You Can't Beat Us!

The Rangers and Flyers played an old style knock 'em, sock 'em hockey game and when it was over the Rangers had out shot the Flyers, 38-23, out hit the Flyers, 30-24, and out scored them 5-2. The win was the fourth in four games against the Flyers and the sixth in a row overall for the Rangers. It had the sellout crowd, it actually was, chanting, "You can't beat us." And they can't.

They can't with Danny Briere out of the lineup. They can't when Jaromir Jagr gets a pedestrian 14:43 and winds up with a minus three. And they surely can't with "Buzzer Bryzgalov" in goal. Add in the hair raising antics of Tom Sestito who had 25 minutes in penalties and spent all of 3:48 on the ice and you see how difficult it is for these Flyers to beat these Rangers.

But the Rangers were good today. They gave no quarter to the Flyers and Stu Bickel showed some of the toughness the Rangers are looking for despite the fact that he got 5 penalties, including two fighting ones, for a total of 16 minutes. The Rangers had five different goal scorers and only Gaborik among the elite scored. The rest were distributed among Del Zotto, Anisimov, Fedotenko and Dubinsly. And Lundqvist? It's getting boring, but Lundqvist was, well he was Lundqvist. He had only 23 saves but he put on a clinic in the third period and was awarded the number two star. Dubinsky with a goal and a fight, was number three and Gaborik with a goal, an assist, eight shots on goal and a plus three was awarded number one star.

The win moved the Rangers five points up on the Flyers. They are also five points up on the Bruins and trail the Red Wings by a point. Of course all these are predicated on today's other games. The Rangers are 10-2-1 in Atlantic Division play and have outscored their Atlantic Division opponents 42-27. So now the Rangers face the Devils who are hot and are in sixth place in the Eastern Conference race, ten points behind the Rangers. However, our Rangers are hot too and they are not the underdogs any more.

ICINGS: A most wonderful rendition of the National Anthem by the Boys and Girls Choir of Harlem. Kudos to linesman Brad Kovachik, who upon spotting us, number two son and two of my grandkids, tossed us a game puck prior to a faceoff deep in our end. Thanks Brad.

I was also impressed with the great work done in the area called Delta Sky 360*Club. The food was great and the varieties were endless. What other restaurant gives free Snow Balls, Twinkies, etc? A great day capped by a great Ranger win.

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