Just finished watching both of these games back to back. Way to spend a Friday night aye? Anyway, Heres what I think. Henrik Lundqvist outplayed Wade Dubliesomething and then Wade Duliesomething outplayed Henrik. What more is there to say? The Rangers played about the same in both games. Sloppy at times, dominating at others. But the difference, at least to me, was the goaltending. Henrik was fantastic in the first game, and pretty good last night. While losing to the Islanders is never a good thing, its great that the Rangers can still control their destiny on Sunday by winning in regulation against the Devils. Do so, and this team that at one point could have been a lottery drafter, will have home ice advantage. What a difference a few months make aye?
One of the most noticeable players is Backman. I like what I see at times, and at others he just disgusts me. When he has the puck on his stick, he has the confidence, and the skill to make some really good plays. But when he is in any danger at all of receiving a hit, he chickens out and rushes plays. To put it mildly, he is a soft player. And for a big guy, it seems doubly bad. At least Marek Malik can take a hit to make a play, Backman doesnt seem to do that. However Backman does seem like hes a better puck mover, and offensive force as compared to Malik. I guess thats why Malik is sitting, and Backman is playing….That, and the fact that Malik is gone after this year, whereas Backman will be back.
It also seems like the team is unstoppable when they play with aggression. But when they are passive, they look as weak as any team in the league. This is the Avery factor everyone goes nuts about. The team can be lifeless out there, but with Avery in the lineup, you know youre going to get 16-18 minutes of pure energy and aggression. This needs to be there shift in and shift out. It worked for a while when they had the formula of 1 Vet + 1 player in the prime of his career + 1 kid on each line, but these new lines just don’t seem to have that kick. I don’t see why Tom Renney can’t go back to the formula that worked…
Avery Dubinsky Jagr
Dawes Gomez Shanahan
Straka Drury Callahan
Prucha Betts Sjostrom.
That looks like a Stanley Cup caliber lineup to me.
By the way, giving up a 3 on 5 goal? Where to begin. It should never happen. I mean, clearly it does happen, but it really should never happen. You should never find yourself in a situation where 3 men get beat by 1. Yeah, it was an unfortunate hop, but you know what….it should NEVER happen. I guess what I am trying to say is….IT SHOULD NEVER HAPPEN!
I am glad to see that my hiatus as brought about a resurgence in the Rangers power play. It probably has to do with playing an AHL team these past 2 games, but they have looked great out there every time. Sure, they only scored 2 PP goals in the 2 games, but it easily could have been more. Dublawhatever played great, you can’t take that away from him. Hes got a very strong glove hand, and the Rangers still havent learned to shoot stick side on him.
By the way, to answer the NYRangerscast question from a few podcasts ago (yes, I listened to the guys in Los Angeles. It was good to get some normalcy in my life), I have no problems whatsoever playing the Devils in the first round. In fact, that is who I want to play. Not because I think we will have an easy time beating them…far from it, I expect a 7 game series, with every game being the 2-1 variety, but you know what? If we go all the way, I want to go through the Devils to do it. It would feel….hollow to go all the way and not have another Devils squad trampled down along the way.