Hockeybird.com: Report Card: NYR 2 @ DET 3

Report Card: NYR 2 @ DET 3

Saturday - December 21, 2002

12/21/02	1	2	3	OT	F
New York Rangers	0	1	1		2
Detroit Red Wings	2	0	1		3

Player	Ice Time	Grade	Comments
Mike Dunham		B	Nothing Mike Dunham, or Patrick Roy, or Ken Dryden could've done about the Wings first goal (PP). Lidstrom with an amazingly slick fake-shot-pass from the point to Larionov cutting towards the net, who redirected it in. Second goal, Poti skated RIGHT IN FRONT of Dunham on the Lidstrom shot, screening him completely, so badly that Dunham stared at Poti for about 5 seconds after the play was over. Dunham's 2nd period was magnificent, making at least a half dozen big saves to keep the Rangers in the game. Glove hand, 5-hole, blocker... just about everything but a breakaway save. Third Detroit goal was a breakdown by Kasparaitis, Shanahan had a point blank shot, Dunham may have been down a bit early on it. Made a few more big saves in the 3rd including a breakaway stop on... Shanahan, I think. Dunham played almost as well as a goalie could've in a 3-2 loss. It easily would've been 6-2 or worse were it not for several clutch saves. I think when the Rangers get Leetch, Lefevbre and Purinton back a lot of these losses will turn into wins for Dunham, but will it be too late?

Joel Bouchard	15:41	B	This guy really does a good job for someone who's spent the majority of his career in the minors. Plays tough D, skates well,
Tom Poti	25:37	F	You're killing me Tom Tom!! Killing your team, too. First it was a bad high sticking penalty in the offensive zone which lead to a Detroit PP and goal. Next it was cutting in front of Dunham and screening him right as Lidstrom was taking the shot, screening him so badly Dunham gave him a "Are you kidding me?!" stare for about 5 seconds afterwards. Settled down with a decent 2nd period, but about 2 minutes into the 3rd took a dumb holding call away from the play, penalty, Detroit goal. His worst game as a Ranger. To his credit he also had an assist and 5 shots (second on the team), but all his mistakes cost his team.
Vladimir Malakhov	23:50	A-	Weird goal, Lindros and Maltby collide in front and knock Legace off his feet while Malakhov is staking down with the puck, but instead of focusing on the puck Legace tries to pick himself up with all the grace of an old man getting up from a bean bag chair, and with Legace facing the other way Malakhov just backhands it in between Legace's unaware butt and the post. Later scored on a ripper of a rising shot coming down the wing. Mostly played a very good game but had some bad moments (a 3rd period giveaway in his own zone sticks out), too.
Richard Lintner	13:35	B	Effective job. You really don't notice him, AT ALL, but you'll take that for a defenseman.
Darius Kasparaitis	19:02	C	Blew it on the game clinching goal, on the PK, lost his stick, Shanahan passes it from the corner to behind the net, Kaspar goes there, the pass comes right back and it's a goal.
Dave Karpa	16:15	C	Real dumb boarding penalty in the 2nd, giving the Wings another chance while the Rangers were holding on down 2-1.

Mark Messier	17:25	D+	Better than the last game, but that's really splitting hairs. Hard to know he was playing until the final 10 minutes.
Mikael Samuelsson	12:12	D-	Did nothing. Nothing at all. No hits, one unmemorable shot, a lot of nothing. Absolute zero. No light can escape from this black hole lately.
Eric Lindros	20:27	B	Played as good a game as he could've with the baggage known as Messier and Samuelsson. A 3rd period play blew my mind - Lindros coming in one-on-one on Chelios, Lindros powers through him, knocks Chelios over but Chelios grabs his stick while on the ice for about 3 seconds while Lindros and the puck were wide open. NO CALL! Absolutely unreal. One of the worst non-calls of the season.
Petr Nedved	22:37	C	Cleanly lost the PK defensive zone draw to Larianov, and guess who was wide open to tip the puck in? I'll give you a hint, it wasn't Sammy Davis Jr. Despite his team high six shots Nedved really didn't help things, and in fact on that CRUCIAL late game PP down by one he was terrible.
Ronald Petrovicky	12:28	D	Did he play? Late 3rd period he froze the puck along the boards in the Wings zone and only then did I say, "Oh yeah, Petrovicky. Forgot about him".
Radek Dvorak	15:44	C	Guess he wasn't too bad. Still didn't score, though. Like I have to remind you: Three. Three goals this season.
Bobby Holik	16:01	B-	Played tough, but a bad play or two as well and didn't do much in the offensive end.
Matthew Barnaby	10:27	B	One of the better Rangers. Agitated all night to the point where almost the entire Wings team was focussed on getting after him. And in Trottier's brainless system, his ice time is one of the lowest among forwards.
Jamie Lundmark	9:51	C	Had a few long shots in the 1st period and didn't do a single thing after that. Also got lousy ice time, but unlike Barnaby who was playing very well and got lousy ice time, Lundmark wasn't doing much to deserve more.
Billy Tibbetts	7:38	C+	Fanned on a good scoring chance in the 2nd. Had a wrestling match with Avery in the 3rd, with Tibbetts trying to wrestle the helmet off Avery's head and bending him over backwards like a pretzel.
Gordie Dwyer	7:12	C	Threw a good hit or two, but really didn't do much.
Sandy McCarthy	5:46	D+	Where at least Tibbetts and Dwyer were noticable, Sandy was not. Him and Dvorak traded places for a few shifts in the 2nd and 3rd.

COACHING STAFF:		F	First, his line combinations were horrendous. Why take your two of your three worst forwards in Messier and Samuelsson (the other is Dvorak, of course) and saddle the hot Lindros with them? As you'd imagine, that line was a bust, though no fault of Eric's. Trottier also buried the 4th line, and I can't understand why since NO forward lines were really going for the Rangers tonight. Third, HOW DOES MESSIER GET THE THIRD HIGHEST ICE TIME AMONG FORWARDS?! Unreal.

1st PERIOD:		F	Ferget it. This is sick. The shots may have been only 14-11 in favor of Detroit, but the period was owned by the Red Wings like Dolemite owns his bitches - with a firm pimp hand! The Rangers were a comedy of errors while the Wings were a finely tuned machine. It was embarassing.
2nd PERIOD:		B	Much, much better. A lot of the period goes to Dunham with about half a dozen tough, clutch saves, but the whole team also picked up their game. They hit a lot more, finally started putting traffic in front of Legace, and while their defensive zone coverage was hardly spotless, at least it was better.
3rd PERIOD:		B	That PP goal by the Wings about 2 minutes in really crushed things, and as is their M.O. lately the Rangers turned it on late, as in "too little, too late". At least they were nasty in the 3rd and roughed the Wings up pretty good.
OVERALL:		C	All things considered it looked like a blowout after the 1st period but the Wings quieted down, the Rangers stepped up a bit and at least made an entertaining game out of the thing. However, if things keep going like this then that's all we CAN hope for the rest of the season - entertaining games. The Rangers at 5 games under .500 are dropping out of things fast. If they lose Monday vs. NJ and Thursday vs. Pittsburgh, I'm thinking their season is just about over and done at 7 games under with only 44 left.

2002-2003 record:			36GP \| 13-18-4-1 \| 31PTS \| 89GF \| 115GA
2001-2002 record:			36GP \| 19-13-2-2 \| 42PTS \| 105GF \| 102GA

Scratches:			Pavel Bure (knee) Rico Fata (healthy) Josh Green (healthy) Brian Leetch (bruised foot) Sylvain Lefevbre (broken finger) Dale Purinton (bruised foot)
created by:			Pete Rocha, © 2002. procha@optonline.net
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Posted by pete at December 21, 2002 10:39 PM
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