Posts tagged ‘Renney’

According to The Blueshirts Blog, Blue Notes and Rangers Report, the passion and intensity that was missing in last night’s embarrassment against the Kings, was out in full force during practice today. 

Apparently, Malik and Avery got into a shoving match and that quickly escalated into an all out, gloves off, fight between the two. 

According the the reports, Malik was the victor and as the two were being torn apart Avery was heard saying, “What are you, a bleeping tough guy? Why don’t you play like that in a game?” (A sentiment by the way, that is echoed by many fans)

Renney didn’t seem to have any problem with the fight and, according to the writers, went over to Malik after the tussle and said, “Good job, big guy.”

I personally agree 100% with Renney.  The biggest missing ingredient with this team has been that constant passion and determination.  Maybe they were as disgusted with last nights showing as I know we all were and it spilled over into hostility today at practice.

I love it.

First off, not to overshadow Leetch night, just wanted to make mention of Marek Malik not skating this morning.  Nor was his equiptment in his locker.  According to the Rangers Report Tom Renney is referring this as an “internal matter”…this could be the end of Malik as a Ranger but we wont know at least until after the game tonight.

Now, I am currently watching Brian Leetch take the podium to deliver his speech.  MSG Network showed a Leetch retrospective before the ceremony started which was nice.  I’m not going to say much on Leetch…his numbers speak for themselves.  When Mark Messier calls you the greatest Ranger ever, you know you’ve done something right.

He is what all Rangers should aspire to become…humble and great.  Hopefully a little Leetch will rub off onto the Rangers tonight and they canpull off a win.

This was a game that the Rangers needed to win.  They were playing a team that was tied with them in the standings and was feeling the effects of the flu bug. 

But again, as we’ve seen so many times recently, the Rangers shot themselves in the foot. 

They were shorthanded 8 times yet again, and would have made it five straight games with a five-on-three against had Chuck Kobasew not scored on a delayed penalty call.  And again, it wasn’t just the fact that the Rangers took so many penalties that was bothersome.  It was the timing of the penalties that was once again laughable.

The Rangers took a penalty in the very beginning of each period, squashing any opportunity they may have had to come out of the gates like gangbusters.  They again took a penalty right after they scored the go ahead goal, squashing any opportunity for momentum.

A couple positives though.  Tom Renney said in the post game that there were a couple of players who missed shifts because they took bad penalties.  If this is true, then its a step in the right direction from a coaching perspective, but I really didn’t notice it enough to qualify it as such just yet. 

And yes, the Rangers did get the point, but right now a single point just isn’t good enough.  They go right back at it with the B’s tomorrow at the Garden.  In that one, 2 points in regulation is CRUCIAL for the Blueshirts.

Phew, the Rangers certainly dodged that bullet.  Playing a team that was spiraling out of control having lost nine straight, a win tonight was ABSOLUTELY VITAL for the Rangers moving forward.

And they did win, maybe not as convincingly as you would have liked, but right now “style points” are out the window and the only points that matter are the ones in the standings.

Now don’t get me wrong, there were certainly some good signs tonight:

-  The third line continued to look good scoring both goals and creating countless chances.  It looks like this trio is finally starting to lock in.

-  The return of Sean Avery and Brendan Shanahan was great to see (it was also great to see someone finally putting pucks on net).

-  The King was solid, not spectacular, but he did what he had to do.

-  The penalty kill was fantastic (although they again were called upon WAY too much).

So those were the positives.  But don’t feel too good if your a Rangers fan right now because boy was there a lot to be bothered by in tonights game:

-  Tom Renney again gave the fourth-line third-line minutes.  Ryan Hollweg and Colton Orr both got 12:16 minutes and Blair Betts got just under 15.  No player on the third-line even got nine minutes of time, despite again being the best and hardest working line on the ice.  The third line contributed two-goals and a combined for a +6 on the night.  The HBO line contributed a bad penalty and no offense again.  How Renney can justify playing Ryan Hollweg for over 12 minutes and not even give Brandon Dubinsky 6:30 is beyond me and is flat our ridiculous.

-  Renney again didn’t have the courage to send a message to his team and bench his “captain” when he played another lackluster game and was a detriment on the ice.  Jagr took two more lazy penalties and was the culprit on the Sabres lone goal.  If you watch the replay you will see Jagr, upon losing the puck at the Buffalo blueline, glide back and allow an odd man rush for the Sabres.  He gave an absolutely embarrasing effort on that backcheck and made a half-hearted attempt at the last minute to catch up to Pominville.  But J.J. doesn’t miss a beat and is rewarded with nearly 20 minutes on the ice.  No accountability=no change.  It’s that simple.

-  The Rangers again gave the opposition man-advantages immediately following Rangers goals.  The Blueshirts went up 1-0 at the 6:15 mark of the first and went on the penalty-kill just over two minutes later.  They then went up 2-1 at the 9:42 mark of the second period, only two one up themselves from earlier in the game and go down 2 men just over a minute later.  That 5 on 3 disadvantage was their fifth in the last four games…absolutely unacceptable.

-  The Rangers power play was again more of a disadvantage then their penalty kill.  They couldn’t capitilize on any of the man-up opportunities given and gave up countless numbers of odd-man rushes against in the process.  I’d be willing to venture a guess that Buffalo got their best chances when they were down a man.

But in the end they were able to pull this one out, just don’t be fooled.  Against a half decent team we would be talking about another terrible loss.  But as I said in the title, a win is a win is a win is a win and at this point that’s all that matters.  Maybe the Rangers can gain traction from this and get going.  I guess we’ll see this weekend.

That was a nice win.  No that’s not a typo, I’m only giving it nice.  The reason: we’ve seen this before.  This win becomes big, great, huge, and whatever other word you want to throw out it when, and only when, the Rangers win another, then another, then another.

But that being said, tonight was an utter domination.  The Rangers paid attention to the little things and capitalized on the opportunities they were given.  More importantly this team didn’t panic when faced with almost the exact situation in which they fell apart on Thursday.

Up 2-0 after a dominating 1st (again), the Blueshirts went down 2 men early in the second.  But this time they were able to kill off the disadvantage and even got a big save from Henrik Lundqvist who took back his throne with a vengence!

And once the 5 on 3 was killed off, the Rangers again did something we’ve seen so little of recently…step on the throat of their opponent.

Led by the line of neophytes, the Blueshirts stormed to a commanding 4-0 lead and never looked back.

Kudos are in line to Tom Renney for his defensive shakeup.  The backline troops responded with a stingy performance reminiscent of the Rangers team we saw in November and say what you want about Marek Malik, but the big guy stepped up tonight.

If you can’t see the difference between Malik and Strudwick I really don’t know what you’re watching.  I’m not going to sit here and say that Malik is a top-pair defender nor am I going to make the claim that he can replicate tonight’s performance on a consistent enough basis to remain a Blueshirt.  But the fact is he is an NHL caliber defenseman and Jason Strudwick simply isn’t.

 So again, a much-needed nice win for the Rangers that can turn into a much-needed GREAT win depending on the team that shows up Monday against the Pens.