RANGERS - 2 caps - 1
The outcome of the game was not indicative of the way the teams played tonight. The caps were the better team for a majority of the game, and have been for the majority of the series . One thing became perfectly clear.
The Rangers have the best goalie in the Conference - King Henrik Lundqvist.
Cam Ward is a great goalie, Marc Andre Flurey is very good when hes on, Tim Thomas gets the job done efficiently,If throwing tantrums was a recorded statistic then Marty would be #1 all time in that too.
Ranking the Goalies
1. Henrik Lundqvist
2. Cam Ward/Marc Andre Flurey
3. Marc Andre Flurey/Cam Ward
4. Tim Thomas
5. Bump-A-Marty-Party
6. Matry Biron
7. Simeon Varlamov
8. Carey Price
If any of these goalies were tending our net in this series, we're most likely in the position the caps are in right now or if we had Price, we would have just played our last game of the season.
Its tough to say that Hank is far and away the best goalie left in the playoffs since Roberto Luongo is also playing pretty fucking well right now for the Canucks. That said, The Canucks were the better team in their series and were expected to win , The Rangers are the underdog here and Lundqvist is one game away from stealing the series and sending the Caps home much earlier than they anticipated.
Outside of Hank, the team played just OK tonight. I was pleased to see that the three forwards with the highest TOI were Ryan Callahan, Brandon Dubinsky and Lauri Korpikoski. Tortorella has a much better feel for his bench than Tom Renney did and played these guys in key spots (I love that hes sending Betts out there to take almost every big face off that we have) and with all the money we've spent on free agents the past few years, its nice to see the home grown core get it done tonight.
Of course there were things I didnt like about tonights game. We continue to give up the blueline way too easily. I understand not wanting to give up odd man rushes in such a tight game but the caps are just as deadly when they get a chance to get their fore check going.
Averys penalties were stupid. I was pissed that the first one got called not because I thought it wasnt worthy of a penalty (it was) but because the Caps got away with so much shit in the 2nd period (and how many pick plays are they going to get away with in this series? this isn't the fucking NBA) but the 2nd penalty he took was in excusable. Hes lucky he didn't draw blood on that high sticking penalty because that would have had us on the PK for the rest of the game which would have eventually been a 6-4 where anything would have been possible. He actually had a pretty good game besides that stuff tonight and is one of the few guys who can actually get a decent cycle started.
Other stuff not related to the game: Michael Del Zotto played his last game of the season as the London Knights were defeated 5-4 in OT and lost the series 4 games to 1 to the Windsor Spitfires who advance to the OHL finals. All 5 games of the series went to OT. Del Zotto is free to sign an ATO and suit up with the Wolfpack for the playoffs. Most of the season had been up and down for Del Zotto but hes been a rock the last two months and arguably London's best player in the playoffs. Recent Rangers signee Matt Gilroy was at the Rangers game tonight. When asked why he signed with the Rangers over other teams who had comprable offers he looked around at the garden crowd and said "this." Gilroy is expected to make his Rangers Debut early next year, probably out of camp.
Next game: Friday @ Washington. Lets wrap this up.
