Hockeybird.com: Mini-Report Card: CAL 0 @ NYR 1

Mini-Report Card: CAL 0 @ NYR 1

Thursday - November 07, 2002

11/07/02	1	2	3	OT	F
Calgary Flames	0	0	0	0	0
New York Rangers	0	0	0	1	1

Mini-Card Preface:		Certainly not much to talk about in a 1-0 game, so I'm going mini. It was a game of defensive highlights rather than offensive ones. "A" level: Leetch (game winner, very solid D), Blackburn (not swamped but steady and made a huge game-saving save with 5 left in the 3rd), Purinton (a regular CORNUCOPIA of great defensive plays! I mean about 10 of them! Stunning. Looked fabulous defensively). "A-" level: Malakhov (his best defensive game this season but lousy on the PP point), Poti (did a fabulous job going up against the hyper-talented Iginla most of the night. "B"/"B+" level: Everyone else.

COACHING STAFF:	B+	Well, if this is Trottier & Co's idea of how they want the Rangers to play, I like it. Like it a lot. They played 3 lines almost exclusively, with Donato and McCarthy around 3' and Ward with only 55 seconds. Make no mistake about it, Purinton is the 3rd/4th defenseman on this team now, not the 6th. For about the third or fourth game in a row Dale's ice time is higher than Kaspar of Lefebvre's, tonight by almost 5 minutes more!

1st PERIOD:	B	Well, it wasn't a terrible period to watch, but it wasn't exactly packed with events, either. Evenly played, though the best line of the period was the one with Drury and Iginla on it. Calgary had the shots edge 12-11, Rangers had the PP edge 2-1. A few decent hits. The typically late-arriving crowd didn't help matters.
2nd PERIOD:	B	This period was much like the last one - both teams very tight and careful. Strange to see the Rangers so defensively solid tonight, and for a lot of the season, really. There is hitting and there is skating in this game, but the goalies are both covering up a lot and both teams are heavily defending their creases. Rangers outshot the Flames by a whopping 11-4 in the period, but on the ice it didn't look like THAT much of an advantage, though I'd say the Rangers owned the flow about 60/40.
3rd PERIOD:	B+	Guess what? Yeah, much like the first two periods, although things opened up a bit in the final 10 minutes and especially in the final 5. Shots were 11-10 Rangers.
OVERTIME:	A	Not long in, 51 seconds to be exact. Purinton breaks up a play, gets it to Samuelsson who's been skating and playing well lately, swings it to Messier who made a very nice pass to Leetch for the side of the net tap in.
OVERALL:	A	This was a fantastically impressive win, just because I can't remember the Rangers winning a game in this way in years! 1-0? The Rangers? Believe it or not. THIS is how I want the team to play, and what I hoped they'd look like under Hitchcock or Burns. Look at what a commitment to defense does - it kept them in the game against another tough defensive team until one of the Rangers more talented players was able to put it away. Playing in that style will keep the Rangers in just about every game at home, on the road, when they're tired, when the other team wants it more, etc. A game full of defensive highlights for a change. Maybe not a game you'd want on tape for it's lack of offensive highlights, but I can't tell you how pleased I am seeing the Rangers win ONE TO NOTHING.

Scratches:		Bobby Holik (hip), Dave Karpa (IR - elbow), K. Oliwa (healthy), Mike Richter (healthy)
created by:		Pete Rocha, © 2002. procha@optonline.net
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Posted by pete at November 07, 2002 10:02 PM
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Comments

The work of Samuellson on defense as well as offense amazed me. He has really turned the corner as an NHL key player, especially for the Rangers. Purinton deserves commendation for his thoughtful and organized play on D. How about the extra effort by Lindros to keep the puck in the zone on the power play. Messier slacks most of the game but comes up huge?

Posted by: Blueshirts76 on November 7, 2002 10:54 PM

From the start of the season I have killed this team. It's time to give some credit. It was an impressive win. These are the type of games Rangers lose all the time. Except for a couple of instances, everyone was very patience with their defensive and offensive game. It was not the perfect game but, I feel the team, in the last two games, has shown an improving trend (yes, winning helps). Consistency is what I am looking for. Saturday's game will tell us if the team is going in the right path.

Posted by: Jack on November 8, 2002 08:37 AM