The Rangers played two games last night in their 3-2 shootout loss to Edmonton. They skated for the first 25 minutes or so in a nice deep sleep. There was no hitting, no pressure, no puck control, no hustling, and definitely no scoring. Then the alarm clock went off, and the hitting, hard work and (some) scoring miraculously materialized.
However, it wasn’t enough as they came out of the game with only one point.
After starting out the season with a 10-2-1 record, the Blueshirts have gone 1-3-1 in their last five games. Do we know what kind of team this is yet?
They can’t seem to play a solid 60 minutes. They don’t score enough, can barely score at all on the power play, and don’t always outwork the opponent. Plus, they get pushed around too easily. They don’t stick up for their goalie when he gets run over, have too many defensive breakdowns, and turn the puck over relentlessly.
But they’re in first place. Is it a mirage? Is it all Henrik Lundqvist? Is it their rock-solid penalty killing?
The Rangers found themselves down 2-0 before they shook themselves out of their funk.
The Oilers on the other hand should have been the team sleepwalking. They played the night before, and have been on the road for two weeks to accommodate the Canadian Rodeo Finals (every time I took one of those tests in school to find out what career is best suited to my personality and intellect, the answer always came out the same: rodeo clown).
Their first goal was deflected off a skate, and they caught the Rangers standing around after a slow line change on the second one.
The only sign of life in the beginning of the game was when Colton Orr took on Zack Stortini. (“Hey,” my wife said while the fisticuffs ensued, “I once drank six Stortinis at a function at Macy’s. And I’m pretty sure I got in a fight with Colton Orr that night, too.”)
But then Ryan Callahan started throwing some hits around, the fans got a “Let’s Go Rangers” chant going and the team took off from there. Skating, hitting, forechecking.
Where was that in the first period? They outshot
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