Anybody wanna post that in here? 
- mrn22
They were five words delivered almost as an afterthought by Gerard Gallant when I asked the coach why he had flipped Alexis Lafreniere and Julien Gauthier starting late in the second period of the Rangers’ 5-1 depressing defeat to the Flames at the Garden on Monday.
But they were five words that will reverberate. And they could not have been an afterthought, at all.
Because after lauding Gauthier for his effort, No. 15 getting first-line time beside a struggling Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider while standing out as one of the least guilty parties in the club’s Pratfall on Broadway, Gallant said this after allowing that he was quite unhappy with the team’s first period:
“I want Laffy doing more.”
Lafreniere has had a stutter-step of a start, scoring a couple of late game-winners on the four-game trip the Rangers swept, but otherwise and too often not much of a factor away with or without the puck. He can rise to the big moments — and that is a special quality — but he has lacked that extra gear most of the way.
He has come away with fewer pucks out of battles, has won fewer of the 50/50s than he did a season ago as a rookie following his first-overall selection. Lafreniere just seems a step behind, maybe a thought behind, too, not quite anticipating the play. And certainly he’s not leading the rush. Indeed, he just doesn’t seem to have the puck on his stick as much as anyone would like.
The Rangers hype their kids. They probably overhype them. But the Blueshirts did not need to hype Lafreniere. Everyone else in the hockey world did. Essentially every personnel person with whom I spoke started with some version of, “Well, he is not [Connor] McDavid, but …” But the inference was clear.
So it is not as if the team took a flyer or went off the board selecting the young man from Saint-Eustache after being blessed with the right bounce of the pingpong ball. It is not as if anyone in the industry thought Lafreniere would be a project.
What do you think of Lafreniere's development? Be the first to comment.
The rookie year was challenging, unlike any other in the history of the NHL. But this is a normal season following a normal offseason. Lafreniere, 20, reported to camp as a sleeker version of himself, but he somehow doesn’t seem as quick as he was as a rookie. He is not as involved at either end of the ice.
Gallant comes with a reputation of not coddling kids. And to make it clear, it is not as if the coach mounted the podium and launched into a critique of No. 13’s game. But when the opportunity was presented, the coach took it. During the game, he shuttled the winger to the third line. After the game, there were these five words:
“I want Laffy doing more.”
Putting the rare ‘F’ in Fox
New York Rangers defenseman Adam Fox and Calgary Flames defenseman Nikita Zadorov chase the puck.
This is not a misprint: Adam Fox made a mistake.
AP
OK, so maybe the sky is not blue after all if Adam Fox can make a misread and get caught up the ice in a four-on-four situation as No. 23 was on Calgary’s first goal at 18:50 of the first period.
Seriously, it was like Billie Holiday singing off-key. It was all but shocking to witness that kind of mental blunder by the reigning Norris Trophy winner, who had elevated his game on the trip to heights he may not have reached last season. So smooth, so poised, so unflappable.
On this one, he flapped and the Rangers came undone.
That $9.5 million per on his next deal may have to be reduced to $9,499,999.99 if Fox keeps this up.
The power play needs a reboot
Gallant can take exception to those who might question the efficacy of the power play, but through seven games the Blueshirts have scored a sum of three goals with the man-advantage — all by Kreider and all from in front.
Again, Artemi Panarin seems adrift playing the point. And again, despite his ability to thread the puck — an attribute on pause for the moment — it does not make sense to have No. 10 so far away from the net. It does not make sense to move him away from the left circle.
Now, if Zibanejad were thriving in that spot, you’d live with it. But he isn’t. A couple of posts/crossbars, but since when do those count? Zibanejad is not thriving there, Panarin — denied on a five-on-five breakaway off a home-run feed from Ryan Strome — is not thriving 55 feet away from the net and the Rangers, 0-for-2 on Monday night, are not thriving with the man-advantage, now 3-for-26.
Krei’ and try again?
Chris Kreider celebrates a goal in the New York Rangers' win over the Ottawa Senators.
If Chris Kreider is celebrating a goal, it must not be a shootout.
NHLI via Getty Images
So here’s one for the books that I am quite sure has no parallel around the NHL.
On Feb. 21, 2013, in his ninth regular-season NHL game, Kreider took his first shootout attempt in Ottawa. It was the bottom of the seventh inning, and when No. 20 failed to score against Ben Bishop, the Rangers had lost, 3-2.
Five-hundred-and-seventy-one games later — and 58 Rangers shootouts later — Kreider is still looking to be tabbed for the second time. That is correct; he has never gone again. Not one time.
So when Gallant says, as he did on Sunday, that “when you give guys an opportunity and it’s a different thing that they’ve done in the past in their career, they really enjoy it,” maybe, just maybe Kreider will get an opportunity in the shootout.
Maybe.
Probably not.
if she’s yours I apologize 
also have to wonder what happens to Quenville in fla if he knew anything. I mean Gruden got ousted for something a bunch of years ago and he wasn’t even employed by the league, he was working for espn.