Rangers Win Opener

The NHL sent the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning all the way to Prague to open up the season. After selling the game so successfully in the United States to its hundreds of fans by broadcasting their games on the top-rated Golf Channel and putting a team in every warm-weather palooka town they could find, the league wants to showcase their product in Europe. The festivities started with an orange-haired Czech opera singer belting out a mean and scary version of the National Anthem. It sounded more like a threat than a song. As for the game, goalies Henrik Lundqvist and Mike Smith put on a show for the Czech faithful, with the Blueshirts finally skating off with a 2-1 victory.

The Rangers did well in every aspect of the game except one: scoring goals. They had no trouble getting shots off or creating opportunities but had problems finishing all night (afternoon?). New York dominated the game, with most of the action taking place in Tampa Bay’s zone. The Rangers peppered Smith with 41 shots while the Lightning were held to 21. Though Lundqvist had a lot of down-time during the game (he kept a Sports Illustrated on top of the net to keep himself occupied), the saves he did make were of the spectacular variety. Tampa Bay didn’t have a lot of scoring opportunities but the ones they did have were quality ones. And at the other end, Smith was just as stellar.

After a scoreless first, the Rangers finally got on the board when Markus Naslund netted his first goal at the 18:09 mark of the second. He took a nifty pass from Scott Gomez, who flipped the puck over two Lightning sticks to Naslund, who ripped it by Smith. Welcome to New York, Markus (or Prague, or wherever). Martin St. Louis tied the game four minutes into the third, but Brandon Dubinsky got the game-winner on a power-play goal with just over five minutes left to play (with Dan Girardi and Paul Mara picking up assists).

Tom Renney rolled out the same four lines he had been using the last few games: Drury/Gomez/Naslund; Zherdev/Dubinsky/Dawes; Callahan/Korpikoski/Prucha; Orr/Betts/Voros. Though the coach let Czech natives Prucha (with the first line) and Rozsival start the game. The offense had trouble scoring last season, in preseason and they were right back at it in this game. They did create chance after chance with effective forechecking and by consistently going to the net. Maybe Smith just had a great game, and the scoring will come. Last year’s ineffecive power play carried over to this game also. They were 0 for 6 until Dubinsky lit the lamp toward the end of the game. Renney pretty much used his first two lines intact (and occasionally throwing in the third line). They did have a more traditional power play, with a man in front screening the goalie and ready for a rebound, instead of the dipsy-doodling of the Jaromir Jagr era.

Besides only scoring two goals, the Rangers looked good. They controlled the puck, kept the game in their offensive zone, controlled the neutral zone, gave Tampa Bay few scoring opportunities (the Lightning only had three shots in the second period) and Lundqvist was on top of his game. The game wasn’t particularly physical, and unfortunately, there were no fights. But hey, the Rangers are now in first place.