Laf scratched for Tampa game

[mrmel29]

For the immortal Sammy blais! FIRE GALLANT NOW!

 

[Greyvtrayn]

Well that's just fucked.

 

[kreidertime]

He’s definitely going to get an offer sheet from Montreal. I wouldn’t be surprised if they traded him. And we can watch him score 90+ points every year for a fucking decade.

 

[NYR31]

Oh man, the way we have fucked with him is unbelievable. What a waste of a #1 pick that was.
Sure hope he gets traded and get a better shot at a career as a top player.

 

[kreidertime]

Sadly we still have an incredible amount of dumb fucks in our Fanbase that don’t understand what they’re doing wrong developing these two players.

 

[NYR31]

It’s a shame. The ONE guy you bench after the team has a poor game is Lafreniere. No one else is held accountable.

 

[Malcom]

So do you guys think both Alexis and Kappo still have a big upside that has been held back by this coach and the previous coach? I don't get to watch many games with my night job but I would hate to think neither of these guys is going to turn into an elite player considering where we drafted both of them.

 

[kreidertime]

They have not developed these kids properly from the first day they drafted them. When you develop and play the 1st and 2nd overall picks in the draft like they were role players, they play like role players. Not rocket science.

 

[kreidertime]

I was talking to somebody who works at the garden a couple of nights ago. There are a lot of rumblings many people are not happy with Gallant.

 

[Stepupstepan]

Iam not Gallant guy but it falls also on the organization as a whole. They never commit to do a proper rebuild. It’s NYC. They care more about how many celebrities attend the games than winning Stanley cups.

 

[NYR31]

Meanwhile, Hughes got 22 minutes of ice time last night and scored his 21st goal of the season.

What a joke this organization is at developing forwards.

 

[NYR Fan]

Serious question for debate - would you rather be the Devs/a Devil fan? They have been terrible for many many years. Sure they can give Hughes, and all their other kids, boatloads of minutes because no top vets will go there to take playing time. They also suck every season, including this one, after their hot start.

Or would you rather be the Rangers/a Ranger fan. Sometimes it is a blessing and a curse, but top FA's want to play in NYC/MSG. The Rangers will always get stars, and that makes it more difficult to play kids major minutes in big situations as you have to prioritize winning as well.

Made an ECF run last season, made many long runs over the past 10 years, meanwhile the Devs have been a joke - as have a lot of the other teams who "are good at developing their high draft pick forwards".

Curious which team you rather be a fan of??

 

[NYR Fan]

Overall I don't like how Drury has finished off this roster, especially this past summer. To me Chytil is not a C, he is a W, and he certainly isn't a 3rd line C. You want some talent with some grit and snarl making up your 3rd line to balance it out. The Rangers have another East-West, over pass, finesse line as their 3rd line, and that is not a good team makeup and balance. It is why the Rangers identity is finesse, skill, and pretty plays. Drury needs to see that and understand team makeup, and make some moves.

Deal Chytil for a better fit for the 3rd line. We don't need 3 finesse scoring lines, you need balance of talents and skillsets, and we are missing it on our 3rd line, which is basically a little lesser version of skilled lines 1 and 2.

Go add a few players that shoot first, second, and third. Why do you think a whatever player like Vatrano stood out and fit in here so well - unlike most of our finesse forwards always looking to be pretty, Vatrano shot the puck pretty much every chance he had. He understood his role. Understood sometimes getting pucks on net is the smart play no matter what. It doesn't always need to be pretty. Where are more players like that added? A lesser talent like Vatrano was huge because he added what we didn't have. Drury?

Motte was great here, he was a perfect 4th line guy and also stood out. He waited long to sign for less, I think because he wanted to give Drury a chance to bring him back, but nope he does not. Motte was a perfect fit on the 4th line, and Drury didn't get that.

Where is the 3rd pair LD we have needed for a few years now? You stabilize that spot and our D looks really good. Still waiting for that glaring hole to be filled.

I just think we are not a well put together balanced team. That to me is our biggest issue this year. Drury needs to do work this summer to change it.

 

[Greyvtrayn]

Serious question for debate - would you rather be the Devs/a Devil fan? They have been terrible for many many years. Sure they can give Hughes, and all their other kids, boatloads of minutes because no top vets will go there to take playing time. They also suck every season, including this one, after their hot start.

Or would you rather be the Rangers/a Ranger fan. Sometimes it is a blessing and a curse, but top FA's want to play in NYC/MSG. The Rangers will always get stars, and that makes it more difficult to play kids major minutes in big situations as you have to prioritize winning as well.

Made an ECF run last season, made many long runs over the past 10 years, meanwhile the Devs have been a joke - as have a lot of the other teams who "are good at developing their high draft pick forwards".

Curious which team you rather be a fan of??

The Devils have won 3 Stanley Cups since the Rangers last won a Cup.

 

[NYR Fan]

I am not talking about 20 years ago - their last cup was 2003. We are talking about young kids, playing them, growing them. Since the Devs have fallen off a cliff and into the abyss as an organization, would you rather be a fan of theirs "growing" young forwards and being terrible each season, or of the Rangers having to balance moving up in the lottery twice and growing kids, while also having stars and winning a lot of playoff rounds the past 10 years.

I am not writing that in a snarky way, truly asking which is preferred. And you can insert a lot of teams into the place of the Devils over the past 10 seasons or so and the same question can be asked. A lot of these bad teams are rebuilding year after year after year after year. It is a legit question. Tough to answer.

 

[Greyvtrayn]

I want the Rangers to win Stanley Cups. So I guess that makes me a fan of the Rangers. If and how they do it is beyond all of our control. It doesn't fucking matter what any of us think.

 

[NYR Fan]

What is your deal man. The discussion in here is how we cannot grow young forwards. How the Devils, and others, do it right putting their kids on the PP and giving them important roles with big minutes. With that comes a price. Look at that and is that really what you want? Many of those teams are non-stop rebuilding for years, and they also don't have to balance like the Rangers do given stars want to play in NYC.

I'd argue given the balancing, the fact we were never bottom 3 to get Lafreniere and Kakko, and the fact that we made the ECF last season, and were a somewhat favorite this season, we are doing pretty well striking the balance. Unless we want to say F it all, chop the vets, play the kids at all costs, not sure what else we'd want. Then high % chance we are bad for many years, like just about all the teams that get pointed to for playing/growing their young kids more.

 

[PorterPanzer]

Laf's absence from the lineup did nothing to hurt the offense against Tampa, they actually looked better just couldn't finish again. Also seems like Kakko has run past Laf development wise - he's noticeable every game. Even Kravstov with a fraction of Laf's NHL experience looks to be the better player right now. All this can change if Laf decides to start giving 100% every shift but he's not scoring 50, let alone 90 points for any team with his half assed effort.

 

[NYR31]

What is your deal man. The discussion in here is how we cannot grow young forwards. How the Devils, and others, do it right putting their kids on the PP and giving them important roles with big minutes. With that comes a price. Look at that and is that really what you want? Many of those teams are non-stop rebuilding for years, and they also don't have to balance like the Rangers do given stars want to play in NYC.

I'd argue given the balancing, the fact we were never bottom 3 to get Lafreniere and Kakko, and the fact that we made the ECF last season, and were a somewhat favorite this season, we are doing pretty well striking the balance. Unless we want to say F it all, chop the vets, play the kids at all costs, not sure what else we'd want. Then high % chance we are bad for many years, like just about all the teams that get pointed to for playing/growing their young kids more.

Here's the thing, if we were the Lightning of the past few years, or the Blackhawks of the early 2010s you could excuse the lack of developing young forwards because you're winning or legit SC contenders every year for a 5+ year window. But we are not. We are a mediocre team more often than not. We last made the SCF's in 2014, and the season after we lost in the ECF's, the season after we lost in the 1st round, the season after in the 2nd round and the following 2 seasons we did not even make the playoffs. We went 7 years between ECF appearances. We are not some perennial contender. We are a perennial half-assed team that pulls a mini cinderella season every few years.

We are in the early stages of our window to win and with Panarin, Zib, Kreider and Trocheck all 29+ with long, expensive contracts on player-friendly terms, it won't be open for more than another 2-3 years and we are half-assing this opportunity because we refused to develop Lafreniere and Kakko who by now should be no less than everyday 2nd line players which would give us ridiculous depth up front. Instead, we are lumbering along, middle-ish of the pack. Disappointing.

 

[Stepupstepan]

Overall I don't like how Drury has finished off this roster, especially this past summer. To me Chytil is not a C, he is a W, and he certainly isn't a 3rd line C. You want some talent with some grit and snarl making up your 3rd line to balance it out. The Rangers have another East-West, over pass, finesse line as their 3rd line, and that is not a good team makeup and balance. It is why the Rangers identity is finesse, skill, and pretty plays. Drury needs to see that and understand team makeup, and make some moves.

Deal Chytil for a better fit for the 3rd line. We don't need 3 finesse scoring lines, you need balance of talents and skillsets, and we are missing it on our 3rd line, which is basically a little lesser version of skilled lines 1 and 2.

Go add a few players that shoot first, second, and third. Why do you think a whatever player like Vatrano stood out and fit in here so well - unlike most of our finesse forwards always looking to be pretty, Vatrano shot the puck pretty much every chance he had. He understood his role. Understood sometimes getting pucks on net is the smart play no matter what. It doesn't always need to be pretty. Where are more players like that added? A lesser talent like Vatrano was huge because he added what we didn't have. Drury?

Motte was great here, he was a perfect 4th line guy and also stood out. He waited long to sign for less, I think because he wanted to give Drury a chance to bring him back, but nope he does not. Motte was a perfect fit on the 4th line, and Drury didn't get that.

Where is the 3rd pair LD we have needed for a few years now? You stabilize that spot and our D looks really good. Still waiting for that glaring hole to be filled.

I just think we are not a well put together balanced team. That to me is our biggest issue this year. Drury needs to do work this summer to change it.

I stopped reading when you mentioned dealing Chytil. what a joke. Trading one of the most improved young forwards who is still on a cheap deal so we can make the third line tougher to play against. It’s very short sighted.

 

[NYR Fan]

Over the prior 11 seasons we have made 3 ECF's, and an SCF. So 4 of 11 years ECF at least. That is a solid run. Not amazing or one that closes the case period end of story (cannot do that without a cup), but it has been a solid 11 years for the Rangers I think.

Like I wrote, I do think it is a good open discussion that one could go either way on. With that said I am not sure you can compare the Rangers to most of the other teams "growing young forwards" though, given the results of the past 11 years, the fact we never just bottomed out to a disaster and finished bottom 3, and the fact that in NYC top vets want to play here, that's just reality. And you also have to acknowledge, how many of these teams that are "growing young forwards" are perpetually in rebuild mode? Not sure I'd want that.

Just something to be mindful of. This isn't no-brainer either way IMO.

 

[NYR Fan]

I stopped reading when you mentioned dealing Chytil. what a joke. Trading one of the most improved young forwards who is still on a cheap deal so we can make the third line tougher to play against. It’s very short sighted.

The point isn't deal Chytil or don't deal Chytil, the point is he is not a C IMO, and most importantly with him as the anchor on the 3rd line we'll never have the type of 3rd line I think fits best for a SC winner with 2 scoring finesse lines like we have in lines 1 and 2. We'll always have a finesse based, East-West, pass first 3rd line, and I am not sure that is the best way to balance the team given the makeup of lines 1 and 2.

I think Drury can do a much better job of finding balance, and having a 3rd line that is more physical and North-South would go a long way for this team I think.

 

[PorterPanzer]

The only thing the Rangers are guilty of is bending over backwards to allow Laf to develop with little pressure to perform, years later GG is finally holding him accountable. I have preached the need for the Rangers to get grittier for decades and last year after abruptly firing the front office and coaching staff Drury came on to change the philosophical direction of the team much to my delight. GG crushes it first year going to the ECF with a 2-0 lead but now the guys who were dead wrong last year about this team's ability are trying to water down GG's success by lumping in past seasons of failure to his brilliant start. In GG's first year several Rangers had career seasons while making an epic run but all that is irrelevant because of a lazy prospect, we should watch the Debs instead!

 

[Ranger71]

I saw Vancouver was interested in him, as his agent works for them now or something. Maybe they could do Horvat and a 1st for him.

 

[kreidertime]

Please. Horvat is a rental and you're not giving up Lafreniere for a shitty first. I heard when I was at the garden that Gallant will be long gone before Lafreniere is.