The Good:
Hugh Jessiman, and Scotty Gomez. Both looked really solid when they saw the ice. Gomez was very creative and the play seemed to run through him, rather than through Jagr, which was quite bizarre to watch. Overall, offensively the Rangers looked very good. They moved the puck well, they had guys in front of the net, they got the puck to the high traffic zones, and they had a lot of movement. And oh yeah, Colton Orr broke Boulerice’s face, thats also a good thing.
The Bad:
The Rangers played mediocre at best in the neutral zone. They looked hesitant to dump the puck in at times, and they just flat out misconnected on some passes.
The Really Really Ugly:
The Rangers D looked every bit as bad as the “pundits” have been saying this offseason. I’m not sure what it is, but Pock, Rozsival, Baranka, Tyutin…All of them just looked flat out bad. Not to mention the forwards were vacating the zone WAY too quickly. This is what we saw early last year, when the forwards don’t come back and play D, the Rangers defense wilts badly. Jagr, Baranka, Rozsival, and Pock were guilty of some very bad turnovers.
I really didn’t like what I saw, but it looked correctable. The effort was there, they just weren’t playing smart hockey.
-Inferno
