I'm looking at head coach Peter Laviolette's lineup card for Monday's game against the Red Wings at the Garden, but in a meeting where robots and a line of Transformers toys are being discussed, I'm watching 12-year-old Josh – Became Baskin.
I don't understand.
I don't understand.
Why did big Matt Lempe, who was hurt in last Wednesday's season opener in Pittsburgh, get 7 shifts totaling 3 minutes and 40 seconds in Saturday night's 6-5 OT loss against Utah? I don't understand how this match can be a healthy injury.
I don't understand.
I don't understand this at all.
Listen, this is no disrespect to Johnny Brodzinski, who replaced Lempe in Games 1 and 3. Or, it may be more accurate to think that Lempe was used in place of Brodzinski in the home opener. Brodzinski is one of the best 750 hockey players in the world. He had a great camp.
But let me ask you a question. Which of these two players will be more of a threat to the Florida Panthers in the conference finals or the 2025 version of the Florida Panthers? Because there's always a bigger, stronger, more physical opponent under the rainbow. ?
Which one has the potential to become a weapon in the spring?
Should we always be thinking about winning the next game instead of using the regular season as a path to the playoffs?
Does Laviolette not believe this team is strong enough to withstand Rempe's growth curve?
For comparison, the Rangers went 14-2-1 with Lempe in the lineup last season, when the head coach and the team were fighting for the coveted Presidents Trophy.
What has changed?
I went to Soltar Machine.
I don't understand.
On Saturday night, on the fourth shift, Lempe stepped forward and set a “Jack and the Beanstalk”-like screen on Connor Ingram, and at 4:54 of the second, Victor Mancini hit an eyeball from the right point. It made it possible to defeat the invisible netminder.
However, the apparent goal was immediately canceled because Rempe's heel was clearly in the crease, resulting in a goaltender interference call that was enough for Laviolette to contest the call.
Two shifts later, fourth-row center Sam Carrick was caught cheating in the game, in the same order that linemate Adam Edstrom was caught cheating. It was 9:23 of the second period.
Lempe, like Carrick, picked up one shift for the remaining games. Of Lempe's seven shifts, one lasted 12 seconds, one lasted six seconds, and one lasted five seconds.
I eat baby-sized corn hors d'oeuvres as if they were regular-sized corn on the cob.
I don't understand.
“That's the way the game went. I felt like I was chasing the game all night, and I felt like I was always on the back foot,” Laviolette said when asked about it. Ta. “And to our credit, we never stopped shooting and attacking until we went 5-on-5 and went into overtime.
“But as the game rolled back around, I think two of our linemen went into the penalty box and one of us was taken out of the game. From there, we started attacking with three lines, and in the third period we were still behind and we had one. I was chasing points.
“We have guys sitting on the bench with 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 points,” the coach said. “The only thing on my mind at that point is making sure we get the next goal.”
The Rangers have one 100-point player on their bench, and that's Artemi Panarin. But points are taken. The Rangers have elite talent up front. There will always be more productive players on the bench.
Does that mean the Blueshirts are going to cut their forwards down to nine whenever they get behind in the third period?
It's difficult to be a four-line coach. I understand that. Points are valuable any time of the year. I understand that too.
And even if the Rangers lost four in a row and were 5-7-3 after 15 games, I wouldn't be the one getting called to the principal's office, and I understand that.
But this doesn't make sense to me.
The Rangers have potentially the most unique fourth-line weapon in the league, but they're hiding him in a silo.
The Rangers could have the league's most unique fourth line with Edstrom and Rempe on the wings, but instead they're sticking with the traditional.
What happened during the summer? I'm not going to put words into the mouth of Laviolette, one of the most successful coaches in NHL history, but it does seem like Lempe has lost faith.
but why?
I play the piano and dance on the keyboard at FAO Schwartz.
I don't understand.
