The Old Bugaboos

Two old Ranger bugaboos showed up this afternoon at the Igloo against the Penguins. No discipline and no killer instinct, also known as defense at all costs. The Rangers got an early power play opportunity and cashed in when Dubinsky scored his 14th on a rebound off of a Jagr shot. They imploded almost immediately with the first of 8 power play opportunities they gave to the Penguins. The killer came on a five on three goal by Malkin, late in the first period, which gave the Penguins a 2-1 lead. That was basically the game. The Pens were 1-8 on the power play and the Rangers were 1-4.

The Rangers seemed to back off after taking a 1-0 lead and instead of trying to get more they played to accomplish less. As Pierre Maguire and Mike Milbury observed, "The Rangers are too passive." No surprise there, look at their coach. The Rangers were also out hit by the Penguins 33-20. No surprise there either as Ryan Hollweg got all of 3:39 of ice time, Avery got 10:07, Dawes skated for 9:12 and Prucha got all of 4:42 and still managed two hits. Straka got 20:08 including 4:01 of power play time and got no shots on goal and no hits. Gomez and Drury also had no shots on goal.

Why is Straka on the first line with Dubinsky and Jagr? Why is Straka getting over twenty minutes of ice time and Prucha, when he isn't benched, gets all of 4 minutes? Why isn't Sean Avery back on the first line where he was a sparkplug for Dubinsky and Jagr? Avery should be back on the first line and Prucha should be on the second line with Gomez and Shanahan. Straka should be on the bench. I for one am tired of his dipsy-doo style of hockey, his excessive passing and his refusal to shoot the puck. But coach clueless likes him.

Despite all that, Martin Straka did not lose this game. The penalties did us in and it is disgraceful at this time of year that the lack of discipline still rears its ugly head. There are only four games left and the Ranger need two wins to clinch a playoff spot, as Washington looks like it is ready to sweep the last three games and work its way into the playoff picture, either in third or eighth. Either way, the Capitals will be the team to beat in the Eastern Conference. The Rangers need to start tomorrow night to right a ship that has now veered off course and has lost five out of the last eight.

ICINGS:
Sean Avery can not stay out of the newspapers. The NY Daily News reported: Sean Avery in hooker's black book --

Rangers hockey star Sean Avery's name and private cell phone number are in the little black book of Manhattan madam Kristin Davis.

Avery, 27, a trash-talking enforcer who has dated a string of models and actresses, is listed as a $500 client of brothel Maison de L'Amour...

Contacted Friday at the number in the records, the pretty boy known in the NHL as "The Animal" at first laughed when told where his name had turned up

"For some reason, I highly doubt that," Avery told the Daily News, insisting he was the target of a practical joke.

"It's April Fools' Day coming up and I'm not going to fall for it." ...

"This assertion is false and defamatory," Avery said. "I was never a client of Ms. Davis" ...

Avery's publicist, Nicole Chabot, said, "We deny there is any truth to the story." ...

If Avery needs a date all he has to do is go back up to the Blue(teal) seats. The Dark Ranger called him the "anti-role model."

But, remember in this country you're innocent until proven guilty. There was a young lacrosse player from Long Island, and another one from New Jersey, who both went down to school at Duke and proved that. There was a hooker involved in that case too. The main stream media also had a field day tarring and feathering the Duke lacrosse players. The media is now doing a nice gang tackle on Avery. The motto of modern journalism seems to be to defame first and then maybe, perhaps investigate.

Just a name and cell number listed in a "black book" doesn't mean there should be a "rush to judgement." How many men pose as professional athletes and how many might use the name of a well known NHL player if they are fumbling for an alias? And how "private" are cell phone numbers in this era of caller ID?

If you can have your reputation ruined simply because your name and cell phone number appears on a computer print out or in a black book that is crazy. Hasn't identity theft become a national epidemic?

Wikipedia adds:

He [Avery] said he and his teammates just laughed the whole thing off hysterically. The attorney of Madam Kristin Davis said that his client has "never had any contact ever" with Sean Avery, and even claimed that there is no black book.

The Rangers Report added,
Sean Avery says he doesn’t need to pay for it:

Perhaps it’s fitting that the song playing on my way to the rink today was Warren Zevon’s “Excitable Boy.”

That would likely be the best way to describe Sean Avery, although until recently, I always thought it was for relatively mundane reasons such as trash-talking and dating the occasional Hollywood starlet.

But then came today’s Daily News, which says Avery is one of 2,000 names on a client list of a Manhattan madam. Of course, you should know Avery vehemently denies this, and given his demeanor at practice today, it doesn’t seem to be bothering him too much.

“I certainly have a lot of enemies, I know that,” Avery said when asked how his name ended up on the madam’s computer spreadsheet. “But I do know if I was ever to venture into one of these establishments, I wouldn’t use my own name. I think that would probably be stating the obvious...

Blue Notes:

Jagr, who did joke that it must have been the first time hockey has been on the front page of a city paper ever (the '94 Cup run and a few of the Isles Cups were before his time)...

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