Is it just me or does it seem that every time the Rangers go on a western road trip they suck. Is it because of the lack of emotion in the game, lack of knowledge of the other teams weaknesses, or just that the Rangers are too tired?
With the new schedule change for next year, we will being going to the West even more times. How do we prepare for the other teams? How do we change our Western fortune?
Is it just me or does it seem that every time the Rangers go on a western road trip they suck. Is it because of the lack of emotion in the game, lack of knowledge of the other teams weaknesses, or just that the Rangers are too tired?
With the new schedule change for next year, we will being going to the West even more times. How do we prepare for the other teams? How do we change our Western fortune?
Rangers were really good out west last year. In fact it turned the season around.
First off we didn't suck. We lost to two fine teams of the West. Second, Rangers is yet to win against premium goalie this season. Both Kipper and Luongo were on top of their game, while our goaltending was average at best.
We don't always suck out West but we are going through another stretch where we don't look like a very good hockey team. Hopefully a visit to Edmonton will cure our ills before we come home. We USUALLY play well there.
It's a long season, and I think it can be difficult to maintain the same emotional and compepitive level against teams that don't matter as much to your standings. Also, i flUndy didn't have that one mistake, we'd be talking about this trip differently.
The played very well last night (43 SOG), but got stoned by arguably the best goalie in the league right now.
He was very solid last night, did a great job of rebound control which seems to get a lot of goalies into trouble.
But he didnt have to make any HUGE stops, second opportunities or face much traffic in front of him.
And he was beat by Jagr but it rang off the post.
I'm not downplaying his game, he was very good, its more of a *****ing against the Rangers for not doing more to get to him.
Where was Avery last night?
I wouldn't dismiss the work the canucks defenders did either... Mitchell was solid against the top line... and Kesler - even without the fluky goal he didn't deserve - was excellent yet again in a shutdown role. He was all over the top Rangers line all night long and gave them very little room to work with.... they can take all the shots they want as long as they're from the perimeter and low % scoring chances - which Luongo asks his defenders to let go through, to avoid bad deflections.
Luongo is great - always has been... he put up a .930 save% in Florida as well - same as he's working with right now... the difference is that the defense in front of him wasn't nearly as good.
In Vancouver, the team is built around Loungo... that's why they have built a deep defense and have a key shutdown line up front, which plays every shift against the opposition's best... Kesler gets more icetime than the Sedins because of this - and even though he'll never put up a lot of points, he's been playing excellent all season long in a shutdown role, as evidenced not just by Jagr and Gomez's streaks ending last night, but also holding all the opposition's top forwards off the score sheet for most of the season... even Iginla has only a goal and a couple of points in the 5 games they've played this season, and IIRC only a goal in his last 10 against the canucks.
Barring an offensive explosion against the 'lers Luongo and the 'nucks defense may have nullified the momentum built up by Straka-Gomez-Jagr over the past two weeks. Very bad news for the Rangers, another offensive draught = another rut.
