Tonight is another story. It's the surging Sabres now only four points behind the Rangers and Jets for the 8th spot. The Islanders also continue their surge with a 5-2 walloping of Toronto moving them closer to 5th place. So the Isles are surging. Buffalo is surging. The Jets are surging. The Rangers are... the Rangers. They are stagnant.
Tonight its Ryan Miller vs Henrik Lundqvist. Lundqvist has the edge. They could have rested him last night and played Biron, but points are precious and they don't want to leave them on the table. Anyway, Henrik can sleep on the plane to Buffalo.
Before I start, I want to say my heart is with the city of Boston. Its so unreal what is happening there and the thought that theses two young brothers who have been living among us here in the United States, getting a great education and excelling in athletics are now terrorists against our Nation is just sickening. Its so sad to see people given an opportunity to make something of their lives with so much to live for turn to such violence and its so scary to feel like you can't trust anyone anymore. My heart is heavy but I am praying for all who are in pain over this tragedy.
Onto our usual.... The Rangers played OK last night. A strange way to feel after a 6-1 victory but it is what it is. Another game we didn't play 60 minutes, another game we didn't put our opponents away until very late and another game that wasn't quite as exciting as it should have been. For me the best part of the night was the fight Moore had. As Scotty Hockey said in his post obviously when your up 3-1 you don't want to do anything to wake up the other team but in my opinion the Panthers were already awake. It was more their lack of talent that they were losing than anything else, that and Henrik of course. Who else? Anyway the reason that fight was so enjoyable was because Moore was standing up for himself, reacting to a situation and making his own decision to fight. The fight was born of natural causes rather than a contrived useless effort by a coach to "stir things up" when he sends the order. That never works. The next best part of the night for me was Zuccarello staring up at Parros like I don't sweat you! Love his feisty spirit and glad to see that the coach hasn't sent him to the doghouse, or the press box or to the Tortorella express as I thought he would. Not bad for a player the coach decided wasn't NHL calibre one year ago. Wrong as usual John. Speaking of the idiotic one, I can't even believe, and at the same time I can believe, that he's starting Henrik again. Last night would have been a logical game to start Biron who would have been more than capable of handling the Panthers but as per usual the coach is too afraid to take what he considers to be a "risk." Kevin DeLury over at The NYR Blog (really nice guy BTW) tweeted his support of the coaches decision to ride Henrik all the way and in a series of tweets I responded by telling him this: "Biron isn't much of a risk vs any team never mind the weak teams we are playing, but running Henrik into the ground is a big risk (IMO). Torts fear of taking "risks" costs us all the time. Costs us offense, costs players who are overplayed, costs rookies confidence. For a coach who is supposed to be tough and for a guy with such a big mouth he sure is afraid of a lot. The empty can." - Kevin didn't have a reply for me but in his defense, he knows how I loathe the coach and he's probably rolling his eyes every time my tweets come in! Too bad Kev, you chose to be a blogger ha ha ha. Not sure if he reads this but what the hell. Anyway as you know I liken the coach to the Wizard of Oz, "Ignore the man behind the curtain." :D
So the season continues in Buffalo and who knows what to expect. Jeanine expressed concern to me last night that the Rangers scored 6 goals in one game so that could easily mean they score none tonight. The season has been a roller coaster so that makes sense but hey, I've given up trying to make sense out of the Rangers long ago and with Torts logic in play people like me who have common sense can't possibly predict so I just wait and see.
I do like the NYR Blog, KD does crank out a lot.
The lesson for Tortorella is that " less is more." The less he coaches the better this team plays. Or could it simply be that Brian Boyle was just a large deadweight anchor holding this team down? Cut the anchor loose and good things start to happen. I think Boyle should take his time recuperating.