DeAngelo to sit again as the same lineup goes against the Devils

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it is the philosophy of the day for David Quinn and it’s hard to argue with him. Tony DeAngelo will not be in the lineup for the New York Rangers when they take on the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday.   Coach David Quinn is going with the same group after their dominant performance on Saturday against the Islanders.

After practice Monday, Quinn explained that nothing will change on Tuesday and he confirmed that Alexander Georgiev will be in net.  For DeAngelo, it’s a matter of bad timing.  Quinn explained “(We’re) sticking with what worked. The discipline piece is done and over with. You win 5-0 and play the way we did you want to build off that.”

That means it could be a while for DeAngelo to see any action if the Rangers continue to win.   The defense pairings will be Jacob Trouba and Ryan Lindgren, Adam Fox with Jack Johnson and Brendan Smith playing with K’Andre Miller.

Quinn raved about Trouba after the game Saturday and he continued on Monday. “We expect him to pay the way he did,  approach the game the way he did. One of the things about him is he always competes. I loved his intentions the other night.

Quinn explained that Trouba, named one of the four co-captains this season, stepped up as a team leader after the opening night loss.  “One of the things we really benefited from with him was the way he handled the situation and stepped into a leadership role after Thursday night…as a group we need that from a lot of guys, especially guys like him, in that age bracket that have been in the league for a while and are still young.  On and off the ice he did everything we needed him to and it was instrumental in making such a dramatic switch in our play from Thursday to Saturday.”

There was little discussion about his choice of goaltender.  Quinn has made it clear that if you play well, you will continue to play and that is most obvious in net.  That means Georgiev will continue to play until he falters.  There’s no issue of being overworked this early. The Blueshirts have two days off after taking on the Devils.

The only other lineup issue addressed by Quinn was his use of Brett Howden on the second power play until instead of Filip Chytil.  There was a simple answer.  Faceoffs.

Quinn said it’s simply a matter of winning draws and that is something that Chytil is continuing to work on.  He also said it is definitely not permanent.  He’ll be back on the powerplay, so will Kakko.  I fully expect Fil to be back on the power play, this isn’t anything long term”

On Saturday, Howden won six of 13 draws, a 46% success rate while Chytil was 3-8 (38%).   Howden won only one of five draws while on the power play and was one for three in the offensive zone with the man advantage.

In the home opener, Howden won 7 of 11 (64%) while Chytil was an abysmal 1 of 7 (14%).

Seeking consistency

David Quinn stressed the urgency of finding consistency in such a short season. “We need to have a consistent effort every night, consistent intentions. Wen you do that you put yourself in a much better situation to win hockey games. You can’t have the dramatic highs and lows that we had. Between Thursday and Saturday.”

Quinn believes that the team can still play better, but with solid defensive structure, they were able to get away with what wasn’t their best.   He said, “We think there’s another level we can get to.  We made plenty of mistakes, one of the things that we did was that we competed, we skated. We were on top of the play When you’re on  the puck like we were offensively and defensively,  whats going on away from the puck is less relevant.”

The Rangers had 15 giveaways Saturday night, compared to nine for the Islanders.  Quinn noted that they were in a better position to recover defensively than they were on Thursday.  He said “When they did get it  (the puck),we were in a pretty good position to be in good D- zone structure or transition defense.  Because when we made  a turnover and they possessed it, it was off a scrum or it was below the goal line.”

We’ll see if the Rangers can keep it going against New Jersey.

East Division

Here are the standings after the games on Sunday and one early game Monday with the Islanders’ Semyon Varlamov shutting out the Boston Bruins.

East Standings

Sunday’s games
Pittsburgh 4, Washington 3  SO

Monday’s games
Islanders 1 Boston 0
Sabres @ Flyers

Standings

1. Washington 2-0-1   5 pts.
2. Philadelphia 2-0-0    4 pts
3. Islanders      2-1-0     4 pts.
4. New Jersey  1-0-1     3 pts.
5. Boston         1-1-1     3 pts
6. Rangers       1-1-0     2 pts.
7. Pittsburgh  1-2-0     2 pts.
8.  Buffalo       0-2-0     0 pts.