- 2 months ago
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00:00I think they're a playoff team.
00:01I do think it's going to take time,
00:03so the points they could get early in the year might not be there.
00:06So if they're third or fourth in the Metro,
00:10they might be a wild card.
00:12I don't know.
00:12But, again, you get all excited for opening night.
00:16And that's what happens.
00:18Yeah.
00:18It's not week one in football, right?
00:21There's a lot more hockey to be played.
00:25Welcome back, Ranger fans.
00:27We've got another episode of Up in the Blue Seats,
00:30your favorite Rangers podcast from the New York Post.
00:33I'm your host, Molly Walker,
00:35and I'm joined by just Rangers favorite Brian Boyle today.
00:39Our Hall of Famer, Larry Brooks, is starting the season on IR.
00:43So everybody sent him well wishes for a speedy recovery
00:46because after opening night,
00:49it appears we are definitely going to need him.
00:52Yeah.
00:53Brian, how was your return to the blue carpet last night?
00:57I saw a pretty funny video of you losing your way
01:00to get to where you needed to be on Twitter.com.
01:04Oh, geez.
01:05Yeah.
01:05Well, I'm losing a lot of things lately.
01:08Hotel room key, other things, car keys.
01:11Anyways, yeah, I wasn't exactly sure where to go.
01:14And, you know, the Rangers faithful were all, like, lined up on 31st Street.
01:19So I just kind of tossed myself in the mix.
01:23And then someone had to come get me, being like, no, you have to come over here.
01:27But I was essentially doing the same thing.
01:29I was just saying hi to the people that were all excited to be that opening game.
01:33Yeah.
01:34And there's no hiding for you at 6'6 through that crowd.
01:38So I'm sure you were sworn.
01:39Wearing the burgundy suit, too.
01:42I sort of stuck out.
01:43So I probably should have thought that one through.
01:47But, no, that was really cool.
01:48That was a lot of fun.
01:49Dave Maloney, obviously, everybody knows Dave.
01:51Everybody loves Dave.
01:52He did a great job emceeing it.
01:55There was a DJ there just throwing out banger tunes.
01:59A lot of excitement.
02:02That was the most exciting thing, though.
02:05Unfortunately, it does appear that it was.
02:08The Rangers opened up the Mike Sullivan arrow with a 3-0 dud at home to his former team of 10 years, the Penguins.
02:18It was a one-goal game for most of the night, but two empty netters from Pittsburgh gave us that final score.
02:24I feel like you could either have a lot to say about that first game or not much at all because of the contents of it.
02:31But all in all, not an encouraging start for the blue shirts.
02:35So let's pick it apart to an absurd degree because that's what we do here.
02:40Brian, what stood out to you last night?
02:44Let's go with the good.
02:47Sure.
02:47The good is, okay, for myself or probably all Rangers fans, the good is Noah Lava.
02:55He is beast.
02:56That's a great sign.
02:57And I love that, you know, of all of the, when training camp opened, all of the, all of the names of can't wait to see this guy.
03:06And rightfully so, some of these prospects are exciting.
03:10I wasn't hearing much about Noah Lava and he really showed a lot.
03:18He showed like he belonged, right?
03:19He skates and looks like he's NHL ready.
03:22And there will be some growing pains, but I was happy for him.
03:28The rookie lap thing is great.
03:30Everybody does it now.
03:31He's got to do it.
03:32I think it's like, we should just stop doing it.
03:36He belongs.
03:36So like, you're there, but whatever.
03:38That was great.
03:39And then, you know, my biggest takeaway, uh, was Mika watching Mika just that looked like old Mika.
03:47He had 12 attempts on the net.
03:48He had seven shots on the net.
03:51Yeah.
03:52He was flying.
03:53He just wanted, he wanted, he was the only real, looked like he was a threat each time he was on the ice.
04:00He was.
04:01And for a game that was, it was sort of a feel out game.
04:05Um, it just, it, it, he, he was just like, I'm here to try and help his team win the game.
04:12It was great.
04:13There were some, you know, you look at devil's advocate here.
04:16You look at Miller, you look at Panarin and I'm not worried about either of the guys.
04:22I'm not certainly not worried about JT Miller.
04:23He is, you know, he missed some time.
04:26It's, it's hard to get back into it.
04:28And then you're, you're playing against a Pittsburgh team with there's zero expectations on them, which I don't expect them to, to compete for the Metro.
04:38I don't expect them really to compete for a playoff spot.
04:42And maybe that's me being just dumb because they have hall of famers still playing on their team.
04:49And those guys have a lot of pride and especially Sid, like he knows, he plays at the same level every year.
04:56He's incredible.
04:57Right.
04:58You look at a motivated Gino Malkin last night and what he did for his line.
05:02And that was the difference.
05:03I mean, Brazil gets two, I mean, one's an empty netter, but that goal is a, is a Gino play.
05:10He's done that.
05:11He's done that for a decade.
05:13So that can happen.
05:15There wasn't a lot of, it was a low event game, sort of.
05:21Artur Shilov's looked pretty solid.
05:23I thought there were some times where Pittsburgh threatened and the Rangers got into some trouble.
05:30Some of the D I didn't love.
05:31I think Gavrikov will settle him, but that is hopefully his worst game.
05:36Yeah, that was, I was pretty surprised by that.
05:39I think that he looked a lot, I mean, especially coming from the preseason where he looked so steady and so poised at the blue line every time he got out there.
05:48Didn't really see any of that last night.
05:51No, it was, it was odd.
05:52It was different.
05:53And it'll take time.
05:54And this is what, I mean, before puck drop, I had mentioned, I had mentioned on the blue carpet, like there's going to be good games and there's going to be not so good games and give it to mid-November before they can sort of find their stride consistently.
06:07I don't think they're going to be this every game until mid-November, but it's going to take, it's going to take time.
06:12And Sully's very detail-oriented, so sometimes that takes even a little bit longer to find exactly what you want and the chemistry.
06:22I don't, I'm not worried about the Rangers at all.
06:25I mentioned, I think they're, I think they're a playoff team.
06:28I do think it's going to take time.
06:30So the points they could get early in the year might not be there.
06:33So if they're third or fourth in the Metro, they might be a wild card.
06:39I don't know.
06:39But again, you get all excited for opening, opening night.
06:44And that's what happens.
06:45Yeah.
06:45It's not week one in football, right?
06:48There's a lot more, there's a lot more hockey to be played, but that was, that was unfortunate.
06:55Yeah.
06:56I guess I'll stick with the positives.
06:58I'll add Connor Sheery to that group of players that was very standing out.
07:04I think that he was active all night on the forecheck.
07:07He was all over the ice.
07:10And that was really encouraging to see.
07:12And I also think the fourth line, the fourth line probably had the most juice out of any of the lines as a collective, I felt.
07:19And I've said from the beginning that I, I love that Edstrom-Carrick-Rumpy line.
07:24I think that they could be a real X factor for the Rangers in more ways than one.
07:31And I feel like they always hit the ice with juice, no matter what.
07:34They bring the same level every time those three are out there on the ice together.
07:38So I will throw them in the hat of positives as well.
07:42I think for me, the most concerning thing that gave me some PTSD and probably a lot of Ranger fans last night as well was the goal 32 seconds left in the first period.
07:54Yeah.
07:56Yeah.
07:56That is a habit that lingered for the Rangers for most of last season that was unacceptable, quite frankly.
08:07I mean, when you look at just in sports in general, you know, the final moments of a period or a quarter or whatever it is, like the fact that the Rangers so many times last season were caught sitting back, were caught, you know, with zero urgency.
08:24And these costly goals at the tail ends of periods were killer for them last year.
08:31So to see that happen in the first period, it was killer again.
08:36And you think, oh, here we go again.
08:39But I actually, I included in my column last night a quote that Vincent Trocek said on the very first day.
08:46And that was that, that sort of mentality, the here we go again, is not an option for this Rangers team.
08:56They cannot let this spiral, let these habits linger.
09:01Corrections need to be made and it needs to be done away with early because that's the sort of habit that just, it'll kill you every single time.
09:13You know what, it's, it shouldn't, in the first period in a 0-0 game, it's, yeah, it's a, it's a kick in the pants.
09:23You gotta, you gotta go to the room and they just scored or like, but you have that time in the room to just say, all right, like that happened.
09:33And let's not let that happen again and go out in 40 minutes to sort of rectify it.
09:39And, you know, there were a few that were, I think, proactive in trying to get some juice.
09:46Like, as you said, that fourth line, I agree.
09:4910 minutes for Carrick and Rempe, anyway, it was probably eight and a half for Edstrom.
09:54But that's going to help a lot too.
09:57If they can get that steady eight to 10 minutes, you're going to see, you're going to see some, I think you're going to see more out of that line.
10:04But you have, you have a whole intermission.
10:07They should be fine.
10:08It's not, it's, it's, there's plenty of veterans on the team.
10:12It's not a, it's not a young group.
10:15No.
10:15So it shouldn't bother them.
10:17It shouldn't, you shouldn't be thinking about last year at all anymore.
10:19It's, it's different.
10:20You're not even wearing the same jersey.
10:21You're wearing a different color jersey.
10:23So, um, yeah, but it's just, that's, there's no easy games, no matter what you think Pittsburgh might be.
10:30Look at the, uh, I mean, there was a game right before them, Florida and Chicago and Florida's, I was shooting Chicago 18 to five.
10:38The game was two to two.
10:41And it's, it's wild because if you looked at Florida's goals, they were just the ugliest goals.
10:48It was like a dump in and a pass to the point, sort of a shot that actually got blocked,
10:52but it went right to AJ Greer and he scored.
10:54And then another one was Trochick or, uh, not Trochick.
10:57Jeez.
10:57Evan Rodriguez dumps it in.
10:59And then like the winger just basically golfs it to the middle and it hits the guy in the pants and it goes in.
11:06And it's like, that's how the Florida Panthers play.
11:08They just go straight.
11:09That's hockey.
11:10And they don't ever stop.
11:11Florida Panthers hockey.
11:12So a little more of that too can help a little bit more.
11:15And I think Mike Sullivan really wants that.
11:16I spoke with him before a preseason game and he said, we're trying to be more direct.
11:20And I don't know how many times I've said on this podcast, like, I would love to see them just get out of the zone,
11:27get through the neutral zone and go in and then let their talent take over, be more direct.
11:31So he's trying to get them to do that.
11:33And that doesn't happen in one training camp.
11:36Yeah.
11:36The neutral zone turnover is too.
11:38And that was something that played to the Rangers last season too.
11:42Clean zone entries were just, you never found them.
11:47They could never produce them.
11:49I'm not even concerned with clean entries.
11:52I think that's one of the most overrated things because again, all Rangers fans can listen here.
11:57The top two of the top three or four teams in the league at dump-in rate were Florida and Carolina.
12:06And where are they every single year?
12:09Right.
12:09Boom.
12:11Clean, fine.
12:12If you have it clean, go ahead.
12:13But I'm talking about the way that the Rangers play though.
12:17Exactly.
12:17The way that the Rangers play, they do better when they clearly enter the zone, I feel.
12:22They're not good at the dump-and-chase like the Carolinas and the Florida's.
12:25They have to get good at it.
12:28That's not hard.
12:30If I could have done it, these guys are better.
12:33No, it was, yeah.
12:36No, those neutrals on turnovers were very much so there again last night.
12:40So, yeah.
12:41It wasn't, it's not what you want.
12:44Not what you want on game one of 82, but it is game one of 82.
12:49That was kind of the vibe that I got from the guys that I spoke in the locker room with.
12:55I talked to Adam Fox.
12:56You know, it's one game.
12:58You don't want to overreact, especially after the way that last season went.
13:03You got to be goldfish, as they say in Ted Lasso.
13:07Forget it.
13:08On to the next game.
13:09But, I mean, how important is it for this team to have a strong team mentality moving forward?
13:17Well, it's any team.
13:19You have to, like, the good teams that I was on, and even the Ranger years, it didn't really matter what had happened during the game.
13:32And, like, you'll have games where you don't have your best, or you'll have games where two goals go in, like we saw in the Florida-Chicago game, or you have, whatever.
13:42It's just like, all right, next shift, we're going to figure out a way to get something.
13:47And it was always just kind of understood.
13:50It's just, there has to be a belief.
13:53Right.
13:53Ted Lasso, you put the sign up above the coach's office if you want to slap it.
13:56But, yeah, it's like, it's there.
14:00You can't listen to any noise.
14:03You have to know, and everyone has to believe in it.
14:06And that's sort of, I think, why they do the things.
14:10I know you were going to get to it, but, like, right before the season, they go to Rhode Island.
14:14Like, it's just building a trust amongst yourselves.
14:17Like, we were ruthless to each other in the locker room.
14:21No one had a free pass.
14:22No one had a free pass in the room.
14:24And if you, like, it was to the point where if you didn't get chirped, like, a week went by and no one chirped you.
14:30I'm like, do these guys even like me?
14:32Like, how come I'm not getting ripped on a little bit here?
14:35I want to be a part of this.
14:37Yeah.
14:37Yeah, I want in.
14:38You got to really be a close group.
14:40And that's, and all that kind of stems from that.
14:43Yeah, so we could turn to that.
14:47I mean, the team went on a bonding trip in Rhode Island this past weekend after their preseason finale in Boston.
14:54I spoke to a bunch of them.
14:55They went golfing.
14:56They went to the shooting range, had team dinners, and they did a team building activity one night as well.
15:04They brought this back from the Gerard Gallant era, which I thought was interesting.
15:11They didn't do it under Pierre Laviolette.
15:14I think they did it two seasons, one or two seasons under Gerard Gallant.
15:19And Sullivan said it was a decision that they made with Chris Jury and the leadership group that this was a good season to bring it back
15:28because of having a brand new coaching staff, a bunch of new faces in the locker room.
15:33And it just felt like a good opportunity for everybody.
15:38The semblance of the team, the way that Mike Sullivan described it, could get together and get to know each other on a different level.
15:46Did you ever do anything like that in your career?
15:49And what sort of benefits does the team get from that?
15:52Especially, you know, it's basically like starting the season almost a little bit earlier, kind of.
15:57Yeah, it's, I think it's important and it doesn't have to happen every year.
16:01In New Jersey, we, so the two training camps I had in Jersey, the first one we started out at home in North America.
16:11I don't actually know where we started out, but the second year we went to Europe.
16:15But so the first year we went and we went up to, we went to West Point.
16:18And, you know, I was, I was sick, so I wasn't really, I didn't get to skate at West Point, but I got to go.
16:24They weren't even sure if I was going to be able to go because, so then I'm like, well, what are we doing, boot camp?
16:29What is, what is, what is this?
16:31But we carried a big rock.
16:32We had to pick a rock.
16:34Oh, I've heard about this.
16:35They do this at West Point.
16:37Yeah, we had to carry it, we had to carry it up a hill.
16:39Yeah.
16:40I don't know if we can call it a mountain, but it was like a hill.
16:43Yeah, sure.
16:44You know, we, we had groups of four or five guys and it was basically a competition, but we stayed at things together.
16:54And then we, we got together one of the evenings and, and just said, you know, a little something about who we were away from the rink.
17:04And, you know, it was really interesting because we had some younger guys.
17:09I was a signing in the off season.
17:11And I wasn't really around in camp to see the guys.
17:14So it was huge for me.
17:16I was a veteran guy at that point, but I still was like, these guys have to answer all these questions about me.
17:21None of them even know me because I'm, I'm sick.
17:23I'm out.
17:23Like I felt terrible.
17:25And you, you kind of get vulnerable a little bit.
17:29I'm sounding really mushy here.
17:30And, and, but it was, it's important.
17:33No, we love it.
17:34To know that like, you can do that.
17:37You can say like, you know, this is what was hard in my life.
17:40This is what got me through.
17:42This is, these are some tragedies.
17:44These are the great accomplishments I had.
17:47And, um, yeah, it was like, it was so cool.
17:50Our coaches did it too.
17:52And we're like, all right.
17:55And we know everything, everything, not everything, but we know a lot about each other.
17:58And then we got up to the top of the hill and we had like this chat and the big message was like, I got to talk and I said, like, we, we, we can do good things.
18:10We can surprise some teams here.
18:11Just watching you guys in training camp.
18:13I think we can surprise some, some, some teams.
18:17I think we're a playoff team, but we have to understand if we're hard on each other, it's for the right reasons.
18:22So if you get called out, you have to accept it and understand the guy that's calling you out in the room is doing it because he knows you can do better.
18:32Just like brothers, brothers fight all the time.
18:34And if we're not brothers, we're not going to win.
18:36And I remember a time in Carolina, it was probably halfway through the year.
18:40It was a six on five.
18:41We had the goalie pulled.
18:41I had a puck behind the net and I kind of threw it to no one.
18:45And we get back to the bench.
18:47Carolina scores on an empty net.
18:48Taylor Hall rips into me on the bench.
18:50Taylor Hall is like, he won the MVP that year.
18:54And I'm like, I kind of yell back at him, but I'm like, you're right.
19:00I know.
19:02And we're in the, we're in the dressing room after the game.
19:05He comes up to me like distraught.
19:07He's like, I'm sorry.
19:08I can't believe I did that.
19:09And I'm like, you had to do that.
19:11And I'm happy it was me that you did it to because now green light, like you could do it to anyone.
19:17And we'll all, and if a kid's having a bad month, like maybe don't scream at him on the bench, but there's certain.
19:22Right.
19:22Maybe.
19:23We all understood that.
19:25Of course.
19:26There's a line.
19:28But it really, it took us to another spot.
19:30And everybody was like, it just brings more, brings more juice as we, as we say.
19:34And I think they're huge.
19:36It surprises me.
19:37Lavi didn't do it because he did things like that in Nashville every other week.
19:42It felt like he brought all like the families, the wives to this restaurant before playoffs.
19:45Yeah, that was his thing.
19:47But it's, it's very important for everybody to know exactly where everyone sort of stands.
19:53You don't have to be best friends with everybody.
19:55But if that guy's in trouble, I want you to have his back like brothers do.
19:59Like I have seven brothers and I enjoy golfing with one or two more than I would the other couple.
20:07But of course, the love is there for all of them.
20:10And that's what it has to be sort of like in a team dynamic.
20:14Yeah.
20:15No, I was really, I was kind of surprised when I heard that they were doing it because it kind of just kind of came together.
20:21And I was pleasantly surprised though, I would say, because I feel like this team needs all the help that they can get after what happened last season.
20:33And I felt like it was a good way to start the season.
20:38Just a good first step forward, obviously.
20:40You need good vibes.
20:41Not engaged.
20:42Yeah, you do.
20:43You really, and they had zero.
20:46Well.
20:47Nice.
20:48They had none.
20:49I remember in Tampa too.
20:50We went to, we went to Naples in the middle of training camp.
20:53I'm like, what is this?
20:54I'm coming from Torts and AV.
20:55I'm like, wait, what?
20:56Right.
20:57You don't know what that is.
20:57We went to golf for three days.
20:59Like we skated, we skated in Orlando and then we skated down in Naples and we're, and now we're golfing.
21:06And it's like, Coop is running around.
21:08What's everyone's handicap?
21:09He's trying to make teams.
21:11This big golf tournament.
21:12I'm like, this is the greatest.
21:14And it's just vibes.
21:15And we were vibing all the way through.
21:1710U, 10U hockey needs to have vibes.
21:19NHL definitely needs good vibes.
21:22No, it's, it's really important.
21:24It's, it's like a, it's a factor that you can't quantify, you know, like a team dynamic.
21:30It can, it can make or break you.
21:33It can be your X factor.
21:35It can, you know, I always like to, yeah, I always like to say, you know, a team either has it or they don't.
21:41You know what it is.
21:43Sometimes you can't really explain it, but sometimes you have to work to get it, you know, to get those vibes, to establish those relationships.
21:52And when you think about how many regulars, long-time players that this team lost over the last year and how many new faces there are in the locker room, they needed something like this to just get better acquainted.
22:10So, I was, I was happy that they did it.
22:14I thought it would, I think it will be good for them.
22:15Um, you mentioned the Centennial jerseys.
22:19Yeah.
22:19You like them?
22:20I liked them.
22:20I like them a lot.
22:21Yeah.
22:22They're awesome.
22:23Like.
22:23They're really nice.
22:24No, they're, they are so cool.
22:26And up close, they're cool.
22:27The numbers.
22:28Yeah.
22:28A little fuzz to them.
22:30They're not that.
22:30Oh, yeah.
22:31Shiny, like nylon type thing.
22:34They're, they're, they're old school.
22:36I love it.
22:37I mean, it was 80 degrees and I was sweating, but it, uh, yeah, I, I think they're really cool.
22:41I think that they're, and then I believe.
22:45They're doing another variation for the winter classic.
22:50That would be fun.
22:51Yeah.
22:52There's a lot of, there's a lot of fun stuff.
22:53Let's forget about game one.
22:55Focus on all the other cool, shiny things.
22:58Focus on the vibes.
22:59Yeah.
23:00On the good vibes that we're bringing.
23:02Hey, Igor looks sharp.
23:04Yes.
23:05I mean, that's like, I, I was thinking about that last night, actually.
23:09So many times last season, I never even mentioned Igor Shosturkin in any way.
23:15Any of my articles, regardless of him having a 32 save night or something like that, standing
23:20on his head because it didn't matter, you know, like, and that's the Ranger, one of the Rangers
23:26biggest problems having this unbelievable goalie back there and wasting his performances on a nightly
23:34basis last season.
23:35And so at least he was in, in good form for game one.
23:40Him and Mika.
23:40Let's focus on the good vibes.
23:42Mika was, it was great.
23:44Yeah.
23:44You want him to connect and bury, but like the chances are there and the legs were there.
23:49Yeah.
23:50And Igor was, Igor was great.
23:52And sometimes, you know, us idiots in front of a great goalie can waste a performance here and there.
23:57It happened with Hank.
23:58You got Hank on, he'd, you know.
24:01He can tell you all about it.
24:02Yeah, he can.
24:04Don't tell him I said that.
24:07Of course not.
24:08All right.
24:08That's a good place to end there.
24:11Thank you guys, as always, for watching.
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24:17Let us know what your thoughts were on game one of 82.
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24:49We'll chat again next week.
24:50We'll chat again next week.
24:51We'll chat again next week.
24:52We'll chat again next week.
24:53We'll chat again next week.
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