Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Postgame: Devils 2 - Rangers 1
The New Jersey Devils defeated the New York Rangers by a score of 2 to 1 last night. The Devils have won their final regular season home game against the Rangers (and quite possibly their last ever home game against the Rangers in East Ruthersford) at the Continental Airlines Arena. As always, NHL.com has the official score sheet and official super stats, linked respectively.
Well, I'm late to watching this one, but I'm glad I saw it - it was a classic game with a classic finish. Since I saw it late, I'll refer you to the following for a more complete recap. I'll be brief for a change.
- Tom Lycan has the links to all the news articles recapping the game. I highly suggest you check them out first. With respect to Renney praising Sean Avery as a Ranger, I suppose Renney just admitted being a Ranger is all about being a jerk who doesn't win close games.
- Tim Mo at RaReMaDev has a more overall view of the game, focusing on how well Martin Brodeur played (and he did play very well, stopping 35 of 36 - the one goal being off a screen).
- Patricia Greuter at 2 Man Advantage has approximately 3,002 words to describe the game as a whole with respect to the Devils.
- Scott Gomez is a solid player. Brian Gionta is still out with a groin pull and Patrik Elias had to sit out due to the flu. Did that hurt Gomez' performance? If it did, no one noticed; he was flying all night long and was quite creative.
- Zach Parise took part of one of the greatest sequences of events I ever saw a hockey player do. At the start, the Rangers were swarming Brodeur trying to jam a rebound home. I believe Defense 101 says to knock any forwards attempting to do this right on their bottoms. Parise did just that to Petr Prucha with authority. The Devils then pick up the loose puck and start a fast counter-attack that leads to some key passes in the neutral zone and at the blueline right to - that's right - Zach Parise who skated like hell to get forward in open space. Parise then puts a hard shot on goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, goes after his own rebound, and just when you think the chance has gone, Parise directs the puck hard enough and with the right direction to knock it off defenseman Karel Rachunek's stick and into the net. It was easily the most impressive act of the night and arguably the most amazing goal the Devils have scored all season.
- The most impressive stat, however, is as follows:
- Jaromir Jagr, 21:41 of ice time, 0 shots on goal.
- Cam Janssen, 3:54 of ice time, 2 shots on goal.
Labels: Devils Postgame
# posted by John Fischer @ 5:02 PM 0 comments 
