Rangers 2017 Report Card: Ugh, Tanner Glass
What is there to say about Tanner Glass in 2017? I could copy and paste my 2016 or 2015 Report Cards while changing a few names and dates around and everything would still ring true. I could throw numbers, percentages, and rates at you for 500+ words while sprinkling in a few nicely designed charts made by people much smarter and more talented than I am. I could also find .gifs and video of Glass missing his assignment or the puck in order to make a hit or provide an ounce of “physicality” to identify why that style of play doesn’t help but rather hurts the Rangers chances to win games.
I could do all of that, but to be honest, Tanner Glass’s 2016-17 season doesn’t warrant much in depth on-ice analysis. He played in eleven games in the regular season, had two points (1-1-2) and overall was a non-factor when it came to the Rangers winning or losing those games (in fact the Rangers went 5-5-1 (shootout loss) with Tanner Glass in the lineup). Additionally, Glass suited up for seven of the Rangers 12 playoff games, where he doubled his point total (1-3-4).
Regular Season Grade: C-
Glass is who he is; a bad hockey player who played in favor of players who were both younger and more skilled than he is.
Post Season Grade: C
He had two more points than he did in the regular season in 4 less games, so that’s something I guess.
Final Grade: C-
This was the final year of Tanner Glass’s contract and he went out not with a bang but with a whimper – at least on the ice.
While there may not be much to say about Glass on the ice, since he has no real impact there, there is still something to be said about his off-ice contributions. By all regards, Tanner is a nice guy, and a great teammate who is “good in the room” – but, I don’t care. Glass’s contract (three years, $4.35 million) is one of the worst decisions that the Rangers have made this decade and the way he was protected by the coaching staff and media was embarrassing. The list of players that sat in favor of Glass could fill out an entire lineup, most of which were superior options to him. Plus, his status as the coach’s security blanket meant that Teflon Tanner avoided the busses that seemed to steamroll through the locker room after losses and in the playoffs.
The nadir of this came during these past playoffs when Glass suited up against the Canadiens while an extremely talented hockey player, Pavel Buchnevich, sat in the press box. Fast forward to Game Four of that first round series where Oscar Lindberg scored two goals in the game but the press couldn’t stop talking about how Glass was their impact player – despite the fact that he was giving up shots like a teetotaler during Prohibition. Even in the last gasps of the second round series against Ottawa, with the Rangers down a goal and needing offense, Alain Vigneault decided to adjustment to ice a line of Mats Zuccarello-Derek Stepan-Tanner Glass (even though Glass was already on the ice for goals against that game) with Rick Nash, Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, J.T. Miller, Kevin Hayes, Oscar Lindberg, and others all ready and willing to jump over the boards.
Sure, you can’t blame a player for being put into a role that he’s not suited for, that’s on the coach, which is why I made sure to grade Tanner on his on-ice contributions as minimal as they were. Tanner Glass is the personification of everything that is wrong with hockey today; the front offices and coaches that prop these players up on pedestals while throwing younger, more talented players under busses and refusing to give them chances. The media and fans defend these players as “warriors” and “deterrents” even though they deter nothing and incite more and more dangerous plays.
All of this backwards thinking about the game is one reason why I am very glad Tanner Glass is no longer on the Rangers and as god as my witness I will never, ever, waste digital ink on this great website talking about Tanner Glass ever again.
