wha' happened?

All I know is I miss the game and then the whole team is injured! And they still are. I hate those Flames. Had a feeling things would be ugly in Calgary, so I decided to spend the time with two of my favorite Scotsmen, Fran Healy and Andy Dunlop of the Glaswegian band Travis.


I love these boys and have done for over 12 years now, and it makes me think, "Why are there no Scottish hockey players?" That is a development I could really get into. Also a healthy team would be nice. Henrik should be ready to go tonight against Atlanta. That's a start.

Somehow I missed the fact that a local racehorse was named after Sean Avery! Sean Avery the thoroughbred is only a .500 horse right now, but he won his race this past Sunday at Aqueduct. Good on you Sean Avery, but can you center a line?

well done boys

I didn't get to see all of this game, which is a shame because it had a little bit of everything. All my faves scored, Cally, Kotalik, Gaborik. Del Zotto stayed atop the rookie scoring list. Gilroy was excellent. Vally bounced back. From what I saw it looked the effort was there, and it resulted in a win. Not being able to diagram plays myself I sometimes assess effort by shots on goal. We had 39, so all was well. Love it. Now I'd like nothing more than to go into Calgary and duplicate this win. Maybe with an Avery hat trick. It would be sweet justice if Aves racked up some points against the other DP and on the CBC simulcast no less. Cherry on the sundae. If this contest is relegated to the wilds of Canada, then the Hockey Gods should at least make up for it with a win.

PS I forgot the best part of playing Calgary - Freddie! We get to see Sjos tonight and probably that little sparkplug Nigel Dawes. As long as their names aren't on the scoreboard it will be sweet to see their smiley faces.

I'm too tired for this shit

I hate playing the west, especially these Yukon games where I've never even heard of half the team. Even so I settled in for the Vancouver game. The 10:07pm start allowed me to not only catch the game completely, but the pre-game as well, a mid-week luxury. And I was enjoying it, there was a lot of entertainment: tight game, lots of hits, a melee, Avery feeling a little poke from Shane O'Brien. I love that Tortorella had to give #16 the "shut up" tap when he was mouthing off to the refs. It seemed like we stole momentum with the Canucks all injured or sitting in the penalty box. Higgins finally scores then looks to the heavens with arms spread like he's trying out for the road company of Evita. Very happy for him. Then I don't know what happened. I saw Vancouver's go-ahead goal which came out of nowhere. By the time they had to change the glass behind Henrik I was ready for a cat nap like a grandma tucked in with her afghan. I swear I surfaced with 3 mins left and the score was still a workable 2-1, but maybe that was a dream because when I truly woke up we had lost miserably 4-1. I hate it. On to Edmonton. I remember from last year that they have a lot of syllables in their names. Oh and Tom Renney behind the bench, if you can see him past Pat Quinn's gerth. Luckily they scheduled it a half hour earlier because they know this old lady can't make it past 12:30 anymore. Should be fun.

winning the hard way

When we're playing Boston, chances are good that one team is gonna emerge with a 1-0 win. We've been on the losing side of that a few times and it feels miserable, so I'm so happy the Rangers pulled through Sunday afternoon. Henrik pocketed his 150 win and his 21st shutout. Of course I was immediately calculating how many season he would have to play to break Brodeur's records. Even if Henrik gets nowhere near those numbers I'm so proud of him. I'm really hoping he breaks 40 wins this season even with an Olympic-shortened number of starts.

Also I'm loving this Gaborik guy. I agree we should be able to win without him, but who wants to? I know I have the glow when I talk about his goals, but it feels so new. We just haven't had that type of scorer (save for Jagr 05-06) in years. As much as I admire Ovie, I like having my own sniper much better. And I love Gabby's little baby face. Hopefully he's jumpstarted our offense back up because I would like to return from Canada with at least 4 points. First up the Luongo-less Canucks - let's make it 2 in a row.

another game, another loss

Christmas came early for the team dressed in red and green. I almost can't belief we lost to another team at the bottom of the league. I had a bad feeling about it even before Higgins and my man Avery were held out with undisclosed conditions. At least it wasn't a massacre, but I'm officially sick of losing, especially when every other team in our division/conference seems to be raking in the points. That bitch Crosby clinched another shootout yesterday. I have to say I'm nervous about tomorrow's afternoon game against Boston. First of all it's in the afternoon, and we all know how that usually plays out. Maybe we should just let the Hartford Wolf Pack stand in because it seems every time we call someone up they score their first NHL goal. Hopefully Ranger-killer Rask takes the day off after scoring a shutout today. I'd much rather face the struggling Vezina winner Tim Thomas. Maybe it will be like a few season back where we swept the Bruins and every game was a rout. That would be awesome. Prospal hat trick - enough assists already, time to catch up in the goals column.

Forget what I said last post

I hate the Islanders. I hope they don't in another game all season (except against the Devils, Flyers and Penguins)! Man you give those jerks a little sympathy and they walk all over you! Plus we played like crap, as eidenced from these photos. You know things are going badly when you spend this much time looking into your own net. Someone (maybe Larry Brooks?) described this Gaborik-less team on Wednesday looking like last season's Rangers and I couldn't agree more. They were throwing week shots all night and the good ones all banged off the posts or the crossbar.Ineffectual. So irritating. Hopefully my Blueshirts have pulled their shit together for tonight's tilt against another struggling team, the Minnesota Wild. I would love Gabby going in there and scoring at least 5 goals on them, but it looks like he'll be sitting this one out too. Maybe Avery will do his best Gaborik impersonation. That would be a blast.

the wrong 2 points

Well the hockey gods decided to shine their divine light upon the Rangers raised sticks last night, but like I said they're a fickle bunch. Why couldn't we win against the Devils or Montreal who we have a papable dislike for instead of Phoenix who are not only out of our conference, but actually a team I like and root for? Especially now that they have Prucha and the Korpedo. I could stomach those two putting up points far quicker than Gomez. I just finally watched the Habs preshow and every time they showed Gomez (which was plenty) I made the same squanched face my cat makes when I'm gonna flick her nose in punishment or she's smelled something funky. Don't get me wrong, I'd like to beat every team, but I'm pulling for the Coyotes. Another secret: I'm kinda pulling for the Isles too. Not to beat us, not at all, but I think they're a better team than their record last year or this season thus far. Of course they got Tavares for their pain, and I'm sure I'll be cursing them sooner than later. Right now, I'll take tomorrow's game and worry about them afterward.

Ps: I have my fingers crossed that Gaborik is just a little sore and not hurt but, Gabby, maybe this isn't the best celebration pose for a certain someone with groin and hip issues.

Toujour fraises, tout le temps

I hate playing at the Bell Centre because even when we come away with a win, Henrik ends up eating so many pucks. Last night was no different. We emerged with just one point after leading by two goals on two occasions. At this stage of the season I'll take the point and be done with it, but it doesn't feel nice to have Snotty Gomez' smug face all up in mine. He's like Dave Attell's ugly shorter brother. We spent far too much time in our own zone with no one protecting Henrik from pucks or other skaters. I think the formation pictured might have to become routine just to protect our King. This time he was even run by our own guy (Thanks Dubi!). Thank heavens Henrik came away unscathed. In good news, Del Zotto is still atop points by defensemen and the Avery-Drury-Kotalik line that I've been waiting all season for performed marvelously. Now if we can get everyone scoring, it be an easy ride to April. A little far-fetched, but I'll settle for a strong effort against Phoenix tomorrow night at MSG. Sorry Prucha!

I will give a Gaboreus a shield and a stick

So I thought I made a deal with the Hockey gods this week: The Sharks could take Monday -even in a a rout- if the Rangers would then prevail Thursday and Saturday against the Devils then the Habs. The thing is I picture the hockey heavens like Clash of the Titans with all the various figureheads battling amongst themselves for superiority and command in the most melodramatic way possible. Kinda like the GMs at the NHL draft with a lot more bitchiness. Anyway they must be a fickle bunch to let my boys conquer for 7 games straight, just to take all their glory away with two mediocre losses. Especially to the Devils. I fucking hate losing to Brodeur. Fortunately I haven't had to stomach it often, so this had better not be the start of a new trend. Also Laurence Olivier had better not take into his Zeus-size brain to break off Gaborik's hip before placing #10 in Olympus' model hockey rink. How will Gaborik defeat the Cracken (Crosby? Emery?) if he's on IR? Well I hope the powers that be are feeling in favor with the Rangers this weekend because I'd very much like to leave Bell Centre with 2 points.
There have been some highlights despite the losing streak this week. First was dearly departed Freddie Sjostom's first goal as a Flame. It's a beauty and look at Freddie's happy smiley face. Love that guy still, especially because he's in the west and we only play him once this season. What are the chances that Freddie didn't want to be shown up by that other Swede, 9 year-old Oliver Wahlstrom, so he came up with his own spinorama? I say pretty good.

My favorite Swede Henrik Lundqvist also softened the blow last night with his post game interview. Hopefully y'all saw it because he said something to the effect that he loves beating the Devils then looks into the camera, winks and says, "We'll get them next time!" Delicious. Might be his best interview moment since beating the USA in the 2006 Olympics. And not to be upstaged, Sean Avery debuted his own website this week. Very promising. Check out the 2nd photo of him taunting Flyers fans, but be forewarned - I noticed razor burn near his manline when I clicked open the page 2 shirtless photo. Very disturbing, but I love the Avery shirt even if it looks a little like tattoo art out of a cracker jack box. At least Avery's gear is better than Ovie's!

my cars shift themselves

Except for picking this photo, I'm not gonna dwell on how truly crap last night's game was. Instead I'll enumerate the things I did enjoy. First and foremost was the luxury suite I somehow lucked into (thank you J!). I always thought that the suites weren't worth it, because they're even higher than the blue seats at MSG. Turns out the view was fantastic. I had a clear unobstructed view of the Sharks scoring 6 consecutive goals, plus one for luck. Yay me! I did love the overhead perspective. It was so easy to follow the play and spot the numerous mismanaged plays before they even resulted in goals against. Plus I had the best angle of Avery in the penalty box. He was like a little kid in a time out, swinging his legs and pouting until he was let back out to play. On his behalf, it was like a flashback to March when the refs turned a blind eye to every transgression against him like he was a convicted child molester on his first day in prison. And how about that goalie interference against Henrik that resulted in the 6th tally? I'd be more upset about it if the game hadn't been fully lost at that point.

Back to the positive. I missed yet another Versus telecast. I'm sure the fine people over at VS know a lot more about hockey than I do, but they don't know as much about the Rangers as I do and it's just plain frustrating having to listen to their commentary. Also I love that Del Zotto scored his fourth and still leads defensemen in points as of this morning. Forget Hedman, DZ is the rookie D of the year. Can we vote for the Calder now? Hopefully this game just provided a blueprint for how not to play from here on out. I want Devils' blood on my hands come Thursday night, it is nearly Halloween after all.