rangers flyers

It’s a tradition unlike any other: the annual post-Turkey-Day Rangers/Flyers matchup. I actually do really love it, because traditions, especially sort of unofficial ones, are a nice thing in sports (like the Rangers eliminating the Caps early in the playoffs). Anyways it’s typically a thing that brings a lot of joy and happiness to our tryptophan-filled lives, but this year things went really, really wrong.

You all know I’m a more analytically focused dude, but I’m going to keep things strictly qualitative here. There were a number of deeply problematic aspects to the Rangers’ game, a lot of disappointing performances, and a lot a lot of frustration. Something has got to give, and although we all anticipated this being a losing season, getting shutout, and for the most part just by a goal until things really fell apart in the waning 3rd period, is just a terrible vibe all around. It’s probably for the best in the long term, but not against the Flyers, for Hank’s sake.

The Rangers had absolutely no jump – they were a step behind on every one-on-one, every board battle, everything. As far as individual matchups go there wasn’t one instance I could point to where I thought “great play by so-and-so.” Really just a bunch of mediocre individual efforts, and it showed. I hate reading effort into a player or players’ game but it was hard not to feel it in this one. We all expect to lose more than we win this season, and we all hope that we land Jack Hughes or Kappo Kaako. But we all like to see our team put up a fight, especially against the a regional rival.

I will say this: they were actually kind of decent on the transition, but there was something sad about its infrequency and inability to translate to sustained offensive pressure that put a damper on every breakout pass. Neal Pionk, Kevin Shattenkirk, Tony DeAngelo, and even Freddy Claesson did a solid enough job on getting the puck from one end of the ice to the other, sure.

It’s just that it almost never started properly, because the Rangers were so poor in their own end, and almost never got to the offensive zone, because the offense was plainly nonexistent. Getting through the neutral zone is great, and certainly something that the Rangers have had problems with in the past, so seriously, I’m happy at what’s going on there. It’s just that a transition needs to start well and end well, and today neither really happened.

Still though, they let the Flyers dictate the play no matter what was happening. When Philadelphia had the puck they were hesitant to make mistakes and wound up doing nothing while no-names like Robert Hagg (?) walked all around the offensive zone like it was Sunday in the park. When they didn’t, the Broad Street Bullies didn’t have to do much to bully the Rangers around, because just a little bit of pressure and the Blueshirts were shaking in their boots, making nervous passes and resetting over and over even when opportunities opened up.

I don’t mean to be this critical and emotional – those who know me know that I understand the difficulty of playing hockey, and deeply appreciate everything this hockey team does to bring structure and satisfaction to our lives. I love the New York Rangers, and even with the big-picture understanding that it’s better to rack up losses than go on win streaks, I love to see them do well. Win or lose, you like to see fight, you like to see goals, you like to see guys giving it 110%. It was just tough to watch, and hopefully tomorrow against the Caps they can rebound and take it to ’em.

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