The playoff push and ice time

Quinn’s assessment

After the game, Quinn was asked about the lack of ice time for the third line.   Here’s his answer: “I thought early on they got hemmed  in their end quite a bit. I I didn’t think they were responsible defensively. But I thought they played better in the second and third.  It’s all about winning, we want to win hockey games. We need everybody playing in all three zones if we’re gonna have a chance night in night out.”

Ironically, that line had their most ice time in the first period.  True, they were on the ice for the first Sabres goal, two minutes into the game, but they were put in a bad position when Brendan Smith fell down at the Sabres blue line and Chytil was forced to play defense against the Sabres rush.  The goal was inadvertently pushed into the net by Gauthier in the confusion.

In looking at the five shifts for that line in the first period, they didn’t appear to be hemmed in any more than the other forward lines and in fact, they generated the two best scoring chances in the period.  Chytil hit the crossbar and Libor Hajek just missed an open net with that line on the ice.

Quinn was asked if he thought that  the lack of playing time will hurt the confidence of his young players.  He said, “No, they’ve got to find a way to continue to have confidence. The best way to create confidence  is to have good shifts. I thought in the second and third period they had good shifts.  We have to continue to move forward with them and continue to get better.  That’s what they have to do.”

It is worth noting that from the 13 minute mark of the third period, Lafrenière and Gauthier along with Brendan Smith and Libor Hajek, were stapled to the bench and saw no more ice time.

He then responded to observers who question his ice time distribution. ” I know people talk about the young players and development and all those things, but it ‘s the National Hockey League. Right now we sit here three points out of a playoff spot.  So, they’ll be part of  it….they are part of it.  They had a huge goal tonight.   I know everybody looks at the minutes. and wants to make a big deal out of that.  Not everybody’s going to get the minutes they want them to have.  There’s not enough minutes in a game and it’s just the way it is.”

When Filip Chytil was asked about ice time after the game he said “What can I say…we want to score goals. I thought we had a good game today.  We can’t control if the coach puts on the ice or not.  We have to be ready anytime and be happy for a goal.”

Chytil’s assessment was little different from Quinn’s.   “You could see today…on almost every shift we spent in the offensive zone.  We had so many shots and had great chances. We scored a goal we deserved.”

A shooting mentality

The Rangers had 46 shots on goal in regulation,but only scored twice.  There was a sense that they could had more, something Quinn alluded to.   “I still think we turned down way too many shots even though we had 47 we could have had a lot more.  We’ve got to create a shooting mentality.  Listen, we found a way to win and get two points…which this deep in the season is all that matters.”

The odd fact is the players who consistently crash the net and shoot the puck are the bottom six.  It’s how the Rangers scored the third period go-ahead goal.  That goal came a 6:17 of the third period and was mostly due to the hard work by Julien Gauthier.  After that goal was scored, Gauthier saw exactly one minute of ice time the remainder of the game and Chytil saw 1:43.

That was due in part to the two power plays that the Rangers had and outside of the power plays the Rangers were outshot 6-4 over the 12 minutes at even strength with none of the shots on goal when the top two lines were on the ice.