In full disclosure, I didn't see Friday night's home opener. I had to be away for the weekend (family emergency, but the really really good kind), and I recorded the game, but didn't get the chance to watch it until last night, when I was already recording last night's game. Also I had heard the results. So I watched the opening ceremony, all the goals, Prust's fight, Gaborik's injury, and overtime. Then I actually watched last night's game.
First of all, Armstrong's hit on Gabby. It was definitely boarding, it got called right, and it sucks that Gaborik got injured on it. It was easily an illegal hit, with an appropriate call, and I have no reason to believe it was really dirty - it didn't look to me like Armstrong was trying to hurt Gaborik. That said, fuck him and his goddamn Maple Leafs, and I love that some people really did go after him afterwards. After the game, Brian Boyle referred to a 5-on-3 situation the Rangers found themselves in when Fedotenko and Avery went after Armstrong and Komisarek in the third:
---------------
We had two of our guys go down, and one on a play we are simply not going to stand for. It was a matter of pride for us. It was a mindset going into the third. You know what? We killed it. We will stand up for each other, and then we will kill off those penalties when we get them. It's not going to be like last year.
---------------
(Credit to the Post for the quote)
So there are good takeaways there: we lost Gaborik and Drury, battled back physically, and stole a point by forcing OT after being down 3-1 going into the third. (Also, the interference call on Staal 3 minutes into OT, which led to the game-winner, was really soft.)
On to the game I actually watched: without Drury or Gaborik, we made some line changes. We left Dubinsky-Anisimov-Callahan alone as the first line, and dropped Frolov down to skate with Stepan and Fedotenko as the second line. Boyle and Prust earned promotions to the third line with Avery, and Christensen and White filled in with Boogaard on the fourth. If it were late in the season, and Avery-Stepan-Fedotenko were already some kind of powerhouse line, I'd disagree with the move, but I'm all about trying things right now. As it happens, Frolov-Stepan-Fedotenko (which doesn't sound like a bad idea on paper at all) didn't exactly spark (though who did), and some think this will change up again for Thursday night's game.
Once again, there were good things to take away from last night, and they again look like our willingness to battle physically. After being outpaced to an unbelievable degree, outshot 15-4 in thirteen and a half minutes of hockey, the Rangers settled down and fought back. My favorite moment? When TJ Galiardi took Girardi down from behind, and Del Zotto jumped him. The Rangers would have had a man advantage on the appropriately-called boarding penalty, but instead skated 4-on-4 because Del Zotto went after Galiardi. And I love that. Stand up for your guys, and like Boyle said, deal with the penalties that come with that.
That said, we need to work on the second part of that some. The Rangers were 0-for-5 with the man advantage, while the Avs were 2-for-2. You're not gonna win too many games with those numbers. Forget not having anyone to finish plays at even strength: we can't spend that much time up a man without some more quality chances. And our plan to stand up for ourselves even if we take penalties doesn't actually work if we can't kill them off.
The point is, all things considered, there are reasons to be happy right now. And OK, fine - let's talk about those "all things" we need to consider; let's talk about the three injured elephants in the room. Yes, three - remember Vinny Prospal?
There's actually good news on the Prospal front - relatively speaking. Yesterday's exploratory knee surgery did not return with the news "you will never play hockey again." In fact, Prospal is expected to be able to return in 6-8 weeks. You never know how that could change, or how he'll play when he comes back, but that's certainly good news.
As for Gabby and Drury - well, let's try to get comfortable with Christensen in the lineup for a while, shall we? Gaborik separated his shoulder on the hit by Armstrong Friday night, and will be out 3-4 weeks with that. Drury, on a weird collision against the boards with Rozsival that same night, rebroke the same finger that was broken during the preseason, but in a new place (come on, really?!?). He's expected to be out 4-8 weeks while that heals.
So, Prospal out 6-8 for a knee, Gaborik 3-4 for a shoulder, and Drury 4-8 for a finger. That's...not good news for us. Inspired by a graphic I saw on the Versus broadcast last night, I did a little research. Last season, Prospal, Gaborik, and Drury combined for 76 goals and 100 assists. The Rangers, in total, scored 217 goals, with 380 assist. So these three guys were responsible for 29.5% of the Rangers' points last season, including over 35% of our goals. So yeah, it's a problem. But hey, at least we have enough other forwards to play 12 without going over the cap, right Lou?
With regard to these injuries, before I let you go, I want to show you something. You know that "Questions Will Become Answers" campaign the NHL is running right now? This one. It's cute: ask a bunch of questions that bored hockey people were asking in the offseason because we didn't have any hockey to watch, and then say "Questions Will Become Answers." I like it.
Anyway, I went to the Rangers' site this morning, and one of the Flash ads they're running is a team-specific version of that. No sound, just list some off-season questions and then say "Questions Will Become Answers." So, what are the questions the Rangers-specific ad asks? I promise you this is completely undoctored - the ad that is running there is just the following four frames, in succession. There are no other frames in the ad, and I did not make any of these up. It's just these four images, one after the other.
Too soon! I mean, I get it - it was made in the offseason, those were the big questions, and so on. I know. But maybe someone ought to notice and take it down, for now? Oof. Anyway, let's see if there are any lineup changes before Thursday, when I'm excited to go into Toronto and attempt to bring the hurt to the Leafs that they brought to us in our house on Friday. It may be a long couple of months, but as they say, every challenge is an opportunity, or something?
No comments:
Post a Comment