See what smart decision making gives you?? Much more time to clear loose pucks, much more time to regroup if the outlet pass isnt there, much more time to salvage a play.? Smart decision making nearly universally helps a team.? Im not saying were playing a flawless game, far from it, but we are playing the best hockey ive seen in ~10 games (albeit thats not saying much).

Man alive do I love the combination of Isbister Prucha and Immonen.? The kid line seems to have a ton of energy and skill.? They made stuff happen all over the ice in their short ice time, and should continue to get more ice time than usual.? They looked GREAT out there.

I’m wondering if the ice was just putrid out there. I saw players falling all over the place, and pucks flying over guys sticks, and wobbling around incessantly, just seemed like the zambonis didn’t do a good job of freezing the ice surface between the first and second.

Gotta love the way Henrik is playing, calm, and collected, but not being overly stressed.? This is how Martin Brodeur makes his name.? Making all the saves he should, and having his D there to clear up the garbage.

Rangers Review | No Comments »

Building on what I felt was a much better game against the Panthers, the Rangers continued to play better hockey. Not great mind you, just better.? They killed penalties, were aggressive, took the body, used the boards, etc.? Henrik played great in that period, just great, and while they gave up plenty of good chances (thanks in large part to undisciplined play) that really is to be expected against a team like the Lightning who pressure your defenseman, send sometimes 3 players in to harass the defender with the puck, and who are nonstop in their puck pursuit.

Continued penalty problems plague the Rangers, but at least 1 of the penalties was a necessary one to prevent a goal by Pock, and I’m not even convinced that was a penalty, rather than some good body work.

Lets keep building on it fellas.

-Inferno

Rangers Review | No Comments »

More of the same in terms of result, the Rangers lose again, and really have been playing godawful hockey for about 10 games now.? Still I thought todays game was an improvement over what we saw the previous 9-10 games.? The effort was there for the most part, just some poor defensive coverage by Pock, Tyutin, and either Betts or Ward (couldnt remember who it was) led to the loss.? Im happier with what I saw today than at any point in the past few weeks.? The decision making was much better, and the forward alignments looked interesting and innovative…for about 2 periods before Tom Renney decided to overload the top line.

As for Kevin Weekes, despite what some people may think,? I thought he played a good game, and I couldnt fault him on any of the 3 goals, none of them are what I would deem “soft” so not sure why some people want to lay the loss out on him.? Rangers played better than usual folks, perhaps this is the turning point.

-Inferno

Rangers Review | No Comments »

Sort of a double entendre here.? The Rangers are managing to stay out of the penalty box and Tom Renney appears to be doing some thinking outside the box.? Really interesting game to see, as Renney tries all sorts of new alignments on the PP and the PK, way too many to get into just now at least.? Hes trying a lot of line combinations as well (a cynic may say it is because he is forced to do that due to the injuries… and I am no cynic….ok, even I couldn’t say that with a straight face.) including what looks to be a “weaker” first line in favor of a stronger second line.? He has moved Straka to Shanahans line, and move Jason Ward up to the first to play with Jagr and Prucha.? Its an interesting combination, one I could see sticking perhaps.? Move Straka and Nylander to the 2nd line to play with Shanahan, then stick Jason Ward in between Jagr and Prucha to create a more balanced top line.? Now let me preface all that with saying I happen to think the world of Jason Ward, and dont think he is nearly as inept on offense has his numbers seem to dictate.? Remember this was a first round pick at one point.? I think that may be an interesting approach to the Rangers problems, kudos to Renney for trying it. (partially, Nylander is still out)

-Inferno

Rangers Review | No Comments »

One thing I cant stand is embellishment. Rangers, for all their bad points haven’t been embellishing anything for years now. But today I definitely saw some embellishment, particularly by Kaspar who threw his head back and grabbed his face when the stick of Roberts never made contact with his face (as far as I could tell from the replays). I almost want to give the goal back (ok not really), you hate to win when you cheat, and embellishing is definitely cheating. Lets get this stuff out of the game fellas, it has no place here.

On to the actual period, which did show some positive signs from the Rangers, who did seem to keep their heads up, and take the appropriate play, of course its hard to really gauge the period when the good guys spent about half of it on the power play. Credit the Panthers who have a tenacious penalty kill for keeping it close, it could have been worse, but they kept everything to the outside, and limited the quality chances against.

Also credit Tom Renney (omg!) for trying some new stuff on the powerplay, particularly noticeable was a new 5 on 3 alignment, which didnt score, but looked pretty good. They had Straka and Cullen at the points, Jagr and Shanahan in their “offices” and Hall parked in front. Seemed pretty smart to me.

-Inferno

Rangers Review | No Comments »

Another “too little, too late” performance by the Rangers.? One where you “COULD” point to illness and injury, and one where you “COULD” blame some soft goaltending by Weekes, and one where you “COULD” question some of the calls made by notorious Rangers hater Spada.? But I wont, I will once again point to stupid, stupid, stupid hockey played by the Rangers.? I mean, what else can you say?? But I was happy with the way the kids play, Pock, Callahan and Immonen didnt look out of place at all tonight, I really would like to see more of a transition to our kids to be honest, I think they play a LOT hungrier than our vets, and that is a very very important thing.

-Inferno

Rangers Review | No Comments »

Gee, what can we take out of that period?? When you take 6 penalties in one period through about 13 minutes, you have some SERIOUS discipline problems.? Really most of the calls were good, or good enough to where I can understand why they were called.? Tom Renney, you gotta bust some heads my friend!? Really, I am unsurprised at how poorly this team has played, I sound like a broken record all the time, but this moronic play has really been the problem for this team, and while they may have played 1 not so moronic period so far, they still have had a terrible game when you look at just how bad that second period was.

-Inferno

Rangers Review | No Comments »

Well, I missed all the Ranger news today between 3:30 and about the 10 minute mark as I was out buying an entertainment center for my 65″ big screen. (I know, you are desperate to get more info on the entertainment center, but now is not the time ) Regardless, the 10 minutes I did manage to see looked a bit better than usual.? Rangers were playing pretty smart hockey, and had some excellent puck movement, and not as many dangerous passes (I dont think they will ever get to the point where they completely stop those annoying cross ice, through 2 guys, passes).? I also noticed how much more at east Rachunek looked w/o having to deal with Ozolinsh.? Its amazing how 1 bad player can effect an entire team.

Id like to see more of the same in the 2nd!

-Inferno

Rangers Review | No Comments »

As you know by now Sandis Ozolinsh (now that he is finally gone the Bozo nickname can be retired) has been waived by the new york rangers.

My thoughts as seen on hfboards.com :

finally, something to point to as accountability.

Im very, VERY happy with this move.

getting younger, and really, no way can pock be worse defensively or offensively, so anything he brings to the table will be better than bozo who just stunk.

Good move Renney, Good move Sather, Inferno is happy.

-Inferno

Rangers Review | No Comments »

Am I surprised the Rangers continued to play brain dead hockey? No.? Am I surprised the team that is known for taking advantage of mistakes blew us out of the water? No. Am I surprised Renney still has a job?? Yes.

I dont know how else I can spell this out.? The Rangers have been doing the same things wrong, for nearly 60 games now (counting last season and the playoffs).? They simply do not know how to make the right play.? They dont know how to use the boards, they dont know how to execute odd man rushes, they dont know how to cycle properly, they dont know how to reposition themselves to protect for breaks, they dont know how to do, ANYTHING to win hockey games.

Im not surprised, but I am depressed.

-Inferno

Rangers Review | No Comments »