N.Y. Rangers ~ Still Leaders of the Pack

From the desk of:   RAISE GRESCH WITH THE GREATS

Battle of the Hudson

MONDAY NIGHT FINAL

N.J. Devils       2

N.Y. Rangers  4

Rangers and Devils end season series tied 3-3

NEW YORK RANGERS:  Clinch Playoffs With Win.



Salute the colors of the night; Ranger Blue; Devils' Black; and Bloody Face Red - Ryan Carter's, that is.  In truth, all players skated off the ice Monday night sporting bruises in all three hues of pain.



Before the scheduled hockey game was to be played, there were some season long, and not so old grudges stemming from Game Five to settle.  Coach Peter DeBoer sent out a starting line of his lesser skilled, more physically spirited attitude adjusters and mood managers on the ice.  It's interesting he did that.  In Game Five of Battle of the Hudson, New Jersey resoundingly pummelled the Rangers.  Was his thinking, keep a good yet struggling team down by beating them down?  If you ask Ryan Carter, he might say his Coach's plan backfired.  He might.  I'm just saying.



As the home team, Coach Torts recognized DeBoer's move, and say what you will, gladly accepted the challenge by sending out his own line of Reckless Rangers.  Needless to say, it only took three seconds after the initial drop of the puck till the ice was littered with gloves and elbow pads.



In New York's corner - Brandon Prust; Mike Rupp; and Stu Bickel.  In New Jersey's corner - Eric Boulton; Cam Janssens; and Ryan Carter.  Of the six purpose players, Ryan Carter suffered the most damage.  During his game opening fight with Bickel, he opened up a head wound after falling in a vulnerable face/head first manner.  His dripping blood stained the ice.



For the Devils, it was an omen.  That melee was quite literally the beginning of the end to their night.  Less than two minutes into the game, Brandon Dubinsky put the Rangers ahead.



Thirty-three seconds into the second period, Dan Girardi put the Rangers up by two.  Then the Devils struck.  Patrick Elias made it a 2-1 game.  Mats Zuccarello had an answer for that however, when he scored at 7:33 of the period making it a 3-1 Rangers' lead.  But half way through the period, Petr Sykora made it a one goal game again.



The game stayed that way for the first 18:50 of the third period until Derek Stepan deflected a puck by Martin Brodeur to seal a Rangers 4-2 victory.



The Rangers and the Devils end this regular season's Battle of the Hudson tied with three wins apiece.  The victory now gives the Rangers ninety-seven points.  In the tight Atlantic Division race and in the Eastern Conference standings, that's three points better than Pittsburgh and five better than Philadelphia.  Overall, ninety-seven points is the second best mark in the NHL behind St. Louis, who have already hit 100 points.



The biggest reward of tonight's rebuking of the Devils?  The Bueshirts have officially clinched a spot in the 2011-2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs.  That's another small step for Rangers Kind.

Next up:

Wednesday, March 23, 2012

Detroit Red Wings

vs.

NEW YORK RANGERS

From,

MADISON SQUARE GARDEN
33rd Street at 7th Avenue

NYC

Mike.BTB

N.Y. Rangers ~ Sympathy from the Devils

From the desk of:   RAISE GRESCH WITH THE GREATS

FINAL

NJD - 1

NYR - 0

NEW YORK RANGERS: The Powerless Rangers are Fighting Themselves.



The Rangers dominated the the first two seconds of last night's game.  It was all Devils from then on. Before Cam Janssen dropped gloves with Mike Rupp, he asked him if was hand was feeling OK enough for a fight.  That only happens in Hockey by the way.  And that's one of the things that makes this such a great sport.  Rupp said it was good enough.  Gloves got dropped and they started to rumble while at the same time Brandon Prust and Eric Boulton threw down on the other side of the ice.

It sure was an intense way to start the game.  But the night I was very much looking forward to never materialized.  Instead, after dropping the puck to restart the game a second time, the Rangers had problems possessing and passing a puck that was bouncing on them all night.  The Devils however had no such problems.  Their passing was crisp.  They had no uncooperative puck issues.  In all, they pretty much dominated the Blueshirts the rest of the night until the Rangers finally put together one last burst of effort in the third.

Like I said many times before, you can't really appreciate how bad the Rangers' PP is unless you see it in person.  And at one point I just sat back in my chair and said - Wow!  The Rangers' Power Play continued to be down right deplorable and perhaps turned out to be this difference in the game.  In my last post I shared some thoughts as to how I thought they could get better.  Then last night, the Devils demonstrated exactly what I meant.  The only goal of the game that counted came on a Devils power play.  Dave Clarkson received a pass from behind the Rangers' net as he came down the slot.  Derek Stepan got caught facing the boards when Clarkson recieved the pass.  By the time Stepan could turn around, Clarkson's shot was off.  Done; exactly like I thought the Blueshirts needed to.



The Rangers woke up from their slumber somewhat in the third period.  They kept peppering shots on goal.  But by then, Martin Brodeur's juices were flowing and the old man's joints were limbered up enough to record the 117th shutout of his HOF career.  He looked good last night.  The Rangers were denied on some very good opportunities.



Then with 3.5 seconds left in the game, my son and I couldn't believe our fortune when Artem Anisimov and Marion Gaborik apparently scored the game tying goal.  What an exclamation point that would have been to end an otherwise magical week in NYC sports.  But it wasn't meant to be this time.




As they reviewed Anisimov's goal in Toronto, a Ranger crowd fed up with the guys in stripes started littering the ice with bottles and other stuff.  It reminded me of all the paper and debris littering Broadway from the NY Giants parade we attended earlier in the day.  Only, unlike my morning, this occasion was terribly inglorious.




No cherry on top for you New York.

NJD General Manager Lou Lamoriello yucks it up with hockey scribe Larry Brooks.

Lou Lamoriello spent the night in the press section right below my seats and I'm sure he enjoyed watching his team play a very disciplined game.  He seemed to be in a good mood all night.  And why not?  His team has sixty-five points now.






Mike.BTB