Report Card: NYR 4 @ NYI 2
Thursday - December 04, 2003
| 12/04/03 | 1 |
2 |
3 |
OT |
F |
 |
0 | 3 | 1 | 4 | |
 |
0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
|
Goalie
|
GA/SH
|
Grade
|
Comments
|
| Mike
Dunham #30, G |
2/39 | B+ | Very sharp 1st period, even if he didn't have to make
any edge of your seat saves. Controlled his rebounds, always seemed to
be in position and found the puck through traffic. Hardly had any work
in the 2nd until a fantastic save late where he dove from right to
left, just getting his arm out in time to stop an Islander wraparound.
He was inundated with work in the 3rd, and neither goal can I fault
Dunham on since it was a shooting gallery and something was bound to go
in at some point. Definitely his best game since the groin problems.
The only thing that's keeping me from the A- is despite the 39 shots,
the defense was fantastic and he really didn't face any spectacular
scoring chances until that wraparound in the 2nd and the flood of shots
in the 3rd. |
| Jussi Markkanen #40, G |
0/0 |
(DNP) | |
|
Defenseman
|
Ice Time
|
Grade
|
Comments
|
| Brian Leetch #2, LD |
23:50 | A+ | You've got to love
Leetch in big games. Even in those recent years where his play fell off
he still showed up for the big games and he showed up tonight. Both of
his goals weren't on plays Leetch necessarily made himself, but both
times he was perfectly accurate with the wrist shot. Great game in the
defensive end as well, like on the Rangers fourth goal where he won the
puck from two Islanders and sent the Rangers up ice. His best of the
season by a mile. Also led the team with 4 shots. |
| Greg de Vries #4, RD |
17:34 | A- | Every defenseman is getting an A- or better tonight and de Vries is no exception. Tough around his net, no noticable mistakes, can't ask for much more. |
| Vladimir
Malakhov #23, LD |
18:09 | A- | Phenomenal pass to Carter streaking in near the blue
line, hit him right in stride and right on the tape for Carter's
breakaway goal. Played a hard game and seemed to take a beating himself
as well. I have to admit, when it looked like Malakhov was injured in
the 2nd period I was honestly nervous about what it would mean to the
Rangers defense in both this game and in future games. How far he's
come since last season. |
| Boris Mironov #29, RD |
17:17 | A- | Very strong 1st period,
rock solid in his own end and was one of the few Rangers hitting during
the early stretch when it was all Islanders. Wasn't a slouch in the
final two periods, either. Just like the other five of 'em, great game
tonight. |
| Tom
Poti #3, LD |
20:39 | A- | Drew a penalty by taking a swat to the face, an
important penalty seeing that the Isles came out on fire and Lundmark
just took a hooking call 30 seconds earlier. Easily one of his best
games season as he was tenacious on his checks all night long and won
most of his board battles. Him and Kasparaitis were so good tonight
that it seemed Sather was using them as the "clutch pair" during key
moments in the 3rd. |
| Darius Kasparaitis #6, RD |
18:01 | A | Almost certainly his
best game of the season, too. Never once looked out of position, no
noticable mistakes and played hard and mean for the entire 60 minutes.
Worth every penny of his $4.5 million on nights like tonight. |
|
Forward
|
Ice Time
|
Grade
|
Comments
|
| Bobby
Holik #16, C |
20:55 | A- | Peca looked to wreck Holik with a big open ice hit,
and he actually did get off a good one but it was Peca who remained on
the ice for the next 60 seconds. The Isles' captain should make a note
to stick to his weight class from now on. Played a tough game all night
capped off by his beautiful play late in the 3rd with him and Rucinsky
on a 2-on-1, waited until almost the last second, freezing DiPietro to
the spot and sliding the pass between an Islander's legs for Martin to
shoot it in the wide open net. |
| Martin Rucinsky #26, LW |
19:36 | B | Had a partial breakaway
last in the 1st, hooked off the play but managed to get the puck
somewhere on net, anyway. Scored late in the 3rd on his only shot of
the game, all due to Holik's nice play which left Rucinsky with a wide
open net. |
| Alexei
Kovalev #27, RW |
24:29 | B | Was okay. Not involved in the scoring except for a
secondary assist, but had a pretty good game on the PP point and was
solid at both ends. Led the team in overall ice time as well as PK time. |
| Petr Nedved #93, C |
21:17 | B | Quite a good game. The
scoring won't always be there but at least when he plays hard like
tonight he's not a drag on the roster. Particularly good during the
Islanders 5-on-3 PP in the 3rd. Very tenacious tonight, nothing to
criticize. |
| Jan
Hlavac #37, LW |
17:41 | B- | Seemed to get banged around a lot. A LOT. Give him
credit, though, when the enormous Mongo (Cairns) came barreling at him
at the end of the 2nd, Hlavac noticed at the last second and threw a
shoulder and gave it to Mongo just as good as he took it. |
| Anson Carter #22, RW |
15:59 | B+ | Just when I was thinking
Carter was having something of a "blah" game, Malakhov hits a streaking
Carter who quickly put 10 feet on the defensemen and snapped a
lightning quick shot through DiPietro's 5-hole. That's why you've got
to keep Carter in the lineup, he may still be struggling to find
himself as a Ranger but he has the natural talent to just pick it up on
a few shifts and make a difference in the game, and his turned out to
be the game winner. Played a strong final two periods, taking hits and
doing the little things necessary to get the puck out of trouble. |
| Eric
Lindros #88, C |
17:26 | B | Gorgeous, gorgeous fake-shot-pass off the side boards
to Leetch streaking in from the point for the Rangers first. Highlight
reel play. Strong game, both took and gave a good amount of hits. |
| Chris Simon #17, LW |
13:49 | B | I'll use Simon's column to talk about how dominating this line looked at times tonight, particularly on the Rangers opening goal where they forechecked and won every single board battle while holding the puck in for what must've been 60 seconds before Lindros hit Leetch on that great pass. As for Simon's game, he was certainly involved and played a good game, though I have to say I'm disappointed there was no heavyweight bout between Simon and Mongo, and Mongo was willing. |
| Matthew
Barnaby #36, RW |
12:51 | A+ | During a 2nd period interview Stan Fischler tells
Barnaby, "Islander fans were telling me they hate you," to which
Barnaby responds without the slightest hint of a smirk or smile on his
face, "Well, good, I hate the Islander fans too so we're on the same
page there." I'M GIVING HIM AN A+ JUST FOR SAYING THAT! It's not a
total stretch, either, as Barnaby was one of the most invloved Rangers
all night long - yapping, hitting, just being a royal pain in the ass -
the type of player who's worth his weight in gold in games like this. |
| Jamie Lundmark #21, C |
2:34 | x |
Islanders
came out flying early, thoroughly outplaying the Rangers, Lundmark
takes a dumb hooking penalty 3 minutes in. Later in the 1st made a nice
rush wide around the Isles' defenseman and tried to time a shot with
Ortmeyer crashing the net. During what I think was his only shift of
the 2nd, Peca came flying at Lundmark from about 20 feet and they met
leg-to-leg, giving Peca a major and a game and sent Jamie limping to
the dressing room. |
| Richard
Scott #13, LW |
1:41 | x | Made a beeline to Cairns in the 1st and got into a
wild, swinging fight that Scott lost by about 10-8 if you're scoring at
home. However, I'll always take the tradeoff of a 4th line winger
taking a defenseman off for 5 minutes. Scott took it pretty good, good
enough to where he was woozy after the fight and never returned. |
| Jed Ortmeyer #41, RW |
4:36 | B | Nice helmet popping hit
in the 1st on Sven Butensc... Butensh... some guy on the Isles named
Sven. Not much to talk about in four and a half minutes. |
|
|
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| COACHING STAFF: | x | Nothing much to talk about here, although whatever he said to them during the 3rd period timeout must've been pretty good as the Rangers turned their game around 180 degrees from that point. | |
| |
|||
| 1st PERIOD: | B- | A case of weathering the storm? The Islanders came
out the much quicker and stronger team, finishing their checks all over
the ice, but after trading a few power plays the game settled down and
the Rangers had the better scoring chances even though the Isles owned
the shot advantage by a count of 11-6. If the game continues like this
I don't like the Rangers chances. |
|
| 2nd PERIOD: | A+ | Fantastic period by the
Rangers. Some of it came off the questionable 5 minute major to Peca,
but however it happened the Rangers were in the Islanders end and in
DiPietro's crease for what seemed like the entire period. Islanders
actually owned the shots 9-8 but only one of those 9 were an actual
scoring chance while the Rangers must've had eight of them. One of
their better periods of the season. |
|
| 3rd PERIOD: | D | ALLLLL Islanders for the first 13 minutes until their
second goal and Sather called the time out. Okay, the Rangers have a 3
goal lead and don't need to press, but this is ridiculous. Shots in the
period? Are you ready for this? NINETEEN TO TWO! I know, I know, plenty
of people out there will be demanding perfection and say 3rd periods
like this just can't happen, and they shouldn't, but they do. They
happen to the best of teams. Hey, they scored a goal when they needed
it and won the game so let's just forget about this period for now. |
|
| OVERALL: | A- |
Hmm. Well, the Rangers were slightly outplayed in the 1st period, HEAVILY outplayed in the 3rd period, but they did dominate the 2nd, picked up their game just enough in the 1st and 3rd to stave off disaster and it's a VERY important 4-2 win. How big? I like to look at the standings in terms of teams positions relative to the .500 mark. If the Isles won tonight, they would've improved to two under . 500 and the Rangers fall to one under .500, putting the Isles "one game" behind the Rangers. But with the Rangers winning, improving to one over .500 and the Isles falling to four under .500, I look at that as the Isles now being "five games" behind the Rangers. The difference between one game behind and five games behind, how big is that?! Maybe my little system here doesn't make much sense, but I'm sick of typing tonight. Let's just say it was a big win and I'll explain this further some other time. |
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| Scratches: | Joel Bouchard (healthy) Pavel Bure (knee - IR) Dan Lacouture (shoulder) Mark Messier (charley horse) 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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