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Most of you remember the kiddie show, Romper Room. It ran from the fifties to the nineties and had kids in a classroom setting, supervised by adults, having a whale of a time. Last night we had a rerun of the show as the kids, Dawes, Dubinsky and Staal had a heck of a time, each scoring a goal, supervised by the older kids, Jagr, Gomez and Shanahan.Marc Staal played a great game. He is a calming influence on the defense, especially on the first pairing. It would be a shame and a move of utter stupidity if Malik goes back on the first pairing when he comes back. That happened last year when Pock was dumped for Rachunek after the first round sweep of Atlanta. Staal's reaction on Vishnevski's hit of Prucha was priceless and one not too often seen by Ranger teammates. He immediately skated by Vishnevski and dumped him drawing an interference penalty. It was a good penalty.
In the process the Rangers stopped Broduer who was 9-0-1 against the Rangers in the last ten games at the Meadowlands, from getting his 500th career win. The Rangers are 3-0-0 against the Devils this year and Brodeur is 0-2-1, in the pervase NHL scoring method. Since Lundqvist's appearance on the hockey scene in New York his record against the Devils is 8-2-3. Conversely, Brodeur's record aginst the Rangers is 5-6-2. Lundqvist has forged a sea change in how the Rangers now approach the Devils.
The Rangers move on to Philly tonight for a first place battle with the Flyers who are one point ahead of the Rangers. My only complaint about last night is the ice time afforded Petr Prucha. Last night Prucha got all of 9:37 of ice time while Hossa racked up 17:27. Huh? I know there are a lot of Hossa lovers out there but am I missing something with this guy? Prucha, the guy who rang up 32 goals in his first two years sits as the wrong Hossa continues to pile up the ice time. Put Prucha on the first line with Jagr and Dubinsky and watch the goals start to rack up. One other thing. Sean Avery played the quietest game of his life. No shots, no hits and from what I could see, no talks. That must have been some conversation he had up in Toronto's Puzzle Palace.
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