| 9/25/03 | 1 |
2 |
3 |
OT |
F |
 |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
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1 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
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Goalie
|
GA/SH
|
Grade
|
Comments
|
| Mike
Dunham #30, G |
0/0 | A- | Wasn't called on for much in the 1st period as he only faced THREE shots. Got a lot more work in the 2nd. No out-of-your seat type saves but at least half a dozen nice ones. Same for the 3rd period, a few sharp saves. Looked very solid overall. Dunham is at his best when he barely looks awake back there. Even though it was a shutout, he "only" gets an A- because the work wasn't that difficult. |
| Jussi Markkanen #40, G |
0/0 |
(DNP) | |
|
Defenseman
|
Ice Time
|
Grade
|
Comments
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| Greg de
Vries #4, LD |
0:0 | B | 'Atta boy, Greg! They'll
love you quickly with performances like that. Poti got leveled on a 2nd
period hit, de Vries went right over to the player, x-checked him then
got into a nice fight which saw de Vries still throwing punches with
his head fully covered by his jersey. Won the fight handily. Elsewise
looked good with Poti, a solid game. |
| Tom Poti #3, RD |
0:0 | B | Strong at both ends. Jumped into the play a few times. Good game defensively, tougher to play against than people seem to give him credit for. |
| Vladimir
Malakhov #23, LD |
0:0 | C | I could rip on him for being almost completely invisible, but it was his first game action of the entire pre-season so we'll cut him a break. |
| Boris Mironov #29, RD |
0:0 | B | Made a beautiful in-and-out move on the 1st period PK but decided to make a pass to the covered Nedved instead of taking an open shot. |
| Darius
Kasparaitis #6, LD |
0:0 | B | Quite a few big hits throughout the game. Never
seemed out of position, either. Looks confident. |
| Bryce Lampman #53, RD |
0:0 | B | I liked Lampman last
pre-season and I like what I've seen so far again. Steady and smart,
doesn't make you nervous. One time in the 1st period he made a very
curious decision of shooting the puck the length of the ice when he
didn't have to. Left during the 2nd period and it was announced during
the 3rd that he has a separated shoulder. Tough break for a pretty good
defenseman. He should be a Ranger regular someday. |
|
Forward
|
Ice Time
|
Grade
|
Comments
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| Eric
Lindros #88, C |
0:0 | A- | Excellent game, easily best I've seen him have since
the 01-02 season. A few big hits, looked very determined and quick and
played hard. Quite good on the PK, too. His line was fantastic, easily
the best on the ice tonight. |
| Martin Rucinsky #26, LW |
0:0 | A- | Took a crosscheck from
behind in the crease and while falling to the ice, managed to get his
stick on it (more like his stick shaft, it seemed) and it found it's
way through. Was also the fortunate recipient of Carter and Lindros'
work on a 3rd period goal where the rebound bounced right to him on the
side of the net and Martin deflected it in off the goalie's arm. Not
quite as noticable as Lindros or Carter, but two goals is two goals. |
| Anson
Carter #22, RW |
0:0 | A- | VERY impressive game. Great puck control in tight
situations and always seemed to make something happen when he did have
the puck. Very energetic. Fought off a check around the net to slide it
to Rucinsky in the crease for the Rangers first goal. Looked like the
Anson Carter we used to see in Edmonton and Boston. |
| Petr Nedved #93, C |
0:0 | B- | Petr was actually one of the more quiet players on the ice tonight, but didn't have a bad game. Considering he's been about the only player scoring in pre-season so far, he can take the night off. |
| Jan
Hlavac #37, LW |
0:0 | B | Very active on the puck during a 1st period PP. Drew
a PP in the second by working to get the puck instead of gliding and
watching. Took at least three shots wide throughout the game, though. |
| Alexei Kovalev #27, RW |
0:0 | B+ | Had a few notable
moments from the point on the 2nd period power plays. Made a nice deke
coming in from the point, passed it off, went to the net and chipped in
the rebound. A 3rd period PP goal that looked like Kovalev's was
actually a Holik deflection in front. At even strength Kovalev wasn't
too noticable, but looked deadly on the PP. |
| Bobby
Holik #16, C |
0:0 | B+ | Strong game. Took a hellacious beating in front of
the net during the Rangers power plays, paying off one time in the 2nd
where everyone was ganging up on Holik and Kovalev was left alone for a
rebound goal. Scored on a deflection from right in front on the PP in
the 3rd period, too. |
| Dan Lacouture #39, LW |
0:0 | C+ | Maybe a hit or two, nothing major until he took on the heavyweight Jody Shelley with about 4 minutes left. Give him credit for both taking on a tough fighter and doing something to make himself noticable. Hear that, Jamie Lundmark? |
| Jamie
Lundmark #21, RW |
0:0 | C- | Nothing. Absolutely zero. Which is better than having
a game noteworthy for mistakes, but if
Lundmark thinks he's going to make the team with games like this, he
shouldn't. Disappointing. |
| Mark Messier #11, C |
0:0 | C+ |
Nice
faceoff game. Made a slick faceoff move in the 2nd where he slapped the
puck out of the Rangers zone instead of drawing it back. 3rd period
deflected a puck out of mid-air just inside the offensive zone, a nice
back pass to Petrovicky for a slapshot goal. A decent game for a 4th
line center. |
| Chris
Simon #17, LW |
0:0 | C | Bad 1st period. Lost the puck at his blue line, also
took a very needless hooking penalty. Better 2nd period, set
up a scoring chance or two and had some good shifts around the net. |
| Ronald Petrovicky #38, RW |
0:0 | B | A few monsterous hits.
You've gotta love the little guy. He fears nothing. Scored on a 20-foot
slapper in the 3rd. Good forechecking and boardwork, too. |
|
|
|||
| COACHING STAFF: | x | No coaching comments for pre-season. | |
| |
|||
| 1st PERIOD: | A- | Rangers looked considerably faster, stronger and more
determined than the Jackets and dominated most of the period, but to be
fair, many of the Blue Jackets better players are sitting tonight.
Rangers outshot them 11-3. Their penalty troubles continue as they took
four minors in the period. |
|
| 2nd PERIOD: | B | Rangers came out a lot
more flat in the 2nd as the Blue Jackets put more shots on in the first
few minutes than they did in all of the 1st. Rangers picked up their
pace about 5 minutes in and had the control for the majority the rest
of the period. |
|
| 3rd PERIOD: | A- | A quick two goals early in the period and with a 4-0
Ranger lead, the teams pretty much just went through the motions until
the end. Very nicely killed off a full two minute 5-on-3. |
|
| OVERALL: | A- |
The Rangers looked fantastic, pretty much dominating 50 or 55 minutes of the game, but you can't run away with this. The Rangers had what is likely their opening night roster in the game against a Columbus team that had about eight rookies, hopefuls and stragglers in there. Still, they should've beaten this team handily and they did. Overall they looked very confident and focused. Every line and d-pairing clicked well, Dunham was good, they crashed the net most of the night - really no complaints except for the blah performance by Lundmark. |
|
| Scratches: | Matthew Barnaby (healthy) Pavel Bure (knee) Brian Leetch (ankle) Dominic Moore (healthy) Dale Purinton (healthy) Juris Stals (healthy) |
||
| created by: | Pete Rocha, © 2003. procha@optonline.net | ||
| Discuss the card here | |||
eMail this entry!
Pete! Nice card.I wrote a post but it said the website wasn't responding. I was looking forward to seeing Moore and Stals. Amazing that it's taken Sather so long to realize the effectiveness of putting a big body in front of the net on the PP. I thought you were a little tough on Simon, who despite that giveaway, was strong around the net and in the corners. he's definitely an improvement over Sandy, no? I was waiting to see him go with Shelly, but Lacouture beat him to it. Hope everything is well with you. We've all been trying to be more optimistic. You can come back now.
Posted by: Stellavito on September 25, 2003 10:45 PMIt was a generally positive night, but I had a few thoughts:
1) What the hell was up with Mironov's face-off/trip? That looked practically choreographed. If you watch the replay, you can actually see the other two Rangers just standing in the background not even moving from the face off till the whistle . . . almost like they knew he was going to do it. I was really loving Bobo's game, right up until that moment. Then I began wondering if he should be allowed to spend so much time with Malakhov.
2) I dunno about your criticism of Lundmark. He's a checking forward right now. I saw him snap a few shots off, skate around in a big hurry, and not get taken advantage of defensively. Isn't that what checking forwards do? Sure, more a little more offense would have been nice. But he's not supposed to be physical, and holding it against him that he's not is a lot like holding it against Poti. Talk to me in game 10 if Lundmark still hasn't shown much offense . . . but between now and then I'm fine. He'll outscore Petro and LaCotour in his sleep.
3) The only other thing that jumps out is that I'd flip Nedved and Hlavac's grades. Hlavac didn't do anything for me, and looked very Dvorkian (i.e., useless) while Nedved and Kovalev looked nifty and dangerous.
Posted by: Kubera55 on September 26, 2003 02:31 AMAh yessssssss,the card is back.
I open a beer in your honor Sir Rocha ! And not a crappy one....a Bass ale,the good stuff !
Now, how do you like the banners i made for Da Card, nice eh ?
----}-
Posted by: Bird on September 26, 2003 10:01 PM
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