Rangers-Bruins in Review

1. James G came pretty close to calling it. First shot for the Bruins goes in, except Marchand assisted on it, rather than scored it himself.
2. Bad pass by Holden, communication issues between Holden and McDonagh, Pastrnak slips behind, Marchand finds him, 1-0. Uncontested. After watching it on replay, McDonagh floated to nowhere after the Holden turnover. Just both guys making a series of bad plays.
3. This was just the first of many turnovers by the defense. They all really struggled with their passing and puck control, in my opinion, especially the Captain. They improved a bit as the game progressed, obviously, but still entirely too many unforced turnovers.
4. JT Miller really showed his wheels in the first period, getting two breakaways. First he tries to go backhand shelf and just can’t get it high enough. Then he tries to bring it back forehand and gets stopped. He was the only Ranger who skated in the entire first period. He had a several other glorious scoring chances, especially in the third period from Kevin Klein and then later from Kevin Hayes. McIntyre was brilliant in stopping each one.
5. McIntyre, the University North Dakota alum, was generally brilliant throughout this game. He got tricked on the Hayes and Pirri goals, but otherwise it was hard to blame him for anything.  In fact, the score could have been a lot higher.  Also, he’s got that great picture of his grandmother on his helmet. I love the Diet Coke detail.
6. Execution through the neutral zone and the offensive zone was adysmal. Lots of wish passes, pucks bouncing over sticks, just no consistent pressure. Boston came out trying to stink out the joint to protect their goaltender, and for the first half of the game, they certainly accomplished their goal.
7. Austin Czarnik, in the lineup in place of the injured David Backes, uses Skjei as a screen, through the legs where it takes a deflection back the other direction. Lundqvist was moving to his right as the shot came in straight after hitting Skjei. Lundqvist got a lot of it, but not enough, as it trickled in, 2-0. It was Czarnik’s first NHL goal. Lundqvist was fighting a bit throughout the game, but managed to come away with only those two goals against.
8. Second period, the Rangers come out somehow flatter than the first. But Boston lets the Rangers back into the game by taking a series of penalties. The first one drawn by Pirri was definitely France in the Air. The PP improved each time.
9. Boston got a little sloppy on its kill of the second penalty of the second period (third overall) and the Rangers managed to take advantage. First, Vesey made the heady play to pick out Stepan across the ice in the left point, who found Rick Nash had been abandoned by Torey Krug right near the goal mouth. McIntyre stops Nash’s deflection, but is helpless to watch Nash’s little chip shot skitter across the goal line. 2-1.
10. Dangerous pass up to Fast by McDonagh. Fast makes a great play on it to chip it around the Bruins defenseman, all while being incredibly lucky not to be picking his teeth up from the ice after being served up like that by McDonagh. Fast gets it to Hayes, who is allowed by Krejci to go behind the net. Hayes takes advantage of McIntyre’s inexperience and banks it in off of the otherwise fabulous goaltender. 2-2.
11. Boston continued its parade to the box and after a sequence of too cute short passes that almost resulted in a turnover, the puck ended up in the far corner. Miller makes a pass from behind the goal, diagonally through the Boston PK unit and found Brandon Pirri at the top of the right circle. What a release that guy has. 3-2. Easy to see how he ends up with Cy Yonug seasons.
12. Third period, Colin Miller turns it over to Hayes at the Rangers blue line. Woof. Hayes skates around with it a bit, almost turning it over in the offensive zone, before retreating to the neutral zone.  The Hayes sends the puck in deep, rimming it around the boards where it comes too Liles in the corner.  He gets pressured from Pirri and sends it around behind to Colin Miller, who can’t handle it. Woof. JT Miller is there to pick up the giveaway and feeds Staal in the slot, who naturally shoots wide. Meanwhile, Liles left Pirri behind the net to go cover the front of the goal. Staal’s wide shot take a fortuitous bounce to Pirri all alone at the goal mouth, 4-2.  The rout was on.
13. Just after making a brilliant save on JT Miller from Klein that I mentioned earlier, the Bruins come down the ice for a shot on Lundqvist that is stopped. Nash starts to skate up ice with the puck.  Bergeron thinks he sees a pass coming and tries to jump in the lane to intercept, but Nash just carried it up ice himself. Bergeron is now completely out of the play as the Rangers come down 3 on 2. Nash centers to Stepan, who sends it back to Nash, who sends it all the way across to Vesey for the slam dunk, 5-2.  Pastrnak checks Vesey into the boards after the goal, no call.  Good for Vesey for shoving him back.
14. Carlo stops a puck outside of the offensive zone and can’t play it or it will be offside, possibly intentionally. So he just sits there and stares at it. Woof. Vesey takes it over and feeds Nash streaking through the slot.  Nash is then tackled by Carlo and the net comes off when they both slide into the goal. How was that not a penalty shot for Rick Nash?
15. That Boston defense is mighty slow. Once the Rangers started to get through the neutral zone, they really exposed the Boston lack of speed.
16. Girardi gets clobbered in the face by Pastrnak. Two minutes for check to the head. During intermission, Milbury says it was a clean hit.  Honestly, how does he fit his suit over the Bruins jersey? And of course, NHL Department of Limiting Liability won’t do anything about this because Girardi came back OK from the quiet room. A hit like that being excused with two minutes is all the proof I need to know Scott Stevens still would have been an absolute force in the NHL, even under today’s rules.
17. The MSG crowd’s reverent silence was appropriate given the funeral-esque feeling of the day due to Carp’s untimely termination.
18. I can’t believe how hard it was to blog and watch the game at the same time. Unreal.
19. I told my wife that I was doing this blog and all she did was laugh. The last time I tried my hand at blogging, it was so boring to her that I used to read it to her when she couldn’t sleep and she was out before I would get through the first paragraph.
20. I was going to write a bit about the effect of Buchnevich’s return to the roster, but Jooris’ separated shoulder likely will serve as a stay of execution on any roster move.
21. Thanks again to all of you who have found me and have participated, especially the man himself, Carp. Your participation is what makes this worth it.  And Carp, like I said, I’m just keeping your seat warm until you’re on your feet again.

My Three Rangers Stars:

1. JT Miller
2. Kevin Hayes
3. Rick Nash

Your Three Rangers Stars, unofficially:

1. Brandon Pirri
2. Rick Nash
3. Kevin Hayes