- 6 months ago
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00:00They faced the music, they talked through it, they were accountable, they sat there and, you know, said it was unacceptable, embarrassing, all the right words.
00:09And then we didn't really get much of that out of JT after the Seattle loss, which was a little disappointing.
00:18We have another episode of Up in the Blue Seats on deck for you all, your favorite Rangers podcast from the New York Post.
00:25As always, it's Molly Walker and former Ranger Brian Boyle bringing you your weekly Rangers debrief.
00:32Debrief.
00:34And so here we are in the basement of the Eastern Conference standings as of the afternoon before Wednesday's game against the Senators.
00:43Where should we begin, Brian?
00:45I'll just get right to the massacre in Beantown.
00:50What a debacle.
00:52Well, it was, it was tough to watch.
00:55The Rangers, they opened the scoring with a pretty goal from Panarin to Zibanejad.
01:01And might I add that those two haven't been playing poorly at all.
01:05They're actually getting quite decent versions out of two of their top players in Artemi and Mika.
01:11But then it was just an onslaught from there.
01:14Six straight goals from Boston.
01:16They ended up with two hat tricks.
01:18TD Garden is chanting, we want 10.
01:21They get 10.
01:22It was just a scene and an embarrassing scene.
01:25And it was all over the players' faces when we got into the room.
01:29I mean, they all called it the most embarrassing loss of their career.
01:34Yeah, and we made a coaching change my final year in New York.
01:42And we didn't want to make excuses, but our training camp and our schedule was a complete joke.
01:49We were all over the place.
01:50We were in different places for, you know, the training camp portion of it.
01:55And it wasn't an ideal scenario.
01:59We started like 2-6-1 or something.
02:01And one of those losses was in San Jose, where we lost 9-2.
02:08And Tomasz Hertel put the stick between his legs and went bar down on Marty Barone for the 8th or 9th goal.
02:17And it was just like, Hertel's a rookie at the time.
02:22Stalzy doesn't even know what to do.
02:23Mark Stal goes after him a little bit.
02:24And we're just like, what just happened?
02:28We had a big win in L.A. the night before.
02:32And, you know, we're trying to learn new things.
02:34It's just not going great.
02:36And it was awful.
02:36And then, you know, we regrouped.
02:39And we had all the meetings.
02:40And we had to talk and whatnot.
02:41And we go into St. Louis.
02:44And we lose that one, like 5-1 also.
02:47And we were in Anaheim.
02:48We lost 6-0.
02:49And it was just like, it wasn't that we were losing.
02:52We were getting blown out.
02:53And actually, the St. Louis game wasn't, that was the last of them.
02:57That was our best game.
02:58We just, you know, one of our goalies had a tough night.
03:00And then that was the end of it.
03:03And we started cooking from there.
03:05Look, it was, no one cares if you've lost a bunch.
03:10Like, I remember going and playing against teams who've lost a bunch.
03:14I mean, like, we're not going to be the team that's going to get this team going.
03:16We need to play the right way.
03:19So, it's not like teams are going to come and take them lightly.
03:22So, they'll understand that.
03:24I thought the start in Boston was nice.
03:26And I do want to point out, a lot of these pods last year,
03:30we had criticisms for his advantage.
03:32We had criticisms for Fox.
03:34Well, now Fox is injured, but he's played well.
03:36You know, Igor's played well.
03:38And Mika's got 18 goals now.
03:40You know, he's up there.
03:41And it's like, all right, where's the rest?
03:46Yeah.
03:46It's just not enough from the rest of them.
03:50And earlier in the year, I liked how they played.
03:53I honestly did.
03:53I thought that they defended hard and they were buying in.
03:57It's gut check time for them to continue to buy in.
04:00They can't go rogue, try to do something, or be a hero.
04:04So, it's just, it's just play harder.
04:08I didn't like any, like, they have a lead against Seattle,
04:12but it looked like a preseason game, the second, third period.
04:15There wasn't a ton of anger.
04:18There wasn't a ton of passion.
04:23It could be the schedule.
04:24Maybe they're just gassed.
04:25I don't know.
04:26Because I love what I saw in Miami.
04:30Loved it.
04:30I didn't like their start.
04:32Igor was great.
04:32And then I loved it from there on out.
04:35So, it's hard to really, I don't know.
04:38It's really hard to figure out what's what right now with this team.
04:41And I think they're searching for that, too.
04:44I just feel like a 10-piece is a real punch to them.
04:48And it's a punch to a lot of places.
04:52Not just the mouth.
04:55Would you say that 9-2 loss to San Jose was the worst loss of your career?
04:59What would you say was the worst loss of your career?
05:01I mean, like, from an embarrassing standpoint, yeah.
05:04We had one my first year in New York where, thankfully,
05:08I was mercifully healthy scratched.
05:10My only healthy scratch of the year my first year in New York.
05:12You weren't even there.
05:13It was in Pittsburgh.
05:14I probably told this story, but it was, like, free hat night in Pittsburgh.
05:16Pittsburgh, Sid got a hat trick.
05:19There was, like, 10,000 hats on the ice.
05:21It was, like, 8-2 or something.
05:24Matt Gilroy came off the ice.
05:25He just looked at me like this.
05:28I've never seen that many hats in my life.
05:31Like, what do you do?
05:33Oh, yeah.
05:34There really weren't that many hats on the ice in Boston, honestly.
05:38They threw them all over for Zaka.
05:40They didn't have any for us to do that.
05:41But, no, I mean, I really didn't even see that many.
05:44It just, like, it was the we want 10, too.
05:48It was just an absolute kick to the butt, you know.
05:54If we're going for the face to the butt, then, oh, my God.
05:57Just, it's an absolute beating.
05:59And, I mean, obviously, there's a lot of emphasis put on responding the following game.
06:06And they jump out to a 2-0 lead.
06:08And it is evaporated as quickly as it is built up.
06:12I also got that preseason vibe from the game as well.
06:16It's actually funny that you said that.
06:18But it just, you thought that, you know, okay, there's the response.
06:21And then it comes off the gas.
06:24And to lose one after that in Boston and not be able to change the vibe a little bit,
06:31it could start to pile on here.
06:33But this is where mental strength, which has been a massive topic of conversation since last season,
06:41this is where it gets really tested.
06:43And now it's back at the forefront because mentally strong teams don't have the type of games that happen to them in Boston.
06:50Well, look, Seattle game, maybe I'm crazy.
06:57The Seattle loss was worse.
07:01Because you're at the 2-0 lead.
07:03You're at home.
07:06After a 10-2 drubbing, yeah.
07:10When everything goes wrong, it can go wrong, all right.
07:12And then just pucks keep going in the net.
07:14Some of them are deflected and whatever.
07:1510 goals, yeah, you don't see that.
07:17And it's embarrassing.
07:18And then you jump out to a lead and then try to cruise on.
07:22That's probably worse.
07:23And they probably think it's worse.
07:25It's like after a decent first period, you don't expect to hear that final horn and be where you're at.
07:33I think the frustrations are really starting to show here, especially because after the loss in Boston,
07:39I mean, we talked to Trocek, we talked to JT, and they faced the music.
07:44They talked through it.
07:46They were accountable.
07:47They sat there and, you know, said it was unacceptable, embarrassing, all the right words.
07:52And then we didn't really get much of that out of JT after the Seattle loss, which was a little disappointing because, you know, it's the middle of January.
08:02He hasn't been captain for very long.
08:04They don't get the response that they want after that game in Boston.
08:08And he said, I'm sorry, I don't know, I don't know, and kind of walked away at the end there.
08:14And he has done so well up to this point, I think, in terms of his office leadership and the way that he's carried himself in front of the camera and the things that he said, the ways that he said it.
08:28I think he's really done a good job in that department.
08:31So to kind of see that falter a little bit after the Seattle game is not encouraging at all.
08:38Well, maybe, yeah, and I don't want to speak for him, but at some point, if he wants to take the heat for walking away because he doesn't know what to say, it might be a sign that, like, I'm going to say something that I don't want to have live on forever, so I'm going to walk away.
08:53Which is unbelievable for him.
08:55Yeah, and no one's going to question how much he cares.
08:59I mean, I was at the Winter Classic practice.
09:02He's in a red jersey, and one of the drills, he just, like, tries to blow up radish at one point.
09:06Like, you have an upper body injury in a red jersey.
09:09Like, he just has one way of doing things.
09:12So that part, like, and you know me, I don't really get on him as any real players when they're just kind of like, I can't right now.
09:22Especially guys that do it every day.
09:24I understand it's like, now I'm on this side of it, and we need those sound bites, and it's like, you know, you're in there, you're doing your job, and he is the captain.
09:35So, but I just, that's kind of how I looked at that, and you know.
09:40I don't know, he's not 100%.
09:41I can't even imagine, I can't even imagine the frustration that must be brewing inside of him from that fact.
09:49He hasn't been 100%, you know, since, I mean, he probably got a little bit there in, you know, the early months of the season.
09:57But to start, he wasn't.
09:58He was coming off an injury.
09:59And then he basically told us that the two games that he missed in November, and then the last stretch that he had, it was the same injury, the same upper body injury.
10:08So, he's fighting through it, clearly, right now.
10:12He's not 100%, but that also, you know, brings up the topic of, well, should he be playing if he's not 100%?
10:19So, but, you know, he's totally that type of player that's like, I don't care what you tell me, I'm playing.
10:24So, it's hard to go back and forth with a guy like that.
10:27But, yeah, and I don't, especially with Fox out, or just for the power play, I don't know who else.
10:35Him even at whatever he's at, 70, 80, whatever you want to call it.
10:40Yeah, he's going to play.
10:41He's just doing it.
10:42So, and I give him credit.
10:44Like, you got, you can look forward to the Olympics.
10:47You can see where you're at in the standings.
10:49He's not, he's not going to pull himself out, even for those things.
10:54He's playing.
10:54He's playing through it.
10:56Which is a positive and a good leadership, you know, it shows his leadership.
11:04Yeah, I agree.
11:07In terms of making changes, head coach Mike Sullivan did what he could.
11:12He made some adjustments to the lineup.
11:14In particular, he bumped Alexi Lafreniere down to the third line with Brennan Offen and Noah Lava.
11:22And that, that kind of came with a clear message.
11:26When, when Sullivan was asked about that, he was, the way that the question was posed kind of gave him a, an out, not to call out Lafreniere's performance.
11:35But he brought it up on his own and said that it was also performance-based.
11:42And he said, we need more.
11:44We need more out of some guys.
11:46I think Laf is a guy that can bring more to the table for us.
11:50So, I mean, going into tonight, Wednesday's game, has one goal in the last eight games, four points because of the three-assist effort against the Panthers in the Winter Classic, two goals in the last 16 games, and nine goals and 24 points in 47 games this season.
12:10So, I think it was, it was good that we saw Sullivan at least take a little bit of action and, and also call him out a little bit too, just because we need some starter, some fire starters here in different parts of the lineup.
12:27Like, I would just be lighting little matches just like Sullivan is right now because, um, you got to get more out of these guys.
12:34And, and Lafreniere, we talked about this on the last episode, he's gotten a pretty long runway in the top six power play minutes and hasn't been able to do much with it, or at least what, what the Rangers need him to do with that sort of role.
12:49So, he got knocked down there a little bit.
12:52Yeah, but in, in those quotes, he's also praises his ability and what he thinks he's capable of.
12:57And, you know, Mike Sullivan isn't a coach that just buries people and it's easy to let emotions get the best of you and just throw some lineup that's, that's, you know, just wild, throw everything in a blender.
13:14And it's just not reality.
13:16You can't do that.
13:17And he's still trying to build his foundation of who he is as a coach and make the team follow suit.
13:24Look, it's not consistent enough.
13:27We've seen flashes of brilliance from Lafreniere.
13:30And I think the talent is there.
13:31If, if you're a head coach, you really have one trump card and that's playing time.
13:38That's it.
13:39And if, you know, hit Mike Sullivan's mantra is to put players in positions to have the most success they can have.
13:48So, if you're playing 20 or 19 or 18 minutes every night and you're playing against the top guys every night, your talent might be there to be able to contribute.
13:58But if everything else isn't always there, maybe you just take it back a little bit.
14:03It's, call it a demotion.
14:05You can call it punishment.
14:06I don't ever really look at it like that.
14:08I look at it like a few less shifts a period.
14:12Demotion.
14:13Demotion, I think.
14:14And I'm not saying, yeah, maybe you're not saying that.
14:16I definitely think some of the fans probably think it's, it's punishment.
14:21It's more like you're, you're two or three less shifts a period.
14:25Your matchups might even be a little bit easier.
14:28And, and you can refocus a little bit better after every shift until you get into your mind or you have that habit.
14:35And that's what separates, you know, superstars and stars from very good players.
14:42It's the habit of every single day, every shift, every drill, every, you know, and we're not quite there yet with laugh, obviously, because you don't have the inconsistencies if we were, but the ceiling is still there.
14:54So, you don't want to lose a guy.
14:57You want everyone, you need, you need 13 to be a good player.
15:00Like how this team is constructed, you need him to be a really good player.
15:04And there's games where he's a really good player.
15:06How do you get, how do you get more games like that?
15:10You know, like if this works on the third line and that line builds chemistry, you're a better hockey team.
15:16So you're not just doing things because, oh, I don't like your game.
15:19You're going down here.
15:20It's always with the foresight of like, how is this going to help the team?
15:26What are the potential risks?
15:27Top six.
15:28What's that?
15:29And top six.
15:31Yeah, exactly.
15:31And you got to be delicate with that.
15:35Like, because this is his first year pro.
15:38And is he ready for that?
15:39So you just take all that information and you try something.
15:42Solving's been pretty upfront about that too, about his evaluation of Pro and not wanting to overwhelm him.
15:49And I was going through, I forget what play it was, but in the last three games,
15:55there was a goal that kind of came off of a turnover from Pro in the neutral zone, things like that.
16:01So you could tell that Solomon is thinking about those things during the time when he wasn't playing Pro in the top six.
16:10But I agree that this was a perfect opportunity to get Pro in the top six and just try to change things up, get him some time up there, see what he could do with it.
16:20And also, at the same time, send a message to Lafreniere that they need more and that he's going to, you know, take a bit of a dip on the ice time.
16:29You got Rempe out as well.
16:32Yep.
16:32It looks like it's going to be the same again, right?
16:35Yeah, well, back to the playing hurt notion.
16:39I mean, he was very upfront coming back into the lineup.
16:44He said that night, his first game back, that he still couldn't bend his thumb properly.
16:50And, you know, I know he's not fighting and, you know, they're making sure that everybody knows that he can't fight and things like that.
16:55But he's clearly also not 100%.
16:59And Matt Rempe is such a niche role that when you don't even have Matt Rempe at 100%, I don't know, you know, I also thought it was time for him to come out of the lineup and heal a little bit, see if they could get something different, a different dynamic with the fourth line.
17:16But, yeah, again, with the playing injured.
17:19But this is hockey.
17:21This is the National Hockey League.
17:22It hurts.
17:23But you need your thumb.
17:24Like, different things can hurt you to play.
17:28You need your thumb.
17:29You need, yeah, you need a lot of these things to work properly.
17:31It's a hard enough league.
17:34Yeah, right.
17:35Sullivan did what he could in terms of making some changes to the lineup.
17:41But it doesn't look like they made any changes from the Seattle game to tonight.
17:48But we'll see.
17:49It was an optional skate this morning, so they didn't exactly skate.
17:53Well attended.
17:54Well attended, yes.
17:56Which is also an encouraging sign.
18:00A sign of the garden that we haven't seen in a long time.
18:05Some serious frustrations.
18:07There was some fire Chris Drury chants at Madison Square Garden during the Seattle game, I should say.
18:15Obviously, I've only been covering the team for five, six years now.
18:21But that was, you hear little pockets of it, but that was the loudest.
18:28I had heard James call for somebody's job inside Madison Square Garden since I started covering the team.
18:35So it was a little alarming.
18:36And I kind of went back and I did some research into the last time that that really happened.
18:41And the last time was Glenn Sather in 2009-10.
18:46There was even a rally outside of Madison Square Garden.
18:51And I found our dear late friend Larry Brooks wrote a three-graph article, probably from Boots on the Ground reporting there, of how up to 200 fans congregated on 7th Avenue across from the MSG for a fire-sather rally that was publicized through websites and message boards.
19:10They said that he wrote that fans were calling for his dismissal and intermittently citing their grievances, including the selection of Hugh Jessamyn in the 2003 entry draft.
19:23You were on that team.
19:24When are you guys going to leave poor Jess alone, man?
19:26That guy's a big guy.
19:28Love Hugh.
19:29He's a great guy.
19:30You can't pick where you're drafted.
19:33Geez, Luis.
19:36Yeah, I was on that team.
19:37And, you know, they made the playoffs the year before and brought in Torts, I think, that midway through that year, maybe, made the playoffs.
19:49And Torts got suspended in the playoffs for squirting a water bottle at a fan or something.
19:54And ended up losing the first round of Wash.
19:56And then I came in.
19:57We did not make the playoffs.
19:59It was a tough season.
20:01Yeah, but we were close.
20:02And we lost in the shootout to Philly.
20:05And Philly ended up going to the cup final.
20:07And the winner of that game made the playoffs.
20:09So it's kind of like we weren't a fun team to play against.
20:13And the process had started of what we were going to be.
20:17And that turned into what we ended up sort of being culminating, for me anyway, in that 2014 Cup run.
20:25Which, during which, we got booed on our home ice by our home fans in the Stanley Cup Finals.
20:32You know, it's a pretty awesome run, then, if you're thinking about it, for a guy like Drury in the New York sports market to go that long.
20:44Molly, you haven't heard anything like this.
20:46Drury didn't get anything either during his tenure.
20:50Yeah, that's true.
20:51Yeah, granted, of course, they announced the rebuild.
20:53And, you know, I guess expectations were tempered a little bit.
20:57But, yeah, it was daunting to hear.
21:00But you look at it lined up.
21:02You know, didn't make the playoffs last year with high expectations.
21:04And then, you know, this year, they have the new coach.
21:09Things take time.
21:10I get, like, fans get frustrated in every market, especially in New York.
21:18Yeah, it's just kind of, I don't know, part of the process.
21:22If you get booed at home ice during the Stanley Cup Finals, I mean, just expect to get booed.
21:28Anytime.
21:28Yeah.
21:29Like, you're going to hear it.
21:31But they're not happy because the Rangers are in last right now.
21:36So is it all awful?
21:38No, I don't think it is.
21:39I think I just don't.
21:40They are where they are.
21:42That's where they're at.
21:43They deserve to be where they're at.
21:44That's what the record says.
21:46Are they, is it hopeless?
21:47No, I don't think it is.
21:50The frustration is definitely there.
21:53But, I mean, I know that a lot of people are looking for, you know, articles and just content surrounding the possibility of jury being dismissed.
22:05But the owner himself, Mr. James Dolan, has told us in a multitude of different ways that he's not going anywhere.
22:14You know, the announcement of the extension, which is something that the Rangers as an organization don't do.
22:21They don't do that type of announcement for management extension.
22:25So that was a, the way I wrote it was a bulletin board message to everybody and anybody that, you know, he's here to stay.
22:34And then he obviously went on WFAN and gave another vote of confidence to jury and Mike Sullivan and the Rangers.
22:40So.
22:41Get him on the pod.
22:41Yeah.
22:42Yeah.
22:44Hey, James.
22:45Oh, no.
22:46Mr. Dolan.
22:47No, no.
22:48Right.
22:49Excuse me.
22:49Mr. Dolan.
22:50Mr. Dolan to you.
22:51Maybe I can get that for his name, baby.
22:53Yeah.
22:53You probably can.
22:54Yeah.
22:57Yeah.
22:57So, obviously, that's, that's where we're at at the garden right now.
23:01Frustrations are high.
23:02I have been reading online that ticket sales are, the tour ticket prices, I should say, are significantly lower.
23:11For $88, I heard, for Seattle, the Seattle game, which is pretty low for Madison Square Garden prices.
23:18But, yeah.
23:20It's been a long go inside MSG.
23:22Off topic here, but Pittsburgh did a dollar hot dog night last night.
23:26Do you know how many they sold?
23:30They sold over 14,000 hot dogs.
23:34Did you have?
23:36Well, so I wasn't there.
23:37So, I was kind of mad.
23:38I would have had a few.
23:40I would have had a few.
23:4114,000.
23:44Good.
23:44That's that.
23:45Who's funneling you this, these Pittsburgh stats?
23:48Listen, I'm league-wide, Molly.
23:49You didn't know that.
23:50I covered the league.
23:52Those are some important sources.
23:54Oh, you've got to know that.
23:55We've got to know that.
23:56$14,000 hot dogs.
23:59$14,000.
24:01Oh, I'll be going there at the end of the month.
24:02Maybe they'll have it again for me.
24:06It's kind of disgusting.
24:07Anyways.
24:10That's a good place for us to stop.
24:15Perfect.
24:17Give us a thumbs up down below.
24:19Comment.
24:20What do you think about the fire jury chance at MSG?
24:25What do you think about the Alexei Lafreniere demotion to the third line?
24:30Have you given up hope on this Rangers season yet?
24:32Let us know in the comments, and we'll chat again next week.
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