Wednesday, February 6, 2008

27-23-6: Drowning In The Pacific

First came the joke of an effort against the Stars, then was the Phoenix embarrassment, and tonight was a debacle against the Kings. I can't wait to play the defending Stanley Cup champions (now with Teemu back) and the Sna Jose Sharks (one of the top five teams in the league). It is really difficult to find anything positive in a 4-2 game against the worst team in the NHL. I'll see what I can do:

*Ooo! Right off the bat I thought of something: being at the game I didn't have to listen to Joe Micheletti. Of course, I am watching Rangers Rewind now to double my misery, but at last I could endure the pain the first time around.

*Ranger scouts can feel better in the fact that they discovered Jason LaBarbera. The Kings goaltender played big, even bigger than his 6'3, 230 frame.

*Dane Byers did ok, at least until Blair Betts went off with a knee injury. Once Betts went down, Byers and Orr were glued to the bench. Don't worry folks, the NHL screwed up yet again and Hollweg was suspended just one game for his insane hit so he will be back. Let's just hope Bettsy will too ...

*For the Tom Renney haters out there, there was penty of good news as he showed his incompetence yet again. The Kings were a young, fast team that used both qualities to their advantage. The Rangers went down early, and instead of countering with their young, fast forwards, they used Straka and Gomez for nearly 25 minutes each, with Jagr getting 22. I didn't even realize Jagr played the second period, that is how invisible he was. Dubinsky, Dawes, Callahan and Avery all saw less than 14 minutes. Avery I understand as he was clearly frustrated out there and took a bad penalty but the other three should have played more; hell, they've earned more ice time.

*Leetch and Richter were in the building but the Rangers didn't acknowledge them. Why would they? There is no money in it ... Something to ponder: Can the Rangers be less fan friendly? I'm not so sure ...

*Well, after a nice run of spectacular efforts, Hank wasn't that great. He wasn't that bad - certainly not four goals against bad - but he didn't make any game-saving stop either. He was the victim of the Rangers bad defense, yet again, and couldn't bail them out, yet again.

*Miika Wiikman took the starting goaltender position in Hartford from Al Montoya. So that begs the question, should we deal Monty? And, even more importantly, who would take him? Will Tampa take him and will they give us Dan Boyle? Is Boyle worth it? I would love to see Mattias Norstrom return but I don't think Dallas wants another goaltender.

*Making things even worse is that Tom Poti played for the Caps and scored a goal and an assist as Washington beat Columbus in OT. God, I hate that guy.

*One last good thing - at least we aren't Toronto ...

*PHW Three Stars
3-Kopitar - goal and an assist.
2-Frolov - goal and an assist.
1-LaBarbera - 39 saves.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Hank - admirable effort considering he was the only player doing anything defensively.
2-Jack Johnson - 25 minutes, +2 ... and he is a rookie.
1-Frolov - he seemed to be everywhere out there, and often he was ...

4 comments:

Pete said...

I would go so far as to say that Gomez has incredible speed and Hank's first period, in spite of the goals, showed some above average saves. I think he even made one laying down towards the middle/end of the game. And I saw Jagr a lot, but probably because the camera zooms right in on his numbers whenever he has the puck, which happens often over 22 minutes of ice time.

It's weird, they look better individually when watching them on TV...I guess it adds 10 punds of talent as well?

Brother P said...

Scotty - Avery played his worse game of the season taking 2 bad penalties and giving up the puck in our zone that led to a goal. Jagr did nothing as has been the case for the last week or so. Dubi didn't fly around for 3 periods has he had been for a while now. Your boy Strudwick gave the Kings a goal. All in all a pretty fucking lame effort from the blueshirts. Which at this point I have come to expect. Now let's see what team shows up Thursday...will it be the Road Warriors who rolled off 3 impressive wins or will it be the lazy, sloppy team that showed up last evening. They keep suckering me in and making me believe they are ready to turn the corner. THEN POW! back to sloppy piece of shit play. I apologize for the vulgar post but I'm clearly losing my mind watching this underperforming bunch!

Anonymous said...

First off, don't forget when they lost to Tampa at home, so that is 2 losses at home against then the worst team (by points) in the NHL. Those 4 possible points alone could have them hovering around 1st place in the Atlantic and on Ottawa's heals. I am still not giving up hope for the playoffs, but I do find it amazing that as inconsistant as they can play, they are still #7 in the East.
(In the obvious comment of the week column) these next 3 in 4 days are huge being 5 days off come after it. They need at least 4 of those 6 points since finally some of the games in hand should be made up. Hopefully a good week should solidify there chances in the last 23.
Oh and Scotty, one thing we can be proud of is Islander Boy (fantasy) mocked u for living your life around a 4th place team. Does that jackass realize his team is below us (5th or better said LAST), 13th out of 15 in the East, and are closer to being caught by Toronto and Tampa then they are to catching us. Wow some people are completely retarted!!! LET'S GO RANGERS!!!

Loser Domi said...

One last good thing - at least we aren't Toronto ...

Yeah....that hurt. A lot. Not you--just watching it.