Memmorieeess light the corners of my mind

Memories light the corners of my mind

Going in to last night, there was good news and bad news. The bad news: the Rangers returned late last night with barely any time to rest up and prepare for their 6pm start. The good news: the 6pm start was against the Edmonton Oilers, known for not playing up to their talent level. Nothing like a quick victory to forget about a pretty awful game Saturday, right?

Well, it would have been right, except that the Rangers played at least 50 minutes of brutally bad hockey last night. Like, embarrassingly bad hockey. Even Ulf Samuelsson had a whole lot to say about it. I’m no Ulfie, but I did have some feels (mostly of the crabby variety) about this game, and, per usual, I threw them into rambling bullet form. 

  • I get that our defense is depleted, I get that we’re trying to even out the play by separating Marc Staal and Dan Girardi, but what I don’t get is why either of those players are playing down as opposed to lifting their partner up. Watching some pass choices made between Matt Hunwick and Girardi actively makes me want to vomit.
  • That being said, I’m positive that several times today I will hear that John Moore won’t be welcome back when he returns cause Hunwick/Mike Kostka have been doing such a stellar job in his absence. Related: I’m positive that I will shout at twitter in frustration today.
  • I ripped on Kevin Hayes not knowing when to pull the trigger early in the game, and I’m halfway convinced he checked his social media accounts during the intermission because he turned on some kind of urge to play. The Rangers’ best scoring chance was late in the 3rd and 100% Kevin Hayes.
  • Offense related: did nobody ever teach the Rangers that goalies typically give up rebounds, which are unpredictable and, with the goalie out of position, are easier to put in the net? I mean, I’ve never played the game and even I know that.
  • All three periods were kind of a blur to me, so thank goodness for my trusty notes. Unfortunately, they all say basically the same things in varying levels of anger. “Rangers are getting outworked” “1 SOG through 8 minutes” “0 SOG through 10 minutes” “how many Rangers are on the ice just looking at Oilers crowding Hank with the puck” among many others that Dave won’t let me post here due to language restrictions.
  • It seems Benoit Pouliot helps rejuvenate lines. The third line was undoubtedly the best line for the Rangers last year, and it looks like Pouliot brings together great talent in both Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle well.
  • Speaking of Eberle – he made Marc Staal look silly. That, plus his poor penalty taking, plus always holding your breath when he gets knocked down, and I’m on the trade bus come this winter.
  • The Chris Kreider goalie interference penalty with 4 minutes to go is going to get called. Twiter Pal Steven David couldn’t put it better:
preach

preach

  • This was particularly bad because the Rangers had the momentum, and they were only down one. AV pulled Hank pretty quickly after Kreider’s penalty is served, and the Oilers scored pretty quickly thereafter to seal a bad night for the boys in Blue.

 

Overall, the Rangers looked unmotivated and unamused at having to play another game. I don’t think we need anyone to point out the obvious, that playoff teams don’t concede any game, no matter what month shows on the calendar. With the Pens twice this week, we can only hope the message gets across, or else it’s gonna get awkward and probably illegal in a few states what Crosby & Co. do to the Rangers.

Share: 

Mentioned in this article:

More About: