Outdoor Chillers

Well there were no excuses from the goalies last night. Both, Lundqvist and Nabokov, had none and played well. Lundqvist made 30 saves and Nabokov made 32. And it was the role players who did the damage not the so called big stars. Brock Nelson opened the scoring for the Islanders, his 10th, late in the 2nd period, and 40 seconds later after Islander coach Capuano got greedy, Pouliot tied it for the Rangers, his 9th. With about a minute and a half to go Capuano put out his top line rather than his checking line. It backfired

The Rangers winning goal was scored by Dan Carcillo his third, at 4:36 of the third period. Carcillo has been quite a find for the Rangers being quite productive in the little ice time he has gotten. Last night in 7 minutes he had a goal, 3 shots, 2 hits and picked up a two minute penalty.  Only Nash, five, and Richards, four, outshot Carcillo on the Rangers.

The Rangers have now swept the Stadium Series against two blood rivals, the Devils and Islanders. They now have one more game against the Islanders on Friday which will decide the season series. Can you imagine, the end of January and the Rangers and Isles play each other no more. It's like the Yankees and Red Sox finishing their season series in July. Only in the NHL folks!

So now the Rangers are three points up on the Flyers for second place in the Metro and are 9-3-1 and playing their best hockey of the season. 50,027 showed up last night which covers all the sins, of bouncing pucks, freezing fans and watered down hot chocolate. The gimmick is over for the year, at least, and now it is back to normal hockey. Imagine this, a big outdoor hockey event and it didn't make the back pages of the local newspapers. All the reporters who feigned interest in hockey can now go back to writing about the Super Bowl, Ad nauseam.

Keep it going Rangers!

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