Rangers Defeat Flyers; Set Up Epic Sunday Afternoon Showdown

The New York Rangers had their backs against the wall tonight. One loss, and they would be eliminated from playoff contention. One win in overtime, and it would make things interesting. One win in regulation, and they would tie the Flyers in the standings and make Sunday’s game a do-or-die for both teams. The Rangers forced the latter.

After a moving, and always inspiring pre-game ceremony featuring the paralyzed NYPD hero Steven McDonald, and the Rangers Extra Effort Award going to Ryan Callahan, the crowd was revved up and ready to go for the biggest game of the season.

It seemed early that the Flyers would put a damper on the festivities when Mike Richards scored just forty seconds into the game. But the Rangers would respond seven minutes later with a Chris Drury powerplay goal. The assists would go to Christensen and Girardi. They would then take the lead just three minutes later on a beautiful goal by Jody Shelley, his first as a Ranger, set up by none other than his bash brothers Anisimov and Shelley.

The Rangers would then extend the lead early in the second on Dubinsky’s twentieth of the season. Gaborik would continue to expand his career high with an assist, and Christensen would add his second of the game.

Then things would get rocky once again, as the Flyers would score two goals in six minutes to tie the game, but the resilient Rangers would answer back to that, with Gaborik’s forty-second of the season. The Rangers would not relinquish the lead, and would go on to win 4-3.

Henrik Lundqvist was spectacular, and the Shelley-Anisimov-Prust line would continue to be at their best, and got well deserved shifts late in the game.

Come Sunday, it will not matter whether the game ends in regulation or overtime. Whoever wins goes to the playoffs. What seed they will finish is yet to be known. The Rangers now have the momentum, but they cannot get ahead of themselves. They will be heading into a very hostile Wachovia Center for the three o’clock matinée.

This game, like tonight’s will essentially be a playoff game, and will probably stand as the most watched regular season game for the Rangers in recent history.

As a side note, did anyone catch ex-Flyers head coach John Stevens in the studio on VS after the completion in this game? He went completely out of his way to bash the Flyers, all while trying to hold back a large grin. Saying he looked happy would be an understatement. It looked like he wanted to run around the studio leaping and shouting out of sheer joy.

Giants Top Astros on Opening Day

It was not easy in the end, but the Giants could breathe a sigh of relief as they did not let their 5-0 lead in the ninth inning slip away completely.

Tim Lincecum cruised for the first seven innings, allowing only four hits and striking out seven. He did not walk one batter in the entire start, and even contributed offensively with two perfect sacrifice bunts.

The Giants offense got on top in the third inning, with a three run outburst to give them the lead that they would not relinquish for the rest of the evening. Bengie Molina and John Bowker would each hit RBI singles and Juan Uribe hit a sacrifice fly.

They would strike again in the seventh inning, when Edgar Renteria doubled to deep center field driving in a run. That would be his second of two hits in the game, and the Giants will need him to come through in the clutch this season like he did tonight.

In the eighth inning, Mark DeRosa would welcome himself to the Giants with a solo homerun to right field, to put the Giants up 5-0.

After Lincecum left after the seventh, Sergio Romo would come in, and after a little bit of trouble, retire the side. But in the ninth inning, things started to go awry with Brandon Medders on the mound.

He would only retire one batter, and allowed three hits and two runs. He was replaced by closer Brian Wilson, who retired the final two batters to get the save and seal the opening day victory for the Giants.

Molina, Uribe, and Renteria each had two hits for the Giants, while Sandoval, Huff, and Bowker each added singles.

The Giants gave a good, collective effort tonight, but a noticeable problem in this game was something that plagued them all of last season; patience at the plate. It’s only one game, but the Giants must practice patience, because they swung at a lot of bad pitches, and very early in counts. The only player who should be excluded from this rule is Pablo Sandoval, who, as Joe Morgan noted during the broadcast, needs to be left alone because it works for him.

The Giants will battle the Astros at 8PM EST tomorrow night, as Barry Zito will face Wandy Rodriguez.

Rangers Stay Alive With Shootout Win Against Devils

Henrik Lundqvist was absolutely brilliant tonight, and deserved the win. It wasn’t pretty, but the Rangers would get him that 30th win in a shootout, with some late game heroics by Chris Drury. Lundqvist is now the only goaltender in NHL history to have five straight 30 wins seasons to start a career.

The first period was played predominately in their own end, and were out-shot 9 to 4. Kovalchuk would score his first goal in three games against the Rangers since being acquired by New Jersey. The play was a result of blown coverage by both Redden and Gilroy, but more so to Redden for failing to cover the streaking Kovalchuk. Jody Shelley and Andrew Peeters would also fight, with Shelley having the edge early, before Peeters caught up at the very end.

The Rangers would get the goal back in the second, though, as Brandon Dubinsky continues to raise his career highs, netting his 17th of the season, on the powerplay, with assists from Del Zotto and Avery. The Rangers would head into the third period tied 1-1.

But the Devils would grab the lead for the second time in the game, when Patrik Elias unleashed a one-timer wrist shot over the shoulder of Lundqvist, but once again, the Rangers would answer back on an Anisimov goal, with assists going to Prust and Shelley.

The problem that has plagued the Rangers all season has been consistency, and for a period of about 45 seconds, with the score tied 2-2, they played horrible defensively, allowing three odd-man rushes, and then completing a terrible line change that led to the Devils scoring again, taking the lead for the third time in the game.

When everything seemed bleak, Rangers Captain Chris Drury would tie the game at 3-3 with just 17.5 seconds remaining. The game would go to overtime, and then to a shootout, where Erik Christensen would score the only goal, giving the Rangers the win.

The line of Prust-Anisimov-Shelley was the best trio of forwards for the Rangers, which can be considered both good at bad. Olli Jokinen played just over eight minutes tonight, and has been invisible for the last few games. If he keeps up this pace, he will not have to worry about getting a contract from the Rangers this summer.

With Boston losing in regulation, and the Flyers and Thrashers falling in OT, the Rangers are still very much alive in the playoff race. With back to back wins over division rivals, perhaps this will be enough to wake the Rangers up. Only one question remains: is it too little, too late?

Rangers Dig Their Own Graves in Lethargic Display Vs. Bruins

This was the single biggest game of the season for the New York Rangers, and perhaps their biggest regular season game in the last decade. They needed this win to entertain any thought about reaching the post-season. How did they perform? Well, just look in the dictionary and a pick a word completely opposite of how they were supposed to play today.

Listless. Lethargic. Un-energetic. Careless. They come to mind.

The Rangers showed their fans today that they simply don’t care; that there is no urgency at all with the season winding down and the gap between them and the eighth place Bruins growing wider. The Rangers needed their last game versus the St. Louis Blues, but this one was ten times more important. If they won today, the edge would only be one point for Boston. It is now five.

From the opening faceoff, the Rangers played like all they had to do to win the game was tie their skate laces. The first period was uneventful, if not completely boring. The Bruins would strike first near the end of the second period when Miroslav Satan netted his fifth of the season.

But the Bruins would seal the deal midway through the third on a Dennis Wideman goal. As always, the Rangers waited until there was too little time to make a difference, when Michael Del Zotto scored his eighth, with just about four minutes to go, with assists from Avery and Girardi.

The Rangers should be absolutely ashamed of themselves, as well as the coaching staff. Tortorella continues to not take the blame for any of this. Say what you want about Glen Sather, but this roster is not so terrible that the Rangers should be playing this bad. The players aren’t playing as if they’re flat-out done, they’re playing as if they don’t care. When a team has uninspired players, it is on the shoulders of the coaching staff.

Watching John Tortorella at a press conference is like watching Hermann Goring at the Nuremberg Trials. He knows he’s beat, knows he’s done wrong, but won’t take the blame. In fact, they mirror each other in their testimony, and shift blame to anybody but themselves.

I would fire Tortorella and Sullivan right now, replace him with Schoenfeld and have Graves sit in as the assistant coach for the rest of the season. Then the Rangers can call up the kids, sit Redden and Rozsival, and give Auld the majority of playing time.

This season is over, folks. There isn’t any doubt left.

Rangers Mail it in Against Blues; Playoff Hopes All But Gone

Two days after captain Chris Drury called the team out for being immature and unable to play well when games really matter, the Rangers showed that they were not willing to change any of that, as they fall to the Blues 4-3 at Madison Square Garden tonight. Although the Bruins lost tonight, which helps the Rangers, the Blueshirts did not gain any ground, and they now also see themselves tied in points with the Atlanta Thrashers for 9th place.

If there was one game this season that the Rangers needed to win, tonight was the night. They came out and played a pretty good first period. After falling behind early, Ryan Callahan scored on the powerplay with Jokinen and Gaborik getting the assists. They would leave the first period with a 2-1 lead, as Gaborik would also score, his 37th of the season.

But the team’s play would downhill from there. Lundqvist would let in two very soft goals in the second, to go with the bad one he allowed in the first, and the Rangers fell behind 3-2.

Then, less than a minute into the third period, two consecutive Blues penalties had the Rangers on a glorious opportunity to score- a 5 on 3 powerplay for a minute and seventeen seconds. Not only did they fail to score, but they failed to even register a shot on goal. Gaborik and Jokinen played the points, and both were on their opposite wings, which made no sense at all. That was probably the single most embarrassing moment of the season.

In the third period, Wade Redden would score his second of the season, and first in 58 games to tie the score at three a piece, but it was short-lived. Paul Kariya would net the eventual game winner just over a minute later.

The Rangers showed no urgency whatsoever. It was as if they realized that the season is over. They are still close, but after tonight’s performance, there is not a doubt in my mind that the season is over. There will be no playoff hockey come April;  just a tee-off.

If Chris Drury ripping the team in the newspapers could not light a fire under them, then nothing else can. It is obvious that the team has tuned out John Tortorella. Hell, I think that was apparent in December. Either way, the future is very bleak. The Rangers will have to face Boston on Sunday, but I am not expecting them to show up. Even if they win, it’s still a tough hill to climb– a hill of their own making.

Really looking forward to Tortorella’s press conference later. What reporters will he curse off tonight? What players will he pass the blame off on? It’s about time he stands up and says that he, himself, is partially to blame. But I guess that won’t happen until hell freezes over. The circus must go on.

On a side note, congratulations to Paul Kariya who netted his 40oth career goal tonight. Had he not been so injury prone, he would have probably had 500 by now.

Canadiens Outplay, Defeat Rangers 3-1

Although technically the Rangers were in it from start to finish, they never really had a chance as they were severely outplayed by the Montreal Canadiens. The final score of 3-1 does not accurately display just how bad the Rangers were tonight, who were out-shot 35-19.

The Rangers fell behind less than four minutes into the first period on a powerplay goal by Glen Metropolit. Other than that, it was a very boring and uneventful period. The Rangers would tie the game in the second on an early goal by Sean Avery, his third in the last two games. The Rangers would also get out-shot 18-5 in the middle frame and never had an offensive flow.

The Canadiens would score the go ahead goal and seal the deal when Sergei Kostitsyn scored with traffic in front of Henrik Lundqvist, who ended up not even with his feet in the crease when the puck entered the net. An empty net, shorthanded goal by Tomas Plekanec with just over thirty seconds to go would cap off the scoring for the evening.

With six seconds to go, Avery and Gomez would go at it and Avery would end up being penalized five minutes for slashing. This will be reviewed by the league and he could end up with a suspension. Scratch that, he’s Sean Avery so he will get a suspension.

This was a very important game for the Rangers, especially since the 8th place Boston Bruins won tonight, moving three points ahead of the Rangers. That will make Sunday’s matinee matchup all the more important.

The Rangers next game will be a home game against the St. Louis Blues. The Rangers need to take a good look at themselves here and figure out a way to get two points. Rangers also need to play every game like a road game, because they try too hard to put on a show at home and fail to get enough shots through. On the road they seem to have no problem in that department.