Please. How many minutes of 5 on 3 powerplay time did the Rangers piss away in the second period? It was almost as embarrassing as that disgraceful 5 on3/4 minute double minor they blew in Nassau on Monday. Five minutes of powerplay in the second period amounted to nothing. The more things change, they more they remain the same. The Rangers powerplay is, if anything, worse then it was last season. 

I cannot express how livid I was at tonight’s game. I was hopping mad.  If fan is short for fanatic, then that’s what I am. I make no apologies. It’s Perry Pearn who should be apologizing. The Rangers appear to have absolutely no clue as to what the hell they are supposed to be doing out there on the powerplay. After witnessing tonight’s debacle with the man advantage, I feel I owe an apology to Jaromir Jagr. At least all the overpassing on the powerplay last season was in aide of getting the puck to Jagr for a shot. Tonight, no Ranger seemed to want to put the puck on net. They’d still rather pass then shoot and as a result the natives are restless up top in the “Blues”.

The Rangers, in turn, took some terrible penalties themselves. The Rangers got burned on the offensive zone penalty by Nasland. What was Zherdev thinking with that ridiculous can opener/semi-slew foot? It was unnecessary and unsportsmanlike. This alone almost undid the good of his nifty goal. Our penalty kill’s blown coverage on the Atlanta powerplay goal was frightening.

Everyone can smell the let down coming. It almost happened tonight. I don’t think it was due to a lack of effort on the part of the players. I think it was due to the continual tweaking of the line combinations. The time has come to stop the tweaking and go with what works. When Renney saw that his opening line combinations weren’t working, he switched back to Zherdev/Dubinsky/Voros, Dawes/Gomez/Callahan, Nasland/Drury/Frtische and Sjostrom/Betts/Orr. Good move, Tom. Let’s stick with what is working so you can concentrate on improving your abortion of a powerplay.

Lastly, who the hell is keeping track of the shots on goal? The Rangers were outshooting the Thrashers 32 to 16 at the end of the second period according to the scoreboard at MSG. The Rangers then scored two goals in the third period but the SOG clock showed 33 shots for the entire game. Two goals on one shot? What gives?

THE FALLING OF THE LEAVES

AUTUMN is over the long leaves that love us,
And over the mice in the barley sheaves;
Yellow the leaves of the rowan above us,
And yellow the wet wild-strawberry leaves.
The hour of the waning of love has beset us,
And weary and worn are our sad souls now;
Let us part, ere the season of passion forget us,
With a kiss and a tear on thy drooping brow.

WB Yeats

Tonight’s game was a moral victory for the Islanders. That’s right. I said it was a victory for the Islanders. Kudos to Joey McDonald. Regardless of the final score, the only reason the Rangers won was because Henrik Lundqvist stood on his head and the Islanders took matching stupid penalties. And yes, I mean you Captain Guerin.

I have several issues with Rangers coach Tom Renney and I am not going to mince words here. Tom Renney, what in the world are you thinking about putting Colton Orr out on the four minute powerplay and sitting Petr Prucha? Prucha had an excellent game tonight, drawing penalties, blocking shots but you don’t give him a sniff on that four minute powerplay. What does this kid have to do to get a little respect and more ice time? Maybe you are still suffering from that stick to the head?

You bench Dubinsky for taking two penalties in the beginning of the game but continue to play Zherdev after his penalties and turnovers? Redden and Girardi miss checks, cough up the puck and finally allow a short handed goal but they still get the minutes? I hope MSG doesn’t have another coaches forum anytime soon because trust me, I’ll be there with these questions.

Wade Redden has to be one of the worst off season acquisitions since Bobby Holik. Not only has he been terrible but his poor play seems to have infected Daniel Girardi.  Unfortunately, the Rangers want to roll four lines. I think it is time for them to play seven defensemen and sit Redden for a while. This was the guy we signed to make that first outlet pass on the powerplay. Not only is he NOT doing that, he’s a turnover machine, he misses checks and he doesn’t take the body enough.

One of the guys in my section, Gorgeous George, has been telling me how bad Redden has been playing and I’ve been trying to give Redden the benefit of the doubt. George plays and coaches hockey. He knows his stuff. I refused to believe it but after watching the preseason and ten games in, I have to agree with him about Redden.

I am glad that most of the Ranger players manned up and fought hard for the win. Callahan, Drury and Henrik had great nights. Unfortunately, Coach Renney underestimated the Islanders ability to come back against the Rangers. The lesson to be learned here is not to piss away a four minute double minor by putting out fourth liners.

The headline on the New York Rangers website says “League Leading Rangers Roll Over the Islanders”. I am not drinking that KoolAid. The Rangers were lucky to get out of the Mausoleum with a win. 

All my due respect to the New York Islanders.

I am sure the last thing that Cindy Crosby and his girls thought (with 9 seconds left in the game) is that they would lose to The Rangers in a shoot out. Me too, Cindy. Me too. It just goes to show you that the Penguins shouldn’t have counted their (Ice) Chickens before they hatched.

I have swollen glands and a sore throat and after watching the Rangers play the equivalent of Men’s Midnight League hockey for two periods, I was tempted to cut my loses and go home to my antibiotics and bed. But, my better half convinced me to soldier on and stay for the third period. Sometimes it’s good to be an obedient wife.

At the start of the third period I thought that, after playing last night in Columbus, the Rangers would be out of gas. They would not have the legs to mount a comeback in the third period.  I forgot that we now have younger, faster players this season who are in peak condition. Henrik Lundqvist was able to keep the goals against to two. He needed the players in front of him to score a couple of goals and they did.

Overall, the defense tonight was better then in recent games. Michael Roszival made an exceptional defensive play on Malkin at 14:33 of the second Period. Roszival stood him up and surely saved a goal.  Even though Roszival was a -2 on the night, he showed me more than Redden, who was even. Girardi has really turned his game around and was a +2. Mara and Staal played their usual solid games. Kalinin was a -2. When are Kalinin and Redden going to show up?

I would like to have seen the Rangers hit a little more but I suppose the plan was for them to conserve their strength. And, nothing warms the cockles of my old heart better then seeing the mid-ice collision between Cindy and Genie half way through the third period. I thought the hitting was subdued on the part of both teams.

We had a young English fellow in our section at his first NHL game. Boy did he luck out. This game had everything. A sure fire loss was turned into a point. The nail biting overtime ended in a shoot out. Henrik Lundqvist stopped all three Pittsburgh shooters. Fredrik Sjostrom is proving to be the new Matt Cullen. And finally, ”Cindy Sucks” may really have a shot a replacing the 30 year old “Potvin Sucks” chant.

Let’s give credit where it is really due. I chalk this win up to Dancing Larry. Larry never loses faith.

Dancing Larry

Several sources reported that there was an unpleasant and almost physical altercation last night between Sean Avery and MSG’s John Giannone after the first period of the Rangers vs Dallas game. John Giannone is not commenting about it today. Sean Avery did not comment about it in his post game interview with Stan Fischler. I can understand Giannone wanting to be sotto voce about the incident. He didn’t want to tell tales out of school. 

John Giannnone is a genuine person and a decent guy. Giannone is all about supporting the Rangers. Maybe Giannone called Avery out about the crap Avery was talking to stir it up with Valliquette and Dubinsky by the red line during the warm up. I could see something was going on but I couldn’t hear it. I do not know what caused the altercation with Giannone but I would give the benefit of the doubt to John in a heartbeat

What I do not understand is how Sean Avery can claim in his interview with Fischler that, and I paraphrase, he loved playing in NewYork, he admires the Rangers organization and Jim Dolan, he thinks the fans are the best in the NHL, he can foresee himself back in a Ranger uniform someday, yada, yada, yada. Please.

This is the same guy who made disparaging remarks about the Rangers after signing with Dallas. Now, he comes back into our building, thrash talking about his ex-teamates and causing problems with John Giannone. Then, after the game, Avery is making all kissy face with Fischler in his post game interview.

I watched the interview and I must say that rather then working in the fashion industry, this guy should play himself in his own bio-pic. Either Avery is a good actor or he has a multiple personality disorder, hence the Three Faces of Avery title. He’s not two faced, he’s three faced. 

Avery is neither a great hockey player nor a great actor. Avery is a self-aggrandizing attention whore. All the nonsense about his self-imposed moratorium regarding interviews was just another of his media manipulations. Avery’s play really had no effect on the outcome of this game. He had to run his mouth and cause bad feeling in order to garner a greater share of attention.

Sean Avery deserves to rot in a social and cultural backwater like Dallas. He could have played for the New York Rangers, in front of the Garden Faithful, in the greatest city in the world. He chose not to. I hate to beat a dead horse but Avery made his bed with Sather when he took the Rangers to arbitration in 2007. The Rangers are well shod of him. I, for one, never want to see him back in Broadway Blue.

After seeing the first five minutes of tonight’s game, the very idea that the Rangers would come back, score 4 goals and nearly steal the game from the Mighty Mighty Red Wings was pretty improbable. But, the fairy tale was too good to be true. The wicked witches called a very weak “Too Many Men on the Ice” penalty. Detroit’s Jiri Hudler was able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat for the Red Wings. I hope Mike Babcock remembers his manners and sends Messrs. McCreary and Kowal a thank you note.

Defeat aside, the Rangers were able to walk away from this weekend’s games with 3 out of 4 points. Not too shabby. And, line combinations are starting to find their level. I hope that Tom Renney will keep the speedy Gomez together with the youngers. Gomer doesn’t belong centering Naslund and Drury. You cannot argue that Gomer, together with his linemates tonight, Callahan and Dawes, were responsible for two of the four goals.

The line of Zherdev, Dubinsky and Voros had the other two goals tonight. They are consistent. Sjostrom, Betts and Orr are showing improvement and are getting the job done. Colton Orr has really upped his game from last season and Freddie Sjostrom is always a threat.

It raises the question as to why two of the most expensive players on the team, Drury and Naslund, are not getting it done.  I am willing to acknowledge that their lack of production is due to them playing with yet another winger, Korpikoski. I’ll give them a few more games to get it together. My patience with these two is starting to wear thin.

As for the Ranger defense, I wonder if they gave the correct directions to the Joe to Wade Redden? What is with this guy? He let Pavel Datsyuk dance past him to set up the Hossa’s game winning goal in overtime. Sure Callahan missed his check on Hossa but the only reason he made that shot was because Datsyuk was allowed to set him up. Redden more then needs to start earning his money. His play has been sloppy, inconsistent, tentative and sometimes shows what appears to be a lack of effort.  

Daniel Girardi has had a couple of poor games so far, characterized by weak play at his opponent’s blueline. He is looking Malik like. He must start making better decisions. Paul Mara has really upped the anti in his game. He is playing with passion, finishing checks, making hits and taking shots.  Michael Rosival has been playing pretty well coming back from the labrum surgery. He’s solid and is also taking shots. What can you say about the rock solid Marc Staal. Thank the hockey gods for this kid. Kalinin has been invisible.

The Rangers played the first five minutes of this game like deer caught in the headlights. The glare from all those Stanley Cup banners mesmerized them. They did wake up in time to get going. They were able to take the play to the Red Wings. In the end, spotting the Champs a two goal lead wasn’t the best of ideas.

After winning the first five games of the season and tying a franchise record, it was only a matter of time before the Rangers finally lost a game. There were many reasons and no excuses. 

First and foremost, fatigue’s a factor. Say what you want but most people, professional athletes included, do feel the residual effects of jet lag. Having travelled transatlantic over a dozen times, I can readily attest to that. Combine that with a grueling schedule of four games in four nights, two back to back and you add fuel to the fatigue fire. And, they have to do the same thing again this weekend.

Last night, the Rangers did not finish checks. They were not hitting. They were chasing their own tail. And most importantly they were not getting pucks on net in the same manner that brought them success in the first five games. To coin a phrase employed by my friend the Hockeybird, this ain’t rocket surgery. They lost sight of the fundamentals.

The Mara solo five minute fighting major and expulsion threw the game completely out of wack. Not only did they have to defend a full five minute penalty but they had to go through the rest of the game with only five defenseman.

I do not blame Paul Mara in the least. I have often criticized Mara for being too soft. This year Mara has put more energy and snarl in his game and he has been more effective. If you watch the replay, Kaleta was headhunting Mara. Mara had released the puck and Kaleta came charging in and left his feet to hit Mara. Mara partially side stepped  the hit. The only thing the two striped blind mice saw was Kaleta, the coward, turtle-ing. Every Ranger better see the target on Kaleta’s back the next time these two teams meet.

If any credit is to be given to Buffalo and Ruff, let it be for their excellent scouting job. The Sabres were effective in shutting down the Rangers first line, Voros/Dubinsky/Zherdev. Our so called first line, as in their previous 5 games, was not a factor. It’s time to end the experiment of Nasland/Gomez/Drury on the first line. It’s not working. Time to jettison the excess forwards (Fritsche/Rismuller/insert name here) and maybe even go back to seven defenseman after last nights little object lesson with Mara.

And last but certainly not least, the realization of the loss of the most promising prospect the Rangers have had in many years finally had time to sink in. Alexei Cherepanov may not have been well known to the majority of the players currently on the Rangers, save for Zherdev and Kalinin. The enormity of the loss of such a young and gifted player and the finality of death had to be on the minds of the players and the organization.

Combine overall team fatigue and the Mara debacle with an off night for Lundqvist and you have a loss. These men need some mental and physical rest. Unfortunately, their horrible schedule doesn’t permit it. Let’s hope they make it through this weekend in one piece.

Let’s Go Rangers!

Alexei Cherepanov

1989 -2008

Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon him

May his soul and all the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace

Amen.

Despite the fact that I am a woman, a Democrat and I think Sarah Palin is an “empty skirt”, too much fuss was made of her dropping the puck in the Flyers home opener against the Rangers. She’s a hockey mom. Who cares? So are thousands of other women across North America. She didn’t speak. She came out and dropped the puck. Big deal. On MSG Hockey Night Live! Al Trautwig came on and pontificated about it to the point of embarrassing himself. Also, I hate to see Butch Goring being made to feel so uncomfortable.

Al would have better served his audience if he had saved his self-righteous indignation about this game for the officials. Maroulli and Kozari did an excellent job of letting the Flyers back into the game. They let the Flyers run Valiquette not once but twice, failing to call an obvious goaltender interference on the second Flyer goal. No one can tell me that the goaltender interference calls on Tomas Holstrom during the playoffs were nearly as egregious as what was allowed to go on tonight.

Ask yourselves this question. Why did the reffing in Prague seem so much better, so even handed and judicious? Could it be because the NHL was trying to showcase its product to its best advantage? Those officials let the ticky tacky BS go and let the teams play hockey. Ice tilting would have diluted the product and cast a negative light on NHL hockey. Czech fans are a very intelligent hockey audience.

The refereeing didn’t need to be fair tonight. The Flyers were being blown out. The Flyers needed to be given every chance to get back in this game and the officials saw to it that they were. That makes me indignant, Al. Sarah Palin has and will prove herself to be enough of a bubblehead on her own. We need Al and all the Ranger commentators to hold the officials accountable. Joe Michelletti is a pretty fair person. Even he was annoyed by bad calls and the non-calls tonight.

Last night may have been the season opener but the real season started tonight as we saw the Rangers get hosed again in an obvious attempt to make home ice advantage mean something more then the last line change for the Flyers.

And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We’re captive on the carousel of time
We can’t return, we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game 

-Joni Mitchell

The Rangers may have won their first two regular season games in Prague but the season really starts for the Garden Faithful at the Home Opener. A few of the regulars, the die hards,  go to the preseason games but the opener is where you see who is back for the start of another season, full of hope and promise. Sadly, you also find out who is not coming back.

Tomorrow, I will find out who is sitting next to me this season now that my surrogate sons, Bobby and Ronny are gone. Ron got married. It’s too hard for Bob to go solo to games. The economy is bad. Ticket prices are higher. Priorities are different. I know that once I moved to out to Long Island and had my children, my game going days were over for the better part of 20 years. It’s all part of the life cycle of a Ranger Fan.

I do not mean to minimize the worth of the other people I sit around. Nick, John, Kevin, Tim and George are all great section mates and I love them dearly. But, Bob and Ron put up with all my craziness and made every game a party. I will cherish the two seasons I did get to sit with them and learn more about the sport of hockey from the brothers.

People and players come and go but some will always have a special place in the hearts of their friends and their fans. Tomorrow, many will see the new faces among the Rangers. There will be new people sitting in your section. Embrace them both.  

We are all Rangers.