| 01/13/04 | 1 |
2 |
3 |
OT |
F |
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1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
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1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
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Goalie
|
GA/SH
|
Grade
|
Comments
|
| Mike
Dunham #30, G |
1/19 | B | Made a good, quick leg save on an Islander rebound
during their 1st period PP. Only about a minute or two later let up a
big rebound into the slot that Messier couldn't handle and Blake got to
it for a turn around wrist shot goal from about 15 feet out. And now,
about a half hour after the game ended, that's all I have in Dunham's
column. A few more nice saves in both the 2nd and 3rd, but tonight
there was a total team effort in front of Mike and he could've watched
half the game from a lounge chair. As good as he had to be. |
| Jussi Markkanen #40, G |
0/0 |
(DNP) | |
|
Defenseman
|
Ice Time
|
Grade
|
Comments
|
| Brian Leetch #2, LD |
25:20 | B | He played a pretty good
game including a very slick fake shot-pass to Poti for a goal, but I
nearly choked on my tongue when he was awarded FIRST STAR OF THE GAME!
What the bloody hell?!? I could've picked TEN other players who had a
bigger impact on the game than Leetch did tonight! Two assists, -1, 3
shots, decent defense... that's first star?? MSG and the MSG Network
certainly "look after" their own (Messier, Leetch, Kovalev, previously
Richter), don't they? |
| Tom Poti #3, RD |
23:21 | A- | A give and go with
Leetch at the blueline on the PP, Poti got the shot off that Lindros
deflected down and in from waist high. 2nd period PP, Rucinsky moved up
to Poti's right point, Poti sneaks in down low on the opposite side and
makes a gorgeous redirection of a Leetch pass behind DiPietro. Poti has
been having a great few weeks now, and tonight was his fifth game
winning goal of the season, two more than anyone else on the team. |
| Vladimir
Malakhov #23, LD |
18:35 | B | Early 2nd Bates used his speed to get around Vlad,
forcing him to take a hooking penalty. Solid game, no mistakes, then in
the 3rd came the mystery goal, the Rangers fourth. I personally thought
it was Rucinsky's shot but Sam & JD swore it was Malakhov's. They
were both in the same area when the shot was taken and we never got a
good replay on it. Not really important, though, as it was an icing on
the cake goal. |
| Boris Mironov #29, RD |
21:50 | B | Strong game that I
noticed, yet nothing particularly news worthy. Played tough. 2 shots. |
| Darius
Kasparaitis #6, LD |
15:02 | B | VERY important play in the late seconds of the 2nd, a
point shot gets behind Dunham and just sits there, an Islander was also
there but Kaspar tied up the guy and knocked him over, preventing him
from getting to the rebound. A tense moment. After 10(!) hits in the
Isles/Rangers game on Saturday and plenty in the previous two matches,
Darius took it easy in the big hits department tonight by comparison. |
| Dale Purinton #5, RD |
13:20 | C | Bad turnover at the
point in the 2nd which led to an Islander 3-on-1. That has always been
my biggest criticism of Purinton's game, he just takes wayyy too long
in making decisions with the puck. 3rd period tried to start a fight
with (and threw a few punches at) Cairns after he roughed up Lindros
and Dale got suckered into the extra minor. Declined a Cairns fight
late in the game, which is fine. Why let the Isles leave with even a
shred of dignity? |
|
Forward
|
Ice Time
|
Grade
|
Comments
|
| Bobby
Holik #16, C |
20:27 | B+ | Holik was there, maybe not a dominant force but a
solid game at the very least. Very strong shift in the 3rd which led to
the Kovalev goal. SH breakaway later in the period with Holik taking a
long, 5-hole wrist shot that didn't get through. |
| Martin Rucinsky #26, LW |
22:11 | A- | I was very impressed
with Rucinsky tonight, though I generally think he's a good, underrated
player. He's quite strong against the boards, hard to knock down and
usually comes away with the puck. Credited with the Rangers fourth
goal, which he may or may not have scored, see Malakhov's column. |
| Alexei
Kovalev #27, RW |
21:20 | A- | Rough 1st period. Got hauled down several times and
didn't draw any penalties including one time it looked like he might
break in half at the waist. The stick broke on one shot. Pass went
through the legs another time. The guy is cursed, I'm tellin' ya. Great
shift in the 3rd, knocked down in the corner, lost his stick, got back
to the front of the net and found the rebound for the crucial 3-1 goal.
Sat on the ice for about 30 seconds holding his eye, maybe got some ice
in it? With his luck he practically has to lose an eye to score a goal.
Later made a nice PK breakup and hit Holik on a breakaway pass. Yet
AGAIN in the 3rd drove to the net hard on a mini-breakaway, drawing a
penalty and very nearly a penalty shot. One of his best games all
season, mostly thanks to the 3rd period. Led the team with 5 shots. |
| Petr Nedved #93, C |
20:40 | B | He played a strong,
tough game, though didn't do too much offensively, including badly
blowing the pass on a 2-on-1 with Rucinsky in the 3rd. Nedved did a lot
of subtle little things right, though. |
| Jan
Hlavac #37, LW |
8:48 | B | Hey! Hlavac did something worth mentioning! 2nd
period, made a quick move to the center of the ice despite two Isles'
on him, drew the PP the Rangers eventually scored on. Like Nedved not a
wild offensive game or anything, but his effort is not at fault. |
| Anson Carter #22, RW |
11:42 | C+ | Hit the net, Anson, hit
the net!! Man, must've been three seperate good chances shot wide. A
minor factor in tonight's game, but he is a pretty smart player who
doesn't make many mistakes. |
| Eric
Lindros #88, C |
18:49 | B+ | Seems like every game I'm giving Lindros among the
highest, if not the highest grades on the team and he's really earning
it. 1st period PP, set up in front of the net, deflected a waist high
Poti point shot down and in. A few minutes later came in fast on
Niinimaa on the forecheck, getting a good piece of him and annoying him
enough to make Niinimaa haul Eric down, power play. I wouldn't say he
tailed off after the 1st, but wasn't quite the dominant presence. |
| Pascal Rheaume #20, LW |
9:54 | B | After a long
cycle in the Ranger zone got a favorable deflection in the middle of
the ice and tried to turn it on for a breakaway, at least drawing the
hooking call. Fought through a check for a good point blank chance
early in the 3rd. |
| Matthew
Barnaby #36, RW |
9:50 | B | Called for an interference off a faceoff in the 1st,
touchy call. He was under the Islanders' skins early with a lot of
yapping, which is a very important thing to have when the Rangers are
in the Islanders' heads already. Barnaby knows what he's doing here and
does it well. |
| Mark Messier #11, C |
14:04 | C- |
Couldn't
handle the rebound in the slot Dunham gave up on a Blake shot which
turned into a SH goal. A little later missed a streaking Lindros on a
2-on-1. A few minutes later than that was sloppy at his own blueline
that almost caused a Blake breakaway. A miserable 1st period. Remained
ineffectual the rest of the game including several missed
opportunities, although not as detrimental as the 1st. The old man had
a clunker tonight. |
| Chad
Wiseman #15, LW |
4:59 | C | Once again looks a little out of his league with slow
reaction times and some bobbled passes. Nice play in the 2nd, had an
open wing and hesitated the shot to try and freeze DiPietro, didn't
work, though. |
| Jed Ortmeyer #41, RW |
7:00 | B | Late 2nd, a bit behind
an Islander who was already falling down, but Ortmeyer's stick was in
place to make it look like a tripping penalty and that's how they
called it. Okay game, nothing really great nor bad. |
|
|
|||
| COACHING STAFF: | B | Good move to put the solid Rheaume on the Lindros line in place of Simon instead of Wiseman. And that's about it... nothing really to talk about coaching-wise tonight so they get the standard B. | |
| |
|||
| 1st PERIOD: | A- | Score may be 1-1, and shots only 11-7 for the
Rangers, but they dominated the period, due in no small part to their
four PP's to the Islanders' one. The Rangers have this team's number.
They Isles are trying to be chippy every chance they get, probably to
try and shed the "intimidated of the Rangers" tag their coach gave
them, but it's backfiring right now. They had absolutely no offensive
flow or consistency in the period while the Rangers must've spent 15
minutes in their zone. |
|
| 2nd PERIOD: | B+ | I was a little worried
at first at what looked like early warning signs (not skating) for yet
another disasterous 2nd period, but the Rangers hung in their and
regained their balance with some good forechecking shifts, especially
by the Nedved line. Shots 10-7 Rangers. The power play is the
difference in the game so far. |
|
| 3rd PERIOD: | A+ | A comeback by the Isles? The Rangers sit on the lead?
Ha! The Rangers just COMPLETELY overwhelmed the Islanders in the 3rd.
Multiple breakaways and odd man rushes, continued skating hard all over
the ice drawing penalties, THEY JUST OWN THE ISLANDERS RIGHT NOW. Wow.
If it weren't for DiPietro having a strong game the score could've been
7 or 8 to 1, that's how badly the Rangers outplayed 'em in the 3rd.
Shots 10-5 NYR. I say again: Wow. |
|
| OVERALL: | A+ |
The
first A+ game of the season, I believe. If not, I still think this was
the most impressive win of the season and here's why: Just because of
the law of averages you'd think the Islanders were due tonight, didn't
happen. Because the Islanders' coach has called them out several times,
even going as far to say they're intimidated of the Rangers, maybe the
Islanders were due tonight, didn't happen. How would the Rangers fare
without two very important players in NYR/NYI games - Chris Simon and
Greg de Vries? Didn't matter. Islanders scored first and had the lead
for the only time in their four games this season, didn't matter. But
the most impressive thing in tonight's win was the Rangers were just
solid at every inch of the ice for the entire 60 minutes. They didn't
rattle Garth Snow into giving up some fluke goals. For an
Islander/Ranger match it wasn't TOO emotinal until the score was 4-1,
so you can't say the Rangers just won on adreneline. They won by
playing outstanding hockey for 60 minutes. Discipline, very few
mistakes, excellent puck support, enough goaltending that was needed,
went to the net, dumped the puck in, great special teams... it doesn't
get much better. |
|
| Scratches: | Joel Bouchard (back - IR) Pavel Bure (knee - IR) Greg de Vries (knee - IR) Dan Lacouture (concussion) Jamie Lundmark (knee - IR) Chris Simon (suspended - game 1/2) |
||
| created by: | Pete Rocha, © 2004. procha@optonline.net | ||
| Discuss the card here | |||
eMail this entry!
Rocha, usually you are bang on in your analysis, but not today. Yeah Jan muffed the gamewinner, but he had the most take aways on the team by far. Both Vlad and Bobo should get atleast a A-for the 5-on-3 PK alone. Cut the Ruskies some slack, would ya. And Wiseman, he has great hands. Maybe he's still a little nervous, but sub-Ortmeyer?
Posted by: Ninja on January 16, 2004 10:04 AMRocha, usually you are bang on in your analysis, but not today. Yeah Jan muffed the gamewinner, but he had the most take aways on the team by far. Both Vlad and Bobo should get atleast a A-for the 5-on-3 PK alone. Cut the Ruskies some slack, would ya. And Wiseman, he has great hands. Maybe he's still a little nervous, but sub-Ortmeyer?
Posted by: Ninja on January 16, 2004 10:05 AM
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