Rangers Review | Comments Off

That may have been the worst reffing job in a playoff game with the Rangers in it that I have ever seen. There have been worse screw jobs for sure out there, but my goodness, could they get any more blatant out there?

The plays within 45 seconds of each other in particular were just atrocious. First Scotty Gomez gets tripped, blatantly, in front of the ref, no call, then 15 seconds later Sean Avery gets hauled down like they were playing Rugby out there, then 15 seconds later Henrik Lundqvist has stick slashed out of his hands, again directly in front of a ref, no call, then 15 seconds later, the puck is put into the net.

Think you can’t blame refs for games? Baloney, this one had ref screw job written all over it. How on earth was there no call when Jagr slightly bumped Uncle Daddy and you see him fall over like he took a bullet to the chest, then you see him clearly take his helmet off so he gets a whistle. He noticed that the impact didnt get a whistle, so the son of a bitch takes his helmet off so that as a prone player the refs are forced within the scope of the NHL rules to blow the whistle. Uhh, hello, delay of game anyone?! Unsportsman like conduct? 5 minutes for being an epic douchebag would work for me. If that wasn’t bad enough, the ludicrous reffing actually kept going!!! Freddy Sjostrom took a crosscheck to the back that pushed him into a diving Uncle Daddy, granted Uncle Daddy got the proper 2 minutes for being a douchebag, but Sjostrom got a frigging unbelievable even up call for goaltender interference! The guy got cross checked into the goalie! What on earth is he supposed to do? If that wasn’t bad enough, Sjo took a high stick to the face seconds after the play that drew blood. 4 minute double minor on the Devils? Uhh, are you new here? Of course not, no call on the Devil perpetrator, just a slap on the back from the refs for a job well down. I havent even scratched the surface on this game fellas. There was a play with 3 successive crosschecks to the back of Ryan Callahan not 2 feet in front of the ref who was staring right at the play. No call. Scotty Gomez getting boarded not 3 feet from a ref. No call. Jagr and Dubinsky skating in on an odd man rush (it was either 2 on 1, or 2 on 2, I can’t remember at the moment), offsides. I mean, I can go on and on, but really, why bother? The squeaky wheel is getting the oil. Lou Lams cried about the reffing in game 2, Brent Sutter threw a stick onto the ice, and the league got the message, tilt the ice in their favor and hope Lou picks up a handkerchief.

The funny thing about all this bitching of mine about the reffing? We still won the friggin game. Nothing, nothing on this earth, makes you happier than shoving that bull*hit reffing right back in their frigging faces with a big fat W. The Rangers played a superb game folks. This was not a game I will complain about a lack of performance by the good guys. We played our game, and rightfully used our superior play to draw legitimate penalties that never came. The flow of this game changes drastically if the game is called correctly. This wasn’t a 5-3 super close game by the way the 2 teams played. This was a 7-1 drubbing by the Rangers that was far closer than it should have been thanks to a despicable effort by referees who should be fired on the spot.

Now, let’s get back to the actual game at hand. More specifically, the star of this game, and dare I say the series. Marc Staal. Remember a few years ago, and even last year, when everyone was saying this kid was a legitimate #1 defenseman? Folks, the #1 defenseman has arrived.

This was one of those defining games in a kids career, when he goes from just a rookie, to a superstar. Marc Staal dominated this game from start to finish. Even if you take away the fact that he scored the game winner, he was easily the #1 star in a game with 2 separate 2 goal scorers. How good was he? He was so good that if the Devils came down on him with a 5 on 1 rush, I would feel completely confident that he would break it up. Thats how friggin good he was. Odd man rushes, one on one battles, plays below the circles, penalty killing, on the rush…wherever you could think of, he stood out as a man among boys. Watching him make an end to end rush that did not score, only to have him skate all the way back and with little to no effort break up a rush against to set up another rush the other way, just shows you how spectacular this kid can be, will be, and is starting to become. Were talking about a 20 year old SHUT DOWN defenseman, who stood out as the best player on the ice. Think about that folks. He’s 20 freaking years old!!! He’s younger than my younger brother! He’s younger than the youngest friend that I have. Holy Moly, that is all I can say. I’m not impressed with this kid, I’m blown the hell away.

I give Tom Renney a lot of crap, but I am man enough to admit that he has some positives. The guy is a genius at bringing kids along so that they can stand the test of time at the NHL level (granted that is why, in my previous rants, I have said he would be better as a player personnel director or developmental director, or assistant coach).

Up 3-1, I am a lot more confident today than I was even after we went up 2-0. Why? Because for the first time all series, I can say that the Rangers played better than the Devils, and deserved the win. There you have it. Good night everyone, see you on Friday.

EDIT: One last thing. If you hate the Devils as much as I do, you need to check out this link.

Rangers Review | Comments Off