Sorry for the delay, I was hoping to see the New England Patriots get some comeuppance, but unfortunately the Giants don’t seem up to the task (I’m a 49er fan, but I hate everything Boston/New England related).
Petr Prucha with 2 goals, Jagr with 4 points, Valliquette 1 breakaway away from a shutout, Dubinsky 3 assists while playing with the flu, and even Blair Betts somehow getting a goal.
Yeah, this was a good night for the Rangers.
The funniest part though is reading some of the opinions of the Maple Leafs fans. They whine and cry and bitch and moan about everything Sean Avery does, yet they have been the beneficiary of one Darcy Tucker for a nice long while now.
Don’t get me wrong here though, I have been, and always will be a HUGE fan of Darcy Tucker. As I am of Matt Barnaby, Esa Tikkanen, and of course Sean “The Grate One” Avery. It just bugs me when fans of other teams say stuff like that when they themselves cheer a nearly identical player night in and night out.
I think to me the Rangers are like a dream machine car. Jaromir Jagr is the engine, Henrik Lundqvist is the chassis, but Sean Avery is the fuel. Take any of the 3 out, and you aren’t going very far, but if all 3 click together, watch the f*!$ out. And the rest of the league can’t be too happy with what we’ve seen the past 3 games. Because I know I have seen a Rangers team that is starting to click on all cylinders, and most importantly, the important players are all starting to (at least it appears) find their grooves. This of course starts with Jaromir Jagr, who now has 7 points in his past 2 games, with 3 goals and 4 assists. Not bad for a guy most of us wanted to see benched. It all comes down to will with Jagr. When he wants something bad enough, he is literally unstoppable. But if he kinda-sorta wants something, hes as mediocre as mediocre can get.
I give a lot of credit to Chris Drury in this game. He may not have hit the scoresheet, but he was doing all those little things which really makes a player like him near priceless to have (albeit NOT worth $7m/year). He won faceoffs, saved a goal by diving to block a shot on an empty net in the crease, and just did everything you look for from the guy. He really reminds me a lot of Charles Oakley, the former New York Knicks player. The guy never really scored a ton of points, never blocked a lot of shots, but at the end of the day, you can’t see the Knicks winning even half of their games without him in the lineup, and while Drurys assimilation into the Rangers fold has been far from pretty, you can clearly see why he was such a coveted player.
The key though is for the Rangers to keep it going, to play the Canadiens tomorrow, and not just play well, but play a phenomenal game like today. Make a statement, that the Rangers are back, and the rest of the NHL better get a change of underwear.
