Rangers Recap: Red Wings Down Rangers 5-3

What about the 3 goals the Rangers scored in the last minute to win?

that’s the problem when you write the recap during the game. they WERE not ARE playing their 3rd in 4 nights, lol.

as far as cuts the more the better because they need to get the competition for those last spots really going. carrying way too many bodies right now.

Anisimov looked better this game, as did Grachev, and Frolov continued to look like a sexy free agent pick up. Frolov is a monster around the net and he looks like he is playing to prove something to himself and the hockey community.

McDonagh and Valentenko had solid games, Valentenko is a tank, he takes the body whenever he can and has a real cannon of a shot. McDonagh’s play has earned him a roster spot, if he ties on one more solid game with few mistakes he will have made a strong case for himself.

Zuccarello really did fly this game, he deserved an assist on one play. I liked him on the forecheck, with his speed, positioning, and long stick he is a great guy to have out there to disrupt a team’s breakout.

This Rangers group played what was more or less the Red Wings regular season squad and hung in the game for two and a half periods despite a very sluggish start.

Semenov has looked great. Hell of a lot better than Sauer & Valentenko. I’d love to see him take the last spot from Emminger. McD can perfect his style and craft for a few months before he gets solid NHl time.

So, my wife agreed to watch the baby and I drove up to Detroit to see the game. Its been over a year since I’ve actually watched the Rangers skate and even though I was in a sea of Red Wing fans and they lost, for me it was amazing.

Haven’t had a chance to read the re-cap but wanted to post a couple of impressions before my opinion is swayed by the Blueshirt Banter crowd. As you know, seeing a game live is different than seeing it on the tube…you catch things you wouldn’t at home but you miss a lot also. This will need to be quick because I work in the AM.

Big Picture

I won’t really bother with the regular guys because it really doesn’t matter how they played because this is preseason and aside from getting the feel of the ice and warming up these games aren’t primarily about them. But I will say that this is the first time I’ve ever actually seen Gabby skate and he looked better live than he does on the television…not surprising. This is probably one of those games where I watch at home or in a bar and come away thinking he was invisible. He wasn’t and isn’t. He’s a superstar and it is obvious when you’re watching the action from the stands that he can set the pace, control the puck, is wise with the puck and is one of the fastest guys on the ice. Frolov and him looked great and they changed the tempo of the game every time they were paired up, even when the puck was in our zone. I really liked what I saw of Frolov.

Okay, enough. You already know this.
  
In my opinion the following ARE NOT ready to join the club.

Grachev
Seminov
Zucky
McDonagh
Valentenko
Sauer

Need I even mention Chad?

Probably the biggest disappointment from where I sat was Grachev. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that he doesn’t have a future in the NHL. He lumbers around and for some reason doesn’t use his size. I never saw him really show flashes of anything. He’s big so he doesn’t get tossed around and doesn’t flop but he’s always following the action and never executing intelligently when opportunities arise. I simply don’t trust his hockey sense and I never get the feeling that he’s about to “make something happen.” Maybe he’ll develop into something but I simply don’t sense that fire.

I also thought McDonagh looked out of his league for a good part of the game. The good news is that he showed enough poise and energy for me to say that he will make this team. Almost certainly. Most definitely. If not this one, than another club….just not yet. The mistakes he made were of the sort that we saw Gilroy make last year…mistakes of positioning, mistakes of timing. He definitely needs a year in the AHL to adjust. What I liked a lot about him tonight was that he was in the mix and using his body well. You could also tell that he was trying to adjust to the “bigger picture” of the game. He seems smart enough to figure all this out with time. My prediction is that he plays, tops, 10 games with the club as a first call up when the inevitable injuries and slumps hit the squad. Who knows, he may be ready by February to take on more duties…we’ll see. I don’t think so. My sense is that he’s going to be in the top six next year.

One of the hardest guys to send down, it seems to me, is Valentenko. I’ll be interested to see what you guys saw, but to me he is simply too much of a liability in our own zone right now. There were several times when he got behind the play…either literally chasing back to the zone or in the corner and slot skirmishes…and he began to thrash around. He needs more poise and consistency in the defensive end. What makes this so difficult is that I loved the way he anchored the point when we got down deep. He’s got a great release and knows how to use it. He’ll score. He’ll be excellent on the PP. Maybe a couple of months and sporadic call ups will even out his game…but to me he looked very shaky and unpredictable.

There is no way Zuccarello is ready for the physical level of play yet. Sorry guys, he’s too small. I’ve never seen him at a weigh in but he needs to put on about 20 pounds and buff up. True, he uses his stick well and I guarantee that you’ll be seeing some highlight reels from this game that are enticing…I saw them too. He has a way of snapping into the mix, capitalizing on turnovers, breaking up some cross-ice passes, getting a surprise shot off. All that is true. But I’m telling you, he is useless along the boards, is very timid in mid-ice and the defensive end. There is a fine line between “flying around” and “flailing around”. My guess is that if he joins the club right now he’ll give us some cool goals but his plus minus will be embarrassingly low. Not sure who he’s going to skate with either because he didn’t really strike me as being able to sustain possession.

Seminov just looked “okay.” I don’t know the stats but he seemed to hold his own but looked far from brilliant…more than once I found myself cringing and saying “who was that?” and it was Seminov. But I didn’t track him very well so I could be missing a lot.

And these are the guys who impressed me:

Avery
Anisimov
Stepan

Aside from the predictable first and second liners (Frolov; Gaborik; Dubi) I was really happy with Avery and Anisimov. Avery handled the puck well, created break out opportunities, won the battles in the corner and generally brought fantastic energy to the ice every time he was out there. To me, he’s re-earned his spot hands down this Fall. But the biggest surprise, to me, was how good Anisimov looked. In addition to skating well he was using his body a lot. Really throwing his weight around and doing so wisely.

For the first half of the game Stepan looked like he was simply trying not to make any big mistakes. He played what looked like conservative hockey until some point in the second period and then his game started clicking. Either way, watching him skate it is clear that this kid needs to start the year in New York City. He has the size, instincts and skill of a top six forward which is what I think he will be. For his youth, he is very poised. I think we will be watching him play in a Ranger uniform for a long, long time. Welcome son. Boyle also looked like he was trying to make the cut by not making any mistakes. I could be wrong, but it didn’t seem like he clocked a lot of minutes last night. Anyone have the stats on that?

What else? Oh, and White was better than expected given what I saw on television the other night. I actually thought he had a horrible first period but by the second he began playing much more solid and really did contribute to some of the pressure we put on in spurts. He definitely adds the solid presence of a veteran. The youth we were showcasing made this a very uneven outing. If it comes down to White or Kennedy I think I’d have to go with Kennedy but White could be a very important utility player.

Gotta see what you all put up and then crash!

I am so pumped up for the season to get going…

d

hey frolov has a two way game which is awesome.