So, about 2 hours before game time I decide to go with my brother and take the trek to Atlanta (I am in a suburb about 45 miles north), even though I have been pretty disenfranchised with the Rangers play as of late. I decided showing my team support in a semi-hostile building is worth the chance of seeing another putrid performance. And while the team didnt exactly lay an egg out there, they really did not play all that great. They gave up another 5 goals (yes, I am counting the one that was waived off, to me it looked legit), and probably should have given up a 6th if not for a mind blowing, make your jaw drop, make several thousand Thrasher fans near me shake their heads in disbelief save made by Vally. You know the play I am talking about, where he sprawled to make a stop on the goal line. The team was just sloppy out there, again. And Marc Staal had some truly great plays, and some ridiculously terrible plays in this game, including one stretch where he whiffed on a one-timer, then failed to keep the puck in the zone, then turned the puck over for a partial breakaway, then didn’t skate back with all his might on said play. Ouch Marc, you can’t do things like that on this level. I hope this was a growing pain, because I can’t stomach too many more plays like that.
The midget line of Drury, Callahan, and Prucha show energy, but not much else (to me). They are consistently smashed all over the ice, and turn the puck over at said junctures. I think we need to split that trio up. Move Hossa to that line, and Prucha or Cally up.
Another thing that was very noticable to me was that the Rangers D can be VERY easily beaten with speed outside. If you take the puck to them, then cut to the boards, you lose them. If you try to cut back to the middle, the support picks the player up, and since we aren’t an overly physical group, even when we catch a player against the boards when they try to do that, they aren’t left plastered to the boards in a comical Wile-E-Coyote type display.
Another thing that was very very clear to me in this game, is this team just does not skate away from the puck. If they have the puck, or are in the vicinity, they work very very hard, if they are not, the coast. I know a lot of teams do that, but it’s not something I like to see championship caliber teams do…..unbelievably there was one noticable exception, Marcel Hossa. Say what you want about the guy (and lord knows I have said my share), the guy works very very hard, shift in and shift out, with the puck, without the puck, and in all aspects of the game.
I was terribly disappointed with Valliquettes goaltending tonight. Despite the miraculous save, he gave up 2 goals that appeared to me to be super super softies (goal 1, he directed a rebound a-la Marc Andre Fleury, and goal 3 was just….beyond words). Now granted I was sitting on the complete opposite side of the rink, in the very very last row, so I can’t be 100% sure till I watch the Rangers in 60 telecast.
Now a few final things. I have to share 2 stories with you guys, first and foremost 1 row in front of me and 2 seats to the right sat a 19-20 year old Ranger fan, who kept me laughing all night long. Not because of some witty commentary, nor because he made an ass of himself heckling….no, truth be told the guy kept laughing….laughing like a schoolgirl after sucking on a tank full of helium, each and every time Jagr touched the puck and did his usual puck control game. Words can’t describe how freaking funny it was. Like “tee-hee-tee-hee” for 10-20 seconds at a time, my brother and I were just dying, and he had no clue why.
Secondly upon exiting the stadium a Thrasher fan came up behind me and shouted..
Give me a T!
10 seconds later someone gave him a pity “T”
Give me an H!
25 seconds later he got a pity H…
Then he just stopped his cheer since it appeared Thrasher fans didn’t have the team spirit, so anyway, after seeing his chant die away, I decided to yell out…
What’s that spell??!?! TTTHHHHHHHHHH
Suffice it to say I got an earfull from some very unhappy Thrasher fans who couldn’t believe I had the gall to make fun of a Thrasher fan after yet another humiliating defeat at their hands.
Meh, you can’t please everyone.
