So I'm glad to be back sitting at my desk, staring outside into the 75 degree heat of Sunny South Florida. To be honest with you all, its boring waking up to the same weather every day, I miss the seasonal change of NY and that's why we are planning on going back. With that said, I have to say I was not overly impressed with the game last night however we pulled out the victory and that it all that matters in the grand scheme of things. I thought we got excellent games from the GAS line who in my opinion were buzzing all night long, BR's Line played quite well also, and the D played a fairly solid game as there really was nothing they could have done differently on the goals.
Here is my take period by period. The first started with the rangers buzzing, creating chances all over the ice and the first two lines (gas and BR line) playing excellent. Hags and BR used there speed to create a beautiful give and go finished off by a beautiful slapper to the top right corner from BR. There is nothing else to report other then total dominance from the NYR. We got back to the basics of what shapes this team, fore-checking in the offensive end, hard checking all over the ice, getting in passing lanes and blocking shots on the defensive end. This is what is going to take us far in the playoffs.
Onto the second period and where we created a few chances early and didn't get anything out of it, that's a rarity with this team, HAHAHA.. Hags took a penalty early and we killed it off, but a few moments later, Gabby got stood up at the blue line trying to enter the zone and proceeded to slap the defenseman in the head with his stick and get another 2 minute penalty. Before going further, I want to ask you why a guy with the speed that Gabby has gets stood up at the line so much, he never seems to be able to squeak by the d-man and get into the play as of late. I know he is still producing and has a lot more good plays then bad, but he is getting beat off the puck a lot as of late and is showing some signs of weakness in his game. Will that be exploited in the playoffs when things get tighter or does he get a second wind? So back to the Columbus PP, Boyle gets beat of the face off and a slapper from the blue line beats Hank through a whole group of bodies. Just a bit of bad luck, but can't keep losing face offs at the rate we did last night. Now onto the beautiful thing known as the NYR Power Play, as you can ascertain I am joking with that. All season with the exception of that 4-5 game spell where we were like 6-15 or something like that, the PP has been a liability for us. 5-3 last night was obismal to say the least and to be honest it will be forever until we have someone with a hard slapshot from one of the points. To win it all and get deep in the playoffs we have to figure out what is going on with the PP and start scoring at least at a 17-18% clip as opposed to the 14% we are at now.. After the PP we did continue the pressure on the CBJ and Mason and a really high shot from Danny G took a very favorable bounce and AA pounced on it and put it in the back of the net. I thought he played a very good game and has been back on track in the last 10 days or so.. The only thing I can say about the official time clock is why is it not synched to the television broadcasts? The CBJ broadcast had .02 ont he clock where the MSG feed had .01, and then the official feed had .00, that should NEVER happen in this technological age we are in now... Hopefully that gets fixed in all the arenas in the near future...
The 3rd period started with The NYR coming out and playing well again, creating chances and playing a solid game while up 2-1. John mitchell was stoned by one of the d-men and overall the CBj were playing quite conservative and trying to pick their spots. Hank made a great save off a determined play from an otherwise unforseen Jeff Carter(more on him in a bit). Then the Wrist shot heard all the way through the NYR front office, another face off loss lead to a beautiful sniper style wrist shot from Rick Nash, man I dislike late goals, but at least we did not lose the game on that slapper, we just had to extend it a bit.
Not much I have to say about the play in OT expect WOW.. The play to get out of teh zone from Delz was classy, then the drive into the zone finding Gabby at the point, who found Delz on the wing, and once Delz realized he wasn't going to be able to shoot, he saucered a pass to Step who steamrolled it into the goal for a highlight reel goal. One has to ask themselves, why we don't score more goals like that, I know 4-4 there is more room, but we clearly have skilled guys and can clearly make plays like that more often, and perhaps we should..
Overall thoughts are as follows, solid win as I said we will take the two points. Solid play from the top two lines, but need more from the other two for sure. Can't get tired like we have done in previous seasons leading into the playoffs. Is it me or does the boyle line get caught in our end way to many times for long stretches. I feel like it happens at least once a game if not more. I know they give a lot on the other end and all over the ice, but they can't get caught like that, its nots going to be good.. I think its time to let Bickell sit a few games, I mean he and Rupp are playing like 5-6 minutes a night which is pointless. Torts has been doing so well rolling all four, keeping guys fresh and please do not let him revert back to his old ways of playing 3 lines and tiring out the boys to quickly.. Well with all that said and I could go on for more, heres to Pittsburgh on Tuesday and hopefully two more points, got to track down the Red Wings..... GO NYR......
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