Friday, April 26, 2013

PLAYOFFS!

They made it. They say that sometimes its better to be lucky than good.  The Rangers were headed for defeat and a must win game against the Devils on Saturday when lady luck intervened. Down 3-2 and less than three minutes to go Brad Richards let one go from the blue line, off the boards behind the Carolina net and off the right skate of Carolina goalie Dan Ellis into the net to tie the score. Then Captain Crunch, Ryan Callahan, took over in OT and the Rangers were on their way to the playoffs.

Maybe it wouldn't have mattered anyway as the Jets lost to Montreal and got eliminated. So now the Rangers are in a three way tie for 6th, 7th and 8th with the Senators and Islanders, all with 54 points. The Senators have two games left and the Rangers and Isles one each. It doesn't matter the final positions as this tourney is wide open. Unless Sidney Crosby returns and is in mid-season form all eight teams have a shot at the Eastern Conference. You could make a case for any team.

The case for the Rangers, pure and simple, is Henrik Lundqvist. He is the top money goalie in the NHL. Sure, the Rangers have offensive weapons but they are not used correctly and besides the team mantra is defense, block shots and some more defense. They have a terrible game coach but the team has true grit which overcomes the deficiencies, sometimes. A lot of players have been overused and this could take a toll in the playoffs which can be gruelling.

But right now the first objective has been accomplished, the Rangers are in the playoffs. Let's worry about that other stuff tomorrow.

ICINGS:The Blue Jackets beat Dallas last night and are tied with Minnesota for the final spot. Columbus has one game left, at home, against Nashville. Minnesota is at home against Edmonton and the last game is at Colorado.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Backing In?

So what did you expect? In a season frought with disappointments galore, unfullfilled boasts, underachieving players, poor coaching and dismal results, the Rangers lost a game to the bottomness of all bottom feeders, the Florida Panthers. The Panthers have all of 34 points, three less than their closest competitor, the Colorado Avalanche. How's those apples, coach. The Panthers have taken the season series from the Rangers 2-1.

The score was 3-2 and to make it worse, if possible, the winning goal was an empty netter. It was a game that had to be won to clinch a playoff spot and we are still in a playoff spot only because the Caps beat the Jets. The Jets have one more game, at home against Montreal. If the Jets win, we have to beat either Carolina or the Devils to gain a playoff spot. Can you imagine losing to Carolina and needing to beat the Devils to make the playoffs? I can't.

It was the same story. The Rangers took 38 shots at Panther goalie Jacob Markstrom, he stopped 36. The Panthers fired 15 at Lundqvist, who stopped 13. The empty netter won the game. The Panthers stayed with the Rangers in all other aspects. Hits? 36-33, Rangers. Blocked shots? 17-15 Panthers. Power Plays? Back to normal for Rangers, 0-3. Florida was 1-2 and remember? They had the empty netter.

The coach was true to form. Girardi logged 27:52 and McDonagh 25:08. Sixth Dman Eminger got all of nine minutes. Meanwhile, the fourth line, yes there is a fourth line, saw limited ice team. Powe, 5:17; Kreider, 3:43; Asham 3:24, who got beat up by George Parros. Asham spent more time in the sin bin than on the ice.

So hopefully, "Nothing could be finer, than to be in Carolina......" will be beneficial for us. The Stealth GM is following the team around. His comments? "Never easy." Wow! What a statement. Never easy when you have an a-hole for a coach. Never easy when you are going on 13 years without a Stanley Cup despite having limitless money resources. Remember? "If I had the money the Rangers have, I would win the Cup every year." Be careful what you wish for.

And now Carolina! And the Devils? Hope not.

ICINGS: Ask you to check out a comment from the last blog by Andy. Andy lives on the West Coast and attended a Blue Jackets game. His comments are interesting and ones you will never see from our lame stream press in New York. Thanks Andy for the live update.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Rangers Oust Rival Devils

It's always a good night when you post a win. It's a better night when you post a win against a 'rival'. It's a great night when you post a win against a 'rival' and you eliminate them from the playoff race. That's what happened yesterday at the Garden. The Rangers ousted a frustrated Devil team from the playoffs. The Devils took two misconduct penalties and had their coach Peter DeBoer tossed from the game with 16 seconds left. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. From Stanley Cup finalists to elimination from the playoffs; by their most hated 'rivals', the Rangers no less.

It started early with Captain Crunch, Ryan Callahan, finding the back of the net at the 34 second mark and ending with Callahan's power play goal that made it 4-0. Andrei Loktionov scored with six and a half left in the game to spoil Lundqvist's shutout. Lundqvist made 26  saves, a subdued Brodeur, serenaded by his 'friends', had 18. The Rangers are putting up a season best 8-2-1 going for the final tape, a playoff berth.

With three games left the Rangers are three points ahead of the Winnipeg Jets. They are tied with the Ottawa Senators who have a game in hand on the Rangers. The Islanders are one point ahead of us in 6th place with three games left. The Rangers seem a cinch for the playoffs with games against Florida, Carolina and the Devils. But you never know.

Meanwhile, in the other conference, our JV team, the Bluejackets, are hanging on to a three point lead over Detroit that has four games left to two games left for Columbus. Columbus is tied with Minnesota for 7th and Minnesota has three games left. It's fun watching the hockey channel at night. Would you believe that Jaromir Jagr has sixteen goals as the Bruins are battling the Canadiens for the top spot in the Northeast and the number two seed in the Eastern Conference?  But he'd never make this Ranger team. He doesn't enjoy the corners and doesn't block shots, just score goals. What an antiquated idea.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

WOW!!!

First of all our prayers go to the victims of the Boston horror which looks like it has reached a successful conclusion. Also our prayers to the victims of the fertilizer plant explosion in Texas. Finally, our prayers for the people of China on being hit with a 6.6 earthquake. We are very fortunate as number two daughter left China yesterday after a week of business. The world is getting smaller and every disaster seems to bring it closer to home. God Bless this crazy world.

The game was going just as I figured it would. Two tough veteran goalies, Ryan Miller and Henrik Lundqvist dueling it out. And then, OMG, all hell broke loose. The shutout duel ended at 18:42 of the first, with three quick first period goals. The second period opened with two more goals in the opening 1:40. When it was over the Rangers, aided and abetted by the Sabres, had scored five goals in 2:58 of playing time.

When it was over these were some of the notable and not so notable events.

The Sabres were eliminated from the playoffs.

The Rangers have a two point lead over the Jets for 8th place and are one point behind the 7th place Islanders. The Islanders are at the Jets tonight and all three teams have four games left.

The last time the Rangers scored 8 goals was back on Nov. 14, 2010 against the Oilers.

All three goalies, Lunqvist, Miller and Enroth gave up four goals each.

Brad Richards had a hat trick for the first time in his career, 896 games.

Thirteen Ranger players, including Lundqvist, had at least a point.

Three Sabre players, Adam Purdy, Christian Ehrhoff and Ryan Miller, should have gotten assists on the first three Ranger goals.

I could go on all morning but I have more important things to attend to. To say the least the game was weird. I really thought that after the first period the coach had gone home or to a bar. How else to describe the game?  It was like we proscribed it: "Let the kids play." And play they did. The Rangers have now scored 14 goals in two games and I don't care who they are playing, bottom feeders or real contenders, 14 goals is a lot of goals. So let's keep this up and forget the blocked shots and go for the net, the other teams, not ours.

This new 'system' could bring us to new heights. We are two points behind 6th place Ottawa and only three behind 5th place Toronto. Why not? The higher the better. Meanwhile, our JV team in Columbus, is hanging on to a two point lead over Detroit and Dallas. What a series, the Blue Jackets vs the Blueshirts for the Cup. After yesterday anything is possible.

Friday, April 19, 2013

Romper Room

Romper Room
This has to be a quickie as I have a medical appointment this am and unfortunately more important things are taking place up in Boston. The Rangers had the perfect tuneup game for the big one in Buffalo tonight by routing an under performing Florida team last night, 6-1. It was a party game where it was all smiles and goodness and young defenseman Moore distinguished himself by using his fists quite well.

Tonight is another story. It's the surging Sabres now only four points behind the Rangers and Jets for the 8th spot. The Islanders also continue their surge with a 5-2 walloping of Toronto moving them closer to 5th place. So the Isles are surging. Buffalo is surging. The Jets are surging. The Rangers are... the Rangers. They are stagnant.

Tonight its Ryan Miller vs Henrik Lundqvist. Lundqvist has the edge. They could have rested him last night and played Biron, but points are precious and they don't want to leave them on the table. Anyway, Henrik can sleep on the plane to Buffalo.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Once More! Bottoms Up!

We were a lock to make the playoffs. We had seven games against teams below us in the standings. That was the party line of the all wise lame stream media. Then a funny thing happened at The Wells Fargo Center. A castoff journeyman goalie named Steve Mason turned aside 38 Ranger shots, the Rangers did their usual first period no show and what do you know. A crippling 4-2 loss to the bottom feeder Flyers. And if you think the start was bad, how about no shots on goal in the last 5:34?

Who is to blame? The coach. He can't get the team up for a game that should have been a gimmee. The Rangers were 0-5 on the PP. Ryane Clowe got more PP time, 5:25, than Rick Nash, 5:00. The big three, Nash, Richards and Callahan were invisible. Zuccarello and Stepan were the goal scorers. Thank God we traded away Marian Gaborik. BTW, Columbus is now tied with Detroit for 8th place in the West.

We are now in a tie with the Jets at 46 points and we have a game in hand. We are three behind the Isles who destroyed the Florida Panthers last night. Florida is at the Garden tomorrow night. No sweat. They are the very bottom of the bottom feeders. Instead of making facial gestures the coach should map out some plans to come out of the gate charging.

After the game the usual quotes from an assortment of participants. "We have to respect the fact that every point can make the difference." Really? "I cannot explain it." Ask the coach. "There is no excuse for us not taking it to them from the start." We're saving our strength for the playoffs or the golf links.

The Flyers not only outscored his, they out hit us, 21-19, and blocked more shots, 19-14. Now that will get the coach's attention. Because it's not whether we win or lose as long as we block more shots than the other team. Instead of worrying about blocking shots the coach should be more concerned about a power play that is now 0-14. Yeah, Gaborik is gone. How is that locker room chemistry working now coach?

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Hail To The King!

It is hard to imagine where the Rangers would be this year without Lundqvist. Heck, its hard to imagine where they would be any year since he came up. Yes, the media and blogs are all agog over Dan Girardi scoring the game winner in OT. OK. Dan played a nice game. He played 29:13 and in that time managed all of two shots, one the game winner, and one hit. One hit! The rest of the team were equally inept.

The Rangers were out shot in every period, except the OT, where they had a 2-1 edge. Their power play is in playoff form going 0-4. They got all of 20 shots on goal and the Isles got 29. The Isles outplayed the Rangers, but unfortunately for the Islanders the Rangers have the great equalizer... Henrik Lundqvist.

In all fairness Lundqvist had some help. The goalposts and the crossbar. I counted at least three and there maybe have been more.  But don't tell me about crossbars. I still hear that one back in 1950. And crossbars and goalposts and nets off their pins and sometimes even refs have always helped goalies. Just ask Sawchuk and Roy and Plante and Hasek and all the other great goalies who have had a speck of luck and pluck and imagination to save them.

But this was a great game before a packed and frenzied house including number one son and granddaughter Kaila. Somehow we always have at least one family member at these big games. Last time at the Island we had three. I flipped between the Ranger channel and the Islander channel and couldn't figure who had the most fans. I stuck with the Islander channel for the third period as I found Jiggs and Butch less grating and annoying than Sam and Joe. Oh how I miss Jim Gordon and Bill Chadwick.

But I digress. The win put the Rangers in a very strong position to make the playoffs. They are two up on ninth place Winnipeg with a game in hand and seven to play. The Rangers are one behind the Isles with a game in hand and are only two back of Ottawa for 6th and even in games. Sixth would be a great spot as they would get the Caps instead of the Pens or Canadiens/Bruins. However, the Caps are one of the real hot teams in the NHL right now and Alex Ovechkin is on fire. So be careful what you wish for.

So now it's the stretch run and it's one game at a time. As we say at The Rinx, let the kids play. Don't overcoach and we will be fine. And for heavens sake please take care of Henrik Lundqvist. God bless him and finally, "Hail To The King."

Friday, April 12, 2013

Sixty Minutes!

No we are not talking about the news show on TV, we are talking about the Rangers playing a full hockey game. A full sixty minutes. Their goalie plays it every night. Why shouldn't the rest of the team? Its not mailing it in. Its not getting tired. Its not shuffling the lines every shift starting in period one. Its not getting stale. Getting stale? Where did that come from? That came from the old knowing blowhard. Coach disagreeable said it the other day. The lines are stale.

Did the lines go past their expiration date on their sweaters? Stale? The only thing stale on this team is the coach and his more stupid comments by the moment. There is a dogfight for the last two spots in the conference. The Rangers and Devils have eight games left, the Islanders seven and the Winnipeg Jets have six. The Isles have 46 points, the Rangers and Jets 44 points and the Devils 40 points.

Saturday night at the Coliseum the Rangers and Islanders will tangle in the biggest event the Coliseum has seen since the lions devoured the Christians.The Rangers, a sub .500 team on the road play the Islanders, a sub .500 team at home. Should be a dandy Jiggs. The upstart Isles are led by John Tavares, 10th in the NHL in scoring and Matt Moulson 18th. Rick Nash in the 28th spot leads the Rangers. Lately the Islanders have been one of the hottest teams in the league at 8-1-1. The Rangers at a pedestrian 5-3-2, basically .500.

The Rangers start and end with Lundqvist. His 2.12 GAA is 4th in the NHL and his save % of .926 is 3rd. These are for all goalies with at least 25 games. The Rangers have one line made up, most of the time, barring line changes, of Stepan centering Callahan and Nash. Lately Nash is the man. The Rangers should, let me change that to must, score against Nabokov, 2.54 GAA, .910 save %.

The Islanders will be relentless and the Rangers must counter, no, must attack them. Puck possession is the key and it has to be for sixty minutes. Chances are that the first two Ranger lines will be overworked, the defense, Giradi, will tire and Lundqvist will have to save the day. It will be the young legs of the Islanders against a bench shortened Ranger team of two lines and Brian Boyle. Most of our young legs are in Hartford. That's where Boyle should be. Speaking of youth, the young Islander coach, Jack Capuano has it all over coach disagreeable.

So how will it end? We will score an early goal, rope-a-dope, or hang on for dear life and Lundqvist steals it in a shootout? After the game coach disagreeable will petition the NHL to allow shootouts in the playoffs of all Ranger games. The league will convene a meeting of all GMs and come back with a ruling in August. It will be in time to allow shootouts in the exhibition season. Coach disagreeable will bolt the Rangers for Russia and will learn to say nyet and frown regularly. The fans will think the frown is a smile and will love him. The press conferences should be dillies. Meanwhile, on to the coliseum and the lions, oops, the Islanders..

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Rangers 3, Maple Leafs 2 (SO win)

That third period, the OT, and the SO was some tense riveting fun, huh? Nothing beats that tingly feeling of holding your breath for 40 minutes until you get light headed and start seeing stars.

A few random thoughts about the game last night before I get some quick shut eye. I've been up for two weeks straight worrying about this team making the playoffs.

Of course, you knew we had to make a reference to Joe Micheletti's vague reference to Brian Boyle having some issue that involves not getting enough sleep the last couple of weeks. A quick scan of twitter reveals no clear public indication of what the problem is. One clue to the BB mystery might be this Mother Teresa saying that Boyle tweeted on March 31st.

* So what do you do with a man who is not getting enough sleep? If you are John "torturous" Tortorella you ramp up his shifts and ice time in the 3rd period. Boyle had 8 of 19 shifts in the 3rd period and 5:59 of his 15:52 TOI. But, of course, when it really counted in overtime Boyle was safely locked down on the bench. Torts apparently didn't want to jeopardize Boyle's third star of the game honor.

* You can really see who Tortorella trusts by who he plays in OT. Hagelin and Zuccarllo each saw one shift in OT. Asham, Clowe, Moore, Pyatt, Powe, and Boyle did not play in the extra inning.

* Tortorella put on his Gandalf face and called his Hobbit out from The Shire. Said, the bearded wannabe wizard: "He’s gotta score... He’s gotta score in the shootout. It’s nice that we’ve seen it before. We need it now." Zuccarello, responded by sliding a sneaky wrister through Reimer's 5-hole. Middle-Earth and Norway rejoiced.

* If Reimer or Toronto had been scouting the NY Rangers twitter they would have seen that same Zuccarello move at practice back on March 31st. But, even if you knew it was coming could you still stop it?

* Has twitter become our new crystal ball?

* Lundqvist continued his outstanding play and easily earned the first star yet again. You run out of superlatives to describe how focused and committed this man is to winning. Does Tortorella dare throw Biron into the fire of this playoff race with so little time in net? Tortorella's "the future is now" attitude puts Lundqvist at risk of being over used and worn down just in time for the playoffs. Biron should play in one of those two back-to-back games on April 18-19 (Florida, Buffalo). At a minimum we have to see Biron in net against the Sabres in Buffalo don't we?

Anyway, it's well past bed time. So good night and God Bless the NY Rangers.

Sunday, April 07, 2013

Lundqvist "Saves" Rangers!

The Ranger formula for protecting a lead, in effect hanging on for dear life, the old 'rope-a-dope', barely made it last night. Save for the efforts of one Henrik Lundqvist, the Rangers wouldn't look so good in the standings this morning. Henrik was his usual magnificent self, though he seemed a tad tired last night against a struggling Carolina team, 1-10-1 in their last 12. The Rangers riding the strength of Lundqvist's 48 saves vaulted into a seventh place tie with the Islanders, two points behind sixth place Ottawa and four behind fifth place Toronto with an away and a home date coming up next week against the Leafs.

The Canes launched 89 shots at Lundqvist. Eighteen missed and twenty-two were blocked. That's a lot of rubber. Could of used it during World War II. A tired Ranger team gave up 21 shots on goal in the third period. Girardi logged 27:48 and new kid John Moore got all of 7:17. Boy that honeymoon didn't last long. Even Lundqvist admitted to being tired. The coach was effusive in his praise for his franchise player: "That's the best I've seen him play since I've been here." Really! Where have you been coach? This goes on every night the guy puts on the pads and the mask. But keep overplaying some players and see how that pans out.

It was the same trio that racked up the goals. Stepan, Callahan and Nash. Boyle scored a useless empty netter at the buzzer. What else is new? The media is singing the party line that the atmosphere in locker room has changed dramatically. Has the coach changed? No! Even Lundqvist stated that, "It's a different attitude in the room... It's just a lot better feeling in here." See what getting rid of a 40 goal scorer can do to a puppet driven team. How's that for loyalty. But hang on to your mask and pads Henrik the next time you let in a softie and lose one. Then you'll really find out that nothing has changed . The more things change the more they stay the same.

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ICINGS:

Jesse Spector / Sporting News:
Off the block

One of the complaints about using blocked shots to measure defense is that a team with a lot of blocks tends to not have the puck very much. The Toronto Maple Leafs, for instance, lead the NHL with 621 blocked shots this season, but also is the second-worst possession team in the league.

So, how about blocked shots as a percentage of opponents’ shot attempts? The Philadelphia Flyers allow 54.9 shot attempts per game and block 16.3 — their rate of 29.7 percent opponent shot attempts blocked is tops in the league. Considering that the Flyers have allowed the sixth-most goals in the NHL, such a figure would suggest a lack of correlation between blocking shots and quality of defense, regardless of issues surrounding the quality of goaltending in Philadelphia.

There still is value in blocking shots, but it should probably only be part of a team’s strategy. Ron Hainsey leads the league with 99...

Saturday, April 06, 2013

Pens Prevail In Shootout!

The Rangers and the Penguins played two games in a row and it was somehow confusing. In the first game the Rangers overwhelmed the Pens playing Penguin hockey and destroying them 6-1. Last night's game saw the Pens playing Ranger hockey and nipping the Rangers in a shootout 2-1.

Last night the Pens outshot the Rangers 36-28. They outhit the Rangers 39-27 and amazingly the Pens blocked more shots than the Rangers 20-15. The three new guys, Clowe, Brassard and Moore are not there yet. They got 2 shots, but only 3 hits and 3 blocked shots. Not too many games left to get these guys totally Tortorellaized.

Jussi Jokinen* scored the Pens goal and then scored the only shootout goal giving the Pens the two points. The only Ranger goal of the night was scored by Nash off of a faceoff win by Stepan who was awful on faceoffs most of the night.

Fleury was outstanding in goal for the Pens making 35 saves. It's the best I've ever seen him against the Rangers. Lundqvist was his usual solid self and was repeatedly run at and hit by the Pens with no retaliation from the Rangers. He basically stole the point for us. The coach seemed to be more at ease this game than last game. After all, the last game, a 6-1 Ranger win, got away from him and he was lost. This was more his game. Low scoring and great goaltending. Good luck.

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ICINGS:

HockeyFights.com:
Ryane Clowe vs Deryk Engelland


Results:
       Ryane Clowe      37.8%
       Draw             37.0%
       Deryk Engelland  25.2%
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In case you missed it, Gaborik had a strong start in Columbus in his first game on Thursday. He teamed up on a line with ex-Ranger Brandon Dubinsky to score the game winner. Also, ex-Ranger Vinny Prospal was reportedly one of those who talked Gaborik in to taking the trade to Columbus.

However, in last night's game Gaborik only took 2 shots and was not a factor in the Blue Jackets 3-1 loss to St. Louis.

Blue Jackets Xtra / Columbus Dispatch:
Blue Jackets 3, Predators 1: Gaborik makes grand entrance --
Marian Gaborik, who was acquired in a trade with the New York Rangers on Wednesday, scored the go-ahead goal at 4:16 of the third period.

He also had an assist and was the game’s first star.

“I’m glad to have the first game under my belt,” Gaborik said. “It was a great win. I’m glad to be a part of this.”

Matt Calvert and James Wisniewski also scored. Brandon Dubinsky added two assists in his first game back after an injury...

“This is huge,” said Blue Jackets veteran Vinny Prospal, who helped convince Gaborik to waive his no-trade clause to approve the trade.
*correction: It was Olli Jokinen, not Jussi Jokinen, who played for the Rangers last season. Both are from Finland, but are not related. Thanks Jen.

Thursday, April 04, 2013

New Rangers Rout Pens!

I guess the three new guys, Ryane Clowe, Derik Brassard and John Moore didn't get the memo or worse yet didn't get the one-on-one finger pointing meeting with the disagreeable one. Didn't they know they were brought in to muck it up, go into the corners and most of all block shots? Didn't they hear the coach, prior to the Jets game declare that the biggest change from last year is that we are blocking fewer shots?

So what did these three castoffs do? They combined for four goals, four assists and only blocked one shot and Clowe had that. Only one blocked shot? Terrible. Disagreeable was forced to comment that, "Throws coaching right out the window, huh?" Would you please join and go also. The crowd was also stunned. These weren't our type of guys. When even Brian Boyle scored a goal. What's happening here? We just got rid of a 40 goal scorer and here we have three new guys coming in and scoring GOALS.

But we all know why they digressed from the plan. They just got here. They haven't been Tortorellaized yet. They have this stupid idea they learned when they first laced up skates that the whole idea of hockey was to put the puck in the net. They watched guys like Richard, Gretzky and Hot Rod Gilbert and said the name of the game was score goals. Then along came guys like Jacque Lamaire, Tom Renney and coach disagreeable and they invented traps and blocked shots and defense, first, last and utmost. So these three guys don't know any better, but they'll learn.

Meanwhile enjoy the turnaround while it lasts. Hopefully there are not too many practice days left to get the points across and go back to blocking shots.. Next game against the Pens should be interesting. Maybe Henrik Lundqvist will score a goal.

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ICINGS:

SCORING SUMMARY:
G Per Time  Str Team Goal Scorer   Assist         Assist   
1 1   10:01 PP  NYR  B.RICHARDS(6) D.BRASSARD(12) D.GIRARDI(11)
2 1   12:19 EV  NYR  R.MCDONAGH(3) B.RICHARDS(15) R.CLOWE(12)
3 1   14:19 EV  NYR  R.CLOWE(1)    D.STEPAN(16)
4 2    1:53 PP  NYR  D.BRASSARD(8) B.BOYLE(2)     D.GIRARDI(12) 
5 2    2:27 EV  PIT  P.DUPUIS(18)  R.BORTUZZO(2)  B.MORROW(6)
6 2   11:52 PP  NYR  R.CLOWE(2)    D.BRASSARD(13) B.RICHARDS(16)
7 3    9:47 EV  NYR  J.MOORE(1)    B.BOYLE(3)     D.BRASSARD(14)

Wednesday, April 03, 2013

Can't Score Goals? Trade The Goal Scorer!

As predicted here many moons ago Marian Gaborik is gone. The circus clown has jettisoned another key player for an assortment of never was's. Gaborik is on his way to a re-energized Columbus Blue Jackets leaving a staggering Blue Shirts. The tail is wagging the dog. The Stealth GM is the lackey of coach disagreeable, instead of the other way around. The whole motley crew should resign. Unfortunately the fish stinks from the head.

Want proof? The other day the owner of the Garden was denied admission into the Garden by a security guard because he lacked I.D. and the guard didn't recognize The Absentee Owner. Who would? The owner fired the guard. Why? She was doing her job. Want to fire somebody oh great hockey owner? Fire the GM, the Stealth. Fire the coach, the most disagreeable one. Then you would be doing your job. BTW the absentee owner relented and rehired the guard.

The last game saw both Kreider and JT Miller glued to the pines. No ice time in the third period. The GM goes out and brings in high powered offensive players and they get juggled because they miss their defensive assignments. The other day before the Jet game our coach was asked what the big difference between last year's team and this year's team. We have blocked fewer shots said the all wise manipulator. High powered goal scorers, lowest goals for by any team in the East and the problem is we are blocking fewer shots.

So here we are with three more players to sit on the pine or get all of 4-5 minutes a game. Excuse me. One of the players is on the DL so it's only two to manipulate. The fish stinks from the head for the ninth place New York Rangers. Les Patrick and Frankie Boucher are turning over in their graves.

Tuesday, April 02, 2013

Dynamic Duo Saves Rangers!

Who woulda thunk that the high powered mercenaries are sitting on the sidelines watching the youthful duo, the twins of destruction, the dynamic duo, Batman and Robin leading the Rangers. This has to be a quickie as my friends at dialysis are awaiting me this morn.

Stepan, two goals and an assist, Callahan a goal and three assists and their waterboy, Nash, a goal and an assist all adding up to a much needed win, 4-2 over the slumping Jets. The Rangers stayed tied with the surging Islanders, who beat the Devils last night at the Rock. There are 8 teams battling for the 7th and 8th spots in the playoff picture. The Devils lead with 39 points but 14th place Tampa has 31 points. It should be a doozie down to the wire.

The other Ranger dynamo, Henrik Lundqvist registered his 267th Ranger win, tying him with Eddie Giacomin for second place on the all time Ranger goalie win list. Next year, Lundqvist will surpass Mike Richter's 301 wins and become the greatest goalie in Ranger history. Last night's win was aided by a 'sparkling' save from Derek Stepan. Like his buddy Callahan, the dynamic duo, and Lundqvist, are capable of anything, including carrying this underachieving hockey team into the playoffs. Coming up. Pittsburgh, back to back. Should be interesting.

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