Hail to the King, Baby
Saturday, April 18, 2009
The old adage "bend but don't break" is a saying that is always thrown around in sports. Truer words have never been spoken - especially when related to today's 1-0 shutout victory over the Washington Capitals.
What a performance by the one and only, Henrik Lundqvist. He turned back 35 shots to silence the majority of the 18,277 in attendance at the Verizon Center. The Caps tried to throw everything but the kitchen sink at the Rangers and once again the Blueshirts met the challenge head on. The Rangers capitalized on a quick 2 on 1 turn around off of a Washington 4 on 2. Markus Naslund showed great patience and held the puck just long enough to feed a beautiful pass to a wide open Ryan Callahan, who in turn roofed a shot where the peanut butter is - top shelf. I really did not think that 1 goal would be enough as there was still 42 minutes plus left to play. I got to give the players for the Rangers big time props today, they met the physical challenge much better than they did in Game 1.
The defense allowed very few rebound tries by the Caps. Offensively, the Rangers PP was back to its regular season form and was totally ineffective. Trust me, I'm not complaining, the Rangers have walked into Washington and taken a major step in the direction towards winning this first round series.
Some other observations... Bruce Boudreau took a huge chance by starting the 20-year-old Simeon Varlamov, who's played in only 5 games this season. Most people thought "Three or More" would be back in the nets, but Varlamov was and ended up playing well. If you want to place blame for the loss today, blame it on Lundqvist and the Rangers effort. 2 down, 2 to go! Now back to MSG for 2 more games. Let's go Rangers! Over and out.
10 comments:
Hiya Chris...Blair Betts was also great in this game..Avery and Callahan...Awesome and whats not been said about Lundqvist..Great win..What do you know about this Gilroy we signed..lots of hype about him..is he physical..good signing?...signs to come that Roszi..Redden..Mara and Morris..one or two of them gone?...whos gonna be traded..not resigned..waived?
Leatherneck, Where have you been? It was as tense game to watch. I felt like getting out there and helping out the "D".
Lundqvist (Super), Callahan (love his game), Avery (made for New York), Betts was Ace's on the faceoffs. The D was solid. Great win.
Don't know much about Gilroy other than many teams tried to get his name on a contract, Slats got the job done.
Too early for me to speculate on the rest, but you and I are usually on the same fence LOL.
MSG should be rocking on Monday and I will be there.
Great win today. So excited for Games 3 and 4. I want to close them out at MSG!
Hi Chris, "HAIL TO THE KING" once again. The D-Men played solid also! They blocked a ton of shots, and they did not allow the Caps to crash the net. The fowards back checked hard and fore checked when they could. I wish we had a few more Callahans in the line up! Avery played smart and had a solid game along with the PK units. Maybe, the Rangers can refuse to accept a penalty like the NFL so they won't have to go on the PP. Well the best thing is they won again. 2 down - 2 to go--=-LETS GO RANGERS !! GENO
WOO HOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! It was a very nerve racking game, but they did it and Lundqvist was awesome...
Geno, I have to laugh, I've said that about refusing PP, they are so gun shy sometimes, I scream.... if they wouldn't try and force things and just shoot the darn puck..... anyway, they won!!
Wrath, It couldn't have worked out any better for the Rangers. 2 wins in Washington who would of thought!
It would be even better to finish them off at MSG. The place will be rocking!
Geno, I thought the Rangers fared much better today physically and did well on the face offs.
The D was able to limit second chance shots on Lundvist.
Lundqvist was superb and Callahan is just a "Damn Good Hockey Player".
It was a very stressfull and tense game to watch, but fun at the same time.
kittylarue, You hit right on the head. Nerve racking, tense and very stressfull.
Lundqvist is on fire and that spells trouble for the opponents.
The pp is a problem they have had all year. the players over think the process of a pp.
It's simple shoot the puck. If you don't score go get the puck and do it again. It's not that hard.
Great win! Kotsy will you be @ the Garden tomorrow night? Let's hope they continue playing well & can push it to 3-0!
Puck Central, Yes I will be at the Garden tomorrow and be at cafe 31 before the game.
Looking forward to it all!!!
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