Another Opening, Another Loss

The Rangers opened their 86th season in far off Sweden and it was a 3-2 OT loss to the LA Kings, who were the home team. It was a traditional, familiar game and loss for the Rangers. Too many penalties, including the back breaker in OT which led to the winning goal by defenseman Jack Johnson.

The PP goal scored by Johnson was the only PP goal the Kings scored in six tries. The Rangers were 0-1 on the PP and that was indicative of the type of non-aggressive game the Rangers played. The Kings out hit the Rangers 26-23.

Ranger goals were by Ryan Callahan and Marian Gaborik. Brad Richards and Brandon Dubinsky assisted on Gabby's goal and they were the first line and seemed to get better as the game went on. They had ten shots on goal but Callahan had eleven shots on his own. That was the good news. The rest of the forwards had two shots all told. That was the bad news.

Henrik Lundqvist was, Henrik Lundqvist. He made 17 saves in the first period when the Kings could have salted the game away. I'll say it to start the season and try not to say it again. The Rangers will only go as far as Lundqvist will take them. Today he gave them a point.

BTW, Wolski and Rupp each got a little over ten minutes. Neither got a shot on goal nor took a shot. Zuccarello got less than ten minutes and also took no shots. You know who had the growl face on for the news conference and while he referenced two stupid penalties no one was thrown under the bus. But it is only game one.

ICINGS: My sources have told me that the Rangers were deluged with all kinds of calls blasting management and supporting Avery. My source says the calls were in the thousands. It follows what we have seen on the blogs.

Related Articles by Categories