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New York Rangers Notes

Rangers vs. Hurricanes: That's Just Who This Team Is

If you didn't think this game was coming, even after the good vibes of the 10-game point streak, you simply haven't been paying attention.

Rangers vs. Hurricanes: That's Just Who This Team Is
© Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images
  • That game needed to happen. I meant what I said a few podcasts ago about never rooting in-game for the Rangers to lose. I meant it and I still do. For almost two periods, I was rooting for them to win, as usual. By five minutes into the third, it's not that I was rooting for them to lose. I'd just coldly accepted that they'd lost it already, because they had. I think it was over at 2-0 when that goal came so late in the period, and in the utterly and bizarrely stupid and infuriating way in which it happened. But to settle any doubt, it was over just minutes into the third period.
  • I'll probably end up saying this again later, but I'll say it right up front: I thought the Rangers played pretty well from right after the two-minute mark in the first period until about two minutes left in the second period. I actually missed the first few minutes of the third period. I'd like to tell you something amusing, like that I could no longer sense sight or sound because I'd blacked out after that Vincent Trocheck drop pass on the breakaway and had temporary transitioned to another state of entropy. But it was actually because I went to pick up my daughter from dance practice during the second intermission and got caught up introducing her both the Nine Inch Nails original and the Johnny Cash cover of "Hurt." Priorities.
  • But that game needed to happen because people needed a reminder of the fundamental flaws of this team. The flaws that were always still there, even through that good stretch. The flaws that were present before any memos were sent out by anyone and anyone's feelings were hurt. Sure, many who invested themselves in the recent point-gathering streak will say that bad games happen even to very good teams. And they'd be right. But, to me, this game had three signature moments that are a perfect distillation of this disastrous season, why this team is not "back," and why you shouldn't trust them until big changes are made.
  • Once piece of housekeeping before we get to those. Mikko Rantanen and Taylor Hall got their first points as members of the Carolina Hurricanes in this game, setting up Andrei Svechnikov's first goal the game. Because, of course they did. Just as surely as you knew Jack Drury would score against the Rangers in his first game with the Colorado Avalanche, this was totally predictable.
  • Okay, let's get down to it.
  • Signature Moment #1:
  • This one has a little bit of everything. The Rangers surrendering a goal in the first minute of the game for the fifth time this season? Check. (If you zoom out to the first two minutes of the game, the Rangers have surrendered a goal nine times. Nine times? Nine. Times. In fact, they've given up 20 goals in the first five minutes of the game, which is most in the league. Fun!) Atrocious turnover that leads to a scoring chance the other way? Check, and we'll come back to Panarin here in a moment. Blown defensive coverage in the zone that leaves a player wide open and coming right down the slot for a high danger scoring chance? Check checkity check check check.
  • Steve Valiquette let loose on Panarin in the first intermission report on MSG. You should watch that if you missed it:
  • I have a fairly high tolerance for Artemi Panarin's "stupid shit at the blueline." We jokingly make reference to that because they're Panarin's own words, and he's objectively funny, but it is still the pejorative way to put it. Panarin is one of the most creatively gifted offensive players in the game. We've all seen him do things that defy logic, our expectations, and even, seemingly, the laws of physics. But you have to know who you're playing. The Carolina Hurricanes play a high-pressure system of hockey. It's the kind of system the Rangers have traditionally struggled against. See, for example, most of the second round series against the Hurricanes last year, and the following series against the Florida Panthers. You simply can not make that play just outside of your own blueline against this team. You especially can't do it in the opening minute. They're too good, too fast, and they'll make you pay. And they did.
  • Signature Moment #2:
  • Chris Kreider is far from the first player to be handcuffed by a hard pass, and that one from Vincent Trocheck had some zip on it. He lost control of it a little, pushed it directly into Freddy Andersen's skate, making it look like more dramatic of a save that it actually was. Sometimes these things happen.
  • But... of course it happens to this team and this player at this moment in this game in the middle of this season. Most times, Kreider either one-times that pass home or corrals it perfectly and slams it in the net. But not this time. Not this year. You can't help but think about the long litany of back injuries he detailed to the media earlier this season. And about his recent IR stint. And about how there's almost no way he was close to 100% when he returned from it. And about his "healthy" scratches. Add that to all the controversy from the memo and it's enough to really make you wonder just what we're doing here.
  • Signature Moment #3:
  • I mean, what do I even say? This isn't even the first time this season we've seen a drop pass on a breakway, or at least a Ranger opting to try a low-percentage pass as they're bearing down on the net rather than just do the simple and obvious thing and take the shot. And then, of course, there was this gem from the ::checks notes:: ah yes, playoff series against the Carolina Hurricanes last year:
  • And of course the puck immediately goes the other way and ends up in the back of their own net. I'm almost glad it did, honestly. The decision to make a drop pass on a breakaway deserves all the smiting from the hockey gods for that blasphemous affront to them and their ways that they can muster.
  • Look, there's a lot of talent on this team. The Rangers are not the Chicago White Sox of hockey. And because there's so much talent on this team—particularly, talent in goal that can steal you some games—that they're going to be capable of going on a run like they just did with that 10 game point streak.
  • What is so galling to me about this team is the boneheadedness. The Panarin turnover. The Kreider blown open-net goal, that I think was absolutely made possible in part by Kreider's debilitated physical state that he and the team refuse to properly address with a long enough IR stint to heal because "hockey culture" says a very good player at 50% is better than his potential replacement, which is almost always a very silly proposition. The Vincent Trocheck drop pass on a fucking breakaway. On. A. Breakaway.
  • Just not going to win a lot of games this way:
  • I've talked mostly about the players here, but this is absolutely at the feet of the coach, too. It was Peter Laviolette who kept PP1 out there late in the game against the Avalanche that contributed to the winning goal. It was Peter Laviolette who keeps rolling PP1 like it's fall 2023. It's was Peter Laviolette who has done nothing discernible or, apparently, effective to address these boneheaded plays and ensure that they don't happen again. The players are responsible for making the boneheaded plays on the ice. The coach is responsible for making sure they don't keep happening. Things like being so poorly prepared for the start of games that they surrender a goal before they can even get going. These things should not keep happening. But they keep happening.
  • Is now a good time to remind you that I wanted Laviolette gone a month ago, back when I was giving him way more benefit of the doubt about how much of this was his fault than I am right now? Because, yeah.
  • While we're on the topic of Laviolette:
  • That sound you heard yesterday morning was Zac Jones screaming into the void. They need him here? To play the important role of "young guy who might have some real potential who is wasting away in the press box?" If he's played good minutes for them, why hasn't he been able to see any ice since December 17 in Nashville, even if it's just to spell one of the regulars for a game? He's 24-years old and in five seasons with the Rangers he's played a grand total of 95 games. Look, it's over with Jones. I know it, you know it, and the American people know it. He's going to be traded, either as a throw in at the deadline or at the draft for a late round pick. It doesn't make it any less frustrating, from either the perspective of a kid who seems to have some talent but can't get any time, or from the perspective of asset management by the Rangers that they couldn't have handled any worse, and is redolent of fumbles with players before him.
  • Speaking of trades:
  • There are things that might look like "careful buying" that would be fine ::coughcough:: Vancouver Canucks ::coughcough:: but the idea that Drury might think adding a piece or two to this team to give the playoffs the old college try is frustrating.
  • This game needed to happen. The Rangers weren't "back." They never left. They were always here, and they were always this team that lost that game last night in that way. This team is going nowhere meaningful this season. The financial pressures of the real world might compel them to try to stay in the playoff hunt to get the precious gate revenue of those couple of first round playoff home games. Even with these two losses, they're only three points out of the final wild card spot. But in the end? Going nowhere. We shouldn't delude ourselves into thinking otherwise.
  • Parting shot:

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