Dubinsky took a very stupid, selfish and un Rangers like penalty last night. I have no problems with Torts sitting him for the rest of the game.
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"Of course giving Sather cap space is like giving teenagers whiskey and car keys." - SBOB "Watching Sather build a team is like watching a blind man with no fingers trying to put together an elaborate puzzle." - Shadowtron
Sestito still on the make a wish tour. - rholt168
Really not enthused by Skinner's hit on Staal. He knew exactly what he was doing; applying pressure on that waistline pant-seam is the easiest way to take someone's legs out from under them (I sure did it in front of the net). To do so at full speed as someone is racing into the boards makes my blood boil.
Skinner's obviously a great player but he pissed me off repeatedly last night. Staal got lucky that he was able to lift his legs up so quickly on that play; a fraction of a second later and he shreds his knee. Then you have Skinner going ape **** over rightfully getting cleared out of the crease by Stralman later on.
Why is everyone comparing Dubi's penalty to MDZ's? MDZ tried to pass a stick to a teammate, Dubi grabbed an opponents stick out of his hands during a scrum in front of the net after a whistle and threw it across the ice at the boards...
Because it was stupid, unsportsmanlike and he should know better. I said it yesterday and ill say it again; I guarantee they were all warned...take those types of penalties...and you sit. It also doesnt help that BD is playing terrible from an offensive point of view.
Skinner's obviously a great player but he pissed me off repeatedly last night. Staal got lucky that he was able to lift his legs up so quickly on that play; a fraction of a second later and he shreds his knee. Then you have Skinner going ape **** over rightfully getting cleared out of the crease by Stralman later on.
He's a chippy and kind of whiny player, I think he's already getting a rep for diving as well
Best moment of the game for me was when Skinner knocked down Staal and Bickel cross checked him 3 times in the head and Rupp punched him in the head about 5 times and Skinner got the only penalty.
Aside from not putting up points, he's been playing pretty well in other aspects of his game. He's played well defensively and certainly on the PK.... He's not a player who's struggling in all facets of his game, just offensively. If he was struggling in all aspects of his game I'd advocate benching him but I certainly don't advocate doing that when he's contributing to the team in other areas. I certainly don't support benching him in a game when Callahan is out of the line-up and Dubi & Cally comprise our top PK unit. Dubinsky should have been out there killing penalties with his fresh legs.
Disagree,
I've been in the Dubi's support camp but look at his progression this season: at first it was "oh, he just doesn't score goals but he gets helpers so he's still producing". Then it went to "yeah, he's struggling offensively, but he's doing well in other facets of the game". And here's yesterday's game with Cally out of the line-up, it was the perfect opportunity for Dubi to step-up. Instead, he takes a costly, unnecessary, dumb penalty that we all know for sure was addressed less than a week ago when Del Zotto got his penalty. And now he's hurting the team in addition to his offensive struggles. He definitely deserved what he got.
Moreover, huge props to Torts for making him sit - not only it was a signal to Dubinsky, it was the signal to the whole team (that got the message after somewhat poor effort in the first) that responded in the 2nd and 3rd periods.
Otherwise, for this game my three stars are the ones who've been (undeservingly, IMHO) blamed on this board as underperforming or somewhat underappreciated. First, Boyle had a great game (even more so than Prust who struggled in the first period). This is why I'm comfortable with him as our 3rd line center - he was VERY physical throughout and he had offensive opportunities that his line finally was able to convert into a goal. Second, Biron came up big after allowing the first goal, keeping all Carolina's (5-hole) shots away from the goal allowing the team to tie, go ahead and then ice the win in the 3rd. Finally, I think Bickel had a very strong game especially considering that he's been playing a forward position before and that he had to step up after DZ left the game. Almost 12 min of solid effort!!!
Yeah, but they aren't winning in blowouts. Wouldn't you rather be fighting tooth and nail like last season, and have blowout wins? It really asserts dominance.
Was at the game last night. Sat right next to the Rangers press box, although the 3 guys up there (Callahan, Eminger, Woywitka) were at the opposite end of it from me, maybe 30ft away. Got to see Callahan scarfing down what looked like a bag of popcorn. He wasn't on crutches. Emmy came over and talked to some kids that got his attention. Didn't go over to him because he was mobbed. Also, I found it interesting that the guys don't jump up and celebrate goals when they're up there. Not a bad thing, just interesting.
The section next to mine was mostly drunken Rangers fans... with one row of drunken Hurricanes fans. Suffice it to say that sometime during the 3rd period, about 1/3rd of the section got thrown out of the arena. Almost as many 'Let's Go Rangers' chants as 'Let's Go Canes' chants that I could hear... aside from the drunken "Go Home Rangers' chants. Pretty entertaining evening overall.
As for the game itself... I don't know how well this translated on TV, but despite the score and shots being close to even... the Rangers were dominant on the puck and were very obviously the better team. Even my buddy who had never been to a live hockey game before and doesn't know really anything about the sport could tell.
Which throws into sharp relief really the lack of power play options we have right now.
With Richards playing a point, we really only have 6 other forwards that can be relied upon to provide any offense at all (Stepan, Gaborik, Anisimov, Dubinsky, Callahan, Hagelin) One of them is injured (Cally) one is not a PP type guy (AA) one is a rookie who generates most of his offense on the rush (Hagelin) an one is having a torrid season (Dubinsky)
Does not exactly leave us with a great situation on the power play. And with Del Zotto out tonight I don't expect any improvement.
Because you can't expect our PP star John Mitchell to play the full two minutes. Seriously though, I'm a big fan of Mitchell and it bugs me when ignorant posters here complain that we desperately need to upgrade Mitchell. But I do not agree with Torts throwing him out on the PP every single time now. I guess he's trying to "send a message" to the stars that if you're not getting it done, I'm going to give your ice time to someone else.
Hey Torts, how about instead of all the MESSAGE SENDING, you tell your beloved assistant coach to wake the **** up and CHANGE THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE POWERPLAY. Enough is enough. It's simply unacceptable.
Which throws into sharp relief really the lack of power play options we have right now.
With Richards playing a point, we really only have 6 other forwards that can be relied upon to provide any offense at all (Stepan, Gaborik, Anisimov, Dubinsky, Callahan, Hagelin) One of them is injured (Cally) one is not a PP type guy (AA) one is a rookie who generates most of his offense on the rush (Hagelin) an one is having a torrid season (Dubinsky)
Does not exactly leave us with a great situation on the power play. And with Del Zotto out tonight I don't expect any improvement.
We should have called up Zuccarello to help the power play and the fact that we have not indicates to me that he is not in the team's plans now or moving forward. I really hope he doesn't go elsewhere in the NHL like PA and murder us.
Didn't read through the whole GDT or this thread, so I apologize if this stuff has been said before:
As someone who went to the game, I was once again astounded that the stadium was half-empty and overrun with Rangers fans (probably 50% attendance were in blue). Several fans were tossed from the 300s section (on both sides) for taunting each other, when a group of Canes fans threw beer at a pack of Rangers fans who responded to their "Rangers suck" chant with "First place." The Canes fans then promptly challenged them to a fight, and all of them were quickly surrounded and tossed.
Biron let in a softy (1st goal), but played okay overall. Would liked it to have been a more distant game than it was, but the Rangers missed an open net continuously for over 4 minutes, then lapsed defensively to make the score closer than it was.
E. Staal is quite possibly the biggest whiney, over-rated, cheap ******* in the NHL. Completely invisible all game long save for a few VERY one-sided calls his way (Rupp "pulling" him down live looked like Staal threw him down, the PPG early in the second when he flat-out tripped Boyle on the opening face-off, rushed down, and the Canes scored), but still managed to pick up 2 garbage points.
Jeff Skinner is becoming quite a cheap player himself. Several times he was the third man in attacking a Ranger from behind, and had a rather blatant elbow that got him a penalty in the third.
Cam Ward frankly is awful. I don't care that they complain about his lack of defense this year, even in Hank's worst defensive years he blew Ward's stats out of the water, yet their fans and announcers routinely compare the two as if they are neck-and-neck.
The Rangers won something like 86% of the face-offs in the first period. Given their general lack of domination in that category, I was quite surprised.
And lastly, they were showing footage of 9/11 throughout the entirety of the game on the jumbotron, in an attempt to rally for fundraising. Several Rangers fans pointed out how insensitive that was, and I agreed. With the large number of people in house last night who likely witnessed or knew someone in those attacks, to show it roughly 15 times during the game probably hit a sore spot with a lot of us. Felt it was pretty classless, honestly. On top of that, I REALLY wish the Canes fans would stop defecating on the National Anthem by screaming "Jussi (can YOU SEE)," "Gleason (gleaming)," and "Red (rockets RED glare)," smack in the middle of the anthem. It's just disrespectful.
At any rate, glad the Rangers won. Keep that gap moving up. Got taunted in the parking lot, to which I responded they couldn't beat us without our best forward, our captain, and the best goalie in the game.
Edit: Dubinsky acted like a little baby when he threw that stick to the boards and was well deserving of being benched, for all those complaining about it being a bad thing.
Almost as many 'Let's Go Rangers' chants as 'Let's Go Canes' chants that I could hear... aside from the drunken "Go Home Rangers' chants. Pretty entertaining evening overall.
