Every decade or so, hockey people come up with new buzzwords that delete some of the traditional stuff.
In other words, boards have become "wall" and the crease is now "blue paint" and a goal now is "in the back of the net."
Also, attack has become "push" and a close call around the net has become – dumbest of the dumb-dumbs – a "look."
Another relatively new one that's making the rounds is "detail." In other words if your team pays attention to "details" it's more apt to win than lose.
The Rangers are a perfect example of a team that loses because Pistol Peter Laviolette's skaters pay little to no attention to detail.
And if you want to know how The Maven knows all about it, I pay my consultants big money – in wooden nickels – to research this stuff.
With that in mind, I called upon the all-time King of New Jersey high school hockey coaches and super-thinker The Eminent Harvey (Hutch) Cohen of New Jersey.
All I asked Hutch to do was simply dissect the No-Detail Rangers and specifically list their issues: Here are his findings:
1. STICK WORK: "The Rangers fail to tie up sticks in front of the net."
2. POSITIONING: "The Rangers get bad position in front of the net which is why they fail to clear opposition players away from the danger zone."
3. GAPS: "The Rangers have huge areas of separation between the forwards and defensemen."
4. PLAYMAKING: "The Rangers too often try to make the perfect play rather than the correct play."
5. POWER PLAY: "The Rangers fail to make endgame adjustments when they have the man advantage."
6. PENALTY KILL: "The Rangers PK is passive, predictable and stagnant most of the time."
7. ATTITUDE: "The Rangers play 'not to lose' hockey rather than 'To Win' hockey.
8. DYNAMISM: "The Rangers have no sense of urgency. They don't go down 'guns-a-blazing' but rather with the guns in their holsters."
Case closed!