Saturday, November 6, 2010

Boys to Men -- Dubi and Boyle Lead Rangers to Victory | NYR 3 NJD 0

Proving that the maturation process continues in the absence of the veteran stars and again demonstrating an unexpected boundless reservoir of resiliency, the Rangers shook off their wounds from their loss in Philly the previous night to shut out the Devils 3-0 in Newark.

Savor this Ranger fans -- the Rangers are 5th in the conference, on a 95 point pace and averaging nearly 3 goals per game.

The Rangers survived the loss of Ryan Callahan (recovering from his mugging in Philly) and relied on their domestically raised killer B's -- Brandon Dubinsky and Brian Boyle -- to spoil the Devils' return home after a 6 game road trip. The official recap is here.

Frequent scorer plan. Dubinsky has 5 goals in his last 3 games,
10 in the team's first 14. How many of us saw this coming?

The missing starpower for last night's contest could have lit up Times Square. The Devils were without Martin Brodeur and Zach Parise. Besides the missing trio of Gaborik, Prospal, and Drury, Callahan was rested from the after effects of his boarding in Philly.

Despite being down 4 front line players, the Rangers again shook off adversity and kept the offensively-challenged Devils mired in their own.

The Devils continue to be winless at the Rock (0-5) so far this season. Brandon Dubinsky, with 2 goals last night, has 10 goals so far this season, which is more than the Devils starting front liners combined (even including the injured Zach Parise).

Ilya Kolvachuk was held pointless after being effectively smothered by Marc Staal and Dan Girardi throughout the game. Even more embarrassing was the fact that the Devils could not sell out the arena for a rival game even after being on a 6 game road trip.

Shrinking Violet. Blowhard fans touting how great Kolvy would
look in a Ranger uniform should be glad that management did not hear them.
For the game, the Devils had the overall advantage in shots, 33-20 (including a 11-4 first period advantage), for the game and were led by Jonas Hedberg in goal, who had been successful against the Rangers when he was with Atlanta.

However, Henrik Lundqvist was better in goal and the Rangers capitalized on their opportunities. Well, truth be told, the first line capitalized on their chances.


Brandon Dubinsky was directly involved with all 3 goals -- he scored the first and third goals of the game, the latter a shorthanded tally and set up the middle goal by winning a faceoff. Artem Anisimov had 2 assists and Brian Boyle scored his 5th goal of the season.

Dubinsky broke a scoreless tie with at 7:35 mark of the first when Alex Frolov drove to the net on the left side, shot the puck and worked behind the net to retrieve it. The puck went to Anisimov on Hedberg's right, who tried to shoot but instead it went across the crease to Dubinsky.

Although blocked by a defenseman, Dubinsky snapped a shot around the back of the defenseman and between Hedberg's legs. I had to watch the shot several times on replay to appreciate the quickness of Dubinsky's release. So entering the 2nd period, the Rangers had the lead, which has not been a common occurrence so far this season.

More importantly, the Rangers stayed out of the penalty box but were physical. Anton Volchenkov and David Clarkson started throwing their weight around, targeting Sean Avery. But Brian Boyle defended Avery by fighting Clarkson. The Rangers ended up with a power play that they could not convert. So the Rangers did not back down and it was nice to see Boyle use his size despite the physical game they played the night before.

Filling the Void and the Net. Dubinsky and Boyle have combined
to score 15 of the Rangers' 38 goals. Raise your hand if you saw THAT coming.


In the second period, the Devils pressured the Rangers but Henrik Lundqvist kept them at bay including stoning Kolvachuk and Langenbrunner. Late in the second, Danius Zubrus was whistled for hooking with 2 minutes to go.


During the power play, Hedberg covered up the puck by making a scrambling save on Todd White. Dubinsky won the ensuing faceoff to Anisimov, who passed to Girardi on the point. Girardi moved to the center of the blue line and shot the puck on goal. Brian Boyle deflected it past Hedberg so for once the Rangers scored a goal in the final minute of a period with :36 left. That was Boyle's 5th goal -- a career high in goals -- and the first power play goal of his career.

Early in the 3rd period, during a Devils power play, Dubinsky and White charged up ice on a give and go. After White's shot was blocked by Hedberg, Dubinsky banged home the rebound for a 3-0 lead.

Later that period, Clarkson, again proving that he is gutless, boarded Brian Boyle hard. Surprisingly, the refs actually called a 5 minute major on Clarkson. Even though the Rangers did not score, the passage of that time ensured that the Devils would not have enough time to score three times to tie the score.

And the 3 goal cushion was handy because fatigue that was setting in. But the Rangers had an insurmountable lead and did what they needed to do to enable Lundqvist to preserve his shutout.

Love for Boogy. For a team to be successful when stars are missing, others must step up. Derek Boogaard may have played his best game as a Ranger. Physical without taking any penalties, nearly scoring at one point and being an intelligent presence on the ice, Derek had a good game. The play that caught my eye was when he was in front of the net, saw Girardi pinch in along the right boards, and hustled to cover the right point. He was in the right position to keep the puck in the zone. So there seems to be some talent behind all that brawn.

One and done. Jonas Hedberg was deserted by his offense and finished after yielding Dubinsky's first goal. The Devils are 30th in power play proficiency. The Rangers gave them only 2 chances and used one for a short-handed goal to make the score 3-0.

Dominant. Rebounding nicely from the Philly game, Henrik stopped 33 shots.
In his career, he is now 20-7-5 v. NJ with 5 shutouts.


On Sunday, the Rangers begin a 4 game homestand -- St. Louis on Sunday, Washington on Tuesday, Buffalo on Thursday and finally Edmonton next Sunday. This would be a capital time for the Rangers to start showing some dominance at home.

---The Graying Mantis

2 comments:

  1. Dubi and Boyle are showing they have the righ stuff nightly.Boyle still needs to use that big fram more kike when he went after clarkson.How did frolov miss that empty net,wow no wonder LA didn't want him. Hank had a great game against the devils,but he has been letting in way to many soft goals. I think Hank is one of the best in the league so don't start yipping . But lets face it he has to cut down on the soft goals. He also has to go to sather and demand some better defenseman ,at least one who will clear the crease and hit someone. Then there's the old protect your goalie thing.The defense we have now try but are not equipped to do that. Pushiong someone that just hit your goalie is not enough they need to be put down and hard with a few punches mixed in.It seems sathe and torts are so caught up in puck moving defenseman that thats all they have and obviosly it's not working out to well.While I'm on a roll if torts doesn't start using Boogie the way he is suppose to he needs to go. Thats torts not Boogie. I was one who was thrilled to get torts because of his fire,but that seems to be going out and that is just to young players any way. His body of work on the ice is terrible and he is the reason players are still taking liberties with the Rangers.Prust and boogie can't do what needs to be done by not being put on the ice after something happens to show the other team that the Rangers aren't and won't stand for it without the other team paying for it.Our so called gm said thats why Boogie was brought here so why doesn't his coach do as he's told. Maybe he should be sent to Hartford with deadden!!!!

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  2. The Rangers lost to a more talented team last night.Which is something that needs to be addressed. But I liked how they played with intensity and had each others backs. If they play like that EVERY night(for the whole game though) they'd win alot more games.They still need some changes,miss rosi was awful as uaual and Emminger wasn't much better.I guess all the defenseman played a lousy defensive game.Frolov was still invisable Bit boyle showed how much he improved.Lets not forget that cannon of a shot by Boogie,how about him on the point for the PP ok ok Enough said.But it was an awesome blast which I don't think anybody new he had!

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