Saturday, April 26, 2008

Rangers Lose To Montreal., NYR 4, Habs 5......Um....I Mean To Pittsburgh

Strangely, the opening of the playoffs second round last night against the Pittsburgh Penguins felt eerily reminiscent of a similar game in-season against the Montreal Habs, where the Blueshirts were leading by three or four goals, only to lose it all in the third period.. Well, well, well. Full circle, folks!

Overall, it wasn't a good start to the series. The game opened well filling me with exuberance and disbelief when leading 3-to-0 against the 'all and powerful" Pittsburgh Penguins, led by the 'Somewhat Great One' Sid Crosby. These were the Rangers I dreamed of. I saw the Cup for a fleeting moment. Of course, come the middle of the second period when Pittsburgh scored twice within a minute of each other, I was again filled with exuberance and disbelief (in a bad way) as I watched the Rangers fall apart at the seams. This team, my fellow Rangers fans, was the team that we've grown to love this season. A complete blueline breakdown, and worst of all, a debunking of confidence.

This was one ugly game for all.

NY Ranger goalkeeper Henrik Lundqvist couldn't manage - and should never be expected to - the deluge of offensive Penguin advance, without Ranger blueline support. He was simply overwhelmed and every defensiveman on the Rangers side played sub-par, unable to clear the zone. As my wife likes to say, now with a 3-year old and a 6-week old newborn,..."IT WAS A SHIT-SHOW!". That about sums it up.

Sean Avery, who in the first half played a great game, should next time think twice after scoring the then-leading-third goal about pumping his fists at the Pittsburgh bench and coaching staff. Not that this could have been the reasons for our loss, but it doesn't sit well in the karma department.

Our front lines were awesome. I have grown to enjoy the delicate mastery of their skills, but it is too bad they have to make-up for our blueline and constantly support our own zone rather than charging our opponents net.

Christian Backman simply blows. Rozzy and Toots forgot how to play defense 101 last night, and the only figure deserving of praise is Marc Staal. Parents in the house; Staal brother love all around!

I keep saying to myself this is only one game, but it was an important one -- it set the tone that any amount of lead we might have in this series doesn't mean a damn thing. This will motivate us or this will sink us.

Last night's loss to Pittsburgh I rest to bad luck and coaching. Tom Renney sat back to let them sink in their own failures, and this is not what a playoffs coach should allow. There are no lessons to learn now. If they are doing something wrong, tell them how to fix it. Coach them, Coach!

Tomorrow we will take it back. I promise. If not, it's going to get very Dark in here.

TDR

1 comment:

  1. Coach clueless doesn't even have the guts to stand up after the game and call the penalty against Straka what it was-a sham. Maybe if he showed some his weak defenseless corp might also show some.

    Keep the faith.

    ReplyDelete

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