Matinee Mayhem

Coach clueless put Dubinsky and Avery on the first line to stir Jagr up, to get him going, to break out of his slump. The line was dynamite. The young guys were stirred up. Avery had five shots on goal, scored two goals, the first one ten seconds into the game, and was the number two star of the game. Dubinsky had a goal, two assists, numerous rushes and was the number one star of the game. Jagr picked up two assists and was voted the number three star. Ten Ranger players had at least one point with Callahan and Shanahan picking up the other two goals. All in all a complete game for the Rangers who vaulted themselves into a sixth place tie with the Philadelphia Flyers who have three games in hand.

While the young kids in the stands were whooping it up, the young legs on the ice had a pretty good time also. Beside his goal Callahan had nine hits in over 15 minutes of ice time. Dawes in over 16 minutes of ice time had an assist, six shots and four hits. Girardi in over 20 minutes of ice time was a plus two and had five hits. The oldies got into the act also as Straka picked up his 700th career point. The game was so one sided we saw Dancing Larry in the first period and 'Sweet Caroline' greeted us with close to six minutes still left to play.

This was an impressive win for the Rangers as the Sabres entered the game on an 8-0-2 roll. Hen-'Rich' Lundqvist was in top form. Seemingly relaxed over his new six year $41.5 million deal, the Prince was solid allowing only a power play goal by Thomas Vanek with about seven minutes to play which spoiled his shutout bid. He made 29 saves and easily won his duel with Ryan Miller who was removed after Shanahan's goal. With twenty one games to go the Rangers need a solid Lundqvist in the net.

This will start tomorrow afternoon when the Rangers tangle with the San Jose Sharks. The Sharks are in fifth place in the Western Conference with 70 points. They have a top notch goalie in Evqeni Nabakov who leads all goalies with 31 wins, has a 2.20 GAA and a save % of .908. They also have Joe Thornton who is 12th in overall scoring with 66 points and leads the NHL in assists with 50. Thornton beat out Jagr for NHL MVP two years ago due to the bias of the Canadian sportswriters. Maybe Jagr can get his adrenalin going for this one and break out of his goal scoring slump which has now reached ten games. The Rangers need it. This will be their last chance against a Western Conference team with the Ranger record standing at 0-7-2 against the West..

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