Tale of Two Nights

The Rangers looked pretty impressive against the Devils the other night, but tonight's game against the Flyers was a whole different story. We were all looking forward to the debuts of Jagr, Gomez, and Drury, but what we weren't hoping for was a showcase of how much the Flyers improved their lineup. With most of Philadelphia's starters in the lineup, the Flyers pressured the Rangers all night long... causing turnover after turnover... goal after goal. It is only the preseason and their were still a lot of rookies in the lineup, so I wouldn't look too much into this game.

Here are some of the things that I noticed. Nigel Dawes looked very good throughout the game. He made at least three phenomenal passes to set up point blank scoring chances by his teammates. He also had a few scoring chances of his own, but he could not finish. Gomez and Jagr weren't as dominating as they had been in practice, but it was clear that they will get a lot scoring chances strictly from their speed on the ice. I must say that it was quite weird not to see the usual Jagr/Nylander puck possession game on the ice. Prucha looked just as energetic as he has been in practice and played very well with Drury, who sacrifices his body on shots just as much as Ortmeyer used to. Hossa looked pretty much useless, as he often does some nights. The bottem two lines of Korpikoski, Betts, Jessiman, Byers, Smith, and Orr were pretty much invisible and outplayed by the Flyers bottom two lines. The Rangers defense was like swiss cheese as all six of them made terrible plays the whole night. Mara started the evening off with a point blank giveaway in his own zone. Lundqvist looked fine, but he just didn't have support from his D.