Sunday, September 23, 2007

Some Observations from Last Night's Game

The score was lopsided in yesterday's Rangers vs. Flyers game, but there are several positives that could be seen on the ice. Along with those positives, however, there were negatives. Let's start with those. Keep in mind that this was preseason game number two, so there is still time to work the kinks out.

Michael Roszival looked flat and out of position several times. He also coughed the puck up on several occasions.

There was little chemistry with the Rangers' top line of Gomez, Jagr and Dawes. A little more playing time could fix that, but it might be better to have Hossa or Avery playing with them to at least start the season.

Henrik Lundqvist was out of position towards the latter parts of the game. Maybe it was fatigue, but especially the couple of times he went to play the puck, he had to scramble to get back in position. No doubt he'll be fine to start the season.

Drury made some nice defensive plays, but was otherwise unnoticeable on the ice.

Some positives that were noticed last night:

Petr Prucha. One of the best players on the ice last night. Offensively and defensively he looks great. He looked faster if that's possible.

Blair Betts on the penalty kill was like Betts of last year. Faceoffs as well.

Colton Orr not only fought well, but looked better offensively on the ice. He parked himself in front of the net several times and almost had a great scoring chance as he cut through the middle of the ice in the 2nd period.

Paul Mara shooting. He was also a little shaky with positioning and giveaways, but he needs to shoot more during the season. He has a nice slap shot that was blocked several times last night, but he was trying, and if that gets through it's a nice asset to have.

Jessiman, Baranka and Liffiton were all sent to Hartford after the game. Look for more of a regular season lineup in on Monday against the Islanders.

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