A Brief Review of the First 5 Games for the Rangers

The Rangers 2011-12 season has begun and here is a brief review on the first 5 games of the campaign and some thoughts about the renovated MSG.

Well, the first 5 games have been a roller coaster ride so far and a trip through 3 countries for the Rangers. It was tough to watch the first 2 as they were played in the middle of the day in Europe, but I saw enough highlights to realize that they had to scratch and claw their way to 2 tough points in losing to the Kings in OT and the Ducks in a shootout. They then made their way back to the US and lost a rivalry game to the Isles in which John Tavares scored a hat trick against them.

This long season opening trip continued next in Vancouver, where they had not won a game in 14 years. The last time before Tuesday nights win, Gretzky was a Ranger, and Messier was in Vancouver. That all changed when they scored 4 times in the 3rd and Lundqvist was superb in net shutting out the Canucks with a ton of amazing saves. What I took out of that period was that I thought this was a stepping stone to improved play by the team.

Last night, they headed to another house of horrors for them as they faced the Calgary Flames and played a solid game in winning 3-2 with .5 seconds left in OT as McDonagh scored off a rebound shot off the boards to give them a 2-1-2 record after 5 games. In the game, the Rangers ended an 0-fer Power Play goal slump when Gaborik scored in the first period, and that meant that every team in the NHL had now scored at least 1 PPG. They also added their 1st SHG of the year as well when Prust scored in the first.

Some of the bright spots so far are Gaborik, who seems to be revitalized playing with Richards, who just has fit in nicely with this team after coming over as a free agent over the summer. Of course Lundqvist has been the biggest star of the team so far, playing just amazing goal, allowing the Rangers a chance to win every game. Despite the fact that Staal and Sauer have not played yet, the D has played decently at times, but there are still improvements to be made.

On the other player front, Wolski is supposed to suit up tomorrow night for his first action of the year, but my suggestion to him is try to play your best or else you could be riding the bench a ton. As far as Avery goes, he went down to CT and reported to the Whale and I don’t expect to see him in a NYR jersey again as his salary is now off the Rangers payroll and opened up some more space.

This marathon trip continues tomorrow night when they face Edmonton and finish it up in Winnipeg on Monday where they will be playing there for the first time in over 15 years and at long last, their home opener comes next Thursday as they host the Maple Leafs which will begin a long 6 game homestand at the renovated, overpriced MSG.

Just a commentary on the MSG renovation: while they may make it a nicer place to see an event, the truth is that they are gouging the fans for everything they can get while catering to the corporations and the rich. As a former season ticket holder for the Rangers, I realized that I could no longer to afford to go to games as the prices continued to increase year after year and I feel for the people who have tickets in the upper sections of the arena since I think that after the upper level renovation is completed after this season, they will be hit with increased ticket prices and most likely force even more people out. I expect the Garden to have more empty seats in a regular basis going forward due to this fact. I was shocked to see this when I got an email from the Garden about single game seats for sale; I went out to the Ticketmaster site to check out how much they would cost and could not believe what I saw. I picked a game and wanted to see what 2 seats would go for in the 400′s. Get this, with all the fees, each seat cost $62.55 each, meaning that just to walk into the building would cost nearly $125 and let’s not forget about the additional $$ on other items while at the game. I always wanted to take my son to a game, but I feel that I can no longer afford to do it, so I’d like to thank MSG for making a potential bonding experience with my child almost unattainable due to high prices.

On that note, I want to finish up with that with the improved play over the last couple of games that I think they may have turned the corner on their slow start, so until the next time, your NYR blogger,

Howie