Hockeybird.com: Report Card: NYR 4 @ TOR 3

Report Card: NYR 4 @ TOR 3

Saturday - October 26, 2002

10/26/02	1	2	3	OT	F
New York Rangers	0	1	3		4
Toronto Maple Leafs	1	1	1		3

Player	Ice Time	Grade	Comments
Mike Richter		A	Whoa! Save of the season so far in the 2nd period, Richter down and out in the middle of the crease but got the stick out to completely rob Mogilny with a rebound at the side. Very Hasek-esque, one of those saves you never thought was coming. Followed that up with TWO MORE highlight reel saves in period. I'm not exaggerating, folks, all three were saves that robbed goals out of thin air. The 3rd goal wasn't pretty, but it was a perfect shot from point blank. Richter was the player of the game by a mile. This game was over and done in the 2nd period if Richter just played an "average" game. 36 saves, at least 5 were amazing and 10 of them above average.

Brian Leetch	26:41	B	First Leaf goal, Leetch stabbed at the pass headed to Mogilny and missed, who then had an open lane to pass to Renberg for the goal. Not a terrible play, but a gamble that didn't pay off. Lead the offense a lot when the Rangers were making their comeback. 2 assists, but also -1.
Tom Poti	24:58	B-	After playing him real tough on the PK seconds before, didn't play Domi tough enough in front of the net as soon as the PK ended and Domi was free for a redirection. Made a great pass to Samuelsson for the game tying goal.
Sylvain Lefebvre	14:31	B	That was one of the most important plays of the game, Lefebvre breaking up a Leaf pass at the Ranger blueline and shoveling it ahead to Murray, who gave it to Bure for the game winner.
Darius Kasparaitis	14:29	C	Totally unconfident of his game right now. Don't think he landed one hit, and looked very timid. He did make a VERY crucial block of a pass in the final minute of the game, though.
Dale Purinton	17:40	B	Him and Malakhov had problems at the blueline on the PP (yes, power play!) and Purinton ended up taking a penalty on a rushing Leaf. Played well otherwise, though, and got a lot of ice time.
Vladimir Malakhov	19:36	C	I thought he was sloppy and indecisive too many times tonight, especially in the offensive zone where he seems to have lost all his instincts.

Eric Lindros	19:38	B-	Made a nice play pressing the issue in the Leafs zone on the PK, but then took a stupid hooking penalty after he lost the puck. Still couldn't get on the board, still his offensive game has little flow, but he is trying hard.
Rem Murray	12:44	B	Leveled Tie Domi with a very nice open ice hit on the PK. Another nice PK shift in the 3rd
Pavel Bure	20:12	B+	Got off 6 shots, a lot more Bure-like than his recent 2-3 per game, and of course scored the goal of the game on a breakaway and a gorgeous move to slide it between Belfour's legs.
Bobby Holik	4:15	inc.	Left after one shift in the 2nd period with a strained hip flexor. Doesn't seem too serious, but who knows?
Petr Nedved	18:37	C+	Scored a very nice goal on his butt, swatting a rebound past Belfour, but only a minute or so later got tossed out of the faceoff circle as was SLOW in getting to his position, puck was dropped and Mogilny got off a quick shot because Nedved wasn't on him. Not too long after that he skates into Leetch on the PP in the offensive zone, a Leaf takes the puck and Nedved takes the hooking call. Went from scoring a huge goal to completely killing the momentum with two bad plays shortly after. -2.
K. Oliwa	5:17	C+	Bad penalty at the end of the 1st, but I liked how he played. Hit hard, went to the net.
Mark Messier	17:22	B+	Set a bad tone for his team taking a stupid obstruction penalty in the neutral zone a few minutes into the 1st. Made up for it with a nice poke check on the PK on Lindros' ensuing penalty, which ended up drawing a penalty for the Rangers. Scored on a nice wrister in the 2nd. Messier certainly made some mistakes tonight, but you have to give him credit, he played pretty hard and played well in a lot of key situations. Had more jump and urgency to his game tonight since opening night.
Matt Barnaby	11:56	B-	Had an open side on a 3rd period PP and just whiffed on the pass to him, and the pass was fine. I like that he's one of the few Rangers tough in the offensive zone, but he wasn't very effective tonight.
M. Samuelsson	12:32	B	Scored the very important game tying goal by following up his own rebound and sliding it past Belfour. That goal happened because of an awful play by the Leaf defenseman, but give Samuelsson credit all the same. 5 shots on goal, impressive.
Jamie Lundmark	12:43	C-	Wasted a wide open, 10 feet away shot on the PP by ripping it wide. Well wide. Fumbled some passes in the 3rd. Definitely had a problem handling passes. Then took what could've been a DEADLY penalty with 4:30 left in a 3-3 game. Bad night for the rookie.
Sandy McCarthy	9:10	C	Killed good momentum with a dumb slashing penalty about halfway through the 2nd. Got more ice time than he has all season and didn't stand out much, and this was with most of the night on Lindros' LW.
Ronald Petrovicky	16:06	B	Maybe that wasn't a good penalty with about 7 min. left in the 1st, slamming Tucker with the body and elbow when the puck wasn't near him, but it's hard to be down on hard-hitting, nasty penalties like that. Who doesn't like this guy so far? Hits HARD, skates hard, agitates - good stuff.

COACHING STAFF:		B	I've been REAL hard on the coaches lately, deservedly so, I think, but there's nothing to kill them about tonight. Spread out the ice times well in a third game in four nights. Used a smart timeout. I like that Trottier and co. had them on the ice this morning, and by his own admission got into some faces in that practice, too.

1st PERIOD:		B-	Rangers played a good period, both out-hitting and out-working the Leafs, but shot themselves in the foot (again!!) with 4 minors in the period to Toronto's one. They played smart, simple and aggressive, but when you spend almost 8 of 20 minutes on the PK, what do you expect? Rangers dominated faceoffs 14-5.
2nd PERIOD:		C-	Rangers started out the period well but got more and more tired as the period went on and Toronto completely took over the game, only to be held in it by a spectacular period by Richter. Score would've been 5-1 after two were it not for Mike.
3rd PERIOD:		A	That was the best period of the year. Not the best played period (though they did play well), but the first period since the opening game where they really went all out and put up a passionate effort in a tough spot.
OVERALL:		B+	What a HUGE win. It's only one game, but the difference between 2-6-2 and 3-5-2 seems almost like two different worlds, especially with the scrutiny and bad feelings the Rangers have been playing under lately. The huge difference I think is being within 2 games of .500 instead of 4. 4 games under .500 and they'll be fighting to get back to even for a long time, but instead they're within striking distance. That was a VERY gutty win, too. Down 3-2 in the 3rd, no Holik, no Dvorak, a 5 game winless streak and a dismal 2-6-2 record staring them in the face and they pull out such a HUGE win. Not season saving, but as close you can get to a season saving win after 10 games. For the team, the coaches and the fans it has to feel like a weight was just taken off everyone's shoulders. The Rangers are NOT out of the woods yet, not by a longshot, but unlike that BS we were handed that the Rangers could build on the 2-1 Caps loss this past week, this is a win they really CAN build on. These come from behind wins in desperate situations are the type that can turn a team around. Now they have to begin conquering their home ice demons starting Monday vs. Phoenix.

Scratches:			Radek Dvorak (knee sprain), Dave Karpa (IR - elbow), Richard Lintner (IR - knee sprain)
created by:			Pete Rocha, © 2002. procha@optonline.net
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Posted by pete at October 26, 2002 10:17 PM
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