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Game 17: TB 9 NYR 3, Ugly and embarrassing doesn't scratch the surface

November 15, 2019, 2:48 PM ET [30 Comments]
Jan Levine
New York Rangers Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Rangers were blitzed and quit in their 9-3 loss to the Lightning. While some players showed up after the initial foray by Tampa, a good portion of the squad went through the motions in the contest. Coach David Quinn, who along with Lindy Ruff has rightly at times has drawn the ire of several on twitter for the team's failure to compete along with pattern of defensive breakdowns, highlighted this in his post-game comments. New York needs to be a heck of a lot better than they were last night against Florida on Saturday.

The ugly game recap:


Quinn Post-Game:



A few thoughts
1) This quote from Quinn says a ton. If the tendency already exists, why hasn't it been addressed already. In addition, as a young team, I can understand getting down. But that's where the vets have to lead. But I also understand yesterday was a perfect storm aberration, as you had a Tampa team smarting after their loss to New York earlier in the season and struggling recently, so they were looking for revenge and they found an easy target. 

“Yeah, listen, we have shown this tendency in the short season so far, when things don’t go well we don’t make them better,” Quinn said.  “When things go bad, when you’ve got frustrating situations … you’ve got to find a way to make them better. Really, as much as this league is about your physical skill, it’s about your mental skill. I don’t know whether it’s our youth or immaturity or what, but unfortunately, in the short season we’ve had, we haven’t done a great job when things aren’t going great, stopping it and making it better.”


2) Kappo Kaako missed the game with the flu. While that hurt the offense and team as a whole, in no way shape or form was that the driver for the loss. It didn't help, but this wasn't a key factor in the blowout.

3) Lias Andersson - if want to see an interesting debate on what to do with him, his possible future role and deployment and more evidence just how polarizing he has become, look at the twitter stream and read the whole conversation:



4) Five power play goals in eight chances. Kevin Shattenkirk revenge game. Nikita Kucherov with a breakout game after he has been so-so. The only highlight was two goals by Filip Chytil. All in all an ugly game. But I wouldn't erase the tape, I would very clearly highlight the mistakes and show it on a reel-to-reel tape until the messages sink in.

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