Sunday, September 20, 2009

Finally A Win, before the next round of cuts.



Everyone’s dander definitely seemed to be up after the last meeting and with a new round of cuts promised for the blueshirts the following day; players were sure to elevate their game for what could conceivably be their last chance to make the team. It could be seen in the games of:
- Artem Anisimov, who made a fantastic outside inside move to embarrass Penner of Boston with and outside inside move, and then go around the sprawled Tim Thomas to score a shorty with a diving Bobby Orr-esque Shot.
- Marc Staal as threw some big hits and played some shut down D.
- Michael Del Zotto as he really made some good plays at both ends of the ice.
- and unfortunately in the over effort of Aaron Voros who persistent stupidity saw him leave his feet on a check, paid for it with his usual punching bag performance courtesy of his co-star(Fata of Boston) and being relegated to his office in the penalty box for much of the period. Overall, it was a pretty offensive period for the Rangers as Ales Kotalik showed why he was viewed as a possible asset on the power play when he was signed this summer- Scoring on a hard one timer shot from the left circle off the feed from Prospal after some good puck movement on the PP. Even Sean Avery got into the act, burying a shot past Tim Thomas off a good effort by Youngster Jordan Owens, who seemed to be developing a bit of chemistry with Avery.
Boston Started the second period Strong with the man advantage. There was a scare midway through the second as Artem Anisimov was boarded by Lucic and was hurting on the bench. Soon after Valiquette would sprawl and find it not enough as Boston picked up the pace on its offensive game and scored again. It was at this point that i was begging for Chad Johnson to get some ice time. IT would appear Valiquette was also as he returned his water bottle back to its perch on top of the goal with a bit of disgust. Then he did. Dane Byers, a player I was hoping to get a look this preseason then challenged the Aforementioned Fata, Fata would decline but Byers soon found himself a willing dance partner. The fight was brief after the Boston player went for the take down midway through. Byers would earn the instigator for his trouble... unfortunately this only came moments before Semenov would get 2 minutes for a mystery penalty. Things we looking bleak for the Blueshirts, but due to the great effort by Marc Staal and Chad Johnson, Boston would be unable to capitalize on their man advantage. Later Ales Kotalik would score another goal on a shot from the point as the entire team seemed to be staring at each other till Matt Gilroy took the puck deep and spaced out the defense. There's a bit of mystery concerning what happened in the neutral zone, after Ranger antagonist, Milan Lucic turned up with a sore jaw and went to the locker room after an attempt to intimidate Michael Del Zotto. The last clue that was recorded was that new enforcer and Bruiser, Donald Brashear and Serial hugger Voros, had an impromptu meeting with Lucic in the neutral Zone. It's still unclear what happened.


As for the third period, it was fairly uneventful period with a lot of line changes as the coach tried to compress one extra evaluation into the final twenty before making his cuts. One of the line changes saw Anisimov and Avery Together. The bright spot of this period was Chad Johnson who made several sharp glove saves. Dane Byers would have some late reprieve as he received a chipped pass off the boards from Del Zotto in the neutral zone and cut across the neutral zone with a bruin on his tail before making a no look pass to Parentau, who scored from between the hash marks to make it 5-2 rangers.

So far, I'm rather impressed with Chad Johnson, Michael Del Zotto, Brashear and of course Matt Gilroy. I'm still a little puzzled by the efforts of some of our high priced D (who isn't?) and big bodies that play like they're made of glass. Also needless to say, I am a little annoyed at some of the rookies who felt that camp tryouts and bigger money was a mere formality... and look forward to pictures of Dubi sucking wind after cranking out those laps at what's left of camp.

-J_Undisputed

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