Rangers @ Islanders 1st Period Thoughts

Rangers 2 Islanders 0

It's no secret that the Rangers have struggled against the Islanders this season, so, whats the best thing the Rangers could have done? It's exactly what they did, score less than two minutes into the game. Brendan Shanahan made a fantastic play, knowing a penalty was coming the Rangers way and just hung near the Islanders blue line. The Islanders got lazy thinking they were going to just touch the puck but Dawes made a brilliant pass to the savvy vet who scored easily on a breakaway with nobody within 50 feet.

The Rangers second goal was just as nice with just as bad defense by the Isles. Malik decided against turning it over for once and made a great pass to Avery who made a perfect deflection to get it past Dubie-whatever. This made up for Avery's miss of the wide-open net before in the period when he somehow hit the post.

Overall it was a very good period played by the Rangers, with 2 players in particular playing great and 1 playing not so good. Henrik played very well it was just what he needed. He didn't get much work but had to face some tough shots and made 3 or 4 real good saves. It can't be easy sitting idle for long stretches then having to face a flurry of action. Avery is the other Ranger who really stood out. He put himself in great positions to score everytime he was out there, missing a wide open net once and putting home a great deflection the second time around. He also did his usual thing and stated a few scrums after the whistle. You know your something when the crowd chants "Avery sucks" even right after he scored. It's also nice to see Avery getting some powerplay time there at the end, rewarding him for his great play of late. Backman, as usual, was the only bad player out there. Really bad. He just made awful turnovers, making his partner Staal look just as bad in the process. One turnover in particular led to a 3 minute onslought by the Islanders which took 3 great saves by Henrik to keep the puck out of the net but eventually led to the refs calling a phantom hook on Shanny.

Lastly, I'm really surprised by the amount of Ranger fans at this game. Either that or they are able to scream much louder. To Islanders fans defense...what do they really have to cheer for?

Keep it up.