Rangers: Three And a Half Men!

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses - and I'll give you a Ranger win.

The Rangers were playing their 3rd game in 3 and a half days against a Boston Bruin team that was primed to take down the conference leaders.

Tired: We kept moving our feet - but we were clearly a tired team. We did out hit the Bruins 33-17. But more importantly - we were outshot 33-15.

That's a tough stat to overcome. The Rangers clearly miss Ryan Callahan and his (hopefully just) bruised foot. And it also wasn't a bad idea to sit the Captain against the team that put him out for the seasin last year (blocking a slapshot)

So, when you are badly outshot - you can only win when your goalie badly outplays the other guy.

Poor: Tim Thomas in goal (sort of) for the Bruins made just 9 saves on the night for a 0.765 save percentage. If you put an actual Grizzly bear in pads and set him up in the Boston Goal he might be able to block 0.765% of the shots just by beign a big body in net.

Thankfully, we have Hank! His .909 save percentage allowed us to overcome the shot differential and won the day for the Blueshirts.

The Bruins kept creeping back - overcoming 2-0 and 3-2 deficits to tie the game in the third period.

But in the end it was Stepan - breaking through for the Rangers fourth goal - at 12:21 of the third - just 49 seconds after Krejci tied it - that won the day and sent the (drunk) Boss-town Bruins fans on their sad way home up I-95.

Huddled Masses: there were plenty of fights out there - with (can't you guess?) Rupp, Prust, and Bickel participating. The game nearly ended in a large brawl - but in the end both sides just huddled together - clutching and grabbing until the refs sent them home. "Hug it out," was the helpful suggestion from someone in section 418.

Other than Stepan - there were goals by Feds, Hags, and Gabs (his 32nd - and who has been skating on a line with Richards as God - and Glen - originally intended).

Two big assists for Richards and two for Del Zotto. Singles A's for Stralman - Boyle - Richards - Girardi - and Bickel

In the end - your "3 games in 3 and a half days" Rangers proved themselves to be "Three and a Half" Men - standing tall and taking 5 of a possible 6 points as they sprint to the finish line.

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