Since February 23 I have been trying to put on a good face as a Ranger fan. As a season subscriber, I still had games to go to. As a Ranger fan, there were still young men on the Rangers that I wanted to support. But when that day in February came, my commitment to this Ranger team switched off inside my head. Nothing that has transpired since  to turn it back on.

Quite amazingly, the Rangers earned a playoff spot with only two games left on their season. At that time, I predicted the Capitals would defeat the Rangers in five games. You could have knocked me over with a feather if you had told me then that the Rangers would take it to seven. Even more surprising was going up 3-1 in the series. But the final outcome shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.

The same players who failed to show up and play with heart during the regular season reverted back to their true selves. As I predicted, John Tortorella would behave in some way that would bring controversy and ignominy down on this franchise. The only pleasant surprise is that Sean Avery came back  to provide the “Avery Effect”,  that is until he was benched by a man who has even less self-discipline then Avery.

So the Rangers are out of the playoffs and they have the large, unmovable contracts of their “veteran leaders”  to look forward to next season. The Rangers, by not making the second round, have  regressed. Hell, this team is worse off then in 2004. At least Sather was able to hold the Fire Sale that got us picks and prospects and hope for the future.

What hope for the future do we have now? If we can’t move deadbeats like Redden, Gomez, Naslund and Drury, we won’t be able to resign the kids we do want to keep because there’s no space under the salary cap. And, even if we manage to resign them, whose going to nuture the young talent and bring it along? John Tortorella? Jim Schoenfeld? The rebuild ended when Renney was shown the door on February 23. 

In the every cloud has a silver lining department, at least I don’t have to give Dolan anymore of my money for his overpriced playoff tickets. And, re-upping my subscription while Glen Sather is still GM of the Rangers is going to be a serious decision I’ll have to make come August. I am sure in this economy, many fans are in the same boat.

I can’t see anything happening in the off season to turn the switch back on.

Posted under New York Rangers

Though I am not ordinarily a superstitious person, I have a good feeling about tonight’s game. After skating for an hour and a half this morning, I came off the ice feeling good. I had some success today on something I have been working on for along time. In fact, I was hitting things fairly consistently all morning. I was really feeling the ice. 

I won’t bore you with the technical figure skating terms. Just suffice it to say that my positions were square and checked when I took off and landed my jumps. My spins were well centered and my edges were long and flowing.

How the  hell does all this relate to hockey and the tonight’s crucial game seven, you ask? Hear me out. Last Monday I turned up at my least favorite local rink, Dix Hills Park, to skate on the morning of Game 3. I got there and paid my $10. to skate on their crappy, blade killing ice.

I was just getting warmed up and Dan, the hockey coach, told me that two buses  full of school children would be arriving for an outing. The ice became cluttered with little bodies falling all over the ice. I skated for a half hour and left feeling unfulfilled and annoyed. It put me out of sorts for the rest of the day. It was like walking under a cloud. The Rangers lost Game 3

What a difference a week can make. Today I had my best day in a long time.  As I was getting off the ice, I thought back to last week and the negative way last Monday had started and finished. Today was so much different. I had a great morning. The ice at Superior Rink in Kings Park is always, um, superior and the weather was beautiful outside. This was a good omen.

As I was leaving the rink I said goodbye to my friends and proclaimed that I had had a great skate. Mark, ice maintainer extraordinaire and JV hockey coach at St. Anthony’s, said that my great skate might just be a good omen for the day and for the Rangers. He verbalized what I had been thinking.

Mark and his players are in the midst of a playoff battle with Sachem High School. His team lost 3-1 last night but they played well. They are in a best two out of three series. He told his players to be positive. They were in the game right to the end. They beat other good teams to get as far as they have.  He told them to look forward to the next game and stay positive.

After all that has happened in this series with the Washington Capitals, the Rangers need only win one more game. If good omens or karma have anything to do with it, the Rangers will win. After all, no Ranger has bitten any Cap or delivered a cheap, potentially career ending hit on any of the Capitals.

Washington is the team with the bad karma. The Rangers need to wipe the taint of Capitals and the last two games off them and play smart, puck possession hockey. They need to go back to their muscle memory and channel what Tom Renney taught them for 2/3 of the season.

They need to get their defensive game back and shut down the Caps because they can. They need to play boring, Tom Renney style, defensive hockey for just one more game. That and  Henrik Lundqvist needs to regain his kingly form and stop giving away the top of the net. 

Haven’t the Rangers been up and down all season, win two, lose one, win one, lose two. Well folks, the Rangers are due for a win and tonight has to be the night because there is no tomorrow.

Let’s Go Rangers

Posted under New York Rangers

The Washington Capitals certainly had their day this afternoon when  they defeated the New York Rangers 5-3  in a game that saw Ranger players concussed and bitten by Capital players. That’s right. You heard me correctly. Brandon Dubinsky was bitten by Shoane Morrison of the Washington Capitals. 

What happens to a disturbed child in nursery school when they bite others? They are ostracized from the class until their abhorent behavior desists. Shoane Morrision should be suspended at least three games by this joke of a league for biting Dubinsky.

Brandon Dubinsky had  to get a tetanus shot. Morrison obviously broke his skin. Were I Dubinsky, I would demand that Morrison be tested for AIDS  as a precaution. Were I Brandon Dubinsly, I would sue Morrison for assault. What’s next? Morrison biting off another player’s ear, ala Mike Tyson?

Donald Brashear was allowed to remain on the ice after he instigated an altercation with Colton Orr during the pre-game warm up. According to NHL rules, Brashear should not have been allowed to play in the game for this offense committed in the warm up. Perhaps if he had been ejected, he would not have had the opportunity to hit Blair Betts late and high, thusly removing Betts from the game and sending him to the hospital with a serious concussion.  

Where will the double standards end? There is one set of rules for the Caps and another for the Rangers. But with Colin Campbell and Gary Bettman running this league one shouldn’t expect anything different.

The NHL is a disgrace and a joke. Not even the WWE tolerates biting.

Posted under New York Rangers

Based upon my friend’s eyewitness testimony, the NHL may regret its suspension of John Tortorella. In fact, if the Rangers organization deposes the three “Ranger”  fan witnesses, they may have a very good assualt/wrongful behavior suit against The Washington Capitals organization, Ted Leonsis and the NHL.

My friend was sitting right behind Schoenfeld on the glass said he heard and saw the whole thing. (See man in blue and woman in white Ranger jerseys with the Let’s Go Rangers thunderstick.) he was 5 ft away from the abusive fan.

Schoenfeld and Tortorella had requested the Caps Arena security to speak to the abusive fan. Security did speak to the fan but they did not eject him. He was left there to continue the abuse. The incident that precipitated Tortorella’s outburst was the fan spilling something on Tortorella through a large separation in the glass.

The whole back of Tortorella’s suit was wet. It prompted Tortorella’s  verbal and then physical response by throwing the water bottle at the abusive fan. The bottle bounced off the abusive man and hit a nearby woman on the arm, not the head as claimed.

The onus is clearly on the Caps and Arena Security for their failure to correct the situation permanently and eject  the fan from the building before he doused liquid on Tortorella. Sadly, there was a little boy sitting with the abusive man. Wonderful example to set for your child.

If I were Dolan, I’d file an injunction against the league tomorrow morning. I would also threaten to revoke NBC’s broadcast rights to the game if the league doesn’t temporarily reverse the decision to suspend Tortorella. I wouldn’t let NBC in the building. I believe Dolan retains all broadcast rights. He could do it. If Soupy and Bettman want to play hardball, I’d throw it right back in their faces.

Even if it means forfeiting the game, someone must put a stop to the imperious Colin Campbell and the smug Gary Bettman. They are making a laughing stock of this league, not John Tortorella and not Sean Avery.

Posted under New York Rangers

So I’ll meet ‘im later on

At the place where ‘e is gone —

Where it’s always double drill and no canteen;

‘E’ll be squattin’ on the coals

Givin’ drink to poor damned souls,

An’ I’ll get a swig in hell from Gunga Din!

Yes, Din! Din! Din!

You Lazarushian-leather Gunga Din!

Though I’ve belted you and flayed you,

By the livin’ Gawd that made you,

You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din! 

After another gutless, heartless uber-embarrassment by the New York Rangers tonight, there is one person out there for whom I truly feel sorry.  The person I feel badly for is my dear friend Scott  who, at no little expense, made the trip down to Washington to support his team. Too bad he showed up and the Rangers didn’t.

I do not feel badly for John Tortorella.  What in the hell was this man thinking about?  He scratched one of the few players on this team that always goes balls to the wall. Tortorella chose the worst possible time to make a point. His castigation of Avery played right into the Caps hand.  Avery gets regularly screwed by the officials. But today, he was royally screwed by his own coach.  

I do not feel badly for Sean Avery. He made his bed by taking stupid penalties on Wednesday night.  But, I don’t think those penalties warranted being scratched in the most important game of the playoffs. Would his presence in  the lineup have changed the outcome of this game?  Based on all the stats regarding the Avery Effect, I have to believe it would have.

If there was ever a more convincing argument for Scott Gomez to be gone at the end of the season, this game stands as a testament. He lost 66% of his face offs and he has been nothing more then a turnover machine during this whole series. When he  isn’t noticed for some boneheaded play, he is invisible.  The same  can be said for  Mara, Zherdev, Redden, Morris, Voros, and Roszival tonight. Drury is playing injured but he was -3 tonight. Minus 3.

My friend Scott is always telling me I gotta believe. After tonight, I wouldn’t blame him if he stopped believing so unfailingly. I think Scott needs a healthy infusion of skepticism and I’m just the person  to do it.

I’m tired of this team. I am tired of getting sucked in only to have my hopes dashed and suffer the unending embarrassment of being a Ranger fan. Tonight’s game once again makes the Rangers the laughing stock of the league and by association, their fans.

So to all who believe in this team and that they can get it done, I say to you and Scott that

Posted under New York Rangers

For the first game of the playoffs each season since the lockout Section 409, and others in the Garden,  has endeavoured to continue the tradition of the Balloon Drop. The die hards in the section come up  at 6pm and help blow up the balloons. Tonight, around 630pm, some Garden ”Suit” came up and started eyeballing what was going on. He complained that what we were doing against Garden “policy”.

I approached this guy, stretched out my hand, gave him my name and asked what was the problem. He comes on all official and says he’snot happy about the balloons. If the Garden gets complaints that the balloons obstruct anyone’s view or annoy people, it will be stopped.

I explained that three seasons ago I pointedly asked Jeannie Baumgartner, head of Garden Event planning, if she or the Organization had any problems with the balloons. She said they thought it was fine. In fact, the Garden gave the balloons it’s tacit approval by using a photo of the 409 balloon drop as a graphic on the season tickets last year. This held no weight with the “Suit”. This guy as much as said he didn’t give a ****. Any complaints and the balloons would not be allowed.

I suppose the Garden didn’t want 409’s balloons to show up their thundersticks. Balloons come down once during the game before play starts. They are filled with human breathe. Not helium. Not some environmentally unfriendly phosphorescent chemical. Thundersticks are okay but our balloons are disruptive? 

Thundersticks are some of the most annoying things that can be given out at a sporting event. Try sitting behind a couple of 8 year old kids with thundersticks. That will really improve your enjoyment of a game. Getting hit in the head with a simple balloon floating down is harmless. Getting hit with a thunderstick being used a a projectile isn’t.  But God forbid anyone should steal Optimum LightPath’s thunder!

Wow, it look really cool seeing all those sticks glowing in the dark! NOT. Most of the people attending this game were adults not children.  People up in the Blues were not impressed. Most were asking where the rally towels were.

The Balloon Drop has become a playoff tradition, just like Dancing Larry and the Potvin Sucks chant. The people in the Blues Seats are always hearing that they are a “Tradition”, “I am A Ranger”, “I am True Blue”. But, God forbid we get together and have a little fun. God forbid we build some spirit and camaraderie by blowing up a bunch of balloons as a way to rally the Garden Faithful.

I suppose balloons would be more acceptable to the organization if they were sold  for a buck a pop as people walked in the building. They could have the MSG  logo and the NHL logo on them so the League could get it’s cut of the balloon sales. Then, I suppose, they would have the Garden’s seal of approval.

I swear to God you can’t make sh*t like this up!

Let’s Go Rangers

Posted under New York Rangers

If anyone had told me last Sunday after the Rangers final game of the season that today they would have the dreaded two game lead over the Washington Capitals in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, I would have said they were balmy.

After spending an entire season watching the ups and downs of the Rangers, I have become conditioned to the disappointment and failure that is commensurate with being a Ranger fan. I watched some players phone in games, play without heart and pass off the poor play with shoulder shrugs and feeble cliches. It all culminated in the firing of  Tom Renney over which I freely admit I’m still bitter. 

For a team that started the season off so well,  just a mere week ago many wondered if the Rangers would win a playoff spot, back into one or miss entirely. I see no reason why the fans shouldn’t be suspect of this team moving forward.  After all, it’s not that the team has been playing world beating hockey. They have just played that much better then their opponents, who have little playoff experience.

Yesterday the Rangers shut out the Washington Caps in a low scoring, boring game. If played mid season, such a game would have had some fans screaming that they were being bored. But the playoffs are about winning at any cost. Whatever it takes! Boredom be damned.

The fact that the Rangers have one of the top three goaltenders in the National Hockey League doesn’t hurt. John Tortorella is no dope. He realizes that the key to the Rangers getting through this series is to shut down the Caps offense by having his team play a sound, albeit boring, defensive game. The Rangers also had to depend upon their league leading penalty kill to win this game. I don’t suppose I need to remind anyone  who espoused and taught this team  that sometimes “defense first” win games.

I keep getting text messages from my friend Scott that I “gotta believe”. As I have said many time before on this blog, I love Scott’s positive attitude and his youthful exuberance. Last year he went to the final game in Pittsburgh and was on the bus until the final buzzer.

I know he’ll chastise me for being skeptical right now. Regardless of winning the first two games of this series on the road, the Rangers still have to convince me that they will do anything it takes to win. They have to bring the same level of commitment to the rest of the games in this series as they have to the first two.

I want to believe, I really do but the Rangers must continue to show me. I was born and raised in New York City but I must have lived in Missouri in a past life.

Posted under New York Rangers

Based upon the numbers, the Rangers really had no business winning this game. Color me surprised. The Rangers were deficient in every aspect of the game except for hitting, defence and goaltending. 

Rangers:

21 shots/17 missed shots/35 hits/5 giveaways/2 takeaways/21 blocked shots/20 faceoffs won/46 lost faceoffs

Caps:

35 shots/16 missed/27 hits/11 giveaways/7 takeways/10 blocked shots/46 faceoffs won/20 faceoffs lost.

The final score was 4-3 but only because Theodore was vulnerable and Lundqvist was kingly and kept the Rangers in the game in the first period, when they were completely outplayed by the Caps.

My stars of the game are Henrik Lundvist, Ryan Callahan and Blair Betts. They stopped the Caps offensive juggernaut by making saves, dishing and taking hits and killing penalties (sometimes without sticks).  Wade Redden was not as terrible as usual. Staal, Girardi, Mara, Roszival and Morris were superior to the Caps defensemen, even Green.

I don’t know if  Avery got under anyone’s skin but he certainly got under Green and sent him ass over tea kettle into the Ranger bench. Callahan put Ovechken on his kester at mid-ice. The way for the Rangers to get into the heads of the Caps is to continue to take the body. 

The only two Ranger players I had any big issue with was Gomez and of course, Naslund. Naslund is the new Captain Hook for the New York Rangers. He took three minor penalties and the Caps made him pay for the one legitimate call the refs made on him. Tortorella can’t sit him with Drury out . Despite his goal and assist tonight, I just wanted to strangle him.

Scott Gomez made yet another boneheaded giveaway pass that I thought for sure would have cost the Rangers a goal. And, while Dubinsky and Bett’s faceoff win percentage was slightly lower at 39%, Gomez needs to pick up his game on faceoffs especially if Drury is going to be out. Gomez had a key momentum shifting goal and two assists but his defensive play left a lot to be desired.

Lastly, the officiating was once again very tilted toward the Caps. Questionable calls on the Rangers and non-calls on the Caps, especially the Green boarding of Sjostrom. That’s a penalty on the Rangers if they did that to Semin. These Refs Suck! (just warming up for Monday).

They scored two powerplay goals and two more at even strength to beat the offensively dominant Caps and kept their defensive composure.

Feelin’ good now, yeah but I can’t explain…

Posted under New York Rangers

With Montreal’s loss tonight to the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Rangers first round playoff fate has now been decided. The Habs will be playing their most hated rivals, The Bruins, in Bean Town. The Rangers and Caps should start the ”Acela Series”  on Wednesday night in the Nation’s Capital.

Whether the Ranger’s faced Tim Thomas, the brick wall in Boston or the Ovechkin/Semin/Green firing squad in Washington, the odds of their weathering the first round rest squarely on the shoulders of the King, Henrik Lundqvist. With the scoring power of the aforementioned unholy triumvirate, poor Lundqvist will be flashing his glove in his nightmares until Wednesday.

Lundqvist has 37 wins, 25 losses, a 2.32 goals against average and a .916 save percentage. Theodore  has 32 wins, 16 loses and 5 overtime losses. His goals against average is 2.81 and save percentage is .901. While Lundqvist  may have slightly better numbers on the year, Theodore has had a better, higher scoring team in front of him.

In their four games with the Capitals this season the Rangers are 1 and 3. The Rangers lost both games in DC and two of the four game ended in shoot outs. The Rangers last defeated the Caps on February 11th in a shoot out 5-4. Unfortunately, there are no shoot outs in the playoffs. The Rangers all time away record against the Caps is 34-46-9-3.

Considering the Rangers have no powerplay, bad defense and have trouble scoring at the best of times, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the the odds are clearly against the Rangers making it through the first round.  Compound that by the fact that in Alexander Ovechkin the Caps have a superstar that not only can score but hit and fight if need be. Ovechkin is not the whining, diving Poster Boy the Rangers faced last season in Cindy Crosby. He’s the biggest superstar in the NHL. He’s the league MVP.

At least true hockey fans will be entertained by the antics of Ovechkin. Ranger fans should sit up and watch regardless of the outcome. Afterall, we’ll get to see a team the Rangers could have been. Had not Sather kept throwing money and big contracts at mediocre, washed up players since he arrived here, we too might have an Ovechkin We too might be in the Tavares sweepstakes like the Islanders.

I sincerely hope that Henrik Lundqvist and the Rangers make it through the first round. But, like waiting for shoes to drop, I am not holding my breathe.

Posted under New York Rangers

Were it up to me, I would have given Dancing Larry the first star of the game after last night’s victory against the Canadiens. Chris Drury may finally be living up to his fat pay check . Dancing Larry doesn’t need a paycheck. Larry doesn’t have a “No Trade ” clause. Last night, Larry got the Addams family intro on the scoreboard and the full TV time out to dance his heart out. The crowd paid him with a loud round of applause and that politically incorrect chant that Garden management despises.

Game in and game out, when Larry is called upon by Barrington (the Garden’s Rasta TV  camera man) to get the crowd going, Larry always obliges. Larry has put up with a lot of abuse over the years but like his predecessor, the Chief, he keeps on keeping on like the True Blue Seat Ranger fan he is. 

I first meet Larry six years ago at the Molly Wee Pub on Eight Ave. where Larry usually takes his pre-game meal.  One night we walked in and Larry was celebrating his birthday. They had a cake for him and sang. He’s a fixture there, just like he is in the Garden. When 6:15pm rolls around on game night, Larry usually high tails it over to the Garden for the pre-game warm-up.

In addition to being a full season subscriber, Larry also goes to a few away game each season. I once met him at a road game in Montreal in February of 2004.  Most all the Ranger fans at that game had congregated by the glass at the Rangers end of the rink. Messier saw the intrepid group and came over and banged his stick on the glass as a greeting. Larry was “right chuffed”,  as they say in England.

Last night, between the second and third period, I met Larry as he was waiting in line for the men’s room by 407. I grabbed him and gave him a big wet kiss on his bare noggin. He expressed his hope that the Rangers could hang on to the lead in the third period for the win.

Larry is such a positive person, loyal Ranger fan and a genuinely nice fellow. He makes me fell like a whining old farbissna for being so negative. If the Rangers do make the playoffs (only to get bounced in the first round) Larry will be there.  He’s the definition of True Blue.

Larry Goodman, here’s to you!

Posted under New York Rangers