Hello all - after a long weekend of weddings and refereeing the Review is up and running again. Unfortunately, the pattern is still the same as we have two more losses to talk about.
First is the follow up from the Sharks debacle - which was just as much of a debacle in Anaheim. The Rangers basically slept though an ugly, listless 6-0 defeat at the hands of the Ducks. As has become a pattern in every loss this year, someone on the oppostion had a multi-goal game. On this night, it was Jakob Silfverberg. Also, as has become the norm, Henrik Lundqvist tried to play the puck, and ended up somewhere in Sweden, and gave up the entire net for a cheapie. At that point, the game was out of reach because the Rangers were offensively inept again.
PLUS/MINUS
There were no pluses from this game at all for the Rangers. Coming into this game from a shellacking 48 hours before, they were unprepared, uninspired, and completely outclassed.
The Minuses have to start with the coaching staff. How does a team not come in ready to play? Everyone in uniform gets a minus for this one.
On Saturday, the Rangers actually played much better than in Anaheim. To be honest, the Pee Wee game I refereed yesterday featured two teams that played better than the Rangers did in Anaheim. As a change of pace move to get their team out of their funk, Henrik Lundqvist started the game on the bench, and Martin Biron got his first start of the season. Unfortunately, he about 5 minutes in, he gave up a big juicy rebound that Alex Steen pounded home for a 1-0 lead. It stayed that way until the fading moments of the period, when the Captain, Ryan Callahan scored his first of the season on the Power Play with 6 seconds left. He took a slick feed from Derick Brassard, who had taken a slick feed from Derek Stepan.
So with that momentum, you'd expect the Rangers to continue in the 2nd period. However, there's a reason that backup goalies are backup goalies, and in the span of 20 minutes, Martin Biron proved that he is indeed a backup. St. Louis Captain David Backes, who plays like our Captain, ripped a wrist shot off the rush to give the Blues a 2-1 lead and give the Rangers the blues. That goal was bad enough, but the next one was unexcusable. Derek Roy came in on a 1 on 4 rush as the Blues were changing power play lines, and ripped a slapshot past Biron that as the announcers diplomatically put it, "he would like to have back". The 3-1 lead was cut to a 3-2 lead as Brad Richards notched his 4th of the year on a rebound of another Brassard shot. Again as the Rangers looked to build, Biron was caught too deep in his net and couldn't stop a deflected shot from Backes again that made it 4-2, and for the 4th time in 5 games, the Rangers give up a multi-goal game to a player on the other side.
The 3rd period was a wash - but Henrik Lundqvist was in the pipes for an early return from Club Pine. Less than three minutes in, Ryan Callahan popped in his second power play goal if the game, literally. He swung his stick and popped the puck about 15 feet in the air, and it bounced down behind Blues goalie Jaroslav Halak and into the net. Unfortunately, the final goal of the game was not a tying goal, but a St. Louis insurance goal as Vladimir Tarasenko rifled a wrist shot on the power play past the artist formerly known as the King, and that was all she wrote.
PLUS/MINUS
PLUS - RYAN CALLAHAN. The Captain is rounding into form, scoring two power play goals that combined didn't travel more than 5 feet combined. He's in the crease, scoring Adam Graves-ian goals.
PLUS - DEREK STEPAN. #21 is starting to round back into form as well, and with his two assists, leads the team with 5 helpers and is tied for the team scoring lead with 5 points.
PLUS - BRAD RICHARDS. Another goal for #19. He now has 4 on the season. The rest of the team has 5 combined.
MINUS - MARTIN BIRON. His team and his coaches counted on the veteran for a spark, but there was no spark. More like a fizzle. Biron gave up two bad goals, and one slightly less shade of bad one. The difference between a 5-3 loss and a 3-2 victory.
MINUS - DEREK DORSETT. In 11 minutes of Ice Time, Dorsett took three penalties. He now leads the league with 32 PIM's - and all three of his penalties on this night were bad, and two ended up in PPG's against.
So now the Rangers must wait until they head back to the East Coast and face the equally disappointing Washington Capitals on Wednesday night. Until then....BLEED BLUE
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