ECF Game 3 Review

Yesterday afternoon the New York Rangers defeated the New Jersey Devils 3-0 and took a 2-1 series lead in the Eastern Conference Finals.

1) Man, Henrik Lundqvist is some goalie, eh? How about those two saves on Ilya Kovalchuk? He was stellar all game. He was tracking the puck well, and the defense did a good job keeping the lane free from those deflections that plagued the team in Game 2.

2) The Rangers first goal was a direct result of Pete DeBoer not using his time-out after having a tired group trapped on the ice after an icing. Salvador was trapped on the ice, couldn’t move his feet, and took a hooking penalty on Gaborik. Then, Richards won a draw cleanly, and Girardi fired a shot past Brodeur for his 3rd goal (all GWGs) of the playoffs.

2) The second goal all started with a great shift by John Mitchell. The puck was cleared out of the zone, and Mitchell, instead of dumping the puck deep, carried the puck and held it until reinforcements arrived. He cycled the puck to Callahan, who took a shot, a second chance by Callahan deflected off Salvador, past Kovalchuk, to the point where McDonagh’s shot was deflected by Kreider making in 2-0.

3) Hopefully those three will be teaming up on goals for quite a while.

4) Another game, another PPG. Every game in the series has featured a PPG by the Rangers against a Devils penalty kill that was top 5 all season long.

5) The empty net goal was a great effort by both Boyle and Callahan. Boyle hit the red line, and angled a shot toward the net and it went just wide. Callahan was speeding after it, beat the Devils player to it and scored from about 1 foot off the icing line at a crazy angle.

6) Even though they won, I thought the Rangers played dreadfully the first period and a half. The first period had maybe one shift that the Rangers dominated. Midway through the second, John Tortorella had seen enough and used his timeout. He laid into his team and they seemed to respond, as they always do, to the coach.

7) DeBoer calling Prust a headhunter, that’s a bit extreme. I’ve been watching Prust since he’s been traded here, and this is the first time I’ve seen him do anything borderline dirty.

8) I thought Torts did a good job protecting Prust today. Basically saying if we want to talk about hits Zubrius had an elbow on Stralman and that the Devils set picks to allow Kovalchuk open chances at the net.

9) I fully expect the Devils to come back and play just as good as they did last night. I think the series will probably head back to New York tied at 2.

ECF Game 1 Review

Last night the Rangers defeated the Devils 3-0 to take a 1-0 lead in the ECF.

1) Some people may have thought the first two periods of the game were a snoozefest, but that’s normally how it goes in game 1. Both teams are feeling each other out. I thought the Rangers looked good for having just 1 day off compared to the 5 days the Devils had.

2) That Ryan McDonagh guy is pretty good, huh? I’m not sure there are many players in the league who could have caught up to Parise and knocked him off the puck like that or forced Kovalchuk to take a weak backhand instead of being able to cut to the net.

3) Dan Girardi had a pretty strong game. Except for that gaffe that almost allowed Zubrius to tuck the puck in past Lundqvist.

4) On that first goal, a couple lucky bounces for the Rangers. First, Del Zotto looks to go off the glass and it hits a divider and comes off at an odd angle. Then, the puck hops over the stick of Salvador and Kreider was off to the races. He got the puck and fed a slow, flat puck right to Dan Girardi, who had come off the bench to replace Del Zotto, and he fired a puck past the blocker of Brodeur.

5) Kreider and Girardi weren’t done just yet. At the end of a powerplay, Girardi went to pass the puck cross ice in the Rangers zone and Kreider wasn’t expecting it, so he kicked the puck to Del Zotto, who fired it back to Girardi. He made a great pass to Anisimov, who caught it, crossed the blue line and laid it over to Kreider who stepped in and scored a goal fairly similar to his game 1 goal against the Caps.

6) I thought Brodeur had a okay game. Aside from Brodeur’s huge glove save on Staal, I didn’t think he was that spectacular. He had a few bad giveaways handling the puck, which is supposed to be his strong suit. We’ll have to see if that’s a trend going forward, which would be a huge break for the Rangers.

7) What can you say about Henrik Lundqvist that hasn’t already been said? The best goalie in the world. His back-to-back-to-back saves on Parise were fantastic. The glove save on Henrique, as well as pushing Zubrius’ shot over the net. Great goaltending.

8) I thought the Gaborik-Richards-Hagelin line was good for the Rangers. They all were working the puck well and generated a few scoring chances along the way.

9) A final note. Has anyone else noticed the coverage on NBCSN has been terrible? The replays are terrible, the play by play call is inaccurate, the intermission reports are intolerable. C’mon NBC.

Girardi Day-To-Day, Prust Unknown

Add two more names to list of Rangers players that have been injured this season.

Both Dan Girardi and Brandon Prust did not finish yesterday’s game against Atlanta.

Girardi was injured during his fight with Thrashers captain Andrew Ladd after a borderline dirty hit on Marc Staal. According to Tortorella, Girardi has a pulled rib muscle.

Brandon Prust was hobbled after blocking a Dustin Byfuglien shot from the point. Prust was limping and could barely skate after the play. X-Rays taken on Prust’s foot came back negative and his status as well as Girardi’s are unknown for the Rangers game against the Capitals on Monday night.

The Rangers have recalled defenseman Michael Del Zotto and forward Evgeny Grachev for Monday’s game. They have also sent down forward Dale Weise. Grachev had a hat trick Saturday night for the Whale and Michael Del Zotto has 7 assists since joining the Whale 8 games ago.

Rangers Re-Sign Girardi

In news that shocked nobody, the Rangers announced today that they have come to terms on with RFA Dan Girardi.

Girardi will be entering his fifth season with the New York Rangers this season.
I’ll bring you the terms of the contract as soon as they are known.

It looks like Girardi will be getting $3.325 million a year for four years.

Rangers Sign McDonagh/Girardi Files For Arbitration

The Rangers announced today that have signed college defense prospect Ryan McDonagh. McDonagh became Rangers property when the Rangers acquired him as part of the deal that sent Scott Gomez to Montreal. McDonagh is a highly touted prospect and could have a good chance of making the team out of training camp if the Rangers do decide to wave Wade Redden.

Now, onto Dan Girardi, he filed for salary arbitration yesterday, but the feelings amongst most is that the Rangers will sign him before he gets to meet with the arbitraitor.