Rangers Blog: Blueshirt Banter
In short:
[20 minutes of nothingness]
[Zamboni]
No!
[Zamboni]
Yes!
Double yes!
No!
[Zamboni]
You have to be kidding me!
(game over)
A more elaborate recap after the jump...
Where do we start?
How about with the outcome first. Let's be honest, the Pens salvaged a point in a game that looked hopeless up until the final three minutes. Should the Pens have won? Hell yes. If we learned anything from that Boston debacle last week it's that momentum should, in theory, power a team to a win. That didn't happen tonight, but the Bruins also weren't handing chances to the Pens. Which leads me to my next point...
How many power-play chances do the Penguins need? Somehow - amazingly - six isn't enough.
But let's not be too critical here without also being somewhat commendable. The power play looked good, but not as good as Henrik Lundqvist. There were times where the Pens should've buried a goal, or two or even three but Henrik lived up to his moniker (note: not his Stanley Cup wins) to make the big saves. Looking good and actually executing are two different things, and we saw both sides of that tonight between the Pens PP unit and the Rangers' Lundqvist.
We all expected a guy like Ruslan Fedotenko to do something tonight, but who could've guessed Erik Christensen would score a goal? A garbage goal no less, but I guess that's what the Pens will give up when they can't clear the puck from the zone. And it's not like they didn't have time to do it either. When the Rangers entered the zone, Mario Lemieux could've unretired, suited up and made it out to the ice in time to clear that puck, but it just sat there, waiting for a player with failed potential to scoop it up and look like a sniper. And who gets the assist on it? None other than Tenk himself.
Marc-Andre Fleury played a strong game, stopping 22 of 25 shots. I don't have an exact number, but a good percentage of those were point-blank attempts created by openings after the defense continued to skate around like they were on fire and trying to put the flames out. Even the final goal of the game came courtesy of Zbynek Michalek failing Skating 101 after his tripped over the speed bump that is the blue line and allowed for Brandon Dubinsky and Ryan Callahan to skate in on a two-on-one.
But again, the Pens got a point. The only thing that sucks more than the Pens not getting that extra point is seeing Henrik get the win after throwing his crybaby tantrum after Matt Cooke made him look like Stephen Valiquette. And yet Rangers fans have the nerve to talk down Crosby.
HAH I say to that irony. HAH indeed.
Ironic comment of the night goes to Lindas1st after Comrie got his pads handed to him by Ryan Callahan:
Comrie on his way to a Gordie!
Ironically enough, Callahan did. Comrie finished with goose eggs across the board and 5 PIM.