With tonight’s 3-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres, the New York Rangers have not registered more than two goals in their last five contests. I don’t know what to say, really, as the effort was there for the Blueshirts, but the conversion was not. Granted Miller had a great game, he was not pressured consistently and when the Rangers did have those golden opportunities, he came up big and shut them down. Miller was definitely a factor, but the Blueshirts had their chances and did not capitalize.
Derek Roy kicked off the four-goal first period by poking a puck through the legs of Henrik Lundqvist during a scramble in the crease. On that play, the defense simply needs to clear the crease, and they did not. Yes, they all collapsed to the net, but none of them went for the puck. New York then answered with back-to-back powerplay tallies. On the first, Gaborik fed Ryan Callahan with a perfect one-timer pass, which Ryan roofed for his sixth of the year. Gaborik then followed that up with a goal (22 on the season) on the 4 on 3 powerplay, when he walked in and snapped a wrister past Miller to make it 2-1 at that point.
Towards the end of the period, Henrik Lundqvist was unable to control a bobbling puck and Patrick Kaleta found it and buried it to bring the Sabres and Rangers to a 2-2 tie heading into the intermission. That is the way it remained until midway through the second period, when a bouncing puck hopped over the stick of Kotalik and sent Kaleta on the breakaway. Kaleta ended up beating Hank over the glove (where else?) with a wrist-shot, which eventually turned out to be the game winner.
The Rangers pushed hard in the final stanza to tie the game up, outshooting the Sabres 10-7 in the period, but again, no conversion. Give the Sabres credit, however, as they played a tight defensive game in the ladder half of the third. Now there was a controversial move by head coach John Tortorella on the final powerplay of the game, which was dreadful I might add. Torts elected to put Chris Drury at the point instead of Ales Kotalik, who has the biggest slap shot on the team. Well, as a result, the Blueshirts had no shots on goal and did nothing but pass around in a circle. I do not know if it was done as punishment for allowing Kaleta past him on the shorthanded goal, but whatever the case may be, yet another bad call by Tortorella, who claims he went with his gut—way to make coaching decisions.
Henrik Lundqvist, who made 29 saves in the tilt, played well despite the misplay on the first Kaleta goal. He made some big saves late in the game and was able to keep things close, but once again, the offense did not get the job done. I could only imagine the frustration being built up in the head of Henrik Lundqvist, because this is just not fair to him.
I thought Marc Staal may have played one of his better games of the season tonight. He was physical, he played well in his own zone, and had two shots on net. In fact, Staal has looked a bit better over the past week or so, implying that he may be turning things around here.
Marian Gaborik, Ryan Callahan, and Christopher Higgins all showed emotion in their game and skated with a purpose. Higgins has been one of the better players for the Rangers for about five straight games now. As Dave Maloney said on the MSG broadcast about fifty times, Higgins is beginning to realize that he needs to base his game on physicality and effort, much like Callahan does.
As for Gaborik, he looked more like himself in this one. He was all over the ice, had four shots on goal, and played a big part in both Ranger goals. Gabs did a much better job of finding the open ice than he has as of late and it paid off. Unfortunately, there was not much beyond these three forwards on offense for New York.
The Rangers will have three straight losses hanging over their heads as they enter a big week against teams that have completely turned things around when comparing this season to last. On Monday, the Blueshirts will be hosting the Atlanta Thrashers at MSG. That will be followed by a back-to-back home and home with the New York Islanders on Wednesday and Thursday. Both teams are currently ahead of the Rangers in the standings.
(Images courtesy of AP Photo)
Saturday, December 12, 2009
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3 comments:
I would also like to add that D Ilkka Heikkinen only received 8:04 of ice time, whicle C Erik Christensen had only 6:01. If Torts wants a good look at these guys like he says, he needs to give them a bit more ice time than they are getting.
The NYR last power play, the one in the clutch, reveals yet again what is wrong: No system whatsoever. Everyone's power play is based on the principle of forcing the short-handed team to play the shell game. This is done by quick, sharp puck movement followed by player movement to disrupt the organization of the defense and thus create shot opportunities. Without substantial lateral puck movement, defending is a walk in the park. In the closing moments of the 3rd period last night, the NYR gave the Sabres a walk in the park. Now we all know that these players have already forgotten more about hockey and hockey tactics than most of us will ever know, so this is a coaching problem. It probably begins with the constant shifting of combinations, then continues to the noticeable lack of grit anywhere on the team (maybe Stall will become an exception to this if properly coached). If this is the "process" that we always here when coach really doesn't know what to say, then the process stinks along with the coaching and management of this team.
Yes, you make a good point. Everyone was standing still and just passing back and fourth. The only thing the Sabres pk unit had to do was face the player with the puck and block the passing lanes, and that allowed the Blueshirts nothing. This was the same problem that was present when Perry Pearn ran the powerplay in the Renney years.
What baffles me is that the first powerplay when Callahan scored, the executed perfectly. You see three sabres all collapse to one side, so Cally shoots right to the slot where he is wide open and Gabs feeds him for the one-timer. It was perfectly executed, yet in the third period they do nothing close to that; no movement at all. In addition to the fact that there was no threat from the point with Kotalik on the bench.
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