Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Am I missing something...

or was I not missing anything this whole time? It sure was great to get back into the swing of things, watching the same lifeless mistake-prone Rangers I'd forgotten so quickly make the same lifeless mistakes that got us into this "outside, looking in" position.

No one (besides the goalie, of course) was good. Well, Sean "3 of our last 4 goals" Avery was pretty good. Actually, he was probably our best forward. I like Avery-Christensen-Drury as a third line. I like the idea of Dubinsky-Anisimov-Callahan as a second line, though it was completely underwhelming last night. Callahan got in people's faces, as did Dubi, but neither really did anything else, and Anisimov certainly did nothing at all. If he were a better hockey player than he is (like, the one he's supposed to be, according to all the sportswriters), that could be a fun line to watch. As it is: nothing happened.

The first line was awful. Prospal hasn't been the same since his knee surgery, and he's devolved back into a total non-factor. Shame, 'cause he had the kind of play style we could really use right now. Jokinen and Gaborik, our "stars," simply don't seem to work well together. I dunno if it's a mental thing or what, but they just aren't hitting each other with any passes or communicating about anything. It's bad news. As such, this line was totally useless.

Now, give the Habs some credit for that. What they lacked in offensive power (for which we compensated by lying down flat defensively), they made up for in containing Gaborik whenever they could. That said, it worked beautifully. If all the other team has to do is "stick out some good defenders whenever one guy is on the ice," we are probably not doing our jobs. Gaborik is great, but he's no Alex Ovechkin. It is possible to stop him by concentrating absolutely all of your efforts on him. That shouldn't be a successful strategy. But it is when every pass you attempt goes right to a Canadien, and every shot you take goes hard, high, and 8 feet wide, so it ricochets right out of the zone.

To complement the rare, tender filet of languid offense, the Rangers provide a glass of finely aged, light, insubstantial defense. We were just fucking awful. Once again, we were badly outshot (this time 35-20, including 27-11 through two and 18-5 in the second), beaten to every puck (even the ones on our own sticks), and just generally left Lundqvist out to dry (what else is new?).

Rozsival alternates between making a good play and making a bad one. Del Zotto has stopped having enough offensive production to make up for his inexperienced, weak defense. Gilroy hasn't been a factor since he played for Boston University. Redden consistently surprises me by reaching the next level of suck. Maybe it's just that I've been away for so long, but holy shit. How does this guy have a job, anywhere?

Anyway, same old shit. Don't hesitate to go on that vacation you're planning in the middle of April. There's not gonna be, like, hockey to get in the way.

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