Goal Line Report
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So Much for 82-0
by Patrick Hoffman on 10/16/08 at 10:10 AM ET
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If there was a team that the New York Rangers were going to lost, it was last night’s against the Buffalo Sabres. Much like the Rangers, the Sabres were undefeated (2-0), getting timely goal-scoring, playing solid defense and getting excellent play from their goaltender (Ryan Miller).
As such, it should come as no surprise that the Blueshirts lost their first game of the regular season last night to the Sabres by a score of 3-1. The team did not generate many scoring chances and took bad penalties, two things that usually lead to a loss.
Let’s face it, even at 5-0, the Rangers were not playing their best hockey. For example, last Saturday night, the team almost let a 4-0 lead to the Philadelphia Flyers. Secondly, they’re not getting much scoring help from their first or third lines and are instead relying on the second line of Aaron Voros, Brandon Dubinsky and Nikolai Zherdev to be productive.
Last night was a perfect example of that. The second line was held scoreless and only Scott Gomez was able to break through on one of his team’s 20 shots. If this team wants to have any kind of chance to win the Stanley Cup this season, they are going to need scoring from at least two out of their four lines instead of just one.
In losing their first game of the young season, the team was never out of the game despite playing poorly. They started the game off on the right foot by scoring early on Miller and finished the game strong by being able to throw pucks to the net and generate scoring chances, which they were not able to do during the second period.
“They played just a little bit better than us tonight, especially on the power play, that was the difference,” Henrik Lundqvist told the team’s website. “They crashed the net really well. They had guys around me all night.”
Rangers’ head coach Tom Renney also acknowledged that the team didn’t have it last night and how that will happen sometimes during the course of the season.
“I know that this is a group of guys that badly wants to do well,” Renney said. “They want to play the game in a way that the fans and they can be proud of, but it’s not going to go your way every night.”
This is why every two points is important and right now, the Rangers are at the top of the league with 10.
The team will hopefully learn from their mistakes and get back on track when the meet the Toronto Maple Leafs tomorrow night at Madison Square Garden.
Filed in: | Goal Line Report | Permalink
Tags: Aaron+Voros, Brandon+Dubinsky, Henrik+Lundqvist, Nikolai+Zherdev, Ryan+Miller, Scott+Gomez, Tom+Renney,
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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 .