Game 65 Jets vs. Blue Buffoons

This team is finished.

 

Really losing my enthusiasm for watching these games. If I weren't a fan I'd maybe get a laugh about how defensively inept they are.

 

One of the toughest years to watch this shitty team because we didn’t expect them to be this shitty.

 

100%. There have been very few games that haven't been frustrating to watch this season.

 

Already down 1-0 before the first commercial break on a boneheaded play on defense. Do these guys even communicate with each other on the ice? Trocheck just shaking his head is how I feel.

 

hopefully that moron coach and garbage gm is outta here after this season. What a joke

 

Until they play some more kids, and it should be soon, there really isn't much to watch. Bad team playing out the string, that simple.

Also keep an eye on their 1st rounder, which is top 13 protected. Right this second, without winning the lottery, the Rangers pick is 14th, which means it would go to Pitt (who obtained the pick from Vancouver).

Absolute mess of a season, and Drury should have been more aggressive at the DL selling off. To me it very clearly showed once again Drury doesn't have the balls or courage to deal the guys that need to be dealt to really change things here. Instead of realizing this team was going nowhere even if they did manage to slip into a WC spot, he took the easy road and only dealt the UFA's to be. Weak and afraid as usual, and refusing to grasp reality, just like when he kept the old, stale, done core together last summer.

Outside of how he handled Goodrow, I would argue he hasn't had the balls to be cold and calculating with the big bold "heartless" moves. And do not give me the Trouba trade, if he was cold and calculating Trouba would have been dealt in the summer, not after he already helped torpedo the season.

It is all on the line this summer, and Drury has to grow a pair and make the bold difficult decisions to move on from some of these core players, and where needed force their hand to accept trades or else. That goes triple if the Rangers end up picking in the top 13 in the 25 draft, which means they lose their 1st rounder unprotected in the 26 draft.

 

I dont know how many times you can beat your head against the wall clamoring for a big blockbuster trade that was unlikely to materialize at the DL anyway. Kreider was hurt and still has 2 full years on his deal. Zibanejad has a billion years left and a NMC. Panarin has a NMC and the highest winger cap hit in the league. These are not deals that were ever likely to materialize during the season. How many similar contracts for older players did we see moved at this deadline, where we can fairly say Drury was asleep and should have been on it? I cant name a single one.

Going back to the Trouba trade Friedman has been reporting consistently we are likely to be very active this summer, when teams have more flexibility to take on bigger cap hits and, more importantly, the cap increases.

There was a ton of turnover with this roster in the past 2 months and more is to come. Just let it play out.

 

Unlike their last meeting I thought it was an entertaining game with much better intensity by the Rangers, the difference being multiple Jet turnovers left unpunished by Rangers breakaway skaters looking to pass the puck. The call on Rempe was total bs (maybe the most animated I've seen Lav) , and the linesman dropping the puck on faceoffs was a total buffoon both ways with his double clutch, throw a guy out of the faceoff circle for a false start, his parents must have been at the game, even the Rempenator got to take a draw. With 3 new dmen in the lineup and the inexperienced Jones, there are going to be lapses. The defense wasn't the problem last night it was the offense - the Jets got under JT's skin early and minimized his presence and he's the straw that stirs the drink. The biggest contract i have doubts about now is that fat ass Laf, last year he finished with 217 SOG. this year he's at 132, maybe Lav can hold his wallet while he's on the ice.

 

Laf is a major, major concern. The biggest issue I see with him is how he stops moving his feet after receiving the puck. Constantly looking to defer cross ice or to reverse around the boards. Never an intent to push the play and carry to the net. It is a drastic change from his playing pace last year. Not that this is an excuse, but when Kreider goes this offseason he really needs to get back on the left side.

 

It's not just about the DL, it was WAY WAY WAY worse what he didn't do at the trade DL last season and what he didn't do last summer. This trade DL was whatever as I gave him a C, including the Miller trade in the DL mix. He got F's at the trade DL last season and this past summer. The trade DL this season was simply a continuation of Drury being Drury.

He has to get creative and move some of these guys who have NTC's or NMC's. Pretty safe to say we all thought moving Trouba and his full contract was almost impossible, yet it was done (after he blew it last summer and allowed that situation to help torpedo the season).

One thing we will agree on is we'll see this summer. Drury has to be bold, and at least one of the core guys need to be moved: Kreider, Panarin, Zibanejad, Fox, K. Miller. While we may disagree on the horrific job Drury has done running this team, that's in the past, now we'll see how it plays out.

I doubt Drury can get it done, but I am hopeful and rooting for him to prove me wrong. Whether we think Drury has been horrific at his job, or good at his job up to this point, we're all together and hopeful he'll do good work this summer. What's done is done, onward and upward.

 

If we’re out of it in about five games, I hope they suck bad enough so we keep our first round draft pick

 

I agree on Kreider, he is # 2 on my list of must go this summer. # 1 is Zibanejad, who I clearly have as # 1, while acknowledging he may be difficult to move with a NMC.

I think the top 6 should be Panarin, Lafreniere, Trocheck, Cuylle, Miller and a top winger added, in whatever line configuration you like. That's a good top 6. Then you work to put together a solid 3rd line, maybe Othmann can be 1 of the 3 on the 3rd line. The 4th line is set for a while with Edstrom and Rempe as the anchors, maybe with Carrick/Brod at C next season (I also think Berard can be a solid 4th liner).

 

Agree on one of those guys going. I fully expect Kreider to be gone. Possibly Panarin depending on if he agrees to move in the last year of his deal. Unlikely though. Mika is tough given the remaining term, and will leave the bigger hole as the org has zero C depth.

But I am not sure Fox and Kandre belong on this list. LD1 remains the biggest hole. Deal K'andre and you are left with zero top 4 LD. Even if you get that stud LD1 back, Soucy is then guaranteed in the top 4. I don't see that has a net positive. Same with Fox. Who QB's the powerplay and who takes those minutes on the right side? You find a guy to replace Fox but then haven't improved the actual holes in the roster. Fox is still incredibly valuable and IMO does not belong on a "one guy must go" list. If the deal is right, sure, but he is not a guy I actively seek to move. Let him get healthy.

The key to improve is to deal from positions of strength. What guys do we have that would be more valuable to another team? I look at Schneider. Buried on our 3rd pair, righty shot. He can skate, handles the puck well. But he does not look good in the man system. I havent liked his gap control and he is not winning enough battles. But there is still potential there, and RD is harder to find than LD. Othmann. Another winger. Deal from positions of strength.

Say you build a deal around Kreider, Schneider and Othmann for an LD and a top 6 C or RW. For example, say to Buffalo (who needs RD) for Byram and Peterka.

Lafreniere-Miller-Peterka
Panarin-Mika-Perreault
Cuylle-Trocheck-Berard
Edstrom-Carrick-Rempe
Brodz/Sykora

Byram-Fox
Miller-Borgen
Vaak-Soucy

Byram and Peterka are just an example. But that already looks a ton better than what we put out this year.

 

Fox just needs to get fully healthy and maybe even improve his conditioning a bit more. Schneider has more than what he's shown, but doesn't use the physical edge to his game enough. Miller is a disaster defensively but we may have to live with him for another year or two. Ehlers is a guy I would look at possibly in FA as far as adding another forward. A Peterka trade isn't a bad idea to pursue as well. I could see Perreault finding his way onto the roster by midseason.

 

We are on the same page in that big things/changes need to happen. I list K. Miller and Fox because we need some big changes to the main core, and those guys are part of that core. I am open to dealing any of those guys for the right return, none of them should be off the table, although I don't disagree with your point at all.

To me Drury has to keep everything open as he heads into what needs to be a bold, aggressive, and core changing summer.

 

I also think Fox needs a legit top level LD partner, the Beukeboom to Leetch if you will.

 

Hate on Drury all you want, the reason the Rangers are short on talent now is because of that bum Gorton's utter failure to convert a handful of high #1s into anything of significance. Literally, any one of us could have produced better results.

 

That was another terrible stretch of 1st round duds. Not quite as bad as the late 90s/early 2000s, but it hampered them.