Yet again the Rangers were screwed by the reffing. A goal they scored was waived off, a goal that the Sabres scored should not have counted as Biron had at least as much control of the puck as Conklin did when we scored against him in St. Louis and it was waived off. I find myself extremely angry that this continues to happen. The Rangers can not continue to have this kind of reffing go against them. It has already cost us a few points, almost cost us a point today, and if it continues could cost us a playoff spot.

The long and the short of is it this. This Rangers team isn’t talented. We don’t have the talent to go toe to toe with most teams, so we have to out work them. OK, fine. But now, we outwork the opposition, and we also have to deal with ridiculously one sided reffing. We just aren’t good enough, and there just isnt a level of hard work that is high enough that will overcome that. Sure, maybe a team like the Red Wings, or the Penguins or the Caps can overcome shoddy reffing, but this team can not. So it warrants getting extremely upset about it.

You have to feel great about Artem Anisimov scoring 2 goals, including the game winner. The dynamic Russian forward has been a bit snakebitten including missing a wide open net in St. Louis, but has played some truly excellent 2-way hockey and most definitely deserved a goal. I think that Dave Maloney is right about one thing. Eventually AA will be centering Marian Gaborik, this kid is the real deal. I foresee 30/30 seasons from the kid playing selke level defense.

That’s all, I’m so furious right now about the reffing tonight that I can barely process what I am thinking.

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You can pretty much book it that anytime either Bill McCreary or Don Van Massenhoven are reffing a Rangers game, there will be some awful calls against our beloved Blueshirts. Tonight was no difference. The Rangers essentially lost a 1 goal game. Van Massenhoven called an unbelievably bad tripping call on Christensen, and called off a goal scored by Fedotenko on a very questionable goalie interference call (there was contact, but it looked like the defenseman made the brunt of the contact with the goalie, not Fedotenko). Take away a goal, and add a goal, and you have a Rangers win.

It sickens me when crap like this happens. Don’t get me wrong, the Rangers had their chances to win it, but you hate it when you can point directly to reffing and call it the difference in the game. Sure, the Rangers could have scored on their 5 on 3. Sure, Henrik could have stopped the Erskine shot. But the long and the short of it was that the Rangers deserved to win this game based on the game that they DID play. Unfortunately Van Massenhoven had other ideas.

Thank God Gabby is only a game or 2 away.

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There was nothing there. I mean, seriously, you guys watched the game right? The Rangers had nothing to work with tonight. There were no passing lanes, no time to take a look around and make a play, no place to safely put a puck and go for a change. The Blues just absolutely suffocated the Rangers with a tenacious forecheck and some ridiculously awesome defense. I know you want to kill the Rangers for their play tonight, but I just can’t. As a fan of the game who has the benefit of watching the play from a high angle where you can see all the players on the ice, I just couldn’t see much for the Rangers to do out there. Maybe having Gabby and Prospal in there would have helped. Maybe losing Boogaard would help too since he brings absolutely nothing to this team. But honestly, tonight I am just going to tip my cap to a damn good defensive effort by the Blues. Amazingly if not for a blown call or a missed net the Rangers might have pulled this one out.

Hard to dissect a game that was played so flawless by the opposition. Can’t really isolate good or bad play because nobody really had time or space to make a play or screw up. So I’ll pass for tonight. Let’s bring on the Caps (*gulp*).

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After this game, all I could think of was this… I mean, come on, after years and years of the Rangers being the Devils bitches, we finally are being run semi-well and their club is floundering out of control. Now don’t get me wrong, I still think the Devils will turn their season around. I still think they make the playoffs, and I still have my doubts about if we make it or not. With that said, you can’t help but get a certain sense of undeniable happiness at the miser their fanbase is suffering. I love me some chilled tears of Devils fans before I go to bed.

The funny thing about tonight was that the Rangers really didn’t play all that well. They were clearly feeling the loss of Ryan Callahan, not to mention the other guys with letters last season, but still managed to get a win. Really we just got some lucky bounces and Henrik did what he always does against the Devils, he slammed the door shut. Even though we didn’t play all that well, we still played hard enough to deserve these two points. Everyone knows what a stickler I am for the Rangers earning their points, not just winning. Once again the Rangers sacrificed their bodies, and played balls to the wall for 60 minutes to claw out another 2 points. Kudos to them.

The big story those has got to be the emergence of Brandon Dubinsky. This season he has 10 goals and 4 assists for 14 points. Thats first in the league in goals, and 11th in the league in points. Remember, this is while teams are TRYING to shut him down. He isn’t the secondary option for the Rangers, he is their first option. He is playing in all situations, and he is playing like a man who knows he can not be stopped. This is unbelievable to watch. A home grown kid on the verge of turning into a (super?)star. Doesn’t get much better than that.

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There were things within the Rangers realm of control where they utterly failed. They were unable to get any traffic in front of Bobrovski and had almost no low slot presence all night long. That has been their money area all season. They work the puck down low, find the guy in the low or high slot for a shot and crash the net looking for the garbage. Tonight, no presence there whatsoever. The Rangers penalty killers also did a poor job or containing their slot, as the Flyers ran amok through Henriks crease all night long. Finally Henrik Lundqvist gave up a miserably soft goal.

Those are things the Rangers can, and should control. However the reffing tonight was something beyond their control, and while ultimately I feel the would have lost even if the reffing was good, it has to be mentioned just how disgusting the reffing was tonight. I knew this game was lost when Timmonen boards Cally and gets no call, while Boogaard gets 2 minutes for one of the lightest slashes in the history of the game. There simply is no excuse for the reffing tonight. Philly got away with murder out there, Carcillo going for the blindside headshot (that should be reviewed by the NHL in my opinion, he was clearly going for the head there), Shelley with the punch to the back of the head, all go unpenalized. I actually felt the refs did a pretty fair job in calling the penalties on the Rangers. Outside of the Boogaard call, the rest were deserved. But Hartnell hooking Del Zotto a foot in front of the ref going uncalled with the puck ending up in the back of the net 2 seconds later. Thats awful. Ryan Callahan getting dumped with a hit from behind while the puck was clearly under the Philly player right in front of the ref…somehow that goes uncalled.

The list goes on and on. When the refs set the tone that one team is being judged based on a different set of rules than the other, then it gets damn hard to win. Again, I felt we would have lost no matter what, but the horrendous reffing still left me with a nasty taste in my mouth.

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With the Rangers down over 70 goals from last season, they have to win games with sheer heart and effort. Tonight was a matchup of a team that has to outwork the opposition by a huge margin to win, vs a team with possibly more skill in all positions than any other team in the league. For one night at least, effort overcame the skill.

I personally felt the Hawks didn’t play as hard as they could have. They saw the Rangers, down Gabby, down Prospal, down Drury and figured…meh, we just need to show up to beat these guys. It’s been happening a lot so far this early season, people just figuring they need to show up to beat us. As the season gets older, and the games become more important, I think the Rangers will be outworking teams less because the effort level across the league will even out. But for right now, it’s refreshing to see a Ranger team that is seldom outworked out there. Sure, they may be out classed, out skilled, or just play stupid hockey from time to time. But their effort level has been more or less beyond reproach. Give the credit there to 2 men. Coach John Tortorella, and assistant/alternate/probably could the full time captain Ryan Callahan. Both guys put their money where their mouths are. When Cally goes out there and give 500% on a shift in shift out basis, everyone follows suit. When Torts sits guys down no matter what their salary or pedigree is, you listen. When the kids are getting more time than the vets because they are flat out playing better, you better man up.

I’m as pessimistic as they come with regards to the Rangers chances this season, but on two aspects I am absolutely thrilled, and that is how the Rangers are working, and how well their kids are coming along.

So far all season long the story has been about how damn well Ryan Callahan, Artem Anisimov, and Brandon Dubinsky are playing. Tonight was no different as the trio registered 6 more points, bring up their point per game number to an even 3 points per game as a line. Really what else is there to say about these guys? They seem to be flawlessly combining skill, heart, effort, size, physicality, intelligence, speed, passing, shooting, in a freakishly Frankenstein type way to make an absolutely complete line. In no aspect are they struggling. In their own zone, they are sound. In the neutral zone they are sound. All 3 play the power play. All 3 kill penalties. As a line there are just no holes to exploit. Man oh man when was the last time you could say that about any line the Rangers have had? There has always been problems with their lines. The Nylander Straka Jagr line would sometimes become lazy, would overpass and not shoot enough, and didn’t know what the word defense meant (not counting Straka) but they still produced offense like nobodies business. But this trio…I am hard pressed to find any aspect of their game which they are not excelling at.

Sheesh.

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