Well we didn't have to worry about a shootout today. Except for the loss we didn't have to worry about anything. The Rangers played pond hockey, left Lundqvist helpless and were blanked by the Panthers 4-0. The Panther goalie, Craig Anderson, who leads the NHL in save % with a .948 and is second in GAA with a 1.87, got his second shutout and quite a bit of support from his defenders. Anderson, who supposedly is the backup to Tomas Vokoun, has only played ten games.
The stat sheet says the Rangers out hit the Panthers 35-33. Really? Amazing.They must have counted as double hits the number of times Ranger players ran into each other. The Rangers were 0-5 on the power play including 1:45 of five on three power play. So what else is new? The power play ranks 22nd and is at 15.3%. Plus we have given up a league high 7 shorthanded goals. Rozsival played over three minutes of PP time with no shots on goal. Why bother with this stupid experiment. The guy is not a PP specialist. He is afraid to shoot the puck. He is afraid the shot would be blocked and turned into a score for the other team. He plays scared and it shows. $5 Mil per year. What a waste.
But that is not why we lost today. We lost today because we were badly outplayed. With Pittsburgh (home) and Montreal (away) on successive nights we better get our act together fast and not let those shootout wins fool us that this is a one game aberration.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Matinee Malaise
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After spending countless hours studying the New York Rangers site, photos and memorizing the GOAL SONG with my 4-year old, The Dark Ranger took his little guy to his first family hockey match between the first place Rangers and the last place Panthers.
Hardly a sure thing and if he continues to love hockey (which he said he cannot wait until the next game and actually LOVED it) when our team plays the way they did today, then....
....he is destined to be a true fan. One that will continually be disappointed and thrilled season to season.
Kid's Day at MSG and the Rangers traumatize another generation of young fans with their lackadaisical effort.
But, good fans are really defined by bad games, bad teams and bad seasons.
God speed young dark one, may the blueshirt always be close to your heart.
Did not see the game, just some of the 'highlights' (if you're a panther fan) on TSN.
I recall a great comment by a guy I did not like, even a little (Harold Ballard) which was directed at Inge Hammerstrom soon after his debut with the Maple Leafs. He said something like "He could go into the corners with a dozen eggs in his pockets and come out without ruining any".
I remember when he said that, and how scathing that statement was, and also just how true it was.
The Rangers should be embarrassed how they played today, WTF is their problem? They are highly paid professional athletes in the biggest media centre in the world. They get to be kings of their world, and they come out with this??
The Professor and Pearn are lving in a mental desert and seeing some kind of mirage. The sad thing is we are stuck with them. I would even feel okay seeing Rozsival and Redden suit up every night if there was the proper coaching, because I would know that all is in good hands and all players would be treated according to their merit.
I did not need to see the entire game, the clips of the Panthers goals told me enough. How dead as a team do you really want to play?
And the clueless leader will utter opaque ambiguities in the post-game scrum, telling us nothing, which is exactly what he always does.
His success with Canadian national teams is mainly due to the fact that he was coaching kids already driven by ambition and enthusiasm, and on fairly short stints. He never had enough time to screw them up with ideology. I'm more than a bit worried about the development of Dubinsky, Callahan, Zherdev and others in the future (forget about Prucha, he is already yesterday's news).
And once again, no way should this team be playing this poorly. To those who stand by the season record and Renney's record at making the playoffs, I say bollocks.
tdr-Statistics prove that the young DR will be more disappointed than thrilled.
blow-me-down-Unfortunately one need not have to see the entire game to see how poorly they play or what the outcome will be.
It is reported in some other posts that clueless is blaming the press for the ineptness of the PP because it highlights it too much. How about those apples?
Young players are doomed on this team. I'm especially concerned about Zherdev who I believe is a free agent next year.