Monday, October 19, 2009

Rangers/Sharks...Versus FAIL!



I understand that Versus is more inclined to broadcasting bull riding and mixed martial arts, but give me a break...would 33 total games in 3 NHL seasons make any sense!?!?

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Rangers win again...make it 7 straight


Graig Abel/NHLI via Getty Images)

Another great performance by Henrik and the Blueshirts tonight in Toronto.  They pick up their 7th straight win and are now 7-1 on the season. Their win also continued Toronto's dismal winless streak, who actually didn't look too bad at times in this game.
In  much of the first period and part of the second, Henrik kept the Rangers in it stopping the flurry of shots coming from the Maple Leafs.  Through the first 15 minutes, the Leafs outshot the Rangers 11-4. The turning point of the game, in my opinion, came when the Leafs had a 5 on 3 after Del Zotto and Boyle picked up penalties. Killing the 5 on 3, Ryan Callahan chased a puck in the neutral zone after clearing the zone and was slashed by Ponikarovsky. This ended the 5 on 3 and just thirty seconds later,  Brandon Dubinsky scored to make it 1-0.
From this point on, it seemed that the Rangers picked up their game. They showed more control in their offensive zone and were better defensively. Not to say that the Leafs didnt keep the shots coming, they did. But King Henrik stood tall, only allowing one goal on 35 total shots which came during the second period after making the initial two saves on the play. Cant fault him on that one, he made the stops he needed to make but the Leafs were able to pick up a rebound a put it in the back of the net.
In the third it was all Blueshirts after Enver Lisin scored his first goal as a New York Ranger and seemed to take the life out of the Maple Leafs. Both the crowd and the Leafs seemed out of it at that point and the Rangers controlled for the rest of the third.

A few thoughts from tonight:

**Nice to see Dubinsky continuing to rack up points. I know we saw his hot start dwindle last season, but something tells me that being on the line with Gabby and Prospal will keep his scoring up for quite a while.

**Congrats to Enver Lisin for picking up his first goal as a Ranger. Hoping for more to come.

**Redden seemed to have turned his game around drastically from last season, nice to see that money put to good use somewhat. Rozy is also improving slowly, key word there, slowly.

**Interesting stat: The oldest goal scorer tonight for the Rangers was just 23. Enver Lisin, beating out Duby in age by just 7 days.  Its nice to see that the future of this team is in good hands.