Rangers up 1-0 end of 1st. Rangers up 2-1 end of 2nd. Rangers 3-1 FINAL. A business-like win...moving on.
Good solid win. I never take these rivalry games for granted, so good win. 8 straight as we head to Dallas. That will be a tough one. I would be okay if we split at Dallas and at Florida, then come home and beat Buffalo. BTW...terrible loss for Isles. Up 3-0 at Buffalo and lost in a SO...wow. That team needs Halak badly. Bad L for them. We are gaining...
Pitt lost to the Caps tonight as well, so we are gaining on the Pens also. 7 behind the Pens, but 2 games in hand could = 3 points behind. 5 behind the Isles, but 2 games in hand could = 1 points behind. Tied with the Caps, but 2 games in hand could = 4 points ahead. Met getting tight, and CBJ wins again...keep an eye on them as the 4th team. BTW...this Devil stuff is funny. Give Maloney credit as the only guy who calls it what it is. The Devils stink. They just don't have the talent. All these other guys making excuses or talking injuries are crazy (like I am going to count guys like Clowe and Havlat amongst the man games lost to injury when those guys are ALWAYS ALWAYS hurt). Injuries or not the Devs STINK...and they are the oldest team on average in the NHL by 1.5 years...wow...no future.
The win streak is great but this team will need guys like Zucc and Hags to get it going. Kreider is lost, snake bitten and any other term you want to use. The next two on the road will be interesting. I would love to see ten straight.
Kreider looks terrible. He's almost an impossible player to get others to have chemistry with because he's stupid with very little hockey sense. If he wasn't so damn good in the playoffs, I could see Sather packaging him in a deal for a Hall. If the team makes the playoffs this season and he isn't good, I would think he would be in play next year. Game went as expected. A lot of the crappy teams around the league are now back to trying to win games 2-1 because they don't have much talent. Devils are one of those teams.
The Devils are turning into the Isles of 10 years ago, lots of top 5 picks on the way. Maybe they'll screw up a few along the way.
During the 8 game winning streak Zucc has 8 points, and points in 6 of the 8 games. In the last 10 games Hags has 5 points. Hags is also on pace for 17 goals and 34 points. Last season Hags had 17 goals and 33 points. Seems like he is pretty much doing what he did last season. As for Kreider I have nothing for you...LOL. He is not snake bitten because that would imply he was getting chances still, he is not. He looks flat out bad right now. Made one nice play last night where his hustle negated icing and the Rangers had a great shift, but outside of that his impact is not being felt on these games. We all hope he finds his game, we'll need him against good teams. Look at the schedule after next Saturday against Buffalo. Starts with at Anaheim, at LA, and at SJ. My guess is we'll need some Kreider out West and for the handful of very tough games that follow. We'll get a great chance to see how real this team is.
When you play these rivalry games that is what I expect. I don't expect pretty wins in games like that, so I am not upset with how we played. The Devs SB is when they play the Rangers. They had 3 days off. They made changes behind the bench. They had their Pres/GM on the bench. I expected a tough messy game last night due to all of that, and that's what we got...no surprise to me. Win and move on in games like that I believe.
Just hope not top 2 this year with those 2 studs in the draft. I still don't see the Devs faling that far. 4 or 5 I believe.
The fact the Devils are so old and experienced prevents them from getting blownout much, plus Schneider is pretty solid. They just have little firepower.
Here is the funny thing to me that 100% should scare ALL Devil fans and show them just how lost Lou is and that he is killing the franchise. He wants to play more Devil hockey. That is why he got rid of DeBoer. Getting away from their style of play, and we all know what that means. Now on the one hand CLEARLY they don't have the players to play a more open style. Everyone knows that and knows they are starved for talented forwards. So right now winning ugly is the only way they can win. BUT I believe Lou thinks bigger picture that is the way to win for the Devils, and it shows he is stuck in 2003 and earlier. You CANNOT win like that in the NHL today...CANNOT. Now you can make the playoffs. You can win 2-1 games during the regular season. But you CANNOT win cups like that anymore. You CANNOT make long playoff runs like that anymore. CANNOT do it. You actually need talent and guys who can score goals to win in the NHL today, and if I was a Devil fan I'd be VERY concerned that Lou doesn't understand that. Look at the Devil team that made the SCF. Shocker they had Kovy and Parise leading the way upfront. You NEED TALENT. This is not pre-2004 when you can put everyone to sleep and win cups. I don't think Lou gets that and I believe he thinks you can still make long playoff runs and win cups with lesser talent and gritty players winning every game 2-1. To me that mindset is scary for Devil fans and tells me the Devs won't be legit winners again until Lou hires a GM or retires.
8 in a row and now 12-3 in their last 15 the Rangers are on a roll. Hags even scored a point on the empty net assist.
Tough part of Ranger schedule coming up....next 8 out of 10 on the road: Mon 12/29 at Dallas; Wed 12/31 at Florida SAT 01/03 -- BUFFALO Wed 01/07 at Anaheim; Thu 01/08 at LA Kings; Sat 01/10 at San Jose TUES 01/13 -- NY ISLANDERS Thu 01/15 at Boston; Fri 01/16 at Columbus; Sun 01/18 at Pittsburgh Not one easy game out of the bunch.....not even Buffalo. In fact, Rangers play majority of their games on the road.... through mid March. It should be interesting.
