Rangers Roundup: Goalies need to step up, Chris Kreider openly frustrated with teammates, and more
The morning after a loss always brings more clarity for everyone. Emotions die down, sanity and logic set in. However, last night’s late debacle came to a head for the longest tenured Ranger and he wasn’t happy.
Chris Kreider frustrated with team’s play
In the aftermath of another blown third period lead, Chris Kreider was asked about it and needed a long pause before answering. The Rangers de facto captain, required that time to compose himself or he might’ve just flipped his lid.
“It’s a recurring thing at this point,” Kreider said while stewing in his frustration. “We’ve shown what we can do in spurts. We understand what we need to do to be successful, and then they crank up the intensity a little bit in the third period there and all of a sudden we get away from it and start going east-west and not advancing zones.”
It didn’t end there, Kreider went on a diatribe of issues the team is facing including their inability or stubborn refusal to play winning hockey late in games.
“You don’t win at the NHL level doing that,” he continued. “When push came to shove in the third period, they were going north, they were putting pucks behind our D, and something we had done all night and done successfully all night and we just got away from it.”
“That’s just winning hockey. No team in the league can just throw their sticks out there and play east-west and try to skill their way to wins. You gotta go north at some point,” Kreider said, almost imploring his team to listen. “There’s not enough space, there’s not enough time. You gotta make their D turn. You gotta make them go the old cliche 200 feet.”
“It looked like a lot of fun for them in the third period,” he concluded. It sure wasn’t fun for Kreider.
Rangers goalies need to be better
Unlike some out there, I understand the logic behind David Quinn rotating two goalies.
The NHL schedule has teams playing each other twice before moving on to the next opponent. While it would be great if you could ride a hot goalie, that becomes a little harder as teams are not just pre-scouting but in game scouting from match one to match two.
A team having to prepare for both goalies does make it a tad bit harder. The drawback of course is it’s harder to get your #1 goalie in groove to go on a run.
Still, neither Igor Shesterkin or Alexandar Georgiev have distinguished themselves in the early going this season. They have been ok at best, and have not stolen a single game yet.
If Shesterkin beats the Penguins on Monday, I wouldn’t be surprised if this rotation comes to an end sooner than it started.
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