Mitchy moo
05-05-2007, 06:04 AM
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Understand, this game was not stolen from the Rangers, no matter how close they came to escaping with the series lead after Martin Straka scored at 16:41 of the third to break a scoreless tie. The Blueshirts were sloppy and a step or two slow against a Buffalo squad that played uptight hockey nearly all night and were there for the taking.
"We're not going to win too many playing our 'B' game," Tom Renney said, echoing the message he delivered to the team moments after it had ended. "If we give an opportunity like this the next time to our opponent, the series is over."
Even with their "B" game, even with a dysfunctional power play that was 0-for-7 including an opportunity in the first minute of the OT - and why in the world has Brendan Shanahan rejoined the first unit with Jaromir Jagr? - the Rangers could have won it. But they didn't, in large measure because of an unforced Fedor Tyutin icing that brought the puck back into the defensive right-wing circle for a faceoff with 16.2 seconds to go.
The Rangers overcame three icings in the final minute of Game 4 to win that one, barely. They should have learned. They didn't. And they paid the ultimate price when Big Moment Drury converted.
"It's not easy to overcome this," said Jagr, who lashed out at Dainius Zubrus after taking a knee-on-knee hit in the final minute of the second period and was limping afterward. "But somehow we have to forget it."
Understand, this game was not stolen from the Rangers, no matter how close they came to escaping with the series lead after Martin Straka scored at 16:41 of the third to break a scoreless tie. The Blueshirts were sloppy and a step or two slow against a Buffalo squad that played uptight hockey nearly all night and were there for the taking.
"We're not going to win too many playing our 'B' game," Tom Renney said, echoing the message he delivered to the team moments after it had ended. "If we give an opportunity like this the next time to our opponent, the series is over."
Even with their "B" game, even with a dysfunctional power play that was 0-for-7 including an opportunity in the first minute of the OT - and why in the world has Brendan Shanahan rejoined the first unit with Jaromir Jagr? - the Rangers could have won it. But they didn't, in large measure because of an unforced Fedor Tyutin icing that brought the puck back into the defensive right-wing circle for a faceoff with 16.2 seconds to go.
The Rangers overcame three icings in the final minute of Game 4 to win that one, barely. They should have learned. They didn't. And they paid the ultimate price when Big Moment Drury converted.
"It's not easy to overcome this," said Jagr, who lashed out at Dainius Zubrus after taking a knee-on-knee hit in the final minute of the second period and was limping afterward. "But somehow we have to forget it."