Let’s see, Rangers were coming off of a dominating win, the Sharks are the best road team in the universe, the Rangers are smaller, the Sharks are bigger, the Rangers have been playing up and down hockey all year, the Sharks have been one of the better teams all year, Rangers havent beaten the Wast yet, the Sharks have killed the East so far.. So I probably wasn’t way off base in thinking this was a game we were going to lose by a wide margin.
Well, in that classic David VS Goliath scenario, our Davids out Goliathed the Goliaths. We threw more hits, played a more physically aggressive game, used size, speed, and a relentless pestering forecheck to cause turnovers, and we played pretty strong in front of our goalie who slammed the door shut outside of one saveable goal. All in all, a resounding success.
But here is where a big distinction needs to get through into the Rangers players skulls. THEY HAVE NOT ARRIVED. If they think they have become hot shit all of a sudden, well then, you can expect another 2 or 3 game losing streak after a nice little 7 of 8 point effort these past few games. They need to keep up their intensity, their hunger, and their drive. To steal a Renneyism they need to stay engaged. Its very important to this teams possible success. Because like Steve Gelbs from the NYRangersCast, I too feel this team could go all the way to the finals, not because of how good they are, but because of how flawed EVERY team in the East is right now. But none of that means anything unless they continue to play like this. They can not relent. The big thing we heard in the post game show was that we plays 6 strong periods in a row. That has happened maybe what…twice this year? That shows an inability to stay consistent. If the Rangers want to do anything, they need to keep this streak going. Win like 12 in a row, make a statement, and help nullify the games in hand everyone else has. Because lets face it, if the other teams win their games in hand, we find ourselves outside of the playoff picture right now.
By the way, did anyone else want to give John Giannone a forehead slap after he kept calling Ryan Callahan the #1 star in the game during his post game interview? Correct me if im wrong, but Chris Drury was the #1 star, not Cally. Woops!
The kids have been leading this team as of late, which is an encouraging sign, because that means if some of these vets get going, we just might go on an extended winning streak.
But let me be clear, I am NOT calling this, or any of our other recent games the turnaround game of the season. At this point, I dont think you can have one defining turn around game. What you need to do is have a turnaround series of games. Because at this point, that 1 game means nothing without the games after it, and we have seen the Rangers faceplant far too often after supposed turnaround games.