October 5th.

It was supposed to be a great day. A day we see the rebuilt Rangers start their bid for a Stanley Cup. Things looked great from the off-season acquisitions and preseason play. The garden was electric last night….especially for #22 coming home and onto the Garden ice for the first time. But the Av’s came to town and spoiled the fun.

I won’t over-react too much here since it’s only game one of the season, but the game I think can be broken down into the famous movie title: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

The Good: First and foremost, Mika Zibanejad. The guy scored both goals for the Rangers, and they we’re both great. Fantastic positioning on the first goal to be open on an absolute scramble in front of the net; and the second goal was an ROCKET from the point. That contract that he signed looks like it will be paying off, and we may finally have a nice 1st line Center. Second, Kevin Shattenkirk and the Rangers Power Play. Shatty assisted on the 1st goal to Z with a great pass from the top of the circles and had some fantastic vision. 1 game and 1 point for Number 22. The power play overall looked pretty good. They went 2 for 6 on the stat line, but you can tell already that this will be a weapon of the team. They got tons of shots off, and had several chances during their time a man up. Lastly, I have to give a tip of the hat to Semyon Varlamov. The guys played out of his mind. Just stood on his head all night, and gave the Av’s the win basically. Very well done by him.

The Bad: Henrik Lundquvist (cue the internet hate). I think Hank did not look good at all last night. He had bad rebound control, almost let in one that bounced over his head early in the game (which would have put Colorado up 3-0 at the time). The first goal he gave up was because he gave up a bad rebound in front of the net. He also let in a soft 3rd goal. He looked slow and his reflexes weren’t there. On the positive- we know that Hank plays much better with consistency so lets assume he fixes these few problems after playing 4-5 games in a row. Second, the odd man rushes and scoring chances in general. I swear we must of had 15 of them last night. We truly should have won this game last night 7-3 with the number of opportunities we had. I think these will be fixed in time, but again see above…Semyon Varlamov.

The Ugly: Penalties. We gave up wayyyy too many penalties last night. There was a time in the 2nd period where we took about 4 penalties in a 3 minute span. It’s unacceptable and it’s not Rangers hockey. AV needs to get the discipline figured out quick, because if we give up 7 plus penalties a night, it is going to be a long long season. Not great to see but again, all things can be worked out with 81 more games to play.

That’s all for now. It’s off to Toronto on Saturday. Tough game to play after coming off this loss but I think the Rangers will have a bounce back effort. Side Note-Expect a few more voices to be heard this year instead of just my poor writing abilities, wanted to bring in a few more fans and let them give their perspective.

LGR