Senators Too Hot To Handle
Sunday, March 22, 2009
The Ottawa Senators, one of the hottest teams in the NHL, came into MSG and promptly put the breaks to the New York Rangers playoff push. Alex Auld, who during his career owns the Rangers, gave up an early goal to Brandon Dubinsky. It was Dubinsky's first goal in 24 games... ouch! Give credit to Ryan Callahan who basically out-hustled the Ottawa D-Men and Auld to set up an empty netter for Dubinsky. Unfortunately, that was it for the Rangers on the night. The PP, which has been better lately, flunked the test tonight going 0-6. Not exactly what I would call being "clutch" when you needed it the most.
After the Rangers first goal, Mike Comrie's backhander beat Henrik Lundqvist to tie it for the Sens early in the 2nd. Later on in the 3rd period, Ryan Shannon made a nice move on Wade Redden and fired a high wrist shot that glanced off the King's shoulder, but still found the far side. That goal gave Ottawa a 2-1 lead that had me thinking, "This one's over". The Rangers up til then just didn't have it. For what reason? That's anyone's guess. You can blame it on being tired or sluggish, but Ottawa played the night before as well... so that's a lame excuse. With the points being worth more than gold these days, it's unfortunate the Rangers couldn't meet the challenge. I don't want to down play the Senator's effort, but the Blueshirts energy and hustle just wasn't there. 1 goal and a lousy PP usually leads to a loss and that's exactly what the Rangers got.
No time to think about it though as the Minnesota Wild will be in town on Tuesday at MSG. The Rangers must be ready for this as the Wild are in the midst of a playoff push themselves.
The Two Rons
This past Wednesday, Ron Greschner put on a nice event to benefit the Ron Greschner Foundation at the Aegean Cove restaurant in Queens, New York. The Restaurant is run by a good friend of ours, Georgio Neofytides. The people in attendance had a great time. The food was excellent and more importantly the money was donated towards finding a cure for autism.
The other Ron, Ron Duguay, made his professional comeback on Saturday night for the Brooklyn Aces of the Eastern Pro Hockey League. I attended the game, as well as Ron Greschner, and it too was a great thing to see. Duguay, all 51 years of him, looked very good. He can still fly up and down the ice like he did when he played for the Rangers. I was very impressed overall. It was also for a good cause - the Garden of Dreams charity. The crowd was also very happy to see him on the skates once again. Well, that's it for now. Over and out!
6 comments:
Auld played a solid game and came up with some nice saves, but the Rangers got back to their old habits of making average goaltenders look like all-stars. They didn't get a lot of quality chances, very few rebounds and struggled just to the get the puck on net.
I thought Antropov played a very good game though. As of right now if the decision was between him or Zherdev, I think I'd want Antropov. The only question is can he put in the same effort he has since he was acquired over the length of an entire season.
Our PP clearly kill us in that game. 1 early PP goal would have changed the face of the game. Would Rozsi particularly have helped on the PP yesterday? Maybe, though we'll never know. Weird injury, hope he's fine (his hip again?) and will only miss a couple of games. I know there is a lot of Rozsi haters in Rangersland, but we can't afford to see him gone for the remaining of the season, most of all for the POs. That said, him off for a couple of games will give us the opportunity to see Michael Sauer in action.
Yesterday was typically the kind of game in which one, one of the usual suspects had to show up. And once more time, the only thing that showed up was disappointment. Callahan is just a monster on the ice, he never played like this.
Great game by Auld and the Sens anyway, 9th win in the last 10 for them, 15-6-3 since they changed their coach. Not bad. Better see the two points go to them than to one of our direct rival in the PO race.
It seems like the Rangers have made a habit of making some goaltenders look like world beaters.
Just a plain old listless night overall. No jump, energy or extra hustle. No excuse for their play.
Antropov has been a excellent pick up so far. I believe he can put forth the effort over full season.
Money will be the big "Question" for Antropov, How much? and how many years?
PP was horrible. The effort was simply not there like the previous games.
Doesn't sound to good for Rozival and his injury if they are bringing up Sauer.
Callahan and Sjostrom were the only two I felt had their legs. No one else picked up the slack.
I have to give credit where it 's due Ottawa is on a roll and technically not out of the playoff race yet.
If they win another 9 of 10 who knows?
Nice picture!lol
He he he, with the socialization of the Internet, the new networks, facebook, myspace and others, I've been somehow forced to follow the move. And that's always better to know to whom we talk.
By the way, I sent you a friend request on facebook, no obligations to accept it of course.
Jeff, no problem it's done.
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