a center.
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when Richards is with Nash and Hagelin he isnt just slow, he also slows them down, which ruins our whole team...
