The Rangers had been riding a massive seven game win streak coming into Monday’s game against the Sharks. Had they won the game, the eight-game win streak would have been the Rangers’ longest since 1975. Instead, they got decimated by San Jose.
There were a couple good things to take from the game. The Rangers actually opened up the game with the first two goals. Michael Del Zotto continued his hot play by scoring his fourth goal of the season on the power play. The rookie defenseman has accumulated four goals and five assists in nine games. Amazingly, that’s good enough for the third highest point total on the Rangers behind newcomers Marian Gaborik (12) and Vaclav Prospal (11). Del Zotto seems to have cemented his spot on the first power play unit.
Unfortunately, backup netminder Steve Valiquette played like Swiss cheese and gave up five goals on 18 shots. The Rangers allowed the Sharks to score six unanswered goals until finally putting up a meaningless goal with less than three minutes left.
John Tortorella was asked which aspects of the Rangers’ game caused the loss and he simply replied, “Penalties.” Wade Redden and Marian Gaborik were both called for penalties which resulted in two Sharks’ power play goals. Sean Avery racked up two minor penalties and Brashear sat in the box for two minutes even though he only played 6:05 in the game. The Rangers had 14 penalty minutes as a team.
Tags: hockey, michael del zotto, new york rangers, NHL, san jose sharks
