Brian Boyle is Like Flash...

Here are 4 reasons I don't like when Ranger games are on Versus:

1) Doc Emerick annoys me. Not just his homer-ism for the Devils - I understand that, and he leaves a lot of it behind when the game is on national TV - but the way he talks, his phrasing, his know-it-all attitude. I know a ton of you will disagree with me, but it's one reason I don't like watching Versus games.

2) It's one big advertisement. I didn't notice it as much tonight, but last year, it seemed like every 10 seconds I was being force-fed a Bud Light or rodeo commercial.

3) My DirecTV doesn't carry Versus anymore, so I have to find watch the game elsewhere.

4) It's one big power play. It always seems that every game on Versus has more penalties called than regular games that are only on local TV. I would imagine that the referees are conditioned to call more penalties than normal for these games so that "fringe fans" can see more power plays and goals, but it really screws over the real fans who are only watching Versus because MSG or MSG+ doesn't show the game. They make those phantom calls all game long, much like when a team is playing the Penguins.

* * *

- I saw someone speed down the ice to make a defense play. As I tried to see the number on the back of the jersey, my mind only had 3 names in mind: Callahan, Dubinsky, or Lisin. magine my surprise tonight when the number read "22" and the name on the jersey was "Boyle." It's looking like Aaron Voros will be the odd man out when Sean Avery returns.

- Speaking of Brandon Dubinsky, he looks like a beast out there. Besides his scoring, his skating looks excellent and he's stronger on the puck this season than last. However, don't get too excited. Remember how awesome he was last year in the beginning? He had 12 points in 13 games in October '08 before dropping off the planet. That probably won't happen as dramatically this year, but it's still something to think about.

- I wanted Alexei Semenov to be a Ranger this year, and I felt bad that he wanted to be a Ranger, Glen Sather wanted him to, and John Tortorella wanted him to, but his wife nixed it. However, I don't think that a 7th defenseman is entirely necessary right now. Matt Gilroy has been playing great and scored his first goal tonight; Marc Staal and Dan Girardi aren't lighting it up, but they haven't been messing up; and Mike Del Zotto has looked great. He scored the past 2 games, and he had two open nets in the Penguins game where he just couldn't get his stick on the puck. Plus, he's manning the point on the power play pretty well considering he's a 19 year old who was thrown into the fire.

- What happens if and when the Rangers do find a 7th defenseman? One would hope that Wade Redden or Michal Rozsival would take a seat, but would Sather let Tortorella do that? One of Tom Renney's big mistakes was not only never sitting either of them, but relying on them for the power play. Tortorella isn't relying on them, per se, but he is using them on the 2nd unit, which is a huge mistake. I know he said he didn't watch many Ranger games before he took over last year, but didn't he hear about why Renney got fired?

All-Star Stuff...

Let's be honest, the All-Star Game is a joke. From the ballot - where Sergei Gonchar was on it without playing a single game - to the voting process, to the suspensions, to Nicklas Backstrom refusing to take part in an 18-minute game so he can rest, it's all a bunch of crap. (The way to fix it is to make the entire ballot a write-in and not have boxes to check next to pictures of "super stars".)

That said, I do normally look forward to the Skills Competition. Last night, however, was not a shining moment in NHL history as Doc Emerick would have you believe.

There was so much down time during the broadcast that I felt like I was watching an NFL game (I'm pretty sure I could have cooked a steak in the time between the Young Stars game and the accuracy contest). The commercial breaks were so long I felt like I was watching an MTV show. The commercials themselves were so overplayed that I felt like I was watching a Rangers game, where I see the same Bud Light commercial 8 times in 150 minutes. Except last night, it was Chris Berman "going all the way!" and losing 41 pounds.

And if they show that unfunny chump who hosts "Sports Soup" one time during the All-Star Game, I'm going to turn it off. Okay, that's not true, mainly because I won't be watching the game fully (I'll be working so I will catch it in pieces).

They also dropped the ball terribly with the Young Stars game. There were 14 goals scored in it, but they might've shown 8 being scored. Every time a goal went in, they were showing some half-motion replay of a shot hitting the post or one of Carey Price's 4 saves in the game. They spoke in great length about Marc Staal - which I appreciate - but I would have rathered them show me the goal being scored while speaking instead of his babyface. They had Pat LaFontaine speaking throughout the whole third "period" at a low-volume so I couldn't hear half of what he said. The 2nd period started while I was still watching Chris Berman's diet, and when the broadcast returned, we were treated to the sight of a young girl enjoying some food with her little brothers instead of the game. By the time they showed the ice, we were 34 seconds in.

It was just a mess of a broadcast. If the NHL is going to such great lengths (as a one-game suspension!) to get all of it's stars there (look, it's Mike Modano and Stephane Robidas!), you think they wouldn't have hired a high school AV club to do the event and would've shelled out money for a real crew.

Who's The Best Announcing Team In New York?

Slow night tonight, with all the local teams off. In fact, the only local team playing tonight is the Knicks, who are already in mid-season form; Boston is blowing them out in a pre-season game. So what better time to discuss a very important topic... announcing.

We're pretty lucky to live in New York for one crucial reason - we have the best announcers available pretty much anywhere. Five of the six broadcasters who regularly work local games have done national broadcasts over the past few years, with only Chico Resch waiting for the call. Sam Rosen does NFL games for FOX, Joe Micheletti worked for NBC for a couple of years after the lockout, Billy Jaffe is an analyst for Versus, Howie Rose worked a MLB game for Fox this year, and Mike Emrick is the voice of both NBC and Versus. Not bad, eh? We also can't forget Al Trautwig and his yeoman work on the final episode of the first season of NBC's The Contender. Obviously, there's lots of talent here in New York.

So, then, who's the best?

That's tough to say. We're all biased towards our own teams, but most of us here are willing to call a spade a spade. Or, at least I think we are. So let's look at these broadcast teams and see what we've got.

- Mike Emrick/Chico Resch. While the Devils are an abhorrent franchise that ruined hockey, they do have a pretty good broadcast. Mike Emrick is no Gary Thorne, the greatest announcer of all time, but the Doc does a pretty good job. He obviously knows the game well. Lots of people find his voice annoying, but there are a lot of worse guys out there. Emrick is also extremely dedicated; each year, he creates a pronunciation guide which provides the correct pronunciation for the name of every player in the league and sends it to every NHL broadcaster.

(Fun Fact: Emrick not only replaced Thorne as "the voice of American hockey", but he also replaced Thorne as Devils broadcaster on SportsChannel in 1993. Emrick also does hold a doctorate in radio/television/film, hence his nickname of "Doc".)

Chico Resch is probably the most generic of the local broadcasters, but he isn't awful. I'm almost certain he wears a toupee, but we won't hold that against him. However, we WILL hold against him his rampant homerism and perpetual defense of Martin Brodeur. As if Brodeur needs the press to constantly toot his own horn.

All in all, the Devils' guys don't to a bad job... but I think we'd all like to hear our own broadcasters.

- Howie Rose/Billy Jaffe. Just minutes into the first game of the 2007-08 season, Zach sent me a text message saying, "Howie Rose is the biggest homer I've ever heard." He's probably right. But Howie Rose is one of those announcers that does an excellent job, but never gets mentioned with the top announcers in the league. God knows he's seen enough bad hockey in his day and deserves the recognition. Rose isn't a traditional hockey guy - he spends half his year calling the Mets on WFAN - but he knows the game extremely well and rarely gets in his own way.

Jaffe replaced Joe Micheletti after the 2005-06 season and has proven to be very popular with Islander fans. Micheletti probably knew the game better, but Jaffe is more entertaining and charismatic. He also has tremendous chemistry with Rose, which is almost a blessing and a curse. It's great to hear these two go at it, but lopsided games can sometimes end up being conversations about anything and everything outside the world of hockey. It's kind of like watching Al Michaels and John Madden or Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez do a game. They're great when the game is competitive, but when the game is out of reach, hilarity ensues. Depending on your tastes, that can be either a great thing or an awful thing.

- Sam Rosen/Joe Micheletti. When I was younger, I used to always turn on the Ranger broadcasts when the Islanders and Rangers faced off. Even though I wasn't supposed to, I always loved Sam and John Davidson. I thought they were very fair and I wanted to hear what they had to say about my team. They also knew the game better than anybody and were very passionate about their team. Now that JD is gone, Sam is the lone old-school Rangers voice, but he's still getting it done. Like Zach always says, it's annoying to turn on a Rangers broadcast and hear someone like John Giannone doing the game.

Most Islanders fans are familiar with the work of Micheletti, though some hold a grudge toward him for going to the Rangers. (Note: Stop. That's stupid. I'm almost certain he didn't have a ton of say in the decision.) He's not the most exciting color guy in the world, but he knows a ton about the game. My personal favorite memory of Micheletti comes from an Islander game he did where the Islanders beat the Sabres, 3-0. At the end of the game, Lindy Ruff sent out all his goons to start a brawl, which is exactly what happened. Micheletti absolutely flipped out and urged viewers to turn the game off. Of course, Ruff never got in trouble for it, and even did the same thing when Chris Neil cheapshotted Chris Drury two years ago.

Anyway. Micheletti and Rosen do a broadcast that's mostly straightforward, but is made fun by the addition of the trivia questions and trivia stats, which none of the other teams keep. Rose and Jaffe keep things loose and fun (and corny), but they clearly know their stuff. And the Devils have a good crew, but we all hate the Devils and nobody watches their games, so F them. We added a poll on this topic, so feel free to voice your opinions.

Tonight...

RANGERS POST by ZACH

Well, they did it. They extended the series, and my partner-in-game tonight, Tom, would probably say it was due in large part to his new Ryan Callahan jersey, which he said was never at a losing game (albeit, I think it's 3-0... not a great streak but it's a start).

And people were most likely sick of my scenario that I have been saying since Tuesday after Game 3...

Win Game 4 at home, which they did. The hard part is Sunday, Game 5. If they can beat Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh in front of a raucous crowd, they have climbed the toughest hill and they could very easily win Game 6 at MSG, then Game 7 would be a crapshoot, maybe 60/40 in favor of the Penguins.

I still stand by my notion that if the Chris Drury didn't score with 7.7 seconds left in Game 5 last year and the Rangers won that game, that they would have easily won Game 6 at the Garden that Sunday afternoon.

It all starts with one game. The Captain was fired up. Brendan Shanahan, obviously playing hurt, played good tonight. Scott Gomez didn't do much but he should on Sunday I hope. Drury put forth an effort. Petr Prucha proved he should be in the lineup. They were disciplined - 3 real penalties only (the others were counteracted with simultaneous Penguin penalties). They clogged the middle. Didn't let Pittsburgh have any chances except for Malkin's breakaway (and ensuing penalty shot... who does he think he is? Michael Nylander?).

Good game by the good guys. 

Big hill to climb Sunday afternoon. I think Doc Emerick is their bad luck charm. Eddie Olczyk doesn't help. You'd think he would like the Rangers since he won the Cup with them more than the Penguins who fired him. Odd. Regardless, Emerick's voice is like a cheese grater on my brain.

It all starts with one win.

* * * 

Bryan, Game 7 will be on Wednesday, not Thursday.

* * * 

Trivia Question: In 1994, Eddie Olczyk played in just 1 postseason game for the Rangers. Which game was it?