All in all I thought the Rangers played a pretty decent game tonight, out-attempting the Canucks 47-31 and holding the edge in chances 28-15. That is, until the 3rd period where the Rangers’ game went south. It started with a plethora of penalties but I won’t make this about the officiating because it wasn’t. It was about coaching.
The Rangers dominated the first 40 minutes of play because Keith Yandle and Dylan McIlrath dominated the first 40 minutes of play. As a pair, they were +20 in shot attempts through the first two periods. Dylan McIlrath was the best player on the ice. The Rangers had more than half of their scoring chances with him on, going +14 in that department (15 for the Rangers, 1 for Vancouver) with McIlrath on the ice overall. The Canucks only attempted three shots with him on the ice. And yet, the best player on the ice tonight played under 14 minutes. His ice time disappeared in the 3rd period, and the 3rd period is where the game got away from the Rangers.
Why does this happen? I guess because he’s a young player, but I don’t care if he’s young. If he’s dominating the hockey game, the coach gets paid to recognize that and keep going with him. He’s not supposed to let agendas about “easing the kids in” get in the way. Kids need to be eased in when they’re not quite capable of performing with big minutes yet, not when they’re single-handedly demolishing the other team.
So if AV is unwilling to trust McIlrath late in a game, who will he trust? Well the Rangers only had three players who were negative in shot attempts tonight, and two of them were (do I even have to say it?) Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi. At 38.6% in shot attempts when on the ice together this year, they’ve been statistically, the worst pair in hockey. The results were predictable. Sure enough, McDonagh’s very weak clear attempt gets held in and passed to Daniel Sedin who scores the winner. Girardi, who’s assignment is to cover Sedin, was a good 30 feet away doing…well I don’t even think Girardi knows what Girardi was doing on that play.
So what we have here is a coach that won’t trust a kid that’s just absolutely dominated the ice since coming up to play late in games, but he will trust his unmitigated horror show of a first pair to play late in games, to play the most minutes, and to be glued to the best forwards in the league. Not only does that lose you hockey games, but that tells me that there’s zero accountability on this team.
There’s bright spots to take from this game. The Rangers controlled play for most of the game -at least when AV had competent defense pairings on the ice- and could have had a few goals if they just got some bounces. McIlrath is an absolute treasure and that’s going to be a positive for a long time. But the downside still looms large, and that is: this team has a top pairing totally inept at doing their job, and a coach that thinks they’re fantastic at it. It’s a good way to lose games, as we saw tonight.
Three Stars
1)Dylan McIlrath
2)Keith Yandle
3)Oscar Lindberg
Was there pizza? No pizza. Pizza record: 17-11-1
6GoalieDefense 
Solid assessment.
For all the hate Girardi and Staal usually get, McDonagh hasn’t been better than either of them on a consistent enough basis for over a year now.
I start to wonder if he’ll ever get back to playing stellar, near-flawless defense while rushing the puck and making smart plays to create offensively the way he did in 13-14.
If I were AV, I’d keep McD and Girardi away from each other at all costs, even with Klein still out.
I’d go
McDonagh Boyle
Yandle McIlrath
Staal Girardi
IMO, Staal is what he is: an above average defender with very little offense / puck movement skills. Still, there’s room for a player like him if he continues to use his reach to break up plays, use his big body to TAKE a hit while eating the puck for a second or two before moving it to the open man. When Staal is on his game, he excels at this. Girardi? Nope. Almost all of Girardi’s “good” plays are simply last-ditch efforts to swipe at a puck or throw his body in front for a block after he’s already gotten beat or already backed up and forfeited too much ice.
When Klein returns, he needs to be with McDonagh. Play Staal-Girardi as the third pair. Maybe Girardi simplifies his game with an old familiar partner and stops fumbling the puck every time he has it with literally no pressure yet.
As far as forward lines, I don’t like Nash-Brass-Zucc as the top line (never did), and I also hate the lines AV put together a few games ago.
Why move Kreider up when he’s been abysmal? Why move Miller down essentially when he’s been one of our best at possessing and continuing plays / zone time?
Ideally, I go with
Nash Hayes Lindberg
Miller Brassard Zuccarello
Kreider Moore Etem
Stalberg Stoll Fast
until Stepan returns.
I like Hayes or even Stepan with Nash rather than Brass-Zucc who seem to only be able to play one way and if they don’t get the room to make the seam passes they want, they don’t generate much, and rarely score the equally important “dirty” goals.
Yandle also needs to shoot the damn puck when he’s point-blank in the slot. He and Hayes both need to simplify and take shots from quality spots on the ice instead of forcing back-door passes through 3 sticks and 6 skates.
Which brings me to
My final point, which wasn’t mentioned in your rant here, but was on HF:
Kevin Hayes.
He probably ends up being our best center within a year or two, if he isn’t already from a talent standpoint.
You framed the narrative to support some baseless claim that Chicago “never even gave him a look at center.” That’s because unsigned COLLEGE players can’t even participate in training camp! They never signed him to a deal! Furthermore, Hayes is the one who decided to pick his destination and leave Chicago. It may have had something to do with the treatment and trade of his brother, it may not have. But the bottom line is he ditched Chicago; not the other way around as you stayed and tried to argue about a “red flag” that Chicago would’ve wasted a 1st round pick on him and then decided he was trash based on nothing, except oh yea, him dominating the NCAA.
Does he over-pass and over-think too much? Sure, but so does blind-back-pass Yandle and pass-up-prime-shot-from-the-slot Yandle who isn’t a second-year player and who can seemingly do no wrong in your eyes.
(Don’t get me wrong, Yandle is a great player and crucial to this team in particular but Kevin Hayes is part of the solution and doesn’t deserve nonsense being perpetuated by someone’s baseless and inaccurate claims.
Nash, Kreider, Stoll, Fast, Stalberg, Girardi have all been brutal more than they’ve been even average this season. McDonagh has made boneheaded DelZotto-esque mistakes and Staal and Boyle been wildly inconsistent from game to game.
Those are the problems you should be concerned with; not blasting a 2nd-year pro who is guilty of the same thing some of our veterans are guilty of in over passing and over-thinking.
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The reason Chicago never “tried” Hayes is because he never signed a deal with them…
NCAA players don’t participate in NHL training camps. There was never any option to “try” him, unless he signed with them, which after 4 years of college, he decided to exercise his right to choose his destination and signed with the Rangers.
You think Chicago used a 1st round pick on him and then randomly decided he was garbage based on…. him dominating the NCAA?
This nonsense you’re trying to spread about Chicago noticing some “red flag” about him is a complete invention of yours.
Chicago never had an opportunity to “try” him.
Hayes had more primary assists at even strength than any player in the league last season. He’s already the Rangers most offensively gifted center. Did he bang your girlfriend or something?
Stop spewing nonsense like that. It takes away from your great points about Yandle and McIlrath.
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