R1, G4: Holding Serve

The Rangers did what they were supposed to on Wednesday, defeating Washington on home ice. In yet another uncomfortably close affair, the Blueshirts beat the Caps 4-3 at MSG to level the best-of-seven series at two games apiece.

As usual, the boys didn't make it easy - they blew a two-goal lead, grabbed another and let Washington to draw within one with plenty of time to go. Nerve-racking, fingernail-biting, orifice-tightening, ulcer-inducing time.

Seeing as there is little rest for the wicked and Game 5 is Friday night, here are just a few Late Hits:

*Step's eventual game-winner has to rank among the top five goals this season. What beautiful play between Cally, Hags and him. No surprise that they are all True Blue Rangers - not mercenaries - and have a degree of chemistry.

*That being said, that play really showed the difference between winners and losers. By now you've seen the Ovie "controller" gif showing his lack of interest in covering Step. Last week in Los Angeles, with the Kings up 1-0 with around five minutes to go, the Blues' Jordan Leopold had an empty net to shoot on and Justin Williams made an amazing dive to knock the puck away (wish I could find the video). That's why Williams has a Cup ring and Ovechkin is and will always be a loser.

*Rick Nash hasn't done anything to dispel my notion that he can't hack the playoffs. The overrated, overpaid showboat has been a virtual nonfactor four games in, easily covered by the Caps' mediocre collection of defensemen. Fancypants moves are great for Youtube but they don't get you Stanley nowadays. Nash has to figure out how to persevere despite the pressure.

*Nice to see Richard$ can score into an empty net. The tricky part will be for him to put the puck in one when there is a goalie there - even one as woeful as Holtby.

*Del Zaster, Stralman and Eminger ... oh, to have Staal, Sauer and Tyutin ... then we'd have Stanley.

*Astounding how quickly Torts goes back to his old habits, leaning hard on a precious few players. Even with elite athletes, the fuel is not infinite and quickly the returns will start diminishing. Half hour of play for McDonagh and Girardi, over 20 minutes for Brian Boyle? Not healthy for them, not healthy for the team.

*Anyone remember Varsity Blues, when Billy Bob asked about a play, saying "is this the one where I trot downfield and act like I'm lost?" I think of that most every time Boyle skates into the offensive zone.

*It is always hard to score goals in hockey. In the NHL it is almost impossible, that's why these players are well-paid professionals. But, in theory, when there are five of your guys and there are just three of the bad guys the odds to score should, in theory, go up. If having one less bad guy out there is called having an "advantage," then having two less bad guys must really be something wonderful. And it is, for everyone except the New York Rangers. Of course.

*Nice to see Clowe back on the ice but he clearly was not 100%. It is scary to think of the risk he is taking, especially when there are capable alternatives available for the amount of ice time available.

*I mentioned the "Any Given Sunday" 'one inch' speech in my wrap of Game 3 and MSG had a dead puck pump-up video to it in Game 4. Could be coincidence but perhaps someone's watching me ...

*PHW Three Stars:
3-Dan Girardi - one goal.
2-Derick Brassard - two assists.
1-Carl Hagelin - one goal and two assists.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars:
3-Brassard - That skilled guy from Columbus keeps collecting points; no, the other one ...
2-Mathieu Perrault - A goal and an assist for this fast, persistent little pest.
1-Hagelin - Bork. Borkborkbork. Bork. So glad the Swede's hard work paid off, really love the hustle.

8-5-1: Selective Memory

The Rangers skated away from Sunday's 'matinee' match against the Capitals with two points. In the end, that is all that is important. Aside from the two outstanding tallies by the Blueshirts, most of the details of the one-goal win are not worth remembering.

The fact that they were taken to the wire by the worst team in the Eastern Conference, well, we need to forget about that. An inexcusable goal against on a wide open shot just over a minute in, Hank's good looks erase that. Sitting on a one-goal lead rather than trying to make it a two-goal lead? Slip it from your mind. Four poor penalties? Let 'em go. Darroll Powe getting knocked out by Matt Hendricks? Already ignored, no one bothered to avenge him anyway. Yet another occurrence of Braden Holtby-ism, a syndrome where the Rangers make the mediocre netminder look good by inflating his stats with easy saves? Definitely worth deleting from the memory bank.

Once all that is consigned to oblivion we can bask in the brilliance of the two goals scored by the Blueshirts and the two points they took for defeating the Caps. Beating Washington is always wonderful and, at the end of the day, that is what the boys in blue did. They triumphed over Ovie and improved to 5-1-1 in their last seven games. Selective memory is a wonderful thing.

Late Hits:

*A power play goal. By the Rangers. Really. And it was glorious. I felt like James Bond. Richard$ actually won a faceoff, Nash's fancy-pants move actually worked to pass it back, then tic-tac-toe Richard$ to Del Zaster to Stepan and we're winning.

*Step finished that play, and he started the game-tying tally. He hustled to the boards, pressuring Troy Brouwer into making a poor pass that McDonagh intercepted and fired deep. Hagelin then tipped Tom Poti's clearing attempt, allowing Rick Nash to get it and feed McDonagh for the shot that Hagelin redirected in. Bork, Bork, Bork!

*And Poti - of all the blueliners in all the world - Poti being the player to lose his cover ... simply spectacular. POOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTTIIIIIIII, POOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTTIIIIIIII, POOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTTIIIIIIII. Peanut Butta Poti Time, Peanut Butta Poti Time! It is soooo much fun to revel in his mistakes, now that they aren't made while he's wearing a Ranger sweater.

*The current Blueshirt blueliner to draw my ire, Del Zaster, didn't suck. He saw way too much ice time, made a few blatant mistakes and took a terrible penalty, but he didn't suck. Maybe he just looked passable thanks to Poti being on the same ice ... yeah, that probably was it.

*DZ was one of several Rangers guilty of going down to try to block passes. Sure the play looks pretty, but it just shows how far out of position the player was.

*Bravo to NBC Sports for including the national anthem, which featured John Amirante. Sad they missed his trademark fist-pump, but still more than we get during MSG broadcasts. And no Micheletti, can't beat that.

*Sounded like a loud crowd on tv. It was helped that the 6pm start was the earliest of the season (pending the last two NBC games) and that it came on the eve of a holiday. Nice to see the Rangers recognized it with a give-away ... oh, wait, they didn't.

*Kinda sad to see that Ovechkin shaved his dastardly Van Dyke. Ah well, at least we know he's still evil.

*Cally tangling with Ovie? What a moment. And his honest, selfless work at the end of the game? It is getting hard to love our captain more.


*Not only does it appear that Adam Oates has no idea how to coach, but it looks like he had some bad plastic surgery too. Bet he scares all the children on Halloween. Loved that it was him, rather than our dynamic duo behind the bench, that got called for a too many men on the ice.

*Don't tell me Hendricks didn't nail Powe intentionally, I watched the replay a number of times and you can see him lower his right shoulder right before impact. He saw Powe coming and used it to his advantage. The only surprise is that it wasn't John Erskine who did it.

*Asham helped Powe off the ice, the first instance of him actually doing something positive for his Ranger teammates.

*PHW Three Stars:
3- Braden Holtby - 38 saves.
2- Rick Nash - one assist.
1- Carl Hagelin - one goal.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars:
3- Hagelin - While he gives credit to Nash for making room for him, last season Hags had chance after chance last season that he couldn't capitalize upon. Now he's finishing.
2- Stepan - Some games Step looks amazing, others he disappears. Once he gains some consistency we will have ourselves one terrific second line center.
1- Callahan - The wind beneath our wings.

6-5-0: Safe Is Death

For the second week in a row the Rangers defeated the Lightning, this time (Sunday) it was a 5-1 trouncing of a terrible Tampa team. The bone-weary Bolts, who had battled their way through the blizzard not to play in Boston, tried to lay it all on the line and their gamble didn't pay off.

For long stretches both teams appeared to use John Tortorella's old "Safe is Death" philosophy and it worked for the good guys. The key to that ideology is having a good enough defense and goaltending to cope with all of the flying forwards and on this night Tampa certainly didn't.

It was one of the more embarrassing performances by a NHL team in recent memory, as goal-by-goal Tampa displayed what not to do. Right off the bat they had three guys chasing Rick Nash and he was still able to get a shot off to put the Rangers ahead. Granted, it hit a defenseman's stick and Carl Hagelin, but given how Garon was playing it woulda probably beat him regardless.

Hell, the Rangers weren't much better as they still can't figure out how to do a line change. But at least they ended up on top. After the first win over the Bolts the Blueshirts followed it up with a loss in Newark so we have to hold out hope that tonight's tilt in Boston will be better.

Just a few, quick Late Hits as it is so far after the fact:

*Matt Carle, even worse at defense than Del Zaster.

*Tom Poti was allergic to peanut butter. Given how much time Del Zaster spends behind the opponent's net, maybe he is allergic to Lundqvist.

*Welcome back Dan Girardi, never leave us again.

*Bork, bork, bork. Deflection on Hagelin's first, exploited Garon's Ron Hextall five-hole for the other. Hextall tried to kill himself after those two 6-0 losses back in '94 but the train went through his legs.

*Anders Lindback wasn't any better: not only did he let Arron Asham score but both he was able to see both shots that beat them and they sailed in short side. Not NHL caliber, and killing my fantasy team.

*Hank was solid, and should have had a shutout. Two great saves (and two long rebounds) before Vinny04 scored the Bolts lone goal. Someone, anyone, shoulda helped the King out.

*Derek Stepan is slowly getting better. He may have actually been hurt by playing overseas  acclimating back to the smaller rink and quicker contact has been a task.

*Maybe Matt Gilroy should get a shot at the power play point? At least until someone capable can be brought in at the deadline (Mark Streit). Just a thought.

*JT Miller's third NHL game was a solid, if unspectacular one. Given Tortorella's reliance on his top guys during tough times, really have to hope that Miller doesn't atrophy on the bench the way that Manny Malhotra once did.

*My shock has been replaced by awe, as this guy at the home opener was clearly ahead of the curve. If I was willing to give the NHL any more money - I'm not - I would get one too.

*PHW Three Stars:
3-Rick Nash - one goal and one assist.
2-Henrik Lundqvist - 19 saves.
1-Carl Hagelin - two goals and one assist.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars:
3-Girardi - Almost tabbed Cally for his 'Little Ball of Hate' edge but his goal was just on such a horrible play by Carle that Dan-O gets the edge. The Blueshirt blueliner stepped right back in and completely negated Stamkos, not an easy feat.
2-Hagelin - Love when his hard work pays off.
1-Nemo - The winter storm clearly took something out of the Lightning.