For once, the Rangers picked up Henrik Lundqvist, who gave up two questionable goals in the first period. The locker room, between periods, then held a prayer service conducted by Father John, who was voted the worst coach to play for, in an ESPN poll. Wonderful.
Polls aside, the Rangers stormed back in the second period as the big guys, Prospal, Jokinen and Gaborik scored, aided and abetted by the small guys, P.A. Parenteau and Aaron Voros. The win helped the Rangers stay four points behind Philly, Montreal and Boston for the last playoff spot and two behind Atlanta for ninth place. All those teams have six games to play and Atlanta has five. Both Boston and Atlanta won last night while Montreal was idle.
In a previous blog a reader named finn wanted to know why the Rangers play their best hockey at the end of the season. First of all I doubt if this stretch comes under the heading of 'best hockey'. The end of the year drive is famously known as 'the salary drive'. In the old days it mattered as most players were under one year contracts. So they poured it on at the end to impress the owners. Can you imagine this Ranger owner being impressed with anything to do with hockey? I can't. With the large long range contracts the 'salary drive' is meaningless. Who is more meaningless than Rozsival and Redden?
So the Rangers live to play another day. Off to Florida for the Lightning and Panthers. However, right now it's more scoreboard watching than anything else. Let the mediocrity continue.
The Grate One, Sean Avery, has resumed tweeting. His new logo says a lot about the Avery style.
Unfortunately, holding serve doesnt help much when you are behind 5-2. You need to break serve.
If everyone keeps holding serve, we lose the match.
The Rangers need more help like they got from the Canadiens, whose loss bumped their chances of making it up to 22.3% a 2.5% boost. Are Gomez & LeHabs the most likely to get a little tight down the stretch?
section 335-You got that right. And we deserve it.
jb-Have you ever seen such mediocrity like this?
Mike - The Eastern Conference is *very* sad. Out West you have 5 teams with more points than the Rangers who are not going to make the playoffs.
Calgary Flames 87
St Louis Blues 83
Anaheim Ducks 82
Dallas Stars 82
Minnesota Wild 80
Put the Rangers out West and they're 14th. *Mediocrity* is the word.
I do not expect this bunch to make the playoffs and they do not deserve to make them.
The Rangers Management is not totally stupid. The only reason they are selling next years ticket renewals now is they have given up already on raising prices. They know they have a problem.
If they do not make the playoffs, look for them to first try to hold down the rebellion by throwing a few more on the ice parties for the kids and have more give aways. If they lose subscribers, then they will pay attention.
Section 335,
Since the MSG spinoff from Cablevision on Feb 10th you have a smaller company where the Rangers are bigger percentage of the top & bottom line. The fortunes and misfortunes of the Rangers regarding bad contracts, and losing season subscribers will have more of an impact. Right now the stock price seems to indicate that the future is bright for MSG.