I suppose I could fill this post with ditto marks as nothing as really changed from the last game in Carolina. Anyone who's had the volume up on the broadcasts during the past couple of games, is probably sick of hearing "blah blah blah... The rangers played a good game, but just couldn't score... and (insert opposing team here) simply just scored when they needed to as the Rangers couldn't..." So with that I will spare you of having to recount the details of that good effort turned bad waste of time (and 2 points) when we just couldn't score one freakin goal.
For those masochists out there, you can get the official Recap here.
The only part of the game I think I will talk about is the incident between Tim Thomas and Sean Avery. For anyone who missed it...
Many people are shaking their heads and saying "same ole Avery". Me? well while no one saw it, (they actually had to go to the replay to see it and then start handing out minutes.) I have to argue that while it was cheap, it was genius. Before the hockey purists start to rain down jeers from their Ivory tower, let us recap the aftermath... Avery was escorted from the bench to the penalty box and Thomas, the Bruins best player, was assessed a penalty too. Right after, Gomez was taken down near the boards (didn't take much, did it Gomer? ;P)and we had a 4 on 3 for almost a minute and a half. It was perhaps our best chance to tie things up. Avery did what he set out to do. He went out looked around and gave a little tap to the back of the fiberglass around Thomas' head which turned him from league sweetheart to vengeance driven penalty taker. What bothers me is that Avery was the only one who saw we weren't winning this game by doing the same thing over and over again and something needed to change. Whether it be getting the goalie off his game, getting us a 4 on 4... or possibly a 4 on 3 depending on the retaliation, but most of all make the guys on our team feel like they had an opportunity to seize and change the course of the game.
If we take a good look at the team dynamic. We can still see that Zherdev plays according to his moods, Antropov sometimes does the same. Redden has two gears (crappy and less crappy-- for the money, anyway). Gomez can still weave his way through 2/3 of the ice just before turning it over. And the only thing clutch about our captain these days, is his purse. Yet the one guy that people agonized over bringing back, and people swore he wouldn't fit in with the coach and called a disruption in the locker room, is out performing all of those guys that called him selfish and a distraction to the team. Its become apparent more than ever that this team needs more players like Avery. Am I the only one who see him kind of rubbing off on Callahan? Is it the snarl, or the attitude... or just the hard work. Doing something for the sake of saying they did something whether it needed to be done or not... a lot or a little... pretty or dirty. I'll say I have started to take a bit of a liking to Morris too. Its players like these that will allow the coach some stability when it comes to guiding this team.
It's unfortunate that Avery's plan didn't reap its intended rewards. It unfortunate that it kind of backfired because in all his agitating greatness, he also somehow became one of the top scorers on the team since his arrival and the teams other top forwards couldn't managed to scrape together one goal without him against only 3 defenders. Its unfortunate that the way this team is going, there's a chance we'll have to wait till next year for Torts to truly be able to sort things out without the pressure of inheriting a team on the slide, trying to make the playoffs, not being able to bench too many people because of injuries and getting a sense of who could serve you well enough in the future than you could push for a contract for them. Unfortunate indeed. One things for certain, whether its next week or next season... it will be the "lunch pail" guys who aren't afraid to get their hands dirty, that will determine how far this team goes. Here's to hoping we can stretch this season a little further... LET'S GO RANGERS!
- J_Undisputed
