It's Physics

That's how Dave Maloney described it on the radio shortly after the buzzer sounded. The Rangers were outshot like 70-10 and eventually fell in overtime.

That's Three

Did they really win that game in Pittsburgh before the break? I find that hard to believe.

Olympic Points

I like to rant about the NHL point system. Hopefully the Olympics point system can get some NHL minds thinking about altering this. What's the point of playing 82 games if you know you are going to have these tight races down to the end because you keep giving loser points. There's no difference between the 3 seed and the 8 seed according to their points, when in fact there really is a gap. Regulation victories have to be rewarded.

While last season the Rangers were benefiting from this with all their shootout wins, this season they are losing out. Check out the standings if the NHL was using Olympic points, courtesy of Die By The Blade. The Rangers would be in playoff position, and it would take two wins to overtake them at this point.

Everyone talks about three points for a win and then say while they would like it, they would be concerned about altering the standings from a historical perspective (good teams would have about 150 points in the season). I have a solution for that as well.

Prior to the loser point, you used to award two points in any given game. If there was a tie, it was one point each, and for a win (regulation or OT) it was two points for the winner and none for the loser. Why don't you simply keep it at awarding two points a game- if you win in regulation, you get 2, your opponent 0- if you win in the OT/SO you get 1.5, the opponent 0.5. 100 points would be a magical number again. Since the shootout, you are seeing 4-5 seeds easily obtain 100 points, which should not be the case.

Reyes Third and Santos Out

It looks like Jerry is serious in having Jose Reyes bat third until Carlos Beltran returns from injury. Everyone is in an uproar over this. If Jose can't mentally handle batting third, then he should not be in the big leagues, plain and simple.

Does Reyes lead off an inning all the time? No. The leadoff batter in a lineup leads off the 1st inning, and in some cases, that's it. Think of the flip side to this. Half the time, Reyes will come up in the first inning with two out and no one on. If he reaches first base, you have a good situation to go for the stolen base- two out, bases empty. On the other hand if someone ahead of him reaches base, then he can actually drive them in with one of his league leading (and assuming he stays healthy in Citi it will be league leading) triples.

As for Omir Santos, yes, he provided us with some bright spots last season- well, I count only two. However, his constant swinging at the first pitch and on base percentage of below .300 will not be missed. Barajas is not much better, but at this point the more mediocre catchers there are competing for a spot the better.

See Ya Marty

The most overrated goaltender in NHL history should finally be taking a seat on the bench starting with Canada's next game. What the hell are the Canadian braintrust thinking? He's Martin Brodeur, he of the most shutouts (product of a stifling defensive system), he of the most regular season wins (product of a stifling defensive system, shrewd GM, shootout, etc...), so he has to get the nod? I'm team USA all the way, so I'm loving the boneheaded decision by the Canucks here. They will take a step in the right direction once they get Roberto Luongo back in net the rest of the way- then you can start to worry about Team Canada.

How about those team USA jerseys? You can almost picture every American star as a Ranger. Now they just need to substitute the blue pants for red.

Let The Games Begin

Be thankful for the complete hockey coverage available on USA, CNBC, and MSNBC. Can you imagine if they put any of these games on NBC (aside from the gold medal game)? We'd be lucky if we get to take in a full period of action. Have you seen NBC's coverage? I think I've seen more ads for that Dragon animated flick than actual competition.

I'm also thankful for streaming online coverage. Productivity at work will go down come 3pm.

On a side note, MSG got what they wanted in creating a buzz with the fake marriage proposal on Sunday. Pretty sad that it had to come down to that.

That's a Winning Streak

Game Summary

For the first time in almost a month, the Rangers have a two-game winning streak. Just when things were looking up, now they have to sit around for two weeks while we watch the Olympics.

Hopefully the Rangers won't follow this two-gamer with another stretch like the one after their last winning streak, the second win also coming against Tampa at home. Remember all those goals the Rangers scored at that time and how we finally snapped out of our drought?

I like being able to put the highlights of each game in a post. MLB.com sucks.

Go USA go as we wait for the Olympics to get interesting starting with the hockey on Tuesday.