I'm gonna be all over the place for this post -- it will kind of fit the pace of the game.
The first period was a full, strong effort by the Rangers, but that goal at the end? It was moving so slow, I'm not sure how Marty let himself lose sight of it. I was disappointed; granted, I have never been a goalie, so maybe it was a harder stop than I thought it was. I'm a 24 year old who doesn't even know how to ice skate, I'm not going to sit here and say what should have been done differently or what would work because that's not what fans should do.
Sean Avery. I got into a few arguments in the last 2 days as to whether or not Sean Avery should be playing on the top line with Gaborik. The past few games, he has been playing amazingly...he creates a forecheck, he can puck handle like no other, and he knows how to pass to the right places. I think he proved all of those things tonight assisting on Christensen's goal and 2 of Gaby's. He might be the biggest pest and one of the most hated people in the NHL, but he's one hell of a hockey player when he puts himself into it. I don't know what the fuck was up with the refs following him around because I saw people starting with him and him not letting himself get engaged. He had his best game of the season and I'm not sure if it was because of the rivalry or because of playing with Gaborik, but I don't care, he was phenomenal.
Marian Gaborik scored his 12th career hat trick which also was his 3rd as a Ranger and 2nd of the season where he has only played 14 games. Did you see anything about this on nhl.com? Neither did I. Gaby is proving why he's our superstar and while I wouldn't mind him getting hat tricks any time he scores, I wanna see goal in more games...and I think we will. (for those of you who don't know, 6 out of his 8 goals came in 2 games)
Dan Girardi and Brandon Prust are beasts. Seriously, those two are in constant pain, yet they play through it every night. They're not going to get much time off for a while and hopefully they don't do anything permanent because I don't want either of them to go anywhere.
Where was Dubi? He just wasn't the same aggressive force that he has been lately. Hopefully his comeback is soon....I wanted a 30 goal season out of him...I still have some home...that's 18 more in the next 45? games.
Ryan Callahan deserves a C on his sweater. Especially if Dru's being prolonged.
Sauer is continuing to grow on me...but come free agency, I don't know if he's going to make the cut. With his success so far, I wouldn't even be surprised to see him traded for a left sided veteran defenseman or maybe even a center...but I liked the top 2 lines tonight and I thought that they worked, but I guess we'll see when we play a better team.
Noticed the nhl.com (lack of) coverage too. Criesby had a hat trick too, so he gets a one of the 5 giant pictures with corny headlines, plus a text headline on the side. Rangers and Gaborik? Not even a dinky text one. No mention at all. And they've been gypped for the past week or so too. What gives?
ReplyDeleteI think part of it is that Avery had arguably one of the best games of his career and they would have to praise him if Gaborik's hat trick was mentioned. NHL praise Avery? umm...I think not.
ReplyDeletethat's just lame i expect nothing less :P
ReplyDeleteeven though Gabby is 1st star of night @ bottom of page, game still not worthy of mention anywhere else, not even the roundup panel. Good call on Avery issue.
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