I’m hijacking Chris’s Thoughts & Musings post today, so bare with me…
Warriors Only Please
Mark Recchi once said that joining the Bruins prolonged his career. Why did he say that? The system. The Bruins play an ultraconservative 1-4 forecheck, meaning that four skaters form a wall in the neutral zone and only one skater goes in deep trying to force a turnover. It is a system that requires less skating and forechecking, thus saving Recchi’s 43 year old legs from the inevitable.
What does this have to do with the Rangers?
Well, some peeps don’t seem to be understanding my posts, comments, tweets, etc, when I say that guys like Jagr, Frolov, and Gagne wouldn’t be good fits in our current system. Not every player was meant to play a high octane, uptempo style (which is what Torts wants the Rangers to play). Strong skating and the desire to force turnovers down low are attributes that not every player has in their DNA.
For small players, it’s about escapability
In case you missed it, my post the other day (Is “Too Small For The NHL” Changing?) basically made fun of the fact that all too often, the media/fans often think players under 5’10 must bulk up in order to make it to The Show. My take? The real skill-set that separates the men from the boys has not to do with putting on weight, but rather their escapability with the puck. It is a term that is not used enough in these internet scouting reports. Anyway, for more on that, scope the post.
Speaking of scouting reports…enough with the hijacking of every single prospect related post. I’ve been hanging out with pro scouts for years and they often disagree on prospect evals as much as we disagree as fans. These are meant to be fun, not cause heated arguments. I’m pretty sure that guys who are employed by teams to scout prospects know a bit more about this stuff than we do. It’s cool, we don’t need to be overly opinionated about everything do we?
Ha! Who am I kidding?
Geordie Huas?
I heard they are doing a British version of the Jersey Shore called Geordie Shore. If that’s not the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard, then I don’t know what is. Can someone explain to me what the **** a Geordie is. Chris lil help?
Cap increase = another summer of overpaying
Chris raised a good question in his post yesterday, with the cap set to increase a couple of mill, does this open up an opportunity for Sather to fill more than one need (i.e. another goal scorer or an offensive D-man)?
I might be in the minority here, but I don’t want the Rangers to throw money at any free agents other than Richards. The Blackhawks really screwed themselves when they signed Brian Campbell to that eight year ($7.1 million per) contract. They thought they needed an offensive d-man and they weren’t sure what they had in Duncan Keith.
Well, Keith ended up becoming one of the best puck movers in the game and they were forced to deal important depth players to get under the cap. The Rangers could be in the same predicament if they throw money and NTCs at Christian Erhoff or James Wisniewski and Michael Del Zotto ends up having a bounce back year. I have also been saying for months that I think Ryan McDonagh has untapped offensive ability. If he can step up his game and if MDZ lives up to his potential, there is no need for any of these free agent defensemen, who will most definitely be overpaid with the increasing cap.
PS – Signing Simon Gagne is like trying to buy a Rolex off of Ebay. Sure it looks good on paper, but once you get the damn thing you realize it’s nothing but a hollowed out shell. Shop wisely…
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