16-13-3: Orange Crushed

With just one blemish in the rivalry's recent history, it is clear that the Rangers still have the Flyers' number. And that is why it is almost impossible to get too excited over Tuesday night's entertaining 5-2 win over the orange and black.

Was it fun seeing the Ranger skill players actually making skill plays? Hell yes. But does it mean anything beyond the two points? Not really, especially with Ottawa looming.

The Sens are on a 6-1-2 run that was kicked off by that Friday night win at MSG earlier this month. last night's loss dropped the Flyers to 2-6-1, leaving them one spot out of the cellar. Seeing as the Blueshirts were coming off a loss to the actual basement dwellers, a win over the second-worse team in the LEast is a step up. The key will be carrying that momentum over the border and into Scotiabank ....

Late Hits:

*Someone needs to express to the Rangers that this season is like the movie "Speed" - there is no option, they have to keep their damned foot on the gas at all times. Because it doesn't take much for it to explode in your face, as it almost did tonight.

*Step struggled to get his game re-adjusted after his Finnish foray during the lockout but it's pretty safe to say things are going quite nicely lately. Yeah, pretty safe.

*For all of the ups and downs of this season, we've seen a few outstanding goals and Kreider's was definitely one of them. It was a perfect combination of great ice-sight, precision passing and incompetent defending by the opponent. Credit given and due to DZ for the final feed - too often he hesitates but when he makes the decisive move it makes things happen.

*Philly really missed Nick Grossmann. And Chris Pronger, for that matter.

*Five goals in one game, an offensive explosion by the Blueshirts. And zip, nothing, nada, nula from Marian Gaborik, not even a single shot attempted.

*Arron Asham, against his former team, no hits in nine minutes of ice time.

*Was that the least physical Ranger/Flyer game in history? It was surely up there.

*Roman Hamrlik, appreciate you coming in and giving it a shot but this is just not working out. Hope you can conclude your playing career with some kind of grace with HC Zlin next season alongside your brother.

*Wayne Simmonds is a warrior. Definitely hate the fact that he's a Flyer.

*Still doesn't seem real - the Rangers scored a power play goal. And it was Brad Richard$?

*Not that he had much help, but Bryz was horrible. After making a terrific save on Hagelin's early breakaway, Mr. Universe made a number of mistakes and the Rangers were able to take advantage. Nash scored on a wrap-around. A wrap-around!

*PHW Three Stars:
3-Carl Hagelin - one assist.
2-Rick Nash - two goals and one assist.
1-Derek Stepan - one goal and three assists.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars:
3-Hank - Amazing how many big saves he's been making over the last few games while battling a concussion.
2-Nash - He has his moments, doesn't he?
1-Step - Still plenty of games to go but if he keeps this level of play up ... wow.