Scrivens, Oilers Stun Rangers

You can't tell me the Rangers weren't looking past a lowly Oiler team last night. As the bottom feeder of the West the Oilers looked like the good patsys prior to the big game against the Penguins. Maybe it was the fact that this was the 6,000th game in Ranger history and there must have been at least 3,000 of these kinds of games. The Oiler goalie, Scrivens, won his second game against the Rangers this year. As an LA King, he shut out the Rangers 1-0 and now in two complete games he has given up all of one goal. Let's hope they stop trading him to teams that still have to play the Rangers. The Oilers are now 20-33-6, and the Rangers are now 30-24-3.

It's a different ball game tonight. The Rangers play the number one team in the East and Lundqvist will be back in the nets. But don't blame this one on Talbot. He was good, with 29 saves but the Rangers were bad. They opened up with a sloppy first period, let Ryan Smith score the 384th goal of his illustrious career and though they tied it on Brassard's 11th of the year they were doomed to lose and did when Nail Yakupov netted his 11th late in the third period.

So tonight it's the Pens in Pittsburgh. No looking ahead and no looking back. It's a statement game for the Rangers. If they are to be the great pretenders they must play a strong game against one of the NHL's elite teams. So all hands on deck. Forget the loss to the Oilers. Forget the Olympics. It will be on us soon enough. It's Pittsburgh. It's Crosby. It's Malkin. It's Fluery. We better be ready otherwise this spurt we were on prior to the Oiler game will be for naught.

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