Seven Was Enough for Blueshirts
At the start of the season, when asked about how he was going to handle Henrik Lundqvist’s workload, head coach John Tortorella vehemently stated he would play his backup goaltender Steve Valiquette more. True to his word, “Torts” put his backup in there against another Pacific Division club, as the Sharks swam into Madison Square Garden. And while the Rangers weren’t nearly as competitive in front of him, losing many loose puck battles in this lopsided contest, Valiquette didn’t do his part to hold the fort as well.
This game started out well for New York, taking an early two-goal lead with quick strikes by Drury on a redirected Staal shot and another power-play tally by impressive rookie Michael Del Zotto. But that was the end of the highlight reel for the hometown team as the Sharks chewed them up, at the tune of 7-3.
You could see the Rangers backup back-stopper didn’t have it early on, when fourth line plugger Brad Staubitz snapped a stoppable wrist shot to cut the temporary Rangers lead in half at 2-1. Dany Heatley scored on a nifty rush, splitting Staal and Girardi and backhanding a bouncing puck into the back of the net to even the score at 2-2 and taking all of the momentum back from the Rangers.
The game officially unraveled when Jed Ortmeyer, who’s known for his goal-scoring prowess just as much as Staubitz is, pounces on rebound machine Valiquette and pumped home the loose change to put the Sharks ahead to stay at 3-2. Say what you want about this gang of underachievers in San Jose, they have a lot of top-end talent. When they get the bottom lines scoring… watch out.
With the “grinders” goals book-ending the highlight reel Heatley goal, Devon Setoguchi and ex-captain Patty Marleau took the game over. The Rangers gave this skilled two-some way too much time and space to operate, in front of the net…all over the ice, come to think of it. Two late Setoguchi goals in the second put this game out of reach.
At the start of the third, too late if you ask me, coach Tortorella replaced the struggling backup with Lundqvist. Same results ensued as lifelong Rangers fan Ryan Vesce followed followed up a Heatley breakaway and slipped the puck by the “King”. This play was indicative of the entire night since the Rangers went up early. The Sharks were the hungrier, no pun intended, bunch. The lopsided score wasn’t a mirage.
The chickens have finally come home to roost, so to speak. I am well aware this phrase isn’t often used in sports, especially hockey, but it’s the first thing that came to mind when thinking of how to finish this blog off. The Rangers, despite the winning haven’t been playing well in these last few games of the winning streak. I wasn’t the only one who thought so, the head coach of this team was saying that since the Kings game. Maybe this loss will help the team refocus and start to play the way they did when the streak first began. The Devils come into town next, I don’t think it will be so hard to get motivated and play hard next time around.
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