Monthly Archives: November 2023

Another Ridiculous Week On The Ice

NY Rangers

4 wins and 1 loss this week. Today the Rangers beat #1 Boston 7-4. This is real.

The only teams to beat Boston in regulation are the Rangers and Detroit (twice!). On Friday, Detroit beat them 5-2 so they arrived in NY rather salty (and tenderized). Today’s matinee game was insane. Rangers take the lead 2-0 and then Boston ties it. Rangers score and then Boston answers back. Rangers score 3 times in a row and Boston manages one more before the Rangers make one more statement goal to make it 7-4.

The entire Rangers squad is playing well. I mean everyone. Every single line has produced goals and assists this week. A lot of guys got their first points this week. In today’s game, 14 players got points!

This was easily the hardest week schedule-wise: NJ, Dallas, Pitt, Philly, and Boston. Every game was fast and punishing. They lost only to Dallas after losing the lead and then all control in the 3rd. There were a lot of penalties this week, which is bad, but the PK stood strong and the PP kept making a difference. The perseverance has been inspiring this week.

The team has clearly bought into the Peter Laviolette system and it’s paying off. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Trouba play this well. He’s leading by example. He’s first in blocked shots in the league. Face-offs are great, hits are great, and everyone is blocking shots. The team supports the goalies at every chance and Shesterkin and Quick are doing the rest. There are breakdowns here and there on defense, but the offensive firepower is now so wide that they continue to win close games (Pitt and Philly were nail-biters).

This is all without Adam Fox and Filip Chytil. It sounds like Fox will be back for Detroit on the 29th (the only clear threat of this coming week) so holy cow. The PP will likely get even better. Chytil has finally started to practice which is very encouraging. I doubt he’ll be back playing this week though. When he returns I can’t imagine him taking his spot back from Trocheck on the 2nd line because the synergy they have going is red hot.

The team hasn’t been this good since 2014 and we love to see it.

Blue Eye Samurai

Netflix Original

Elegant, powerful, and striking, I think Blue Eye Samurai is one of the best original programs Netflix has ever produced.

Set in 17th-century Japan, Mizu is on a mission of revenge. She is mixed race in a time and culture where that is beyond taboo. With the incredible vitriol pointed at her and her Japanese mother, Mizu had to stay hidden to protect her life. Growing up repressed and fearful, Mizu’s anger turned uncontrollable after witnessing her mother’s murder. As a child, she hid in isolation with a blind swordmaster. With him, she learned not only to forge metal into brilliant weapons but also her body. She has narrowed down who her possible father could be by figuring out how many white men were in Japan around the time of her birth. The list is short at four. She sets out on a mission of information gathering and bloodletting.

I didn’t know about Blue Eye until it was released so it was a complete surprise for me. There are three writers given credit for these amazing 8 episodes. Yana Billie has one episode credit and Co-Creators Michael Green (7 episodes) and Amber Noizumi (8 episodes) co-wrote the rest. Michael and Amber are married and the genesis of the show came from Amber’s mixed heritage. Of further note, Michael co-wrote both Logan and Blade Runner 2049, which are both fantastic films.

This show has been crafted with the utmost care from every angle. The writing is fantastic. This story is for mature audiences as it delves deep into issues of abuse, anger, relationships, justice, xenophobia, oppressive patriarchal societies, and classism.

Mizu does not have an easy time at all. She takes violence nearly as much as she dishes it out. It’s a visceral experience watching her claw through troops on her way to the top of the mountain only to have to repeat the process. But the fire that propels her on her mission of revenge is pure anger and that wracks her mind as much as the physical fighting does. This anger only goes so far and she has to reassess her motives and approach to what she’s doing. When more than one ally calls you a monster–you’re running too close to the cliff edge.

While Mizu is the main character, the people she meets on her journey are just as fleshed out as she is. I wasn’t expecting a lot from the B story of Princess Akemi, but her tale is just as engaging as Mizu’s. Akemi’s upbringing is completely different from Mizu’s, but their conflicts are similar. As they are from distinct walks of life, they navigate their obstacles much differently. This dichotomy offers interesting perspectives of this time for women in Japan. Plus, Mizu and Akemi have terrific support characters by their side that add greater depth to the story. In what is probably the best compliment I can give, I never felt let down when leaving one character to explore what the other was doing. The way the characters intersect is also well done, and at 8 episodes of around 50 minutes each, the pacing is impeccable.

The production is top-notch in every regard. The animation and art style are stunning. The soundtrack is breathtaking and the voice cast is perfect. Some of the best action in animation can be found on this show. It’s grounded in realism but still has an air of fantasy about it. The sense of impact is unmatched and the variety of fighting styles and battle scenarios keep the action from getting redundant or stale. Each action sequence is an experience that pushes the story forward, there’s a point to all of it.

I’m writing about Blue Eye Samurai to try and get more eyes on this production. This is the kind of storytelling I want more of. It doesn’t matter that it’s animated, that aspect just makes it stand out more. Watch it and when you’re done, continue to spread the good word.

To Your Continued Success

NY Rangers

11-2-1

The wins keep coming. This has been a tremendous start to the season as we get close to a quarter of the way through. It hasn’t all been good, but this team has shown tremendous resistance and determination.

With 23 points the NYRs are third place in the league, second in the Eastern Conference, and first in the Metropolitan division.

Adam Fox, Filip Chytil, and Igor Shesterkin remain out on injury. Jonathan Quick returned last night and kept the team in striking distance to win over Columbus in a shootout. Ryan Lindgren was unfortunately injured last night, hopefully it isn’t serious. Louie Domingue played between the pipes the game before to give Quick the time he needed to heal up and he did ridiculously well. No one thought the backup goalies would stand up so well (or so soon in the season). Very fortunate in that regard. I expect Shesterkin to be back to play against the Devils on Saturday.

Panarin continues his record-setting season. Points in every game so far, one more and he sets the franchise record. Rising tides raise all boats and in our case, that boat is named Alexis Lafreniere. He’s on the best streak of his career tallying his first 3-point game against Minnesota and then another 2 goals and the game-winning shootout goal last night. He’s at 7 goals, which he didn’t hit until February last season. Will Cuylle continues to impress, he’s well on his way to having a terrific rookie season. Erik Gustafsson has got to be the best deal in the NHL, he’s constantly making great plays and is starting to get points. Will and Erik have stepped up to cover for Chytil’s absence in the best ways possible.

Trocheck and Kreider have been coming up clutch as well. The special teams continue to dominate. The Power Play is second in the league at well over 30%! Penalty Kill is like 10th in the league, I think only one was allowed in the last 5 games. Overall the defense has been strong. Face-off wins are at an all-time high thanks to Trocheck, Zibanejad, and Bonino. The amount of stupid penalties is way down too.

Now for the rough edges. Way too many turnovers. We’ve gone from bad starts to bad second periods. The playmaking just disappears. They get trapped on defense for a long time and get tired and when a clear comes, the puck isn’t flipped out far enough in fear of an icing call, so the other team picks it up in the neutral zone right away and they zoom right back in, trapping the Rangers with none or one man getting a line change. They don’t try to skate it out, there is no plan leading into it, so they get stuck on defense for long stretches of time. It takes them forever to stop doing this, depending on a stoppage of play in the neutral zone to get a break.

Underperformers: Zibanejad, Kakko, Goodrow, Jones, Wheeler. Zibanejad, Kakko, and Goodrow are ice-cold in the points department. They’re getting away with it because of other exceptional players but they need to turn things around fast. Their lack of production on their chances is one of the reasons why the Columbus game was way closer than it should have been. Jones and Wheeler are currently the front runners in making costly mistakes. Jones is still a rookie but it’s disappointing. Hopefully, he’ll make strides in getting comfortable at the NHL level and improve sooner rather than later (I think it’s a minimum of 6 more games until Fox is expected back). Wheeler has finally broken his drought in goals and assists but he’s got to boost both of those something fierce to make up for his slow and sloppy play. Too frequently he looks like a boat anchor out there.

These 5 days off are happening at a good time. This odd break in the schedule (it’s not a bye week, that’s months away for All-Star weekend) is welcome as it could mean Chytil and Lindgren won’t miss any games this week and they can iron out the problems that have cropped up with focused practices. In Peter Laviolette we trust!

Is That A Broom?

NY Rangers

7-2-0

Oh, what a start to the season. The Rangers have set a franchise record by sweeping the 5 game road trip. That’s 10 juicy points. The 14 total points place them at the top of the Metropolitan division and third in the league. A lot is going right.

  • Seattle 4-1 Win
  • Calgary 3-1 Win
  • Edmonton 3-0 Win
  • Vancouver 4-3 OT Win
  • Winnipeg 3-2 OT Win

Those last two games were crazy, must watch hockey. The Rangers’ special teams are doing incredibly well, often making the difference between a win and a loss. The defense as a whole is the best it has looked in years: aggressive, prominent forechecking, plenty of hits, and a ton of blocked shots. The team is consistently moving into the crease to help out the goalie. There are very few second chances because Shesterkin and Quick (huge props for JQ shaking off the preseason and showing everyone that he’s still a contender) are keeping rebounds to a minimum.

Face-off wins haven’t been this high in more than a decade. Panarin is in MVP mode with 5 goals and 10 assists in 9 games. Zibanejad is now waking up from his goal slumber with a clutch goal in the last 2 games; he has 9 total points. Krieder is a deflection god. Lafreniere is having the best start of his career with 4 goals.

In short, all the lines are doing well and the team is getting stronger with each game. This is so exciting.

There are problems that need to be worked on. Too many dumb penalties (Trocheck being at the front of this one) and there are a few guys who are expected to put up points and they aren’t. Chytil, Goodrow, Trocheck, Kakko, and Wheeler are all in hibernation. These are mostly 3rd and 4th line players. It’s important that the scoring depth branches out to make this a more robust and dangerous team. Even if we go with the lowest expectations and each guy gets only 1 goal and 2 assists a week, that’ll make a big difference. To start with I’d be happy for Trocheck to stop hitting the post and Kakko to hit the goalie instead of going wide. While the offense is lacking on these lines, the defense is doing well which is clutch. They aren’t a liability. It’s been a long time since the 4th line hasn’t been a mess. Hopefully, we won’t have to wait much longer for them to put up goals and assists. Teams are already stressed out with covering Fox, Panarin, Lafreniere, Kreider, and Zibanejad along with the threats of Miller, Gustafson, Trouba, and Schneider. Any more than that will strain any team to keep up. I think Kakko is the most likely to put up the most points of the current under achievers if he can follow through on the chances he gets.

The season is looking very bright. In Peter Laviolette we trust.