Everything That Could Go Wrong-DID!

It figured. It was the classic trap game. You know the one where you get a gimmee. You get the floundering team, the Flyers, against the hot team, the Rangers. Well you know who won, don't you? To cap it off a severe injury to Brendan Shanahan put a pall on the crowd, on the team and on the game. As of this writing Shanahan is awake and alert but no report on the extent of his injury after a vicious collision with Mike Kanuble, who also left the game.

Henrik Lundqvist was injured on the left shoulder by a blistering shot and was taken out in the third period, which probably led to the Ranger's defeat as the Flyers scored two soft goals on backup Stephan Valiquette. Lundqvist is scheduled to pay against the Black Hawks tomorrow, another trap game. Marek Malik suffered a wrist injury and is doubtful for tomorrow. Aaron Ward hurt his hand in a fight with Picard and required stitches to fix the hand but will play tomorrow. It was a rough game and the Flyers returned to their Broad Street Bully days as Jagr was hit, held and belted and there was little retaliation by the Rangers.

The Rangers lost the game in the first period. They had six power plays and came up empty. The first PP unit learned nothing from their recent successes aginst Washington and Carolina and passed the puck around endlessly without a shot, in fact Philly scored one shorthanded goal. The defense played poorly. Ward had poor coverage on the first goal, Rozsival gave the puck up on Umburger's shorthanded goal, then made a poor pass to Girardi which led to Gagne's goal and, well you get the picture. Oh well, nobody's perfect. Today the Garden of Dreams turned into a nightmare and the three game winning streak and good feelings are gone.

The addition of Avery has been a plus, he played fiesty today and Dupuis, with his speed, could also prove a plus but the Rangers still need help on defense and toughness and that is a decision that Sather must make soon. I also question how could Renney sit a player like Colton Orr against a team like the Flyers. You know that they will goon it up. So you need an enforcer, a policeman to keep things honest. That guy is Orr. The Flyers are not a team that you bench a guy like Orr against. They came out in the first period ready to do bodily harm. You stop that three ways. You score on the power play. We didn't. You go after their skilled players and hit them. We didn't. You challenge them and fight them early. We didn't.

One other thing and I have mentioned it before, we can't win at home. We are now 11-13-3. With 14 home games out of the final 24 it doesn't look good for the good guys. Finally, the most important thing, lets all say a pray that Brendan Shanahan doesn't have any serious injury and he returns soon. God bless Shanny.

ICINGS: Rangers out shot the Flyers 43-25. The win for the Flyers was the first without Forsberg. Figures.

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