Rangers Recap: Rangers Fall Short of Islanders in Overtime, 3-2

a key part of the 2nd goal was that while on the PP, Del Zotto & Kotalik made god awful decisions. Loose puck in the neutral zone & MDZ decides to go for a big highlight hit instead of taking the puck. The Isle goes past him and Kotalik showed about as much effort and defensive awareness as an upset 2 year old just reaching his stick out, leading to a pass for another Isle to easily put it past Hank.
It was an absolutely horrendous play by both and Kotalik should not have seen the ice after that play. How he & Rozsival find the ice especially on the PP is beyond me.

     a couple of things that upset me about tonight’s game was some of the calls that were missed by the refs on the isles. granted the rangers took some stupid penalties and rightfully called, there were a few that in my opinion should’ve been penalties and weren’t called for some reason ….
     the first one was when avery was behind the isles goal working along the boards, he chips the puck passed the defending isle, then goes to retrieve it, and gets creamed along the boards with the puck already way passed both of them …. what ever happened to the interference penalty??? did they forget about that one lately?
     and the second one was in the 3rd with the rangers on the PP, and gaborik is working his magic, and the isles stick takes out Gabby’s skate, with 18,200 in attendance and 2 referees watching, and all of us at home watching knew that was a penalty that has to get called, whether you’re on the PP or not.
     joe micheletti suggested that maybe both referees just didn’t see it ….. BS!!!! an 80 year old in the last row of the 400’s saw that trip. but lemme guess, if that was someone like Crosb*tch who got interfered with or got tripped up while on the PP, both would’ve been called 100% … i’m sick of the favoritism towards some of these players, it nauseates me … anyone agree/disagree on the missed calls?

ok i got a few ideas.

for one take kotalik off the PP, he just cant do it. remember when we had the 5 on 3 and gaborik scored from the point?

why dont we put him out there with mdz? if gabs s at the point the forwards will have to move towards him, which will create a lot of space down low for quick passes across the crease and into the slot.

put mdz and gaborik at the points. put dubi prospal and cally out there.
AA might also do well if we could stick him infront of the net and let him put in the rebounds. weve seen what he can do around the net.

secondly, higgins needs to be put on the fourth line. think of it this way, hes on the ice for a large amount of time but never contributes offensively. and when the game ends the team with the most goals wins, and higgins certainly doesnt help in that aspect. so for all the time he plays and doesnt score, we could be giving more icetime to AA, lisin, cally, avery and even drury who might put in a goal or two. chris is a hard working player who doesnt put up any points, its beyuond me why hes on the second line.

prospal dubinsky gaborik
avery anisimov callahan
higgins drury lisin
boyle christensen brashear

staal mdz
girardi gilroy
redden rozi (min minutes)

I’m convinced that all of Comeau’s goals – for his career – will be in NYR/I games. He played a fantastic game the last go-round as well.

I love the way Okposo plays the game. The kid has heart. That is (damn me for saying this out loud) a very hardworking, good young team.

he is beyond snake bitten, hes beyond cold…the guy just sucks. period. when a player goes on a streak of, say, 30 (!) games being “snakebitten” or “getting unlucky”, thats not the case. theres a reason montreal was fine saying bye bye to him. hes clearly lost his game over the past two seasons, maybe it was the injury in montreal, maybe not, but this guy has the finishing skill of a minor leaguer/fringe NHLer. i still want to know why he even on the ice in OT, i sure as hell knew he wasn’t gonna get a goal. and whaddya know, the GWG was served on a silver platter and he made voros look like he has better hands. i think a chimp in skates would finished that play off. higgins sucks. period.

i know this wont be a popular topic, but i am not impressed with gilroy up to this point. we knew his defensive skills would be lacking and overall would be a big work in progress. that much as been true, and expected. however, we were also told he has great offensive skills and will help on the pp. that much as not been true. he has shown flashes of that talent, but that is all. majority of nights he is seen getting bullied by forwards in his own zone down behind the net. i love gilroy, i think he has potential and a great heart, but i am writing this in response to the lack of progress he has made.

i dont really think anyone can say he has been significantly better since his call-up (nor better than heikkenen), and i certainly dont think anyone can say they see a much better gilroy in game 38 than in game 1, 7, or 14. he seems to be struggling, and focusing too much on the defensive side of the puck. this would be ok if he showing better defensive play. he has gotten slightly better, but nothing too drastic or anytthing to get excited about. i think an extended stay in hartford might help, where he will be playing against lower-tier talent and the coaching staff has more time to teach. i think heikkenen has been better, especially defensively, in the time he has been here opposed to gilroy.

…there’s one replay – where the camera angle is dead-on to him (he’s skating directly towards the camera).

For all of you “who could have scored that goal blindfolded” – I’ll pay for the icetime at a local rink and blindfold you myself.
The puck was elevated, and coming down directly between his legs. It wasn’t an easy play for any NHLer – and if he’d closed his legs he would have risked kicking it in for a “no goal” call by the officials anyway.

Yes – he’s still snakebitten. But it wasn’t a “gimme” by any stretch of the imagination.

I was at our “ski-house” North of Lake George where we can not get any internet except dial-up and any TV except satellite. I spent 30 minutes on the phone with DirectTV trying to sign up for MSG, which they then said was part of our basic package but could not explain why it said “channel not purchased” during the game. After 30 minutes I told them I had enough and cancelled the sports package. 3 different people and all 3 were morons. I’ll take my Cablevision at home any day. Needless to say I didn’t see any of the game and was disappointed twice, once when I couldn’t watch and 2nd when I saw this re-cap.