Rangers 4- Predators 2

Good afternoon, boneheads!

So they got 3 out of possible 4 points playing against last year’s  SC Champs AND Runner-ups. How’s that for a positive spin?

Even if I had time I wouldn’t know how to review last night’s game. They played better, for sure. Won more physical battles, stayed on their toes, defended in front of Hank. Lundqvist was way above average yesterday ( hi, BDL)

Hayes line was a force all night.

Nash can’t buy a goal. Does everything else well.

Still, they only generated 15 shots in goal, including only 6 after first period.  That won’t cut it going forward. Baby steps, I guess

PP was at 20% last night, and remains a bright spot this season.  Smith was good on defense, Miller remains their best forward to date, IMO.

That’s all  I have, sorry. HAV at it!

 

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It’s Go Time!

In trying to avoid another “GI Time”, the Rangers (1-5-2) will look to break out of their early season skid against last year’s Stanley Cup finalist Nashville Predators (4-2-1) at MSG this afternoon. The Preds have won four straight while our boys, well…You all know how that’s been going. The quest for a complete game resumes as AV has kept the lineup the same as it was in the skills competition loss to the Islanders on Thursday. The coach stands by the fact the he has liked a lot of what he’s seen from his guys despite all of the losing. As our good friend Carp mentioned, Sometimes at the end of a skid, a team will lose a couple that they could have won and they could have won the last two. Let’s hope that’s the case.

Projected Lineup:

Rick Nash — Mika Zibanejad — Mats Zuccarello

Chris Kreider — David Desharnais — J.T. Miller

Jimmy Vesey — Kevin Hayes — Jesper Fast

Michael Grabner — Adam Cracknell — Pavel Buchnevich

Ryan McDonagh — Tony DeAngelo

Marc Staal — Kevin Shattenkirk

Brady Skjei — Brendan Smith

Henrik Lundqvist

Ondrej Pavelec

 

Also, we could still use volunteers for game reviews. Anyone interested can email ILB at Ilbster@yahoo.com

 

Rangers 3, Islanders 4 (SO)

Good morning, boneheads!

No time for a review this morning. You can’t expect to win too many games if your players decide to show up for 1/3rd of a game night in, night out. That’s been a trend this year so far. A disturbing trend. This one is on coaches. These are 3 experienced men behind the bench with almost 2000 games of headcoaching experience between them.

I’ll say a few words about their defense. It should’ve been better on paper than last year. It hasn’t been so far. I don’t think they miss Girardi. Staal has been better this year, last night Smith played his best game this season to date. Skjei regressed. Both offensively and defensively. I like DeAngelo’s game a lot. But he has a long way to go. Still young.

Shattenkirk. He is a helluva player. Say what you want, but he is much better offensively than I thought. Much better than Yandle. He creates a lot of offfense with his puck movement, his skating, and his shot. Defensively he is exactly as advertised. He is not here to prevent goals, folks. People who think so will hate this guy. He has 7 points in 8 games (2+5), and is -5. They need to find him a steady partner who gets used to his tendencies. If I were a coach, I’d pair him with Staal and wouldn’t touch that unit for at least 10 games. I’m very happy I don’t make these decisions though.

If someone wants to help the blog and write a game review, or a guest blog ( any g(j)ibberish is acceptable), please email me at ilbster@yahoo.com

I’s GI Time!

No, not a typo. A few days ago I sent an email to people who have administrative access to the blog telling them that I would schedule a Go Time post. Except my phone auto-corrected GO to GI without me noticing it. To which Doodie promptly responded that only a doctor’s phone would auto-correct GO to GI. In case someone doesn’t know, GI in medicine is the abbreviation for Gastrointestinal. I think it’s pretty appropriate since this season so far feels like a bad, protracted diarrhea.

So perhaps it’s time to stop that symptom right now before this team requires a full mode resuscitation.

No better way to do it than against their old rivals, the NY Islanders ( MSG, MSG+2), who have their own issues. On top of their relatively slow 2-3-1 start( hey, some of us would sign up for that, gladly), they are facing uncertainty regarding their future home, and directly connected to that, uncertainty about the future of John Tavares.

Sound like Ryan McDonagh was a little banged up after last game, but he is good to go tonight. Not sure yet if that changes tonight’s lineup.  Lundqvist in net.

If anyone wants to write a game review, or a guest blog in the future, please email me at ilbster@yahoo.com

 

Rangers 4- Penguins 5 (OT)

Good morning, boneheads!

I didn’t get any emails from people willing to write a review this morning. So I’ll just start a new thread.

They played much better last night. The whole 2nd period, and most of the 3rd. Wasn’t good enough, but if they play with the same determination and perseverance the rest of the way, they will win much more games than they’ll lose. Whether it will be enough to make it into postseason is a different story.

They came back after falling behind 0-2 on two goals that, IMO, should’ve been stopped. Lundqvist had a clear view of both shots. Great shots, no doubt. Are we ( and the team) unrealistically expecting him to continue making these type of saves? Perhaps.

Regardless, they came out roaring in the second, PP clicked, they were determined.

PP remains the only positive trend this season so far.

And then they surrendered another 6 on 5 goal late in the game after going ahead 3-2 and 4-3. Shattenkirk wasn’t very sharp touching the puck that should’ve been called dead if a Penguin touched it. Hank lost his concentration on that one.

3 on 3 OT is a crapshoot in general, and I don’t expect them to win too many against Crosby/Kessel/Malkin/Letang/Hornqvist anyway. But that was very poorly played by all 3 Rangers, starting with Ryan McDonagh.

Next game is against the Islanders. It will be a game 7 for one of the contestants. Let’s hope it’s our boys.

If anyone wants to write a game review, or a guest blog in the future, please email me at ilbster@yahoo.com

It’s Go Time!

Rangers are trying to get back on track (or should I say trying to put a break on their free-fall?) tonight. It will be a tall order against the two-time defending Stanley Cup Champs Pittsburgh Penguins (3-2-1). But if they play well AND win, it could give them a well needed boost going forward.

Projected lineup, as per Steve Zipay:

Nash-Zibanejad-Zuccarello

Kreider-Desharnais-Miller

Vesey-Hayes-Fast

Grabner-Cracknell-Buchnevich

McDonagh-DeAngelo

Staal-Shattenkirk

Skjei-Smith

If this line juggling continues any further it will make Tom Renney Line Generator look like a brilliantly thought-out process after all.

The ledge has been cleaned up and disinfected by our blog’s crew since their last game. All attempts to remove Eric after their last loss were unsuccessful so there is one spot that couldn’t be mopped, sorry.

Enjoy the game!