To read the blogs you would have thought that the world had turned upside down. Madonna became chaste. A-Rod got a clutch hit in a big game. All politicians started to tell the truth. No. It was more important than any and all of those things. Hockey, in general was back and specifically our heroes, the New York Rangers, were back. Sure it was an exhibition game but so what. It was hockey.
Forget the misplays and missed shots of both teams. It was pond hockey at its best. Ottawa's A team beat a mixed bag of Rangers 3-2, after jumping out to a 3-0 lead. Brandon Dubinsky, hoping to shatter the sophomore jinx, scored two goals, one shorthanded, one power play. He played with Callahan and Voros. The best line seemed to be the Drury, Dawes and Prucha. Top draft pick Del Zotto played with poise and looked good. So did his mom. Blair Betts, playing on the fourth line and playing for his job, played like he was playing for his job. Michal Rozsival was in mid season form. He gave away the puck on the blue line while the Rangers were on a power play, which led to a shorthanded goal by the Senators. No change there.
The refs were in mid season form also, calling all the soft taps and letting some mayhem and muggings go. So there were a series of parades to the penalty box. No change there. The Rangers had 9 power plays, the Senators had 10. The Rangers had one power play goal, so there was no change there. The Rangers out shot the Senators 36-19, but still lost. So there was no change there.
This is one crazy exhibition season with seven games in the next nine games, including two in Switzerland. It will be brutal and it remains to be seen if there will be a fair evaluation of some of the younger players and if they will get the allotted time to prove their wares. But we shall see. Overall, it's great that hockey is back. It's better than watching A-Rod hitting into a DP with the game on the line. It's not fair though. A-Rod's month is March.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Hockey's Back
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No A-Rod, but there's still Pedro and the Mets to cheer us up.
My analysis is slightly different. The only goal scored that was not with a man-up, or a man-down, was by the Sens. (You could say two, but they had an extra man on a delayed call.) We continue to have problems scoring at even strength.
We may have had one power-play goal, but we gave up a short-hander. So, our powerplay was even too.
I just saw more of the same.
bleacher creature-Now you really made my day.
section 335-If you saw more of the same, you saw what I saw.