When the New York Rangers acquired free agents Scott Gomez and Chris Drury they sure didn't expect scoring would be their biggest problem. But, seven games into the season the Blueshirts have mustered a league low 13 goals and last night they failed to score at all against the resurging Boston Bruins, who won in a shootout. So what's the problem?
Scott Gomez put it this way, "Henrik's been great all year. There's no question about it. That's not the area we have to worry about."
And he is right. Henrik Lundqvist has been great so far, playing in all seven games. The bottom line is the big names, like Jagr, Drury, Straka, and Gomez himself, aren't performing at the level expected of them. Compared to last years Rangers, where the Jagr-Nylander-Straka line actually made some sense, this team seems to be more toward the Rangers of recent years, where they just went out and bought the biggest names available on the free market. Well, at least a couple more forwards got to earn huge money playing in Manhattan.
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They were down 3-1, but the Chicago Blackhawks rallied back to beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-4 at the Air Canada Center. I can understand why coach Denis Savard is thrilled, the way the team is playing it looks like they could give Detroit a run for the money for the division title. The difference between this team and the Rangers is that the Blackhawks went and got the right players for the job, not the most expensive names money could buy.
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I think it is awesome to youngsters like Kane, Toews, and Stastny dominating the game so early in their career. Sidney Crosby led the way, and they are following in numbers. One day soon, maybe sooner than I can imagine, the Chicago Blackhawks will face the Pittsburgh Penguins in a, will be, classic Stanley Cup final. Who will win it? I don't know, but it will be series that will redefine the game of hockey.
Now I have to check out Manhattan-based, Swedish sportswriter Per Bjurman's blog to see if he has a different take on the sinking Rangers.
5 comments:
These Rangers are NOT the same as a few years ago! They will pull themselves out of this slump and make the playoffs!
It's still early in the season but apart from Lundqvist, Dawes, and Staal, the Blueshirts look like oldshirts. Drury and Gomez were nice additions, no doubt, but this club is now on the hook to dish out $10m for the latter. That's a hefty pay-cheque for a guy who has NEVER hit the 30-goal plateau in his career. Again, still a little early to write them off. To be continued...
Chicago Blackhawks' 19-year old Jonathan Toews pulled a Mario Lemieux last week. He found the back of the net in his first career NHL-game on his first shot on goal.
GO BRUINS!
GO BRUINS!
But didn't Lemieux also score his goal on his first shift of the game? I think he did.
Yep, I think he did do that. Just don't wanna talk too much about it because it was against Boston. Just like Sittler scored 10 points in the same game against, you guessed it, Boston. And Ron Hextall scored against...Boston.
Let's just forget about it.
Well, let's not dwell on that any more than necessary then.
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