The Rangers couldn’t deliver for Christmas on Christmas Eve Eve but they certainly brought their fans a gift for Boxing Day.

Traditionally, Boxing Day in England is the day after Christmas. The Lords and Ladies of the Manor, the noble classes, would box up the left over Christmas food and gifts and wait upon their servants. The gifts in tonight’s game came at the hands of Jaromir Jagr, who had two even strength goals and the two powerplay goals were scored by the Shanahan unit. 

After failing to score on five succesive powerplays through the first and second periods, the Rangers finally capitalized when Chris Drury, assisted by Shanahan and Girardi, scored the tying goal. The go ahead and game winning goal was scored by Dan Girardi, assisted by Shanahan and Drury. In future, I would give that unit more ice time on the powerplay.  I pray God this is the start of a turnaround for the powerplay.

All of the Rangers came to play defense tonight, as illustrated by their successful defense of the 5 minute major “interference” penalty called on Colton Orr for his unfortunate open ice hit on Matt Cullen. Upon initial viewing, it looked intentional and on the dirty side. Upon further review, it seemed that Cullen was in possession of the puck with his head down. Orr was coming through the neutral zone full steam and put out his hands to protect himself. Let’s just hope Matty will be alright.

Together with a another stellar performance by Henrik Lundqvist, the Rangers were able to achieve their objective tonight. The key to success is for the Ranger to remain poised when they are behind and to score on the powerplay. Let’s hope this level of performance can be sustained into the New Year and beyond.