Rangers-Hurricanes in Review

1. This game will be remembered as the battle of the shrimps. The Hurricanes’ shrimp was a little better than the Rangers’ and so the Hurricanes get the win.
2. Also, Cam Ward was better than Henrik Lundqvist. This isn’t to say Lundqvist was bad.  He was good. But it’s becoming all too common for him to be the 2nd best goaltender on any given night.
3. The Rangers, when in the Carolina zone, move the puck around freely and at will. So much for that promising Carolina defense. Nash and Vesey break in on a 2 on 2 and generate a bunch of chances, Girardi pinches in and get a good chance out of it, and eventually Faulk puts it out over the glass, sending the Rangers to the PP.
4. On the PP, more quick passing inside the zone leads to a pass from behind the goal from Zibanejad to Zuccarello at the left circle. The rebound comes to Zibanejad behind the goal who tries to bank it in off of Ward, and nearly does. But in the aftermath, Buchnevich works the puck free with his skates before being slammed into the ice and on top of Ward by Hainsey, who then laid on top of him. The puck had been kicked by Buchnvich right back to Zibanejad behind the net, who worked it back to Zuccarello who sent it above the traffic on the ice into the open net, 1-0.
5. That PP goal was their 4th consecutive game with a PP goal, and they were 5 on their last 12. Having an effective PP is such a dangerous weapon and it seems as if, for now, they finally do. A lot of credit to the Zibanejad and Pirri additions for that.
6. Then came two lengthy reviews, first to see if Zibanejad’s shot went in (it did not), then Carolina’s challenge for goaltender interference (there wasn’t). I got to fast forward through it since I was watching it on a delay, but oh man, that must have been terribly boring to watch live.
7. Just a couple of minutes later, a horrendous giveaway by Girardi almost made it 1-1. Standing flatfooted in the corner behind the goal, he passes the puck diagonally across the zone, trying to hit Vesey flying the zone on the right wing boards, easily picked off but fortunately shot high and wide.
8. Klein and Staal are much too passive on Skinner as he skates up through the middle of the ice. He gets the puck around the net and comes out in front uncontested, as neither Staal or Klein moved from behind the goal line (Klein was interfered with a little bit).  Fast was too late coming away from the front of the goal (where he was covering for Staal and Klein) to shut down Skinner, 1-1.
9. For as boring as the first period was, the second period was non-stop end to end action. Wicky must have hated it.
10. Second period, Zibanejad gets chased from a draw in the offensive zone. Buchnevich steps in and loses it clean. Klein lets Skinner get a step on him and Pesce finds him on the long pass up the middle of the ice. Skinner shields off Klein using some of his fancy figure skating footwork and beats Lundqvist with a backhand, 2-1. You try not to blame a goaltender on a breakaway, but that wasn’t a great one.
11. After that, the Rangers really took control of the period. They were all over the Hurricanes, and it was basically Cam Ward who kept the Hurricanes in the game. Zibanejad and Nash were getting a ton of chances and were unlucky not to score.
12. Then McDonagh hits Zuccarello with a bomb when Hanifin took a bad angle on his coverage. Zuccarello slips it five hole, 2-2.
13. The game then went back and forth for a while until McDonagh can’t handle a hard puck around the boards and trips Stempniak as a result. Or, I should say, gave Stempniak a chance to draw  tripping penalty as he went full extension in a dive after taking a stride with the skate McDonagh hit with his stick.  On the ensuing PP, Skinner gets a look like Pirri’s from the other night and rips a slapshot that goes in as time expires, 3-2.
14. Coincidentally, it was hat giveaway night, and so the hats rained down on the ice while the officials confirmed that the goal was scored with time on the clock. I thought how funny it would be if Skinner wasn’t actually the goal scorer.  I wonder if anybody who threw their hat wanted it back after credit for the goal was given to Bickell.
15. The period ended in a way I’ve never seen, the ice still filled with hats and the cleaning crew, and with players mixed on both sides of the red line. Why even bother dropping the puck?
16. Third period, Holden can’t find a path out of the zone with one forechecker in front of him, so he makes a terrible pass back to Skjei, which leads to the Rangers being stuck in their zone for a minute. Thus far, he is not worth the fourth rounder that was spent on him. Skjei, I should mention, had a pretty solid game, as did most of the Rangers defense, even Girardi, the aforementioned gaffe aside. Klein struggled a bit.
17. The rest of the period there was no good pressure as Carolina played chip and chase from their blue line out. The game was choppy and dull. Wicky must have loved it, although there wasn’t enough hitting or any facepunching. The Rangers only managed 7 shots over the final period after having 11 and 12 in the first two, respectively.
18. Overall, a great showing at times marred by lack of finish (too many missed nets) and the occasional defensive breakdown leading to a Skinnerific play.
19. Did you know that Marc Staal has a brother on the Hurricanes? And that they used to have two other ones as well? Great family, Sam.

 

My Three Rangers Stars:

 

• Mats Zuccarello
• Ryan McDonagh
• Mike Zibanejad

 

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