Wendell Cruz-Imagn ImagesFriday's usual "Ask The Maven" was on holiday but "ATM" is running today. This week's question comes from City Island, New York. Jack Gumpert asks:
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT HOW THE TV MEDIA IS HANDLING THE RANGERS SITUATION?
The Maven replies: You have to start with the fact that whether the Blueshirts win or lose, it's all there for the public to see on the screen, in person as well as all the replays available.
There can be no cheating the viewing public.
MSG Networks' analyst styles vary. Sam Rosen and Joe Micheletti, for example, were more – shall I say – temperate in their handling of a non-playoff team. They were professional and rational which were fair enough and the fans adored them.
The very able replacements, Kenny Albert and Dave Maloney, have brought their pungent-no-kidding-around radio styles superbly to television and – I'm certain – fans find it most refreshing.
Emotional – in a fan kind of way – Maloney reacts more forcefully than Micheletti while Albert
continues to be the best play-by-play man for which a Rangers fan can root. MSG Networks employs a variety of other analyst types and some penetraiting ones.
I was intrigued with a post-game schmooze the other night between the very insightful John Gianonne and Steve Valiquette. It was very revealing in terms of Vally's comments about some of the Rangers. Take a look:
"Now is the time of year where you start sitting people," Valiquette asserted. "You have to get everybody's attention. You start with Lafreniere; he's pacing for 16 goals. Terrible giveaway (late vs. Buffalo) again; getting less than 15 minutes of ice time right now. You have to get more from him.
"You need to get more from your top six and I think that it sends a message to everybody that they can be next. One of the biggest challenges NHL teams have is that guys make a lot of money and you can't shame or blame a millionaire. But you can embarrass them by taking away their ice time. That's the only thing you can control.
"You can control the narrative in your room if you do that. You can go there. Sometimes during a game, you miss a shift. Panarin not backchecking on the empty net goal should cost PP time in the next game.
"You have a meeting with him (and say) 'Look, you didn't skate at the end of the game on the PP.'"
Today, we'll see who comes through and who doesn't and I expect that the MSG Networks' pros will tell us what we need to know!
Oh, yeah, by the way, they need two points!