Raanta in, thank god tanner is healthy so he can go back in the lineup for lindberg....unbelievable. Hoping for the best and expecting the worst tonight.
Didn't see a second of the game but a win at Anaheim is a huge 2 points. Not that I care about seeding this year. Just get in and I'll pray.
Went to bed after the first period...glad to see Klein make up for the goal in the first. Surprised they won, to be honest.
It was a very big win with the back to back with LA coming up tonight. Klein was all over the place last night. Glad they were on the secondary channel while the Knicks got blasted in Golden State by 40 points.
I worked back to back till midnight so didmt watch the game..another midnight shift coming up...yeah love me tax season baby
Yeah weird, must have been a typo in the papers. And I'm with you on the late nights, I had a brutal one at the office and got home at the start of the 2nd. In all honesty, it was one of the best periods of hockey they have played all year. The transition game was working, the defensive coverage was solid and they generated some great chances. There was a speed and crispness element to their game that has been missing for weeks, even months. I only saw two bad misplays with the puck from the usual suspects, a misfire on a stretch pass by Boyle that resulted in an icing, and an outlet pass by Glass that looked more like a slapshot, which ended up on the Anaheim pointman's stick and resulted in an extra 30 seconds pinned in the zone. No they didnt finish all of their chances as I think Stepupstepan was referring to in his always-enlightening commentary but the Ducks deserve some credit there. A no-look, behind the net feed from Fast to Kreider who was correctly streaking to the front was stopped only by a great play by Kesler who tied Kreider up, and Miller found himself alone in front but perfect positioning by Gibson gave him nothing to shoot at. Nash was very noticeable and had a chance in front as well but the feed tied him up just enough that he couldnt get a clean shot off and Gibson was positioned for the stop. I get that it's frustrating to see them play so well because the next inevitable question is "why can't they do that every time?" or even "why can't they do that for a full 60 minutes?" But at the end of day all that matters is that they play that way in the playoffs, and we'll see if that happens. I'm hopeful that it will. I know many of the fortune tellers here have already declared it an impossibility, but I saw some very good things from these idiot players and this dumbass coach last night against a real good Anaheim team. The next order of business is to get at least a point from the Kings with our own King back in the nets. 3 out of 4 points in a back to back vs two of the top teams in the west would be a huge boost for a team that really needs to string some wins together. At the very least, they need to carry the positive play forward and not revert back to the passive game we've seen them play lately.
Glass did play well last night as did klein minus the one great play perry made on him for the goal. Also noticeable in a good way was mark staal who played great and had some hits like the old healthy staal. I thought anaheim had better of play in first and we pretty much controlled the last 40 minutes and only great play but the ducks goalie kept this from a 4 or 5-1 game. Raanta up to the test again and AV needs to use him more especially in these back to back games so hank is fresh for the playoffs. I thought boyle and especially girardi struggled in getting the puck out and girardi just continues to turn the puck over way too much. E. staal was good and stepan line was the best line tonight but nash was also very noticeable. Best news of the night is McD escaping what looked like a serious head injury taking a last second slapper off his head. Reports say was a glancing blow and after being down a while Mcd got up and skated off on his own. Thought another concussion there for sure when it happened which is why will be very difficult to see if rangers can't figure out a way to get Yandle signed especially since I dont think he's missed a game in something like a ridiculous 6 years. Big game tonight with kings and a win here is a phenomenal sweep. Botton line is this team has a lot of talent and can play with anyone yes even the caps in a 7 game series. Question is will this be the year they finally put it all together.
It is nice to see that Nash is noticeable, however they are not paying him almost 8 million dollars to be noticeable. He needs to put the puck in the net. Since he came back, Nash and Staal have combined for 0 goals. Thats not going to cut it.
Thanks for your detailed commentary. if you actually saw the full game, they had quite a few wide open chances and either whiffed on them or missed the net entirely. Good win nonetheless.
Hopefully McDonough is ok, he took a deflected shot up in the neck/head area at the buzzer and was down for a few minutes but eventually got up and skated off. The Ducks shot like the Rangers in the first, they had multiple opportunities and all shot wide. A very gritty playoff-type game lots of hitting. Zucc missed an open netter that could have iced it with a minute but that was a great win last night. Whatever AV said in the locker room after the first woke them up especially Klein who had one of his top games as a Ranger. Hank needs to put the team on his back tonight.
