Top of World, Ma!

The New York Rangers are en fuego. Top of the Eastern Conference. White Hot.

No more flying under the radar for our Rangers. With their victory last night in Boston, the Rangers are two points away from leading the entire league. They shut out the reigning Stanley Cup Champions. If it weren’t for the Red Wings winning their a record 21st consecutive home game, the Rangers would be featured as the lead story on every hockey website on the planet.

After being AWOL since after the lockout, the Rangers have started scoring with the man advantage. It was the only aspect of the game where the Rangers were seriously lacking. Being an uneasy denizen of the Blue Seats, my skepticism dies hard. Is this latest flurry of power play goals an aberration or will it become the norm?

Mike Keenan may tout the Rangers as the next Stanley Cup Champions. Being superstitious to a fault, I wish he hadn’t done that. To their credit, every single Ranger player when being interviewed is on message. “We are only concerned about the next game”. Torts has that mantra embedded deep inside their psyches. That’s a good thing.

The Rangers have accumulated an incredible 79 points in 55 games. If 95 points are what’s needed to make the playoffs this season, the Rangers need 16 more points out of their remaining 27 games. That’s 8 more wins. With the stretch run being a highly condensed schedule with the majority of those games being against division and conference rivals, nothing should be taken for granted. Every team they play will be looking to take them down.

Don’t believe me? Check out the HockeyRodent’s RealSchedule. The Tree Rat explains it all.

Let’s hope that, unlike Jimmy Cagney, the Rangers will survive the battle and not fall from the top. I’ll thank those in the media, on all the blog sites, to stop handing out trophies and awards until the season is over. We should all follow Tort’s suggestion and take each period one at a time. If you don’t listen to Torts, you might get a grapefruit pushed into your face. Just like Virginia Mayo.

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