My apologies for not finishing with my updates late last night. After that baffling third period, I couldn't take rehashing it in my mind to write it up. Derek has summed it all up nicely, so I'll just add my opinions.
--Brendan Shanahan's penalty was as undisciplined as it gets. It was stupid and led to the first goal. He doesn't make a habit of it, and has never done so in his 18 season career. That should tell you how frustrated these Blueshirts are getting. His collision with Dustin Penner left him writhing on the ice and caused him to miss all of one shift through the remainder of the third and overtime. He also could not participate in the shootout because of his left leg. Let's hope it is nothing serious, because we need him on the ice for us.
-- Martin Straka was also a little shaken up last night after going hard into the boards. He looked dizzy skating back to the bench, but came back for a couple more shifts. Here's hoping he's alright as well.
-- While there were tons of penalties in that third period and overtime, I didn't think half of them were necessary. Ryan Hollweg undoubtedly deserved a penalty, but a game misconduct and five minute major may have been unnecessary. Maybe just the five minute would have been sufficient, but as someone who preaches that the hits from behind need to stop, I can see how the referees were inclined to throw him out. Straka's hold, Blair Betts' goaltender interference, Joni Pitkanen's roughing and Jared Stoll's interference penalties were all calls that didn't have to be made, especially late in the third period and in overtime. Betts' was the only one that you could really argue, especially coming off of Chris Drury and Sean Avery running into Mathieu Garon.
-- Speaking of Garon; how do the Blueshirts manage to make mediocre goaltenders look like hall of famers? Garon is a good netminder, but not as good as the saves he was making last night. Three posts also doomed the Rangers.
-- There were some things I did like about last night's game, however. While Drury, Avery and Betts all crashed into Garon, they were playing hard to and around the net. If we want to regain the winning ways, we need to be tough in and around the blue paint. Avery was being a pest in front of the net on the game-tying goal by Drury (which was amazing to see) and was on the ice for only that reason. Jason Strudwick stepped in and did a fine job in Marek Malik's absence. He made some silly plays, much like Malik, but at 2.5 million dollars less, I'll take the occasional boneheaded move from him. He never makes the boneheaded moves that end up in our net either. There's no reason why he cannot remain in the lineup.
That's all I have on the Rangers front for now. There may be some lineup changes in the coming weeks, although I hope they will be of the "oh that makes sense" variety, and not the "Rangers trade Dawes and Prucha for Martin Ruchinsky" variety.
Not sure how many people have noticed, but thanks to Derek for some new additions to the blog's page. The youtube clips along the left are great, links to new websites have been added and we now get full league roundups. He has really stepped up in since Steve left. Kudos go out to him.
Enjoy today's football games. Go Big Blue. Please Eli, do not suck.
Covering the Rangers, Devils, Islanders and Sabres five years running along with the rest of the puckers!
BONY
Battle Of New York
3 comments:
Not only did Hollweg deserve the penalties, he should be suspended. This blog site always sees things thru blue shaded glasses, but when it's Chris Simon in the news, he is a criminal. Simon deserved what he got, but Hollweg is far more likely to end someone's career.
The penalties may have been warrented, but I can't say I agree with a suspension. What he did was not malicious, and there wasn't an attempt to injure. There has never been an attempt to injure from Hollweg. He skates on the edge, and sometimes he crosses it. The second he crosses the line into a territory where he is out to harm someone on purpose is the day he stops being a favorite of mine. For now he has to work on being less reckless and thrown his huge, clean hits.
If you read our blog, maybe you missed my stance:
The ill advised penalties continued in the third period when Ryan Hollweg foolishly boarded Shawn Horcoff from behind being assessed a match penalty and automatic game misconduct and probable suspension, especially given the energizer's reputation.
While it's true No.44 tried to let up, he still nailed Horcoff from behind and the Oiler center was in a prone position. So, you can certainly understand why he was ejected from the game.
It was totally unnecessary and came at an inopportune time for his team who very well could've won the contest in regulation if not for some splendid netminding from Mathieu Garon (29 saves).
One thing I noticed that you neglected to mention is that there haven't been as many of these incidents involving Ryan. That's because he's made an effort to clean that part up and play hockey. Most of his hits this season have been clean. In that particular case, he made a poor decision and got what he deserved.
I wouldn't expect you to agree with everything I say. You're entitled to your opinion.
As for Simon, he was given a 2nd chance and then pulled another pathetic act on the ice much worse than any other current NHLer.
He's a poor excuse for a hockey player and it's a total joke how the Islanders act like everyone's against them. Maybe if they had some brains and got this guy off their team, people would actually respect the organization cause they certainly earn it on the ice every night.
Ted Nolan's "us vs everyone else" mentality hurts more than helps his team. So they're not going to be done any favors.
If the league had any backbone, they'd have given Simon the rest of the year off for that cowardly act as he hasn't learned anything.
How many damn suspensions has he had? It's sad.
Some even wanted him gone. If it were another sport, he would be.
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