When your captain, a guy making the most money in the entire NHL, simply doesnt give a shit, you will lose 9 times out of 10.? That was what we saw tonight.? Jaromir Jagr just dogged it.? From minute one, he didnt show up.? He didnt skate hard, he didnt backcheck at all, he just didnt want to work tonight.? I dont know what the hell he was thinking, but his effort, and lack of caring and attention to detail most definately had a negative effect on the entire team.? I for one cannot stand watching things like that, and to me, he should have been benched in the 3rd period.? You can call me crazy if you like, that is your perogative, but Jagr really hurt his team today.? Honestly we might have been better off if he just sat the damn game out.

The result of this game was particularly disheartening because there were two very impressive showings by two Rangers.

Henrik Lundqvist had an OUTSTANDING game.? Stopping just about everything in sight except for a slam dunk, a rebound off of a slam dunk, and rebound goal by Staal.? You cant point the finger at Henrik, who stood on his head for most of the period.? Equally Fedor Tyutin was great, though he tailed off a bit towards the end, he was still very physical and assertive, and he played the puck with confidence, and even came to the aid of one Jaromir Jagr.

The rest of the team had a terrible game with penalties and overall effort level, with of course the usual suspects not included, that would be Hollweg, Shanahan, etc.? The Rangers took 12 penalties in this game……12 freaking penalties.? If there werent offsetting penalties or the 2 goals scored, it would have been a full 24 minutes played down a man.? That is just insane.? And whats worse is im pretty sure they were down 2 men 4 times in this game (one being with an extra skater on with the empty net at the end, i believe)? 4 times down 2 men, are you freaking kidding me?? You couldnt beat a college hockey team playing that many times down 2 men, no matter how great your goalie plays.

The worst part about all this is I really cant complain about the reffing.? Honestly I thought they were pretty decent, and actually their reffing probably ended up favoring the Rangers more than the Penguins believe it or not.

Just a disgusting game to watch.

Rangers 3 Stars Of The Game

1)Henrik Lundqvist.? The king is back, he stood on his head for most of the game, and kept the Rangers in it till the very end in a game they simply did NOTHING worthy of getting a point.
2)Fedor Tyutin.? A fantastic game for the kid who is quickly becoming the Rangers best defenseman.? Fedor took the body with authority, was very heady, and didnt really hurt his team at all.
3)Brendan Shanahan.? Had a goal, almost had 2 others, but really a bit of “too little, too late” based on how the rest of the team played.

-Inferno

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That was terrible, and it starts right at the top.? Jaromir Jagr is just dogging out there.? Hes got no legs, no backchecking, no passing, NOTHING.? Hes just been terrible out there plain and simple.? The whole “As Jagr goes, so go the Rangers” saying is in full effect tonight ladies and gents.? Jagr has show me nothing for 40 straight minutes, and conversely Henrik Lundqvist is single handedly keeping the Rangers in this game.? Right now, I wouldnt be opposed to benching the entire first line.? They arent doing squat out there.? At least the second line is backchecking, the first line isnt even doing that.?

I dont like what I am seeing one bit, this would be the perfect time for a Renney rant because this team needs to be read the riot act.

-Inferno

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Listening to Sam and Joe you would have thought the Rangers played a godawful period, but I honestly thought they werent bad at all.? They had several chances but the pucks were getting blocked, deflected, shanked, etc. I thought Henrik Lundqvist and Fedor Tyutin were exceptionally sharp, particularly Tyutin who was all over the ice, and was laying people out while playing a smart game.? The kid is rapidly developing into what we thought we were getting, just without the offensive upside.? Hes been fantastic this year.

Henrik was also sparkeling making several amazing saves on Malkin, and his positioning was spot on.? The one goal he did let in was on a 5 on 3 that I really cant fault the Rangers on.? Bozo, who took the second penalty, really made the right play trying to elevate the puck into the glass and get it away from the front of the net, he just shot it too high, I can live with that.

I dont think it was as bad as the announcers made it out to be.? They may have only had 4 shots on goal, but the sheer amount of pucks that have been deflected tell a different story.

-Inferno

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