The Rookie And The Prince

The Rangers revived an old formula last night to win a hockey game. Have Henrik the Great stonewall them and have someone, anyone score the game winner. In this case it was anyone on the seventh try in the shootout. Anyone turned out to be P.A. Parenteau, the rookie up from Hartford, who already had registered a legitimate goal in his first game against the Islanders. In case you are interested in names, P.A. stands for Pierre-Alexandre, hence the initials. The strategy was simple. The coach asks P.A., "Are you any good at this?" "Hey Lou. Can you play first base?" Both P.A. and Lou responded affirmatively. It remains to be seen what kind of longivity P.A. has, especially with the Rangers.

So the Rangers stopped a losing streak and temporarily moved up a tad in the standings. But with minor exceptions the basic problems are still there. The positives were Prospel's shorthanded goal, a pickup in Avery's game and solid work from Lundqvist who made 35 saves and stopped five of seven in the shootout. But that looks like the way things are going to go this year. Big game from The Prince and some unlikely hero stepping up. "Hey Rozsy, can you throw a check, I mean, use your body?"

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