Hockeybird.com: Report Card: WSH 2 @ NYR 1

Report Card: WSH 2 @ NYR 1

Wednesday - January 28, 2004

01/28/04	1	2	3	OT	F
	1	1	0		2
	0	0	1		1

Goalie	GA/SH	Grade	Comments
Mike Dunham #30, G	0/0		(DNP)
Jussi Markkanen #40, G	2/24	B	Caps first, scramble in front of the net, pass came out from behind and deflected off some junk in the crease and under Jussi. Big saves late in the 1st to hold the one goal defecit including a glove save on Zubrus and a goalmouth scramble a minute later. Second goal against was a surprise breakaway caused by a turnover at the blueline, Markkanen couldn't make the save. Overall a fine game from Jussi; good enough to win, anyway. Both goals were better plays on the Caps part than failings on Markkanen's part.
Defenseman	Ice Time	Grade	Comments
Brian Leetch #2, LD	0:0	A-	Here's something of a shock, both these guys (Leetch/Poti) were excellent tonight while the other four defensemen struggled to varying degrees. Leetch was often making things happen and thankfully wasn't trading those off with defensive mistakes. He was a downright terror in the 3rd period.
Tom Poti #3, RD	0:0	B+	Like I said above, both of these guys were very good tonight. Poti less offensively flashy than Leetch but solid defense and no mistakes. Almost a huge blueline blunder with about 3 left in the game, but Poti caught up to kill the 2-on-1.
Joel Bouchard #74, LD	0:0	D-	Reached up to grab a dump in at the blueline, puck falls in front of him, reaches out to get it while Whitfield swoops in, takes the puck away from the frozen Bouchard and goes in for a goal. Even though TREMENDOUSLY important (it was the game winning goal, after all), almost every Bouchard shift seemed like an adventure. Another bad game for Joel, which has been more the norm than the exception since returning a few weeks ago.
Boris Mironov #29, RD	21:37	C-	Bungling Bobo. Can't blame him on the Bouchard mistake, but Boris was a -2 and had many tense and shaky moments. He needs his Vlad back.
Jamie Pushor #24, LD	8:53	B	Big hit early, seemed to stun the Capital who was hanging his head on the bench. I didn't really notice much of him the rest of the game, which can't be a bad thing for a 5th/6th defenseman. Although, look at that ice time! That's about 7 minutes less than a normal 3rd pair defenseman. Why? I know the Rangers needed offense, but c'mon!
Dale Purinton #5, RD	9:11	C+	Touchy call early in the 1st. KIND OF wrapped his arm around the Cap when riding him into the boards, but another replay showed it was pretty harmless. Like Pushor his ice time was about 7 minutes less than a normal 3rd pair defenseman gets. I don't think very highly of Purinton's game myself, but jeez, if you're going to put him in the lineup you can't just give the guy 9 minutes.
Forward	Ice Time	Grade	Comments
Eric Lindros #88, C	9:37	B	Wow. Absolutely creamed by a neutral zone hit by Doig in the 2nd. Very next faceoff Lindros takes the faceoff, immediately drops the gloves and skates right over to Doig for a fight. It really wasn't a fight, just two huge guys trying to wrestle for position. Doig threw about three lefts, all missed, while Lindros got the takedown at the end and tried to throw a shot in. Big credit to Lindros, though, the team needed something big and he provided it, it was the rest of the team's fault they didn't build off of it. And then... didn't return for the 3rd period. Yes, it's the dreaded concussion. They don't know the severity yet, obviously. Unbeliveable. Just... unbeliveable.
Martin Rucinsky #26, LW	18:23	B-	Was having a sleepy game until early in the 3rd (who wasn't?) when Martin batted a four foot high wobbling rebound out of the air and into the net. Ended up with 4 shots, 3 in the 3rd period.
Jaromir Jagr #68, RW	24:22	B-	Man. 4 minutes into the game and two great scoring chances already. Not much else until midway through the 3rd and Jagr with about 3 or 4 shots on the 5-on-3 PP alone, including drawing the second minor for the two man advantage in the first place. Obviously not the dynamo he was on Monday night, but he did have FIVE shots in the 3rd, just couldn't get it done, though.
Petr Nedved #93, C	20:05	B-	The pass that came out in front for the Caps first went right through Nedved. Bad first two periods, picked up a LOT in the 3rd with many good scoring chances and 4 shots. At least he left it out there in the 3rd, but what about the first two periods?
Jan Hlavac #37, LW	8:37	D	Oh, please. About the only thing noteworthy in the game was his high sticking penalty in the 1st.. I realize he was more or less benched for offense later in the game, but he still did nothing.
Alexei Kovalev #27, RW	16:52	C-	Argh. A MISERABLE opening two periods and he really did try hard in the 3rd, but in typical Kovalev fashion, he's either ineffectual through lack of effort (periods 1, 2) or lack of good luck (period 3). His only 2 shots were in the 3rd.
Bobby Holik #16, C	15:31	C-	Good and bad. Had a little more life than he's shown lately, although most of Bobby's signs of life in the past few weeks have just been poking the goalie after the whistle. Been quite a while since I've seen him play an all-around complete game. Kind of shows how his focus isn't there right now, 4/11 on faceoffs and only 1 shot, two things you rarely see from Holik.
Chris Simon #17, LW	15:00	B-	One of the better full game efforts tonight, exemplified by his 3 shots in the FIRST TWO periods, not in the 3rd when everyone was suddenly shot happy.
Jamie Lundmark #21, RW	15:36	C-	A very fumbling, out of sync game, though he was hardly alone here. Nothing Lundmark tried to do seemed to work from passes to shots to anything.
Mark Messier #11, C	19:09	C-	I didn't notice any particularly atrocious defensive play, but nights like tonight his 15 minutes of even strength float time is 15 minutes someone else didn't have, which is very furstrating. He passed and played well on the PP, though. A horrendous 5/20 on faceoffs.
Matthew Barnaby #36, LW	9:59	D	Pretty close to nothing. Again, like others he was kept on the bench in the 3rd for more offense, but it's not like Barnaby deserved any better tonight.
Jed Ortmeyer #41, RW	7:33	B	Almost a very important shift early in the 2nd. Lost his stick but kept working along the boards eventually kicking the puck out and drawing cheers from a dead crowd and maybe life from a dead team, but Bouchard makes a mistake 20 seconds later and it's 2-0 Caps. One of the few Rangers working in periods 1 and 2.

COACHING STAFF:		?	One on hand, it's hard to complain because he went with the smart choice in goal and kept the lines the same from the last game, but you still have to wonder how this team can be so damn flat when they're 5 points out of the playoffs and playing one of the worst teams in the league. I don't blame all the "flatness" on Sather, those were nineteen PROFESSIONAL ADULTS playing for the Rangers tonight who shouldn't need constant pep rally speeches like a bunch of God damn babies, but you still have to wonder how much Sather and the coaches' general lackadasical atmophere makes this all happen in the first place.

1st PERIOD:		C-	Totally owned the momentum for the first few minutes including several near goals, Purinton takes a penalty, Rangers start standing around and the Caps own the final 15 or so minutes. John Davidson on MSG mentioned exactly what I was thinking - it seemed like the rest of the team were waiting around for Jagr to do something. And he did, but that's still not going to win this game. Shots 11-9 Washington.
2nd PERIOD:		D+	Two prominent opportunites to feed off the momentum - Ortmeyer's stickless hustle and Lindros' sorta-fight with Doig - both went completely flat. The Caps are clogging the neutral zone expertly and the Rangers are running into a wall, unable to get ANYTHING going. Shots eight to FOUR for the Caps. Jagr, Lindros, Kovalev, Nedved, Leetch, etc., four shots.
3rd PERIOD:		A	The entire period was played in the Caps zone. The ENTIRE period. 20 shots. 20 shots to 5, no less. In a vacuum, this period was absolutely brilliant. Taken with the rest of the game, this period was nothing more than annoying when you saw how the Rangers could dominate the Caps when they wanted to.
OVERALL:		D+	This team is a house of cards. It's such a shaky, fragile foundation that seemingly every single day another card floats off the pile, leaving the structure ever more unstable. They need defense and goaltending, they get offense. Lindros is having a great season and it's looking like him and Jagr are going to combine into something amazing, Eric gets his first concussion in nearly two seasons. 5 points out of the playoffs and facing the second worst team in the league on home ice, the Rangers decide not to show up until it's too late. The Caps played a solid, trapping road game, but the Rangers clearly didn't want to work for it until the game was almost out of reach. I'm running out of things to say about this team, or caring to say about them. A disgusted, frustrated disappoinment.
Scratches:			Pavel Bure (knee - IR) Greg de Vries (knee - IR) Darius Kasparaitis (knee - IR) Dan Lacouture (concussion - IR) Vladimir Malakhov (wrist) Pascal Rheaume (healthy)
created by:			Pete Rocha, © 2004. procha@optonline.net
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Posted by pete at January 28, 2004 09:59 PM
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