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PHI 6 NYR 4, Strong game by Chytil, Quinn’s comments, Brooks’ column

September 20, 2018, 7:36 AM ET [157 Comments]
Jan Levine
New York Rangers Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Rangers, after falling behind 2-0, narrowed the deficit four times to a single goal but were unable to get even before falling 6-4 to the Flyers on Wednesday. Matt Beleskey, Ryan Spooner (PPG), Pavel Buchnevich (PPG) and Filip Chytil tallied for New York in the loss. Overall, the Rangers went 2-for-9 on the power play and were just 2-for-4 on the penalty kill. The Blueshirts' next pre-season game is Saturday in Bridgeport against the Islanders.

Lineup :



Lines :
Spooner-Zibanejad-Buchnevich
Vesey-Chytil-Namestnikov
Gropp-Howden-Lettieri
Beleskey-Holland-Fontaine

Skjei-Keane
Smith-Gilmour
Hajek-DeAngelo

Lundqvist
Tokarski

David Quinn pre-game :
Boo update, thoughts on responses, view on Brendan Smith, Joey Keane and goalie evaluations:




A few thoughts

1) Buchnevich clearly looks like a different player to last season. I fully expect him to take a major step forward this year.

2) Chytil has that explosive speed. On the goal, it didn’t look like he was moving quickly and yet he created space to go short side. Chytil took either a pick or stick to the ribs, but fortunately, appears to be okay. He and Lias Andersson both have gotten off to strong starts in their attempt to make the team out of camp.



3) Hajek and Howden each has slow starts but then fit better as the game wore on. This could be explained by nerves but good to see both get more comfortable. In my opinion, neither should make the team as they both would be better served opening the year in the minors. But I would give Howden at least one more preseason game. For Hajek, maybe he gets one more game, though with so many blueliners still in camp, it’s possible he gets sent back down without a second game.

4) Spooner got off to a good start in his attempt to be in the top-six. Much better than Namestnikov, who didn’t have a good game. Quinn said that Spooner has a hip strain and that pulling him from the game was "precautionary."

5) Smith was very solid in his play. Much quicker on and off the puck, aided by the weight loss. The work he did this offseason with conditions coach Ben Prentiss and change in his diet - eliminating gluten - is clear in his body. He looks to have regained some of the snarl and physical play that were both on display when he came to New York in 2017. It’s only one game, but a very good first impression after the debacle that was last season.

6) Lundqvist wasn’t particularly strong, but as Quinn said below, he was victimized by a few quirky goals. Despite that, this was not the start we wanted to see but I am not ready to overreact. The defense, as noted below, is a work in progress as the team adjusts to the new structure and style. Tokarski was good enough. As of now, unsure if any of the three between Mazanec, Georgiev or Tokarski have the lead in the battle to be the back up.

Post-game Quinn discussed: Spooner, Chytil, DeAngelo, Henrik, and coaching :




Larry Brooks had a ton in his Wednesday column. I will touch on two of the aspects below. First, on Quinn's constant communication this camp with player quotes:

"Very vocal,” says Kevin Hayes. “Always teaching.”

“Constant communication,” says Brady Skjei. “He talks to us all the time, but he listens, too, if you know what I mean.”

“Communication,” says Chris Kreider. “A lot of teaching moments. Nothing is assumed.”

“There’s a work aspect to this camp where everyone is held accountable,” Hayes said following Tuesday’s session. “Things that maybe should have been addressed and weren’t, maybe taken for granted, they’re being addressed now

“You’re going to work hard or you’re not going to play.”

Over the past couple of seasons, a frustrated Kreider had repeatedly pointed out a lack of communication on the ice between teammates. That shouldn’t be an issue this time around.

“There’s a lot of chatter between the players,” said No. 20, who killed penalties in Monday’s 4-3 overtime victory in New Jersey. “You could hear guys screaming on the ice and that’s good. It was too quiet before."

“If you’re going to make the right play, you have to know what’s going on around you before you get the puck. You have to have information. The game is too fast.”

“Monday night’s game, Quinney was all about teaching and pointing things out,” Hayes said. “He was doing a lot of talking, but he wasn’t yelling. There’s a difference.”


Some of the commmets must be taken with a grain of salt. It’s pretty clear that the team had started to tune out AV and the quotes reflect this. Add on that AV took over a veteran team and the viewpoint might have been that a ton of communication, especially what’s being done in camp, might not have been required.

On the other hand, with a new system and structure, you would expect and hope for lots of communication to implement that system. But you have to like how Quinn has approached the job right from the get go, establishing that he will constantly teach, stopping drills to do so. That appears, at least early on, as seen by Kreider’s quote, to have filtered down to the team, resulting in better communication amongst the team. Communication on the ice has been ice the past several seasons, hopefully, that is changing for the better.

Defensive structure and system :

The communication, the freshness of it, the harder-edged personality behind the bench, these will all become mere footnotes if the Rangers are as footloose and fancy free in their own end as they were for the past three seasons. But the team will no longer employ the hybrid man-to-man favored by Vigneault and instead is adopting a layered zone concept in the D-zone.

“You always want pressure on the puck, but there’s more of a read aspect to it where you react to the play developing,” said Skjei. “It’s designed as a five-man structure, with the priority to protect the middle. We kind of were exposed there last year.”

That’s putting it mildly. The net-front was naked more often than your favorite Instagram personality.

“We have to protect the goalie,” said Hayes. “Hankie [Lundqvist] is going to make the stop, but we can’t have him facing second, third and fourth chances the way he did last year. Man-to-man was tough, but it was simple in that you knew who you were supposed to take. With this kind of zone, communication between the D and centers is key.

“You have to play as one unit. There’s a lot that goes into it, but the most important thing is that everyone is buying into the system. If everyone plays the right way, this should cut down chances.”

What should go without saying must be said. Lollygagging back by forwards into the D-zone when the play goes the other way will not be tolerated.

“There’s a concerted effort to get back and support the defense,” Kreider said. “It’s going to be five-in-the-picture all over the ice.”


We know the D system has been a nightmare the past several seasons. Forwards and defensemen weren’t on the same page. The hybrid approach didn’t work, especially when two players chased the puck behind the net and left the slot open. We also saw way too often, which is part of the lack of communication noted above, no one picking up an opponent in the slot, resulting in a quality chance against.

As Brooks noted above, the team will no longer employ the hybrid man-to-man favored by Vigneault and instead is adopting a layered zone concept in the D-zone. Expect growing pains with the system. We saw it yesterday, as Dave Shapiro noted on Twitter, that Brady Skjei was too high in the zone, double-teaming an opponent, leaving a major gap in the D-zone. Players will need to convert concepts to muscle memory. This may take a month or two or longer but the zone approach with a 5-man defensive system will in the long run prove to be beneficial. Just expect growing pains until the structure and system becomes second nature.

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