Last night the Rangers opened up their 2011 playoff campaign against the top seeded Washington Capitals. It's safe to say the Rangers came out looking like the eight seed, and can you blame them? The Verizon Center was rocking and the Rangers are a young team; a recipe for disaster. But that wasn't entirely the case. Lundqvist looked as sharp as he has the past 30 games and was the reason the Rangers were able to come out of the first period tied up, despite enormous pressure from the Caps.
The second period was different. the Rangers came out strong. They tightened up their defense and started getting the puck deep into Washington's end. Although they couldn't convert (Gaborik wide open in front comes to mind), you could tell that they were still in it and had a shot at taking game one.
The Rangers continued early in the third and finally buried one thanks to Brandon Prust's pursuit of the puck behind the enemy net. After winning the battle he kicked it over to Wolski who threw it in front to a wide open, pinching Gilroy who buried it.
With less than ten minutes reaming the Caps got it back. The initial shot was stopped by Lundqvist but the pressure the Caps applied in hopes of a rebound were too much. Ovechkin's stick knocked the semi-loose puck into the back of the net, and following video review, the official's call on the ice stood.
On to overtime, and here we saw a tired Rangers squad. A few early opportunities removed, the rangers applied basically no offense and it was obvious it was only a matter of time before the Caps penetrated Lundqvist to take game 1. It came off an outstanding play by Arnott on the boards to knock down Staal's clearing attempt which lead to a Semin one timer which Lundqvist had no shot at.
Now if you ask me, this was a good game for the Rangers. I saw a young team come out very shaky in the first and turn it around with a strong, defensibly responsible second period which showed that they could indeed make this an interesting series. It's obvious the team misses Callahan, but that's hockey. Drury and Prust were excellent. Prust was a beast along the boards while Drury also did his part in the corners, but more importantly, he went 6 for 8 in the faceoff circle. Dubinsky was invisible; it's obvious he misses Callahan. If i were Torts, Anisimov would be skating with Dubinsky in game 2, and Boyle would pivot for Prospal and Gaborik on the first line.
One thing I've noticed is the abuse Staal is getting for the overtime winner. I ask why? Staal was deep in his end, with no forwards available for a breakout pass, so what does one do when this occurs? Send it high off the glass. What did Staal do? Sent it high off the glass, but Arnott made a great play to keep it in just before Semin blasted a shot nobody would have saved. Staal made the right play, Arnott made the better play, that's hockey, I thought most would know that by now.
while i agree they played a good game for a young #8 seed against a team that should dominate them, you cannot tell me Arnott made an outstanding play to keep the puck alive. Staal didn't get the puck high enough off the glass and the forwards, for reasons I'll never understand, had already vacated the defensive zone. Terrible way to lose a hard fought game on basic fundamentals.
ReplyDeleteAnd how can you not touch upon the Capitals goal? as I recall, the rule states that when the ref loses sight of the puck he is to blow the play dead. There was a save Neuvirth made in the 3rd where he bobbled a routine shot to his glove and before he even gained control of the puck the play was blown down by the officials.
Andrew Capitelli--- Arnott made a great play, staal had no other option, and the ref was right behind the net for the caps goal, the shot was taken and before you knew it it was in the net, nothing wrong with the goal at all
ReplyDeleteBryan Goldfarb--- the puck fell into Arnott's lap. I don't disagree with Staal's attempt to go high off the glass in that situation but if you are going to make a high risk play like that then you'd better get the puck out or make sure that you have some sort of support up those boards, where we had not a single body.