September 22, 2007
Philadelphia Flyers at New York Rangers Preseason - Impressions
Final score: Flyers 5, Rangers 0.
The Flyers continued to dominate in the third despite having far fewer shots on goal than the Rangers. The big concern for the Rangers right now just has to be the lack of finishing; Prucha had that near-miss, and Gomez and Jagr had back-to-back scoring chances with Nittymaki out of position that ended in both of them missing the net; either chance really should have been a buried puck. In contrast, when the Rangers played sloppy hockey in the defensive zone, which was often, the Flyers were right there to punish them every single time.
Knuble is going to be a threat this year; his hand-eye coordination is just fantastic, as shown by his mid-air redirection of the puck into the back of the Rangers net.
The Flyers also might have an interesting story to add to my goaltending thoughts from a couple of days ago; Martin Biron looked solid for two periods, but Nittymaki was just absolutely rock-solid in the 3rd, and both faced a barrage of Rangers scoring chances. According to the commentators, Nittymaki isn’t ready to think of himself as a backup quite yet, and tonight he made every effort to prove that he’s just as capable in net as Biron. Expect to see this situation develop as we approach the regular season.
It’ll be interesting to see the lineup the Rangers put together for the next game. As much as they’d certainly love to see the tremendous amount of talented youngsters keep battling to prove there spots, there were worrying weaknesses exposed tonight that perhaps require a little more play from the big guns to shake off rust than they would have hoped. If the Flyers keep playing like this, they’re going to make themselves a big story very quickly; likewise, if the Rangers big guns don’t step up, they could be having a few long talks in the locker room about what exactly the salary cap should be buying the team.
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After two periods, this game has been a pretty interesting contrast from last night. The first thing that comes to mind so far is that the Rangers, who have a lineup including only 4 players from last night.
You might recall that I was impressed with the drive and play of the prospects for the Rangers last night, and that they were putting together a good game. Well, the big guns for the Rangers have come out tonight and left me cold; Drury, Gomez, and Jagr are all out there tonight, but the Flyers so far have been putting together a clinic, taking a commanding 3-0 lead.
Some thoughts:
- Drury is doing all the little things right, including sacrificing his body to block some impressive slapshots from the point and setting up some nice passes; however, I’m seeing no indication so far that he’s doing the most important job, which is leading. Gomez is similarly underwhelming so far; I haven’t seen him rallying the guys, and it doesn’t look like he’s either setting up or inspiring many good plays.
- Henrik Lundqvist doesn’t appear to have his game on so far; I’ve really always found his strength to be in the positioning and mental side of the game, rather than having to make the athletic saves; tonight, I don’t see him playing as dominant a mental game as usual, which probably has more than a little to do with the Flyers margin. I hope this is just a symptom of either rust or having nothing to prove, because it’s not a good sign.
- That said, he’s not getting much help in front, either. There’s a reason we’ve been hearing so much the first two periods about Drury’s presence on defense; he’s making the big plays around the crease because the Rangers D-men aren’t.
- Despite the commentators on MSG raving about Jagr’s camp experience so far, he’s been fairly invisible tonight. Prucha has been the visible force on the Rangers offense, with a near-goal that just took an unlucky skip off the crossbar and out instead of in.
- Jessiman apparently took some lessons from a boxing instructor in the offseason, but they must not have stuck; he instigates a fight and then gets dominated, throwing a few wild shots that miss badly and throw him off-balance. Don’t instigate the fight in a way that’ll draw you the extra 2 minutes if you’re going to lose the fight.
The Flyers, however, are showing every indication of being a team on the rise. Briere is doing all the things on offense that I haven’t seen Drury doing through 40; he’s been involved in a lot of good offensive chances, and it does look like the Flyers are rallying to him. Part of this may have to do with his role on the Flyers vs. Gomez or Drury’s roles on the Rangers; Briere is obviously, 100% intended to be the leader of the new-look Flyers, whereas Jagr (not a player I ever considered an effective leader) still holds the C for the Rangers.
From a puck-possession perspective, the Flyers have dominated tonight; while the Rangers are holding well on power plays, they’re not converting. It’s been a fairly crowded game in the neutral zone so far, although near the end of the 2nd it started to open back up with some longer passes.
Back after the 3rd.
Filed under: Hockey
September 22nd, 2007 at 7:10 pm
[...] to catch the last period of the radio broadcast after watching the Flyers trounce the Rangers 5-0 on [...]