The NHL Network’s show, On the Fly: Final, barely showed any highlights of this game. Why? Because outside of Vanek’s shorthanded marker and a few sparkling Lundqvist saves, there were no highlights of which to speak. Instead the crew talked about Lindy Ruff’s career. Why not? He deserved more accolades than any player did in this game.
Since there really isn’t much to look back fondly upon, here, look at a real highlight or two:
Sick goal by Martin Havlat. Now, that gets people excited. The nine shots on goal that the Rangers were able to muster through two periods? Not so much.
Watching a puck trickle into the Ranger net off Blair Betts' stick was nauseating, though not sick in the least. There's a difference.
Back to the game at hand, I suppose...
Only a scant number of Rangers forwards performed admirably in this tilt. Among them: Petr Prucha, Ryan Callahan and Lauri Korpikoski. This trio was able to buzz and cycle for at least somewhat sustained periods of time. Their counterparts on the top two scoring lines can’t say as much. That Prucha and Callahan started taking regular shifts in the place of forwards on those top lines speaks to this point loudly.
I would say Paul Mara threw all of the Rangers’ momentum away when he decided to physically assault Patrick Kaleta and exact revenge for the ugliness of last year, but what momentum did they have exactly?
[The Unilateral Brawl]
[The aforementioned ugliness that broke Mara's cheekbone]
I’m not sure whom to blame then: the Rangers for a punchless effort, or the Sabres for smothering the former with pressure all over the ice. The New York breakout, which had been a big part of its success through five games, faltered and sputtered under such duress. As a result, they never really clicked in the offensive zone, when they even got that far.
The second line can't carry them forever--as this game proved. The big boys need to step up and Tom Renney still needs--as he needed to do last year--to draw up Xs and Os that help the Rangers deal with heavy pressure on the forecheck. He's got a capable enough backline, now they have to adapt.
The Hockey Rodent sums it up a lot better than I could ever hope to:
"Lindy Ruff outcoached Tom Renney. And the visitors thoroughly outhustled, out-disciplined and out-defended their hosts in The World's Most Dumbfounded Arena.
"Granted, this humiliation may have been exacerbated by the grueling schedule. New York played its third game in four nights whereas this was Buffalo's third in six. Credit Ruff for selecting the Swarm of Mosquitoes approach given the situation. Sabres beat Rangers to the pill at just about every turn. Ranger passing was dreadful as a result.
"I said it was dreadful.
"What part of dreadful do you not understand?
"Okay. You can sort of excuse that on account the ferocious forechecking allowed your heroes precious little time to find a target to hit.
"This wasn't so much a stinker by the downstaters as it was a conquest by the superior upstaters - compounded when you consider that Jochen Hecht and Tim Connoly didn't dress."
Truer words haven't been spoken.
A chance at redemption when the floundering Maple Leafs and Dominic Moore come to town Friday night.
1 comment:
Yo budday...I like this analysis of Mara. I just wrote a whole new post (that is, of course, very Rangers-centric).
Let me know what you think.
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