Uncle Daddy was terrible in this one. I’m not even just talking about the epic choke job on the Callahan goal. He was off all night. He allowed 3 very soft goals.
First goal, no deflection, from an off angle, not screened, right between the pads. No way should that have gone in, but it did.
Second goal, Uncle Daddy makes a save, then looks at the puck right in his crease as if its a hand grenade without the pin in it (Devils fans wished he looked at it like its a cheesecake the way his weight has ballooned up over the past few years), Cally sweeps in from behind the net and has a near MATTEAU moment himself.
Third goal Scotty Gomez comes in with partial control of the puck, Uncle Daddy overplays the shot on a non-shooter, leaving the entire net open for Avery. If Uncle Daddy played a bit more like the “weird” Lundqvist, he would have stayed in his net, covering the short side with his body rather than coming so far out to challenge the shooter who would never have scored from that angle. Because of that serious misplay, Avery is all alone in front and scores a goal even I could have put in.
Game…Set…Match.
3 Mistakes, game over, Rangers win.
On our end Henrik was spectacular at times, and merely lucky at others. The goal he gave up wasn’t his fault, the guy was wide open 10 feet from the net with all the time in the world to pick a spot and put the puck right in it. It’s the kind of play you see yourself with during warmups, but hardly ever during the actual game. That was all on Tyutin for not clearing the puck a few seconds earlier.
Give credit for Tom Renney. His mind games worked, even on me. I read reports that he was going to play Strudwick, and damn near pulled my hair out. Luckily he had more sense than that, and played Paul Mara who was one of the few Rangers defenseman who actually played a strong game from start to finish. All the other players, except for maybe Rozsival, looked quite sloppy at times, and hesitant at others, particularly Fedor Tyutin who looked nervous, scared, and intimidated. I am very surprised by this because Toots usually makes good plays under pressure, and rarely makes bone headed turnovers like he did there.
Are we sure Marek Malik didn’t kill Tyutin, hide his body in the shed, and skate up with his jersey on?
Eh, either way, the story is this. We played mediocre for the most part. The Devils played about as well as you can expect them to play. And we won 4-1. We should only be getting better, and they can only stay about the same. Yeah, that’s why these guys just don’t scare me. Against any other top seed in the playoffs, and we probably lose, but today, we lucked out that our opponent lacks the talent to finish on the plays they got, and their goalie pulled an epic choke job.
How bad of a choke job? Uncle Daddy refused to answer questions about it after the game. As I’ve always said, classless till the end.
Rangers number one star had to be the actual number one star of the game, Scotty Gomez. You know how much I hate his contract, but this is why he is here. He and Drury are here to win us playoff games when our other offensive firepower fails us. And win it he did. After a terrible first period, Gomez was flying up and down the ice. Making defensive plays, and offensive plays alike. He played like a man possessed. Furthermore, he played like a man who wanted to stick it to his old team. Good for him, bad for Joizee.
Game 2 on Friday, if the Rangers win that, this series is over. Rangers, one of the best home teams in the league, arent going to lose 2 of 3 home games to this team. Not on Henriks watch.
