Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Rangers Pummelled From The Rear

The Magic Rat let us down. Big time.

As faithful followers of this space know the Magic Rat - named for (1) the former Ranger Center of something called the GAG line back in the 1970s and (2) an old Bruce Springsteen lyric from the same era - gives us advice on how to root on the out-of-town scoreboard.

Well, Magic Rat asked for just two things last night - losses for the Habs and Panthers - 2 teams in our rear view mirror that would put us out of the playoffs if they both catch us.

The Hockey Gods bestowed some luck on our mascot, but it was all bad luck.

As yours truly, Dave Pucks, was hunkered down in front of my PC, squinting at my bootlegged feed from the Versus network (my new best friend), I watched it all unfold in horror. The Canadians thumped the Blackhawks 4-1 and the Panthers vanquished the once-hot Ottawa Senators 5-2.

When the ice chips had settled our Rangers still cling gamely to the 7th seed in the East with 89 points. But but right behind in 8th with 88 points are the Canadians. And just below the Line-O-Death in 9th place with 87 points sits Florida (on a 3 game winning streak).

In fact, just 5 points separate 4th place from 9th place as we all thunder down the stretch. And the Rangers are right in the thick of it: 3 points out of 4th place and 2 points above 9th.

Hang on to your pucks folks - here we go!

2 comments:

  1. Not sure it is going to be getting any better for you tonight Dave.

    The devils travel to pittsburgh to play the penguins in a game where we actually need thos ebums from jersey to win. Unfoertunately, they have lost 5 in a row, and I don't see them pulling this one out.

    In the other game of relevance, Philly goes on the road to....Toronto.

    It would be great if the Devils could pull one out on the road, and Toronto could try and show some semblance of pride for their national sport and win on home ice, but the chances of both teams pulling it out are....low.

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  2. Agreed. This is the time of year where the teams that need to win are just trying a lot harder than the teams that don't. The Devils have looked terrible recently - you may be right to want to face them in round 1. And Toronto just got eliminated - so they're likely to be dragging. I'm just hoping we stay above 9th place.

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