Friday, October 24, 2008

Rangers 3, Blue Jackets 1


The New York Rangers (7-2-1) defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets (3-4-0) by the score of 3-1 tonight. For a recap and box score go to newyorkrangers.com.

...maybe Renney should take a stick to the head every game. Just kidding Tom, glad to see you're ok. But you have to admit the Rangers looked like a completely different team after Renney went down.

...best game as a Ranger for Zherdev. Not just because of his box score (1 goal, 2 assist, +2), but he also helped out defensively and threw his body around a few times. Columbus management must have been kicking themselves tonight especially watching Tyutin flub shot after shot. Although I have to admit Backman actually looked pretty good.

...as good as Zherdev was, Girardi was just as impressive. Defensively he was all over the ice and he chipped in with a goal and an assist.

...Drury and Naslund should thank Zherdev for getting them on the score sheet tonight. In all seriousness I thought Drury had a solid game. He just couldn't put the puck in the net.

...one concern was that early on I thought we were dominated physically by the much bigger Blue Jackets. The diminutive Dawes-Gomez-Callahan line was invisible until late. I think Renney needs to spread the size around.

...oh, sorry two concerns. Dmitri Kalinin is the other. I can't kill him for misplaying the bouncing puck that lead to the only goal, but he does need to do a better job there. He also had some Malik-like giveaways. He did however end the game on a positive note by drawing a 4-minute power play by taking a stick to the face.

...thought we caught a huge break on the Dubinsky goal. Despite Dubinsky making a kicking motion well after the puck hit his skate, I thought the fact that he made a kicking motion at all was going to be enough to overturn the original goal call. Heck I'll take it.

...how did I make it this far without mentioning the King. Great game, huge save on Nash in the second when the Rangers where trailing 1-0.

...right back at it tomorrow against the Cindy Crosby and defending Eastern Conference Champion Pittsburgh Penguins.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Weird game.

My vote for Number 1 Star goes to King Henrik. He KEEPS the team in the game and makes many key saves. If only this team rallied around his puck stopping ability instead of getting hyped only by previous goals, sticks-to-the-coach's-head or fisticuffs.

Gomez is an insane player. He was all over the ice. SO fast. How do you play on a line with him? Where should you be and what do you anticipate?

Anonymous said...

Oh yeah, Nikolai Zherdev...how awesome was it to see a real goal scorer's goal? Effortless finesse.

bpette02 said...

This blog is dead!