It was a great effort from just about everyone on the ice to beat the Rangers last night. It was a slow start with Dan Ellis giving up a goal on the first shot of the game for the second time in as many games. He made up for it, though with a sprawling save on Brandon Dubinsky that turned the play the other way for Bobby Ryan to score a great goal in the third period.
The best part of the victory was seeing how much the Ducks were going to the front of the net. Whether it was driving the puck in off the walls, battling for rebounds or screening Henrik Lundqvist someone, especially Corey Perry, was almost always at the top of the crease.
On the other side of the puck, the Rangers shocked me with their soft defense. John Tortorella must not have been very happy when the game was over, because the Ducks walked right around and passed right through New York defensemen all night long. Meanwhile, the Ducks’ physical presence came in the form of Luca Sbisa celebrating his new four year contract and 100th NHL game with a couple of crushing body checks.
I was unusually impressed with was Dan Sexton. Over the course of this season I have been slowly but surely falling out of love with Big Sexy for one reason: he never seems to be able to shoot the puck on net. In this game he had some great forechecking shifts and a couple of shots right on Henrik Lundqvist, but just for good measure he had to throw in his patented streak in on the right wing and wrist one off the high glass from the top of the circles play.
Yesterday I suggested that Koivu sit out one extra game to make sure the groin is completely healed, and apparently that extra game was Sunday’s tilt against Vancouver, because he looked fantastic. There was one moment where he looked to be hopping over the boards somewhat gingerly, but it wasn’t evident in his play at all. In fact he made my favorite play of the night, of which there seems to be no isolated highlight, where he flipped a nasty little saucer pass to Teemu in full stride at the faceoff dot. The puck didn’t go in, but it was an exhibition of why those two work so well together.
Another correction from yesterday, I said that the Ducks would make their way into the eight seed with a win over the Rangers, but that didn’t quite take into account the Kings beating the (good for nothing) Red Wings and a miscalculation of games played. As such, the Ducks currently sit in tenth, two points behind Phoenix who holds down the final playoff spot.
As a parting shot, I guess I’ll weigh in on the Zdeno Chara hit on Max Pacioretty, even though it is the same as most other reasonable hockey people and the NHL. It was a hockey play gone horribly, horribly wrong. It was interference and unfortunately Pacioretty ended up face first in the glass between the benches, causing a severe concussion and a broken vertebra. The way I see it, the NHL couldn’t suspend Chara any more than they could suspend Shane Doan for hitting Ryan Getzlaf in the face with a shot. I’m not trivializing the injury at all, but the fact of the matter is that hockey is a very dangerous game and shit happens.
Best wishes to Pacioretty on his recovery.
District 5 Hockey 