14-5-3: More Rolaids In Raleigh

The current group of cardiac kids that is the Rangers continued to make things as hard as possible on themselves on Thursday night and yet they still managed to escape with a win. They defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 5-3 despite committing two of the worse errors teams can make - they spotted the opposition a lead in the first few seconds and then they gave up goals in the waning minutes of not one but two periods. Utterly remarkable.

Yet again Ryan Callahan led the way. Just over a minute after Jiri Tlusty opened the scoring Cally planted himself in front on the power play. Not down by the goal line but right at the top of the crease. And being there allowed him to score a Phil Esposito-style garbage goal, after Brad Richard$ shot was stopped by Cam Ward. That goal signaled that the team wasn't about to back down and they didn't, later rallying with three straight goals in the second period. It was an accomplishment made even more impressive when you consider the jump Carolina had with new head coach Kirk Muller. But with Muller making them skate an up-tempo style that was unfamiliar to the Paul Maurice disciples, the Canes simply couldn't keep up with the Rangers.

Hey, there were still issues with the Blueshirts' play but the resolution not to relent was certainly heartening.

Late Hits:

*The talk on the broadcast and in the postgame was all about the shot blocking of Derek Stepan and John Mitchell. That is kind of curious considering that this team has been shot blocking like mad for two seasons. Just because someone other than Dan Girardi or Ryan Callahan gave up their body to block the puck shouldn't make news - especially when we've seen Step and Mitchell go all-in to make plays. The more impressive moment for me was in the final minute. It is a two-goal game, Carolina is pressing in the Ranger end just praying to get one back and Marian Gaborik of all people goes sliding across the ice to knock a loose puck over the blue line. That was remarkable to me.

*Sean Avery played a team-low 8:37 and yet still contributes with a goal and several strong shifts. The goal came during a rare moment when he ended up alongside Marian Gaborik, showing the chemistry that the two have with each other - chemistry that they have shown before. And yet I still have a sinking feeling that Wojtek Wolski will get a game in at Avery's expense, the second he is ready and the second that Sean takes a bad penalty.

*Avery's normal center nowadays, Brandon Dubinsky, still isn't scoring. While it is to the point where the guys are looking for him to get an empty netter, Dubi did make a great feed to Ryan McDonagh that the defender converted into the game-tying goal. The highlight of that play to me, however, was Brandon Prust smartly letting the puck go past him while heading to the net to try to get a deflection or rebound. No nonsense, by-the-book hockey.

*In the 'timing is everything' department MSG showed the age-old video of Jeff Skinner as a figure skater, giving Micheletti an opportunity to talk about what a good skater is and how great his balance is. Seconds later Skinner stumbled and was crushed into the boards by Brian Boyle. Can't make it up.

*Boyle had to immediately defend himself as Anthony Stewart jumped in to defend Skinner's honour. After watching that, you really wonder if his team-listed measurements of 6'7, 244 are correct. You would think that someone that big should be able to throw a punch. But no.

*At least Boyle is complimenting Mitchell and Hagelin well. The trio is playing smart, simple, hard working hockey and it has been paying off. Boyle won 10 of 13 faceoffs, Hagelin was simply wonderful yet again while Mitchell continued to battle for his NHL life every shift. Their efforts allowed Mike Sauer's soft shot to sail through traffic and Cam Ward for the game-sealing goal.

*Del Zaster had yet another secondary assist on the power play. Remarkable. Very tough to decide to pass it to the highest-paid player on the rink who was standing wide open five, 10 feet away. Ball breaking aside, Del Zaster managed not to feed the puck directly to any Hurricanes in the Ranger end so it has to be considered as a good game for him.

*When I saw the home-run pass to Arty Anisimov ahead of the Gaborik goal, I was sure it was MDZ. Instead, Jeff Woywitka. Kinda unexpected to say the least. Arty's feed to Gaborik is amusing because at first glace he looked like he was making a great fake when instead he nearly fell flat on his face when his skate caught a rut.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Ryan McDonagh - one goal.
2-Jeff Skinner - one goal.
1-Marian Gaborik - one goal and one assist.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-McDonagh - Marc Staal can take all the time in the world to fully recover. Sure it would be nice to have him back and thus limit the ice time Del Zaster gets and remove Eminger from the lineup, but McD has more than suitably filled in for our injured number one defender.
2-Cally - When you add the characteristics of former captain Vic Hadfield to those of Esposito you get something close to what we are seeing from Callahan. It is hard not to head out into hyperbole when describing him after Chris Drury's recent tenure seeing someone live up to the letter is wonderful.
1-Gaborik - The aforementioned play to knock the puck out of the zone was more as impressive than his feed to Avery or his own goal from Arty. Gabby scored five goals against us that one time, we know he has offensive ability. But when the Slovakian Slacker goes all-out to make an important play like that you know things are going well for us.

18-16-3: Merry Christmas!

The Rangers ensured that New York would have a happy holiday by beating the Florida Panthers 4-1 tonight at the Garden. They extended their win streak to four games and broke a five game winless streak at home. Ho freakin' ho, it may just be a merry Christmas.

There are plenty of notes so I won't waste more time, especially as I missed the first airing of Ranger Rewind and am trying to do this from memory:

*So theeeeere is Vinny Prospal, coming in late behind the play to bang in the trash. After far too many games of being invisible in a bad way, Prospal was invisible in a good way to get to the Florida net untouched to finish off a pair of plays and score a pair of goals. Given the attention that Gaborik garners, Prospal should be able to get loose like this more often and tonight he used it to his advantage.

*Gaborik, by the way, is outstanding. He doesn't have the presence or the combination of size and strength that Jagr had but he certainly has the scoring ability. We were screaming for a penalty shot after Drury was hooked at center ice but Gaborik swooped in to get the puck and race in to sweep a backhand through the Czech Vokoun. Jagr was rarely fun to watch, playing a power possession game; Gaborik is worth the price of admission with that speed and that shot. Well, maybe not the price in NY, but the price in most other cities.

*Anyone else panic when they saw Hank down on the ice holding his head in the third period? He made a save and a Panther kicked him on the head going by. Luckily Hank was able to shake it off after a minute and continue but it does go to show just how fragile the future of our franchise is. If Hank goes down, we are done.

*As typical of any fan, while I was calling for blood for that Panther nailing Hank, I was cheering Sean Avery for his work all evening. Avery opened the night with a shift where he swooped past Vokoun three times, making some form of contact each time. A little bit of a bump, a little bit of a slash, another 'accidental' bump ... and from there on out Florida spent an inordinate amount of time going after him - twice taking roughing penalties for chasing him in scrums. It has gone beyond being a theory: when Avery is being Avery, the Rangers are winners. When he is castrated by an incompetent coach, he isn't playing his game and the Rangers aren't winning.

*Mike Duco may think he is tough, but he is no Avery. And big Steve MacIntyre barely played. That's a shame as it would have been nice to see him knock Brashear out but what can you do? Brashear was still able to wander around aimlessly, missing checks and being a complete liability on ice losing pucks and looking clueless. So glad Sather signed him for his 'offensive upside' ...

*Plenty of people have spoken up Arty Anisimov's offensive upside but it is evenings like tonight that cast some doubt. The big kid, who is more Jagr than Gaborik, had a poor game. He lost a slew of faceoffs and was mostly missing from the Ranger attack. Brandon Dubinsky was everything that Arty wasn't. Dubi was certainly missed and his return has taken some of the burden off of Drury, allowing the captain to contribute more and score yet again.

*Just want to give some credit to the opponent, specifically former Ranger Dominic Moore. Moore was the best Panther on the ice, skating hard and playing well on both sides of the puck. No Dominic, not forget aboot it, forget abaht it.

*The Rangers had a in-arena gimmick where they had people text in their favourite holiday present. The results ranged to the expected Ranger jerseys and tickets to the unexpected chocolate menorahs. But the winner, by far, was the leopard print Snuggie.

*Also ridiculous was Wade Redden having yet another bad game. I think it is about time he goes back into the press box because the first benching clearly hasn't done anything. Ill advised passes, blown coverages, turnovers ... this guy is a disgrace. Ales Kotalik? Even worse.

*On the other hand, Hobey Gilroy was better than he was against the Canes. Tonight he was used on the power play quite a bit and didn't look out of place. The kid just needs to learn not to listen to the crowd and not shoot when there is someone standing right in front of him.

*Rozy regressed back to his terrible self - the lone goal against was all his fault - but Dan Girardi stepped up his game and played quite well, despite taking a bad penalty. I hardly noticed Staalsie but I think that in this instance, it is not a bad thing.

*I think it is safe enough to say right now that Ryan Callahan will make Team USA. Even with the Rangers suffering through some awful experiences of late, Cally has never stopped skating. I think Chris Higgins keeps trying as well but he doesn't have the same impact that Cally has.

*Big Brian Boyle had no impact, and yet again leads one to wonder why the Rangers picked up Erik Christensen if they are going to bench him for Boyle. The big BC grad doesn't use his size and doesn't do much of anything. His penalty killing is average and he adds zero offense.

*As I was asked by someone not in the building, there was indeed an "asshole" chant late in the third period. It was initiated by the crowd for a pair of Islander-wearing idiots walking around the entire building on the concourse between the 200 and 300 level seats. Clowns. The crowd, by the way, was far from a sell-out yet again but more numerous than the audiences at the last two home games. And many of the fans who did show up left early once the Rangers went up 4-1. I will never understand why people leave sporting events before they are over (outside of having to take care of little kids).

*Maybe the guys wanted to start their holiday early but their post-victory center ice salute was quite brief and halfhearted, if I do say so. Kinda hard to cheer the win, get your camera out and take the picture before they are already off the ice. I know it is minutia but it was a tad disappointing. Still great to see the win though ...

*PHW Three Stars
3-Chris Drury - one goal and one assist.
2-Vinny Prospal - two goals.
1-Henrik Lundqvist - 33 saves.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Avery - When the Panthers are concentrating their efforts on Avery, they are giving more room to the other guys.
2-Gaborik - I'm racking my mind for the last time the Rangers had a slick goal scoring sniper like Gaborik. Mike Gartner? Pierre Larouche?
1-Hank - All hail! No soft goals, several big saves to keep the game close and another win. My buddy Pete pointed out that Florida listened to the scouting report and tested Hank's glove but he passed that test tonight, keeping the Cats out.

9-5-1: *Whew*

The Rangers prevailed in a close one this afternoon to the Boston Bruins, holding on to a 1-0 lead to actually win a goddamned game break a two game losing streak.

Marian Gaborik returned from injury and scored the lone goal, of course.

Don't let the scoreline fool you: after a first period where the teams skated off their Saturday night hangover, the action picked up and carried all the way to the buzzer. And, while at times it looked Renney-ish with the Rangers sitting back, overall the team played with a spark rarely seen during that former coach's era.

The win was huge, sending the boys off to western Canada with some confidence.

*It must be said that Gabby is a genius when it comes to the art of scoring. The Rangers broke in on a three-on-two with two more Bruins trailing, instead of plowing right to the net, Gabby pulled up to get room for a one-timer from the slot that blew past Timmy T. I loathe that cliche 'it was a goal-scorers goal' but it certainly came because of his high IQ in the other team's end.

*Boston was clearly missing Savvy's savvy. Marc Savard's injury was huge as their offense had trouble creating chances. They attacked hard, skated hard, hit hard, but didn't create good chances. All the better for us.

*Aaron Voros and Donald Brashear were not missed. In fact, the fourth line of Dane Byers, Brian Boyle and Enver Lisin had one of the best shifts of the game. After the Blueshirts were pummeled in their own end for the first 10 minutes of the third - including two penalty kills - the fourth line hit the ice with about seven minutes left and got the puck deep and worked it there, battling to keep it in the Boston end and give everyone else a rest. It was exactly what the team needed, exactly what the fourth line should be capable of doing every game and, as my buddy Joe said, it was "beautiful, just beautiful" to watch.

*As was the penalty killing. I love a good kill and the Rangers produced several big ones. They controlled play during the two second period penalties, and Hank bailed them out when they got pinned deep during the two third period ones.

*Back to Byers for a second, he played just six minutes and - aside from that third period shift - was invisible. While I think he complimented the other guys well and deserves to stay up, you know that Torts will go back to Brash sooner rather than later.

*Hobey Gilroy was outstanding. Gilroy played his best game of the season with smart positional play, hustle and sheer guile. MDZ was much more physical than he has been of late - taking exception to a hit at one point - and Staalsie bounced back from two bad performances by eating up a ton of time, but Hobey made several big stops that were just plain impressive.

*Michal Rozsival ... notsomuch. Ilkka Heikkinen and Bobby Sanguinetti seem to be racking up the points down on the farm, perhaps it is time to use that accountability thing and bench Rozy. Both of the kids seem capable of contributing and we've seen Hobey and MDZ do quite well with added responsibility (even if there have been bumps along the way).

*I dogged Ales Kotalik quite a bit early on this season - and still feel that he has no idea inside his own blueline - but he is playing close to the best I have ever seen of him and he is creating scoring chances quite well and quite often. He just needs to finish a few more of them.

*The old Sean Avery returned and was quite effective annoying the hell out of the Bruins. But the downsides of that was the ghost of a penalty on him. Hopefully he learned that no matter how tough you are, when you are at the height of Zdeno Chara's elbow, you don't try to check him. The mountain will win.

*Shout-out to the international tourist fans who came to the game. I happened upon a pair of Slovaks wearing their national team jersey with Gabby on the back and a good number of Swedes rooting for Hank - including one with a massive Swedish flag with LUNDQVIST written across the yellow stripe. Very cool.

*Even cooler were the masks worn by Hank and Valley in warmups. Hank's had the TD striping with Jacques Plante's ears, while Valley had Richter redux. Beautiful works of art, just a shame that Hank didn't wear it in the game.

*Richter, Gilles Villemure and Andy Bathgate were all in the house and all properly acknowledged. Great touch by the Garden to have Villemure don his sad-eyed mask.

*Chris Higgins still has to be sad as he remains without a goal. Of course, you can't score if you don't shoot and I don't remember even seeing him in a position to shoot. But he fared well on the pk so something more than nothing.

*Chris Drury ... perhaps, like Jagr before him, the C is weighing him down. When he blocked that shot and went off, my buddy Eric sent me a txt saying that Dru 'went to the locker room, not like he'll be missed.' Sadly, he was right. Drury has done some good things away from the puck but a turnover or blocked shot is almost certain when he gets the puck in the offensive zone. That's not good at all, especially from teh man with the C.

*Derek Morris, how we don't miss you. At all. Loved watching him let the puck get past him at the blue line to allow the Rangers some respite. Glad he is make the same mistakes for someone else now.

*Torts used his timeout well. After not pulling it out of his pocket when he should have in the last two debacles, he used the break to give the boys a rest after a long shift and icing call. Smart coaching.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Tim Thomas - 22 saves.
2-Marian Gaborik - one goal.
1-Henrik Lundqvist - 29 saves.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Hobey - Sure I could give it to Gabby, but the sun should show on the youngster for stopping several odd-man rushes. They were veteran plays and hopefully signs of more to come.
2-Hank - The King was called upon and took on all comers, stopping them cold. I look forward to the day when he breaks Mmmmaaaarrrtttyyy's soon-to-be-ill-earned shutout record.
1-Jacques Plante - Even if Clint Benedict beat him to it, his mask and subsequent 17 game win streak made it ok for goaltenders to protect their faces. Perhaps Hank can go on a tear like that too after this good start ...