Report Card: DAL 0 @ NYR 3
Tuesday - November 04, 2003
| 11/04/03 | 1 |
2 |
3 |
OT |
F |
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0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
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0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
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Goalie
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GA/SH
|
Grade
|
Comments
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| Mike
Dunham #30, G |
0/0 | (DNP) |
|
| Jussi Markkanen #40, G |
0/34 |
A | A combination of good luck and great play. Several times it was a matter of an inch whether the puck got in or not, but take no credit away my man Jussi for playing a fantastic game. Save of the game on a partial breakaway in the 3rd period, Rangers holding to a 2-0 lead. His butterfly style and his size seemed to cover up for everything down low. Also seemed aggressive and a second ahead of the shot... except for one time in the 3rd when a point shot hit the post behind him and Jussi NEVER seemed to notice, then very casually slid over to block the rebound chance. I wonder if him and Dunham share the same, ahem, training program. Played an unbelievable 3rd period. |
|
Defenseman
|
Ice Time
|
Grade
|
Comments
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| Brian Leetch #2, LD |
22:30 | B+ | Broke up a 3-on-1 at the
end of a Ranger PP in the 1st by deflecting the centering pass.
Offsenively he still doesn't look a fraction like he was pre-injury, but
he's fitting into the system, playing strong defense and the team is
winning, so what. |
| Greg de Vries #4, RD |
21:22 | A- | Probably his best game
in 2 weeks. A few hits, no mistakes, played tough and smart. Bumped his
grade to a A- after stealing the puck off a Stars' stick during a 3rd
period PK, and playing great on that 4 minute kill overall. 2 assists,
+2. |
| Vladimir
Malakhov #23, LD |
17:04 | B+ | I don't know what kind of pills they've been mashing into his ice cream lately, but they should certainly keep it up. I had to do a double take when I saw it was Vlad in a full-out wresting match in front of the Rangers net to keep a Star just from gaining the crease and getting open. |
| Boris Mironov #29, RD |
15:18 | B | Took a bad/unlucky double minor high sticking call in the 3rd period. Otherwise played well, and that call was a bit of a bad break, but he still gets downgraded one grade for it. |
| Darius
Kasparaitis #6, LD |
16:04 | B | He's been missing a lot of hip checks recently,
tonight's in the 1st period was pretty comical. Must've ate his carrots
between periods because he nailed his game-long nemesis DiMaio with a
few huge hits in the 2nd. 3rd period shot the puck about, oh, FIFTY
FEET WIDE, went sent Dallas down on a 2-on-1. |
| Joel Bouchard #74, RD |
14:13 | B+ | Too bad the NHL doesn't
keep track of giveaways and takeaways anymore, because Bouchard has to
have a damn good ratio between the two. Seems to disrupt 3 or 4 good
scoring chances per game. |
|
Forward
|
Ice Time
|
Grade
|
Comments
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| Bobby
Holik #16, C |
17:15 | B+ | Another incredibly tenacious and ugly game where half
the opposing team, including their goalie, seemed to be pissed off at
Bobby at some point. Led the team with 4 shots. |
| Martin Rucinsky #26, LW |
17:48 | B | It seems like every game
I'm left with nothing in Rucinsky's column by the end. Not that he's
playing badly, he just really doesn't stand out. But did I mention he
played well? He did. 3 shots. |
| Anson
Carter #22, RW |
19:10 | B+ | He's really been one of the best forwards on the team
in the past week. Hardly seems to take an off-shift and he's really
fighting hard along the corners and behind the net. |
| Jamie Lundmark #21, C |
11:26 | B+ | Worked hard on this line
and didn't play poorly at all, but by the same token, Nedved's job on
this line isn't in trouble any time soon. Fantastic play in the 3rd
period where a way wide Kasparaitis shot sent Dallas on a 2-on-1 and
Lundmark hustled the entire length of the ice to finally catch up at
the last second, which made me jump his grade from a "B" to "B+". |
| Jan
Hlavac #37, LW |
9:29 | C | As the rest of the team seems to be getting more and
more comfortable, Hlavac's game seems to be going the opposite way. His
ice time has been cut way down in the past week or so, but he's still
not hustling or hitting like he was earlier in the season regardless of
the ice time. Had the puck stripped at the blue line with 6min. left,
leading to a shot that got behind Jussi and hit the post. |
| Alexei Kovalev #27, RW |
12:18 | B+ | Beautiful play at the
top of the offensive zone, made a patented Kovalev deke to leave the
Star standing still while he put a strong shot on net from 20 feet out
that Messier supposedly deflected in. Strong game even though you can
tell he's in a bit of pain. 2 assists, +2. |
| Mark
Messier #11, C |
17:09 | A+ | Uh... I hate to take away from his legendary
milestone, but did he even touch the puck on that Kovalev shot? It
really didn't look like it. 4 or 5 replays and I didn't see the puck
change direction once. Regardless, he would've gotten an assist on the
play, anyway, I think. Capped off the historic night with an empty net
goal from center ice to take the #2 position in scoring in NHL history,
passing Gordie Howe. A big congratulations to one of the best players
to have ever played this game. |
| Chris Simon #17, LW |
15:12 | B | While all of Ranger
Nation is in agreement that Simon has had an excellent season, myself
included, I can't help but wonder how many more points he'd have if
half of his shots didn't miss the net. Must've been three of them
tonight. +2. |
| Matthew
Barnaby #36, RW |
13:28 | A | Seemed to get injured early in the 1st but came back
a few minutes later, likely after being told there are no more bandages
or ice packs left to go around, so tough luck and get back out there.
Very entertaining fight at the opening faceoff of the 2nd with Steve
Ott. Barnaby won the fight, but for most of it's duration had his
jersey stretched over his head, looking not too unlike the famous
Cornholio. Not sure if he asked for any TP for his bunghole. Later in
the period picked up a deflected puck in center ice, flew in towards
the goalie and left Turco frozen like a stone statue as Barnaby deked
around him. Put a #9 on his jersey and change his skating posture and
damn if that would've have looked like Bure. Fantastic game. |
| Dominic Moore #28, C |
8:13 | B |
Choked
on a great scoring chance wide open in front of the net late in the
2nd, but no one's going to fault this kid for not working hard enough.
100% effort, all three zones. |
| Dan
Lacouture #39, LW |
7:41 | B | Cool play in the 2nd where he was left wide open at
the post, caught the puck in mid-air, dropped it and tried to make
about four moves on Turco to get him to move, all to no avail. A
surprising 3 shots. |
| Paul Healy #25, RW |
7:43 | B | Excellent play last in
the 1st where he slid to block a shot high in the Rangers zone and
skated the full length to deliever a great hit behind the Dallas net.
Seemed to tweak his back in the 2nd and took a few short shifts
afterward until having to leave in the 3rd. Regardless, he looked quite
good and I hope to see him in the lineup again. |
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| COACHING STAFF: | x | . | |
| |
|||
| 1st PERIOD: | B+ | Shots may have been even at 7, but considering the
Rangers handicaps tonight that was a mighty impressive period. The
Stars had one flurry of note and no major scoring chances elsewise,
while there were Rangers clogging the Dallas crease for the entire 20. |
|
| 2nd PERIOD: | A | Dallas may have had a
few more scoring chances this period, but so did the Rangers and two of
'em went in. NHL's box score says shots were 10-10, and the Rangers may
not have dominated the period, but regardless, their effort and team
play tonight is almost too good to believe. Everyone is working hard,
nearly everyone is hitting, tough, simple play in the offensive zone -
I say again, it's almost too good to believe. |
|
| 3rd PERIOD: | B+ | Honestly, Dallas seemed to own this period more often
than not and while the Rangers defense in the first two was near
flawless, this period was almost all Jussi. The name is Jussi, fool!
Without his unconscious play this period, this game might've been tied,
or worse. |
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| OVERALL: | A |
As
far as ice time goes, tonight the Rangers were without their top two
centers and top defenseman, which is at least 40 minutes that had to be
made up at center ice and about 25 minutes at defense. Oh yeah, did I
mention they were also without their #1 goalie? So, going in, I'm
thinking a 5 or 6-1 squashing by formidable Dallas Stars.
|
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| Scratches: | Pavel Bure (knee - IR) Mike Dunham (groin) Eric Lindros (chest - IR) Petr Nedved (lower back) Tom Poti (flu) Dale Purinton (healthy) Pascal Rheaume (knee - IR) |
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| created by: | Pete Rocha, © 2003. procha@optonline.net | ||
| Discuss the card here | |||
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Comments
messier definitely deflected kovalev's shot, i could hear it hit his stick from my seat...
but either way that doesn't really matter cause messier dropped the puck to kovalev so whether you make it a messier goal or a messier assist on a kovalev goal, mess still gets the point
Posted by: leetch3 on November 4, 2003 11:46 PMPost a comment
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