Friday, December 09, 2011

Shoot 'Em Up!

There is an old adage in sports, "Let sleeping dogs lie." The Rangers and Lightning were playing a slumbering game that was briefly interrupted by fans chanting for their team, and also giving out high praise for former players. Of course, if you watch the Sam and Joe show you only get to know the Ranger chants. The taunts are not for viewers or listeners.

Anyway, everyone was minding their own business in a 1-1 game when the Rangers' Anisimov scored a beautiful shorthanded goal and immediately went berserk. He had a problem deciding whether he was the King of the Khyber Rifles or the Rifleman himself. He posed and aimed and shot Vinnie Lecavalier in his ego. Vinnie, who was mailing it in all night, decided to charge at poor old Artem whose gun was now empty.

Watching their Captain take leave of himself the rest of the team on the ice also attacked Anisimov with the intent of disarming him and possibly dismembering him. In fact, the Lightning got so excited that Steve Downie jumped off the bench to join in. The last time the Garden saw anything like this was a tag team wrestling match. The previous event of note was the storming of the Bastille.

Before I forget, the Rangers lost in a shootout because Dominic Moore scored a tying, shorthanded goal with less than two minutes to play in regulation. Ryan McDonagh was torched on the play and that completed a bad night for the kid as he set up the Lightning's first goal with a beautiful pass out to Malone. Moore also scored the only goal in the shootout. So Moore or less Dominic was the difference.

The other reason the Rangers lost was that they were pooped at the end. The posse style that the disagreeable one has adopted gave ice time almost exclusively to four players. Gaborik was the low man with 19:39, Stepan had 21:31, Richards was at 26:02, and Callahan was on the ice for 28:11. Sean Avery got all of seven shifts for a grand total of 4:13. One of my readers suggested that coach disagreeable coaches like a little league coach. I object, Number one son is a little league coach and he doesn't coach like that.

It was interesting that after the game Sean Avery was one of the few players who stood up for Anisimov and defended his actions. I wonder how many Rangers would have stood up for Avery if he had acted as Anisimov did? Not coach disagreeable, who was all forgiving of Anisimov at his news conference.
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ICINGS:

Teachers sell Leafs.

Toronto Star:
Toronto Maple Leafs, Raptors sold to Rogers and BCE --
Two telecommunications giants will soon control the Toronto Maple Leafs, the biggest prize in Canadian sport.

The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan will announce Friday that it has reached a draft agreement to sell its 79.53 per cent stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, owners of the iconic Leafs, to Rogers Communications and BCE for more than $1.2 billion...



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