Hockeybird.com: Report Card: NYR 4 @ CAR 1

Report Card: NYR 4 @ CAR 1

Wednesday - October 09, 2002

10/9/02	1	2	3	OT	F
New York Rangers	0	3	1		4
Carolina Hurricanes	0	0	1		1

Player	Ice Time	Grade	Comments
Mike Richter	60:00	A-	Solid game. Not asked for a lot of good saves, but his positioning and reaction time were both excellent. Great start to the season. That one goal against was very late in the game.

Brian Leetch	27:37	A-	One of the best games I've seen Leetch play in a long, long time. Quick, smart and error-free at both ends of the ice. Excellent defensive game and typically good at the other end.
Tom Poti	26:32	A-	Well, SO FAR, the Leetch/Poti pairing looks good. Very good. And Poti had no less than a great game at both ends. 2 assists.
Vladimir Malakhov	24:11	B	Looked both good and bad. Him and Kaspar were good defensively, but I thought Vlad was being lazy on a few plays.
Darius Kasparaitis	22:45	B	A few WICKED hits in the 1st period and play very well around the net the whole game.
Dale Purinton	9:37	B-	Two separate minor penalties within 5 minutes in the 2nd period when the score was 0-0, and those have to go. Played well otherwise.
Sylvain Lefevbre	10:10	B	Good game and a few key shot blocks. Brind'Amour got behind him late for a goal, but it was 4-0 with 4 minutes left at the time.

Eric Lindros	22:21	B+	2 assists, played hard, played well. A few excellent blocked shots. Didn't shy away from contact. Great split-decision dump to Nedved for the fourth NYR goal.
Petr Nedved	22:07	A-	Got away a screened, bad angle shot which deflected off a 'Canes stick and into the net. Give Nedved credit for just getting a shot on net away. Later picked up a nice Lindros dump off and fired a great, low wrister past Irbe from about 30 feet.
Radek Dvorak	30:07	B	Started off the game very strong, working hard, tailed off a bit later. I bet Radek's never gotten 30 minutes in his career before.
Mark Messier	20:15	A-	Began the season in a bad way a minute in with an obvious holding penalty, but redeemed himself in the best way possible with two goals in the 2nd. First goal was a nice pass from Poti that Messier had a wide open tap-in, second goal was good work at the side of the net to fight for a rebound and put it past Irbe. Decent all-around game.
Jamie Lundmark	12:41	B	Only had one or two real standout moments, but played very hard and tenaciously the entire game.
Dixon Ward	7:40	B-	Not much to speak of.
Bobby Holik	19:51	B	Wasn't a force, but was solid, ESPECIALLY picking people up around the net and not letting them GET to the net. Shaky in the offensive zone.
M. Samuelsson	9:41	B	Good PK'ing. Not bad, but not much of a standout. Just solid, like the rest of the team tonight.
Matthew Barnaby	8:17	B-	Didn't get much time but played well enough, then had a fight with Brind'Amour late in the game and won the fight handily, giving Rod a bloody honker.
Rem Murray	11:24	B+	Really looked solid defensively and on the PK. Used his size a bit, too.
Sandy McCarthy	6:41	B-	Not bad, not much to speak of because of low ice.
K. Oliwa	2:50	n/a	Not enough ice time for a grade or comment.

COACHING STAFF:		B	Well..... on one hand they played a very solid TEAM game all over the ice. But on the other hand, look at those ice times. I hope this isn't the way Trottier & Co. are going to do things: VERY heavy on the first two lines and first two defensive pairings. This team will be tired by November. I also didn't like that they kept putting Lindros out there late when the score was 4-0/4-1 and the 'Canes taking runs at Eric. Get him off the ice and put the 4th line out!!

OVERALL:		A-	VERY high-tempo, fun to watch first two periods. Between the pace and atmosphere it was honestly like a playoff game. Then once the Rangers took a big lead the game got choppy with a lot of penalties and after-whistle scrums. You don't want to get too high on an opening game, but the Rangers really looked good. The best parts of their game was the defensive zone coverage and the hard work along the boards. Really, they didn't overwhelm the 'Canes with pressure, but they just played SOLID and STRONG all over the ice and cashed in on the chances when they got them. The Rangers defensive zone coverage didn't look this good at any time last year. Another promising stat is the Rangers were 10/10 on the PK! A very nice start to the season. Mm hmm!

Scratches:			Pavel Bure (flu), Richard Lintner (healthy), Robert Petrovicky (VISA problems)
created by:			Pete Rocha, (c) 2002. procha@optonline.net
			Discuss the card here

Posted by pete at October 09, 2002 10:55 PM
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Comments

Purinton played well otherwise?Huh?Didn't complete a pass alll night,stood there and watched Carolina score their goal,and had one awful giveaway in the defensive zone.He was horrible,and I don't expect to see him in the lineup again anytime soon.

Posted by: kc13 on October 10, 2002 06:09 PM

The Carolina goal wasn't Purinton's fault. Barnaby got the puck poked away from him and the soon-to-be-bloody Brind'Amour got behind Lefevbre for the puck and goal. Yes, Purinton's passing was off, but how many scoring chances did he give up? I'd probably rather have Lintner or Kloucek in there, but Dale wasn't terrible.

Posted by: Rocha on October 10, 2002 06:21 PM