The Rangers are rolling. With last night’s 2-1 shootout victory, the Rangers improved to 14-5-2. Only the most jaded and cynical could find fault about their start. But we Ranger fans, like fans of the Jets and Red Sox, constantly fret about it all coming apart in an instant. It’s in our DNA.
Truth is despite the gaudy record, many of the nightly frustrations and gaffes committed on 33rd and 7th are masked by Henrik Lundqvist’s brilliant goaltending. The King is the front-runner for the Vezina, at least in the early season.
The season’s still young. So there’s plenty of time to fix these problems:
Specialty Teams:
At 15.4 %, can the Rangers decline the next power play? It’s been awful. In fact, not since Sergei Zubov, have the Rangers had a good guy at the point. Michael Roscival has been bad. Despite having a cannon of a shot, the guy won’t shoot. Can you imagine? That’s like saying…the guy’s got billions but he won’t spend. Rosi’s blunders have gotten so bad that the Garden faithful has embraced his as this year’s Marek Malik or Tom Poti. Not good.
And the team also leads the league in shorthanded goals, the last two gift-wrapped by you-know-who. To be fair, the Rangers kill off 91% of power plays against, good enough for second in the league. It didn’t cost them against the Bruins last Saturday but it will later on. Count on it. This is the Rangers we’re talking.
Lack of Scoring
To date, the Rangers are scoring less than your average college freshman. And they better start because you can’t win every game 2-1 or 3-2. The record also masks missing Jaromir Jagr or Brendan Shanahan as but Dawes, Callahan, and Dubinsky have not consistently produced.
60 Minutes of Hockey
This is the coach Renney’s mantra: “Play 60 minutes of hockey” They don’t wake up until the third period. They scored 13 goals in the first, 17 in the second and 23 in the third. (Thank you Larry Brooks of the New York Post for the stat)
The Prucha Problem
Then there’s the mystery of Peter Prucha. What do you do with a guy two seasons removed from a 30-goal campaign? Surely you don’t want him. But you don’t want to send him packing somewhere else and have him be the latest version of Alexei Kovalev. Strangely, Prucha finds himself as hockey’s Stephon Marbury minus the attitude, hand-wringing and back pages. Rather, he finds himself a healthy scratch.
Otherwise, I'm fired up by what I see. Too early to begin printing Finals tickets?
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1 comment:
Grossly outmatched perhaps, but it's these upsets that makes sports wonderfully noteworthy some 40 years later.
Heck, look at the 1954 NY Giants, sweeping a 111 win team in the Cleveland Indians. What happened to Cleveland's big three in Wynn, Lemon and Garcia, as all combined for 65 picthing victories.
Makes one think if the Brooklyn Dodgers would've enjoyed the same fate had it not been for Bobby Thompson's famed shot.
Joe Deech
BTW - Can somebody tell me if it's possible to get four out's in one half inning ? I was told I could happen regarding an appeal to third ?
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