Between the 2nd and 3rd my site died, hence why there was no thoughts on that period, so here goes, though my flu infested brain is having trouble remembering everything. I was surprised that both Gomez and Drury scored a goal in the same game. I think that may be the first time that has happened all season, though don’t quote me on that. Rangers looked to have a definitive game plan, definitely attributable to this blog.
Ok, that was a joke 
Last time the Rangers played the Isles I mentioned that the Rangers foolishly kept trying hard-arounds rather than straight corner dump ins. Tonight they adjusted to Dipietro’s superior stick handling game and effectively neutralized it by doing just that. They also got men in front of the net, and got second and third tries at pucks.
Rangers actually managed to score 4 goals in this game by having men in front of the net or by rushing the net for rebounds. Unfortunately one was scored by Betts into his own net who miraculously saw himself with the puck and an open net and put it in.
I guess you can’t really blame the guy, he has what, 20 goals in 208 career NHL games, so it’s not like he finds himself staring at a wide open net all that often.
Regarding the Comrie/Orr play, i consider myself a fairly unbiased person, well, moreso than most Ranger fans.
i thought the play by Orr was deserving of a 2 minute penalty, but definitely nothing more. it was a late hit, and Comrie turtled making it worse than it should have been. if Comrie stood up, it would have been a normal hit.
imho that play should have been Orr 2 minutes for roughing, Witt 2 minutes for roughing and Simon 2 minutes for roughing and a 10 minute misconduct.
Thats just me though.
The key to this game though was Henrik Lundqvist, again. Yes, I know we put up 4 goals, and only gave up 1 legit goal against, but Henrik had to keep this team in it during a 7 minute stretch in the 3rd with the score 3-2 and the Islanders getting about 5 or 6 glorious point blank chances culminating with Hilbert missing a literal wide open net with nobody around him.
Finally, I think we all know what the key to Jaromir Jagr is. Keep Martin Straka on his line. When Straka is there, Jaromir THINKS he can be his self of old. Dominating the play with and without the puck. Without Straka, Jagr seems to try to play a more passive game, getting everyone involved in the play, but really just turning the puck over. When Jagr wants to be Jagr, he is an elite player, when he wants to be Gretzky, (setting guys up) he just turns the puck over. Jagr is the key to this offense. If he gets going, the other teams have to shut him down, if they are super focused on him, it lets the other lines get going. Its like the Buffalo Sabers were last year, except we have that 1 player you have to key on all the damn time. Oh yeah, and we can play defense.
