Hurricanes 4, Rangers 2

The Hurricanes are on fire. This should not have come as a surprise. As soon as the Rangers missed out on four first period power plays, you kind of knew they were done.

This other Ruutu is not much different than his brother. The season almost came to a sure end Ruutu bumping Lundqvist, who ended up down and hurting, holding his head. After some stretching of the arm/shoulder by Jim Ramsay, he shook it off and played on.

Congrats to Corey Potter who scores his first NHL goal. Dan Giradi scores his first in 50-something games. That tells you about the offense.

The Islanders, fully aware that they are hurting the Rangers, lay their usual egg versus Montreal, allowing the Habs to get a little further away in 7th.

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.