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.

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.

Voros out, Korp in, and Dubinsky?

As expected, Lauri Korpikoski skated in place of Aaron Voros on the Dubinsky line in practice today. Speaking of Dubinsky:

I like the guy, he plays hard and gives it his all, but do you think maybe he might be better served watching a game (especially with a back to back this weekend) up in the press box? It would give Dan Fritsche an opportunity to at least get some game action and maybe give Dubinsky a fresh start in his return to the lineup. It could do wonders mentally. Now if Fritsche were to return to the lineup and score a hattrick...nah, that won't happen. Just try it for one game. Assure Dubi he'll be back in the lineup the next game. It might not make much sense considering he had a few of scoring chances last night, but 1 goal in 31 games might warrant a break from the action.

Henrik Lundqvist is the lone Ranger representative on the Eastern Conference all-star squad. Now let's just hope he does not pull something in the skills competition.