Hat Trick for All Star Gaborik

The NHL All Star game. It's like a hockey game.

Sort of.

I mean the box score shows a total of one hit. One. And zero penalties. So the best players in the world skate into the offensive zone unabated (editor: Dude?) (Dave Pucks: It means so one tries to stop them) and there are dozens of quality chances on the goalies.

So - when Marian Gaborik skated in on Ranger Teammate (but All Star opponent) Henrik Lundqvist, I'm sure he flashed back to his 5 goal game against Hank back when he played for the Minnesota Wild.

Sure enough - Gaborik scored the first and 3rd goals of the contest. Both against Lundqvist on Sunday. And he opened the 2nd period with his hat trick goal once Lundqvist had taken a seat for the day.

But the funniest moment was on Gabby's first goal. After scoring he immediately lifted his stick like a rifle and pretended to squeeze of a shot at Hank. He was imitating an infamous moment earlier this season when Artem Anisimov did the same thing in a real hockey game - inciting the opposition and turning the game into a war and eventual Ranger loss. The series 24-7 captured Artem's awkward apology to his teammates for causing the trouble. Gabby found the perfect way at the perfect time to reshape the tough moment into something positive. Anisimov – watching at home must be feeling like everything is okay now – that all is forgiven and that it's time to move on.

Anyway – Gaborik had 3 goals and an assist and won the game MVP. Girardi had an assist. Henrik Lundqvist stopped 9 of the 12 shots that came his way.

A fun diversion – a little break – but now the rest of the season gets underway. Our Rangers are way up high in the standings. And so our expectations.

Here we go.