Friday, December 21, 2007

Battle Of The Goalkeepers, Rangers 3, Avalanche 4 OT


The Rangers can't hold a lead. We lose again. Recap here.

There is no question that tonight's meeting with the New York Rangers and the Colorado Avalanche was a nail-biter. No, it wasn't the offensive prowess of either of the teams. No, it wasn't the brilliant defense either.

There were two reasons - NYR goalkeeper Henrik Lundqvist & Colorado Avalanche Peter Budaj. Simply stated, Henrik kept NYR in the game. Budaj made major saves. The game was about goaltending - ultimately leaning toward the west.

So back to RangerBlue reality, that leaves us with two wins in the last nine games. Let us ponder. The Blueshirts had one of the top defensive NHL records about a month ago, with the least amount of goals per average in the league and best save percentages by King Lundqvist, while simultaneously registering the 'least shot attempts in the NHL.' Our rookie defense made up for all of our offensive struggles. Even still, we were winning games by containment, not by winning goals.

With our two front lines recently clicking with Gomez between Straka and Jagr, and Drury moving forward to the second line, we are finally scoring goals... a lot of them. The newly missing link is our strength on 'D' ; it is falling apart before our eyes. Who's karma is granting us such events? The Jagr good years? Calling Sean Avery a nuisance? The Nylander Curse?

There isn't more to say that hasn't been said, which in itself is disappointing enough. It was a good game to watch - high scoring, Ranger turnovers that Henrik brilliantly saved, but ultimately it ended with another loss. Tonight was not about good/bad coaching, the Captain, etc., this was more about equal play leading to OT, gaining a point and losing the game to the Avs taking advantage of a dead-center loose puck. F**K ME! God Da***t, Mother Frackin' Sons a B*tch*s, STUPID F****N COACH, INVISIBLE CAPTAIN.....Why Lord? Why Slats? 2 Wins in 9 games? Who are we, The Knicks?..........


So we'll take the point & take the 'high road' and wish our Western Conference Brethren a proud New Yorker middle finger. Take your solid, discipline hockey system and shove it. Or even better yet, take it to the Garden. We'll prove to ya'll that Denver aint no place to watch hockey. Sigh.

tdr

2 comments:

  1. Don't you ever talk hockey Dark Ranger? Every post is a complaint. Don't you ever support your team. The Avs are a great team, and Budaj was superb, not Lundqvist -- i will agree that your defense is weak and Jagr is slow. I would think about praising your team and pointing out what improvements can be made, rather than harping on 'they suck' all the time.

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  2. For the record, that was not me above...

    And that was a fantastic game, and Lundqvist and Budaj were both spectacular last night.

    Was it just me, or do the Rangers Defense get sloppy with their passes? More than once I noticed the Avs intercept fairly weak passes by the Blueshirts D and take them the other way (in fact the Avs 2nd goal was set up by a weak clearing attempt by whomever #34 was)

    Anyways it was a really good game and fun to watch. Don't worry you don't have to see us again (unless both our team's season s go REALLY well)

    ReplyDelete

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