Sun 23 Sep 2007
Last night after I got home from the game, I was ready to rip the Rangers a new one but then I thought the better of it. I thought of Meatloaf’s musical question and decided to wait until this morning before putting finger to key.
Like everyone at the game on Friday, I came away with a very positive feeling about the Rangers, their youth, their backup goaltending and the new season. After last night’s debacle against the Flyer’s, I went home scratching my head. After a solid outing Friday night, we were sucker punched into watching a rather embarrassing loss with our marquee players Jagr, Gomez and Drury on the ice. And, that’s $22 million dollars worth of suck.
If that wasn’t bad enough, Lundqvist’s save pecentage for this game was .782 . I hope he didn’t leave his ability to concentrate next to the runway during Fashion Week. Maybe the coaching staff should let Montoya back up Lundqvist for the start of the season. Montoya breathing down Lundqvist’s neck might not be such a bad thing. A possible coup d’etat could keep the King more focused. Why didn’t the Rangers pull Lundqvist after 30 minutes like they did they previous night with Montoya and Valiquette? It could have saved Lundqvist a world of embarrassment while giving Wiikman a taste of the NHL.
I know it’ s only their second preseason game. But, with the exception of Byers, Smith, Korpikowski and Betts, tonight’s bunch looked like they were waiting for 10:16 to Ronkonkoma. Drury, Prucha, Hossa were all -3. The Rangers had 14 minutes of powerplay and couldn’t score a goal. Gomez missed a wide open net. Nigel Dawes had the misfortune of getting assigned to tonight’s squad. His lackluster performance surely should send him down to Hartford before Dubinsky. By the way, Hugh Jessimen should ask for his money back on those boxing lessons.
Who was that joker disguised as Michael Rosival in the number 3 jersery. Was Michael coached in the off season by Marek Malik? Or, was that Malik out there diguised as Paul Mara. Tyutin was a -3. When a prospect defenseman like David Liffiton plays over 14 minutes and is even, you know you’re in trouble.
To their credit, and I say this with a very bad taste, the Flyers lead by Mike Knuble and Marty Biron looked damn good. That’s just great. A team that was at the bottom of the heap last year comes in and now the Rangers will have another team in the Atlantic division to breathe down their neck.
Everyone says the preseason doesn’t count. These games are to allow management and the coaching staff to weed out the prospects and to set up the lines and pairings for the coming season. While that may be true, you still don’t want to see your high priced talent get spanked in the process.
Let’s see how the boys fare on the Island on Monday.
One Response to “Let Me Sleep On it”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
September 24th, 2007 at 1:10 am
Hey Margaret,
I agree whole heartedly on your assessment of the two preseason games.
Many of the defensemen stunk as did many of the forwards. Dawes didn’t help his cause with his audition on the first line. If he doesn’t make the team or they dont have a place for him, look for him to maybe get traded before the season starts or ealy in the season, perhaps for some much needed help on the blueline.
I can only say that this was splitting the team in two for those games so we obviously don’t see the whole lineup together yet. Once that happens I think people will fall into line and players like Cally, Pruchs and Drury will inspire other players to pick up their game. This inspiration by the Rangers young guys gives me even more reason to keep Dubinsky, who is a spark plug, along with Staal and Sauer (my two favorites).
The defense sucked against the Flyers on Saturday. I say get rid of Hutchinson, Pock, Kaspar (who will simply get sent to HFD because of his salary), Mara and Malik. Malik will be safe because Renney likes him and Jagr likes playing with him and Rosie as a 5 man unit. Mara might be the next safest guy since he has a big shot from the point and is relatively young.
In addition, can we please find a way to fit Montoya’s salary under the team’s cap? I think he would be better served as Hank’s backup godforbid there is an injury or he needs to shoulder the load. Vally is a great guy but a journeyman backup. You need 2 strong gaolies to succeed in this league and especially if you want any shot at the Cup, remeber the Richter-Healy combo? The Devils now have it with Brodeur and Weekes.
If Montoya doesnt get it and Vally sucks it up, what about the idea of picking up Robert Esche as a capable backup or if the Kings try to bring Cloutier back up to the big club sometime thi sseason, he will have to clear waivers. Teh Rangers can grab him off waivers at half his NHL salary.
Ok, Margaret here is the line-up I would love to see the Rangers open the season with, however, this may be more likely the line-up by mid-season if trades, waives, etc are made. Check it out and tell me what you think:
fwd:
Straka-Gomez-Jagr
Avery-Drury-Shanny
Prucha-Dubinsky-Callahan (my fav line)
Hossa-Betts-Hollweg
defense:
Tyutin-Girardi
Roszival-Staal
Sauer-Mara
(Strudwick)
goal:
Lundqvist
Montoya
Looks like youth will be served in the comming season, we already have more draftees to make the NHL than probably anytime during Neil Smith’s drafting era.
Callahan, Prucha, Lundqvist, Hollweg, Pock, Tyutin, Girardi, Staal, Montoya, Dubinsky, etc.
Neil Smith - what happened to the Ferraro bros., Christian Dube, Jeff Brown, Jamie Lundmark, Pavel Brendl (my fav).
There is my rant, Margaret. Keep up the good work on this blog and continue to update it when you can, I’ll keep check.
Maybe see you this Friday at the NYI/NYR game at the garden!
Nick