yave1964 Posted May 10, 2016 Share Posted May 10, 2016 PRESEASON OUTLOOK: Rosy, solid team at the peak of their game returning most of the club from a team that had a deep playoff run the year before and cap room to make a move if needed. All signs pointed towards a team to be reckoned with. FINAL RECORD: 46-27-9 101 points 3rd in Division lost in first round to the Penguins. STRANGE STAT OF THE YEAR: Home road splits galore, J.T. Miller led the team with 28 points on the road but was a measly 11th at home with 15. Brassard (41) led at home but had a pathetic 17 away. Lundqvist was 13-19 with a lousy 2.64 goals against on the road as compared to winning 22 of 32 with a 2.31 goals against at home. This roster is dotted with studs at home, duds on the road which led to the NHLs best home record but only going 19-17-5 for the 15th best away from MSG. When you factor in the fact that they stumbled to a third place finish and had to open on the road in Pittsburgh it is easy to see why they fell so quickly.... HIGH POINT OF THE YEAR: Battled the Canadiens for the hottest team in Hockey to open the year, on November 23rd when they beat the Predators 3-0 they had won 11 of 12 and were sitting with a league best 16-3-2 at the quarter turn. LOW POINT OF THE YEAR: From then on, they were a .500 team for the rest of the year, going 30-24-7 to fall out of the division lead, stumbling hard down the stretch even after adding Staal and the return of the injured Nash to finish third in the division. From March 12th thru April 2nd they lost 8 of 12 to seal their position in the standings. The streak was culminated with losses to Buffalo and Carolina. Nobody seemed to notice because they had built such a commanding lead early and more or less hung on. 101 points looks good but it was illusion. WHAT WENT RIGHT: lundqvist did win 35 games and Raanta was a more than capable backup. They were 9th overall on the power play. Mats Zuccarello (26-35-61) led the team in scoring and had a fine year. Derek Brassard (27-31-58) was right on his heels. Derek Stephan had a solid year and Chris Kreider recovered from a slow start to post solid numbers. Keith Yandle, much maligned (5-42-47) had an under the radar good year. J.T. Miller came from nowhere and contributed 22 goals. Same thing with Jesper Fast, went from unheard of to a 10-20-30 year. WHAT WENT WRONG: An abysmal penalty kill ranked 26th in the league hurt this team-a lot. A team with the King in net still finished middle of the pack, 16th in goals against. They did not shoot much as a team, 26th in the league.Eric Staal came with a middling price tag and did not deliver. Rick Nash missed 22 games and only delivered 15 goals when he did play. Ryan McDonough battled concussions and missed 9 games and was not as good as advertised when he did play. Dan Boyle seems to have hit the wall and is likely done. Dan Girardi was good but not as good as several years past. The team seems to have aged all at once and look to be past their 'sell by' date. FREE AGENTS: Big names here: Eric Staal more name than actual subtance at this point, someone will overpay. Keith Yandle, seems to be the whipping boy for the year just passed, he could play for me any time anywhere. 4th liners Victor Stallberg and Dominic Moore who were poor penalty killers all year but scored a bit may be gone as well. Dan Boyle if he wants to continue his career will have to do so elsewhere. TOP PROSPECTS: This may be the leagues absolute bar none worst of the worst when it comes to 'ready now' prospects, there arent any. Oh, Adam Tambellini may stumble into a vacated 4th line role, so may Nick Jensen, and Brady Skjei may get a shot at the 7D but that is about it. No help any time soon. Top prospect is Pavel Buchnevich who is still in Europe and is overrated in my book. Almost a scorched Earth in my opinion. Nothing here to get excited about. OFFSEASON QUESTION MARKS: With Staal and Yandle must be addressed. a 4th line penalty kill must be established as a 3rd pair of shut down defenders. And what to do with Lundqvist? He probably cannot be traded but his skill seems to be eroding, or is that a function of a poorly built club? They need offense and defense and goaltending questions abound. Not a healthy situation in New York. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mojo1917 Posted May 10, 2016 Share Posted May 10, 2016 nice write up once again @yave1964 I like the last sentence because I hate them so... I like that the cupboard is bare except for the rotting food already there. The sell by line was clever, and again because i hate them fun for me to read. oh and sidebar, i met the New Jersey Devils fan two weekends ago. He was nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yave1964 Posted May 10, 2016 Author Share Posted May 10, 2016 2 hours ago, mojo1917 said: nice write up once again @yave1964 I like the last sentence because I hate them so... I like that the cupboard is bare except for the rotting food already there. The sell by line was clever, and again because i hate them fun for me to read. oh and sidebar, i met the New Jersey Devils fan two weekends ago. He was nice. LOL, Yeah I think I met the Devils fan once too, tall, one eyebrow straight across combover still using leftover brill cream. Speaks with an accent that is a mix of South Jersey and 3rd grade..... Probably the same guy. The Rangers could be in trouble in coming years, they likely still have another year or two of semi-relevance at best. I could actually make a case for them not only missing the postseason but fighting with the Devils for last place. The whole team, well.... Kreider is good but overrated, stretching his talent playing top six. Zuccarello is a mighty mite but playing out of his head, Miller had a good year but that is as good as it gets, the two centers, Stepan and Brassard are both much better suited as 2C, Nash is aging poorly. Klein seems to have lost a step and a half, Marc Staal has long been the most overrated player in Hockey, Lundqvist has covered up for a lot of mistakes but he seems to be human now as well. McDonough? Good player but overrated because he plays in New York. Yandle has holes in his game but is as good a puck mover on the back end not named Karlsson as there is, and they are running him out of town. Eric Staal, they will either overpay to keep him to justify the mistake of trading for him or they will let him walk with one playoff win to his credit in his time in New York. I am not a huge fan of Slats Sather but nobody ever accused him of being dumb, My feeling is the writing was on the wall and he got out when the getting was good leaving this Jeff Gorton to hold the bag when the bill finally comes due for poor trades and even worse signings. Like I said, this organization from top to bottom is in trouble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JagerMeister Posted May 11, 2016 Share Posted May 11, 2016 @yave1964 Is Marc Steal still a first line defenseman? LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yave1964 Posted May 11, 2016 Author Share Posted May 11, 2016 29 minutes ago, JagerMeister said: @yave1964 Is Marc Steal still a first line defenseman? LOL Has he ever been, lol? The Staal's are the most overrated family in all of hockey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JagerMeister Posted May 13, 2016 Share Posted May 13, 2016 On 5/11/2016 at 1:59 PM, yave1964 said: Has he ever been, lol? The Staal's are the most overrated family in all of hockey. Actually. I think Eric Staal has been quite underappreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yave1964 Posted May 13, 2016 Author Share Posted May 13, 2016 5 hours ago, JagerMeister said: Actually. I think Eric Staal has been quite underappreciated. On that we will have to agree to disagree. He gets lots of pub when anything at all is written about his Hurricanes, has not led them to a playoff appearance since 2008-09, his stats have steadily gone down, he is on the wrong side of 30 and in clear decline, the last time he scored 30 goals was six years ago, the last time he scored 70 points was five years ago. He has been moved (mostly) out of the dot and onto the wing do to decline in percentages and to prevent wear and tear. In short, a good player on a bad team who everyone keeps saying, 'wow how good could he be on a good team. We saw with the Rangers in a brief stint, 20 games, 3 goals 3 assists and then a five game postseason, zero points and minus 7. I am not saying he cannot play, he is just overrated, has not been a star for years and wont be one again. Some players age gracefully, others hit 30 and drive off a cliff. He is somewhere in between. Not a star.He was for a brief period of time but has carried on mostly on reputation since 2009. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwayne97 Posted September 12, 2016 Share Posted September 12, 2016 The ranger are the best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pilldoc Posted September 13, 2016 Share Posted September 13, 2016 On 9/12/2016 at 10:07 AM, dwayne97 said: The ranger are the best. Umm ...ok. First of all welcome to HF.net. We are a great hockey community with a lot of knowledgeable hockey fans. Second......Would you like to expand upon why you would think the Rangers are the best? Such a profound statement deserves a profound answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TropicalFruitGirl26 Posted September 13, 2016 Share Posted September 13, 2016 @pilldoc Maybe he was talking about the Glasgow Rangers...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwayne97 Posted September 23, 2016 Share Posted September 23, 2016 What! Let go New York Rangers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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