Not to Be Unfair to Cam Ward...

Not to be unfair to Carolina Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward, but any goalie tonight would've stopped 37 of 38 shots against the Rangers tonight.

I think the Shot Clock Man has a bad angle of the ice. At one point, a puck was passed parallel to the goal line. He took his stick, reached out, and pushed it towards the blue line. I took a glance at the shot clock and it went from "11" to "12".

Brandon Dubinsky rifled a shot - absolutely blasted this puck - that was caught by Ward. The only hitch? It was going high if Ward didn't touch it. He actually had to move out of net to catch it. Shot clock increase.

I'm not saying most of those 38 shots never actually were shots. In fact, most of them were. However, how many really tested Ward? Three? Four? The Rangers had a couple of good chances, but at least 29 of those shots were crappy, low-angle, easily-saved shots.

The Rangers do that; they have been for years. They make goalies look amazing. Remember when Rick DiPietro made over 50 saves one day in March '07 and everyone said how incredible he was? Guess what? Most of those shots were right to his chest - they would've hit the Gordon's Fisherman right in the head.

Tonight, the Rangers must've seen the logo on the Ward's jersey as a bulls-eye. Because they kept aiming for it.

Fun...

Well, Game 1 was fun, wasn't it?

The Rangers didn't do much offensively but they did capitalize on their chances. At one point, early in the first, my roommate said, "What are the shots, 9-1?" I laughed at her. When they announced that the Rangers had finally gotten their 2nd shot on net at the 15-minute mark, I actually laughed out loud.

Listen, it was a good game. It was fun to watch, very entertaining, and had the desired outcome, atleast for me. But this is a series, not a one-and-done playoff. I don't want to sound too much liek John Tortorella (or Alex Ovechkin), but this is far from over. The Capitals will come out flying Saturday afternoon.

And we all know how the Rangers fare in afternoon games. If my calculations are correct, they were 2-8 in afternoon games and were shutout four times.

However, if the Rangers manage to stave off the Capitals attack again and win Game 2, that would be huge. Up 2-0 going into MSG is tough for any team to overcome. And the Capitals attack isn't too great, you know.

Seriously. Let me explain. They had 35 shots on goal, 13 from Ovechkin, and 22 from elsewhere. 22 shots in a game? That's Devils-territory. Stop Ovechkin, stop the Capitals. Oh, and don't take bad penalties especially in the offensive zone.

* * *

My wish for this series is good officiating. I was very concernced that we would see biased referreeing based on the fact that the NHL wants the Capitals to do good, much like Pittsburgh got the benefit of 97% of all calls in the playoffs last year. But I guess as long as the Penguins are in, the league is happy, and the other serieses can be called evenly.

Tonight, there were some bad calls and non-calls, but they were pretty much even against both teams. I'm fine with awful officiating, as long as it's even.

* * *

Oh, and yes, Henrik Lundqvist was great today, even though he did give up 3 goals.

An Open-Letter to Ryan Callahan...

Dear Ryan Callahan,

I know you're young. You just turned 24. You were 3 when Mark Recchi was drafted into the NHL. However, despite your age, you've been one of the few bright spots on a team that has been free-falling since November. In fact, I voted twice for the Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award - once for Blair Betts, once for you.

Today, I wish I could rescind my vote.

This team can't score. Markus Naslund had a chance early in the game but was too close to Tim Thomas to do anything. Scott Gomez can pass pretty well, but that's about it. Brandon Dubinsky scored 3 goals in March, so you know he's tapped out. Nik Zherdev hates John Tortorella and won't play for him. Chris Drury isn't as "clutch" as his $7M salary tells you. And the defense scores so rarely that they show stats about how rare a defenseman's goal is when it happens.

We need you. We need you to SHOOT THE PUCK. When Sean Avery throws you the puck on a 2-on-1 and you're in a building where you routinely play 1-0 games, deep into the season, with an inept Wade Redden-esque power play, with a playoff spot on the line, SHOOT THE PUCK. If the rubber disc is bouncing, SHOOT THE PUCK anyway. If you see the goalie slightly out of position, SHOOT THE PUCK.

I keep watching the replay of when Avery gives you the puck, and it baffles me the amount of time you give Thomas to get back into position. You give him atleast 2 and a half seconds, and then you SHOOT THE PUCK right into him. Not above his head, not to the side of the net, right to him.

Next time you have a golden opportunity to tie the game against the best team in the conference, on the road, with 4 games left in the season, with a playoff spot not entirely guaranteed, please, please, Ryan, please SHOOT THE PUCK!

Homegrown Talent (aka I have no interesting title)...

I could make myself angry and harp on the same stuff I've been saying for months about what flaws the Rangers: always staring at the puck and never looking at who is sneaking up behind them; over-reliance on overpaid players; Wade Redden; Scott Gomez; taking bad shots; lopsided ice time; same crappy players on the power play who continually give up short-handed goals and can't score.

I will just say one thing. In the first period, Markus Naslund was skating down the left wing and took a "shot" from a bad angle that Martin Biron easily covered for a whistle, and we go to commercial. What was Naslund thinking? It appeared that he actually wanted to get the whistle so he passed it to Biron. I had to watch this about 5 times on TiVo and I still can't come up with why he thought this shot was a good idea. It was an awful angle, no one was there for a rebound, and it was a weak shot.

But anyway, all I really wanted to write tonight was...

Did you see that play by Ryan Callahan on the Lauri Korpikoski goal?!!? Great! Being chased and hit, he somehow pokes the puck out to Korpikoski, who himself made a great spin-move for the goal. Excellent, excellent play.

Give them some power play time, Coach Renney. Your livelihood depends on it.

Rangers Finally Score Goals...

The Rangers didn't play great last night, but they outplayed Washington, finally scored more than 2 goals in a game, didn't play atrociously, and got two points out of the deal.

I wonder if Scott Gomez has watched the replay of Paul Mara's goal a few dozen times. If Tom Renney still had control of this team, he would probably make him do that to show him what can happen when you fire from in front of the net as opposed to a crappy, low-angle shot from the boards. (He also should be force-fed replayed of Ryan Callahan's, Lauri Korpikoski's, and even Markus Naslund's goals so he can learn to crash the net/shoot from the slot to score goals).

Gomez's play has gone from serviceable to inconsistent to poor to horrendous. Nobody making $7M/year should be described as "horrendous" now that we have a salary cap in place. It was different when Eric Lindros and Val Kamensky ate up money, because it only affected the wallet. Now, it affects the entire team like an 800-pound gorilla in the room. As opposed to when it used to just cost money, it now handcuffs the team from making other moves because they have a non-performing player with an un-trade-able contract.

He's not just a non-performer. He actually hurts the team with his giveaways near his own goal, in the offensive zone, and his blown coverages that lead to goals (namely, when he was staring at Henrik Lundqvist instead of the man who eventually scored the Capitals' 2nd goal last night).

Between him and Wade Redden, $13.8M in salary cap room is alloted to players who actually help the other team. For the next 5 years after this year, as well.

Think these two are bad now? Wait to see them slower and older in 2013.

* * * 

I want you to look, next time the Rangers give up a goal, at where the players are standing/looking. Nearly every goal they give up, including the first 3 last night, the players were looking at the puck-carrier and not paying attention to the rest of the ice. Joe Micheletti brought it up on the first goal, where everyone (biggest error was Redden) was staring at the puck. 

It was also evident on Mike Green's goal to make it 3-2 Capitals, when he was alone just above the right circle. Four Rangers were "hounding" the puck-carrier - who in reality wasn't pressured at all - and Green was wide open as the 5th Ranger was nearer to him but was also staring at the puck.

* * * 

Aaron Voros was in the lineup presumably because Renney likes his "size" and ignores the fact that he is a poor skater, doesn't punish people with body checks like a man his size should, and doesn't put pucks in the net. 

I've been harping on the fact that his size hasn't given the team anything lately except a blowout loss, a bunch of shutouts and one near shutout.

Well, I stand corrected. Last night, he correctly demonstrated to all those in the system how to effectively lose a fight to someone you tower over. 

Not sure, but I think even Petr Prucha would've stood a better chance against Matt Bradley.

Shots...

Phil Esposito, in his high-scoring career, always said that the more you shot, the more you scored. 

I don't disagree with Phil, but I also think that it's the quality of shots as opposed to the quantity. I do agree that if you get the puck to the net, your chances of scoring multiply greatly (and that is the most obvious statement I've ever said), but crappy shots from the goal line rarely go in (unless your team was playing the Rangers during last year's Western Canadian road trip, when shots by Vancouver and Calgary snuck by Henrik Lundqvist at the post).

Who has the most shots on goal for the Rangers this year? If you play fantasy hockey, you would already know the answer to this. Far and away, Scott Gomez has the most. His 146 shots are 10 more than Ryan Callahan, 15 more than Chris Drury, and 29 more than anybody else on the team. Keep in mind, Gomez also sat out 5 games to injury.

Of forwards who get regular ice time, Gomez is last in shooting percentage, clocking in at a very un-$7M/year 5.5%. (Colton Orr and Fred Sjostrom have lower percentages, as do 4 defensemen.) He has 8 goals on those shots, and two of those are empty netters. So the real math is as follows...

6 goals. 144 shots. 4.2% of his shots go past a goaltender.

Against Pittsburgh on Sunday, the Rangers had 33 shots on goal, technically. The Penguins had 23 shots.

The shot selection was the key to victory for the Penguins (as well as a listless effort by the Rangers, but that's another story altogether).

The Penguins were able to break through the defense of the Rangers and get odd-man rushes and breakaways on Lundqvist. Tyler Kennedy basically danced in all alone while Nigel Dawes did nothing to stop Kennedy's shot that beat Lundqvist. The Rangers take a multitude of hooking and holding penalties when they don't have to, yet to stop a goal, all Dawes had to do was slash his stick or yank his arm, and he didn't do it. 

The Rangers couldn't penetrate the injured defensive players of Pittsburgh, and wound up taking awful shots from the goal line and near the boards. ESPN Magazine had an interesting line about how Guy LaFleur and others used to shoot from the boards and it would go in, but thanks to the new stay-at-home goalies, that's a thing of the past. Someone should tell Gomez (and the rest of the team as well).

How many REAL chances did the Rangers get? Coach Tom Renney said maybe five. I know Dawes had a great one that beat Marc-Andre Fleury but rang off the crossbar. Nikolai Zherdev did some fancy moves and nearly deked around 3 enemy skaters but lost the puck at the end. Drury had a 4-on-3 shot that almost went in. Crossbar, nearly, almost. Story of the season.

I would rather the Rangers take 10 shots per game if they are all from in the slot. These half-hearted attempts at throwing the puck to the net in hopes of causing rebounds are atrocious. These rebounds aren't being picked up by Ranger players because they aren't in front of the net! They're playing perimeter hockey, and goals just don't get scored that way. 

If Renney is content winning 1-0 and 2-1 games, then by all means, play the perimeter and hope to get lucky. But to be honest, the defense isn't good enough to make one-goal leads hold up for more than a game or two at a time. Once the Rangers are exposed, they are exposed.

Yes, Phil Esposito scored a lot, and he shot a lot. But his shots were from in the slot, prime real estate, in front of a screened goalie. That's how you score goals, not when the goalie clearly sees the puck traveling in at a 180 degree angle.

A Scoreless Tie...

If tonight's Rangers vs. Maple Leafs game had occured during the 2003-04 season, it would have been a scoreless tie, and the fans would have been angry. However, it was a very exciting game besides the final tally, and the third period was especially fun to watch. 

Personally, I have been in attendance for one game that went 0-0 through regulation, and it was horribly boring. NHL.com doesn't let me search for all games after the lockout like they used to anymore (hmm... am I missing something?) so I'll guess on the day. I believe it was January 2, 2006, the first season back. Rangers vs. Tampa Bay, at MSG. It was an awful, boring, horrible game. Both teams played with a complete lack of passion and I believe Vaclav Prospal scored the game winner quickly into overtime. Awful game.

Tonight's atleast was interesting. While the Rangers did have 32 shots, most of them were bad, low-angle shots that didn't test Vesa Toskala. However, the 8 or 9 good shots they did have that tested the Toronto netminder were turned away, and Toskala did indeed have a very good game. 

Likewise, Steven Valiquette also played good. He wasn't tested tremendously, but when he was called to action, he responded very well. A great showing by the backup, and that is very good news. As good as a team player Kevin Weekes was in his tenure as Henrik Lundqvist's backup, it was always a scary moment when he was announced as starter. Anyone remember 1/11/07, his last game as a Ranger, when he gave up 4 goals on 8 shots against Ottawa and was pulled?

Some other notes...

1) The Rangers should start declining penalties like they do in football. I mean, technically, when they negated two power plays by taking penalties themselves, they almost did that. However, on one power play they stunk it up, and as soon as the Toronto offender left the box, the Rangers played great 5-on-5 thanks to Marc Staal and Aaron Voros. 

2) Chris Drury should either a) play on the fourth line with Colton Orr and Blair Betts or b) be sent to Hartford for a conditioning stint to regain some scoring touch. 

No, I don't think he should be sent to Hartford. I know how the waiver wire works. I do, however, think his playing time should be reduced or he should watch a game in the best suit $7M can buy. Never has a player making so much money whiffed on the puck so many times since Eric Lindros played on the Rangers. 

3) I'm not saying I'm a psychic or anything, but I do watch enough hockey to correctly predict events. How many times today did Sam Rosen or Joe Micheletti tell us that Michal Rozsival shot the puck... and missed the net? Three? Four? Five? 

I'll give it to him, though. At least he was shooting. His overtime shot probably would've gone in on a goalie who wasn't as hot as Toskala.

Wanted: Goal Scorers

While at Saturday's game, sitting next to a Flyers fan, I noted how our "team full of third-liners" couldn't score goals. I was half-kidding about the third-liners thing... sort of. A day later, after watching 53 shots yield zero goals, it was evident to everybody that the Islanders are in serious trouble.

I'm big on hockey cliches. To me, the most important one is "Put the puck on the net, and good things will happen." Turns out that isn't always true. Let's look at the Isles' last four games.

- 2/26, vs. Pittsburgh: 52 shots, 2 goals
- 2/28, @ Atlanta: 37 shots, 5 goals
- 3/1, vs. Philadelphia: 34 shots, 1 goal
- 3/2, vs. Florida: 53 shots, 0 goals

Noticing a trend here? Shots don't always translate into goals. That's what happens when your top two lines are full of grinders, role players, and Mike Comrie. And, of course, the Isles did nothing at the trade deadline, so we're stuck with this bunch until April. What part of April depends on whether the Isles get bounced in the first round or if they miss the playoffs altogether.

Just about every analyst who has been asked about the Islanders has given a universal answer: "It's going to be impossible to outwork the Islanders. Ted Nolan will make sure they give it their all, and Rick DiPietro can keep them in just about any game. However, their anemic offense will make sure they don't score enough goals to be considered serious playoff contenders." We've all heard this one before; maybe earlier in the season, we dismissed it as hearsay. Now, it cannot be denied - this team simply cannot score goals.

And here's the bad part - goal scorers need great playmakers to get them the puck. Aside from Comrie, who's going to do that? In this decade, we've seen Alexei Yashin and Miroslav Satan be rather ineffective compared to their prior stops due largely to the lack of a supporting cast. With Satan a likely goner after this season, it'll be time to bring in the next big-ticket scorer. Think about this - if the Islanders somehow manage to land Marian Hossa on July 1, can we even be certain he'll be three-fourths as effective?

We're seeing some positive signs out of the young guys, a.k.a. the only players on the team who are doing anything. In time, Jeff Tambellini could be a 30-goal scorer and Blake Comeau could be a great power forward. But, for now, the Isles are going to be looking at some lean nights offensively. And with the playoffs looming, and with two games coming up against the red-hot Rangers, the Isles are in serious trouble.