The
Rangers certainly did not start 2011 in the way they would have liked with this
Florida trip as they only come away with one of four points and while there was
the positive battle and finding a way to get a point in last night’s game
tonight there was no such positive takeaway.
The team once again tried to rely on a big third period to bail them out
after a bad first, decent second and assumed that since it was a lower level
team they could get away with it.
Tonight the magic was not there and give a lot of credit for that to
Tomas Vokoun. Vokoun would make 32 saves
on the night including a couple of robberies on Prust, Dubinsky and Zuccarello
to name a few. If Vokoun was anywhere
other than in Florida with the Panthers he would get the recognition he
deserves as a top goaltender in the league.
For
the Rangers after hoping against hope that last night’s late tying goal would
spark their offensive star, Marian Gaborik it was not there today as he was
mostly invisible in the game and on his best chance of the night he frankly
choked the play off the side of the net.
We can rehash all the talk about if he is hurt or pressing or whatever
you like, but he has to be better than he has been. Performances like the last two nights, even
the goal are why I felt the need to discuss whether the time has come for the Rangers
to at least think about trading out their star winger. Gaborik obviously was not the only one this weekend as plenty of guys have failed to make their presence felt in this game and both games, but he is the star so he gets more credit and more blame than he might deserve.
Overall
the Rangers are going to have to be better if they want to hold on to all the
work they did to this point in the season because some teams behind them are starting
to figure it out and it will only get tougher from here. All the guys who have played well will have
to maintain and those who have not need to show up as the injuries are really
starting to catch up the club which frankly has been lucky of late with the
light schedule.
In game thoughts:
The Rangers awful play in the first periods is becoming an alarming trend at this point. They were dominated by a team that on paper is vastly inferior, but had much more desire to actually play the game. If not for Martin Biron they would have been trailing instead of tied at the end of one.
If
their play was not bad enough in its own right the number of guys who were
coming up injured after blocking shots
only made it worse. Of all of them
Ruslan Fedotenko was by far the most serious when at 12:21 of the first period
he blocked of Brian McCabe drive from the point off his hand, and in a true
testimony to his toughness Fedotenko would get back up, stay on the ice and
continue going down to block shots for the rest of the shift. He would not return for the rest of the game,
but after the game it was announced it was not broken, but a bad bruise, so that is good news.
The
second period was only marginally better than the first in terms of energy
level, but they were still outplayed by a mediocre team. The Panthers would strike first when David
Booth would put home the goal off a scramble in front that ended with Martin
Biron on his back with Radislav Olesz on top of him. Biron complained for goalie interference and
he was certainly bumped but as the replays showed it was his own defender, Steve
Eminger, who pushed Olesz into Biron. The power play goal for Florida made it
1-0 Florida 11:32 into the second and was only their 12th goal in
125 chances with the man advantage. The score would remain 1-0 the rest of the
period.
The Rangers were still pretty flat early in the third when
it appeared at least momentarily that Florida had scored a second goal on
another scramble play in front. The play
would be reviewed and determined that Stillman did kick the puck in so no goal
at 3:23 of the period. Suddenly after
more than two periods of boring play once the non-goal occurred the game was
suddenly end to end chances. The Rangers
had some great chances for Prust, Zuccarello and Gaborik had a wide open net
off a beautiful pass from Steve Eminger that Vokoun had no chance on but he
flubbed it off the side of the net.
At 8:50 of the period Chris Higgins made a beautiful
defensive play then steamrolled up the boards into the Rangers zone, toe dragged
the puck and Michael Del Zotto I guess thought he was playing D sliding passed
him and then Higgins actually finished. If
he had made moves like that when he was a Ranger they never would have traded
him.
The Rangers would get more chances, but could not solve
Vokoun and Weiss would finally add an empty net goal from Stephen Weiss at
18:30 to finish it 3-0.
- Dubinsky, Stepan, Zuccarello was the best line throughout the game
- Prust was very good and created chances but could not finish in the final period
- If Michael Del Zotto is being judged on today’s performance he is going right back to the press box if not the minors as he played tight, scared hockey and still had a number of mental mistakes like pinching with two forwards down low on the puck and the slide way too early on Higgins goal.
- Biron played well tonight with 33 saves and deserved a better result
