That two stroke engine that jb talked about the the other day was in full mode last night as the Swedish Express in the form of Henrik Lundqvist, 20 saves, and Carl Hagelin, 2 goals, an assist, powered, sort of, the Rangers to a 5-1 win over the high powered Tampa Bay Lightning. In two games the Rangers have allowed Tampa Bay only two goals.
While Lundqvist made only 20 saves they were mostly on high quality shots and many saves were brilliant. Hagelin, in 15:48 of ice time was a plus two, in his best game in over a year. Rick Nash continued to dazzle, was a plus 4, picked up 5 hits and was rewarded with a goal with 8 seconds to go in the game. He also had an assist.
The key to the game for me was the equal distribution of ice time. No forward got 20 minutes of ice time. Stepan was the highest at 19:48, and despite not scoring, was a plus 3. Del Zotto was dropped to 17:41 and Matt Gilroy played only 8:53. The other four defensemen all logged over twenty minutes each. Those numbers have to be knocked down as they will be telling down the stretch.
The power play continued powerless going 0-3 and now on the season are 4-40. Disagreeable came up with, "We're allowing them to try to express themselves a bit, trying to leave them alone." Ah, so now we are leaving the PP unit alone. Good move. Don't know a thing about the PP. Can't help improve them. Leave them alone. Yes, there will be a brighter day tomorrow, so leave them alone.
Thank God for Lundqvist, the young ones and that two stroke engine that jb talks about. Now let's go get them big bad Bruins.
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Yes the Swedes were great in this one. Love McDonagh too with that throw down and stare move ha ha ha! Great stuff. The first period had too many defensive breakdowns but I secretly enjoyed the entertainment value of it. Henrik is back to being the King that he is so he bailed us out of a few. I like seeing Gaby back on the right where he said he feels most comfortable even though I am all for the Nash Richards and Gaby line. Maybe he should try the line with Gaby on the right. To me Gaby is by far the most natural goal scorer on the team and the offense should be built around him- so it stands to reason that if you want to try that line together Gaby should be the first guy who stays in his natural position but coach doesn't see it that way. Another great part of the game was Girardi coming back. I really missed him. And the PP? Oh the PP. So funny you should say because when i heard Joe make that comment about what disagreeable said about letting the player "express themselves" on the PP I tweeted these tweets:
"Torts told Joe he decided to let the players decide what to do as far as set ups on the PP. First good idea he's had for the PP #NYR"
"I've been saying all along to @jeanine1994 that if Torts is so f***king clueless on what to do on the PP then he should just ask the players #NYR"
- I mean why not? Right? No one could F up a PP plan more than our coaching staff and theses players are pros. They didn't get here by not being successful. As sad as this theory is, however, the Rangers only looked decent on the first PP, which was the one that prompted Joe's selling line on how brilliant coach is for basically telling him that he's given up on trying to figure out how a PP works and he's going to let the players just do whatever. But he's a great coach, right? Won a cup, right? Sure.
BTW- Messier happened to be at practice the day of the Islander game. Also happens to be the same day that aliens came down and took coach disagreeable and replaced him with this much kinder version we see right now. Last season when the Rangers got off to a slow start Messier started showing up at practices then too just before we started to put things together and turn it around. Coincidence? Probably not. If only Mess was interested in coaching rather than GM. He is a natural for coaching just like his dad Doug. Although if Mark wants to be a GM then its more than overdue to boot out the Stealth. I keep saying lets have the 1994 connection: Mark as GM, the brilliant Mike Richter as head coach, Leetchie assistant coach running the PP and Adam Graves assistant coach can keep on developing the young guys. I mean Adam would truly work with them not just sent them to CT and say send him back when he's ready. Oh dare to dream.
Jen,
Nice breakdown of how the PP has become one big cluster fuss. Letting the players run the PP reminds me of the time J. Jagr was playing in remote Russia during his KHL days and the coach was fired and it was reported that Jags was coaching the team. This all goes in the category of inmates running the asylum.
Our Cuckoo's Nest asylum is being run by Nurse Tortorella, who like the dictatorial Nurse Ratched, wants to lobotomize all the talented offensive players into defensive drones.
Love you JB!