Report Card: NJD 4 @ NYR 2
Wednesday - October 01, 2003
| 10/01/03 | 1 |
2 |
3 |
OT |
F |
 |
2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | |
 |
0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
|
Goalie
|
GA/SH
|
Grade
|
Comments
|
| Mike
Dunham #30, G |
4/30 | B- | Didn't have a chance in hell on the Devils first
goal. 2-on-0, Dunham reacts to the first pass (as he should) and it's
passed back for an easy goal. Didn't have much of a chance on the
second goal, either, as a Devil was left wide open right in Dunham's
face for the deflection. Third goal, Dunham isn't COMPLETELY without
blame but a slapshot did deflect off Purinton about 15 feet ahead of
Mike and he lost it. Made some fine saves to hold the Rangers in there
at times, but whereas Dunham CERTAINLY wasn't bad tonight, he wasn't
great, either. |
| Jussi Markkanen #40, G |
0/0 |
(DNP) | |
|
Defenseman
|
Ice Time
|
Grade
|
Comments
|
| Fedor Tjutin #51, LD |
18:07 | B | They're crediting him
with 18 minutes of ice time, but damn if it seemed like he was out
there for half that amount of time. Which could be either (or both) a
credit or a discredit, but seeing as he's a rookie it's more of a
credit, I think. Also listed with 3 shots. Certainly looked a lot
better than Purinton. |
| Tom Poti #3, RD |
22:28 | B | Jumped into the play a few times, a few nice keep-ins on the PP, good defense, a pretty soild game all-around. |
| Vladimir
Malakhov #23, LD |
20:17 | C+ | Even though Vlad was WAY over on the other side of
the ice when Mironov had the puck poked away on the Devils first, you
can't really blame him because Malakhov was undoubtedly waiting for a
cross-ice pass that never came. Scored the Rangers first goal, slid
down from the point on the PP and slapped one past the inlaw humping
Brodeur. He killed his potential "B+" in the 3rd period, though, when a
shorthanded Jeff Friesen BLEW by, around and past Malakhov like his
feet were chained together. -2. |
| Boris Mironov #29, RD |
19:55 | F | Caught flat footed at
the Ranger blueline about a minute into the game, Devil pokes the puck
from him and it's a 2-on-none goal. Wow. That's ugly, brother. Very
similar to the infamous Malakhov Blueline Blunder against the Devils
late last season. Otherwise he didn't play TOO badly, but I fear for my
life if I don't give him an "F" tonight. |
| Darius
Kasparaitis #6, LD |
19:10 | C | On TV John Davidson seemed to blame both Kaspar and
Purinton for the second goal, but to me it was almost entirely Dale's
fault. Darius didn't look bad tonight, had a few scoring chances by
jumping into the play, but wasn't exactly a model of efficiency and
positioning, either. |
| Dale Purinton #5, RD |
16:27 | D- | Faceoff in the Ranger
zone, puck back to the point and after jousting with him for a second,
Purinton lets HIS man go who was then free to deflect the puck right on
Dunham's doorstep and poke in the rebound for a goal. Awful. Devils
third goal deflected off Purinton's stick on a slap shot, something
it's hard to kill Dale about, but he should make up his mind - If
you're going to block the shot, block it, and if you want the goalie to
see the shot then get ALL the way out of the way. Fought to a draw with
Sean Brown in the 3rd. |
|
Forward
|
Ice Time
|
Grade
|
Comments
|
| Eric
Lindros #88, C |
17:28 | B | Robbed by a beautiful save on a nice 1st period shot.
Had a 2nd period to remember as Eric was flattening dudes and bulling
his way around the ice like only he can do when he's on his game.
Lindros was one of the few players who put in a good enough effort to
win tonight. |
| Martin Rucinsky #26, LW |
16:18 | B- | Up and down game. Had
and made some good chances, also didn't try as hard as we saw last week
against Columbus. |
| Anson
Carter #22, RW |
17:26 | B- | Same for Carter as Rucinsky. Had a few good chances,
definitely not a bad game, but not as good as it could've been. |
| Petr Nedved #93, C |
19:14 | C+ | Score is 4-2 Devils, 15
minutes left in the 3rd, Nedved gets a mini-breakaway and loses the
puck off his stick after his first move right in front of Sir Lord
Brodeur. Nedved seems to choke a lot in big, late game situations,
unfortunately. |
| Jan
Hlavac #37, LW |
17:57 | C | Didn't do much that was notable, but I liked how he
was right in the middle of one of the after the whistle scrums, not
backing down. |
| Alexei Kovalev #27, RW |
19:18 | C+ | A few slick
Kovalev-esque dekes and doodles, had a few good scoring chances, but
was hardly the presence he could be. |
| Bobby
Holik #16, C |
13:35 | C | Quiet. Made some noise in front of the net a few
times but didn't really seem to be involved. Write it off to
pre-season, I guess. -2. |
| Jamie Lundmark #21, LW |
11:54 | B- | The puck dropped right
onto his stick thanks to a teriffic play from Lacouture, but credit
Lundmark with a slick open-the-legs move to beat His Highness
Brodeur to tie the game at two. Didn't do a damn thing otherwise,
though. |
| Dan
Lacouture #39, RW |
11:02 | B | Fantastic effort on Lundmark's goal. Passed the puck
up the boards through the neutral zone to himself, fought off a Devil
and barely managed to swat the puck to Lundmark coming down the middle.
The flashy goals are great, but those more subtle, extra effort type
plays are just as fun to watch. |
| Mark Messier #11, C |
13:39 | C |
Not
bad, not good, not much more to say. No shots, 8/18 on faceoffs. |
| Chris
Simon #17, LW |
9:59 | C | Not much to talk about. At all. Took an early exit
from the game with a 10 min. misconduct by yapping at Kerry Fraser and
his impenetrable Vitalis hairdo. |
| Matthew Barnaby #36, RW |
11:35 | D | I appreciate that
Barnaby speaks his mind and lets his emotions be known, but honestly,
for all the noise he makes sometimes, especially in the past week
between Matt wondering about his being scratched and his possible
non-protection status for the Waiver Draft, YOU'D THINK HE WOULD'VE
SHOWN A LOT MORE THAN HE DID TONIGHT! Easily the quietest Ranger on the
ice. In fact, I'm not sure if the puck passed within 5 feet of him all
evening. It's only pre-season, but still, if this keeps up where we
hear from Barnaby every time he's wondering about his status on the
team and then he backs it up with efforts like this, it will become
tiring VERY quickly. |
|
|
|||
| COACHING STAFF: | x | No coaching comments for pre-season. | |
| |
|||
| 1st PERIOD: | D- | Quite ugly. The Devils, even with about half an NHL
roster in the lineup, looked like a machine while the Rangers looked
like a disorganized High School team. ONE good shift the entire period
for the Rangers. Several unconscionable defensive mistakes. Not sure if
it's the chicken I ate right before the game or this period that has me
feeling nauseous right now. |
|
| 2nd PERIOD: | B+ | Much, muuuuuuch better
period. The Rangers effort was five times what it was in the 1st. The
hitting and hustle were way up and the Rangers played with a nasty
edge. Outshot the Devils 16-8. |
|
| 3rd PERIOD: | C | If they were charging to watch the game by period, I
wouldn't have paid more than 98 cents for this one. There was a fight
and a few scrums, but at about the 10 minute mark both teams seemed to
want to go home. Rangers put up a fight at the beginning of the period
but after Friesen's SH goal they pretty much packed it in. |
|
| OVERALL: | C |
This
team can tighten up the roster, ban the cellphones, skate windsprints,
preach discipline and those are all fine, but they HAVE TO learn how to
deal with a defensive/trap minded team already. The Rangers still don't
seem to have much of an idea how to get out of their zone or into the
other team's zone when that team is set up and waiting. The 1st period
was very reminicent of last season, watching the Rangers bang their
heads against the wall trying to move the puck through and around a
very disciplined team. Sheer effort overcame that in the 2nd period,
but a flukish goal late in the 2nd, the Devils sit back and wait for
mistakes and this 4-2 loss to the Devils looked exactly like every
other 4-2 loss to the Devils. Don't read much into pre-season? Okay,
but you can't deny the similarities, either. |
|
| Scratches: | Pavel Bure (knee) Greg de Vries (healthy) Brian Leetch (ankle) Dominic Moore (healthy) Ronald Petrovicky (healthy) Juris Stals (healthy) |
||
| created by: | Pete Rocha, © 2003. procha@optonline.net | ||
| Discuss the card here | |||
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