Thursday, October 29, 2009

8-4-1: Ugh


Before I get into tonight's disasterpiece, I just wanted to say thanks to everyone. This is the 1,000th post here at Scotty Hockey and I really appreciate everyone's support and readership. I had no idea when I was talked into starting this in the summer of '07 that it would become such a big part of my life and something that has drawn so many readers worldwide. And for that, I thank you all.

It is somehow appropriate that the milestone proves to be a game wrap against the Islanders, right?

Sadly it is a tale of woe, of a horrendous lack of effort against the worst team in the league. You would think Tom Renney was still coaching as the Rangers played down to (and actually far below) the level of the opposition. The result was a 3-1 loss to the Islanders. The Islanders. Makes me want to puke.

The good thing? The game was at the Mausoleum. This is usually the kind of result that comes in our building - the Isles goalie gets hyper-inflated save numbers, defensive gaffes lead to goals and the Blueshirts get outworked by a more motivated team. Then again, if the Isles stepped up their game like this against us in their building, just think of how they will play in ours when they really have nothing to lose ...

*You can't use Marian Gaborik's injury as an excuse, the Islanders still don't have half the talent that the Rangers do but simply played with three times more passion. The Blueshirts hit the iron five times by my count. Five. Just a little extra effort and it would have been a different game. Instead we were left with a disgraceful display against a rival, not to mention one that won just their second game of the season.

*Could you get a worse start? Bad turnover, Wade Redden and Matt Gilroy both deep to allow a perfect home-run pass and Hank off his angle to allow a minor leaguer to score on a slow wrister inside the post. What an embarrassment. A minute in. Check that, 55 seconds. Ugh.

*Gotta love Wade Redden's exhibition of defense on the third Islander goal: he put his stick out and turned his head away. But that was how the Rangers played most of the night - scared. Rozy's abortion of a hand pass was the catalyst for that goal and he seemed to be afraid to get down and actually hit the damn puck.

*Don't get me wrong, there was effort there. I though Ales Kotalik and Ryan Callahan worked their asses off. They skated hard, shot when they had the opportunities and played the body. Dubi and Vinny weren't terrible either.

*The referees certainly did the Rangers no favours. Not only did they seem to get in the way of the play multiple times, but they missed blatant boarding calls on Andy Sutton and Jon Sim and went back to the old way of officiating Sean Avery.

*Nate Thompson is a dirtbag.

*Yay for PA!!!!!! Great to see Pierre score and it it came off of some really hard work by the Rangers. Higgins and Dubinsky got the puck deep and threw some big checks, the puck came to Paranteau and he fired a perfect backhand past Rolo to tie the game at one. First career goal and none too soon as some of the other guns have been pretty quiet. (Chrises, I'm looking at you.)

*Perhaps it is time for Torts to use his ice-time accountability and bench either one of them. Sitting Drury would send one helluva message but does the coach have the cahones?? I don't remember a single shot by Dru and he seemed to lose every faceoff he took. Why does he get so much time when he can't make anything happen (and Arty get so little despite that spin-o-rama)?

*Was Butch Goring hit in the head a few too many times as a player? Seriously, he sounds permanently concussed. I had to watch the Islander-cast and they went to him as the sideline reporter and damn, what the hell. Aside from his ability to state the obvious, he seemed to have trouble getting the words out. Still, Goring, the homer Bill Jaffe and the grating Howie Rose were better than having to listen to Micheletti.

*Rose and Jaffe pointed out that there were several fights in the stands so for all those that were there, feel free to share. As I said at while at work, 'its probably better that I'm not there, I'd likely be right in the middle of that, headed for jail.' What a frustrating exhibition and to have those low-life Islander fans rubbing it in? Restraint would be the million dollar word.

*On that note, how was it that no Ranger went after Sean Bergenheim? That pest was around Hank all night with no retribution. Aside from Avery's tumble over Rolo - which he was pushed into - the Rangers rarely made the Islander goaltender's life difficult in the paint.

*He played exactly how Brian Boyle and Aaron Voros should have but seemed utterly incapable of doing so. They seem to think they have skill of some kind. Stop trying to handle the puck - cement hands are no good at stickhandling - and go to the net!!!

*Fox caught Messier in the stands at Yankee Stadium. Guess he had just as much fun as he woulda had out on the Island too.

*That's about it, I'm spent. Why dwell on this when we can start dreading the next five games? Away at Minnesota (tough), matinee at home against Boston (we stink at matinees), then three in western Canada. Guess we get lucky Luongo is out but surely Tom Renney will do everything in his power to make the Oilers play hard against us and Calgary is quite good. I wonder when Valley will play; he certainly should/could have started this one ...

*PHW Three Stars
3-Jack Hillen - two assists.
2-Kyle Okposo - one goal.
1-Dwayne Roloson - 34 saves.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Thompson - Don't like him because he made the Rangers look so bad. This is a guy with no skill to speak of and yet he made life difficult for the Rangers all night long, during play and after whistles. Dirtbag.
2-Rolo - The posts are a goalie's best friends and good friends make you a better person. Guess that makes him great in this one.
1-John Tavares - I hate to say it but the top draft pick was good. He was a constant threat and he went hard to the net, even after hurting his arm/elbow/vagina/whatever.

11 comments:

thwacker said...

Cally "worked his ass off"? Who cares? If he can't put the puck in a half empty net from 3 feet out (great pass from Prospal), he is hurting this team. That was the momentum changer in this game. About the tenth time he has whiffed from right in front this season. Get him a shrink or a stickhandling coach. And Dubi turned the puck over half a dozen times.

Pete said...

Yeah, I don't know if it was the Islanders' positioning, or just a lack of effort on the Rangers part (or both...naw, the Isles aren't that good), but the passing that has been wicked stupid for most of the season was bloody rotten last night, and I do agree that Dubi was a big offender. I was actually worried that Torts was going to bench him again early in the game after a few gaffes.

No, we can't blame this all on Gaborik, for sure, but it is also a statement as to what this team looks like without him. He's a game-breaking player. That's what he was hired for, and, injuries aside, it was a good pick-up. Without him, the Rangers could play solid hockey, and they even have a few threats in the line-up that could bury the puck, but they need the role player. They need the defacto captain that Dru never was able to become.

Pete said...

And Cally did work his ass off. The fact that he even had that scoring chance is testament to his work effort.

Anonymous said...

What this team needs is a team shrink, someone to get them in the right state of mind before each game. They came out and sucked and were not prepared. Someone said it felt like Renney was coaching and it really did. Some things never change. Every night the freaking money that is being wasted on Drury, Redden and Rozy makes me sick. Imagine what that money could buy...

Graying Mantis said...

What I found irritating is that the vets of the team, Drury, Callahan, Dubinsky, Avery, did not raise their game to make up for the absence of Gaborik.

Color me unsurprised that only a new guy (Parenteau) scored -- this has become the habit for this team this year.

Callahan missed the net? Way to waste your hard work and way to remind me of a lot of your 2008-2009 season. Avery is invisible.

That picture of Kotalik in his own net sums up the Rangers last night -- flopping backwards all over Henrik.

I want to simply charge off last night's game to a bunch of unlucky bounces and posts, but the Isles played hard enough to deserve the win.

Congrats, Scotty on your 1,000th post.

Andrea said...

There was a close-up of Sean last night and he seemed to be missing that gleam in his eye. Not like Randall P McMurphy at the end of Cuckoo's Nest, but where's the hate, Sean? (A columnist kind of noted it, too.)

Cally hit a post or two, as well, so you gotta think some of those are gonna start going in.

In the first period I had a weird pre-season-type moment: It took me a minute to think of who was wearing #21.

Here's to another 1,000 posts, Scott! You're hilarious and a pleasure to read.

Anonymous said...

Scotty -- congrats on your 1000th post. I'm not getting into how much I hate Redden and Rosival. Here are some glaring observations from last night: The Islanders won something like 73% of faceoffs;
The Rangers hit 5 posts -- 5!!
Torts kept on changing the lines every shift. He does it in practice and he’s been doing it for at least the last 4 games. No wonder we can’t score and the players look lost. What is he…Renney?? Frikkin’ ridiculous. The PP was miserable. And finally, the refs suck. That hooking call against Avery was manufactured. He cannot possibly play more timid. We need the Sean of old to come back and re-grow a pair.

David said...

Scotty, thanks for the posts. For those of us w/o season tickets who don't make it to games too much, your blog gives real insight and accurate reporting, otherwise we'd be forced to get our insight from Micheletti instead. *shiver*

One funny thought from the night: how horrible is your team that you'll let any kid who wears a costume free into a game. It's nice in that it can expose more kids to hockey, but it's kind of like trying to expose your kids to broadway by taking them to a under-rehearsed high school musical.

TheMetalChick said...

Yes I know the Rangers hit posts. But you hit posts when thats all the goalie gives ya. Besides- if posts mattered or counted, then the Isles would be over 500 right now.... but alas, they dont. They Isles have hit posts or scored after bull**** quick whistles with the puck out in the open for everyone to see in about 8 of their last 11 games.

It was a great game to experience in person, trust me.

Oh- and you want to know about fights in the stands? Jeez lol... nothing much was going on fightwise until Tavares scored late in the third and the Rangers fans realized that they werent going to tie the game up, force it into OT, and subsequently beat the Isles with one shot (because thats what tends happens in OT.) Once it was 3-1, the Rangers fans started leaving... and when they were leaving, they started ****talking. They were mad about the effort their team put forth, and honestly I dont blame them. I counted at least 8 fights that had to be broken up after that Tavares goal.

BTW for whatever its worth coming from an Isles fan, Del Zotto really is going to be one helluva player. He is already really impressive.

Kingrich45 said...

Well that game was depressing, without Gaborick we can't even beat the Islanders. Although if he was in the lineup and we still lost it would have been even more depressing. Which is very possible scnerio seeing as the only one who scored a goal was Gaborick's replacement and I guess in theory then he would have had to score a hat-tick just to take it to OT.

In an attempt to cheer everyone up I present to you the following (many of you may have already seen it but its still fun)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlnM7HCIZeQ

if Orr fighting and pushing over a ref can't bring you a smile I don't know what will.... Except maybe Parros mustache in this picture

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/players/3457

Pete said...

I was watching Orr's fights on HockeyFights just yesterday and I came across that one. Hysterical. I wonder if he got extra minutes for pushing over the ref.