David Quinn

The New York Rangers’ Doghouse is Open For Business

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New York Rangers, Brady Skjei

New York Rangers head coach David Quinn might be beginning to show his frustration with the slow start to games the team has experienced in their last two contests.  People had noticed that during Thursday night’s game against Calgary that a couple of players did not see ice time for most of the third period. Hence being placed in Quinn’s doghouse, which is surprisingly defined in the Cambridge Dictionary as “a situation in which someone is angry at you for something you did or did not do.” The two most recent notables to experience this were Brady Skjei and Kaapo Kakko.

Skjei continues to struggle for the New York Rangers

Social media blew up when the television cameras caught David Quinn leaning over to assistant coach Lindy Ruff and appeared to tell him something to the effect that Skjei does not get any more ice time. Skjei continues to be plagued by turnovers, including a key one in which he tried to clear a puck, and it went right to the Flames’ Dillon Dube, who promptly found Derek Ryan, who scored the goal that made the game 3-2. The benching came in the last 10 minutes of the third period when Skjei was tagged what could have been described as a questionable penalty call. However, it was one of a handful of crucial penalties the Blueshirts took as they were trying to tie up the game.

Kakko’s Benching a Bit of a Surprise

Kakko had already picked up a goal and assist in the Calgary game, but the 18-year-old was whistled for holding at 12:08 of the final period and was benched. After serving the penalty, he did not see the ice for the remainder of the game. Puzzling more was that the line of Brett Howden, Filip Chytil, and Kakko dominated shift after shift for most of the contest. Now, we may also consider that something else was wrong with Kakko that Quinn did not share. It has been well documented that the youngster deals with type 1 diabetes and celiac disease, and perhaps his playing time was influenced by this.

David Quinn is never one that has backed off from the tough love approach of trying to bring along younger players. Let’s hope that this approach will help more than it hurts their development.

New York Rangers Show Grit In Almost Fully Recovering from Slow Start, Officiating In Edmonton Loss

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New York Rangers, Brad Skjei

The New York Rangers did their very best to make sure the fine people of Edmonton enjoyed their New Year’s Eve. They allowed the Oilers to score six straight goals, including the first one, just eleven seconds in the game. They then almost accomplished what has never been done in NHL history: coming back from a six-goal deficit to win. The Blueshirts scored five goals in the final 20 minutes and 26 seconds of the game but came up short when the Oilers scored an empty-net goal to make the final score 7-5.

Why Did the New York Rangers Start So Slowly?

Given the comeback, not very many people wanted to focus on why the Rangers came out of the gate so sluggishly.  As apparent as it was that they were not ready to play, they may have become a bit shell shocked after the Oilers scored just 11 seconds into the game. After that, the Rangers seemed to lose focus. They played poor defense and took too many penalties and found themselves down 6-0.  This lead to goaltender Alexandar Georgiev repeatedly bashing his stick on the net and having Head Coach David Quinn pulling him. But it was not entirely all his fault. The Rangers were very aware of their inability to commit to playing defense, which includes being physical along the boards and in front of the net. None of this was seen for the first two periods of the game.

Head Coach David Quinn Very Frustrated with the Officiating

Part of the situation that saw the Rangers get down so quickly was the number of penalties they took. Not a good idea against the number one power-play unit in the NHL. Some of the penalties were legit, and some of them raised the ire of Quinn. The worst of these was when Ryan Lindgren was assessed an extra minor for slashing in a dust-up with Jujhar Khaira.  The Rangers were then slapped with a bench minor before the post-goal faceoff even occurred, as Quinn had a few choice words for the officiating crew. Quinn was frustrated after the game but kept his composure, hopefully assuring that he will not receive any additional fines for his displeasure with the officials.

Lost on all of this was that Artemi Panarin had four points while Ryan Strome, meanwhile, scored for the fourth time in four games and Mika Zibanejad for the ninth time in nine. But up and down the roster, players and coaches used one word to describe the comeback: character — something they will need to continue when they travel to Calgary for a Thursday night game.

 

New York Rangers Are Asking Santa for Two Things This Christmas

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New York Rangers

In an attempt not to be too greedy, the New York Rangers have narrowed down their wish list for Santa. After taking a look at what has transpired most recently, the Blueshirts are asking old St. Nick for the officials to be a little more fair with their calls and to obtain a sniper mentality on the power play. These do not seem too out of reach for a team that has mostly stayed off the naughty list this season.

“Our players need to be treated equally.”

The New York Rangers need to be treated with honesty and respect:

It is one thing for the twitter universe and even some in the media to complain about the calls. But when you have the head coach commenting on it, especially after a win, one needs to take notice. In his post-game comments after Sunday’s win against the Ducks, Head Coach David Quinn wished that referees would be fair with his players, especially Brandon Lemieux.

“I just wish he’d get treated a little bit differently than he (Lemieux) has lately. I just want all of our players to be treated equal. Sometimes it doesn’t seem that way with him.”

Quinn could have been referring to a questionable call at the end of the second period of the Anaheim game when Lemieux got a 10-minute misconduct for a little nudge and a shin tap to the Ducks’ Carter Rowney. This followed a December 17th game in Nashville when Quinn got a mid-game apology from referees Frederick L’Ecuyer and Jean Hebert for their poor performance.

“Shoot the Puck!”

It is a common phrase that players hear, but in the case of the New York Rangers, this appears to be a solid recommendation for the Blueshirts power-play units.  After Monday’s loss to the Flyers, the power-play unit is now 0-for-18 over its last five games. At times the power play more resembles the Harlem Globetrotters, as the puck gets passed around quite a bit before a shot is even attempted.  Quinn pointed this out recently when he stated that:

“We get it, we hold it, we stick-handle it, we look for a pretty pass instead of just moving it around and playing hockey within a power play.”

Defenseman Tony DeAngelo has stated that even his parents have told him and his teammates to shoot more. Quinn has stated that he will use the three days off to make some changes in an attempt to make the power play more efficient.

Fiesty New York Rangers End Three-Game Skid

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The New York Rangers were backed into a corner and saw an opportunity to get out of it. They did just that on Sunday afternoon by steamrolling the depleted Anaheim Ducks 5-1 on Kids Day at Madison Square Garden.  The win ended a three-game losing streak.

A Very Physical Game

After playing the Islanders the night before, The Ducks came into Sunday’s game tired, sick and cranky.  There were without its three leading scorers, as Rickard Rakell, Ryan Getzlaf, and Jakob Silfverberg all sat out. The latter two sat out with flu symptoms while Rakell was listed with an upper-body injury.  This all led to an ever-increasing physical game, starting in the second period. Erik Gudbranson and Brendan Lemieux were both given 10-minute misconducts. Gudbranson earned his trip to the penalty box after dropping his gloves in an attempt to fight Lemieux, but Lemieux declined to join him. By the time the second period ended, 36 total penalty minutes had been handed out. Anaheim and New York entered Sunday each having taken 15 major penalties this season, tied for most in the league, and they did little to give up their league leads in that category. The Ducks ran into a team, as Head Coach David Quinn said in his post-game news conference that was a little pissed off about how they played in the Toronto game.

Power Play Still Struggling

The Blueshirts finished 0-for-5 on the man advantage, leaving it without a power-play goal in four games. Fortunately, they did not need it.  Due to the physical nature of the game, they were confronted with three stretches of 4-on-4 play, including a 4-on-3 opportunity for the Ducks late in the second period.  They dominated the short-handed possessions and even added a short-handed goal in the third period.  The Rangers did manage to put up 41 shots on goal but Quinn commented that he thought there were 20 more opportunities to take shots. The Ducks only managed 21 shots, which made for light work for Rangers netminder Henrik Lundqvist.

The New York Rangers jump right back into action on Monday night when they travel to Philadelphia to take on their division rivals.

New York Rangers Have a Power Outage on Their Power Play

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New York Rangers, Mika Zibanejad

The New York Rangers and parts of the state of California have had similar problems recently. Parts of California have been cutting electricity so that their electrical equipment would not start widespread fires. One such shutdown affected 25 counties around the San Francisco area. The Blueshirts are having an outage on their power play, going 0-3 Friday night to make it nine straight times they have failed to score on their man-up opportunities.

Too much passing on the power play for the New York Rangers

In Friday’s loss to Toronto, they went 0-for-3 on the power play, extending their streak to nine man-advantage opportunities without a goal. One of the criticisms of the Blueshirts has been the reluctance to take shots during their man-up situations.  Their head coach agrees. “Our problem — whether it be five-on-five or five-on-four — is we too often will only shoot the puck if we think we’re going to score,” coach David Quinn said. “We will not shoot the puck if we think we’re going to create a chance for somebody else. And that’s why, over the last year-plus, our shooting percentage has been so high in the league. It’s because too often we only shoot when we think we’re going to score.” The Rangers’ hesitancy to shoot has been amplified in the last three games, where a timely goal could have made a drastic difference.

How can the power play improve?

Head Coach David Quinn and his coaching staff have tried to get the message across to their players about the recent power play performances.  Quinn wants the Rangers to be more committed to getting the puck and bodies to the net instead of playing on the outside while in search of the perfect goal. He has stated in the past that “We talk about where people are [on the ice] and whatnot, but I mean, you have to have pace on your power play. You have to be ready to shoot — you can’t stand there and stick-handle it. ”

Sunday’s chance to turn things around

The Rangers will get an opportunity to fix their power play and end their three-game losing streak when they host Anaheim on Sunday afternoon. The Ducks are situated at the bottom of the Western Conference standings but do rank in the top ten in power plays defended.  Henrik Lundqvist will get the start in goal for the Blueshirts.

 

New York Rangers: “Rest” Doesn’t Help End Losing Streak

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New York Rangers, Brad Skjei

The New York Rangers had a theory: That a three-day break after a long West Coast trip may rejuvenate their team. In 1985, The Coca-Cola Company decided to replace its traditional product with “New Coke.”  Neither theory worked. New Coke was widely criticized and was eventually dumped. On Friday night, the Rangers were trounced 6-3 by the Toronto Maple Leafs.

A Tiring West Coast Trip didn’t end well for the New York Rangers

In reality, the Rangers did need a bit of a break.  The Rangers started December having played eight games in 11 days.  After a 4-1 loss to the visiting Vegas Golden Knights on Dec. 2. They then had a back-to-back, in Columbus and at home against the Canadiens, before leaving on the weeklong four-game trip out west. That trip went from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, then north to San Jose, and back south to Anaheim for a Saturday afternoon game.  After flying back home, they played the Nashville  Predators in the Garden on Monday, losing 5-2.  I am tired just writing about it. Following a day off Tuesday, the team returned to the ice for a light practice Wednesday with five players taking maintenance days: defensemen Marc Staal and Tony DeAngelo, and forwards Ryan Strome, Artemi Panarin, and Pavel Buchnevich.  Seeing how this week played out, one would think that the Blueshirts would be ready to go on Friday night against the Leafs. That did not happen.

A clunker of a game

The thought was that goaltender Alexandar Georgiev would be the perfect man in the net against the Leafs, as when he stopped 99 out of their 101 shots last season. Unfortunately, Georgiev allowed a season-high six goals in last night’s debacle. This, of course, comes after I referred to him as “red hot” in a recent article.  But there is plenty of blame to go around.  The Rangers were outshot 40-22 and gave the puck away 23 times. They went 0-for-3 on the power play, extending their streak to nine man-advantage opportunities without a goal. Toronto nabbed 12 takeaways.  In his post-game press conference, Head Coach David Quinn stressed “a need to pay more attention to detail” for his young team.

The schedule ahead is also difficult

Friday’s loss is followed by a back-to-back, starting with a  Sunday matinee at home against the Ducks and then heading to  Philadelphia Monday night. The Rangers will get another break with the league-wide three-day dark period for Christmas. They come out of that with another back-to-back, Friday at home against the Hurricanes then in Toronto on Saturday, which leads right into their New Year’s trip, this time going through western Canada starting in Edmonton.  Coach Quinn and the young Rangers will be challenged more than ever as they try to end this three-game losing streak.