Rangers Down Panthers 5-2

In an interesting twist, Michael Rosival scored 37 seconds into the game (much like Jagr did last year at the 20 second mark) on a bang-bang play from the slot. At that point, I think that a lot of Ranger fans thought that this was going to be a blowout, but that was pretty much the only good scoring chance the team got for the first two periods. Although the team did not play necessarily bad in the first period, it seemed that both teams were getting a feel for each other... which resulted in a period with very little flow of any kind. The first period ended at 1-0.

The Panthers came out in the second period and skated circles around a very slow, low energy Rangers squad. It was so tough to watch, that the fans almost booed the Ranger's players out of the building as Florida built a 2-1 lead. Think about when Nylander and Jagr used to own the puck in the offensive zone in some games and that is what was happening to the Rangers. When the second period ended, thankfully the Panthers didn't build on that lead due to Lundqvist's solid goaltending.

You could see that the dynamic of the game started to change when the teams came out in the third period. The Rangers started pressuring the younger Panthers into giveaways, but still weren't getting clean scoring chances. The big fluctuation in momentum occured at about 6 minutes into the third when Marek Malik (of all people) intercepts a Florida pass at mid-ice and counters into the offensive zone (a 3 on 2) with Callahan and Prucha to his right. Malik then fed Prucha with a beautiful backhand pass through Callahan and his man. Prucha was basically all alone to the left of the goaltender and shot the puck under Vokoun's left arm for a goal. MSG when absolutely ballistic and the whole dynamic of the game changed. All of a sudden the Rangers start pressuring Florida into horrible passes. Two minutes later, Drury scores his first off a rebound from Jagr's backhand shot... it is 3-2. Twelve seconds later (yes 12), Callahan intercepts a terrible pass by a Flordia defenseman through center ice, fakes a shot to get the defenseman out of the way and the goalie to commit... then blasts a major league wrist shot over Vokoun's left shoulder for a 4-2 lead. Straka put the game away with a knock in goal off a beautiful feed from Malik off the boards to the left of the goal. What a game!

Important things about the game that I noticed:
1) Malik had a fantastic game, with the exception of one stick-handling move into this own crease that would have put him on the first train out of gotham if it resulted in a goal against.
2) Dubinsky was plain terrible in his first game as third line center. Betts took his spot in the third period. He just couldn't get anything going.
3) Both Drury and Gomez and a difficult time meshing with their respective lines, which is pretty much to be expected. In some way, I would have hoped that there was some natural chemistry, but there clearly wasn't. Individually, each looked pretty good with Gomez darting up and down the ice with tremendous speed and Drury doing all the little things right.
4) Staal got beat a couple times and gave the puck away a couple times, but he made the right plays just as much. He should get better and better.
5) Jagr and Shanny were invisible for the whole game.
6) Prucha and Calahan were energy juggernauts. They are part of the reason why the Rangers won the game. If Dubinsky could match them, that would be quite a line.
7) Avery instigated and played well, but couldn't finish off a couple of excellent goal scoring opportunities given to him by Gomez.

Next game is Saturday @ Ottawa (7 pm). Tough matchup!