The Rangers went into Tuesday Night's tilt against the Islanders hoping to wash the taste of a bad loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs in their home opener out of their mouths. Unfortunately, Island water leaves a worse taste on the tongue as the Islanders dropped the Rangers 6-3 on the strength of a 4 goal outburst in the third period.
The Rangers got off to a Nash-ty beginning once again as Rick Nash continued his torrid scoring pace with goal #5 off an unassisted rush down the right wing and a hard drive to the net, playing the puck off of Islander goaltender Jaroslav Halak and into the net for a 1-0 lead.
However, as stated in the players to watch, the Islanders evened up the game on a Power Play blast from Johnny Boychuk. Boychuk took a pass from Kyle Okposo and fired his second of the year past Henrik Lundqvist. The first period ended 1-1.
In the second period, the Rangers outshot the Islanders 21-8, but only got one by Halak, as Derick Brassard potted his second of the season off a feed from Chris Kreider. Lee Stempniak also was credited with an assist on the go-ahead goal, as the Rangers took a 2-1 lead at 3:50. The lead was safe until an absolutely HORRIBLE giveaway by Michael Kostka, who wears #4, has the first name of Michael and is just as much of a DelZaster as DelZotto was. Kostka tried to make a cutesy little pass that he flubbed, with Nikolai Kulemin feeding John Tavares for the tying goal at 15:03. The second period ended 2-2, with the Rangers holding a 32-20 shot advantage.
The third period was an absolute catastrophe, as Del Kostka struck again with a giveaway to Kyle Okposo for a 3-2 deficit at ;48. Four minutes later, another player to watch, Brock Nelson scored to make it 4-2. Mikhail Grabovski banked one in off Rangers' defenseman Kevin Kline as he was attemting to break up a 2 on 1 and it was 5-2. Nick Leddy slapped one from the left point for a 6-2 lead, and Rick Nash closed out the scoring as he got his second of the evening and league leading 6th of the year for a 6-3 final.
PLUS/MINUS
PLUS - Rick Nash - again. What else can be said about his start?
MINUS - Michael Kostka. Two horrible giveaways. Horrible hair. Bad luck number. Henceforth, he shall be "Michael Del Kostka"
MINUS - The coaching staff. Something isn't working - it needs to be fixed.
The Rangers look to get back on the right track tonight with a 7:00 appointment with an even bigger dumpster fire in the Carolina Hurricanes. (P)Review coming up.
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