This is the roller coaster that is the Rangers season. Beat Philly, lose to the Penguins; beat New Jersey, lose to Nashville; beat Toronto, lose to Florida; beat Atlanta, lose to the Capitals; five game win streak, three game losing streak; super hot goaltending, really lousy goaltending.
Last night was much of the same. There was a nice little ceremony for Jaromir Jagr and Brendan Shanahan for their 600 goal milestones, and each scored goals, with the Jagr getting two. But also, Jagr's giveaway on a blind pass led to Jason Blake's first goal, and both took bad penalties that just fell in line with the rest of the team's undisciplined play.
Ultimately, it ended as a 4-3 loss, the third straight for the Blueshirts. As Rocha mentioned last night, the team was missing a bunch of people, and the lines got all kinds of messed up because of the number of penalties that needed to be killed off.
Don't look now, but both the Isles and the Devils are very well within striking distance of first place in the division, and each has games at hand on the Rangers. Keep in mind that the boys in blue are only four points away from 9th place in the conference as well.
On to the news:
NY Post: "We took bad penalties, and some from important people," said Tom Renney, who added that he is becoming, "kind of [ticked] off" at his players whining at officials following nearly every penalty call. "I'm not into that kind of junk," said Renney. "Be a professional and go to the penalty box. I don't think the referees are manufacturing penalties. If they kept a scorecard on who makes more mistakes, the players or officials, it would be pretty lopsided."
NY DailyNews: "I don't see anything positive when you lose a game when we needed to win it," Jagr said, rejecting the notion that the sick and tired Rangers rallied to make a game of it. "All the streak we had, it's gone. We won five straight and we lost three straight now."
The Journal News: For all the collective good both Shanahan and Jagr accounted for last night in a 4-3 loss - a combined three goals and three assists - it was the two veterans who were at the fore of an undisciplined second period that opened the door for their opponents. The result was a second straight win for the Islanders at the Garden this year, and a third straight loss for a team that is holding on to first place by little more than its fingernails.
NY Newsday: "I liked our spirit, our fight and our willingness to press on," said Rangers coach Tom Renney, who added that he was angry at his players for yapping at officials after their penalties. "What I also didn't like was the battle level in one-on-one confrontations. If you want to make a statement to a division rival, you take those opportunities."
NY SportsDay: Playing without Henrik Lundqvist and Michael Nylander due to the flu, while keeping Matt Cullen and Marek Malik on the sidelines with various leg injuries, the Rangers called up Ryan Callahan and Al Montoya from Hartford, played little used Thomas Pock, and gave Kevin Weekes another start in goal.
What happened to the holiday trade freeze? Mike York was just traded to the Flyers in exchange for Randy Robitaille and a pick.
Anyway, the Blueshirts have to be road warriors now, playing only one home game between now and January 3rd. The upcoming opponents aren't necessarily the toughest in the league, but that doesn't mean anything for these up, down, high, low Rangers.
HDH
Posted by Jim at December 20, 2006 11:34 AMeMail this entry!
|
Recent Articles
|
|
|