B R O A D W A Y***B L U E S H I R T S

Bathgate66

NYR in 5

Bathgate66

todays blueshirt bulletin gearing up for tonights crucial game 4 at MSG


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April 22, 2009
Gomez, Zherdev Need Wake-Up Call
When the Rangers said after Game 1 that they were guilty of watching the puck in their own zone, one of the guiltiest parties was Scott Gomez. On the Caps' first goal, with the puck in the left corner and everyone else covering a man or battling for the puck, Gomez circled out of the right corner and into the high slot, covering acres of open ice, doing nothing but watching the puck, perhaps hoping for it to pop out with his teammates taking possession with him in position to break out.

What Gomez wasn't watching was Alexander Semin drift in across those same open acres of ice to get himself into positon to score the back door goal when his own teammates emerged with possession of the puck. On the Caps' second goal, Chris Drury and Markus Naslunk were guilty of a similar lapse, leaving two men wide open on the weak side, one of them Semin, who scored another easy back door goal. From there, it was a huge uphill climb for the Rangers -- and they could not even get off the ground with a single goal against a novice goalie (a season-long problem), let alone surmount that obstacle.

One of the reasons for their inability to get anywhere was the lack of playmaking by Gomez. At one point, I watched Gomez set up behind the net and look for a pass. From my vantage point, he had several options. He didn't see any. I wondered to myself, where did he get his reputation for playmaking? Has he made a single pass in his two seasons in New York that remind you of a Doug Weight or Marc Savard or Adam Oates set-up? I don't recall any brilliant goals set up by his playmaking -- I just recall his inability to develop any chemistry with Jaromir Jagr, Martin Straka, Markus Naslund, and Nikolai Zherdev.

Zherdev. There's a good one. Before the series, we wondered who would be the unsung player to step up and assume the role of playoff hero. No one has done so -- instead, we continue to witness the disappearance of Nikolai Zherdev, once our leading scorer and brightest hope for the future. Exactly one month ago, Zherdev was smack in the middle of a five game stretch in which he scored four goals, skating 17 to 20 minutes a game. He has just one assist in his last ten games, going -4, and is s down to 10 to 15 minutes a game in his las six games playing on the third line and second power play unit.

Zherdev actually started out well in Game 3, and got the ice time he deserved from coach John Tortorella. But he just couldn't get the puck to the net, the guiltiest of several Rangers in holding the puck too long before looking for a shot. Much has been made of him getting only two second period shifts, but a look at the progression of the shifts in the period show that he was the victim of a series of penalties -- there were only four times in the period that the teams skated five on five, and the first two were cut short during the Gomez line's shifts by Sean Avery penalties, the Gomez line getting first crack at five on five play. Zherdev had even more ice time in the third period than the first, but he still generated little or nothing.

For all the other warts that plagued the Rangers in this disheartening loss, one defensive play by Gomez and one offensive play by him and by Zherdev, and the game reaches its latter stages at 1-1 instead of 2-0 and the Rangers have a chance to win. You can say the same about other aspects of the game -- if Callahan scores, taking away Semin's second goal, it's 1-1. But hey, Callahan went for it, the defenseman deflected it -- there's not much else to talk about, other than the defensive lapse down the other way. But Gomez and Zherdev are supposed to be the team's top playmaker and goal scorer, respectively, and Gomez as a center is supposed to help out defensively. Zherdev starts with a Z, Gomez ends in a z -- these Z's need to wake up.

The Gomez-Zherdev issue figures into several reports from practice yesterday, where Tortorella said he needed more from his top players without naming names and also spoke about Sean Avery and Chris Drury -- Newsday, Record, Daily News, Journal News, Post here and here, NYR.com, NHL.com, ESPN, CBC, and AP. More from reporters' blogs -- Ranger Rants here and here, Rangers Report, Blue Notes here amd here, and Game On!. Ranger Rants (here and here) and Blue Notes (here and here) report from the morning skate that Drury will play today and Paul Mara was off yesterday for personal reasons (see also Blueshirts Blog). The Wolf Pack signed Mitch Gaulton to an ATO -- it may be his best chance to earn a Ranger contract, though he will likely be back in junior next year. Wolf Pack Weekly also at WP.com. Prospect Park has other prospect news.

From the D.C. angle, even the local papers are getting into the mix with the nationwide media outlets and Washington press, mostly about the kid goalie who has allowed just one goal in two games -- Newsday here and here, Times, NHL.com here, here, and here, ESPN, AP, Washington Post, Washington Times, Caps.com, and DC Sports Blog on Ovechkin's girly jump at center ice and bench antics. They're obsessed with Avery too -- see the Washington Post and DC Sports Blog. And in case you missed it, wonderful ending for the Devils last night after coming back from a 3-0 deficit, losing with 0.2 seconds left in the third and Martin Brodeur throwing a hissy fit about interference that he initiated and kept at while the shot was whistling past him -- priceless! Of course, if that was Avery bumping him...

rival.

drury is in for tonight.

that's mistake # 1. already off to a bad start and game time is still 2 hours away.

milarso

Bathgate66 wrote:

NYR in 5

Sounds like a very unbiased opinion...

igotid88

singularity wrote:

drury is in for tonight.

that's mistake # 1. already off to a bad start and game time is still 2 hours away.

my favorite mistake.

rival.

igotid88 wrote:

singularity wrote:

drury is in for tonight.

that's mistake # 1. already off to a bad start and game time is still 2 hours away.

my favorite mistake.

haha, seriously! he is off the hook for one night!

interesting game. loved it. rangers a bit lucky... 2 or 3 goal posts by caps? again sitting back with a one goal lead, shitty powerplay, neutral zone turn overs, not getting the puck deep. but i'm a bit of a debbie downer.

i do stick up for avery time and time again, but wow........ if the caps scored on one of his 9 dumb penalties, i am sure the garden faithful would be pretty quick to turn on him and i would have put my foot through the TV. i agree with sam & joe, why did torts put him on the ice with under 5 minutes to go after taking a slew of bad penalties. the guy seemed like a huge liability when he was on the ice in the 3rd.

gammmmmeeeeeeeeeeee 5 friday bitches.

rival.

ps -

avery is lucky he didn't get 4 with that roughing call after the icing that drew blood from the caps player.

PatrickBateman

I too, defend Avery a lot of times, but last night pissed me off at the end with that stupid shot he took after the whistle with 3 minutes to go....does he have a girlfriend in the penalty box waiting for him? Did the Caps promise him his own clothing line after the series? I almost threw my beer across the room. Henrik should have clocked him after the game arghh I hate when he pulls that shit. anyhow, band practice is canceled Friday... I hope they wrap it up Friday

Henrik was Henrik....awesome

Jwmcc

Bump.

FINISH IT!!!!!

HailHailVitalogy

I'm going tonight, can't wait.

xavier mcdaniel

Jwmcc wrote:

Bump.

FINISH IT!!!!!

agree, no screwing around and that means you number 16.

rival.

xavier mcdaniel wrote:

Jwmcc wrote:

Bump.

FINISH IT!!!!!

agree, no screwing around and that means you number 16.

interesting to see how torts is going to use him tonight late in the game if the game is tied or nyr is winning. after game 4 there were a few rumblings that he should be a healthy scratch for game 5. get the message across that he can't dick around.

Bathgate66

avery out
voros in
team first concept

PatrickBateman

wow Ovechken just made the Rangers look like stoo-pid 4-0..........does the King take the rest of the night off?

PJaddicted

:? crap

PatrickBateman

what a bag of crap. :oops:

Rygar

PatrickBateman wrote:

what a bag of crap. :oops:

What a goal!

rival.

what a shit load of fuck.

Phantom Pain

You think Torts will get suspended ?

I don't blame him for going after these idiots...Jeff Carter last year got hit in the head with a plastic beer bottle during a post game interview

Fans can be real tough guys behind the glass

PatrickBateman

Phantom Pain wrote:

You think Torts will get suspended ?

I don't blame him for going after these idiots...Jeff Carter last year got hit in the head with a plastic beer bottle during a post game interview

Fans can be real tough guys behind the glass

no shit...the guy was all like "come on!....break free and hop over this huge sheet of glass between us...I'll kick your ass with my 30 friends"....douchestick....

Henrik steals game 6 for the series