ROSEY’S RANTS
ROSEY’S RANTS
Ranger-Isles as Hard as Predicting Weather
Predicting what a Rangers-Islander game will be like is a lot like being a meteorologist, so it is only fitting that the Rangers and Islanders meet one day prior to a forecasted
Blizzard. The forecast has changed several times over the past few days starting out as all rain, then to a wintery mix, then to snow, then to an all out blizzard.
A meteorologist uses past history and various models and weather patterns to make his forecast. Sports writers do the same, except when it comes to Rangers-Islanders.The All-time series stands at 116-99-19-6 in favor of the Rangers, last season the Rangers were 4-1-1 overall (3-0-0 mark at home; 1-1-1 mark on the road). Five of their six meetings were decided by two goals or less, including two contests that required extra time. So if you were to make a forecast for tonight’s game , a 4-2 or 4-3 Ranger Win in Overtime would be logical, but as Ranger-Islander history has shown us nothing is logical when these two meet. Was it logical on April 11, 1975, when Zach Parise’s scored a goal 11 seconds into overtime to give the Islanders a 4-3 win over the New York Rangers, clinching the best-of-3 playoff series for the Isles, or when John Davidson and the 1979 Rangers beat a far superior Islanders team in the semi-finals ? The absurd seems to happen when these two teams get together, who could forget Dan Cloutier taking on Tom Salo and then challenging the entire Islander bench ?
So what will tonight’s contest have in store ? Both teams are coming off loses . The Rangers are struggling to find their identity.The Islanders have been up and down , some times very good some times very bad. Coach John Tortorella gets his captain back for the game, and due to strong performances by Chris Kreider and J.T.Miller, Brian Boyle finds himself a healthy scratch, a position that the coach stated before the game “he hopes Brian never puts him in this position again”
The addition of Ryan Callahan back in the line up, allowed Coach Tortorella to change up his lines, the new configuration brought balance to the lines. J.T. Miller opened the scoring with his first NHL goal 89 seconds into the game. Miller cashed in a pass from last year’s playoff phenom Chris Kreider, and beat Islanders goalie Evgeni Nabokov, to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead. The Rangers dominated the period and got on the board again , with a goal from Marian Gaborik---his team-leading sixth of the season at 14:04 of the first period.
It looked as though this one was going to be a romp, however John Tavares made it a 1 goal game with his 5th at 11:13 of the second period.
The third period would be Miller Time , when JT Miller scored a tone setting goal with 1:49 to play in the second period which provided the Blueshirts a 3-1 lead. Ryan McDonagh got an empty netter to clinch the 4-1 win.
Who would have predicted JT Millers 2 goals in his garden debut ? Any thoughts on tomorrow’s snow ??
Thursday, February 7, 2013