Streaks...

The Rangers are on a good streak going and continue to end bad ones. They won their fourth in a row last night beating the Florida Panthers 4-1 last night. Henrik Lundqvist was the focal point again making two sparkling glove saves on Nathan Horthon in the first and Michael Frolik in the third, among others. The King has simply been on fire for the last 10 games or so. He was beaten early ona rebound he had no chance on but stopped the next 33 shots.

As for the streaks ending... Vinny Prospal snapped a 14-game goal-less streak with a power play goal in the second and one in the third. The Blueshirts broke a 5-game losing streak at home and 7 out of 8 with a complete effort last night. Chris Drury scored his third goal in four games and was fantastic all around. Enver Lisin made great hustle play to negate an icing before feeding the Captain in the slot to tie the game just 2:13 after Victor Oreskovich opened the scoring for Florida. Drury also added an assist after stealing the puck short-handed in the neutral zone. Drury was taken down but rewarded for his effort when Marian Gaborik came flying off the bench to beat Tomas Vokoun on a bad angle back-hander. Gaborik who leads the league with 26 goals.

Ryan Callahan is scoring again and had a beautiful assist on Prospal's first goal. His stick was tied up in front so he kicked it to Prospal. Callahan has 4 goals and 5 assists in his last 7 games. Hey... Wade Redden even tried to hit a player. He got laid out by Mike Duco but oh well... at least he tried. Redden did make a great play earlier in the first sliding to take away a 2-on-1 opportunity. Michal Rozsival has been much better since Redden was sat down and played well again despite not being able to clear the rebound on Florida's only goal. He played 23:18, second only to Staal's 24:50.

Marc Staal and Dan Girardi were reunited for the first time since the Detroit game and absolutely shut down the red hot Michael Frolik-Stephen Weiss-Nathan Horton line. The bottom line is when this team gets a complete effort, they look like a team that can make some noise. Can they keep the effort going? We'll see on Saturday when the Islanders return to the Garden. That last 2-1 loss the to the Isles and meeting after seems like the wakeup call this team needed.

Notes:
For the second straight game the Rangers responded to a goal against quickly. Marian Gaborik scored in Raleigh :28 after the Hurricanes had taken the lead... Brandon Dubinsky looks to be getting his legs back with 3 points in the last 2.

Another one...

The Rangers fell again at the Garden 2-1 to the Islanders last night and now have lost 8 of 9 in the World's Most Famous Arena. The good thing for them is they only had to play 2 periods. They didn't show up for the irst at all getting out shot 10-3. They were outworked all night. Strange effort from a team that is now rocking a 5-game losing streak going to the Coliseum tonight.

John Tortorella threatened that change are coming. "There has to be something done and we'll see along the way here before [tonight's] game what we go with." Not sure what there is he could do but one thing I can think of is sitting down Sean Avery. Avery lazily tried to handle a Henrik Lundqvist rebound of a Matt Moulson shot. Problem is Blake Comeau was next to him and literally shot the puck from Avery's stick into the top corner for what became the game winner.

Of course the Rangers got a goal late as you knew they would to get it close. Enver Lisin, who only played 9:14 got the goal.But this team just doesn't have enough. That's thanks to their General Manager Glen Sather, who is responsible for the 5 worst contracts in the history of the sport. Somehow it's never even talked about that he should lose his job.

Just Not Good Enough...

After winning back-to-back games for the first time since October the Rangers have dropped the next 3. The Penguins got a hat trick from Mike Rupp and 2 more from Sidney Crosby winning 5-2 at the Garden. The only guy playing for the Rangers offensively... AGAIN... was Marian Gaborik. His 2 goals gave him 21 to lead the league and tied him with Joe Thornton for the league lead in points with 37. Imagine if he had some other people on this team...

The officiating was downright embarrassing as it always is with a Sid The Kid game. That is not what doomed the Blueshirts though. What doomed them was Henrik Lundqvist who was awful at a key time again. If you just shoot high on him and hit the net... it's going in 80% of the time. He needs to be good enough to steal some games and he is not able to do that right now. Mike Rupp's go ahead goal in the third simply cannot happen and neither can Crosby's in the first period :11 after Gaborik gave the Rangers the lead.

The Rangers responded, battled and still came up way short as they will continue to do against most decent teams. They're just not built correctly. Brian Boyle made his way back in the lineup and Enver Lisin was out. Ales Kotalik is also in the doghouse. He was not used on the power play and played only 3:14. Donald Brashear was on the third line tonight... are you kidding me?

Somehow I don't think 'ol Glen Sather is going to be able to fix it with a deadline deal. Even if they make the playoffs, this is not the kind of team that can go deep. Right now they're boring to watch... they can't score... and they just suck. Their coach would tell you that too.

Notes:
The team doesn't play again til Saturday and will have tomorrow off. I'd like to say they need it but they certainly don't deserve it... Bobby Sanguinetti was returned to Hartford meaning Wade Redden should be back against Buffalo on Saturday.

For one night the offense was there... thank goodness there was no one in net for Columbus as the Rangers blew out the Blue Jackets 7-4. It was much of the same with the Blueshirts playing a couple of good stretches of hockey through the game.

The game started with two defensive breakdowns leading to two goals from Columbus' fourth line. Coach Tortorella called a timeout after the second one and the Rangers woke up led by... all together now... Marian Gaborik. He did have help from Steve Mason who was awful for the Jackets. Mason had no chance on Artem Anisimov's 5th on a deflection. Michael Del Zotto made a nice rush right after and a simple wrist shot eluded the net minder letting the Rangers walk out of the first with a 3-2 lead.

The Rangers scored 7 straight including 3 in 1:11 (2 by Sean Avery and another by Gaborik). Gaborik finished with 2 goals and 2 assists and is now tied for the league lead in goals with Dany Heatley. Of course Gaborik doesn't have Joe Thornton passing him the puck but he still has scored a point in 19 of 21 games as a Ranger. Christopher Higgins was the new winger with Gaborik and Vinny Prospal on the first line and had one of his best games of the year. He had 2 assists and hit the post, of course.

Matt Gilroy capped off the scoring off a beautiful no look cross ice feed from P.A. Parenteau. Gilroy abused backup goalie Mathieu Garon going forehand-backhand-forehand. Parenteau has played very well and when the time comes he should be playing over Enver Lisin. The scoring was there... at least for one night.

Notes:
Artem Anisimov was great getting a goal and 2 assists and the third star of the game... Aaron Voros did well for a second fight in a row with Jared Boll who ealier went hard at Marc Staal... Rangers with a concerted effort to get in the face of anyone who went near Henrik Lundqvist but he eneded up getting run over by Rick Nash anyway. Someone should have punched him in the face but instead the Rangers were happy to take a power play... which is ridiculous.

Rangers Trying to Ground A.O.

The Rangers are in D.C. tonight to try to stop the unstoppable Alexander Ovechkin. He has 9 points through 3 games this season while Niklas Backstrom has 8 assists. Oh yeah, and Alexander Semin has 4 goals and 3 assists. It'll be a nice welcome to the NHL for Michael Del Zotto and Matt Gilroy.

Steve Zipay of Newsday is reporting that Ryan Callahan may be questionable for tonight with an upper body injury and the Rangers have called 19-year-old Evgeny Grachev back up. He should've made the team out of camp anyway but there's just no room. Now with Sean Avery unable to go and possibly Callahan... there is. Avery is targeting a return Sunday vs. Anaheim.

The question remains who will sit when Avery comes back? Enver Lisin had an impressive preseason but has been quiet since the season started. Then again, Artem Anisimov hasn't exactly been stellar centering the third line other then preseason. It will definitely be one of those two and neither of them should be on the fourth line, which is operating very well with Brian Boyle, Aaron Voros and Donald Brasheer. They had some important third period minutes against the Devils the other night and dominated the puck down low.

My guess is Lisin will be the guy. But if Grachev comes in here tonight and plays well... well then we have a whole other list of questions....

Hooks and Gabs...

Marion Gaborik made his much anticipated debut at MSG last night in a 4-2 Ranger win against Detroit. He came as advertised showing flashes explosiveness the Blueshirts haven't had in their line-up in a long, long time. On a first period power play, Gaborik took Brad Stuart on a tour all the way around the net and halfway up to the left point before feeding Enver Lisin in the slot to put the Rangers up 2-0 on the power play. He also got drilled by Johan Franzen :24 in which he said "woke me up a little bit". Gaborik admitted it'll take time to shake the rust off but the sore groin didn't appear to hinder him. Later Michael Del Zotto fed Gaborik beautifully through center and he would've been gone if not for losing the puck in his skates.

Lisin's first period PP goal added to his strong start. He and Artem Anisimov each have 3 goals in the preseason as Anisimov sealed the game with an empty netter. After a dismal opener Anisimov has all but locked up a roster spot since. Evgeny Grachev continues making himself tough to cut. He took Jakub Lindl into the boards, stealing the puck and setting up Ryan Callahan for a sick little backhand-forehand goal. Can't help but be excited about the Rangers youth on the back line as Del Zotto, Matt Gilroy and Bobby Sanguinetti all played well. Alexei Semenov is also looking more and more like he'll stick.

Sean Avery ran into Ryan Callahan in practice and is out indefinitely with a sprained knee. Aaron Voros subbed for him and was noticeable though I don't know where he'll fit in. He started last year strong before dropping off to near invisible level. With $3 million being wasted on him, Tyler Arnason, and Patrick Rissmiller,not sure how Glen Sather would justify having all of them in Hartford.

Rangers-Devils Game Updates...

Struggling trying to get through the human computer "Doc" Emrick. Not sure what the allure of this guy is or what he's a doctor of. Played hockey all my life and never heard of anything in the game being "spiked" or "squibbed". He was super excited on the Devil's first goal but caught himself when he realized it's mid September.

Funny moment happened in a largely uneventful first. Sean Avery scored a beautiful rebound goal off an Enver Lisin shot. Lisin was the bright spot of the period shooting from everywhere. Avery made contact with Yann Danis though so the refs comically waved off the goal and called Avery for a double-minor. Dribing to the net and awarded with a goal, everything you're taught to do since birth. You can't do that in this league though. Good thing Adam Graves didn't play in this time in THIS league. Also on the play Mike Mottau took a tomahawk swing into the side of Avery's head... no call. Officiating absolutely in mid-season form....

Aaron Voros had a fight and a couple of nice passes including one to Matt Gilroy who continued his stellar play with a beautiful third period breakaway move to the backhand. Gilroy also was the only Blueshirt to score in the shootout going five-hole.

Broadcasting needs work over there at "The Rock". Stan Fischler was borderline ready to fight Steve Cangialosi during the break and they just kept going at each other with "The Maven" eventually telling him to "get off my back!". Finally, Chico Resch referred to Marian Gaborik as "middle-aged" at the age of 27.

Definitions of squibbed from dictionary.com:
–verb (used with object)

to assail in squibs or lampoons.

to toss, shoot, or utilize as a squib.

---Makes sense "Doc"... thanks!!!