Keep on rolling.

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Look who is moving up in the world…

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There is a cliche that’s thrown around more than Aaron Voros when he attempts to fight. It’s that “good teams win games like this” or some sort of derivation meaning basically the same thing. But, if you really think about it, if good teams really do win games like that, then the New York Rangers from last season must have been one of the greatest teams ever assembled, because really, 80% of their wins were basically like this. The formula was repeated to the point of maddening predictability last year. Play like crap for 2 or 3 periods. Let Henrik Lundqvist make some ridiculous jaw dropping saves, and somehow emerge from the contest with 2 points in your pocket and a seriously baffled opposition.

Don’t make any mistakes here, what we saw tonight was frighteningly close to the New York Rangers hockey from last year with basically the same result. The better team last night left without a point to speak of. But, here is where I think that cliche comes from. I think it comes from a place where, the truly good teams win games that are not like this significantly more than they win games that are like this. So far this season, the Rangers have inarguably deserved every point they earned coming into this contest. Considering that every single opposition with the exception of the Leafs were either playoff teams last year, or are currently one of the top 8 teams in their respective conferences (including the Kings), that is nothing to scoff at. The Rangers have beaten some very talented teams, and they have done so convincingly more often than not. So, while I would be a little weary to buy into the “good teams win games like this” mentality, I feel confident in saying that, the Rangers are a good team, whether they win games like these or not. With that said, there is a reason you pay Henrik Lundqvist more than any other goalie in the league (at least the last time I checked), and that is to win you games like this…when the team in front of him just doesn’t have their A game. So perhaps a better cliche should be…teams with good goalies win games like this. Eh, it just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

Getting back to the game at hand, I felt the Rangers won this game thanks to basically a few simple things, and these things can most certainly carry you through periods of time where you just don’t have your legs (and as someone who does play hockey in a few leagues, let me tell you, I totally understand what it’s like to not have your legs and have to fight through it, it is incredibly difficult to do).

So yeah, even when you don’t have it, if you can get those 3 things listed above, you will win these games with a fair bit of consistency. The key here though is to not play games like this to begin with. Part of that is the schedule, part of that is not having your legs. Let’s see how the Rangers come out against what will be undoubtedly one extremely hungry, albeit a pathetically unskilled Toronto Maple Leaf team.

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What a difference a year makes. This is one, very, very good hockey team. I’m not sure when the last time I felt this was, but this team’s upper limit seems to be never ending right now. Boy they look strong. Let’s also not forget that they have already beaten the Caps, Devils, and Ducks, 3 of the best teams in hockey last year, and they only lost to the Penguins by 1 goal.

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Before you read this post, I want you to go ahead and play the highlights embedded here and watch them. Go ahead. I’ll wait.

Ok, done? I want you to notice a few things. First, Note that there are only 2 or 3 legit scoring chances by the Ducks in that clip. Really, that’s about all they had for the entire game. 3ish good quality scoring chances, and nothing much else. Second I want you to note the iron hit by Callahan, Redden, Gaborik, and the not videoed hit by Kotalik (he may have had 2, but I only remember 1). So the Rangers scored 2 goals (plus an empty netter), but could have easily netted another 4 just based on hitting iron which could have ballooned a 3-0 lead to a 6-0 lead (removing the E.N. goal). This is all while recognizing the J.S. Giguere played an absolutely phenomenal game and in my personal opinion was the best player on the ice for either team.

Now that, is domination.

Granted, a big part of that is because the Ducks played flat, and the Rangers were on the top of their game. But I don’t think there are many teams that would have been able to go toe to toe with us tonight the way we played. Rangers were all over the puck, they had contributions from all over the roster, and all 6 defenseman were absolutely superb in all facets of the game. The Rangers didn’t take many penalties, they cashed in with 2 more power play goals bringing their power play percentage up to 20% despite starting the season 0-11 or whatever it was. They are starting to show you flashes in all facets. Defense, Offense, Specialty Teams, Goaltending, Coaching (don’t underestimate the importance of the timeout+tirade combination that Torts gave us against the Devils). In short, the Rangers have been winning games very differently than last year. Last year they sort of won games where you shook your head and wanted to give the points back because we really didn’t deserve them. This year the Rangers have earned everything, and frankly look like they have a whole lot more to offer.

This has been a very fun start to what can and should be a very fun season.

By the way. 3 down, 8 to go for the Yanks. Bring on the Angels.

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Anyone see the Yankee game? That was an epic display of clutch by A-Rod and Robertson. Great win, this team is playing really good right now. They never seem out of it. Never.

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After tonights game, I really have a good feeling about this club. Not because they played a particularly great game. When they weren’t taking retarded penalties they had Michal Rozsival there to have stupid turnovers. But what I really was amazed to see last night, was here was a team that had their goalie…the man who has basically carried this sad lot on his shoulders for the past several years give up a bad goal…and they didn’t lose. Just chew on that for a while. When was the last time Henrik Lundqvist gave up, not a mediocre goal, but a horrendous, ugly, awful, disgusting, no excuses whatsoever goal, and the guys in front of him actually bailed him out. Oh, and all this while playing against arguably one of the 5 best teams in the NHL.

Let’s also be clear on one thing here, the Capitals did not play their best game of the season. You don’t see the great eight have the puck on his stick, in the slot, with nobody around him for miles try a backdoor pass very often. 9999 times out of 10,000 this guy is shooting it top corner and its in the back of the net before Lundqvist can even move. The Rangers were very fortunate also that on 2 separate 5 on 3′s they managed to escape unscathed. In many ways they pulled victory from the jaws of defeat….or more accurately tried their damndest to to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory only to fail at it. However they did show a lot of guts in killing off 8 of 9 penalties, and overcoming the previously mentioned horrendous Lundqvist goal.

That’s what has me so amazed, this team overcame so much and won a huge game against an amazing team, on the road, and you can’t really say that this is one they should give back.

A few players did stand out as positives. I feel Ales Kotalik has gotten better every single game this season. He was much more active today, away from the puck, than he was at Pittsburgh. He’s starting to get it and is getting rewarded with some goals. I also felt Artem Anisimov finally do something on the puck. The kid has been absolutely superb away from the puck, but on the puck he looks hesitant, slow, and indecisive. Tonight he looked to actually make plays, and even picked up his first NHL point off a nice 3-way play from Lisin, to Anisimov and finished by Kotalik. I also felt the 5 defenseman not named Rozsival all had outstanding games, particularly Matt Gilroy who showed me a lot more on the boards than in all the previous games combined. Good on him.

Now the big question. Where the hell does Sean Avery play!?!

I guess we’ll find out Sunday.

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I don’t want to say all that much about this, since after all this is a NY Rangers blog, but the Yankees sure looked good tonight. 1 down, 10 to go.

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Beat the Twinkies!

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As you know Versus is having a pissing match with DirecTV….this means schlubs like me can’t watch the games. Now normally I would just turn to online streams, but unfortunately, I had my own game to play and couldn’t watch them. So I got screwed and wasn’t able to watch the game. I may or may not watch it, but I did see the highlights. Glad to see we won, not glad to see it was so close.

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