qualifiers
Honestly, the worst thing you can tell a hockey player is that he’s soft. Gerard Gallant not only told one player that Monday night, but he told his entire staff, albeit nicer than most could say. Gallant stormed into his team by saying, “We didn’t show up. We didn’t play hard enough, we didn’t compete hard enough. All we did was yell at the linemen because they got kicked out in face-offs. Too much bad stuff.” When you see a statement like that, you’ll assume the Rangers lost 3-1 in their first round matchup with the Devils. However, the series is tied 2-2 and this kind of data lets you know what Gallant can expect from this year’s team.
Note from Dave: Welcome aboard Nick. You may know him from his podcast 30 on Broadway And on Twitter LOL. We are thrilled to have him on the writing board with us.
This is not last year. These are not kids just looking to gain experience, this is a club vying for a championship. If they didn’t know it before then, they should now that Coach went scorched earth on them after a lackluster effort Monday night. We know those comments were meant for the whole team but there are few players who should take those words closer to heart than any of them.
Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, and Vincent Trocheck take a closer look at what your coach has to say.
After games one and two, everyone at the Rangers Nation was relieved that the Rangers had just taken control of the Devils 10-2 with Panarine scoring just two points (both assists), Zipanejed with one assist (he had a second assist in game three), and Trocheck with zero points. tremendous in the first two games. The Blueshirts offense in Jersey was run by Tarasenko, Fox, Kane and Kreider, which is a huge positive. But after dropping two in a row on the home ice and Panarin and Zibanejad having to put them on milk cartons, it’s becoming a worrying trend rather than a blip on the radar.
Hence the invitation.
To be fair, Panarin bought what Gallant wanted last year (a full 200-foot effort), but when you’re making $11.6 million, you’re expected to be way more than Guy Carbonneau. No disrespect to Carbonayo, but Panarin was brought here to be more Mark Messier and less Scott Gomez. There’s no problem with Panarin focusing more on the defensive part of the game, but Gallant and company still have to remind and instill confidence in Panarin that he can still do the things that allow him to be a dynamic 90-plus-point producer during the regular season.
One way to help Zibanejad wake up from its offensive slumber is to take Zibanejad’s line away from Niko Hischer as soon as possible. While Zibanejad has done a great job of rendering Hischier offensively useless for the series, it comes at a great cost to the Blueshirts as well. Hischier is a fantastic way forward and has helped keep the scorer’s cool 40 goals over four matches. Trying to match Zibanijad against Jack Hughes’ streak could help ignite Mika while calming Hughes, who was the Demons’ only source of attack.
We still have a long way to go for this series to end, and Gallant calling out his club shows this team should come out with its hair on fire in Game 5. While there are a few things to complain about from the Rangers’ perspective so far this postseason, Gallant wasn’t one of them. Putting the challenge at his club’s feet will show us what kind of grit and mental toughness this team have and whether they really have enough to dig deep to win 16 games this spring.
Related
Rated: Playoffs