Goal Line Report
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Rangers Face familiar Folks in Montreal
by Patrick Hoffman on 10/24/09 at 11:20 AM ET
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When the New York Rangers take the ice tonight to take on the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre. They’ll be taking on former Blueshirts Scott Gomez and Paul Mara while current Ranger Christopher Higgins returns to the team he spent his first four years with in the National Hockey League.
For Higgins, tonight would be the perfect night to have his first coming-out party as a Blueshirt. Higgins has yet to light the lamp and looks like a player who is pressing as head coach John Tortorella said he wants more from him. There has to be plenty of motivation for him to do that tonight, right?
At 7-3, there isn’t too much to complain about as a Ranger fan. The team has shown that they can score goals, come back in games, play solid defense and get great goaltending. However, in the team’s last two games, both losses, they’ve looked extremely beatable.
What does the team have to do differently tonight? For starters, staying out of the penalty box should be a priority. That hurt them against the San Jose Sharks on Monday night and the team responded with a much better effort on Thursday night in a loss to the New Jersey Devils.
Secondly, they need a 60-minute effort. Too often this season, the team comes out with an abundance of energy, pops in a few goals and they turn to playing a laxed-style of hockey. I’m sure you all remember what happened at the Bell Centre back in February of 2008 when the team blew a four or five-goal lead.
Lastly, this team needs more production from their captain, Chris Drury. Yes, he’s done a tremendous job killing penalties and trying to create plays but now, he needs to produce.
Tortorella told the following to Jim Cerny of NewYorkRangers.com when it comes to Drury, Higgins and even Ryan Callahan:
On Friday, Tortorella challenged Higgins, Drury, and Ryan Callahan, among others, to produce more offensively, and he said that he has to weigh who is generating enough offense when deciding on his forward line combinations and ice-time allotment against the Canadiens.
We’ll see what happens tonight folks!
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Tags: Montreal+Canadiens, New+York+Rangers,
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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 .