I mean, obviously this ... right? It's not like they've gotten their brains bashed in up in New York or anything. They lost two one goal games. You come home, make adjustments, hold serve and move on. If not, THEN you start thinking about the panic button.I think you gotta see where it is after the next 2. Had we split in NY we’d be feeling the series was ours to lose. If we go back 2-2 it’s anybody’s series.
Totally disagree on that last line, I remember fondly the NY Rangers fans online after the first two games of that series, they were all over Shesterkin and the coaching staff among others after being down 2 games in that series.I mean, obviously this ... right? It's not like they've gotten their brains bashed in up in New York or anything. They lost two one goal games. You come home, make adjustments, hold serve and move on. If not, THEN you start thinking about the panic button.
You know, if there's one toxic trait we could take from the traditional market fan bases, I really wish this fan base had more blind faith in their team. Two years ago the Rangers headed back to NY down 0-2 to the Canes and their fans were a lot more "we'll kick your asses in the Garden and see you for game 5" than talking about off season stuff.
He hasn’t been good, but not bad enough to be replaced by Max freaking Comtois‘s 6 minutes of fame. Essentially having him active reduced KK and Noesen’s time to almost nothing when RBA shortened the bench. Noesen played 2 shifts after going Wout with Comtois for their one and only shift in the 3rd and thst was on the power plays in the overtimes. KK played 4 shifts after that, 1 in the 3rd, 2 in OT1 and 1 in OT2.Any word on why Kunetzov isn't playing?
We encountered different species of the beast, then. Still, a bit of confidence wouldn't kill this fan base. We project as very whiny online.Totally disagree on that last line, I remember fondly the NY Rangers fans online after the first two games of that series, they were all over Shesterkin and the coaching staff among others after being down 2 games in that series.
Comtois didn't play poorly, I thought. Neither did Noesen. I thought Brindy made a mistake not forcing Laviolette to make a decision to either risk Rempe's nonsense with the game on the line or double shifting.He hasn’t been good, but not bad enough to be replaced by Max freaking Comtois‘s 6 minutes of fame. Essentially having him active reduced KK and Noesen’s time to almost nothing when RBA shortened the bench. Noesen played 2 shifts after going Wout with Comtois for their one and only shift in the 3rd and thst was on the power plays in the overtimes. KK played 4 shifts after that, 1 in the 3rd, 2 in OT1 and 1 in OT2.
Here is the problem with the power play.
View: https://x.com/meghanchayka/status/1788208081328836876?s=61&t=ZT8KDHkGMyk7V3JAuh5_ag
It’s the same every time the PP goes through a down cycle. Too much perimeter passing, not enough shooting. In the 2nd OT, there was 1 shot on the PP and it was from Aho from the high slot, with no traffic in front, right into Shesterkin’s midsection. Apparently, the deflections on the first 2 goals didn’t register with the team as a way to beat Shesterkin.Well duh? I mean yes but the problem is they’re not scoring. Not generating chances, however you want to measure it. The question isn’t what is the problem. It should be why is the problem?
The Canes have two basic go-to shot creation opportunities on their PP, with a perimeter shot always an option as a bailout. The first one, which pretty much everyone takes way, is the cross seam pass to the right wing for a one timer. That's generally to Svech or Turbo but once you hit about the All Star game and everybody has an accurate scout, that only works on broken plays or when a killing team does something stupid. The other mainstay is the triangle play between the high wing (Aho or Necas), the low pivot (Jarvis or Noesen) and the high pivot (Guentzel or Drury/Koozie). NY is doing a great job of positioning and playing soft pressure to take away the cross seamer while still keeping three guys (2.5, really) available in the triangle on the left.Well duh? I mean yes but the problem is they’re not scoring. Not generating chances, however you want to measure it. The question isn’t what is the problem. It should be why is the problem?
THIS is where the current coaching staff keeps hitting the same rocks every year with different personnel. And when people scream about taking care of Brindy and his staff I'm always asking myself ... what about a new set of ideas for the power play that just keeps failing you in the playoffs? I'm not singling out Jeff Daniels here, but ... yeah, I kind of am doing that.