Rozsival And Malik

The title? We were on the LIRR coming home from the game at the beautiful Rock and I asked my nine year old grandson, Nicholas, what did he think my headline should be. Without batting an eye he said, "Rozsival and Malik." One thing you should know about my grandson Nicholas, age nine. He plays defense in Squirt Hockey and back in January his team, The Makos, won the championship of the New York Islanders sponsored Tournament at the Long Island Coliseum. I wrote about them in my blog. In the semi final game Nicholas was selected as player of the game for the Makos. Nicholas knows something about playing defense. I don't believe Rozsival or Malik were ever picked as star of a game and it is questionable what they know about defense.

Our two heroes were on the ice for the two Devil goals in the first thirteen minutes. It was ridiculous how out of position Malik was on the first goal and how useless he was on the second. Rozsival wasn't much better. On the way out of the arena one Ranger fan said that tonight Malik made Rozsival look bad. Another fan retorted, "I didn't think Rozsival needed any help looking bad." With the aid of coach clueless the trio were deadly for the Rangers. The Rangers came out flat (again) and the Devils came out roaring, understanding the enormity of the game and being whiplashed by their coach Suter. Coach clueless must answer the question. Why were the Rangers flat for such a big critical game?

Coach clueless decided to sit Hollweg, Strudwick, Mara and Orr, though I understand Orr may have a 'lower body injury'. He had the Ice Follies lineup.The fourth line consisted of Betts, Sjostrom and Shanahan. The line got a total of five hits all by Sjostrom. It is probably the first time in his life that Shanahan played on the fourth line. As the game went on, Shanny showed up on various lines, getting 15:56 of ice time including 2:49 of power play time. The first period was all Devils, with the Rangers being outshot 11-2 and mauled at every intersection by Clarkson, Rupp and Madden. Rupp and Madden were the goal scorers for the Devils.

It reached a point of such frustration that Jagr was fighting back and mad as hell. So he went off along with Malik and Clarkson went off with White. Good trade for the Devils. Jagr for Clarkson and White who shadowed Jagr all game got a two minute rest. Clarkson has taken the place of Cam Janssen, who Colton Orr used to beat up regularly. Is it coincidental that this was the first game Orr missed against the Devils, and the Devils won? Why is a healthy Hollweg sitting? Why was Mara benched for Malik? Is Orr really hurt and if so what is it? Ask yourself this question. Do we want Jagr getting into roughing matches with goons like Clarkson? Is the next step Jagr dropping the gloves?

Coach clueless did have one last chance to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and redeem himself but he waffled. He waited too long to pull Lundqvist. There were two opportunities to pull him. One came at the end of the penalty to Malik and it was a little less than four minutes to play. He didn't do it. The next great opportunity came with about two and a half minutes to go with Jagr on the ice and the Rangers had gotten the puck deep and had fairly good control. No dice. It was still defense first for coach clueless. He gave the Devils life and now they think they can beat us. With a powder puff lineup and an overly defensive coach they will.

With all the line switching going on in the third period, Sean Avery and Jaromir Jagr found themselves as linemates again. Lo and behold, Avery with great work behind the net found Jagr for the game tying goal. I believe the next shift Jagr was on, found Straka as his linemate again. A lot of nice passes. Jagr's goal was his 25th of the season giving him a record 17th straight season with 25 goals or more. He seems to be coming on for the playoffs.

One last word on a too long post. Lundqvist was brilliant with 25 saves. The third period and OT was as exciting and flawless as it gets for a goalie. He had seven saves in the third and four in OT. Parise is still shaking his head after being stopped at the doorstep. So we lose home ice but I don't think that will stop us from defeating the Devils in the opening round. The only thing that can stop us is our clueless coach.

ICINGS: Gomez was booed every time he touched the puck so he must have felt great scoring the shootout goal. I asked the Devil fan next to me why he was booing Gomez. He said because he left for more money. I asked him if he would leave his job for a lot more money and would his ex co-workers boo him? A got a nice smile in return.

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