Weekend Split, but I'll take it

To realistically catch the Flyers and have a shot at the 4 seed in the east (and home ice in the first round), the rangers needed to win all of their final 4 games against philly (since philly has 2 games in hand). After the depressing loss yesterday, it's not out of reach, but Rangers absolutely had to win the next 3, starting with today on home ice.

Thanks to solid Hank again, a more and more dominant avery, and a resurgent power play (which got plenty of practice) the rangers were able to overcome some tired legs, and some awful announcing by Doc Emrick, to hammer the flyers 4-1. The win moves the rangers up to 80 points on the season and guarantees they will stay in the top 8 heading into next week. It also moves the rangers 4 points back of philly for that 4 spot in the east and keeps some hope alive to attain that spot.

Some highlights:

- Avery, 2 goals, drew a couple of penalties, and took a very debatable one (an interference on the goalie where he was pushed into the goalie, made an effort to not run him over, and it was still called. The refs were terrible all game, but for the most part it benefited the rangers, since the flyers, while the bigger team, clearly had no legs coming off yesterday and were hooking almost every minute to compensate for their lack of energy). Avery was probably the quickest skater on the ice, constantly driving to the net and putting pressure on Nitimaki. NBC did a nice job of showing Avery keeping his stick on the ice for his first deflection of a hard slap shot from Morris. Often players leave their sticks up, and try and bring them down when the shot is on the way, which is MUCH more difficult then starting low and bringing your stick up. Also having the stick low gives a guy like Morris a target to shoot for. As big of a jerk as he is on the ice (which helps him take the star player on the other team out of his game), Avery actually is an incredibly well schooled, fundamentally strong player, who happens to also be a great skater. Avery has played his "best game with the rangers" now three straight games.

- The Rangers power play was strong. They got a lot of work thanks to a ton of calls on philly (most of them deserved). Morris really looked great with his ability to not only find the open man, but to actually SHOOT when he had a lane. Antropov also scored his third goal with the rangers, second on the power play. He has very talented hands, and is a big body that plays down low. I think it would be fair to say outside of Hank; Avery, Antropov, and Morris have probably been the rangers 3 best players the last 5 games. (Gomez has been solid as well, but I give the edge to those guys)

- The rangers penalty kill was excellent again. They gave up a deflected goal in the second period, but otherwise gave up almost no chances short handed on Hank. Sjostrom and Betts are fantastic on the kill. Betts has now almost reached that special "He's overrated for being underrated" place as a player. He is one of, if not the best penalty killing forward in the league, and for the most part, announcers never notice this. So it went un-noticed for well over a year. Then finally, one announcer says it, and it immediately goes on every announcer's pregame notes sheet that "betts top penalty killer for rangers, underrated". So now every time the rangers do a game on Versus, or NBC, some announcer that has covered them maybe twice all year has to say how great Betts is on the kill to show he knows what he is talking about.

- Hank, strong per usual. Coming off a tough game in Philly, glad torts went back to him infront of the home crowd today. With the win, Hank now 5-1, 2.16 GAA the last 6 games in net (Rangers 5-2 last 7). Hank has been incredible down the stretch in each of the last 3 seasons, need to have that again.

Guys I have been on, and how they did today:

- Redden and Doobie: Neither had ANY positive impact on the game. They weren't bad though, they just didn't do much if anything. That's the way it has been with these two most of the year. Redden either is no help on the power play, lets a puck hop over his stick that turns into a goal the other way, and plays soft, OR he has a game like today where he did nothing to stand out, but didn't hurt the team. Hard to imagine 5 more years of this type of play (for 30 million dollars). Doobie on the other hand isn't washed up, he just won't realize his talent (or his talent was drastically overestimated). When he tries to be physical, he takes a penalty hitting guys upstairs with his elbows. On offense, you didn't even know he was on the ice.

- Rozsival:.......wow....just wow. That's all I can say. I don't think it is a completely absurd statement to say that was the worst game a rangers defenseman has played this year, in a winning effort. He was taking bad penalties, he missed a WIDE OPEN NET on a perfect feed from callahan rush, at the time a huge missed shot. He is playing incredibly soft, and on the powerplay, he is starting to do more and more of a Dan girardi-esque slow wrister with nothing on it towards the net in traffic that never even gets close to the goal. He makes VERY slow decisions with the puck. He looks lost. 3 more years of him and redden together at 11 mill a year is a bit of a nightmare. (Mark Streit, with the Islanders, got a 5 years, 21 million dollars deal in the offseason. Rozsival got 4 years and 20 mill. Streit was a part of a Montreal power play that led the league in goals two years in a row, and he was a huge factor why. Now he is playing great on a terrible Islanders team. Where was sather???)

Today was a huge win. Team played hard after a tough loss yesterday, gotta rest for an ENORMOUS game on tuesday in Montreal, where the rangers play has been "poor" the last two seasons.

Only game of relevance the rest of the day, Bruins at Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is hot, Bruins are skidding badly. I really can't root for a team from Boston because I have a college education and no one in my family has ever been a roofer or worked with any type of stones or bricks for a living that I know of. Also most people in my family would probably think the guy that bashes a girls head into a windshield over and over because of something she said was at fault, not the other way around (http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/03/13/many_boston_teens_surveyed_say_rihanna_is_at_fault_for_assault/) OOh well, hope pittsburgh loses.

3 Goals and Hank

We couldn't agree more with Nugman. A great night and a great win for the Rangers. Three goals and Hank and you've got another victory. (We got a 4th goal but 3 was all we needed.)

Suddenly I love the coaching. Torts rewards hustle (example: Avery promoted to the top line) and benches lack-of-hustle (example: Zherdev has a seat while Callahan steps in). This is that ACCOUNTABILITY thing that the Rangers have so long lacked. When you reward players that try hard you quickly get two things: (1) More ice time for the hustling players and (2) an obvious incentive for the other players to start hustling to get more ice time. Plus - Tortorella's loud 1st intermission "suggestions" seemed to light a fire under our heroes. They started the 2nd period like they were shot from a cannon.

And how about that Sean Avery? Have you ever seen a more immediate impact on a hockey club from the addition of one player (who was not a superstar or a goalie)? Sean was everywhere last night and he and his new line (Gomez & Callahan) played huge and generated a large part of our offense. And almost as important - he's helped make our team fun to watch again. The guys just seemed to have more speed, more offense and more power than usual. And they defended Lundqvist by keeping the puck far far away from him. Because the best Defense occurs when you're not defending at all - by making the other guy defend his goal.

The win leapfrogs us north of the Line-O-Death (which lurks just out of the playoffs between 8th and 9th place - see left). There's still a long way to go - but it's a heck of a lot more comfortable looking ahead when our boys are sitting with the cool kids - at least for the moment. And as Nugman pointed out - only two NOOT-failures and a generally good day for the scoreboard last night.

Tonight's two games have no impact on our playoff hopes - so eyes off the scoreboard this evening (perhaps Nugman's "drink heavily" advice would do nicely here) and start thinking about Saturday's big matinee verses the Philadelphia Cheese Steaks. If the ratings are good they'll go ahead and replay the game on Sunday afternoon as well.

And on tomorrow's scoreboard - here's how to root (Deb Kaufman please take note):

Senators over Penguins
Thrashers over Sabres
Devils over Canadians (not that we like rooting for those guys)
Capital over Hurricanes.

And please - NOOT - people - NOOT! Let's focus.

Rumors - I Hear Rumors

Hey Bruce, The latest bird on the wire is that a certain Mr. Avery has been spotted at the Ranger practice today skating together with Scott Gomez and Nikolai Zherdev. This can only mean one of two possibilities:

Gomez and Zherdev have both been demoted to the 3rd line (somewhat justified but not likely), or

Sean Avery has been promoted and joins the Rangers 2nd line. Not a bad first week back into the NHL for our little Sean.

But also - Henrik is still sick to his stomach - and no one knows exactly why. (My guess would point at the Ranger defense as at least a contributing factor). Let's hope our Goalie-upon-whom-all-hope-depends feels better really really soon.

Rangers tumble to 9th place

Well, as Torts said himself afterwards: "We're just not going to win if we don't score goals."

And, I think, that expert analysis sums it up pretty well. Those Hurricanes have 5 shutouts this year - and our Rangers haven't exactly been wearing out the twine behind the goalie this year - and our win streak wasn't going to last forever - and you can't win if you don't score - and it wasn't Hank between the pipes - but still - this one hurt.

And I'm surprised the refs managed to look away from Avery long enough to call any penalties on anyone else....

Looking at the standings this morning, our local hero's are, in fact, themselves standing. That is, standing on the outside looking in - in 9th place of an 8 team playoffs field. It's not a good feeling.

So we are in a tough scramble to the finish now - with the schedule against us and time running out.

One thing I have to say I liked - resting Lundquist, I thought, was a good idea. Renny usually rode him to death in prior years so that our star player was worn down just when we needed him most. Let's hope Hank comes out of the gate and down the stretch better than ever.

Otherwise, we may have just seen the beginning of the end.

Dave

Nice Win

Well put, Bruce. I was really happy to see that after losing a two goal lead - our Rangers did not fold up their tent and go home. They found enough inner grit to battle back - to regain the momentum just enough to insert another one past the Bruins porous goaltender.

(And when is the last time you saw an NHL goalie play so badly as the Bruin's netminder? I used to play goalie in street hockey in the Bronx - I was not that impressive - but I never kicked the puck in my own net or left the crease without knowing where the puck was.)

I know we could have (maybe should have) lost that game. I know we're teetering and could finish well out of the money before we're done. But damn it - I'm starting to get that emotional charge again. Those Rangers, Hank and Avery and Drury - they've pulled me back on the roller coaster.

-Dave

Why I Like Avery

I've never met Shaun Avery. And I probably wouldn't like to play against him. He can, basically, act like a jerk on the ice - running his mouth - sneaking in a jab when the ref is not looking - and running the goalie.

But wow, is he ever fun to watch. He makes every match personal and emotional. Because the other team hates him - and they pick on him. And then the other Rangers get involved and suddenly a lifeless collection of men becomes a fiery hockey team.

And you won't find a player who tries harder. Sean gives up the body play after play. He gave his spleen for the New York Rangers and they thanked him with a one-way ticket out of midtown. But now, all is forgiven - Avery is back.

Renney and Sather sent him packing. But now, he's outlasted Tom. He may outlast Slats before this is all in the books.

All I know is when he's on the ice - it just feels more like the Rangers I know and love.

Welcome back Seanny

-Dave

A Little Help, Please

It seems every team the rangers are competing against are on fire right now, buffalo, Carolina, Pittsburgh, Montréal all seem to win every time they play. Rangers gotta pull this one out against the bruins, then two more big games, tomorrow against Carolina is huge (especially because they have today off)

It would be very nice if the capitals could beat the penguins, and the stars could beat the Canadians today, get a little help.

Andropov and Morris have had a very positive impact in their two games so far, nice to have Avery back as well.

-Bruce

SEAN!

Like waking from a bad dream - Sean Avery - our favorite Ranger is back in the uniform he loves, back on the Garden Ice and, and back just in time to do all he can to help right the sinking ship. Keep checking this space to see Dave Pucks and Nugman, the Blueshirt brothers, comment, cheer, lament, and live-and-die with their hockey team - the New York Rangers.

-Dave