Wow! Wowitka!

Nice win for our heros – good defense and goaltending making up for a lack of scoring. The first ever Ranger goal for veteran defenseman Jeff Wowitka (and only his 9th goal ever).  A wild but scoreless overtime gave way to a Shoot Out where Christensen (as we've come to expect) and Gaborik (of all people) scored to erase Hank's one goal in 3 attempts. Just enough offense and Hank to grab 2 points. Here's our first recap of the season:

Between the Pipes!: Hiller was good. Henrick was better. The King had a .964 save percentage, beating out his Duck counterpart by 4 tenths of a percentage point. And in the shootout – with the game on the line – Hiller stopped 1 shot, and the con-Quist-ador stopped two. In the thrid period especially, Hank was amazing – keeping the game tied despite 15 Duck shots on goal.

Man-Up! The Rangers returned to their non-scoring ways ways blanking on all 4 powerplay attempts. On the plus side – your New York Rangers killed off a pair of penalties.

The New Veteran Rangers. Wowitka tossed in his first goal as a New York Ranger on his only shot of the night – a nasty rocket from the left slot! Richards was pointless tonight with one shot on goal, a minus one on the night and losing 10 of 17 face offs. He did come very close to scoring on the Shoot Out but couldnt quite get the puck in the net. It is notable that Brad led all Rangers – including the defenseman – in ice time with 26+ minutes. As for Wolski – a washout. 4 minutes, 5 shifts and nothing. No shots, no hits, no blocks.

Your Returning Rangers: Gabby was the star of the game – with 7 shots. an assist on the Lone Ranger goal, and his first Shoot Out goal winning tally in recent memory. Cally got off 6 shots. Christensen has a blank sheet in regulation – but made up for it with a crazy super-deke goal on the shootout. Boyle threw his size around with 5 solid hits.

The Kid Rangers – Stepan had 6 hits and 3 shots and finished the night +1.

Defense on Offense? Just our entire offensive output in regulation was supplied by the Wow-man.

In conclusion: Out shot but not outscored once again. What's most impressive is the defense we have put together this year despite the missing Marc Stahl. Nice win and the ship is starting to right itself.

But What About Sean? Enough with the preliminaries – what we need to know is – what did this game mean in terms of Sean Avery? Well, the results were mixed:

The Good: Wolski was a 4 minute ghost out there tonight. And Deveaux was five minutes of pointless hockey and 5 minutes of penalty box. So if Tort's trigger finger gets itchy, he has 2 good candidates for a nice, healthy scratch

The Bad: 4^th liner – Christensen was huge in the Shootout.

So we can all watch and wait – and keep hope alive

Goodnight kids – see you all tomorrow.