Monthly Archives: November 2009
While speaking with reporters last night after the Rangers loss, Assistant Captain Ryan Callahan spoke of the Rangers effort last night.
A night after coach John Tortorella called the Rangers loss to Tampa “their worst of the season”, Callahan spoke of the Rangers having a better effort in their 8 to 3 loss.
Cally notes though, hard work can only take you so far:
“I thought we did compete harder, but at the end of the day we’ve got to get better results,” said Ryan Callahan, who fought Cooke in the third. “It’s one thing to compete hard and battle hard; this league’s about winning. At the end of the day we’ve got to get a win.”
Read more postgame reaction at the NY Daily News
…Exactly right. Working hard and competing is a great thing, its necessary, but if you want the hard work to pay off, add two points to that column in the standings.
As for last night, they played hard on and off through the first two periods. But too many defensive lapses and mistakes are what did them in. It was a sloppy game for the Rangers and they need to play tighter in all aspects if they want to win games.
Last night, Enver Lisin dressed and sat on the bench the whole game.
His ice time was the same as your’s or mine, 0:00.
After the game, on MSG’s Hockey Night Live, John Tortorella basically said that if the team had another forward, Lisin would have been a healthy scratch.
Tortorella also spoke of the coaches continuing to work with Lisin.
Lisin has three goals and five assists on the season. He has been nursing a broken foot over the last few weeks.
…I like Lisin and think he is very talented, but Tortorella seems to like to teach him lessons and mess around with him. Lisin’s best asset is his speed and due to his foot injury, he has been limited. He has skill but doesn’t seem like he has harnessed it the right way.
Its very possible that Lisin’s entire problem is his number, 81. He may just have a case of the Marcel Hossa’s. Lets get him a new number
In Newsday, Arthur Staple writes about how so far this season, Marian Gaborik is living up to his contract.
With his past medical history and the history of free agent and trade busts, Gaborik is certainly breaking the past mold of big-name Rangers.
Gaborik currently leads the NHL in goals with 19 and is second in the league in points with 35.
…He is truly un-real. He has been more than anyone could have hoped. If only the Rangers had someone else who could also score, and help him out.
The Rangers started Steve Valiquette in goal last night for their embarrassing loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Valley goofed up and misplayed the puck a few times that directly led to Pittsburgh goals.
Before the game, John Tortorella told reporters why he made the choice to go with Valley:
“I wanted Hank to play at home against the Penguins [Monday],” Tortorella said. “And the first game of these back-to-backs, especially with all the travel we’re doing, I felt that was important for Hank to go in Tampa. Turned out it didn’t matter too much.”
Read more about it at Newsday
…It makes enough sense. It also would have made sense to just let Valley play against Tampa and let Henrik play the two against Pitt since those are much more pressing division games. Who knows how last night turns out if Henke plays?
Speaking of last night, if they had a better option, I would have to think that Valley would be out. His mistakes were killer last night and he should have stopped a few of those Penguin goals.
For a recap and stats, visit SNY.tv
Scoring
-Marc Staal (3) opened the scoring with a great backhand move off a feed from Chris Drury (6) and Ales Kotalik (12)
-Evgeni Malkin (8) started the Pittsburgh barrage with a goal from Sidney Crosby (14) and Bill Guerin (10)
-Crosby (13) followed that with a quick wrister from Alex Goligoski
-Max Talbot scored his first of the season from Crosby and Kris Letang a few seconds later.
-Matt Gilory (4) cut the lead to one on a wrist shot from Vinny Prospal (19) and Marian Gaborik (15)
-Mark Eaton (3) gave Pittsburgh a 4-2 lead with .04 seconds left in the second period.
-Thirty-three seconds into the third period, Michal Rozsival cut the lead to 4-3, on his first of the year, from Sean Avery (7) and Gaborik (16)
-Crosby (14) started the second Pittsburgh barrage as he scored his second of the game.
-That was followed by former Ranger Pascal Dupuis (7) beating Steve Valiquette.
-Crosby (15) then finished off the Hat-Trick with a powerplay goal at 11:29 of the third period.
-Tyler Kennedy (6) made it 8-3 on the powerplay less than 30 seconds later
Stats
-Marc-Andrew Fleury stopped 22 of 25 shots
-Valiquette let in eight goals on 33 shots. He was directly responsible for a few of Pittsburgh’s goals
-Enver Lisin dressed and played ZERO MINUTES tonight
-Rozsival led the team in ice-time with 23:05
-Bobby Sanguinetti had two shots on goal and played 10:46
-Once again Christopher Higgins led the team in shots with six
-Michael Del Zotto was a minus five tonight
-Crosby had five points tonight
Penalties
-The Rangers took three minor penalties in the first two periods.
-In the third period:
-Donald Brashear was given four minutes for roughing at 10:16
-Ryan Callahan fought Matt Cooke. Cooke hit Artem Anisimov and knocked him out of the game in the third period.
-Avery also fought and was given 17 minutes for his trouble
The Rangers next game is Monday night against Pittsburgh at MSG
…He may have had a hat-trick tonight, but click the picture above for a high-res picture of Dan Girardi slashing Crosby in the back
The Game:
The Rangers (13-11-1) try to end their three game road swing on a winning note against Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins (17-9-1)
For a preview, click here
The Goalies:
Steve Valiquette (2-2-0) vs Marc-Andre Fleury (14-7-0)
Pittsburgh’s Key Players:
Notes:
Brian Boyle is a healthy scratch for the Rangers. Aaron Voros will replace him in the lineup.
Henrik Lundqvist had previously started 23 games against the Penguins
All Time:
Overall: 110-93-23-6
At MSG: 63-43-9-1
At Pittsburgh: 47-50-14-5
2008-09 Schedule Against Pittsburgh
Oct. 2 Rangers 2, Penguins 3 at Pittsburgh
Nov. 28 Rangers vs. Penguins at Pittsburgh
Nov. 30 Rangers vs. Penguins at MSG
Jan. 25 Rangers vs. Penguins at MSG
Feb. 12 Rangers vs. Penguins at Pittsburgh
March 4 Rangers vs. Penguins at MSG
How To Catch It:
The game can be seen on MSG starting at 7:30PM.
John Giannone, on twitter, reports that Steve Valiquette will get the start in goal for the Rangers tonight.
Valley is 2-2 this season and has given up 11 goals. He last played last night in relief of Henrik Lundqvist and last started three weeks ago against Calgary.
Brian Boyle will be a healthy scratch for the Rangers with Aaron Voros taking his place in the lineup.
To follow Giannone on twitter, click here.
Bobby Sanguinetti made his NHL debut last night in the Rangers loss to Tampa Bay.
Sangs played 16:14 of total ice time with none of it coming on the powerplay.
He took one shot, was a minus one and said this about his debut:
“It could have gone better,” said Sanguinetti, who has six goals and 16 assists in 21 games for Hartford to lead all AHL defensemen in scoring. “It was a tough one for us, but it’s good to get the first one out of the way and see what it’s like.”
Read more about Sangs debut, at The Record
After last night’s loss, Rangers coach John Tortorella spoke about the state of the Rangers. His feeling is that above everything else, the Rangers need to play consistent hockey
“We’re going to have to make a decision here sooner or later — are we going to be a consistent hockey club?” Tortorella said. “I think it starts with our preparation and it goes on to being ready to play at all times. And, top to bottom tonight, from the goaltender on out, no one played. If we’re going to be a team that wants to be there at the end, consistency is a very important thing.”
Read more about it at The Record
…Tortorella has spoke of consistency before, and this goes along with what Christopher Higgins and Ryan Callahan have spoken of the last few weeks. The Rangers really need to bring a more full and consistent effort for a whole sixty minutes. It seems like once they get sloppy or make a mistake, all the wheels tend to come off and they are done in.
It can’t be like that. The Rangers need to play consistent and rebound and be resilient like they were last Monday against Columbus. With the East improved, just having talent won’t be enough to get by and into the playoffs. Consistency will be the key.
The Rangers came into last night as winners of two straight games and hoped to build on that for a third, especially with two games against the Penguins coming up tonight and Monday.
Not so much:
“It was a group effort coming from a game where I thought we played one of our better games in all facets,” Tortorella said. “This is probably our worst game we’ve played all year long.”
More on last night in The Record
…With the exception of the pre-timeout time on Monday night, the Rangers had been playing well and had probably assumed that some level of carry-over would come for last nights game. Instead the Rangers seemed to get outworked, as the previous post said, form the goalie on down.
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