Flyers Punch their way to win

That was a bad one. For many reasons.

You know, Dave Pucks went to college in Philadelphia. To this day I have a lot of friends there. But man, do I hate their sports teams. I don't even want to get started on the Eagles - so let me talk about the Flyers today.

Marian Gaborik is the heart and soul of the Rangers offense. He's that rare superstar that can also be called a gentleman. He's not a primadonna - he works hard and does not ever put himself above his team. And on the ice he always plays hard - and never gives anyone a cheap shot.

So for the Flyers' Dan Carcillo to target Gaborik - to assault him on the ice - to pick on a much smaller player - well, it is one of the more cowardly disgusting things I've ever seen on the ice. (And I've seen plenty). It's exactly what I don't like about hockey.

It’s bad for the game. It's the kind of thing that could get someone arrested if it happened off the ice.

And worse - the other Rangers just stood around and watched it happen without lifting a finger (or dropping a glove) to help.

And while Dan Girardi - who was closest to the attack when it happened - made apologies afterward - it was Sean Avery who tried to retaliate against the larger Carcillo the next time the two were on the ice together.

Sean gets it. He understands that if you don't fight back - the bully just keeps coming. And Sean actually beat the larger Carcillo - or at least got the better of the fight.

The Rangers must stand up for each other - especially for our stars. Otherwise - we're not a team at all.

The Flyers didn't out skill us last night - they intimidated us. And our two game 14 goal explosion came to an abrupt end. We were shut out for the 3rd time in 6 games.

I'm just sick about what happened. But anyway - here are the details

The Goalies: Henrik faced 27 shots and made 25 saves. The Flyers Emery shut us out - stopping 24 shots. Hank wasn't bad exactly - but when we don't score - we can't win.

Special Teams: The Flyers scored once on 3 PowerPlays. We were scoreless on 3 attempts. And that was your hockey game right there.

Scoring - there was none - so nothing to talk about here.

In conclusion: It is very discouraging to see the Rangers mini scoring surge come to such a complete halt - especially when the Flyers are trying to intimidate us. Bad loss. Hard to make anything good out of this one.
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Where we stand: Still 6th place but the hated Islander are surging and just one point behind us - and so are the Bruins.
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Next Up: Saturday night in Montreal.