Rangers Let Baby Isles Have One

Okay, maybe they didn’t let the Islanders have the win, but it sounds more realistic than what really happened.

You always HATE to see the Rangers lose to the Islanders (especially when you’re a Ranger fan from Long Island), but this was on the verge of plain ridiculous. Bad calls, bad defense, bad penalties, and bad play resulted in a bad loss to a bad team. I mean it’s the Islanders! This is the same team who’s highest paid player is a man who’s in Russia and hasn’t played in New York since the 2006/07 season. This is the same team who’s star goaltender played a whopping 13 games in the past two seasons. The same goaltender who beat the Rangers Monday night for the first time since November 2007.

The game definitely doesn’t make the defense or Henrik Lundqvist look good at all after allowing a total of 9 goals in the team’s first two games. I see people are being quick to blame Lundy, but if you watched the Ranger/Isles game you’d see that not many of the goals are his fault. Now, I love King Henrik, but I’ll admit that I’m quick to jump down his throat when he’s out of position or goes down to quickly, so me defending him is a rarity.

In the words of semi-famous Chris Crocker – “Leave Brittney Henry Alone!”

Lets look at the first goal where the Islanders took the lead, Dan Girardi passed to Michael Del Zotto who committed a junior hockey mistake. You NEVER play with the puck in front of your own net. MDZ lost the puck to Blake Comeau who put it past Lundqvist. Henrik get’s this pass.

After Dubs scored on the powerplay, Josh Bailey scores after some incredible forecheck by the Islanders to keep the puck in the Rangers zone. This one is another one that’s hard to blame the king for. Another goal against the defensive pairing of Girardi/MDZ, the Rangers couldn’t get the puck out of the zone as it just seemed the Isles were everywhere the Rangers weren’t. And I’m not completely knocking the D because they were all over Bailey as he scored falling down. That’s now two passes for Lundy.

The Isles third goal came off of a “rebound”. Trent Hunter took a slapper towards the net and hit the back boards which bounced back in front of the net to where Matt Moulson saw a juicy puck to put over Henry’s glove. Lundqvist probably should’ve had this one, but Girardi (again on the ice for a GA – by this point you gotta be wondering why we paid him over $4 mil) went to block Hunter, then got up almost confused looking everywhere and doing nothing. I’ll give Hank half a freebie on this goal.

The fourth goal for the Isles came in the third period after a shady call against Callahan and then another call on Marc Staal that created a 5-on-3 situation. For the most part the Rangers were doing well and then James Wisniewski took a shot from the point which Girardi blocked, but unfortunately for #5 and Henrik, the puck went right to yesteryear Ranger P.A. Parenteau who had an almost empty net to shoot in. Girardi just can’t get a break. Even when he does good, he fails. – 3.5 passes at this point for 4 goals.

Following the 4-4 tying goal, the 5-on-4 took place with, once again, the Rangers playing well. But, once again, Bailey makes another amazing play from the left side of the net making a no-look behind-the-back center pass to Blake Comeau who puts the game winning goal in. Three Rangers besides Henrik were in front of the net and were basically outplayed. There was zero chance Lundy was going to to stop it. Now giving him the empty net goal that’s clearly not up to him, that’s 5.5 free passes on 6 goals.

It’s sad to say, but the Islanders just out played a weak Rangers D.

There are good points to the game though. Like I said Brandon Dubinsky scored and got the third star of the game from his two-point night. Dubs has had a fabulous first two games of the season and I really hope he continues his play. Also, the power play unit had a good game, scoring twice on 4 chances and Girardi’s goal was only 5 seconds after a power play ended (which falls under a gray area of still affected by the power play).
Also, if you haven’t seen it by now, Wisniewski’s obscene gesture towards Sean Avery:

Maybe Wiesniewski was just telling Avery how he eats his ice cream popsicles. Either way, he got a two-game suspension for it. Odd, Nick Boynton got suspended only one game for making a throat slashing gesture. Threatening to kill a man is a one-gamer, but one man offering another man a good time and you will get multiple games. That’s sexualism, Colin Campbell!