New York Rangers: Hearing from Georgiev & changes on the power play?

Coming off a disappointing loss to the Islanders, the New York Rangers had a practice to prepare for Wednesday match up with the Boston Bruins.  After practice, we heard from some of the Rangers including Alexandar Georgiev for the first time since his “dust up” with Tony DeAngelo.

Georgiev is scheduled to start Wednesday against Boston, his first game in a week and a half. He said that the layoff is nothing out of the ordinary. “I just have to be sharp every day in practice…have to be ready for the next chance you get and that’s tomorrow.”

Quinn said that the plan was always going to start against Boston, no matter how Shesterkin played against the Islanders.  Quinn did say that the goalie rotation is out and will be based on how they play.

That will be a tall order facing the top team in the East Division. Georgiev is 1-2 lifetime against the Bruins and the Rangers have not beaten them in over two years.

This was the first opportunity for Georgiev to respond to any questions about the incident with DeAngelo and predictably, he didn’t say much.  “I didn’t follow the rumors about what happened.  Unfortunately it happened in the heat of the moment and I moved past it pretty quickly. ..working hard in practice.”

When pushed on what actually happened, no details were forthcoming.  “I don’t want to elaborate on what happened, keep it in the past tense…emotions happen and that’s all I can say…I wish Tony the best moving forward.”

The power play

The power play has gone two for 23 over the last seven games and Quinn hinted at some changes.  Quinn said that even strength troubles could be extending to the man advantage, an obvious reference to Mika Zibanejad.  He said “I also think there’s a frustration level that happens on the power play. When you have highly skilled guys sometimes they change their approach, they play power play instead of hockey within a power play and I think that’s kind of happening to us right now.”

If you have watched the power play recently Quinn was accurate in his description.  “We’re a little it too methodical, we’re too slow, we’re too predictable and I think we’re overthinking it…there has to be more of a pace and more of a work ethic on our power play overall.”

He did say that replacing Tony DeAngelo with Adam Fox has not been an issue since he considers them very similar players.

The one aspect of the lineup that has remained mostly consistent is the first power play unit.  It looks like some changes could be coming.  They also might be giving K’Andre Miller a shot on the second power play unit.

One issue with the power play has been that the second until hardly sees any time and when they do, they seem to rush the play. Jacob Trouba talked about that, acknowledging that they are going to have 30-40 seconds of power play time and will usually have to carry the puck into the offensive zone instead of starting there. “You’re not going have a ton of time to get in there and  set up and move it around for 20 seconds and leave yourself 10 seconds for a chance.”  He said that getting set up ends up killing the clock so they have to try to force a play.

Gauthier and Hajek

Quinn offered a lukewarm endorsement of Gauthier’s play saying that he did show some improvement. “It’s always hard for a guy who’s scored his whole life to kind of accept a different role at this level and Julien’s going through that right now. I think he can score at this level, how much is yet to be determined. He made a step forward last night.”

The question has to be if the Rangers see him in the future as a depth forward who will be playing on the checking line, should he be in Hartford filling that role as opposed to trying to adjust in the NHL.   At the time that they traded for him, it was very likely that the team would trade Chris Kreider and Jesper Fast at the deadline and Gauthier was be seen as a potential top six right wing.  Considering his past performance, he has to be considered a goal scorer and if that is not his future with the team, does he even have one playing less than nine minutes a game?

Quinn was much more positive about Libor Hajek and his last two games.  The question is what happens to him when Jack Johnson and Brendan Smith are healthy again.  Hajek did make a bad blind pass that led to an Islanders goal, but overall he had a very solid game.

Familiarity

Steve Valiquette made an interesting point in the post game last night in regards to the new schedule.  He said that teams are going to be seeing each other so often that skaters will have to adjust before they become too predictable.  He cited the Panarin breakway as an example of the Russian using a move that he has done before and that Semyon Varlamov might have anticipated.

Quinn talked about that, but his answer was a little different. “I think it becomes more about you than your opponent….when you have this much familiarity with your opponent, it’s about execution,being consistent with your approach and you do those things and you give yourself a chance to win night, in night out.”

It would seem to mean that pre-scouting the opposition becomes even more important, especially for the goalies and special teams. As much as a scorer like Panarin should vary his shots, special teams should become less predictable when they play the same teams over and over.

Other news

In other NHL news here are some headlines:

The Penguins hired Ron Hextall as their general manager.

Mikko Koivu surprised everyone by retiring after just seven games with Columbus, saying he was not playing at the level he was accustomed to.

The Canucks are a train wreck this season and are reputedly shopping winger Jake Virtanen. He’s a power forward with a ton of skill who has been a disappointment so far in his career though he scored 18 goals last season.

A former Ranger was the subject of some chatter in Vancouver. Here’s the play:

Braden Holtby gave J.T. Miller the evil eye for his lack of effort on Auston Matthews’s goal.  Miller (#9) didn’t exactly make much of a move t to catch Matthews, but it was the goalie’s giveaway that led to the goal.  Holtby’s stare made headlines in British Columbia.

John Tortorella benched Patrik Laine for the last 36 minutes of Columbus’ win over the Hurricanes.  Apparently he wasn’t happy with Laine’s defensive effort on a Carolina goal.  Laine had scored three goals in his first three games.

The Flyers game tonight against the Capitals has been postponed.  The Flyers now have three players on the COVID list (Travis Sanheim, Claude Giroux and Justin Braun) and there could be more.  If more games are postponed it could affect the Rangers who are scheduled to play the Flyers on Sunday.