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00:00it's concerning when you lay out some of the statistics at home through six games here so
00:07i'll rattle off just a couple for everybody listening and for and for your entertainment as
00:12well hello again everybody welcome back to up in the blue seats your favorite rangers podcast from
00:21the new york post it's molly walker and former ranger brian boyle here as always and the rangers
00:27have given us plenty to catch up for on this new episode so i guess i'll kick it off here with the
00:33question on everybody's mind and that is will the rangers ever win again at home brian uh well you
00:42have to score and that's been a problem i guess problems it's probably a bigger word for it but
00:51it's been it is uh beyond something that i can really wrap my head around and put my finger on
00:58because people are probably getting sick of hearing me say this it hasn't been poor play
01:07and the i agree the chances are there it just has to go into the net and stay there or just go in it
01:15can come out too even if it crosses the line um or like marcus johansson's situation in minnesota
01:22against nashville the other night it doesn't even have to go into the net it's just the net's off and
01:27it's in it's past the line i don't know i don't know this it's this is it's wild to me what's
01:34happening yeah good news is their next game is on the road so maybe they can figure something out
01:40in uh yeah no it's um it's concerning when you lay out some of the statistics at home through six
01:51games here so i'll rattle off just a couple for everybody listening and for and for your
01:56entertainment as well 11 minutes and 57 seconds that's how long the rangers have played with a
02:03lead at madison square garden so far this season six games right six games just
02:10under 12 minutes of ice time they have actually had a lead they are four shutouts in six games
02:19tied for the longest home losing streak to start a season in the nhl with the pirates
02:28yeah that's how long we're looking back at it but it's i think um i have it here the record is
02:36eight from the 1971 72 kings for the nhl record so they're two home losses away from tying that
02:44they're also tied for a franchise record originally set in 1943 44 they went oh and five with one tie
02:53and then they did it again in 1950 51 they went oh and three with three ties
02:58are temi panarin six game streak without a point problematic alexi lafreniere 12 straight games
03:10without a goal yeah yeah and they were credited with one shot on goal in the third period as a whole
03:19against the hurricanes those two no just the whole rangers team as a whole was you got one shot i was
03:28the team the team had one shot on goal in the third period brian one yeah one so i knew they started
03:36fast they played well to start which is not easy to do coming back from seattle so it's it's clearly
03:43it's wearing on them and that's it's difficult um it's under the best of circumstances it's really
03:51hard every game is really hard and you need to prepare and get ready and you know when it's not
03:56going in and i don't even know really how you know no one really feels good about themselves if
04:04it's not going in the net and there's so many guys there that are used to a certain you know you're up
04:10and down but it's two or three games maybe it's just so bizarre that it's at home yeah you know
04:19millard panarin um i just think those two guys are used to getting a point every game some games you
04:27don't but then you'll have a three-point night or a four-point night when you break out for that slump
04:32but it's you know it's it's pulling teeth right now and the road trip was successful that's a
04:40great road trip right really really good i don't care how you win when you're going out west you
04:45can give the west guys that loser point all you want they got it done there and milsey was a big
04:51reason why i don't know i don't know what's going on at home like that was lining up to be
04:57an interesting game because it's like yes they're traveling back uh carolina's stumbled a little bit
05:03and they're playing could check out who hasn't played yet this year yep i'm like get to them early
05:08and they got to them early you know from what i was looking at they got to them early
05:12and he's just he's just he's trechiac he's he's you know vintage paddy wire dominic castle you can't
05:21get a buyer no it's like they've made every opposing goalie at msg this season look like
05:26one of those guys what what did i say about igor i'm like igor i said it i think maybe on the network
05:31maybe on here i was like igor's been playing great yeah but unfortunately for igor he's been the
05:37second best goalie in every game he's played and like these goalies aren't having as good of a
05:40year as him it's just on that night for whatever reason it's like you keep at home especially it's
05:48it's it's baffling to me then you feel good about yourself and you put some in the net against
05:52the san jose team but then we all know how that disaster unfolded yeah i mean minus that game
05:59one goal in 15 periods i know that's at msg and even even in that game like you look at the
06:07overtime the puck it's on jt stick it just hits a bump in the ice and goes over jt stick and then
06:13the young kid who's not smart or he's naive enough and skilled enough to stop on it in overtime if that
06:19goes by him it's a three-on-one the other way because celebrini and smith are just like offense
06:23offense offense anything goes wrong three-on-one the other way game over right but they're you know
06:29they're the sharks and they're gonna learn different things uh two awesome players by the
06:33way not not taking anything it's like the worst bounce ever it's on your yeah most shorthanded
06:40forward stick it just hops over yeah right when he takes a look so i this is uh i don't know if they
06:47want to call like pedro strano from major league to come in here and try to sacrifice something or
06:53exercise the dmage we need some sage at madison square garden perhaps i could see that working
06:59perhaps but but but in actuality is there a solution to this lack of finishing or is it just
07:10a matter of riding out this bad puck clock that they have right now because there has been some
07:15significant four puck clock for them but i always like to say that good teams make their own luck as
07:21well that's true they do they were i mean you look at a crosby he learns different ways or finds
07:29different ways to chisel a point here or there gets a goal in an interesting way but do you want to
07:35it's just because so many guys are going through it but they're playing well enough
07:41how much do you want to rock the boat how much do you want to change how much do you want to say
07:46abandon all the good things that we're doing or don't even abandon it but just why are we taking
07:52focus off the things that are getting us these chances and you know the word bear down bear down
07:58i i think it's just breathe like take a breath shoot the puck with you know while you're exhaling
08:04and just everybody's sort of gripping the stick it's what everyone said yeah it's it's and you are and
08:12you have to but do you want to pound home like a 50 foot one timer off the bar and in that that would
08:18feel good yeah the place goes nuts that's a great feeling but if it goes off your eyeball and in the
08:23net it counts the same and like i'm sure there's a bunch of guys in that room right now that would take
08:27that yeah no you need you need a greasy ugly you know kind of goal to maybe break the seal here and
08:37the rangers are aren't historically not great at those kinds of goals but they need to start finding
08:43different ways to put the puck in the back of the net because what's going on right now it's not
08:48working for them well even like walker's goal it's like a seeing eye shot from the point how many of
08:55those could have happened for them especially on all these power plays they're getting because
08:58it's it looks good fox has been shooting more
09:01this guy out in anaheim scored a lot of goals around the net right now
09:09don't that shh i know the people listening shh i know i know i know we're not we're not talking
09:17about it but actually it what do you feel like the rangers could be doing differently do you feel
09:23like it's you know i do feel like especially in that canes game you know a lot of the shots are
09:29going directly into the goalie's chest you know do they need to be getting more creative around the
09:34net do they need to be you know doing something different going for the less obvious play you know
09:40the predictability of it all i mean i'm just throwing things at the wall and open something stick
09:45you know and yet at the risk of coaching and i'm not i just i think it would be a great idea to
09:52put like a lafreniere just right in front and this is your job and just show him videos of cries from
09:59last year and the year before and all that what he's able to do you know left shot this is this is
10:06what you're this is what you're looking for and you'll be amazed at how you pay a little bit
10:11attention to it you practice it a lot and i don't even know he might be doing that um just hang out
10:17here you get good enough hands to get something done in front of the net he scored a greasy goal
10:22this three season is early in the season kind of right around the goal line yeah as i'd say it's
10:29only he hasn't scored in a very long time yeah so forget it remember yeah yeah but that is
10:38they have you want the puck and panarin's hands outside the dots to create you know mika is
10:47he's hitting the one tee he's getting chances he's getting shots for him it's just like pat him on the
10:56shoulder and be like just keep doing what you're doing yeah he's always been streaky you know take
11:01last year out because last year wasn't a great year for him even when he was at his best he was a
11:06bit streaky and then he'll go he'll get nine goals in seven games yep and so that i'm anticipating
11:13will happen at some point or some iteration of that and when that happens man i think
11:20teams are just going to circle 93 and then it's going to open up other guys and then they just then
11:26their team starts coming together again right early november it is we're only 14 games then
11:33wait till these thanksgiving and it's going to come together but this is wild yeah no it's crazy
11:40yeah and it's one of those things where it just and i asked jt this specifically after the game is
11:46how do you not let this take on a life of its own which is something that i feel like this rangers team
11:52allowed to happen to them several times on a multitude of different topics last season just let it
11:59take up space in the room and take up space in your mind and your psyche as a team and then it
12:05just snowballs from there and you're just going downhill at an inertia that you just can't stop but
12:11six games in i mean something's got to give and you need to stop the bleeding here but it's part of
12:17that i think is going to be team mentality is going to be a huge huge part of turning it around here at
12:24yeah you have to just trust that you're doing the right things trust in you know like when you're
12:32playing a game sort of how you're playing you know when you're getting chances that you're out
12:38playing a team or if you're getting out played like you know those i mean it's very easy and
12:43sometimes it takes a couple shifts and the psyche that goes into your brain when you're like we we got
12:50them right now it's not like take a step back it's it's we got them like let's just pound them
12:56even harder let's get after it that's usually the case and that's you know when that's the momentum
13:01shifts you see you know when they get that goal against and they're going into the room down one
13:07at home again the the challenge is that 18 minutes between that buzzer and then puck drop
13:14for period two staying just be like we are fine it's going to happen now believing it's going to
13:22happen the longer this goes is going to get more difficult somebody at some point is going to step
13:27up and make a play and then it's going to happen for everybody yeah and i know we've said it on this
13:34show multiple times but i do feel like jt has had such a good head on his shoulders about everything and
13:40he's had such great responses and the post game and stuff and his response to my question i thought
13:48was great he said it just starts with myself and the leadership group this is where we need to dig
13:53deep and carry the load a little bit and raise our own expectations for ourselves not just we we like
14:00what we're doing and we're getting looks it's not really cute anymore it's been 14 games we're not
14:05executing by capitalizing on our chances they're big moments of the game we're not making teams cheat
14:11the game right now especially at home they have the lead all the time they're going to play the right
14:16way so i feel like he has a pretty good outlook on the whole thing and i mean yeah the it's not really
14:24cute anymore was just perfect because i do feel like you know they have been able to get away with
14:30saying we like the way that we're playing we are getting the chances because this i mean to the
14:35eye test and the stats say so i mean they have outshot so many teams but he's right it's you know
14:43how long can you can continue leaning on that it's not cute anymore you know this whole middling
14:48you know what are they six six and one now you know this whole middling between home and away is
14:54just not it's not cute anymore i agree jt it's it's yeah it's frustrating so he
15:01i get it like results matter and the results league you need yeah you need you need to score
15:10more than the other team to win and results matter so how it's done is is less important it's just that
15:19it's that it's not not important but it's less important at this point right now for them at home
15:25because man oh man i like they're an unbelievable road team it's unbelievable i know road warriors
15:33that's what i called them yeah i don't know but it's all the rangers fans fault that suit is it's all
15:42your fault don't do that i'm not doing it um i don't know what to i don't know what to say about it
15:50i've never seen i've never seen it i'm trying to look at like uh i get yeah i have this i'm not a
15:58huge analytics person we know this right we do we know this we do know this yeah we know this but i
16:05guess i'd have to like look at it and be like maybe we can get some good vibes from this you know i think
16:14carolina was supposed to win that game their expected goals is is whatever 2.3 the rangers 1.7
16:23mm-hmm but it's always zero i don't care what it's expected yeah it just doesn't go in the net
16:29i don't care what it's expected
16:32that's so good that's wild to me i'm trying but no it's okay we can let's focus on let's the power
16:42play in the game a chance but they didn't yeah we we as i say i can't even get to the power play
16:49just yet let's focus on some positives from the from the four game road trip they were able to
16:56rebound from a pretty awful loss in calgary five one i believe it was that was tough so then when
17:03three in a row in vancouver edmonton and seattle and that actually represented their first three game
17:12win streak in nearly a year brian merely a year can you believe that i mean you can actually i can
17:21because i remember talking about it last year one more like yeah they lost again it's pretty it's
17:28pretty wild that said it's been that long since they were able to string three wins in a row it had
17:36been a pretty long minute for this team so that was pretty encouraging and i also think if you think
17:42of the circumstances surrounding the road trip as well jt miller making his return to vancouver
17:49that was a game for me to me that was a must win game for the rangers if they came out and they were
17:55flat in that one and they weren't playing for their captain it would have been it would have been
18:00pretty telling but i think that it was a pretty great game for the rangers all around it was
18:04only a one goal game for most of it until sam carrick's empty netter late in third so that was
18:11a pretty big character win for the rangers there and obviously jt miller getting to return
18:17to vancouver for the first time that was that was great too and maybe i mean they're looking at a
18:22calgary team that was i mean oh yeah that was that was tough that was like their first win
18:28yeah but they put they pushed i mean they did that to san jose too right they gave them their
18:36first win number last year they like played chicago who was last out of 32 and lost and then they played
18:44nashville the next game who was now last out of 32 because chicago won but then they lost
18:49to them both of them so it was just kind of like so it's two losses to the last place team yeah in a row
18:55and i was like oh boy um the calgary one you're like oh boy but maybe you're looking ahead
19:00a little bit and you know you got connor and leon coming up you got vancouver again like
19:05so you give them sort of a pass that's a desperate calgary team that last year had 96 points
19:12right and all of a sudden can't play so okay that was ugly how do you respond and then
19:18they responded so like i mean it depends on how you want to look at it and if people just
19:24you know i know there's some cynical fans out there who just think that you know you're stuck
19:30with this team but they're not the jets you know it's not the new york jets this is a team that's
19:37i still i still well i have a lot of hope for this team still this year i still think that there's a lot
19:43there and they're working through some stuff right now but they have to go on the road in
19:48these tough buildings like this is a huge test for them tomorrow night against detroit who's i think
19:53is a really really good fast hockey team i think dylan larkin it's one of the most underrated players
19:58in the whole league i agree unbelievable he's incredibly strong he's not going to give you
20:03anything i think jt needs to go head to head against him um usa teammates and it'll it'll it'll say a lot
20:11i think their goaltending can be had hopefully they don't figure it out um because i think they
20:17have two good goalies in gibson and talbot but they're figuring it out right now they could be
20:23the best tandem in the league but they didn't start that way don't give them a reason to get confident
20:28yeah um and then obviously in edmonton i mean that was a really unique game it felt like the rangers
20:37supporting cast really kept them in that one johnny brodzinski opens the scoring braden schneider
20:44and taylor raddish each get one in the third to force overtime and then jt miller with that just
20:49drive to the net not to be denied puts it away four three win in edmonton
20:55um and then and seattle is a little bit different but for me the biggest takeaway for seattle was i mean
21:03that no lava goal was i mean no lava what a what an emergence what an emergence for the rook i mean
21:12he is he's a player he's he's a gamer and he's fun to watch too like he takes up a lot of space on the
21:20ice he's direct he's aggressive and he he just takes up like he just covers a lot of ground on the ice
21:27like he just covers up a lot of space on both ends of the puck yeah and then obviously yeah we talked
21:34about him a little bit like well it's good came out of nowhere well he's relatively high pick and he
21:38played on a team that scored no goals in college he's a horse yeah he's a horse he flies around
21:46will cooley i wanted to mention because he did not have a good start no he he was not himself and
21:53now it's starting to look like he's himself again which he was under the weather he told us we talked
21:58to him after the overtime for two weeks seattle he's been under the weather yeah that makes sense
22:03because it's just like where his legs go because he was just yeah i mean i he was one of the bright
22:10spots last year it's like how do you get this guy more minutes yeah and you know he won didn't he
22:17win steve mcdonald extra effort did he win that yeah that was that last season i think it was him
22:22yeah let's see it had to be him oh yeah a lot of smoothie sorry i'm getting that smoothie delivery
22:29thanks toots smoothie delivery yeah he won he won the extra award winner yeah i mean that's that's
22:37the guy and it does that doesn't go away he did it for long stretches yeah that makes sense and he
22:42probably didn't want to give you an excuse but he's probably the guy people are probably asking
22:47questions um yeah no for sure that's you troche i can't wait for joe to come back yeah so let's do
22:54a let's do an injury report um nice we've got erho vakanainen is day-to-day with a lower body injury
23:00so he came out matthew robertson went back in um matt rempe was assigned to injury reserve
23:07so that projects to be a bit of a longer absence on his part but he's in trochek yeah it's right it's
23:17retro okay um trochek nearing a return he started skating back in new york so and he also joined the
23:28team for practice uh the other day so that's an encouraging sign and i mean that's what i i wrote
23:35it on the off day after the seattle game i'm pretty sure about how no lava has really helped
23:43alleviate some of the pressure down the middle with uh with trochek out and now with trochek
23:49coming back i'm curious to see if they keep mika in the middle or you know what they're going to do
23:55there but suddenly they're looking a little bit deeper down the middle you know with no with no
24:00lava so i think you're right you're right until she bucks with no lava that's yeah now you can do
24:08what you i think envisioned originally and put mika with jt at the wing and you know you have your
24:14righty lefty draws if you want them um troch coming back too there's another hard righty so you're not
24:22losing a righty uh on all these important draws yeah oh it's just gonna put the puzzle pieces in
24:30better spots yeah yeah definitely i agree um back to the power play
24:36last place in the nhl 14 games in which is not great not what you want not great bob
24:46um oh for 12 and the last five straight so that's that too and fox was saying that you know
24:55the difference a lot of nights especially for this rangers who has always been so reliant
25:01on their power play just what are you seeing from that group right now uh the only thing i'm not
25:08seeing is goals oh exactly it's true yeah yeah that's it um so
25:15keep getting the looks it's gonna go in how long do you think mike sullivan should wait before he
25:24pulls the trigger on making some pretty notable changes that's the question that might that might
25:31just happen organically with some guys coming back like look hey yeah you got some good looks but we
25:36need pucks to go in so we'll try troch coming back he's yeah he's been a huge part of it for a number
25:43of years and he wins the draw on like 68 of the time on the power play um that's important so you
25:53know uh if it doesn't work you gotta you gotta change it but it's not and even if you do it for
26:01two games and then you go back to it maybe it's all right this is it and then you're getting
26:06better looks i don't know it'll be it'll be interesting to see something yeah something
26:13will just with troch coming back a lot of different things will kind of get tweaked about i would think
26:18because he's not going to come back and not play yeah in every situation so things will things will
26:25have to change yeah i could definitely see him coming back just replacing lafreniere on the top
26:30unit obviously which is that's where he was beforehand and see if that group can get it
26:38going again with trochek being back in the mix but i think if it doesn't work after that then
26:43sullivan's gonna have to start rearranging a little bit here because it's so crucial for their offensive
26:51game yeah i mean you could put guys on their strong sides and just go downhill and try and outnumber
26:58than that but that's probably easily scouted well i don't know it's it's i don't know what to say
27:08because they're getting these looks it's i know no it's it is crazy they haven't looked bad like they
27:14had like especially i mean the power play they've been holding the zone they've been spending almost
27:19the entirety of the two minutes in the offensive zone with possession they're getting looks they're
27:24getting shots on goal nothing's finding twine right now it's it's kind of bizarre bizarre is the word
27:33um we can congratulate bridge schneider though 300 games already for the young line yeah yeah 24 saskey
27:41boy i know yeah let's catch i just i just can't yeah i mean adam fox looks good i'm gonna do
27:50let's get let's start feeling good all right let's let's turn it around no i i don't disagree with
27:57you i i think there's only a few players and some of them happen to be their key guys who don't look
28:04good but as a team game it hasn't looked terrible especially the last four games or so goalie's been
28:11good goalie's been real good i mean imagine being four or five and two but you're at 226 goals against
28:17915 save percentage you've won four out of the 11 games that's well above league average numbers
28:25yeah i feel like at this point you just kind of have to giggle at a little bit and just say
28:31you know what more could we done here it's got to turn we're gonna get excited yeah it will it will
28:39it will all right last thing here we've got a a new prospect up with the rangers here yes yaroslav
28:48hemelash that is how you pronounce it c-h-m-e-l-a-r that is hemelash the so the rangers recall him from
29:00harford apparently he had been their best player for a bit here he's never been recalled before and in
29:09the same third year yeah second full year pro yeah second full year in harford um and at the
29:17same time they sent brendan offman back down to harford offman got into the one game in calgary and
29:24it was it was good it wasn't good for the team as a whole but it wasn't good for offman in particular
29:30either yeah well so this one's intriguing yeah it is foot five big boy fifth round pick 144th overall
29:40in 2021 um yeah second full year pro not sure if he's going to get into a game here but he didn't
29:49take he didn't take line rushes at practice the other day okay he was brought up and you know i really
29:57liked this quote from sullivan because you know as we were talking about before we started to record
30:02it just feels a lot different than what we've heard from rangers management and rangers coaching staffs
30:09in the past i feel and it was in response to just asking you know what brought about the recall and he
30:17said well based on the conversation that i had with chris jury ryan martin the assistant gm and grant
30:22told me the wolfpack head coach he's been their best forward and so i think it's as simple as that
30:29he's played extremely well for them and he's deserving of getting the call up and that's why he's here
30:34i think it's a great message for everybody performance matters it matters in practice it matters in the games
30:42whether you're in new york or you're in hartford performance matters
30:46and i really that felt that felt different for me it felt different than what we've heard from the
30:53rangers in the past i feel it felt like always in the past like oh brennan offman's our first round
30:59pick down there you know he's going to be the de facto guy we bring up it never really felt like it was
31:04about performance as much as it is now and as we're seeing this guy get his first look ever you
31:11know when when they've also got a guy like gabe perot who's also doing really well down there but
31:17they're taking a different approach with him than they have with first rounders in the past and they're
31:22not getting too you know antsy and bringing him up before he's 100 ready and they're letting him kind
31:29of dominate down there a little bit he just won ahl player of the week and that is the fifth wolfpack
31:36player to ever win the award and the entire duration of them serving as the rangers ahl affiliate
31:43that's crazy that's like guys that have won that award three times in a season yeah that's just a
31:52weird whatever that's that blows my mind a little bit but yes so my thoughts on that are i agree 100
32:01with solomon because it's a meritocracy the best guys play it's not you know it's not youth sports
32:09and there are times where your asset is more valuable closer to when he was drafted that you
32:20need to bring up and see what he's got i understand higher picks might get more chances that makes sense
32:26to me because your ass is on the line a little bit when you draft a kid early now covid year it's
32:33probably hard to evaluate there's a number of draft like wyatt johnston went 21st or something and the
32:38guys right he was this should have been a top five pick but he didn't play hockey that year so it's
32:42those things are whatever but now you have a kid that's you know playing a couple years pro he's a
32:50big boy you have a top six player pretty close it seems to coming back in the lineup off pin was
32:57projected in the top six or at least top nine but an offensive role okay if troch is close we're going
33:04to put troch in obviously and then maybe we have a spot in the bottom six because a certain six foot
33:11nine guy's been injured and he's out what can you do can you fill up space you find some chemistry why
33:17not try it especially if the kids earned it so i like all that yeah i like it a lot yeah apparently
33:22he started the season on the fourth line and worked his way up to the first the last few games and
33:27he's been performing for them he's been causing turnovers turning it into offense i was told so
33:33that's um you know all good things and that's what the rangers are looking for so i really like it i think
33:39that the rangers are trying to do something a little bit different as it pertains to their
33:43their prospect pool but you know at the same time it's also a unique season because in the past
33:50obviously they were a bit deeper of a team i think and they weren't looking for reinforcements as much
33:57as they are now probably you know they also had pretty good luck with injuries as well in the past
34:02so i think this is also a little bit of a different circumstance with with the way that this season is
34:08going and the way that they're constructed at the nhl level right now but i think it's encouraging to see
34:13them trying to make an effort to do things a little bit differently in the past because it hasn't
34:18really worked out for them hey if you're good enough they'll find a spot for you and can't make
34:26excuses just do it all right let's see that seems like a good place for us to end here give us a
34:33thumbs up give us a comment down below what do you think about the rangers six game losing streak to
34:39start the season at home are you concerned are you freaking out are you asking for a refund for the
34:46next ticket that you purchase and we'll chat again next week see you guys
34:52new york city in the mecca basketball we only care about one team and a new york got game we're
35:07locked in on everything orange and blue i'm dexter henry host of new york got game where we break down
35:13the biggest nicks moments talk to the voices that matter from beat writers content creators to super
35:18fans like yourself and of course former and current players we're putting a spotlight on the
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