Mr. Dos Nueve
…Not as catchy as Ocho Cinco, but that’s the number that the Rangers starting goaltender will wear tonight against Atlanta. That’s right, number 30 will be getting the night off, meaning Chad Johnson will make his first NHL start. The 23 year old Alberta native has a 12-7-2 in Hartford this season with a 2.07 GAA, saving 93% of shots against him. No word on how many times Henrik Lundqvist had to be pinched when he was told he had the night off.
The Rangers are 7-1-2 in their last ten games, and only one point behind 6th place Ottawa.
Before Johnson was named starting goaltender, I was going to give this blog post the title of “Do You Remember?” That’s because the Rangers hadn’t won back-to-back home games since Oct. 26-Nov. 1 against Phoenix and Boston. They did it last night, beating Dallas 5-2 a night after defeating the Bruins. They have been winning with scoring from some unlikely places lately.
Sean Avery had four points last night, netting his first goal since Nov. 23rd
Chris Higgins scored his first home goal of the season against Boston (only took 23 games)
Ales Kotalik has goals in each of the past two games…he hadn’t scored since Nov. 5th
What does this tell us? Well, it tells us that the Rangers can win games when someone other than Marian Gaborik scores. Now, we can’t get ahead of ourselves and expect these guys to put up goals consistently all of a sudden. But, you’ve got to start somewhere. Let’s see if they can continue the production tonight against the Thrashers.
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13 Responses
Jason January 9th at 5:14 pm
Let’s go Rangers, lets go!
Great blog you have here. I have a blog myself that solely focuses on the New York Giants. We should exchange links to spread some traffic around between each other. Let me know if this is possible.
Jason
GIANTStalk.com
Ryan F. January 12th at 7:05 pm
Wow…this website is dead!
Ryan F. January 12th at 7:54 pm
Good 1st period by the Rangers. They outshot the Devils 13-10. There was a good flow to the game and we spent a fair amount of time in the offensive zone. Would have liked to see some more high quality scoring chances, but all in all this is not a bad start against the number 1 team in the eastern conference.
Ryan F. January 12th at 8:41 pm
Another good period by the Rangers. They outshot the Devils 18-12 in the 2nd period and are outshooting them 31-22 through 2 periods. Scary moment there when the Rangers had to kill off a 5 on 3, but the Rangers were able to survive that and got a powerplay of their own soon after. They started to really heat up offensively towards the end of that period but we are still tied at zero. Rangers really need to score in the 3rd period.
gregg m January 12th at 9:13 pm
nice job ryan….. i’m watching online. no VS w/ directv!
gregg m January 12th at 9:15 pm
asked the eric(k)s this: how bout moving boyle back to d to hlp clear out the front of the net. he played d in college and compares to chara in size and ability.
thoughts?
Ryan F. January 12th at 9:26 pm
Well, after 3 periods we finally know that the final score of this game will be 1-0. What we don’t know is who will have the 1. This has been a straight up goaltender showdown with Brodeur making 45 saves and Hank making 41 of his own. Lets see how this one ends.
Ryan F. January 12th at 9:27 pm
HOW DID THAT NOT GO IN!!!!!!
Ryan F. January 12th at 9:33 pm
This has been one hell of a game!!! I can’t believe that chance by Gaborik didn’t go in! Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go change my pants before the shootout.
gregg m January 12th at 9:42 pm
bad result, but fun game! higgins still a mystery. avery was quiet. prospal looked good.
same ol rangers….. no goals = no points.
Ryan F. January 12th at 9:46 pm
Well…that was a heart-breaker. On the positive side, the Rangers have shown that they can hang with the number 1 team in the eastern conference. They are now tied with Boston with 51 points for 5th in the eastern conference standings thanks to the overtime point. However, I am getting really tired of this “we can play with the top teams” crap. We need to BEAT these teams every once in a while.
Ryan F. January 12th at 9:47 pm
podcast?
Ryan F. January 12th at 9:51 pm
Hi gregg. Sorry if I kind of ignored you this whole time but the game was just happening so fast. Not having VS must suck. I actually had direct tv last season and we just switched to fios before this season. So I was almost in the same boat as you.