Letdown in Beantown

Sometimes you have to give credit where credit is due, but I really don't feel like doing that here. Yes, the Bruins have had consistently the top defense in the eastern conference all season long. And yes, they play great hockey on home ice, and have a very strong goaltender in Tim Thomas. That said....the rangers played with NO urgency for the vast majority of the first two periods. Michelleti was correct when on multiple occasions he said, "Thomas really hasn't been tested at all". I got caught up flipping back and forth with the Yanks last spring training game at the stadium (It's hard to turn away from greatness when you see it, especially when the other option is watching Wade Redden), so its possible I missed a shot here or there, but I can't remember any sustained pressure on Thomas the entire game. That's not to say the rangers didn't create the occasional odd man rush (almost always caused by the Bruins having one just prior, setting up the rangers rare scoring chances) (And the rangers did get 31 shots, but the vast majority were from bad angles), but after a solid shot Thomas gave up almost no rebounds, and there was no sustained pressure in front of the net by the Rangers.

The Rangers were absolutely hurt when Antropov was lost midway thru the second period on knee to knee contact from Lucic. I was very upset with the Rangers game plan for Lucic. He, Chara, Savard, and Thomas are the core of the Bruins team. Thomas will be as good as the defense is in front of him. He's not a great athletic goaltender, but always in good position. Savard is a great playmaker, but if you can cut down the passing lanes he is rendered somewhat ineffective. Chara and Lucic are the hard hitting, big slap shot, emotional leaders of that team. More than anyone else, that team looks to Lucic for sparks. He is your prototypical boston fan, thinking they are a lot tougher than they are, usually only duking it out with a smaller opponent, and non-existent in a losing cause. Especially after the clear knee to knee hit on Antropov, the rangers should have sent Orr out, or someone to fight lucic, and try and take him out of the game. He's a great fighter, but a win for Orr there would demoralize the boston bench, and shut the crowd up (Although chants of "let's go rangers" could be heard pretty well throughout the game. The city isn't going to take full bandwagon mode until the playoffs I guess)

It was a must win game, like they all are now, and the rangers couldn't find a way to get any offense. Now in fairness, 4 of the last 8 rangers-Bruins games have ended 1-0, so it's not like I was expecting 4 or 5 goals, but getting shutout in a must win in a statement game against a potential first round opponent is...upsetting.

Couple of Quick Comments:

- Scott Gomez looks miserable. He looks agitated, frustrated, and borderline furious every time they zoom in on him now. Gomez' whole game is playmaking and having finishers around him. Right now guys aren't finishing, and you can see that he is COMPLETELY fed up with Redden. The previous game there were 2-3 occasions on the power play where redden FIRED a pass at gomez' shins from no more than 4-5 feet away. He had to because he took so long making a decision with the puck, and teams are pressuring Redden and Roszival (first game back today) heavily every time they touch the puck on the power play because they react so slowly. Because of the hard passes, instead of finding an open man, gomez missed the pucks and they went out of the zone. He looks like he is ready for the season to end.

- Redden, been on him all year, so I will say this. In the second period, Rangers were down 1-0 and the way the game was going, if they got down 2-0 it felt like the game would be over, Hank was out of position after making a kick save off to the side, and the net was wide open as the puck slid in front and a bruins defenseman wound up for a slapshot and easy goal. Redden skated in the line of the slapshot and put his hands out to deflect the shot which was targeted for the back of the net. He actually only deflected the puck, and it was still going to go in, but hit another Ranger who also moved into the crease in front of the net. The replay didn't show who the other ranger was, and Rosen and Michelleti refused to credit that ranger, only Redden, so I will at least credit redden with standing in front of a 90 mph slapshot from ten feet away and sticking out his fingers to block a puck to save what would have been a game ending goal. That would have been the play of the game, and one of the tops of the season, had the rangers rallied.

- Naslund, I have been happy with his play most of the year. I didn't expect a ton. I was expecting 25 goals, and that is about what he is going to give, but....wow. Coming down the stretch here, and drury, naslund, gomez....having almost NO effect on these games. If it weren't for the occasional dumb penalty gomez takes, I wouldn't think any of the three of them had played the last 3 games. SOMEONE HAS TO STEP UP.

- Harping on it, but just not nearly aggressive enough, or hungry enough in a must win. I'm sorry, the bruins are a physical, strong, defensive minded team, with some big shots, but they have little to no team speed. The Rangers should be able to out skate them every single minute, of every single period, and with that should come ample holding or tripping calls. The rangers only got 2 power plays the entire game?

- Lots of chippy play in this game. Avery tapped Thomas in the back of the head when the refs weren't looking, causing thomas to charge avery, and then take a swing at Sjostrom. (Pictured above) This play ended up bothering me a lot. I didn't mind what Avery did, it was bush league, but I am all for taking the goalie out of his game, and worst case, both avery and thomas take penalties, best case, the officials don't see what avery did, and only call it on thomas. And that's what should have happened. The officials missed what avery did, as he was able to skate to the bench, and nothing was called over the next two minutes. But then the boston scoreboard operator replayed what avery did to thomas up on the screen (Something Michelleti claimed they are NOT allowed to do) The officials watched this, and THEN called the penalty on Avery. Hey, it was a penalty, I agree, but they missed it. I have NEVER seen an official look up at the scoreboard at the garden, to check a call they missed on the opposition, and then overturned it to give the rangers a powerplay, has anyone else? If this is going to be a first round matchup, it will be a VERY heated series.

- FYI, Last time Boston won the 1 seed in the east (as they did today), they got knocked out in the first round. (2001-2002, losing to the Canadians)

Depressing Game, gotta regroup.