BTW no Ranger fan refers to our team as rags. That’s like an Islander fan calling his team fishsticks.

LET’S GO RANGERS

Orr for Hollweg….I don’t like it. Ruff is not putting Peters in the lineup. Hollweg is quicker and more physical. He does take stupid penalties though. But so does Orr. This sounds nuts, but we might even take a shot at bringing Dubinsky up…..Thoughts anyone?

Avery’s pre-series talk would have been effective if he had played well. He did not though. So people will be saying, “Avery’s talk backfired and worked to the Sabres advantage.” Avery was -3 last night and took two stupid penalties. He was his own worst enemy last night. Someone said it somewhere and I agree….right now as Avery goes, the team goes. He needs to be smarter and quicker and more aggressive. I love the guy for what he brings, but he needs to stay within himself. Why would he be grabbing that guy in the offensive zone? Not smart.

I think we still can play with these guys. We just cannot run around without discipline.

The last thing is that we need to get in front of Miller and shoot from the slot, not from outside the faceoff circles. Those are easy shots for him to stop. Straka took it to the net hard last night and we got a goal. Jags took it to the net hard and Hossa made a nice flip to the glove side but Miller bested him.

We need to get a lead on these guys and play smart.

Let’s go boys….so we are down 1-0, BFD.

Again, some realism PLEASE! Pigs will fly when Ruff decides to put Peters in, least of all in response to Orr suiting up. Who would he sit? Mair? He has been a stud in the playoffs. Kotalik? After last night’s game?

I do think we are setting ourselves up for next year when we really make a run with guys like Staal in the lineup, and hopefully a real 2nd line center (Lang wouldnt be so bad playing with Avery and Shanny although I dont know what they would do with Straka).

Anything from the first round on is just icing on the cake. I am more excited about next year than this one. Its safe to say that the execs learned what works in this league and what doesnt, based on last year and this years early mistakes (i.e., Moore for Hall, signing slow old dmen, etc.)

The real issue is not the refs or Buffalo, but it’s dealing with the lackluster performance last night by the Blueshirts.

A few tidbits:

1) Shanny, despite his goal (too little too late,) was -4 on the night. That is unacceptable. Like how can Shanny be happy with his 5 on 3 play where he whistled 2 shots wide? In 5 on 3 play, you are not really supposed to take slappers from the point. You are supposed to get it down low and take shots from 15 feet. His linemates were not much better…Avery -3 and Straka -2 is just BS. That line started slow versus Atlanta, so there is huge room for improvement there. But if we are going to play competitively with Buffalo, that line has to do more. I am guessing they will rebound in game #2.

2) Rachunek was not ready. It’s easy to be Monday AM QB, but Pock should have played, not Rachunek. (I know I was saying Rachy was a good choice before the game yesterday, but I was wrong. It happens!) He was a step slow on the blueline early and got caught pinching in the neutral zone on Vanek’s 2nd goal. I hope Roszival’s knee is actually “mild” like they claim.

3) Reluctantly, give some props to Miller, he played well. Henry played very well too. But he can only do so much.

4) They can’t give up 8 powerplays. It just keeps Jags and Nyls off the ice and is too much wear and tear on the D to have them chasing for 16 mins of a 60 min game. Avery and Cullen with stupid offensive zone penalties. Then Avery with another in the D zone AFTER he had taken that guy off the puck already. Malik with a stupid closing the hand on the puck. Straka failed to clear the puck and then had to hook the guy. Too many stupid penalties. I think they were rusty from the days off.

5) To continue on that last line, they were a step slow given the huge days of rest. If Jags had buried that chance 30 secs into the game, it would have been an entirely different story. I think after practicing for 7 days and then being given that chance in the first rush it was apparent that he was a little rusty.

6) The best line on the ice for the Rangers throughout the night was Cally-Cullen-Prucha. Callahan was hitting everything, going to the net, taking shots (Ranger high of 5, btw), and being scrappy. Nice job. Cullen took a dumb penalty, but played hard overall. I just wish Jags-Nyls-Hossa had played more consistently throughout.

The bottom line, they cannot make little mistakes against Buffalo or they are dead. They were a step slow in most places, thus they could not hit them as much as they probably wanted to. But they have to hit them when they can, like on the forecheck, and then stay composed when backchecking and playing in the D zone.

We did not expect to sweep Buffalo, so it’s OK. Game 2 just becomes that much more important now. I like the way we played for the first 20 mins and even into the 2nd. But the penalties we took were bad. Could the refs have called a little more on the Sabres, yes maybe. Still though, the Rangers took some dumb, lazy penalties.

Onwards….focus on game #2. LGR.

Few little things I noticed:

-In the pregame, I forget the sabre that was being interviewed on the ice, but the second Avery’s name was mentioned he looked away and spat almost subconsciously. I do believe Avery nullified himself by saying what he did….theyre only using it to thier advantage.

-Rags obviously looked great first 10 mins and it slipped away after the penalties started….I’m not sure what to make of that….was it flow or was it fatigue….?

-I thought Rachunek did make a couple of good plays.

-Someone said something about Shanny not thinking there was a discipline problem….but it appeared to me he was scolding/yelling at Hollweg for his late penalty…

-Connoly’s behind the back move was sick…I’m really glad he didn’t put that away.

-Lundqvist is absurd but he can only do so much.

Not really sure what to make of it right now….I guess we’ll have to see how these guys handle this….but I will say that I think BUF made it look pretty easy to handle NYR last night.

agreed you can put that down as a bad game but you have to correct what went wrong and that was mainly the sloppy defensive play and the terrible play by the “2nd” line