Rangers Beat Flyers 4-2, Staal Injured

It's always a big momentum shifter when team scores in the first or last two minutes if a period. Ranger Captain Ryan Callahan did both in the first period last night on Madison Square Garden. But it only gave the Rangers a 2-2 tie against the Philadelphia Flyers and so there was more work to do against a team we beat regularly last year.

The second period was scoreless. The third period was taken over by Ranger superstar Rick Nash. The big man notched two goals against Mr. Universe (that's what Pucks Junior calls Philly goalie Bryzgalov ever since his "galaxies and stars" soliloquy on HBO last year) and that was the difference in a 4-2 Ranger win.

It's nice to have Nash around, isn't it? In hockey the system matters and the strategy matters but it just helps so much to have a guy who can putt he puck in the net when we need it.

Hank stopped .920 of the shots he faced while Mr. Universe saved just .800 percent. It's also really nice to have Lundqvist back there.

But the win, this third in a row, came with some potentially bad news. Marc Staal took a deflected puck squarely in the eye in the third period and did not return. It looked frightening and we are hoping the key defenseman is okay.

New York leapfrogged the falling Flyers into the eighth seed in the playoff race. That means if the season ends today....,

...we'd all be surprised since there are two months to go in the season.

Anyway. A good win and hopefully the good play continues.


Sent from my iPhone