While watching the final few minutes of tonights game, I was trying to come up with a nifty title to todays post game wrap. I think I’ve used the “who’s your daddy” line about 800 times when Henrik goes face to face with Uncle Daddy, and nothing else really interesting came to mind. Then I heard the phrase I chose uttered by Doc Emerick, who for all of his Devils homerisms is still one of the best in the business. He said, “A buzzer to buzzer masterpiece” and boy oh boy was he dead on. You want 60 minutes of dominating New York Rangers hockey? You got it. You want a shutout by Henrik? You got it. You want 3 goals scored by 3 home grown kids? You got it. You want a playoff atmosphere? You got it. You want a crowd into the game? You got it.

It was, quite simply put, a flawless victory for the Rangers. Even the Power Play, which didn’t get on the board, did a lot of great things out there, generating some very good scoring chances. The PK was flawless, the defensive coverage was flawless, the offensive zone coverage was flawless. I literally can’t think of a single thing to nitpick. So, I will change the subject to something more interesting. Sean Avery.

The story line heading into this, by the not so original media, was the Sean Avery VS Uncle Daddy back story, really to me this isn’t the focus of the game, it’s whether or not the other team is smart enough to ignore Sean, and turn him from an elite player, to just a good average player, by taking him out of the game because you completely ignored his antics. Instead the Devils kept running him, kept getting baited into penalties, kept focusing on him, instead of the players around him. And it cost them. Apparently they haven’t got the message, Superman’s only weakness is Kryptonite. Sean Avery laughs at Superman for having a weakness.

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It’s a very difficult task of defeating a team with Malkin, Crosby, Guerin, etc. It is extremely difficult to beat that team in their own building. It is next to impossible to beat that team when the game is called 1-sided. Most of the calls they made against the Rangers were…tolerable. Some were borderline, some were blatant, so whatever, you take the bad with the good, and trust that it will even out. Instead the Rangers get called for an unbelievable 5 minute major on what looked like a completely clean hit….a 5 minute major for interference?! Holy crap are you freaking kidding me? Amazingly the Rangers were able to kill off all the power plays against, but they took their toll, the Rangers simply could not contend with that much pressure against, and eventually a crack opened up, Sidney Crosby plowed right through it and scored.

I can almost deal with the bad calls, I can almost deal with the horrific major call. But what really pisses me off were the sheer volume of noncalls that the Rangers got on their end. How many freaking times were we pulled down, interfered with, tripped, etc and there was just no call at all? Avery must have been knocked down 5 times nowhere near the puck, no calls whatsoever. Antropov skated by a guy, lightly bumped him, he goes flying, penalty. Please. Speaking of Antropov, he was tripped up, right in front of the ref, no call. 30 seconds later Dubinsky is standing alone in front of the net, guy wraps two hands around him and hauls him down, no call. Zherdev gets tripped up, no call.

That is what pissed me off. If youre going to call a shit game, at least call it both ways. Don’t just screw over one team. That team is way too good, and way too tough to beat as it is, but reffing the game this way makes it more or less impossible.

I give the Rangers a lot of credit for hanging in there, and playing well, I though Henrik played quite well myself, despite what some idiots out there are saying. The 4 goals he gave up, 3 were on breakaways or odd man rushes, one of which was a deflected shot, and the 4th goal was one where he made the first save, made a rebound save, and then finally the 3rd whack at it went up and over him. He stopped Crosby point blank about 3 times, and was under constant siege. While MAF made the best save of the game, on Antropov as time was winding down, Henrik was under way more pressure than him. It is sheer stupidity the way people are blaming Henrik for this loss. You people need to wake the hell up and understand that if you are expecting you goalie to stop every breakaway, to stop every odd man rush, to stop 1, 2, 3, 4 shots in a row point blank, then no goalie in the history of the game will stand up to that test. Henrik was there, and made the saves we need him to, we just couldnt get over 1)the slow start, and 2)the abysmal reffing.

I am not disappointed in the team tonight, I am angry at the hockey world, I feel like we have our backs against the wall, with everyone on all sides trying to screw us. I hope the Rangers feel that way too, because I want to see them come out and shove it down the Devils throats Monday night.

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“Yeah, I thought we sucked,” Tortorella said. “Right on through the game. I think we’re fortunate to get a point, very fortunate to get that.”

The follow-up was about Rangers players saying how hard it is to flick a switch - they started poorly in the first period and, even when they were up 4-1.

“I don’t give a &*$#(@ what the guys talked about,” Tortorella said. “We sucked.”

Upon reaching my car shortly after watching tonights debacle, having not said much of anything all night long, I turned to my brother and uttered two words to him. “We sucked”.

It appears John Tortorella shared my opinion on the horrific performance we saw tonight. Sure, it’s easy to look at 4 goals scored, to look at 2 softies by Vally and just put the entire blame on him. It’s easy, but it’s not really the entire story.

Yes, if Henrik Lundqvist was in net tonight, I have zero doubts whatsoever we take home 2 points. Henrik does not give up Kovalchuks wrap around, he does not give up the softy from behind the net to…White (I think), and he probably does not give up the 4th goal either on the nice set up from Kovalchuk from behind the net. With that said, the Rangers should have not given up half those chances, they should have scored a helluva lot more than 4, they should have absolutely buried a Thrashers team that did not play well at all.

We were perpetually on the power play, but we kept taking stupid brain dead penalties to nullify them…and by we I mean Alternate Captain Markus Naslund who is really getting a lot of my ire lately with his mediocre at best play (goal notwithstanding). Naslund was the one who jumped on the ice inexplicably to nullify a 5 on effing 3 power play, and he took a lazy penalty (I want to say a hook) that killed what would have been a long double minor power play. Naslund was an abomination in this game, and it really wasnt just him. Zherdev was nowhere to be found, except when the puck magically found his stick and he put in an easy one. He had turnover after turnover, and did nothing noteworthy with his time out there. Dubinsky…don’t even get me started on him. At least he usually hits, attacks the puck, causes turnovers, carries the puck up ice. Where the hell was Dubi tonight? Dont effing ask me.

This loss was on the entire team. Vally cost them a regulation win, but he stopped 5 in a row during the shootout, his teammates werent able to finish it off when he picked them up, and he wasnt able to finish it off when his teammates picked him up during regulation.

This was just a clusterf***. Plain and simple. And Torts made sure the guys knew about it.

The only good moment in tonights disaster was when I caught a shirt from the shirt canon aimed right at my chest. The Thrashers mascot saw me wearing the Rangers jersey, aimed his canon right at my chest (granted about 100 feet away), and blasted away. I caught it. BOOYAH

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The genius about tonights win is that it was John Tortorella, essentially, defeating Tom Renney. I know, it may be a bit of a stretch, but really, Jacques Lemaire was playing Tom Renney hockey before Tom Renney knew what Tom Renney hockey was. The unfortunate thing though, is that Lemaire dictated how todays game was going to be played. Despite Tortorellas brilliant system, the Rangers were bogged down by a disgusting display of defensive hockey that makes you want to throw up…or possibly sleep….or maybe throw up, in your sleep. Regardless though, the Rangers scored 2 goals directly off of forecheck pressure because they did not vacate the zone, instead going in and keeping the puck. Under Lemaire, and Renney, this does not happen. However, because of that style of hockey, you are able to stay in just about every game (unless its just a lopsided blowout) which did happen tonight. The Wild, despite being grossly outplayed for 95% of the game, were only a goal down, and that ended up being the final score.

Is anyone else surprised that Marian Gaborik wants to get out of Minnesota so desperately? I can’t blame him, who the hell would want to spend their career playing that kind of hockey…unless you are getting grossly overpaid like Drury, Gomez, or Redden. I still stand by my assertion that the Rangers should have done whatever it took to get rid of one of those contracts at the deadline, and go and acquire Gaborik for the stretch run. That’s a guy who would excel in this kind of a system.

Anyone else feel bad for Henrik when he gave up that early goal against the Wild and saw his save percentage fall to like .833 just because the Rangers did such a great job of keeping the Wild away from getting shots on goal? What…just me? Well, at least he finished with a .947 save percentage for the game, so all is not lost.

The funny thing about this game though, was that despite it “technically” being a nailbiter, I never really felt like we would lose this. I felt it would be close, but it didn’t cross my mind, even for a second, that we would lose. Either I am getting cocky, or I just believe in this team way more than I ever thought possible.

Next game is against the Thrashers. I’m going to see if I can get some free tix since I can’t really afford to be spending money on hockey tickets right now. Hopefully I will be able to put some post game thoughts after being their live. I only get to see the team twice a year, so it would be a shame to lose that opportunity.

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This is going to be short, because there really isn’t much to discuss tonight. The Rangers lost because they had nothing in the tank today. They looked exhausted from the drop of the puck on. They looked a step slow, and not from a lack of effort. This style will wear you out, especially in back to backs that are all playoff intensity like this. I cringed when I saw just how tired the boys looked out there. They tried, they really did, but sadly sometimes you just are exhausted.

Get your rest, go back and win against the Wild. This was a tough loss to swallow, but we gotta buckle down and keep our heads up.

Ok, I myself am exhausted right now, so that will be it. I apologize for my brevity tonight.

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When you’re hot, you’re hot. That’s all there is to say about this team. Right now they are playing as confidently as any team in the league, and its showing. Even tonight, in a game where the really weren’t as sharp as they should have been, they still were the better team. Now don’t get me wrong, they didn’t just half ass a win here, like they’ve done oh-so-many times under Renney. No, we definitely deserved the 2 points, but we weren’t at the top of our game either.

I think that’s one thing you really have to take away from this team. We are trending upwards, and we still haven’t hit our apex yet. I still have yet to see the Rangers play at their absolute best for a game. Their best effort might have been against the Hurricanes in their loss, but regardless they played more than well enough to win tonight, and continue to look like a team poised to do some damage in the playoffs.

Of course getting to the playoffs is the first step, and the Rangers just did themselves a world of a favor by winning, in regulation, against the Sabres, while getting some help by a major choke job courtesy of the Panthers.

Remember, right now the 2 teams that can theoretically push the Rangers out of the playoffs are the Panthers and the Sabres, other than that, its just jostling for positioning. But to me the first step has to be to get in, then you worry about positioning. Right now, by my calculations the magic number to eliminate Florida is 17 (without having to worry about tiebreakers) and for the Sabres it is 13 points. Rangers have 10 games remaining to get that, so it’s not a foregone conclusion that we are in, not by any stretch of the imagination, but we got quite a bit closer tonight, getting 4 point swings against both teams.

What really stood out tonight though was the Rangers ability to bend, but not break. They gave up some goals, they weren’t sharp at the beginning or at the end, but everytime they seemed to bend a little, they snapped back into place with a clutch play, or a goal, or a penalty kill or what not. Henrik wasn’t elite, but he wasn’t awful either. I thought he had a very good game. He probably could have stopped one or two of those goals, but they weren’t softies, they were just goals I have seen Henrik stop at various times throughout the year. (The final 2)

That’s all for now. HUGE game tomorrow night against the red hot and extremely talented Ottawa Senators. I sure as hell hope Torts is getting his team prepared for this one, the Senators are a very strong team right now, and I would treat this as a playoff game as well. No gimme here, for sure.

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Every once in a while you need to bail your goalie out. Henrik is usually great out there, but today, he wasn’t. I thought the Kovalev goal should have been stopped (he was in position, just didnt stop it), I thought the Lapierre goal should have been stopped (Henrik was distracted by Callahan instead of being focused on the play) and the goal by Markov was just atrocious with no explanation required. With that said, the Rangers, who seemingly are bailed out by their goalie every other game, finally were able to bail him out. Im sure Henrik was pretty happy at that. It’s not often he isn’t perfect and we still win. This is a testament to this new system. While we may not have had Henrik there to bail us out, we had our forwards creating immense pressure on a defense that wilted under said pressure. Honest, if not for Carey Price playing a pretty spectacular game himself between the pipes, we could have netted a few more easily.

Regardless, while this may have been a shootout win, it definitely had the feel of a “justice” win, where the team that deserved to win, did win.

Another thing became very apparent to me while watching this game. We might have the best top 6 defenseman in the East, if not the NHL right now. Seriously, did you see those guys out there? They are playing damn near flawless hockey on nearly a nightly basis. Even Wade the pariah Redden has played superb hockey for the most part under Tortorella (don’t boo the guy when he gets points, thats just retarded). As a group though they seem to compliment each other very well. Their styles are similar, but different enough to bring an all around effectiveness thats hard to match in the east, if not the NHL. We are mobile, we are smart, we are somewhat physical, and we are relatively young. The only thing we aren’t, is deep. But with the 6 we have, it’s not tough to see why we lack so much depth. Also, Marc Staal just continues to grow as the most dominant defenseman in our lineup, and possibly the most underrated defenseman in the entire NHL. Did you see the play where he steals the puck from Koivu, skates around 2 guys, head up the entire way, and passed the puck up to Korpedo? Jesus Christ, this kid is only 22 years old!!! Imagine how he will be when he hits 27, the prime of an NHL defensemans career. Sheesh.

We now sit in the #6 spot with pretty firm footing from here on out. The Sabres don’t have Ryan Miller and it shows, the Panthers don’t have Horton and McCabe, and it shows as well. Those are the only teams that can leap frog us and into the playoffs, and for that to happen, a lot has to go wrong. With the way the Rangers have played (imho they probably only deserve 1 loss since Torts has come here), I can honestly say I’ve never felt stronger about this team, NEVER, in the past 12 years. That’s saying a lot. If we can avoid playing the Devils and Bruins in the first round, I really like our chances.

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Two games both starting at roughly the same time. 2 games against the same opponent, 2 games that looked almost identical to each other. Really it’s hard to distinguish what the Rangers did different today versus yesterday. Really, I think it all comes down to Martin Biron standing on his effing head yesterday stealing a Rangers win (or at least 1 point) away from the Rangers with spectacular save after spectacular save. Whereas today Niitymaki who was certainly not at fault today, wasn’t able to steal one for the Flyers. I think in the end the Rangers were the better team in both games, and I really think we have been the better team in every game except against the Bruins (even) and against the Canes (they were better). That’s a very good thing when you consider the level of the competition we have faced of late, and will have to face in the days coming ahead.

I also have to admit the Rangers getting power play after power play (and most importantly converting on them) was also a stark difference in the 2 games. Rangers took too many penalties yesterday, but had just the opposite happen to them today.

I was pleased to see Sean Avery get 2 goals, scoring his 4th in 3 games by my count. The guy should never have left, and it bring me to an ear to ear smile just seeing him out there in Ranger blue. This guy should retire a Ranger.

Ok, that’s all for now, still recovering from surgery, should be much better by next week.

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This is going to be another super short one, as I try to recover from my surgery. Staring at a computer screen only makes it worse, hence why you havent/wont see me on any of the boards the last few, and next few days. Anyways, I felt this game was a lot more even than the score indicated. The real story here was Marty Biron who absolutely stood on his head today. This wasn’t a bogus standing on your head either, this was a guy flat out robbing us of at least 1 point. Zherdev stopped twice on the doorstep. Drury stopped off a 10 foot blast from in front, chance after chance after chance turned aside. Rangers probably deserved better, but you make your own luck. Gotta keep pushing, I still believe in this club. Don’t give up hope.

Ok, thats all for now, my eyes are already starting to kill me in just this short paragraphs worth of work. My hope is that in 5-10 days I will be back at the computer w/o restrictions. Cross your fingers!

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I apologize if the spelling or what not is really bad in tonights post game wrap. I had surgery on one of my eyes the otehr day, and it makes looking at a computer screen next to impossbiel (I was only able to watch the game with an eyepatch on). Anyway, tonights game was a very interesting game. The Rangers played like absolute crap coming out of the gate. In the first period they were slower, less aggressive, less interested in paying the price it takes to make a play…less EVERYTHING than the Predators…and it wasn’t as if the Preds played an amazing game or anything, they looked ok out there, nothing special.

But then Torts apparently tore the Rangers a new one between the first and second periods. He got his guys to understand that you need to be accountable out there for what you do. He sat Nikolai Zherdev for what he thought was indifferent play, and he gave the most ice time to the guys who went out there and earned it. In a truly remarkable twist of fate, Torts’ go to guy was Sean Avery, a guy he once said “embarrassed the league”. I love how Torts runs his bench, and even though I am a huge fan of Zherdev, all the people who are saying that Torts may lose Zherdev if he benches him often, all I can say to that is….well, if the choice is Tortorella or Zherdev, I am choosing Torts every day of the week. Great coaches don’t grow on trees. We have one of the best in the business, and you need to give him what he needs to make his game happen. And if that means Zherdev has to go, then so be it.

Ok, that’s all for now, I’m in a lot of pain, and am about to take some Vicodin, I hope that helps. See you guys on Saturday.

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