The Rangers and the Penguins played two games in a row and it was somehow confusing. In the first game the Rangers overwhelmed the Pens playing Penguin hockey and destroying them 6-1. Last night's game saw the Pens playing Ranger hockey and nipping the Rangers in a shootout 2-1.
Last night the Pens outshot the Rangers 36-28. They outhit the Rangers 39-27 and amazingly the Pens blocked more shots than the Rangers 20-15. The three new guys, Clowe, Brassard and Moore are not there yet. They got 2 shots, but only 3 hits and 3 blocked shots. Not too many games left to get these guys totally Tortorellaized.
Jussi Jokinen* scored the Pens goal and then scored the only shootout goal giving the Pens the two points. The only Ranger goal of the night was scored by Nash off of a faceoff win by Stepan who was awful on faceoffs most of the night.
Fleury was outstanding in goal for the Pens making 35 saves. It's the best I've ever seen him against the Rangers. Lundqvist was his usual solid self and was repeatedly run at and hit by the Pens with no retaliation from the Rangers. He basically stole the point for us. The coach seemed to be more at ease this game than last game. After all, the last game, a 6-1 Ranger win, got away from him and he was lost. This was more his game. Low scoring and great goaltending. Good luck.
HockeyFights.com:
Ryane Clowe vs Deryk Engelland
Results:
Ryane Clowe 37.8%
Draw 37.0%
Deryk Engelland 25.2%
However, in last night's game Gaborik only took 2 shots and was not a factor in the Blue Jackets 3-1 loss to St. Louis.
Blue Jackets Xtra / Columbus Dispatch:
Blue Jackets 3, Predators 1: Gaborik makes grand entrance --
Marian Gaborik, who was acquired in a trade with the New York Rangers on Wednesday, scored the go-ahead goal at 4:16 of the third period.*correction: It was Olli Jokinen, not Jussi Jokinen, who played for the Rangers last season. Both are from Finland, but are not related. Thanks Jen.
He also had an assist and was the game’s first star.
“I’m glad to have the first game under my belt,” Gaborik said. “It was a great win. I’m glad to be a part of this.”
Matt Calvert and James Wisniewski also scored. Brandon Dubinsky added two assists in his first game back after an injury...
“This is huge,” said Blue Jackets veteran Vinny Prospal, who helped convince Gaborik to waive his no-trade clause to approve the trade.
Just a quick correction Mike, before I start, Jussi Jokinen never played for us, that was Olli Jokinen who played 26 games for NYR in '09-'10. Not a Torts guy but what else is new.
Gaborik actually has 3 points in two games with CBJ. Got the primary assist on Anisimov"s game tying goal but the Blues got their lead back 9 seconds later. Columbus tied the game at 2 but the goal was disallowed for incidental contact with the goalie. Then just a few minutes after that, Gaborik came oh so close to tying the game. He almost put it 5 hole on Allen but lifted the puck to the point where it sailed over the net. It was a pretty move. His goal in his first game was a "sweet hands" play and he's been skating really well. Still feeling it out of course but once he regains his confidence he's going to be Gaby again. It's nice to see him with the handcuffs off.
On the Rangers, obviously I jumped the gun on Zuccarello since he still got his 16 mins of ice time but its in the works. Zucc saw no ice time in OT and Andrew Gross is "speculating" what we all know already that coach has concerns about Zuccarello's defensive game. Zuccarello stated before last nights game that he had been back and fourth so many times with the Rangers that he decided he had nothing to lose by going out there and just being himself which explains why he looks so good out there. But he'll stop that sooner or later, coach is already showing signs of reeling him in.
On the game, I thought it was entertaining and I like the way Mike wrote that the two games were confusing like a role reversal. That's true. Fleury played the exact opposite from Wednesday. Wednesday's game he was horrible and last night he looked like Henrik. Unreal. Speaking of Henrik, he tweeked his hamstring last night but it looks like he's starting tonight anyway. Another brilliant move by the coach. He has a backup who is more than capable of beating a weak Carolina team but he won't use him because he wants a guaranteed win and you can't trust your backup for that right? Last season he played it off like he was going to give Biron a certain amount of games and thats what he he did, but the truth is the Rangers were in first place all season and it was low risk to rest Henrik. Whenever we have a game that seems logical to everyone else in the free world to rest Henrik for, this idiot plays him based on weather he can "risk" it or not. For a "tough coach" he sure has no (guts). I'll be lady like and let you guys fill in the word I really wanted to use!
Good the Rangers got grit and depth they need but grit and depth are players you don't need to trade 40 goal scorers for. Do you know that only 5 of our current forwards were regular's last season? And then there is Zuccarello who was here but not HERE. We have two great rookies we can't use because the gutless one can't risk it if they make mistakes and now they are back in CT. Well Kreider is and JT is soon on his way. We're stuck with Torts. This sucks.
Jen,
Thanks for the correction, which I took care of for Mike, who had a medical appointment today.
Yes, it was a tale of two different games. I was shocked to see Fleury have such a terrible game on Wednesday. He's been a Rangers slayer for a long time. Too bad he reverted back on Fri.
The Blue Jackets are going to end up having more Rangers forward regular's than the Rangers.
Torts is again going to his whip hand for the homestretch. No rest for his favorites, so we once more we stagger into the playoffs. Weak.
We'll be very, very lucky if we even stagger into the playoffs..You can tell the boys had a day of practice eh?
6 goals when you "just let them play" and 1 goal when you coach and practice...
Watched Gabby both games and he is stoked to be with his old buddies. Playing great, speedy hockey. Finally free...Dubinsky to Gaborik was beatiful to see.
Might get some flack on this but I think Del Zotto's pull up elbow to the face was BS and dirty. He knew what he was doing...don't like that kind of crap from blueshirts..