… The Rangers opened their pre-season schedule with a 4-3 OT win over the Devils on Thursday. They followed that up with a 5-4 OT win in New Jersey, a game that included this exciting Kovalchuk/Avery drama (yawn). Yes, Slats, lets reinforce the Boynton precedent and go after the real scourge of today’s game: innocuous hand gestures.
… The official site is lifting up Michael Del Zotto for his four point “outburst” last night, wrapping up the company-line piece with “Should Del Zotto be in the lineup again on Sunday, one can only surmise that he will aim for a better start than the one he had on Saturday. But it’s a sure bet he’ll take a similar outcome.” Dontcha know!
… Unfortunately for the Rangers’ scribe, it doesn’t look like Del Zotto will be in. The official site has their lineup here (PDF, annoyingly). Our favorite delinquent son, Sean Avery, will be suited up. Should be fun.
… Dunno which of the two goalies listed will start, but Biron may be a good guess.
… The Wings are coming off a 4-2 loss to the Blackhawks last night. It turned out that we were able to have the game on in the background for most of it, so I saw more than I expected to see.
It seemed like every time I looked over, Osgood was making a big save. The one that stands out in my mind was that play that involved Smith being pressured by Hawk forecheckers, panicking a little, trying to turn back toward the boards rather than going behind the net, and wiping out, losing the puck off his stick. The puck ended up in the slot where a Blackhawk had a major scoring chance, but Osgood turned it aside. From my perspective, it seemed like he was doing stuff like that much of the night.
So as it looked like the Wings were going to lose the game, I had a defense of Oz writing itself in my head. Then he gave up the Hossa shorthanded goal. It doesn’t wipe away the rest of the night, but it was poor timing, as the Wings had just gotten within one and were poised to stage a comeback.
But that said, Osgood’s play last night was of a quality that would have given the full Red Wings a chance to win. As it was, the B-team didn’t have the offensive horsepower to crack the high, high ceiling of, uh, 2 goals. If Osgood plays like that in his starts this season, the Wings will be getting very good work out of their backup. And he might even be able to step in on a more regular basis if he plays at that level, should the need arise.
… Other observations on last night:
- Kindl’s surprising me. I didn’t think he was ready for NHL action, but he’s looking better each time I see him. I now think he’s an actual threat to take Ericsson’s job.
- That’s because Jonny hasn’t gotten any better at all. He’s in serious danger, I think, to be the 7th defenseman if he doesn’t pick it up.
- Smith had that one gaffe and didn’t look all that great overall, with one exception that I saw: that final power play where he and Kindl were on the point. I thought we got a great preview of his future contributions to the team right there. By the way, he got hung out to dry by Stuart on the Hossa goal. Sucks.
- Fil seemed strong.
… No official word on the lineup for tonight, but it’s going to be the A-team, with maybe a couple changes. Like Hudler and Rafalski.
… So, tonight the plan is to watch the game on DVR since we have other stuff going on when it starts. No tweeting the game again. Sorry!