| 10/11/02 |
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| Montreal Canadiens |
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| New York Rangers |
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| Player | Ice Time | Grade | Comments |
| Mike Richter | 59:01 | B- | First goal against was a wicked slapper, little Richter could've done. Second goal, Mike made a nice, sprawling save but the Rangers didn't cover the rebound on the other side of the net. Third goal you could blame Richter a little bit for squatting, when, if he stayed upright the goal doesn't go in, though the majority of the fault lies with Leetch for not tying his man up. Fourth was an empty net. Not a bad game at all, but what do you want in a 4-1 loss? |
| Brian Leetch | 28:47 | C- | Montreal's third goal, a classic case of Leetch TYPICALLY not being tough on his man on the PK, allowing Perreault the space to deflect the puck up and over Richter. Caught up the ice and out of position a lot. |
| Tom Poti | 26:11 | C- | Lazy tripping penalty late in the 1st gave Montreal life at a time the Rangers were dominating. Montreal's second goal, Poti was standing at the side of the net, looking at I DON'T KNOW WHAT while Juneau swept in for the rebound. Him and Leetch had a rough one. -2. |
| Vladimir Malakhov | 23:26 | D+ | Late 1st, for some reason was watching the puck and Zednik go past him at the Habs blueline before Malakhov decided to start skating for it and it turned into a good chance for them. 3rd period, Rangers down by two, takes a lazy holding call. If you check back to Wednesday's card I thought he was lazy then, and now twice as lazy tonight. Get your ass in gear, chump. |
| Darius Kasparaitis | 21:56 | C- | Not a good game. Seemed lost more than once, never really got off a big hit. -2. |
| Dale Purinton | 8:51 | C | Bad penalty with about 9 left in the 3rd, a needless obstruction call. Just one of many Rangers to shoot themselves in the foot tonight. |
| Sylvain Lefevbre | 10:55 | C | I guess him and Purinton were the "best" pair tonight. THAT'S NOT SAYING MUCH. |
| Eric Lindros | 20:51 | C | Made a nice hit early, but very little flow to his game. Good defensively, he's a very underrated defensive player. Very stifled offensive game. |
| Petr Nedved | 20:24 | C | Man, he is just a jinx on home ice. His passes weren't clicking, his shots were getting blocked and he had an ineffective game. -2. |
| Radek Dvorak | 14:54 | C | Habs first goal, Dvorak does a good job hustling back to negate a 3-on-2, but doesn't take anyone! He just collapsed to the net with the defensemen, so the puck gets dropped back for a ripper from Zednik. Like Eric and Petr, ineffective game. |
| Bobby Holik | 19:29 | B- | Took a holding the stick minor early in the first, made up for it a little bit later by drawing/embellishing a hooking call from Gilmour. Decent game, his line was really the only one getting chances. |
| M. Samuelsson | 15:14 | B | Classic 2-on-1 goal with Barnaby. Samuelsson played the defensman off with a potential pass then roofed a wrister over Jose's shoulder. Very nice. Fanned on a VERY important rebound chance with 7:45 left. Probably the best forward, which isn't a very shiny trophy in a 4-1 loss. |
| Matthew Barnaby | 10:36 | B- | Great 1st period, highlighted by beating out an icing call, winning the puck and centering it for a good chance. Pretty good game, he's too indecisive in the offensive zone. |
| Mark Messier | 21:02 | C | Not bad, not good. |
| Rem Murray | 16:36 | C+ | Promoted off the 4th line and had a few good shifts (like a PK shift late in the 3rd), but nothing of much consequence. Better than the average Ranger by a hair. |
| Jamie Lundmark | 17:00 | C | Not much there. Needs to be more aggressive, more willing to take chances. |
| Dixon Ward | 5:59 | C | At least you knew he was playing tonight. Once or twice. |
| Sandy McCarthy | 2:35 | C | Only so much you can do in 2:35. |
| K. Oliwa | 2:19 | C | Oliwa loses his stick a lot. That's about all I really noticed about him. |
| COACHING STAFF: | C | One change: After his strong game Wednesday, Murray gets bumped up to Messier's LW while Ward centers the 4th line. Now, how did the second period happen to this team?! Honestly, at 2-1 and the Habs flying, I thought Trottier should've called a time out and tried to get them refocused. Played the 3rd line more tonight, but still no time for the 4th line and little time for the 3rd D-pair. | |
| OVERALL: | D+ | 1st period, Rangers looked a bit off at first,
missing passes, bad passes, but then completely dominated about 12-15 minutes
in the middle of the period, looking much like they did in Carolina with
very solid defense and high pressure offense.
2nd period, Rangers come out VERY sloppy and lifeless, allowing Montreal to dominate the ENTIRE PERIOD. What the hell happened?! 4 periods of good hockey then all of a sudden they come out like they haven't played together in months. Puzzling. And very, very frustrating. It was like Montreal got the secret code to the game! 3rd period, Rangers didn't stink like the 2nd but they certainly couldn't get much flow going against Montreal's bar the door defense. They also shot themselves in the foot with FOUR minors in the period, down by two goals. How stupid is that? All that optimism and emotion... DOWN THE CRAPPER! It's hard to understand. After 4 very good periods the Rangers just seemed to lose EVERYTHING about their game all at once. The defense became scrambly, the offense couldn't get through, bad, needless penalties - the works! There really weren't any specific goats in the game, seemingly all 19 players lost it at once. In no longer than the blink of an eye the team went from looking like world beaters to looking lost. A team that had flow and cohesion at both ends suddenly had none at either end. Ugly game. It's beer time for your author. See you on the other side of sobriety tomorrow night. |
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| Scratches: | Pavel Bure (strep throat), Dave Karpa (IR - elbow), Richard Lintner (healthy), Robert Petrovicky (healthy) | ||
| created by: | Pete Rocha, (c) 2002. procha@optonline.net | ||
| Discuss the card here |
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