Postgame Reactions - Rangers vs. Coyotes 1/30

Coyotes 3, Rangers 2

• With tonight's final, the Rangers are guaranteed to finish January with a losing record.
• Michael Del Zotto was brutal tonight.  He played just 3:04 in the first period, but was on the ice for all 3 goals against and is now a minus-18 on the season.
• I've been writing it since the beginning of this blog...Del Zotto and Girardi should not be playing together.  DZ-Rozsival, Staal-Girardi.  They play that way sometimes, but it should be permanent.
• The Rangers allowed far too many odd man rushes; completely inexcusable, especially since they weren't generating any offense.  I think they allowed more odd man rushes than they took shots on goal in the first period...unacceptable.
• As I said after his first appearance, Chad Johnson is not an NHL goalie right now.  He's the best option we have in the system, but he's just not ready yet.  The third goal, a high slap shot through a couple of screens, was a tough one.  He needs to stop one of the first 2 though.
• Christopher Higgins had one of his better games, but he still needs work on hitting the net with his shots.
• Ryan Callahan...9 hits...WOW!
• Marc Staal had a very strong game, and did a great job of going in deep and creating offense down the stretch as the Rangers tried for the tying goal.
• Michal Rozsival was whistled for 3 penalties.  At least 2 of them looked very soft, including the final penalty of the game, where Prucha skated right into Rozsival's stick and did some Academy Award-worthy acting.  Stephane Auger has always been one of my least favorite officials, even before the Borrows incident, and it was clear why tonight.  Piss poor officiating.

My question for this team after tonight...what happened that they finally had energy in the third period?  The Rangers were a completely different team in the third, and even more so after they scored their first goal.  The Coyotes were lucky to hang on, but the Rangers put themselves in a bad position by playing a piss poor first period and mediocre second.  Hopefully the intensity they played with in the third will carry over to tomorrow night.