Breakaway Takeaways – February 12th

[custom_headline type=”left” level=”h4″ looks_like=”h4″ accent=”true” id=”” class=”” style=””]What We Have Here Is A Failure To Communicate[/custom_headline][text_output]We don’t have to go over the letter, or the general love behind the idea. You’ve already read those stories or heard those takes (and you’ll hear ours tonight on the podcast.

Instead, I want to focus specifically on Alain Vigneault’s response to the declaration to sell.

I’m not here to knock AV for saying he’s going to go out every night with the intention to win. That’s an admirable stance, regardless of where the team finds itself in the standings. It’s not practical – or even possible – for a coach to publicly state that he hopes his team loses every night.

Here’s the problem with AV, and what has been the problem with AV since the beginning:

He doesn’t know how to evaluate his own talent.[/text_output][image type=”circle” float=”none” src=”2200″ alt=”” href=”” title=”” info_content=”” lightbox_caption=”” id=”” class=”aligncenter” style=””][text_output]I’m not even going into his asinine comments about how the Rangers struggles predating their two-game win streak falls directly on the shoulders of their goaltenders. That deserves its own rant on the podcast, and it’s coming.

I’m talking exclusively about AV thinking Steve Kampfer on the top pair provides the Rangers with the best chance to win on a nightly basis.

However you want to slice the justification, Staal/Shattenkirk/McDonagh hurt, Smith demoted, not wanting to thrust one of the three rookies onto the top pair out of the gate – none of it works here. How could it?

Lord knows I’m not here to defend Nick Holden during (what we hope are) his final days as a New York Ranger. But shit, Holden remaining on the top pair is a much better situation than asking Steve Kampfer, he of the consistent healthy scratch, to play more than 22 minutes of total ice time against a team as talented offensively as the Winnipeg Jets. In fact, Kampfer’s ability to be on the ice for two goals – one of which was called off – in under 90 seconds to start the game is something worthy of its own plaque.

Kampfer’s play may not be as poor as Smith’s has been over the course of the season, but it’s not good enough to justify a spot in the line-up, let alone a spot on the top pair. Then you add in the strong play of Tony DeAngelo since his return from Hartford, and even the small sample size portions we’ve seen from John Gilmour and Neal Pionk. All three continue to play better than Kampfer, and all three deserve more ice-time, both from the “we’re trying to evaluate our talent” and “we want to win the hockey game” standpoints.

Give credit to AV all you want about saying the right things and pushing his players to win on a nightly basis. That’s all fine and good.

But to give AV that credit and not acknowledge that he feels Steve Kampfer playing 20+ minutes a night will help this team consistently win hockey games is all the evidence I need to know he isn’t qualified to lead this team to any promise land. His time is up.

– Greg Kaplan[/text_output][custom_headline type=”left” level=”h4″ looks_like=”h4″ accent=”true” id=”” class=”” style=””]Henrik Lundqvist is too Good for the Rangers to Tank[/custom_headline][image type=”circle” float=”none” src=”2205″ alt=”” href=”” title=”” info_content=”” lightbox_caption=”” id=”” class=”aligncenter” style=””][text_output]Many Rangers fans over the past couple of weeks have turned their attention away from the team success this season (or lack thereof) and instead have begun focusing on the future. This manifests itself in a variety of ways, ranging from discussing what prospects the Rangers could target in their upcoming deadline selloff, which the Rangers top brass held a press conference to formally announce to fans in an effort to be transparent about the teams’ direction, to dreaming about winning the draft lottery and therefor having the opportunity to select the 17 year-old Swedish phenom defenseman Rasmus Dahlin.

To the latter point, the term “tank” has been bandied about the Rangers fanbase recently, with many fans now openly rooting for the team to lose in order to improve their first-round draft pick and increase their odds at winning the draft lottery. Personally, I’m on board with the team “tanking,” as I’m a believer that it is extremely difficult to win a Stanley Cup without true top-tier talent, and the best way to obtain this talent is through the draft. While the NHL isn’t nearly at the level that the NBA is with regards to the impact that a single player or two can have, you are fooling yourself if you think star talent isn’t significantly impactful in the playoffs.

However, if yesterday’s Winnipeg game taught us anything (and this entire season for that matter), it’s that Henrik Lundqvist is just flat out too good at what he does for this team to ever tank. In fact, after the game, Sportsnet writer and PDOcast host Dimitri Filipovic tweeted the following:[/text_output]

[text_output]In yesterday’s game, the Rangers were not the better team the majority of the game. At 5v5, Winnipeg controlled approximately 55% of the shot attempts, 57% of the shots on goal, and held a 3.36 to 2.49 expected goals advantage over the Rangers. However, Henrik Lundqvist absolutely stood on his head, posting a 97.4 save percentage, an adjusted save percentage of +5.9%, and a goals saved above average of 2.25. By comparison Connor Hellebuyck posted a respectable save percentage of 92.6%, but had an adjusted save percentage of -0.2% and a goals saved above average of -0.04. In other words, Henrik Lundqvist far exceeded the play of an average goaltender given the quality of scoring chances he faced, while his opponent played nearly exactly to the level of a league average goaltender.

This is obviously not something new for Henrik Lundqvist, who has been carrying the Rangers on his back for well over a decade. Unfortunately for the Rangers draft lottery odds, you can bet that Lundqvist will continue to post stellar numbers throughout the rest of this season, unless of course he breaks down due to the absolutely absurd usage he’s received this year. Long story short, Henrik Lundqvist is far too good at his job for the Rangers to truly tank.

– Drew Way [/text_output][custom_headline type=”left” level=”h4″ looks_like=”h4″ accent=”true” id=”” class=”” style=””]Fighting For His Life[/custom_headline][image type=”circle” float=”none” src=”800″ alt=”” href=”” title=”” info_content=”” lightbox_caption=”” id=”” class=”aligncenter” style=””][text_output]While we saw the open letter to the fans, then the press conference between Jeff Gorton and Glen Sather announce that they were practically giving up on the season to focus on the future, something in the Rangers clicked.

Something happened that suddenly, the Rangers wanted to play again. Was it because the team feels they’re better than expected? Was it because coach Alain Vigneault is now realizing his job is on the line and he should start coaching these guys a little bit harder?

The issue here is the same mistakes in lineup decisions still showcase their ugly head. Steven Kampfer is getting top pairing minutes, while he shouldn’t even crack the lineup. When he does though, he shouldn’t be at the front. He shouldn’t be the top guy out their defending against opponent’s top lines.

Yet, when your coach decides to go against the norm, goes against what management wants just because he feels that this team is better than advertised, then it’s easy to see what he’s trying to do. I’ll sit here, kick back and watch it. I will not think that it’s going to change anything.

His stubbornness will eventually get in his way, will go back to what he felt was working. That’s what I can bet on. Alain Vigneault’s only true enemy, is himself.

– Shawn Taggart [/text_output]