Big Blue Huddle

Well GM Drury took his sweet time, but he finally buttoned up the "Kid" Line by signing Laffy to a two year extension @ $2.35 Mill per. I'm no Fan of the former #1 overall Selection. But his 39 Points (16 Goals) last season, seems to generate those type of contract #'s. Lafreniere has been treated with kid gloves (or so I thought) since his arrival. I was wondering if the delay in signing him was attributed to seeking a Trade partner? I had read some blurbs along the way, but nothing concrete, in that regard. Wondering what our new HC Lavialette will make of the underachieving Laffy

Happy with locking him up. I didn't want to give up on him just yet.

I'm glad to see this too. I really didn't want to see them trade him, only for him to find himself with another team and become a great player for the next 10-15 years for someone else.

With that said this guy needs to start getting better soon. To date, he has been disappointing. I appreciate he's only 21 so I'm happy to exercise some patience, but I didn't feel like what I saw on the ice last season was any better than what I saw in his first two seasons.

I haven't watched any of the preseason, and I don't care what the scores of these games are, but I'm just curious if anyone has watched and had any observations of how some of our guys looked?

Broadly speaking, it seems to me that we are more or less rolling out the same group and trying it yet again, but this time with another coach. I don't want to be overly pessimistic, but I feel like I've seen enough of these core vets to know that they don't seem to be able to get it done in the playoffs. These guys are all 30-plus now, and they are what they are at this point.

I feel like we need some younger players to step up this year or we are going to be looking at a similar type result: we'll be among the better teams in the East, but clearly not Cup material. If we want to get to the next level we need guys like Kakko, LaFreniere, Chytil, Miller, Schneider, etc to step up in a meaningful (ie not incremental) way. If we get more of the same from them, the team will have another good but not great, ho-hum season.

Anyone have a different view? I'd love to hear a rational argument that is more optimistic than the above. With the way this Giants season is looking so far, I would love for our hockey team to carry us through winter, but I'm not seeing much difference between this year's group and last year's.

I haven't but still think they should have traded Lafreniere unless they're prepared to give him 1st or 2nd line ice time.

Quote from: Rambo89 on September 29, 2023, 06:07:38 PMI haven't but still think they should have traded Lafreniere unless they're prepared to give him 1st or 2nd line ice time.

I have a strange feeling your wish is going to come to fruition.

I was having a real hard time getting excited beyond a beating pulse about this year.

Especially when our new HC was named.  I mean c'mon how many failures does this guy get to experience and fans are supposed to get excited ????

Then I remembered Joe Torre and when he replaced Buck Showalter.  Big Stein even had buyers remorse after hiring Torre and tried to talk Buck into coming back and if he did kicking Torre into the front office.

Joe Torre failed 3 times as a manager.  What good could he bring to my Yankees.  I was pissed.  Shows what I know.

I pray Laviolette travels the same path for us.  One Cup in 82 years is inhuman for fans to endure.

Quote from: Giant Obsession on September 29, 2023, 09:15:25 PMI was having a real hard time getting excited beyond a beating pulse about this year.

Especially when our new HC was named.  I mean c'mon how many failures does this guy get to experience and fans are supposed to get excited ????

Then I remembered Joe Torre and when he replaced Buck Showalter.  Big Stein even had buyers remorse after hiring Torre and tried to talk Buck into coming back and if he did kicking Torre into the front office.

Joe Torre failed 3 times as a manager.  What good could he bring to my Yankees.  I was pissed.  Shows what I know.

I pray Laviolette travels the same path for us.  One Cup in 82 years is inhuman for fans to endure.

The one thing I'll say about Laviolette is that I read that the players really like him. I liked Gallant a lot and was sorry to see him get fired, but then I found out that the players weren't very supportive of him in the exit interviews.

So while it's basically the same group of guys, maybe the chemistry will be better this year.

Quote from: DaveBrown74 on September 30, 2023, 07:16:02 AMThe one thing I'll say about Laviolette is that I read that the players really like him. I liked Gallant a lot and was sorry to see him get fired, but then I found out that the players weren't very supportive of him in the exit interviews

Maybe. I feel like there's too much player power with the Rangers. A different group got Torts fired and the same with Gallant. Neither of those squads were supposed to make the ECF, they were well coached well above their ability.

From what I've read (and it's not much) but Laf is going to get top six minutes to start the year.

Quote from: EDjohnst1981 on September 30, 2023, 07:24:31 AMMaybe. I feel like there's too much player power with the Rangers. A different group got Torts fired and the same with Gallant. Neither of those squads were supposed to make the ECF, they were well coached well above their ability.

Very fair point, but let's face facts, guys like Panarin, Zibs, Trouba, and Kreider aren't going anywhere. They have albatross contracts and (usually) no trade clauses. So if the coach isn't clicking with them, whether justified or unjustified, the coach is eventually going to have to go.

Again I like Gallant and was not happy when he was fired, but I'm not sure Drury had much of a choice. Clearly there is plenty that goes on behind the scenes that we fans cannot see or don't know about.

Well, we kickoff the 2023 - 2024 season Thurs. nite in Buffalo. Wonder if any Giants Players will be in attendance New` HC Laviolette really shook things up in Training Camp/Pre. Players said they're in better condition due to the tougher demands of this Camp.
I can't tell for sure, but from what I can glean, Chytil is the 2nd Line C. Laffy has been moved over to RW. He struggled at his normal position at LW, so I'm not thrilled about his chances of success at RW. Looks like Kakko will get another shot at 1st Line RW. New guy Wheeler at age 36 has impressed thus far.

Drury brought in several low budget Vets to fortify the bottom six positions. Time will tell regarding the quality of their contributions.
Top four D remain constant, Schnieder is the 3rd Pair RD. Not sure who the 3rd Pair LD is? We have a new Backup Goalie named QuIck (hope he is?).

Don't have a good feeling about this season coming off last year how it ended and what little they did this off season.  Could see them missing the playoffs this year unfortunately.

Quote from: Rambo89 on October 11, 2023, 08:25:59 PMDon't have a good feeling about this season coming off last year how it ended and what little they did this off season.  Could see them missing the playoffs this year unfortunately.

I'm not taking an overly optimistic or pessimistic view myself. Going to see how it develops. I feel like when you have a top three goalie you're generally going to be in the conversation. Obviously our vets have not gotten the job done in postseason play and our hyped up young guys have not stepped up at all, so those are the negatives. On paper though I feel like the roster is good. It is also very clear now that as much as I may have liked Gallant, the players and he were not on the same page. That doesn't mean Lavvy will be much better, but the players seem to be more on the same page with him so far based on what I have gathered.

Quote from: DaveBrown74 on October 11, 2023, 08:32:37 PMI'm not taking an overly optimistic or pessimistic view myself. Going to see how it develops. I feel like when you have a top three goalie you're generally going to be in the conversation. Obviously our vets have not gotten the job done in postseason play and our hyped up young guys have not stepped up at all, so those are the negatives. On paper though I feel like the roster is good. It is also very clear now that as much as I may have liked Gallant, the players and he were not on the same page. That doesn't mean Lavvy will be much better, but the players seem to be more on the same page with him so far based on what I have gathered.

Having a top three goalie means you have a solid backup working in tandem with your #1.

Halak started slowly, last year, but then played lights out from January onward and carried the Rangers a bit until Igor was ready to turn it up for the playoffs.

Quick is an old vet who's been around for a long time and knows his craft as a backup. As long as he can be at least as good as Halak was, last season, the Rangers will be fine in goal.

Peace!

Quote from: kartanoman on October 12, 2023, 07:57:34 AMHaving a top three goalie means you have a solid backup working in tandem with your #1.

Halak started slowly, last year, but then played lights out from January onward and carried the Rangers a bit until Igor was ready to turn it up for the playoffs.

Quick is an old vet who's been around for a long time and knows his craft as a backup. As long as he can be at least as good as Halak was, last season, the Rangers will be fine in goal.

Peace!

I think that's true in the regular season but less so in the playoffs. In the playoffs, barring injury Shesty is playing basically every game (or very close to it). If he gets hurt we're dead in the water, whether our backup is Halak or Quick. I agree Quick is probably a bit long in the tooth at this point, and maybe that even goes as far as to cost us one seed, but in the end it will be Shesty carrying us in the postseason, for better or worse.

And if we miss the postseason due to the difference between Halak and Quick, then we were never going anywhere to begin with.

I like that we broke up the kid line and moved these guys to other top six locations. Either these guys pan out or they don't, and until they get a real opportunity it's hard to know. Gallant never really gave them that. Seems Laviolette wants to push his chips in on these guys to some degree. I think Chytil could end up working well with Panarin.

Bottom line though as I said earlier, at the end of the day we're rolling out more or less the same group as the last few years and hoping for a different outcome. I wouldn't call that a position of strength. However Shesty had somewhat of an off year last year so if he can return to 21/22 levels, and we can get better play out of the younger guys, maybe we can be a bit more of a factor come spring.