You Get What You Pay For...

What an effort by Rangers at the Verizon Center against Alexander Ovechkin and company. The Blueshirts dominated at even strength... but unfortunately this is the NHL so there was no even strength play. I'm amazed they still can call this mess hockey. If someone skates by a stick and falls... penalty. And they wonder why no one watches their "big time" coverage, which takes place on a hunting channel that no one has ever heard of.

Embarrassingly bad calls to Brandon Dubinsky and Daniel Girardi (creating a 5 on 3) in the first provided some good laughs. Then an equally embarrassing non-call in the second when Brooks Laich water-skied off Michal Rozsival with a hook that was somehow deemed a clean play. It directly resulted in a quality scoring chance for the Caps. Rozsival's turnover in the first led to Alexander Semin's goal. He took a holding penalty 6:45 into the second... and didn't play another second. That's accountability.

Without Rozsival, the 5 man defense was incredible. Dan Girardi (24:04) and Marc Staal (23:57) were lights out holding Alex Ovechkin scoreless for the first time this season. He had been averaging 3 points a game coming in. Matt Gilroy was fantastic logging the most ice he has so far with 21:33. Wade Redden continues to be solid and logged 20:46. You just can's say enough about the poise and skill of Michael Del Zotto at 19 years old.

Ryan Callahan had an upper body injury earlier in the day and was questionable but played... and boy did he play. He was killing yet another power play in the second and was exhausted. With no gas in the tank he took the puck away from Alex Ovechkin and beat him and Semin down ice for a beautiful backhand goal through the legs of Jose Theodore. The penalty had just expired so it was not a short-handed goal.

The third line apparently has heard Sean Avery is coming back. With limited ice tonight, they were solid. They had great down low work in the second that resulted in a close quarters tic-tac-toe goal from Enver Lisin to Artem Anisimov to Ales Kotalik, who went back hand top-shelf. It was Anisimov's first NHL point. No one wants to sit on Sunday.

900 penalties in the game (2o minutes in minors through 2 or one period gone)... At one point Joe Micheletti couldn't even locate the Christopher Higgins penalty on replay. The Rangers were pressuring early in the second when Tom Poti stuck his stick through the legs of Dubinsky and blatantly took him down.. no call.

The Rangers handled adversity not only from the refs but from their goalie. Nicklas Backstrom got his first goal of the season with a harmless dump in that Henrik Lundqvist flat out missed. Backstrom later scored on... you guessed it... Washington's 90th power play of the night to put the Caps up 3-2.

Perfect excuse for the Rangers to collapse no? No... It's not a problem when you have Marian Gaborik. He responded :18 seconds later with a slap shot through the legs of Theodore. Gaborik scored again and essentially ended it 2:33 later on the power play after Del Zotto fed him perfectly through center. A wicked wrist shot through Theodore's legs again and the Blueshirts win 4-3. It ends up being as huge a win as you can have in October as this team continues to be resilient and build character.

Notes:
John Tortorella went with two forwards and one defenseman on 5 on 3 disadvantages... Donald Brasheer and Aaron Voros both took dumb penalties in the third... Chris Drury was amazing in this game doing all the things a leader should do (even though he's making $86,585 per game)... Christopher Higgins is getting stronger and more comfortable each game he plays... Vinny Prospal doing all the little things.