The Battle Of The Hudson Wasn't Really A Battle, Per Se...

The game last night against the Devils was a hard fought game.  The Rangers had some low points and some high points to the game. Am I happy that they lost? No. But these things happen folks...

You can blame it on the officiating, the fact that Richards isn't scoring, Eminger should have dressed in lieu of Bickel or even that McDonagh hasn't registered a point in the past 6 games.  But it's not any of those. The Rangers played a sloppy game. The power play, or lack there of, had 3 chances to capitalize. THREE. But yet again, the power play was ineffective.

There were good scoring chances where the Rangers just couldn't bury the puck. Prust had a good chance to get a shot on goal and shanked it.  As much as the Rangers fans poke fun at Brodeur's weight, you have to give credit to the guy. He's still a good goalie.  Hagelin, again, shows why he's in the lineup. His speed draws penalties.  But it may almost be a moot point if the Rangers can't get the PP working. He also managed to get 4 of the teams 15 shots on goal. Boyle also was good on the face offs - winning 16. Lundqvist, despite taking the loss, was quite good between the pipes, not stellar.  But he also did what he could, aside from scoring goals.

When in doubt, crash the net. Just don't touch the goalie.
Photo Credit: BSU

Then there was the goal, which turned out to be a no-goal.  You could see that Gaborik made an effort of stopping (notice the spray of ice from his skates), but it was ruled that he 'ran' the goalie. You can argue til the cows come home about the goalie interference call on Gaborik as he was pushed into Brodeur, and how the goal should stand... but in all reality, would that mean that the Rangers would have won?

Probably not. They were outplayed most of the game, so going to an overtime and potentially a shoot out, would not really be to their advantage.

So Rangers fans, calm down. It's one game. The NYR are still at the top of the Eastern conference. Take a deep breath and move on.