Growing up in the city, as I did, everything was nice. Make a nice sandwich, have a nice drink, she's a nice girl (sometimes). So the Rangers road trip and weekend were nice. They rebounded nicely from the debacle at Tampa Bay. Actually the rebound started at Tampa Bay with a three goal third period. This led to weekend wins over Florida and Nashville.
The big part of the rebound is Henrik Lundqvist who has rebounded very nicely. In two games he stopped 69 of 70 shots and stopped all three shootout shots against the Predators. Erik Christensen scored the lone shootout goal, thereby becoming an unlikely hero.
The bounce back is impressive. The Rangers have played six straight games in six different cities and all things considered they did quite well, or nicely. They were 4-2 in those games, losing two blowouts. They are now 9-4-0 on the road and if they can bring some of that magic to their home ice we might have a surprising season.
Michal Rozsival returned to action (?) thereby limiting Matt Gilroy's ice time so not all the news was good. Rozsival got over 22 minutes of ice time and if any of you who saw the game and saw him do anything positive, please write me with the details. With Gaborik and Boogaard out the Rangers played seven defensemen. Gilroy got a little over 5 minutes. Why bother? I guess we should be thankful they didn't recall Redden.
Red hot Pittsburgh pays a visit to the Garden on Tuesday and we will get a chance to see if the rebound continues. Then its at the Islanders Thursday night and no matter how bad those guys are they always give us fits. Maybe we will have a nice week.
The Rangers do not quit. I watched the entire game, and something told me they were going to tie it up. I figured that would be the turning point, and it was.
ReplyDeleteAnd once you get it to the shootout, them with Lundqvist in net has the advantage.
I wonder if having Biron is helping this year. My guess is that it is, on a few fronts. Giving the team more confidence in general game in and game out without having to be overly conscious that Hank is not in, the maybe 20 games he will get to rest up, and maybe, just maybe, that unspoken little thread of healthy competition between players.
Anyways, it's working out nice.
blow-me=down-Competition is the spice of life.
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