Oct 8, 2013; San Jose, CA, USA; San Jose Sharks center Tomas Hertl (48) shoots the puck between his legs past New York Rangers goalie Martin Biron (43) during the third period at SAP Center at San Jose. The San Jose Sharks defeated the New York Rangers 9-2. Mandatory Credit: Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports
The Rangers lost pretty badly last night to the Sharks. If you thought 6-1 at the end of two was bad enough, how about a final of 9-2! Crazy right? But hey, they scored on the powerplay so there’s that! Here’s some sort of reaction to all this:
Well I’ll start off with the elephant in the room, and that’s the potential of Rick Nash having a concussion. He talked to Larry Brooks of the NY Post, and complained of headaches, and how it was worrying him. After taking the hit he was seen shaken up holding his head. Granted he did play the remainder of the first period, but it’s not looking good. The last concussion he got was earlier this year, during last season against Boston, after a Milan Lucic hit, that was a clean hit. The Brad Stuart hit, while a hit to the head, was done with his shoulder, not his elbow like many thought, and the penalty suggested.
Brad Stuart has an over the phone hearing today with Brendan Shanahan and his team of misfits. What will Stuart get out of this? I expect a 1 game suspension tops. If this was the playoffs, he’d be in the next game playing. It was with his shoulder various angles showed that. There was no intent, this wasn’t vicious. He’ll get a game most.
Tomas Hertl should be out for an extended period of time after.. Wait no one crushed him in the boards after his fourth goal of the game? Are you sure? Okay, well looks like he’ll be good to go against Vancouver. Typical rookie over reacting to a goal. Should of gotten slammed into the boards for acting like it was his first career goal. That move, Malik-esque. But Malik did it better.
The defensive breakdowns were a plenty. And none more to blame then the rest. But seeing Girardi and McDonagh do it, was disheartning. I expect this from Stralman, John Moore and public enemy number one, Michael Del Zotto, but from our shut down pair? Not so much. Staal’s worst game as well. This wasn’t pretty, this wasn’t good, this was a drubbing. An embarrassment that proves that speed kills. No kind of new system will help teach players the defensive aspects of the game. The positioning.
Your top pair of defensemen, a -5, second pair -7, third pair -3 (how’d John Moore break even? Good for him.) Your top line -3, second line -5, third line -5, and fourth line -5. Well that’s awful now isn’t it. A total of a minus -33 last night. The game was all Sharks, and yes, the Rangers did score a powerplay goal (on a 5 on 3), but they gave up a short handed goal. Shocked that the Sharks didn’t score any more short handed.
You have to wonder, what happened in that locker room last night. Brooks was also proud to report that Glen Sather was in the room listening in on the conversation. After three games. Should AV be nervous? No, not yet, give it another 10-15 games to really start worrying. Let’s worry if Nash doesn’t play tomorrow, which for precaution he probably shouldn’t. But, his second concussion in a year, has to have many worried.
Oh, so you want to blame Hernik Lundqvist for the loss last night? No that’s okay. There are many people you should blame before you blame Henrik. He shouldn’t really be at fault for last nights loss. Were there some goals that had me scratching my head that he gave up? Sure, but I mean he didn’t exactly pull a Jonathan Quick.
Poor Marty Biron, you have to think he was going to start either tomorrow or Saturday’s game. Now I bet he’s afraid to go dress for the upcoming two games. You have to think Henrik wants some sort of redemption to prove himself after what happened last night, and I suspect it could happen tomorrow. But we’ll see.
Rangers are off today, before playing the Ducks in the Ducks home opener. Game starts at 10PM EST, but pregame is at 9:30 on MSG.