39-26-9: Maaaaaaarrrrty

A warning at the start: I didn't get to watch the game live or go to Newark so I may have missed some of the fun minutia catching Rangers in 60 - feel free to fill me in in the comments below. My observations are pretty much chronological as I don't have a lotta time tonight; my sincerest apologies. So let's get going:

*Sean got the Rangers into the game by grappling with David Clarkson. I don't know about you but I cringed. Why should our sparkplug take on a second-class citizen as Clarkson? I know the history, but still, he really isn't worth it.

*The first Devils goal really, really bothered me. The Rangers stretched themselves out and lost their coverage, with Dan Girardi probably the biggest culprit by ranging out from the slot, allowing Dainius Zubrus to slide in and score.

*Kudos to Scott Gomez for a pretty solid game. I loved watching him get booed for almost a solid minute as he skated around the ice with the puck killing a penalty. It was beautiful, beautiful!

*I have to tell you that it is annoying to try to avoid watching the bottom line with scores going across. They really shouldn't do that as folks like me are watching because we didn't get to see it. Catching the score takes away from the fun of it.

*You could hear the Newark crowd doing the classic whistle with their "Rangers Suck" in place of the traditional "Potvin Sucks". Why do they insist on making it a rivalry? Don't they know they don't count? They are barely a real franchise ... they win Cups and celebrate by driving around a parking lot. They helped kill the game with boring hockey and their fans barely show up to games. If it wasn't for Maaaaaaaarrrrrrrty, no one would care about them at all.

*Whoever did the cut for Rangers in 60 should be shot. I know its a quick turnaround and all, but what a disjointed edit job. There were few replays and cuts in the middle of play.

*Yet another game Colton Orr played, yet another game I found his presence pointless. Its really nice to think of Hollweg and Prucha wasting away, especially Pru as he did a ton of rehab for his shoulder so he certainly needs to get some game action in before the playoffs.

*And what a great bonus it is for us to have Chris Drury on our roster for those playoffs (if we make it, I won't presume that we are assured of a spot yet. Dru got a great goal to tie the game with five minutes left after Ryan Callahan's deft work captivated two Devils and left Dru alone at the far post to bang in the equalizer.

*Was Dancin' Larry there??? With less than a minute left the Devils game crew played his song during the Rangers time out ... How awesome would that be to see him dance in their building? That would be an incredible slap in the face.

*I didn't see Backman or Malik make any egregious mistakes. Backman looked useless on the power play, but as I said, it was hard to tell watching the edited game. Somehow Backman got 25:46 of ice time, a Rangers high. Insanity.

*And on that note - Rangers power play was 0-4. Another game, another donut with the man down. hey, remember that Jagr guy? He used to be good on the power play. What ever happened to him?

*Damn Rangers in 60 cut from Drury's goal to the last minute so I can't tell if they actually tried to win the game or were skating for the point. It looked like they went for it, which would be a nice change from the norm.

*And we are in a shootout, nice. Shanny went for what has been his fallback move of a wrist shot and waited too long so Maaaaaaaarrrrrty was able to make the stop. Luckily Maaaaaaaaaarrrrrty fell for Dawesie's silly little fake so we got a goal. Cally was too fast for his own good and Hank did his job, standing tall against the midgets the Devils threw at him to seal the win. What a beautiful thing. We just might be able to pull this off?!?!? Still a lot of important games left.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Chris Drury - one goal.
2-Dainius Zubrus - one goal.
1-Maaaaaaaarrrrrrrrty - 20 saves in a loss. That's just screwed up.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Hank - 17 saves in the game and three in the skills competition to get the win.
2-Callahan/Dawes/Dubinsky - Only Dawes scored, and that was in the shootout, but all three were flying and pressing the action.
1-Drury - the Little Leaguer, Captain America, Captain Clutch ... whatever you want to call him, Dru is the man when it comes down to the wire and his performance of late justifies his contract.