March 2023 Thread, Did Drury really put us over the top?

[Mr.Wiskers]

The season is pretty much over for Drury as the trade deadline has come and gone. The only thing left for any GM is to manage injuries from here on out. So we can now give him/Drury his final grade for the season. I’d give him a C. Yeah, the media is ALL a buzz calling Drury’s moves just short of genius. That’s just the media looking for stories. My opinion is that this is a deal that didn’t need to be made, my opinion was that we needed to get bigger, we needed to get physically tougher. But again that’s my opinion.As far as the deal goes. First and foremost, Kane had a NTC and would only exercise it if he were dealt to NY so Davidson had 2 choices! Trade him & get something or keep him and get nothing. So he chose the obvious as Chicago is rebuilding, so you can’t blame him. But Drury giving up a 3rd Rd pick for Arizona to pay $167,000 in actual cash and assume the $2.67 mil. cap hit—a team that is run by crooks—these same crooks made deals for Weber & Voracek. Two players who’s careers are over, simply to use their cap hit to stay above the cap floor( 2 players who’s insurances are actually paying their salaries, while Arizona is paying NONE of it, 0) Really! Drury got jerked on THAT part of the trade. That 3rd Rd pick could have been used to get Luke Schenn, who leads the league in hits with 262 and has 83 blocked shots not to mention 21 pts in 56 gms. I get that we didn’t have the cap to get Schenn once the deal was made to get Kane, but that’s because of our 1st deal, the deal for Tarasenko that kept us from doing the Schenn deal. The 1st deal wasn’t so great either, I mean yeah it’s great we got Tarasenko, he’s big his physical can score but what was the point of taking Mikkola and his $1.9 mil. cap hit—a guy who’s never played a full season in his career. We could have done so much better to fill out that 3rd pair defense with that $1.9 mil. cap space, hence Schenn who’s cap hit is $850k— we would have even had over $1 mil. leftover (the difference of Mikkolas $1.9 mil & Schenn’s $850k) to make another deal. So there are problems with both deals that bother me enough to say that Drury didn’t do a great job, just an OK one. That’s why I say I’d give him a C grade for the work he’s done this year.

I won’t even get into the point that we ALL knew we needed a 3rd pair defenseman & a 1st line RW since the pre-season, the fact that he waited this long to solve the problem was a complete and utter joke. Now we have to hope that this team can jell and play cohesively as a unit before the playoffs begin.

[Mr.Wiskers]

Well, we were pretty much pushed around today against Boston, and it had nothing to,do,with being short. They were just bigger and more physical. Once the playoffs start there will be a lot of physical play and penalties that won’t be called so this game is a preview to what’s to come and it doesn’t look good for us.

There’s a lot of buzz on the net from fans saying that Panarin is over passing just trying to please Kane and how it’s not working. Maybe Kane needs to be moved up to Kreider/Zibenajad line and Tarasenko should be dropped to the Panarin/Trocheck line. Since we’re talking lines, maybe the PP needs to be shifted. To me Kreider/Zibenajad/Kane/Fox PP unit should have Chytil is the bumper—Kreider in front of the net, Zibenajad & Kane on opposite ends with Fox at the point and Chytil as the bumper. While the second PP line should have Panarin and Tarasenko at opposite ends, with Trocheck as the bumper, Miller as the point guy and Lafraniere in front on the net.

[Mr.Wiskers]

Right now, it’s up to Gallant to get these players/lines to jell as ultimately he will be blamed if we don’t make the playoffs and go far in the playoffs to boot. Even tho’ these players only look good as a team in a video game because it reality this team won’t go far because they are so small and uninitiating on the ice.

[metswon69]

Right now, it’s up to Gallant to get these players/lines to jell as ultimately he will be blamed if we don’t make the playoffs and go far in the playoffs to boot. Even tho’ these players only look good as a team in a video game because it reality this team won’t go far because they are so small and uninitiating on the ice.

I think the lines will gel fine to be honest. I just dont know if their style of hockey gets them far in the playoffs unless Igor is great. They give up far too many quality scoring chances, they dont backcheck particularly well, and guys like Tarasenko and Kane are defensive liabilities. They have to find a way to limit those chances and pick up their defensive game. It would be unfair to Igor to expect him to just flip a switch in the playoffs when he hasn't all season. The EC is so loaded that they just might not have the personnel to make a deep playoff run. The Devils are going to be an extremely difficult 1st round matchup to begin with.

[Mr.Wiskers]

I keep seeing other teams signing college free agents, seems like everyone else is signing guys except us. We really need to get some young promising players into our system because Drury traded away draft picks—need to make up for the lack of draft picks with college free agent signings.

[NYRaiderLove]

If Panarin and Kane can’t show something today Gallant better move Kane up a line and drop Tarasenko with Panarin.

Panarin is clearly forcing everything to Kane, since his arrival, They’re both different players since their time together in Chicago. Kane will benefit with Zib and Kreider as will Tarasenko with Panarin and Trochek.

As for the physicality IDK what happened. This team was shook after the Washington game two years ago and made it a point of emphasis to become more physical.

They lost Reeves. Blais barely played last year. Sure Vatrano and Copp were willing to finish checks but what’s really changed?

For the most part it’s the same team and they’ve become so soft.

[metswon69]

If Panarin and Kane can’t show something today Gallant better move Kane up a line and drop Tarasenko with Panarin.

Panarin is clearly forcing everything to Kane, since his arrival, They’re both different players since their time together in Chicago. Kane will benefit with Zib and Kreider as will Tarasenko with Panarin and Trochek.

As for the physicality IDK what happened. This team was shook after the Washington game two years ago and made it a point of emphasis to become more physical.

They lost Reeves. Blais barely played last year. Sure Vatrano and Copp were willing to finish checks but what’s really changed?

For the most part it’s the same team and they’ve become so soft.

I dont have a problem with them putting so much emphasis on skill. You want guys who can score as the league is transitioning towards more skill and less sandpaper. That said, you need a couple of guys who can do those things in your bottom 6 if you're top 6 doesn't have that. I'm more disappointed in the d-line to be honest. Outside of Fox, Lindgren and sometimes Miller they just don't play their own zone particularly well. They were kind of stuck because of the cap situation they're in. Tarasenko and Kane would have fit better on last years team. They have to pick up their play in the defensive zone. They've let Shesterkin out to dry far too much this season and he's not stealing games like he was last season. They got to figure that part out if out otherwise their playoff run might be short.

Have to get their ship in order as well given the Islanders are only 5 points behind us now. The good thing is we have 3 games at hand on them.

[metswon69]

Really want to put the hammer down the next 3 games against teams that could possibly make the playoffs in Buffalo, Penguins and Caps. Want to avenge some losses as well. I expect Buffalo to come out like a house of fire today because they know their chances are slipping and they got whooped by Dallas the other night giving up 10 goals.

[NYRaiderLove]

There’s the 2022 Vezina winner. What a game from Shesterkin.

PP and PK units are looking much better recently. 5 on 5 remains underwhelming these last few weeks.

[ShadyOne]

Hopefully starting to roll again. The scoring depth starting to click, and the 4th line is obviously improved now, with the top 6 depth

[metswon69]

Hopefully starting to roll again. The scoring depth starting to click, and the 4th line is obviously improved now, with the top 6 depth

Its hard to find a top 6 in hockey that can do as much damage offensively as the Rangers. Probably only eclipsed by Edmonton and Toronto. The 5 on 5 play and defense need to be better though. I like our depth and with Lindgren coming back, hopefully they can really kick it into gear before the playoffs. Its not impossible for them to catch Carolina or New Jersey either. Not likely but its still possible.

[metswon69]

Holy **** the last 2 nights. 6 goals in 2 periods last night and 5 goals in the first 10 minutes of tonight's game against Nashville.

[Mr.Wiskers]

Those are teams what are below us, we are suppose to beat those teams. But tonight was the big game against a legit opponent in Carolina and we came up short. This is an example of what playoff hockey is. This game showed we don’t have a physical team, some of our guys gave up the puck in order to avoid contact others made bad passes when pressured either way it constantly lead to give aways. They stacked the blue line and instead of soft dumping the puck/lobbing the puck in order to give us enough time to get in the zone and retrieve it or at least give ourselves enough time to get to where the puck was so we could fight for it. We continuously shot the puck in hard and it was retieved by Carolina who proceeded to clear it. The coaching staff is gonna have to fix this problem.

[metswon69]

Those are teams what are below us, we are suppose to beat those teams. But tonight was the big game against a legit opponent in Carolina and we came up short. This is an example of what playoff hockey is. This game showed we don’t have a physical team, some of our guys gave up the puck in order to avoid contact others made bad passes when pressured either way it constantly lead to give aways. They stacked the blue line and instead of soft dumping the puck/lobbing the puck in order to give us enough time to get in the zone and retrieve it or at least give ourselves enough time to get to where the puck was so we could fight for it. We continuously shot the puck in hard and it was retieved by Carolina who proceeded to clear it. The coaching staff is gonna have to fix this problem.

I'm not overly worried about Carolina. They dominated us last year in the regular season as well and we beat them in the playoffs. They improved on the blue line but they lost Svechnikov and outside of Necas and Aho, they have issues scoring with their forward group. They have no elite finishers.

I honestly think New Jersey is more formidable but I like our chances against either team in the first round depending on how that race goes.

[metswon69]

Good bounce back win tonight. Igor has been great the last 2 weeks. Looking a lot more like he did last year.