Goal Line Report
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Records can be Deceiving
by Patrick Hoffman on 12/01/08 at 09:30 PM ET
Comments (3)
With a record of 17-8-2 and sitting first in the Eastern Conference, one would have to think that the team and its fans would be happy.
In the case of the New York Rangers, not so much. Looks can be deceiving folks and yesterday afternoon’s 4-0 clunker at the hands of the Florida Panthers proves that point.
Over at Sam Weinman’s (The Journal News) Rangers Report Blog, MSG’s John Giannone points out that of the club’s 17 wins, six have come in the shootout. If there were no shootouts, the team would have a substantially lower record and would be 11-7-8.
Let’s also not forgot that this team has had a pretty manageable schedule thus far. For example, there last five games have been against teams with sub- .500 records: Ottawa Senators (8-10-4), Phoenix Coyotes (10-11-2), Tampa Bay Lightning (6-10-7) and the Florida Panthers (9-11-3). Sam Weinman points out that the Rangers’ next three opponents are a combined 41-21-8: Pittsburgh Penguins (14-6-3), Montreal Canadiens (13-6-4) and the Calgary Flames (14-9-1).
The truth will be brought out in these next three games because these are all teams that will more likely than not be in this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs. If the Rangers can pick up four out of six points, than Ranger fans should come away impressed and realized that this year’s Blueshirts may be the real deal.
However, in order for that to happen, the team must do two things: SCORE and do a better job of protecting their goaltender Henrik Lundqvist.
I know I keep going back to this but when you have a roster that includes guys like Scott Gomez, Chris Drury, Nikolai Zherdev, Markus Naslund, Wade Redden, and even Michal Rozsival, the puck should be going in the net more. However, through the team’s first 27 games, they have only scored 65 goals, good for 25th in the league.
Secondly, they can’t keep leaving Lundqvist alone in the defensive zone. The Rangers hung Lundqvist out to dry and the Panthers were able to take advantage of that. If the Blueshirts do that against their next three opponents, they will end up allowing a lot of goals.
I am not trying to be a pessimist or anything but despite the team’s solid record, the Rangers still have a lot of work to do to get to where they need to be in order to compete for the Cup.
Filed in: | Goal Line Report | Permalink
Tags: Calgary+Flames, Chris+Drury, Florida+Panthers, Henrik+Lundqvist, John+Giannone, Markus+Naslund, Michal+Rozsival., Montreal+Canadiens, New+York+Rangers, Nikolai+Zherdev, Ottawa+Senators, Phoenix+Coyotes, Pittsburgh+Penguins, Sam+Weinman, Scott+Gomez, Tampa+Bay+Lightning, Wade+Redden,
Comments
You are absolutely right.
Thanks for pointing that out.
Posted by Patrick Hoffman from Fairfield, CT on 12/02/08 at 08:48 AM ET
Couldnt agree more Patrick.
If it wasnt for Lundqvist i really think this team would be around .500, the cracks are begining to show as was the case last night in Montreal.
Lundqvist is looking frustrated and its no wonder, he knows going into every game that if he lets in more than 2 goals that his team has lost, every night he has to be superhuman just to get us to the shootout and when he is not well see the Canucks, Panthers and Last nights debacle at the Bell Center.
I really thought after seeing the way the team showed up in Prague that we were going to be treated to a team that didnt give the opposition any breathing room but instead we are a team that cant play 60 minutes of Hockey and usually doesnt turn up till the 3rd period.
The system Tom Renney has implemented isnt working, sure its easy to be fooled by the winning record (18-9-0-2) but this team has serious flaws that need to be addressed. We cant score and the amount of quality chances on Lundqvist per game has to be amoung the highest in the league.
One of my main gripes is Chris Drury, the guy is invisible out there and he doesnt seem to show any fire when the team needs it most, game after game this team comes out lacklustre, to me thats a leadership issue.
Redden has been ok up till now but if you are paying $6.5m for a Defenseman he has to be better than just ok, the thing is he has gradual gotten worse as the season has went on, he doesnt look interested and to me he seems to shy away from anything physical. He was injured last night and honestly i wont miss him.
I wont make this a strictly negative post and will say that the positives we can take so far are the play of Lundqvist and Zherdev, i have already mentioned how good Henrik has had to be so i dont think i can better superhuman, Zherdev has been fantastic and with every passing game he does something that makes me go wow, his vision and skill are a joy to watch and i just wish we had a few more players of his skillset.
The thing that worries me the most though is the fact that this team is how it is and it wont change mainly because the contracts and NTC’s handed out by Sather. I dont think there is a Gm dumb enough to take Drury or Redden’s contract of our hands and thats not to mention getting them to waive their NTC.
Rozsival is another who has struggled but has looked like he is getting better of late but still its 4yrs at $5m, thankfully Sather never gave him a NTC. Gomez i give pass marks to even though his play has been up and down, he needs a Sniper to play with because he does create a lot of chances but we have nobody converting them.
All in all i think i could be a long season if something isnt done soon, i fear this team could be battling for 8th in the East possibly worse if these issue arent addressed.
Remember Tom there’s no shootouts in the Playoffs
Posted by nyr30 from Scotland on 12/05/08 at 07:50 AM ET
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Patrick has a tremendous passion for hockey. Besides covering the Rangers and the NHL for Kukla’s Korner, you can also find Patrick’s work over at RLD Hockey, Rangers Tribune, and TheGoodPoint.com.
Prior to writing for the above mentioned outlets, you could find Patrick’s musings at hockey web sites/outlets such as TheHockeyNews.com, The Fourth Period, Spector’s Hockey, Hokeja Vestnesis, Blueshirt Bulletin, SNYRangersBlog.com and many more.
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You may be a Rangers fan and all but there is no way they are or were in first place in the East when you wrote this article. They are tied with Boston with 36 points but have played 3 more games, placing them in second.
Posted by Steve Strowbridge from St. John's, NL, CA on 12/02/08 at 07:04 AM ET