Typically when a team plays against a bunch of individuals, the team will win. However when one individual plays out of his freaking mind, the norm doesn’t always apply. Today we saw just that. Henrik Lundqvist stole us a point, a point we really didn’t deserve sans his play.
There were a bunch of mitigating factors that added up to the Rangers getting a point in this game. The positives were the play of Scotty Gomez (not counting his assassination attempt on Michal Rozsival) and Henrik Lundqvist. Both were outstanding, both were huge reasons we won this game.
The negative side of things is much longer. Let’s start with the play of Marek Malik. Who was burned twice on the power play for goals against, and did everything in his power to give this game away, from penalties to idiotic passes, Marek really ran the gamut in this game for reasons to get kicked off the team. Let’s talk about the play during the final 10 seconds of this game that nearly lost it in OT for us. Malik should have just held the puck on that play. No Bruins were in sight, and we were a tired team at that point, we had to change and get new personnel on the ice, and by the time that happened the game would be over. I don’t know why the hell he shot it. To be fair its not his fault he turned the puck over on the shot, because his stick broke clean in half. it is his fault he turned the puck over with his decision making.
Nobody should question Maliks ability, hes got 2nd pairing ability. Its his decision making I hate, and its why my #1 priority right now is getting a reliable #6 defenseman on this damn team.
Then we have the play of Jaromir Jagr. He did not play a good game folks. Yes, he had a goal and 2 assists, but the goal was a gimme when Chara handed him the puck with nobody between Jagr and Thomas, and the 2 assists were of the secondary variety that really weren’t the reason we scored, it was the plays after his passes that were the reason we scored. So don’t look at this score sheet and call it a good game. Jagr had a ton of turnovers, and looked to be skating with a walrus (Chara?) on his back the whole damn night day. He had no legs for the bulk of this game, and really was a non factor.
Next we have the refs. I know I have been bitching about the refs for the past few games, but today might be the topping on the cake. Rangers get called for 3 penalties that were simply not penalties. Nowhere in this universe should they be penalties. In fact those 3 penalties really should have been 1 power play for. The 2 slashing calls were just puke worthy. We’re not even talking about love taps here folks, we’re talking incidental contact of near invisible proportions. Then the call on Jagr in OT had me get out of my chair screaming a steam of expletives with lots of F’s in there, and nearly breaking my TV. I could not believe they had the audacity to call that. Not only was Jagr forced into Thomas by the defenseman on that play with his positioning and leaning into Jagr, but the defenseman had his stick, clear in Jagrs midsection, ACTUALLY hooking and interfering with Jagr, which also caused Jagr to smash into Thomas. Somehow the most blatant hook Ive seen in years goes uncalled, but Jagr gets a goalie interference call there?! If I was on the bench right there, I would make a statement. You’d see stick go a-flying, and definitely an ejection.
Sure, I would have been down 2 men in the OT, but at that point, I think making the statement of:
enough is enough with this effing horrible officiating
Might be more important than the extra point. The Rangers can’t use the bad reffing as an excuse, but getting bad reffing for almost 15 straight games in a row will cause even the best of teams to lose precious points, and we are a team who do not have the buffer to be able to absorb those hits.
The Rangers did not play well defensively, they did not play particularly well offensively (yes they scored 3 goals, but there was little to no sustained offensive pressure, particularly playing against nearly the entire Boston Bruins AHL affiliate because of injuries and illness.), but they got spectacular goaltending.
Sometimes the individual can beat the team, but relying on this is what has gotten the Rangers into this mess to begin with.
