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A Waste of Two Points
by Patrick Hoffman on 03/27/09 at 08:55 AM ET
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As I mentioned in my blog yesterday, yesterday’s game against the Atlanta Thrashers should have been an easy two points. It was a game against a team that was in 14th-place in the Eastern Conference and well on their way to thinking about next season.
So what happened? The New York Rangers blew a three-goal lead and lost 5-4 in a shootout thanks to undisciplined defensive play and some poor goaltending by netminder Stephen Valiquette.
Through the first two periods, the team seemed to be doing everything right. They were getting contributions from their big guns, scoring on the power play, killing penalties and playing a sound defensive game.
Unfortunately, this worked for the first 40 minutes of the game and then things fell apart as the team missed defensive assignments, failed to score on a two-man advantage, and Valiquette allowed two soft goals to allow the Thrashers to get right back in the game.
Head coach John Tortorella was not happy after the game and said “I thought we sucked right on through the game. I think we’re fortunate to get a point, very fortunate to get that.”
With the difficult schedule ahead, this was a game that the Rangers needed to have as all of their remaining games are against playoff contenders, beginning with tomorrow afternoon’s game against the streaking Pittsburgh Penguins. The team finds themselves in seventh place in the Eastern Conference, just two points behind the fifth place Carolina Hurricanes and just four more than the ninth place Florida Panthers.
The team will once again need to step up tomorrow afternoon and find a way to pick up two points if they want to stay involved in the playoff race.
Filed in: | Goal Line Report | Permalink
Tags: Atlanta+Thrashers, Carolina+Hurricanes, Florida+Panthers, John+Tortorella, New+York+Rangers, Pittsburgh+Penguins, Stephen+Valiquette,
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About Goal Line Report
The Goal Line Report will focus on all things Eastern Conference. Do I have a bias towards the Eastern Conference just because I am a New Yorker? No, but it certainly does make things easier! I’ll make my opinions known on Eastern Conference news bits (as often as I can), big games, hot and cold players, trades (I don’t make things up) and anything and everything else related to the Eastern Conference that I think is important for hockey fans to know. I will, in every sense of the word, be the beast of the East while also making sure to drop my thoughts on other hockey news items.
I, Patrick Hoffman, have covered the NHL since 2003 and have worked for a variety of hockey media sources including: Stan Fischler, Spector’s Hockey, TheHockeyNews.com, HockeyBuzz.com, McKeen’s Hockey, Blueshirt Bulletin, XM Home Ice Channel Hockey Blog, HockeyPrimeTime.com, FantasyHockey.com. NY SportsDay, and HokejaVestnesis.com.
For questions, comments or to talk hockey, feel free to send me an e-mail at .