13-9-2: Too Close In The Capital

After sweating out their hangover on Sunday morning the Rangers collected themselves enough to defeat one of the worst teams in the NHL, the Washington Capitals. The 4-1 win should have been by double digits but, as we have seen time and time again, Tortorella's team would rather rest on a lead than extend it.

The way Washington was playing, the Blueshirts should have burned out the goal lamp. The Caps team defense was terrible, they weren't particularly physical and their offense was anemic to say the least. It was perhaps the most uninterested performance I've seen Ovechkin put on. Ever. It's like he's given up ...

Well, that is their problem. The Rangers are ours.

They need to find a killer instinct because good teams mount comebacks. Even this game against a bad team wasn't put to bed until there was a minute left thanks to that Richard$ goal. The Blueshirts have the benefit of playing in the LEast so they have a good shot at a spot in the playoffs. But, as we saw last season, this group isn't big on pressing the advantage which will mean another early, unfortunate exit - something that can not be accepted.

Late Hits:

*The Nash effect is being lauded around the NHL at this moment but the fact is that racking up points over this asterisked excuse for a regular season isn't much of an achievement ... Alex Zhamnov was second in points in '94-95. Nash has four postseason games under his belt and he underwhelmed. But he is not with that expansion afterthought anymore. How he will fare in May - in a real city, with a real chance to make a run - will be the biggest question mark going forward and no one should be anointing him savior until the real season starts.

*Lest ye be thinking I'm just crusading against our savior from Columbus, Nash's release on the power play goal was amazing. DZ's setup was to his back foot, forcing Nash to adjust and he twisted, ending up on his knee. Despite watching the replay roughly 16 times, still not sure how Cally got credit. Did it hit his leg?

*Nash also deserves notice by drawing the awful Washington defense on the fourth and final goal. Two Caps came towards him, a third came back to watch Hagelin's spin-shot and no one picked up Richard$.

*Interesting how the same people who cried out that 'Gabby was back!' after scoring that Callahan-screened goal against the Isles are the same ones lauding Brian Boyle now. One lucky shot past a poor goaltender does not mean much. Gaborik was all but invisible in this one, and Boyle's go-ahead goal came because Ovechkin embarrassed himself with a shotblock attempt.

*The one time Gabby was noticeable was on the Stepan goal, not because he got an assist for dropping the puck to him the second a Cap came near, but because Step was trying to pass the puck back and got lucky it hit of Holtby's skate. The NBC staff rambling about Ovechkin's skipped hit on Step in center ice was ridiculous as it had ZERO to do with the play.

*More dumb penalties. And ones taken by guys who get paid to kill them. Unacceptable.

*Marty Biron may be a nice guy but he is not a particularly good goaltender, not anymore at least. It is amazing how the stink of the Islanders still lingers over him as he botches easy stops and allows soft goals. The goal against was a marshmallow from the point and Marty made several saves look like wild adventures.

*On that soft goal Dan Girardi skated with Jason Chimera all the way up the boards, without laying a single hit on him. Really uncharacteristic of him.

*Hmm, Tom Poti or Matt Gilroy ... hmm ...

*The Ribero/Del Zaster exchange was quite amusing. DZ got a roughing call for being punched in the face. Tee hee.

*Despite winning 14 of 14 faceoffs (at least that's what the box score says) Backstrom was largely invisible. He had one nice dangle in the third period and nearly shocked Biron with a shot to the goaltender's neck. But he is definitely better as a complimentary player and there was no one out there with skills he could compliment.

*Wonder if Matt Hendricks would be available as a rental this season ... he'd be helpful, especially if Asham's 'back spasms' keeps him out of the lineup much longer.

*It is just infuriating that the Rangers let Washington, and that awful embryo of a goaltender of theirs, take them to seven games last spring. It's not like Alex Semin had any impact.

*PHW Three Stars:
3-Steve Oleksy - one goal.
2-Ryan McDonagh - two assists.
1-Marty Biron - 28 saves.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars:
3-Hagelin - Bork! Swedish kid continues to contribute.
2-Nash - By far the most skilled player on the ice.
1-McDonagh - Best blueliner on Broadway, and he hasn't even played two full seasons in the NHL yet. Amazing. 

8-5-1: Selective Memory

The Rangers skated away from Sunday's 'matinee' match against the Capitals with two points. In the end, that is all that is important. Aside from the two outstanding tallies by the Blueshirts, most of the details of the one-goal win are not worth remembering.

The fact that they were taken to the wire by the worst team in the Eastern Conference, well, we need to forget about that. An inexcusable goal against on a wide open shot just over a minute in, Hank's good looks erase that. Sitting on a one-goal lead rather than trying to make it a two-goal lead? Slip it from your mind. Four poor penalties? Let 'em go. Darroll Powe getting knocked out by Matt Hendricks? Already ignored, no one bothered to avenge him anyway. Yet another occurrence of Braden Holtby-ism, a syndrome where the Rangers make the mediocre netminder look good by inflating his stats with easy saves? Definitely worth deleting from the memory bank.

Once all that is consigned to oblivion we can bask in the brilliance of the two goals scored by the Blueshirts and the two points they took for defeating the Caps. Beating Washington is always wonderful and, at the end of the day, that is what the boys in blue did. They triumphed over Ovie and improved to 5-1-1 in their last seven games. Selective memory is a wonderful thing.

Late Hits:

*A power play goal. By the Rangers. Really. And it was glorious. I felt like James Bond. Richard$ actually won a faceoff, Nash's fancy-pants move actually worked to pass it back, then tic-tac-toe Richard$ to Del Zaster to Stepan and we're winning.

*Step finished that play, and he started the game-tying tally. He hustled to the boards, pressuring Troy Brouwer into making a poor pass that McDonagh intercepted and fired deep. Hagelin then tipped Tom Poti's clearing attempt, allowing Rick Nash to get it and feed McDonagh for the shot that Hagelin redirected in. Bork, Bork, Bork!

*And Poti - of all the blueliners in all the world - Poti being the player to lose his cover ... simply spectacular. POOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTTIIIIIIII, POOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTTIIIIIIII, POOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTTIIIIIIII. Peanut Butta Poti Time, Peanut Butta Poti Time! It is soooo much fun to revel in his mistakes, now that they aren't made while he's wearing a Ranger sweater.

*The current Blueshirt blueliner to draw my ire, Del Zaster, didn't suck. He saw way too much ice time, made a few blatant mistakes and took a terrible penalty, but he didn't suck. Maybe he just looked passable thanks to Poti being on the same ice ... yeah, that probably was it.

*DZ was one of several Rangers guilty of going down to try to block passes. Sure the play looks pretty, but it just shows how far out of position the player was.

*Bravo to NBC Sports for including the national anthem, which featured John Amirante. Sad they missed his trademark fist-pump, but still more than we get during MSG broadcasts. And no Micheletti, can't beat that.

*Sounded like a loud crowd on tv. It was helped that the 6pm start was the earliest of the season (pending the last two NBC games) and that it came on the eve of a holiday. Nice to see the Rangers recognized it with a give-away ... oh, wait, they didn't.

*Kinda sad to see that Ovechkin shaved his dastardly Van Dyke. Ah well, at least we know he's still evil.

*Cally tangling with Ovie? What a moment. And his honest, selfless work at the end of the game? It is getting hard to love our captain more.


*Not only does it appear that Adam Oates has no idea how to coach, but it looks like he had some bad plastic surgery too. Bet he scares all the children on Halloween. Loved that it was him, rather than our dynamic duo behind the bench, that got called for a too many men on the ice.

*Don't tell me Hendricks didn't nail Powe intentionally, I watched the replay a number of times and you can see him lower his right shoulder right before impact. He saw Powe coming and used it to his advantage. The only surprise is that it wasn't John Erskine who did it.

*Asham helped Powe off the ice, the first instance of him actually doing something positive for his Ranger teammates.

*PHW Three Stars:
3- Braden Holtby - 38 saves.
2- Rick Nash - one assist.
1- Carl Hagelin - one goal.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars:
3- Hagelin - While he gives credit to Nash for making room for him, last season Hags had chance after chance last season that he couldn't capitalize upon. Now he's finishing.
2- Stepan - Some games Step looks amazing, others he disappears. Once he gains some consistency we will have ourselves one terrific second line center.
1- Callahan - The wind beneath our wings.

R1 G1: Well, A Win Is A Win ...

The Ranger 4-3 win over the Washington Capitals to open up their playoff series may have been one of the worse playoff games I have ever seen. The penaltyfest had whistle after whistle on nickle-dime calls while big stuff went unpunished. This was an early season game where the officials wanted to make their presence known. I was annoyed to the point of boredom just waiting for the next stoppage.

The Ranger defense was mediocre, the offense was weak and the goaltender gave up three goals but thankfully, Jose Theodore was horrendous. The Washington netminder looked like a ShooterTutor out there with all of the wide open holes. But as terrible a game as it was, at least the Rangers got the needed result - a road win.

*The Ranger offense was quite weak - taking silly penalties, making terrible passes, missing checks - but Dubi's game-winning goal was fun to watch. He took a bad pass, set Jeff Schultz spinning like a top and put yet another intensely stoppable shot between the near post and swiss cheese Theodore. Maybe Schultz caught a rut, maybe he just couldn't keep up with the streaking Ranger, maybe Staalsie looked just as bad later, who cares - Dubi made Schultz look like an amateur and his goaltender couldn't bail him out. It was awesome.

*All four goals by the Blueshirts were stoppable by a good goaltender. Their best shot of the game was by Cally and it hit a post. Gomez one-on-one blows the puck by Theodore with a wrister that hit maybe 65 mph, Borat's open shot sailed over his shoulder and the former MVP waved at Markus Naslund's shot as it went by him.

*My how things have flipped around for Naslund. He used to be able to get a hat trick of goals and take one penalty; in this game he got one goal and three penalties. When you jam on the gas as hard as you can, the car goes a little out of control. Nazzy is emptying the tank with the pedal to the metal and he just needs to keep his hands on the wheel for just a few more weeks before he rolls into retirement (hopefully).

*All of the credit that I gave to Gomez for his interview the other day was completely obliterated in this one. How the smug bastard can sit and rip on the journalist deigning to speak to him during a game of such magnitude is petty and immature. I thought he had grown up after the classy interview during the Flyer game; instead he reverted back to this. It's not funny, it's rude and unprofessional.

*Now you want comedy, Tom Poti confronting Sean Avery after a whistle was priceless! What is Poti going to do, hit him with his purse and call him a big meaniehead? You brute!

*The Viktor Kozlov goal to make it 3-2 was a perfect redirect after he slipped past Staalsie. Sadly it came after a clear elbow slipped past the officiating. Green took a page from Chris Pronger and nearly decapitated Freddie Sjostrom on the boards but there was no elbowing, no boarding, no nothing. Sergei Fedorov cross checks Avery from behind after a whistle, in front of the ref and no penalty. And yet the stripes saw an infraction 20 seconds into the game when Dan Girardi touched the Capital with his loose hand.

*MSG - I like Amstel, really, I do. I drink quite a lot of it. But every commercial break? Surely there are more ads available in the inventory?? Dadadadapdadadadadap. Damn do I hate the Fratellis (the group who wrote the song). Maybe that will be the next poll - what is more annoying, that commercial or the damn Geico campaign with the stupid money with eyes?

*And you guys laughed at me for being a Blair Betts fanboy for all those months! Let's see, 7:41 of his 12:20 of ice time was shorthanded and he was fantastic. Five blocked shots! Hard work pays off kids ... too bad Nik Zherdev isn't listening.

*With the NHL's insistence of secrecy on injuries, we have no idea what kept Chris Drury out. So, of course, I will think the worse. He is just a weakling who wanted a night off. What ever happened to hockey players as warriors? He was able to skate in warmups and you are telling me he wasn't well enough or motivated enough to take up that stellar three minutes that Aaron Voros got? When Drury got his Cup, Peter Forsberg finished a playoff game with a burst spleen!

*During the postgame Maloney said that the "much-maligned" defensemen Michal Rozsival and Wade Redden were incredible. No, they weren't. But they weren't bad. Sure, Rozy turned away from some hits, Redden fumbled the puck a few times and made two or three bad passes but neither one took stupid penalties or abandoned their posts in the defensive zone. Amazing how good they can look playing average games after they've set the bar so very, very low.

*Stat of the night: I could go with the obvious - 11 power plays in a game that really didn't have much violence (a few hits but not a whole lot of venom) - but instead 30%, the amount of power plays that the Rangers won. They lost 46 of the 66 draws, allowing the Caps to dictate the action.

*How much pressure do you think there is on Brent Johnson to get better? The injured netminder was better than Theodore before undergoing hip surgery and would be huge in this series if he was 100%. He is a streaky netminder and if he was to get hot, he could play just as good as Hank. Good thing he is still cooling off on the IR.

*Many thanks to Allen at Off Wing Photo for all of the pics used with this post. Some great work dude.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Brandon Dubinsky - one goal.
2-Scott Gomez - one goal and two assists.
1-Alexander Ovechkin - two assists.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Hank - The King was fantastic. The first goal against was tipped, the second was on a power play and the third he had no chance at stopping. Every time he had to make a big save, he did and unlike Theodore, he gave his team a chance to win.
2-Cally - The most motivated Ranger, Cally again threw his body around making hits, blocking shots, clearing pucks, pressuring puckholders, taking shots, hitting posts - an incredible effort.
1-OV - He really is a hockey god. I mean, he was everywhere. Everywhere. OV lost his helmet, finished a tough shift, took a rest for a few seconds, grabbed someone else's helmet and got right back into the fray. Wow.

Must Read Musings 2

Just a warning, this has nothing to do with the Rangers:

Whether it is because I have been in the media so long or because the media has so consistently produced mountains of generic drivel, I rarely read an article that makes me sit up and think, 'wow, that was amazing.' Yes Sean Avery's insight into his own life was remarkable, but that was because of the content rather than the way it was described. Sometimes you have a great topic and sometimes you have great writing, but I have found that lately it is rare that the two come together. I often lament the lack of beautiful sports writing in modern journalism but an article that I read today has renewed my faith.

Harlan Goode of The Washington Times did a profile of Alexander Ovechkin's older brother that I found utterly marvelous. The cynical side of my brain says that the piece is so incredible because it isn't sports writing, it is the story of a person working a job. But while that is true, but I instead chose to look at it as a sports story that transcends its genre and appreciate it all the more.

Much like with the Avery piece, I won't do it a disservice by excerpting a random part of it. You just have to read it yourself.