Never, NEVER be disappointed when your team gives up zero goals through regulation and overtime. Never, NEVER be disappointed when your team gives up less than 20 shots through 65 minutes of hockey. Chin up folks, we deserved to win this one based on our defensive play alone. Henrik did make one or two amazing saves, but Fernandez wasnt bad either.

Another positive is how well the kids played. Our best forward line was probably Prucha Dubinsky Callahan (when they played together, when it was Betts in there, the line was invisible), our best defenseman was Marc Staal, and our young goalie gave up zero goals.

The Rangers played Ranger hockey. Like it or not, this will not be a team that will win games 9-7. This will be a team that wins games 3-1, 4-2, 2-1, etc. I loved the way the slot was always blanketed with Rangers, how you never saw a Bruin all alone in front of the net, and how the Rangers didnt over commit to the guy with the puck behind the net. We also saw 6 defenseman who played very well…yes, that includes one Marek Malik, who was a rock in his own zone for the full 65 minutes. If your D plays like that, then you will be just fine.

Also, in the excuse making department, let’s not forget we were playing without Straka, Avery, and Hossa, all of which were expected to be key offensive contributors to this team, and play top line or second line minutes. Thats a lot of loss to take on. Another thing to remember, we are playing a lot of young kids. Callahan, Staal, Dubinsky, Girardi, and Dawes do not have a single year of experience, and are all playing key, big time minutes. Then you have Claude Julien who is notorious for his defensive brand of hockey. It is what it is folks, a game we played well in our own zone, but couldn’t muster much in their zone.

I’ll take games like this every single day of the week over what we saw on Thursday.

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Last game, the Rangers gave up 5 humiliating goals most of which could be attributed to laziness, or a complete breakdown in systems play. Today the Rangers have given up 0 goals. Yes, theyve scored 0 themselves, however you can definitely see the commitment to making safe, smart plays. Its not quite New Jersey Devils hockey, because the Rangers aren’t just sitting back and trying to counter, they are attacking the man with the puck, and are applying pressure. What you are seeing is two teams who won’t give an inch. I’m surprised how well the Bruins are playing to be honest. I haven’t seen them this year yet, but you can see Claude Juliens style of defending in full force.

I like what I am seeing out here with the exception of the refs. Petr Prucha takes a left hand punch to the face 3 feet from the ref, and nothing is called. Then Fedor Tyutin gets his stick yanked out of his hands, and he gets called. That is just unacceptable. Yes the refs can’t get them all, but those 2 were pretty damn blatant, and were right in front of the refs, not away from the play.

Still though, with all that said, I like what I am seeing. Ive said it before, I’m more concerned when a team this star-studded is giving up 5+ goals a game like on Thursday. When they arent giving up many goals, then I am happy, no matter what their record is. That means they are making the smart plays, and are committing to what the coach has to say and is instilling in them.

Remember…The offense will come, its the defense that we should worry about.

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First and foremost, here was my reaction to that save by Henrik:

Anyways, I really liked what I saw in that period. It was the commitment to defense, and all 5 players playing all 3 zones. THAT is what I want to start seeing on a consistent basis. Even Jaromir, who I was furious at during the last game, came back strong to help out the forwards. It was a good period for the Rangers who played 30% of the period shorthanded. The 2 penalties that they took were polar opposites. The double minor on Jagr was totally accidental, and its a penalty I have no problem whatsoever killing. The penalty on Mara was horrendous. I mean, what the hell was he doing out there? It was like he knew he could get the puck, but was going to take a hit, so instead he slows up, says, HEY REF, LOOK HERE! then takes the most blatant holding penalty ive probably ever seen. Crap like that ticks me off. I’d bench him if Pock and Strudwick weren’t so damn terrible (so far this year).

The best player, by far and away in that period was Henrik Lundqvist. He made one of the most amazing saves youll ever see. It was a jaw dropper for sure. If you missed it, make sure you check the highlight reels, because that one is going to be all over it. The second best player in the period was Marc Staal. The kid is quickly becoming a solid dependable NHL defenseman….and even more, hes turning into a star defenseman right before our eyes. Good god the kid has a great head between his shoulders. Did you see the wicked hit he took? That impressed the heck out of me, because you know he realized he was going to get demolished, and he still made a picture perfect outlet pass and absorbed the hit. That is what star defenseman do, make the perfect plays under duress.

This was a solid period, I think we’ll see an even hungrier Rangers team build on this even more during the 2nd and 3rd.

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Im missing 1 or 2 vids, but I cant seem to find the originals unfortunately. This should be the rest of what I had uploaded to my old account.

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Now that I have had a bit of time to soak in this loss, I actually find myself exhausted. So here goes an abrupt post game post, that will likely be more scattered than usual.

The Rangers didn’t deserve to win. Not only did they play like absolute dog crap for 50 minutes, but they seemed to flat out not give a crap that they were playing like that. Chris Drury, Scotty Gomez, and worst of all Jaromir Jagr just didnt come to play. Jaromir had the worst gave Ive ever seen him have. EVER. He was a flat out abomination, if you could only see it live, you could see him dog it on each and every shift. He would slowly, and grudgingly come back to his own zone only if the pressure was sustained long enough for him to make it back there. He repeatedly left drop passes for the Thrashers to take the other way, and he consistently tried to pass through 2 or 3 players, or take on 2 or 3 players instead of being patient and letting the play develop. He was so bad out there I wanted do jump on the ice and strangle him. Jaromir, you are the captain, how about you act like it?

Then, to make matters worse, Thomas Pock has about as bad a game as a guy can have. Consistently beaten one on one….or frankly in any situation, he was flat footed, and beaten. His passes were consistently intercepted, or into the skates of his teammates. While watching the game live, it looked like he was on the ice for 4 of the goals against. Thomas, if youre going to go to the press and whine and moan about a lack of playing time, you sure as hell better play better than an ECHLer when given the chance. Pock was so bad I actually found myself missing Malik and Strudwick….yes, thats how freaking bad he was.

The sad part (or I suppose encouraging part) was that the only 2 players who had good games were Marc Staal and Brandon Dubinsky. Literally every other player SUCKED out there. Nigel Dawes did nothing, the vets did nothing, the coach did nothing, we just SUCKED.

You guys know me well enough to know, I dont give a rats ass if we win or lose games, what I care about is how we play the game, the effort level I see, the “smarts” that I see, and folks, I was infuriated big time with the crap I saw out there tonight. Ive been watching Rangers hockey for a long time now, and I cant remember a poorer puck support effort that what we saw tonight. For a team that was supposedly practicing and working on how to play as a unit, they sure as hell looked disheveled and haphazard out there. The puck support was at an all time low, with the team spread out all over the ice, and the “5 in the picture” philosophy abandoned with regularity.

There were only 2 minor things I saw that made me happy. One was that the team finally got pissed enough at the Thrashers physical, and possibly dirty (live it looked clean, but enough people on the message boards have said otherwise for me to at least want to see some replays) play that they started to fight back. That is a good thing. It shows that were aren’t complete pushovers. Secondly we showed some life down the stretch. Generated some offense, and actually showed that we give a crap about these games. Unfortunately doing that for the last 5-10 minutes of a game won’t win you many brownie points with this blogger.

Well what do you know, This post wasnt that short after all. I guess its a testament to just how freaking pissed off I am right now.

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Got done uploading a few more vids…

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Here is the vid I did for Petr Prucha a long long long while ago. As you know by now, YouTube banned my account because of the Family Guy stuff I had on there, so I have to re-upload all this stuff all over again. I figured I would share the vids one at a time as I do. Im almost embarrassed by this one. Its fairly crappy.

Here is the infamous Marek Malik between the legs shootout goal. Also one of my first videos ever (actually if im not mistaken it is the first video I ever did). This one isnt that great either.

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So I have been communicating with Steve over on NYRangersCast.com about various Rangers related stuff. Here is a message I sent him earlier that I though you guys might enjoy reading.

I wanted to talk for a second about why the Rangers are going to be a very good team. Want to know why?

Because of the Ottawa Senators.

Say wha?

Heres why. One thing that really caught my eye when watching the Senators and Rangers play, is that the Rangers game kind mirrors the Senators game in certain aspects. While the Senators tend to drop back and trap a lot more than the Rangers do, what they do VERY well is something Tom Renney has been preaching for 3 years, and something you saw them do last year down the stretch, and are already doing fairly well this year to start of the season. What I am talking about is “5 in the picture”. Its something the Senators do so damn effectively with, i hope you agree, a slightly less talented overall team than us. They effectively use their defenseman to sustain the offensive pressure, and use their forwards to provide defensive pressure. One hand feeds the other till you drive the opponents absolutely apeshit.

The problem the Rangers are having now seem to circulate on 3 different aspects, 2 of which are entirely correctable, and the third probably is as well.

1)Key defenseman just arent holding their own weight. These 3 are Jason Strudwick (who should never lace up his skates for an AHL team leave alone the new york rangers), Paul Mara (I attribute this to a lack of confidence) and Marek Malik who has been talked about ad-nauseum

2)A lack of chemistry between Jaromir Jagr, and everyone else not named Marcel Hossa. Right now Jagr is having trouble staying in synch with everyone else. I think the key to fixing him may be doing a lineup like this:
Hossa Straka Jagr
Drury Gomez Shanahan
Prucha Dubinsky Callahan
Hollweg Betts Orr

And then slowly changing the lines till they get into a more conventional attack formation with Drury and Gomez as your first two centers. Yes, I know Drury was brought in to be a top 2 center, but sometimes you need to worry about what actually works, instead of what should work.

3)Key players just arent finishing. I hate to sound like a kool-aid drinking ranger fan who just spouts off what the team is saying, but I happen to agree with them. I would be WAY more worried if they just werent getting any chances at all. The fact that they are getting chances, but arent burying them do not worry my whatsoever, so long as the team keeps 5 in the picture.

2 and 3 should take care of themselves, but point 1 is a bit trickier. My solution is this, trade Malik. I know, not the most original idea, but its an idea worth exploring nonetheless. Honestly Malik has some value, and his salary is still pretty low and it is an expiring contract. I think if you look hard enough you may be able to bring a key piece back (perhaps an Adam Foote if a deal can be made on both sides that makes sense), or perhaps even someone elses reclamation project (an unpalatable one to most that I would do is for Nikolai Zherdev, whose speed would be insane along side a guy like Gomez). Getting rid of Malik may be addition by subtraction.

So there you have it, I’m not worried about the Rangers because they preach what we already know works (5 in the picture–Ottawa), and the issues they have are correctable, and should be corrected just by playing more games together.

Also, I will NOT be posting between period posts during the Thrashers game, as I will be attending it live in person. If there are any Atlanta area Ranger fans that want to stop by and say hello, I will be in Section 202, Row F, in seat 20 or 21. Expect post game thoughts late after the game, probably around 11-12.

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Forget about the fact that if Marek Malik doesnt suit up for this one, we probably pick up a point (despite being severely outplayed by a superior Ottawa club). Forget about the fact that the Rangers once again played terrible on their powerplay, including an extended 5 on 3 where they spent the first 30 seconds trying to get into the zone. Instead I want you to remember this. The Rangers have played 5 games this year, and have lost twice to the best team in the NHL. Don’t freak out…yet.

We are seeing snippets and flashes of greatness, but again the suffocating defense of the Senators made us look quite pedestrian. There is a lot to be happy about, especially since if you take away a 35 second portion of the first game against the Sens, and a 52 second portion of this game, the Rangers have shut out the beasts of the east. Thats something isnt it? Isnt it? Come on, I need something to feel good about.

Meh, you’re no fun.

Anyway, I’m going to cut this short since I have to get going. I leave you with something I said on the message boards I visit.

This team will never win a cup with Marek Malik on the blueline. I believe Malik was on the ice for 2 of the 3 goals at least, and on both of them he was responsible, by either flubbing that play on his own blueline, or by missing an assignment.

With that said, im not even talking about tonight. Hes been horrendous with his decision making for years now. hes got a phenomenal overall game, but you CAN NOT have a guy that is good for one brainfart a game that ends up in your net. You just cant have it. Id rather have a guy who played a crappier overall game, but who didnt make that 1 idiotic mistake a game.

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Remember how I said the Senators looked sickeningly good in the first? Well that continued into the second, where they, once again, severely outplayed us. Its a testament to Henrik that we have only give up 3 goals. It really should be a lot more. A whole lot more.

Rangers tried to run-n-gun to start off the period, and I knew it would kick us in the ass after all is said and done. Our defense isnt even remotely good enough to play chicken with a team like Ottawa, not by a long shot.

Speaking of defenseman, I want to make a bold prediction….

This team will NEVER win a Stanley Cup with a guy like Marek Malik on the team. I know he does a lot of good things, but the stupidity of this man is beyond reprehensible. He needs to be gone, NOW.

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