Goal Line Report
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Where’s The D?
by Patrick Hoffman on 12/13/08 at 11:00 AM ET
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In a surprising turn of events last night, the New York Rangers finally lost to the New Jersey Devils by a score of 8-5.
Yes folks, you read that right: the Blueshirts allowed eight goals to the Devils.
For the past few weeks, the Rangers have struggled to keep the puck out of the net. On Thursday December 4, they allowed six goals in a 6-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens. Last Sunday night against the Calgary Flames, they allowed three goals in a 3-0 loss and obviously, last night wasn’t so pretty.
Yes, it’s easy to look at some of the positives the team had last night:
- They rallied from being down 5-1 to tie up the game
- Nikolai Zherdev had four points (1 goal, 3 assists)
- Scott Gomez had three points (1 goal, 2 assists)
- Markus Naslund had another strong game (1 goal, 1 assist)
However the defensive lapses are glaring as the team, more often than not, is leaving their goaltender Henrik Lundqvist out to dry. Lundqvist’s stats are certainly showing it as he now has a 2.57 goals against average and a .912 save percentage, stats that he’s not used to having.
Against the Carolina Hurricanes tonight at Madison square Garden, the Rangers should look to get back to playing tighter defensive hockey without sacrificing their offense. It can be done and now, head coach Tom Renney just needs to figure out how to do it.
Filed in: | Goal Line Report | Permalink
Tags: Calgary+Flames, Carolina+Hurricanes, Henrik+Lundqvist, Markus+Naslund, Montreal+Canadiens, New+Jersey+Devils, New+York+Rangers, Nikolai+Zherdev, 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 .