Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Peepin' Foes: Dallas Stars

The Rangers will get a chance to follow up Monday's home win with another on Wednesday as they face off against the Dallas Stars in the Garden at 7 p.m. (MSG Network).

Where We Are: It may not seem like it but the Blueshirts are actually 6-1-2 in their last nine games. Sure Monday was only the second win in their last 10 games in the Garden, but we have to be heartened by the overall record. The Rangers sit in seventh, tied with eighth place Montreal but with two games in hand over the Habs. It will be three after they face Washington in DC tonight. Sixth place Ottawa is three points up and plays Boston.

Where They Are: Dallas is playing New Jersey tonight at the Rock with a chance to go over .500 on the road (7-7-6). They sit in 10th in the West despite having two more points in one less game than the Rangers. After being Chicago and Anaheim to end 2009, the Stars opened 2010 with a 3-1 loss to Vancouver on Saturday.

Who To Watch For: Hank's future teammate on the Three Crowns, Loui Eriksson, has been red hot of late with five goals in his last three games and 17 points in his last 12 games. Brad Richards may have been snubbed by team Canada but he has been on fire as well. Rookie Jamie Benn got off to an outstanding October before cooling down but super sophomore James Neal is nearly averaging a point per game.

What To Watch For: Brendan Morrow is the Dallas captain for a reason - he is the typical hockey warrior. Morrow battles all over the ice, he can fight, he can hit, he can pass and he can score. He should be very active while Dallas' young but solid defensive corps does their best to shut down the already anemic Ranger attack; Karlis Skrastins vs Marian Gaborik should be fun to watch, especially with guys like Slayer fan Jere Lehtinen supporting. Marty Turco is starting tonight against Fatso, so perhaps we will get a look at Alex Auld, which isn't necessarily a good thing as he went 2-0-1 against us last year while with Ottawa. EDIT: Auld started against the Devils and got lit up, guess we will be stuck with Turco swinging his stick at Sean.

What We'll (Hopefully) See: Anything except for a repeat of the last time these two teams met, the 10-2 loss in Dallas that was one of the final nails in Tom Renney's coffin. Sean Avery shoving it in his former teammates' faces and being better and more effective than Steve Ott. Chris Higgins to turn a slumb-breaking goal into a streak. Chris Drury to be better than the guy he got picked over for Team USA, Mike Modano. Krys Barch to beat down Brashear.

Also Check Out: Defending Big D is one of the best SBN blogs (after Japers), Andrew's Dallas Stars and NHL Blog is pretty good and there are two MSM blogs, Star Telegram and Dallas Morning News.

13 comments:

Bettman's Nightmare said...

When shall we see Chad Johnson? Against Dallas, perhaps?

Anonymous said...

Another piece of shit blog Scotty

NYR34 said...

@Bettman (awesome name, BTW, saw it pop up on Puck Daddy)
He is supposed to start the game in Atlanta.

Anonymous, why don't you just go away? I read plenty of websites and blogs that I think are dreadful. You know what I do? I stop going to them. I likely don't go back. I surely don't keep returning to make a nuisance of myself and trolling the place.

If I don't like a restaurant I ate at, should I go back again and again to the greeter podium, say "I hate this place" and leave? Oh, and wearing a ski mask or something that they don't know who I am?

Anonymous said...

People who do shitty work should be told that they do shitty work - the guy is an embarrasment

Scotty Hockey said...

Constructive criticism is always appreciated, outright rudeness is not. If you continue to use blue language and being obnoxious, I will start deleting the comments. That simple. I have tolerated it for quite a while, but when you start immaturely lashing out and swearing, enough is enough.

And, Anon, you are clearly in the minority insofar as your opinion as close to a thousand people a day a reading this and not feeling that I am such an embarrassment.

Anonymous said...

Nah I'm just the only one with the balls to tell you that you suck. I'm sure those "thousands" are doing the same thing as I'm doing - reading it for a laugh. You're comedy gold Scotty! Can't imagine why you don't have a position in a major NHL team with the astute commentary you come up with.

Anonymous said...

Yeah I agree with the other anon Scotty, I mean you make some good points sometimes, but most of the time I wonder if you're watching the same games as the rest of us...and you're a racist.

Chris said...

Last time I checked, Scotty isnt doing this as his job. He does it for his own enjoyment and does not get paid to do it.

Unless hes being paid to do it, your opinion on weather he is 'good at it' matters about as much as how many times you change lanes while driving on the highway in a given month.

Point being... your opinion doesnt matter because it wont, nay, CANT change anything because this is not his job and he will never be reprimanded by a boss and/or fired for doing shitty work.

You are wasting your breath and look like just as much of a ignorant whiny bitch as you seem to think he is about the Rangers.

Dont like his stuff, dont read it. Its a really simple concept.

If you want to read something by someone who actually has something to lose by being bad at it, go read the blog of someone who is paid to do it.

That being said... please continue doing what you're doing Scotty and just let the Anons of the world fuel your fire... not that I would expect any different.

While I may not always agree with what you write, I enjoy reading.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous, if you don't like Scotty's blog don't read it. Really. No one cares to hear from you.

Signed, Anonymous number 6

Anonymous #6 said...

I finally have an account on here!

Anonymous #6 said...

Just because he doesn't like Donald Brashear doesn't make him a racist. Brashear is a lousy hockey player and they shouldn't have signed him to the Rangers. He plays like a 50 year old. And is definitely taking up too much cap space for what he is doing.

Anonymous said...

He used a racial slur against brashear, I heard him

Rj said...

Wow Anon let it go, you said your piece you hate this blog, you hate what Scotty writes ok, you can go away now. This is America the last time I checked he can write pretty much what he wants, if you dont like it then dont read it, just like NY34, Chris, and Anon#6 said!!!! And he didnt use a racial slur against Brashear. If you ask me, as a black person, Brashear's conduct in the NHL is more detrimental to the race. Besides being far from a pro hockey player he's a thug (before he came to the Rangers at this point he's the hollow man).

Anyway, Sean Avery, where have you been all season!!! Its great to see that you finally found your way back to the MSG!!!