Their Finest Hour

Santa Claus came early for the Rangers and their fans last night. They were wonderful. Artem Anisimov played like Jean Ratelle, Marc Staal made like Brian Leetch with a beautiful short handed goal and Brandon Dubinsky made like Gordie Howe with a goal, an assist and a fight. And who did he fight? None other than the great Ovechkin. To top it off there was Henrik Lundqvist making like, er....Henrik Lundqvist with another shutout.

Did Christmas come early? No. It was the Rangers playing their most complete game in years, dismantling the Washington Caps, 7-0. The Rangers are now 7-8-1 at home and hopefully this wasn't a one shot deal. Hopefully they will build on this one. Despite some injuries the Caps are a formidable foe and this has to be a confidence builder.

Maybe this could start a home ice run of wins to match the road record. Who knows maybe the lines will stay together for a while. However, that means Avery stays glued to the 4th line. I believe he got into a brawl to get off the ice and the bench for a while. I may be wrong, but if he could, the coach would jettison Avery the first chance he gets. Maybe wrong, but I don't think so.

ICINGS:

The Rangers also racked up a fighting hat trick with 3 out of 3 wins.

HockeyFights.com:
Alexander Ovechkin vs Brandon Dubinsky -- Who won?

Brandon Dubinsky -- 70.8%
Alexander Ovechkin -- 14.9%
Draw -- 14.3%
(171 votes / 5.1 rating)

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HockeyFights.com:
Matt Hendricks vs Michael Sauer -- Who won?

Michael Sauer -- 45.2%
Draw -- 39.7%
Matt Hendricks -- 15.1%
(73 votes / 3.8 rating)

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HockeyFights.com:
Matt Hendricks vs Sean Avery -- Who won?

Sean Avery -- 83.7%
Matt Hendricks -- 10.2%
Draw -- 6.1%
(98 votes / 5.6 rating)