Raycroft the Great...

It finally looked liked we'd have some old time hockey in the third... then I realized there was no fighters on either team. What resulted was 10 players wrestling around during a line change. No big deal but the refs saw fit to hand out 10 minute misconducts to 5 players. The only guy that deserved one was Canuck defenseman Shane O'Brien who speared Sean Avery from his own bench while the clowns were trying to sort out the penalties. Not sure how he didn't get an extra 2 and a game misconduct.

Hysterical call on Rozsival in the third as Henrik Sedin grabbed his stick, wouldn't let it go and fell over. The refs are that dumb that they'll call it every time and that's what this league is now. Mikael Samuelsson cashed in with his second of the game on the gift power play to put the game away. Earlier in the third, Rozsival got roasted on the game winner after Christopher Higgins had tied it with his first goal as a Ranger. Rozsival tried mightily to take an interference on Ryan Kesler instead of turning to get the puck... which he was beaten to. Kesler skated around the net and fed Rick Rypien back door.

Coach Tortorella was pissed and probably wants a new defenseman. "There are some areas and some people that we continue to need more of an effort in certain situations and making big mistakes... big mistakes at a key time." He also mentioned "losing a battle initially" on that Rypien goal. Can't help but think he's referring to Rozsival. Of course as of now, he has no one to replace Rozsival with if he wanted to sit him... which he does.

The Rangers continue to look like a one man team. Marian Gaborik was shut down by Willie Mitchell. He got some help in the third from Kevin Bieksa, who interfered with Gaborik 2 times on one shift and didn't get called.

Despite Vancouver being decimated with with 7 injured players, the Rangers were never in this. It's hard to win when you score 5 goals in 4 games. Nice to see that someone was frustrated with the effort as Dane Byers dropped the gloves with Tanner Glass with a little over a minute to go. They're playing Tom Renney hockey just in time to go see him on Thursday.

Notes:
Vinny Prospal was named the second assistant captain after Chris Drury recommended him to Coach Tortorella. He wore the A last night for the first time.