Goal Line Report
Next entry: The Captain Gets It Done In Chicago
Previous entry: We'll Take It
Rangers in Chi-Town
by Patrick Hoffman on 01/16/09 at 10:45 AM ET
Comments (0)
Tonight will be an important test for the New York Rangers as they take on the Chicago Blackhawks at the United Center. The Blackhawks are currently fourth in the Western Conference and sport an impressive home record of 16-4-3.
Back on October 10, the Blueshirts defeated the Blackhawks in their home opener at Madison Square Garden but this is a much different Hawks team than the one that was on the ice three months ago. They have a new coach in Joel Quenneville, are getting scoring across the board from the likes of Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Patrick Sharp and Martin Havlat, playing solid defensively and are getting excellent goaltending from both Nikolai Khabibulin and Cristobal Huet.
“Outside of the skill they were able to exhibit back then, I think they will be pretty different (tonight),” Rangers’ head coach Tom Renney told the team’s web site. “I think there is a level of commitment and discipline to their game now.”
One thing the Rangers will need to do in this game is score some goals. It’s obvious that the Blueshirts are content with winning one-goal games by scores of 2-1, 3-2, etc., but against an offensive team like the Hawks, two or three goals might not be enough to pick up two points.
I would expect that the team will have the same lineup that it did against the New York Islanders on Tuesday night, which means that Aaron Voros and Dan Fritsche will be the club’s scratches.
More importantly, the team has another incentive to win tonight’s tilt: their dads will be there.
Filed in: | Goal Line Report | Permalink
Tags: Aaron+Voros, Chicago+Blackhawks, Cristobal+Huet, Dan+Fritsche, Joel+Quenneville, Jonathan+Toews, Martin+Havlat, New+York+Islanders, New+York+Rangers, Nikolai+Khabibulin, Patrick+Kane, Patrick+Sharp, Tom+Renney,
Comments
Be the first to comment.
Add a Comment
Please limit embedded image or media size to 575 pixels wide.
Add your own avatar by joining Kukla's Korner, or logging in and uploading one in your member control panel.
Captchas bug you? Join KK or log in and you won't have to bother.
Most Recent Blog Posts
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 .