About Last Night – Thoughts from the 3-2 Loss to the Predators

[text_output]One down, 81 more to go.

Last night, none of us really knew what to expect from this Rangers roster, and some developments both helped us better understand what to be prepared for moving forward, and what definitely needs more work on.

Here’s a quick run through of the big talking points:

The Vesey-Hayes-Zuccarello line looked…actually good!

In both the first and second period, there wasn’t a line the Rangers were running out that was creating the most scoring opportunities, and the advance numbers back that up.[/text_output][image type=”none” float=”none” src=”3194″ alt=”” href=”” title=”” info_content=”” lightbox_caption=”” id=”” class=”aligncenter” style=””][text_output]I was just finishing tell you all yesterday that Jimmy Vesey getting time in the top six – even if we all agree that he’s not a top six forward – could be good, in the sense that this is without a doubt his last shot. In his first game with one of his best friends and one of the Rangers best offensive players, he held his own (for the most part).

Obviously, the trio needs to keep that type of performance up for multiple games in order to open more eyes, but it’s an encouraging start.

Jimmy Vesey apparently went to the Rick Nash School of Finishing

I mean, Jesus fucking Christ, Jimmy. It’s fantastic that he had so many high danger attempts last night, but could you please finish even one of them?

It honestly got to a comical level where any time the Rangers seemed to be on the doorstep of scoring against Pekka Rinne and the Predators, you knew Vesey was going to put it in his pads. Again, it’s one game, and I think we should be more encouraged that Vesey was getting this opportunities than discouraged that he couldn’t finish. But now we will have to see if he can make an adjustment.

Speaking of finishing, we see you, Jesper Fast and Filip Chytil

I let out a loud, audible moan when Chytil completed the no-look pass from below the red line to a hard charging Fast for the Rangers first goal.[/text_output]

[text_output]It’s just so damn pretty, all the way around. It took Chytil a full 20 minutes to get into the game, but once he made his presence known, he flashed why the Rangers are so high on him as a prospect.

As for Fast, game respect game. He’s taken himself from gritty fourth liner and penalty killing extraordinaire to all-around Swiss Army Knife who flashes true offensive talent. He’s the perfect partner for Chytil to play with at the beginning of his NHL career, and that partnership created multiple scoring chances throughout the last two-thirds of the game.

Their third linemate – Ryan Spooner – was MIA.

That Skjei-McQuaid pairing was…actually not bad!

I was definitely uneasy about McQuaid getting saddled with major minutes at the start of the season, and not exactly thrilled that he’d get the first crack at playing with Brady Skjei, but the two of them played incredibly well off each other. I don’t think there’s much debate when I say they were head and shoulders above the other Rangers pairings.

Will McQuaid be able to keep it up until the trade deadline? That remains to be seen. But, if he puts together more games like he did last night, the Rangers are going to do well at the deadline when a contender comes calling for defensive depth.

Kevin Shattenkirk, meanwhile…

Look, I’ve criticized plenty of Rangers defenders since we started podcasting. And just because I like Shattenkirk and think he will be really good in the long run, we have to call a spade a spade.

Shattenkirk was a problem last night, especially on the Subban goal, when he screens Hank better than anyone on the Predators did all night long.[/text_output]

[text_output]We can call it rust from missing half of last season, nerves from playing in front of his hometown crowd in his first game back, whatever. At the end of the day, he wasn’t good.

Shattenkirk’s performance moving forward is one to watch. He’s a guy you really want to see significant improvement from on Saturday.

Marc Staal, woof.

Uh, yeah. Staal is cooked. I don’t know if it was more obvious because the Rangers played five other defenders who are much quicker and played fairly well, but my god. If Kevin Shattenkirk was bad, Staal was something worse. He was constantly beat in transition, he seemed lost in his own zone defensively from time to time and he routinely left Neal Pionk to fend for himself on odd man rushes.

It only took 90 seconds for Staal’s lack of mobility to show itself, allowing the Predators to charge forward on what became a 2-on-1 against Pionk that Hank stuffed, then Staal failed to cover his own defensive zone properly which allowed a wide open scoring chance from the circle that Hank, again, stuffed.

Later in the game, Staal tried to carry the puck through the neutral zone, only to turn it over and – god bless him – had no shot of getting back on D in time to help Pionk once again.

Again, there’s no law that says Staal has to play every night, regardless of him being the only Ranger who is slated to wear the ‘A’ every game. If last night proved anything, it’s that Staal shouldn’t be playing the majority of the time, especially not in favor of Freddy Claesson.

The Rangers value his lockerroom leadership, and that’s going to lead him to being included in the line-up on a rather consistent basis. But David Quinn was at least wise enough to limit Staal’s minutes after the first period (Staal’s 16:53 of 5v5 ice-time was the lowest for any Rangers defender), which is something we haven’t seen a Rangers coach do in a long time. Small positives, I guess.

Quick Hits

• Hank is Hank, were we really expecting anything else?
• Brett Howden looked real good, albeit in limited ice time.
• Buchnevich looked fine, but Kreider truly struggled last night. I’m not at all worried about that. Everyone has an off game.
• I really can’t get over how bad Marc Staal was last night, so I’m including another sentence about him down here.
• Vlad Namestnikov, after an uninspired preseason, was invisible all night long. Yes, he was on the fourth line, but Howden and Lettieri let themselves be seen. Vladdy? Non-existent.
• Pretty fucked up of the Rangers to bury that garbage time goal, especially since I was feeling really good about my Predators -1.5 bet. Thanks, guys.

At the end of the night, I think that was the type of performance we can hope to see the Rangers put together on a nightly basis. A lot of positives, a few glaring negatives, things to work on and they didn’t get run out of the building.

The Rangers might not win a ton of games this year, but they played entertaining hockey last night. What more can we ask for during a rebuild?[/text_output]