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.

And Then There Was One

Pretty sad considering this took place less than six months ago. It tells you something about our GM.

An Igloo Win

Game Summary

That headline is something I thought I'd never type again. Last night was the last regular season game at the recent house of horrors for the Rangers. Goodbye and good riddance. See you in the playoffs? Probably not.

Last night I saw Rangers 3, Penguins 0. It's what happens when you have a 1-month old who is in the same room as the television showing the opening ceremonies for the Winter Olympics. Daddy was bumped to the other room to watch Rangers hockey, but was still on diaper duty. Pretty frustrating to come back to the room and see 0-0 turn into 1-0 Pittsburgh, then later on 2-1 Rangers becoming 2-2.

Good to see Ryan Callahan come back after looking like he injured his arm in the first period. Would've felt bad for him if the injury was serious enough to cause him to miss the Olympics. Came back he did, and he played great.

I'd love to see someone knock Matt Cooke the hell out. Perfectly clean hit by Drury there and he cries like a baby, then is still throwing fists while the guy is down. It's too bad that took place late in the second and the game was close, eliminating the possibility of retribution in the third.

How many fights has Crosby had in his career, two or three? You can bet the next one is happening vs Brandon Dubinsky.

So Much for Brashear

The Rangers have replaced him with Jody Shelley. Although it cost them a draft pick, something the Rangers should value these days. At least we're armed and ready for Philly!

I guess Sather liked what he did to Colton Orr:

Inches from 50K

Like I said, the highlight the Nashville game:



Good try brother!

Brashear on Waivers

This has already been mentioned in the previous post. I ridiculed the signing, but only because he was put on waivers after signing a 2 year deal for 1.4 million per just this past offseason.

I'm probably the only one who wants him in the lineup at this point. I don't like big hockey players who don't play with an edge. The Rangers have that in a center now turned left wing Brian Boyle. All he does is kill penalties. We have plenty of guys who can do that. I would rather have the physical presence of Brashear in the lineup. Sure, he's lost most of his fights this season. But you tell me who would you rather have in the lineup for those three remaining games vs. Philly?

When the Rangers acquired Brandon Prust from the Flames, I actually liked the idea of having Avery, Prust, Voros, and Brashear in the lineup just for Philly. After all they have Hartnell, Asham, Laperriere, and Carcillo, just to name a few. You would not see anything like what happened to Gaborik that last game. The Rangers would actually be- is it possible?- tough.

Two of those three games vs. Philly are the final two of the season. For all we know the team could be out of it by then. Might has well have the goons to go down with a fight.

Fading Away

Game Summary

That's the state of the Rangers right now after last night's loss to Nashville, yet another loss on the Garden ice. They sit four points out of the 8th spot, but are really about six if you adjust for games played. Will this be the wake up call to ownership to do something about management?

This just in- Donald Brashear was put on waivers, according to Bob McKenzie of TSN. How did that signing work out?

We traded Gomez after two seasons. How did that signing work out?

Higgins and Kotalik were new just this past summer and were traded mid-season. How did those signings/trades work out?

Highlight of the night was my younger brother just missing a chance at $50,000 and watching the last half of the second period iceside between the penalty boxes.

There was also 25% off on all food and drink last night. OK, so that cuts prices to about what they were maybe last season, as in still exorbitant, just not as much.

Gaborik hurt?

This just in from Andrew Gross.

Perhaps this will be the final nail in the coffin for the Rangers and we can have a lottery pick for a change instead of being stuck in neutral being pretenders like we have for the past few seasons. Then again, what would the Rangers do with that pick, select another Hugh Jessiman over Zach Parise?

Amen, Matt Cerrone

Well said.

For all the pessimists out there, I hope to not hear from you if the team is in a pennant race come September.

For all of you who dropped out of the full season ticket plan you shared with me, don't bother asking for playoff tickets.

I'll be going to plenty of games this season, and no matter how the team fares I will enjoy every minute of it.

Mike Rupp??

Does it get any worse?



So much for the home ice domination that is the Penguins-Rangers series.

Season Subscriber Benefits

Mets season ticket holders are getting their season ticket renewals in the mail. Got mine yesterday.

Inside, a copy of the 2010 schedule. Ticket prices of each tier of games have not changed much, but you notice there are less gold games, automatically decreasing the total cost of the season. The overall decrease? 2.9%. My seats are in the Promenade Reserved Infield. I can't complain about the prices. I was shocked at how low the cost was last season for the inaugural season at the park.

Here's my issue with the Mets in general. Their benefits fall a bit short. Just last season their started a split payment plan. A nice start compared to what they had before 2009, when they hit you with one big charge. However, in the days where credit card interest rates are skyrocketing, the least they could do was offer a six-month pay plan. The Rangers play half the games the Mets so, yet they offer an eight-month pay plan.

In the 'New for 2010' page, there is "Expanded Club Access." Sweet! Finally, if I'm freezing my ass off in April I can finally escape into the Promenade Club at the very least to warm up for a few innings. Wrong. On the other side of the page is list of every seating category (37 of them!!) on the left side with list of clubs along the top, and checkmarks underneath for which club each tier has access to. The only ones without a checkmark? Promenade Reserved and Promenade Reserved Infield. They are allowing Promenade Club holders to go to the Caesar's Club. How about just allowing everyone access to the Promenade Club, or at least those with a season ticket??

In the final game last season, they allowed us to participate in the DynaMets Dash, which was cool. Anytime you get on a major league field (or skate on the Garden ice, which the Rangers allow once a year), it's an experience. This season the Mets are offering tours of the field, dugout and clubhouse, which will take place in December. The Dash was great, as it got you on the infield dirt. This time, it will be nice to see how big that Met clubhouse really is.

There are also '"Take the Field With the Mets" Days', Mets Yearbook, and Mets Magazine opener edition giveaways in addition to the customary gift and media guide you get each year. These are all improvements and steps in the right direction, but the Mets can give us more, and if there ever was a time to do it, the time was for this season. Despite their efforts, they might have dropped the ball. That being said, will I renew? Probably. It would take a super f- you for me to drop.

Speaking of benefits, the Rangers had their annual fan forum last night, as reported nicely by Mrs. Hurley. I don't ask questions at these things, but if I were to ask one last night, it would be something like she suggested: Henrik needs to just snap at the next guy who runs him in his crease and use that stick.

The end of the evening featured a trivia quiz, with each of the five players in attendance giving away their Rangers jersey for those who get the correct answer. This contest in previous fan forums featured crappy questions which fans lucky enough to be next to the host got called on to provide the correct answer. They improved on that with some doozies last night. Which current Ranger was picked a few picks after Enver Lisin was picked in the second round of the 2004 draft? Getting that one is deserving of a $300 Ranger jersey. The answer was Dane Byers.

Lisin, by the way, is my new favorite player. The kid is hilarious, and you really see why the guys get a kick out of him.

It's Been a While

Since we last posted, the hockey season is back in full swing and we just witnessed what we all feared- a Phillies-Yankees World Series. Let's try to sum up the month of October and hope we do not have to do this again a month from now.

The Yankees are the World Series champions. Congrats to them. You should be the champs when you outspend the team behind you in annual player salaries by $60+ million. That team behind them is the Mets, but we won't go there. I hope the Mets were watching what the Yankees did to the Phillies. That means Oliver Perez has to return to 2007 form and another lefty is needed in the bullpen. Lefties, lefties, lefties.

As long as the small market teams keep pocketing their luxury tax money and never bitch about it, this will go on forever. The Yankees will be there every year. They will never see the dark ages like they did in the 80s. Major League Baseball needs to put something in place to limit free agent spending, while allowing teams to pay as much as they want for homegrown talent or players acquired in trades. Think about it- owners won't go throwing money around because they can't and roster turnover will not be as frequent as it is now. Teams will be good because of drafting and trading and not because they have the money to splurge on each and every all-star available in the winter. It's not a team salary cap, but a new-player-acquisition cap.

Don't get me wrong, credit the Yankees for spending wisely, even if they did break the bank. All the moves paid off. Who had a bad year on that team?

The NHL could use this different cap as well. A hard cap as it is in place now, creates what is now a free agent frenzy on July 1. Sure it bring a buzz, but it also brings a completely different team come training camp. What happens when your 4th round draft pick turns out to be a gem and his contract is up, but you're up against the cap? So long buddy.

The Rangers are nothing without Marian Gaborik. Hopefully they can adjust to the gameplan Vancouver had for them, which shut him down big time. Dubinsky and Callahan are the guys that have to get going. They've been around for a few seasons now- it's time for them to approach the peak in their development.

Like last season, you can thank the good start to the season. Unlike last season, hopefully we don't limp into the playoffs and have another early exit.

The last three champions in MLB and the NHL have been the Phillies, Penguins and Yankees. Ugh.

Just Do It Already

Word has it that Jose Reyes is finally considering surgery after experiencing more pain running, as reported by Adam Rubin.

I suggested this in a post back in early August. They just realized this now?

I see the Nats have a lefty, Mr. Lannan, starting for them this afternoon and Fernando Tatis is in the lineup, with Nick Evans continuing to ride the pine. Cerrone hit it right on the head with his post earlier today.

We Suck

You know, I didn't even have to watch that whole game in Washington tonight to realize what the hell was going on. The Mets are brutal. It's sad, they probably won't even reach 70 wins on the year.

What did Wilson Valdez do wrong to get taken out of that game? Anderson Hernandez is not a shortstop, and proves it by committing the big error in the 8th that led to the go-ahead run.

Friday night is almost here. Opening night- in Pittsburgh of all places. How long before we rip on Crosby and pig-face Kennedy?