Oh Baby, No Baby: Rangers one away, Mets swept

Can you believe the Rangers have a three games to one lead over the Capitals? You can thank Henrik Lundqvist for that one. After an intense first period that was well played, the ice tilted towards Henrik. Thanks for some iron behind him and fantastic play, he saved the day.

Just like last Wednesday, I had to resort to getting to the Garden just to catch as much of the final period as I possibly could. The last report of 2-0, 2nd intermission on the phone, became 2-1 with 13 minutes to play as I arrived at the top steps above Penn Station onto the Cheering for Children tiles, with the televisions in view. Several other Ranger fans were there as well.

You would think anyone in charge would notice that a bunch of people were intently watching the third period and maybe have done something like, I don't know, turn on the sound of the game. Things get confusing when you're watching the game on TV, then you hear Markus Naslund's voice, "Hi, this is Markus Naslund, welcome to Madison Square Garden, the World's Most Famous Arena", followed by Sam Rosen calling a Naslund goal, which has nothing to do with the action on the screen. Then you got the goal song blaring while you're busy sweating yet another Washington power play with a few minutes to go in the game.

Sean Avery, what can you say? Inexcusable. What he did was wrong, indeed. With all his miscues, what was he doing on the ice in the last few minutes anyway?

People who left early to catch trains (and there were quite a few leaving the lobby area, who were at the game) should give their tickets to someone else before the game. I don't know how you leave that game.



When one season ends, whether it's hockey or baseball, you look forward to devoting your full attention to the other sport. However, if the Rangers and Mets keep this up, we'll be looking forward to training camp in September when this current Ranger season ends.

What is going on with John Maine?



Albert Pujols is a monster. Livan Hernandez is what he is. Unfortunately Sean Green threw gas on the fire this afternoon. The Mets have now lost four straight and are reeling.

Luis Castillo is actually one of our hottest hitters, and he gets another day off, the second in a week? He's getting the day game after night game catcher treatment.

We can only hope the Mets will be relevant once hockey season ends. That's all we ask for with every somber end to a Ranger season. Maybe it will be June when that happens and the ending to not be somber. Henrik will have to have many more nights like last night.

ECQ GM3: Capitals 4, Rangers 0

Talk about being outplayed right from the beginning. The Rangers did not even get a sniff. Well, ok, they got a post that should have tied the game, but a mere few seconds later the Caps turned that into a 2-0 lead. The crowd is out of it and that's your game.

Of course the refs are going to have it in for Sean Avery. He does not help matters by diving all over the place. Are there legit penalties not called against Avery? Yes. But explain to me how this guy is such a good skater, but you constantly see his butt all over the ice. Again, some of it are from legit crosschecks. Most of the time, however, especially in front of the net, watch for that really thin string that goes around the blue paint in front of that opposing goalie. Avery trips on that all the time.

I know the Caps love to stick it to the fans in any way they can, but for Ovechkin and Backstrom to come out for the mock salute at center ice post game, well, that was amateur hour right there.

Nice job by MSG with the thundersticks. Include a small light bulb inside them, perfect for the fans to throw on the ice if the game was ugly, which it was. Classless act by the fans to do that, but it was a dumb decision by the promotions department from the beginning.

Apparently MSG security is giving crap to fans for throwing balloons during the national anthem, a practice that has been done before every playoff game since the lockout. Who the hell is running this Mickey Mouse organization? Oh yeah, Jim Dolan. Ranger fans should celebrate the day this team gets sold. Unfortunately it does not look like it's happening anytime soon.

Bruins 1, Rangers 0

Same city, different coach/system, same result. I know Boston plays the trap, but does it not seem like every game in this building has been 0-0, 1-0 or 1-1? Oh, the exciting hockey.

The only thing that made this game watchable was Sean Avery inadvertently (hey, he was in the way!) knocking Tim Thomas in the back of the head in the third period during a TV timeout. It lead to a scuffle and what was going to be a Ranger power play but was changed to a 4 on 4 after the referees decided to look at the video replay on the scoreboard. Let's show a replay of every penalty on the video board from now on why don't we? Ugh.

For those criticizing Avery for that play, you should realize that he actually looked around to see if any officials were watching, did his thing, and almost got away with a Ranger power play. The worst thing that would have happened was a 4 on 4, which was the case. Of course Thomas was going to react like that- he's a hothead. If Thomas did not react, the refs would not have seen the originally strike by Avery and nothing would have been called. If anything, Avery got under Thomas' skin a bit, which was something that had to be done considering the way the game was going.

Turns out the Rangers got a power play not long after that 4 on 4 started and got a chunk of 4 on 3 time. Yet they still can't score. The power play is pathetic.

Florida goes out and wins the next night (against Pittsburgh, go figure- thanks Cindy) to force a tie for the 8th spot, with both teams having three games to play. Rangers have the tie breaker with the most wins. So they simply need to stay even in points with Florida in the last three. When all is said and done, it could be down to the last game at Philadelphia- Florida ends their season the night before.

Rangers 3, Devils 0

Felt a little like April 2008 didn't it?

You have to admit, the most overrated goaltender in NHL history was looking sharp the first 24 minutes of the game. You had the feeling it was going to be one of those 0-0, 1-1 shootout affairs. However, the Devils unraveled and the Rangers scored 3, two of them in a span of two minutes.

Dubinsky and Callahan are getting hot at the right time. Hell, Callahan has been hot. He has 21 goals on the year now and has been one of the best, if not the best player since Torts arrived. Dubi, by the way, was 9-0 in the faceoff circle tonight.

Sean Avery was doing his thing. Whether it was making the overrated one take cheap crotch shots, or making the other two fools go after him, he was doing his job and playing hard. All that was missing from him was a goal. He did have an assist on the Cally goal which was set up by a beautiful look from Scott Gomez, who was effective as well. Was that actually him throwing around the body? OK, so Holik made him look awfully small a couple of times, but hey, Gomez was throwing the body!

Lundqvist owns Brodeur. Talk to me about his wins record when he gets another 25 without the shootout. Until then I don't want to hear it.

Hurricanes 3, Rangers 0

OK, so now you see the flip side of the Sean Avery acquisition. From time to time he'll throw himself at somebody's feet in an effort to look like he slipped, and sometimes the refs won't buy that, like last night, as he took two penalties that pretty much nullified Ranger power plays. It probably would not have made much difference anyway.

At 2-0, the game was pretty much over, despite there being enough time left in the game. You just had that sense they were not coming back.

No relief from the telecast on Versus as you get to listen to the Carolina play-by-play man call the action.

I know you are sprawled on the ice and really have no other choice, but does Brandon Dubinsky think he's going to get away with something by pushing the puck towards the goal with his glove?

Despite what the NHL newspaper/website standings say, fear not at being a point out of the playoff picture like everyone is saying this morning. It's still pretty much a dead heat and there are plenty of games left between the six teams locked in the battle for four spots.