Sunday, December 13, 2009

Rangers lose lead, hope, and direction – fall to Sabres 3-2

Not good, people, not good at all.

Our Rangers lost a 2-1 lead and fell 3-2 to the Buffalo Sabres. Their mojo is gone, their scoring has left them, and their season is in jeopardy.

Not a lot of positives here. 2 first periods goals – then lots of nothing – and against a Sabre team that had played the night before while we rested.

I can't keep writing “tough loss” and “rock bottom” but they both apply. Again.

And here are the details:

The Goalies: Hank faced 32 shots – quite a lot – and that's 74 shots in two games. Hank's save percentage was .906. But Buffalo”s Miller saved 36 of 38 for a .947 save percentage. So, we were outplayed at the goalie position – which really can't happen if we're going to win. On Friday I offered some free advice on how to get better play from Henrik Lundqvist – but the Rangers don't seem to be paying attention

Special Teams: We won on Specials but lost anyway – which is not supposed to happen. We killed off all 4 Penalties. And we scored on 2 of 6 PowerPlay opportunities against a pretty good PK team. We did give up a Short-handed goal, however, which proved to be the game winner.

The New Veteran Rangers: Who else? Marian Gaborik added a goal to his league leading total and put a perfect pass on Ryan Callahan's stick for an assist. Kotalik had an assist, as did Prospal. Prospal also had 4 hits and won 58% of his face offs.

The Kid Rangers An assist for Teen Ranger. But Del Zotto was also -2 on the night, moving him to -10 on the season – the 2nd worst of all Rangers.

The Returning Rangers Callahan had a goal, but managed to be on the ice for all three Sabre goals. Drury won 65% of his faceoffs and had 5 shots on net, but was -2 himself on the night.

Defense on Offense: One assist.

In Conclusion: I don't know what to say anymore. This is as bad as it's been in a long while. In our last eight games we have scored: 2 goals, 1 goal, 3 goals, 2 goals, 2 goals, 1 goal, 1 goal and 2 goals. We're not going to beat anybody that way.

If you're looking for a positive – our phantom Goalie: Mr. M. T. Nett, was perfect, letting up no goals in 1 minute and 1 second of ice time.

Next Up: Monday night – at home – to Atlanta.
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Where We Stand: Are we still standing? The Rangers fall to 12th place in the Eastern Conference. We'll have to pass three teams just to be in 9th.

4 comments:

  1. I'm starting to think Lundqvist is not an elite goalie anymore. That was 2 soft goals and a breakaway goal for Kaleta. He is making these goons with no hands real good shooters, which isn't a hallmark of a good goalie.

    Also time to switch out Del Zotto off the PP. He is becoming a liability on the puck, which he has been off the puck the whole season. Not good, not good at all.

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  2. Anon - you're absolutely right. It seems like Henrik is not what he once was - and it breaks my heart. I'm thinking if we rest him more - he might find his way back there. But maybe we just burned the guy out. Anyway - thanks for your comment and keep them coming.

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  3. I think it's a matter of burn out, he's been far more exposed this year in terms of huge defensive breakdowns plus they aren't scoring. On a related note, I was at the Wolfpack game last night and Vally looked pretty good, hopefully he's getting his confidence back. Gilroy and and Sangs looked good too and Grach had a really nice goal.....Maybe switch Del Zotto and Gilroy for a couple games?

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  4. Hi Mike. I agree with you that Gilroy should probably be up here and Del Zotto down there. It's good to hear that Valiguette is looking better. The thing is - I think he's have to pass through waivers to get back to the Rangers - so we may never see his spiderman mask on the Rangers ever again. Thanks for the comment and keep them coming.

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