Three Metro Teams in Action, 5 Points Given Out...

Can't be any disappointed hockey fans out in the NY-NJ area tonight, from the 17,000 Ranger fans at MSG, to the 1,000 Devil fans at MSG, to the 4,000 Islander fans who routinely sell out the lower bowl on the Nassau Coliseum, to the 17,000 fans that the New Jersey Devils have accumulated since Aaron Broten first led them on the ice in 1982.

Yes, Bryan, the Rangers-Devils game was excellent, except for one thing - it underscored how bad the Rangers are at mustering offense. Henrik Lundqvist was great in stopping 45 shots - downright incredible on a few.

And I won't bash Marty Brodeur as I normally would. Any time you stop 51 shots, you played great. Of course, the Rangers made it very easy for about 40 of those shots. He did make a few excellent saves, and while he didn't do much on Marian Gaborik's overtime-near-score, that save on Michal Rozsival with time running out in the extra period was good.

Shots from the boards, shots with no traffic in front, shots to Brodeur's glove. C'mon! Do you really think a wrister from the left circle is going past Brodeur's glove? You can tell me all you want about how many shots they had, and I will tell you until I'm blue in the face that it doesn't matter if they're 90% crappy shots.

And I guess that old hockey adage "If you shoot enough, one is bound to go in" was proven wrong tonight.

Remember March of 2007 when Rick DiPietro made, what, 56 saves in a shootout loss to the Rangers? The Rangers made him look like Jesus Christ that night - albeit he was clean-shaven, and Christ would wear #33 not #39. But they had so many awful, easy-to-save shots that it looked like nothing would get by him, and rarely anything did except for a goal in regulation and a Matt Cullen goal in the shootout.

Anyway, fast-paced, end-to-end action with good defense play that wasn't boring. It was a very good game to watch and would've been sweeter with a Rangers' win, but now the Rangers web site can say they are 9-1-3 in the last 13 games.

And I can't even get mad at the shootout result. It would've been nce to have had a Ranger score, but they couldn't, and Patrick Elias' wrister that beat Lundqvist was awesome.

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Telling stat of the night brought to us by Versus and Jack Daniels Old No. 7: Marian Gaborik was 2-for-17 in shootouts going into tonight. Now, he is 2-for-18, around 11%. By comparison, Erik Christensen, Zach Parise, and Ales Kotalik are near (or over) 50%.

Why does John Tortorella keep putting Gaborik in? I know he's a superstar, I know he'd the "stud" on the team, and I know he scored in the shootout in Atlanta, but he isn't a breakaway artist.

Jaromir Jagr wasn't. Gaborik isn't either. Stick to Kotalik, Christensen, Vinny Prospal, Artem Anisimov, and maybe even Ryan Callahan. But keep Gaborik out of it until at least the 6th round.

Enver Lisin would've been nice to have seen pull some moves out of his bag. But alas, Donald Brashear needed to have his customary 8 shifts and 5:53 of ice time.

Hey, didn't Lisin score in Atlanta?

Playoff Bet Update; Boston Commentary...

Well, first, an update on the playoff prediction bet between Bryan and myself.

He scored 0 points this round, much like I did last year in the 2nd round. He incorrectly chose Boston vs. Washington and Anaheim vs. Vancouver in the Conference Finals. Disappointing.

I scored 3 points, 2 for guessing Pittsburgh over Washington (1 point for the win, 1 because it was an upset), and 1 for Detroit over Anaheim.

My picks for next round? Pittsburgh in 6. Chicago in 6.

* * *

Two stats I heard that I thought were interesting...

- Carolina's last 4 playoff rounds went 7 games (Buffalo, Edmonton in '06; Devils, Bruins in '09). Cam Ward, for the record, is obviously 4-0 in those games.

- This was the 1st time since 2001 that 3 out of the 4 second round series went to 7 games, and it tied the 1986 record of 27 games in that round.

* * *

The Bruins had a dream season, and I would like to offer congratualtions to the 12,000 faithful fans who went to the games when they were on the playoff-bubble to past few years. To everyone else, well, you seemed to hop on the bandwagon at the right moment. Nice timing!

Ranger Fan...

Listen, I might rail against half of the Rangers 75% of the time on this website. I might not care if Wade Redden plays another game or is banished to the AHL for the rest of his career and ruins their blueline. I might not even care if Scott Gomez is traded to Detroit for a 7th round pick at this year's NHL Draft. I think their GM is clueless and quite possibly never read the Collective Bargaining Agreement, and I think their owner is a ruthless, heartless idiot whose father gave him everything. He was voted worst owner in sports by ESPN, and I agree.

But one thing is for sure, I want this team to win tonight against Philadelphia. Win And In. And I want them to win.

I don't care about Redden, or Gomez, or even Michal Rozsival for that matter. I don't like that Markus Naslund and Chris Drury can never live up to their contracts (which isn't their fault).

But I will root for them.

I personally wish Redden will never get his name on the Stanley Cup, but as long as he is wearing a blue jersey at Madison Square Garden, I'm rooting for him to score the game-winning goal in Game 7 of the Finals.

For all of the bashing I've done here, most of it deservingly so, for all of the times I've said this team doesn't care (you can't honestly believe Redden wants this team to win), for all of the negatives I've written, there has been one common factor...

I want this team to win. I want them to succeed. I want them to make the playoffs, and I want them to make a strong run at playing hockey in June.

While some of the players anger me, namely the five I've mentioned in this post, there is nothing I want more than to see them taking a victory lap around Garden ice after the handshakes.

Much like that tired cliche, "Don't play for the name on the back; play for the logo on the front," I don't root against the name on the back, I root for the R A N G E R S going down the front of that RBK Edge jersey.

I don't want Redden to fail; he just happens to and I point it out. What I want is for him to have a booming slap shot, impeccable defensive skills, and a wicked passion for the game.

Tonight, all that goes out the window. I couldn't care less how they get it done. All I care about it them winning.

Oh, and being on the ice after the game to receive a game-worn jersey would be sweet to.

As long as I'm not second in line...

Thanksgiving...

I'm thankful for hockey, the New York Rangers, Tom Renney, the real Santa appearing at the Macy's Day Parade, hockey fans who like to talk about hockey so I don't feel like a moron for loving it in a baseball state, and Home Alone on FX right now. Now, if only I could find Surviving Christmas with Ben Affleck on TV.

Random Notes - Again

1) Rough night on TV last night. I was so looking forward to San Jose-Calgary, but it was on Versus. Which meant it wasn't being shown on Center Ice. So when Philadelphia-Washington ran late, I couldn't catch the late game, even if I paid $169 for the right to watch every game this season. Thankfully, nothing really happened in the first period... or so we're told.

2) At the close of last night's studio show on Versus, Rick DiPietro said he hopes the Islanders miss the playoffs so he could come back and do more analysis. He was joking. I think. Anyway, he didn't do too badly. That said, I still maintain that if the Isles could have gotten into the playoffs, DP could have stolen them a round. And after that, nobody would have had a problem with an Islanders-Rangers Winter Classic. Still, nice to see DP marketed as a star - the NHL needs to do more things like this.

3) Speaking of the Islanders, kudos to their TV team. You can always tell who the good announcers and analysts are by their post-season assignments; that is, if you're sitting at home during the playoffs, you're probably nothing special. The Islanders have Deb Placey (aka Deb Kaufman) and Butch Goring in the MSG studio - not the biggest deal, but it's something. Howie Rose is doing his usual great job with the Mets on WFAN, and Billy Jaffe is working for Versus. We're spoiled by good announcers in the New York area; I, for one, certainly appreciate it. I still miss Gary Thorne on SportsChannel and ESPN, though.

4) The new trend this year in the playoffs is (home team color)-outs. It used to be something you'd see in Winnipeg/Phoenix, Calgary, and pretty much nowhere else. The Islanders did it in 2002, but never did it again. Then the Miami Heat did it when they won the NBA Finals two years ago, and now everyone's back on the bandwagon. I'll admit, it looks pretty cool. No, it looks really cool.

But it's sort of teetering on the point of ridiculousness now. The Flyers had an orange-out in their two home games, which was in direct response to the red-out of the Capitals. But let's not forget that both of these teams ditched their respective colors fairly recently, thanks in large part to the all-important "focus groups" and "key demographics". The Caps changed to a blue motif in 1995, while the Flyers went to black uniforms in 2000. Now, everyone is supposed to forget all about that and embrace these colors? Sounds gimmicky to me.

Now that the trend has started, though, don't look for it to stop anytime soon. Even the Dallas Stars have gotten in on the action, calling for a black-out. As if hockey doesn't have enough trouble drawing fans. Now everyone will think all hockey fans are angry emo kids. Ugh. Anyway, in the link, the excellent Greg Wyshynski asks the question that matters most to the fans - if you've put a ton of money into a white jersey of your favorite player, why should you now be forced to leave it at home?

And, finally...

5) It's crazy to think that after four relatively even-played games, the Rangers could win the series tonight. And the only loss on their record would be in overtime. Now that would be impressive. The Rock should be electric tonight, even if it's due mostly to rabid Ranger fans. And you know the Devils won't go down without a fight (or at least a good whine or two), so we're in for a treat tonight.