Someone Had to Win, Rangers 3-2

Welcome Rangers faithful, The High Flyer here sitting in for TDR, you may also know me as F-Da-Rangers, Bitter Dave, or even as little bro to Dark himself. I know hockey enthusiasts may wonder how two brothers who grew up in the same household could end up rooting for rival teams such as The Flyers and Rangers? Well, I’ll cut Dark some slack on the eve of the birth of his second boy, being a nice Uncle and all, and just say that he was born in NYC, I in South Jersey, and we remain loyal to our birthplaces to this day. I wonder what TDR would say about that…
And wow can loyalty sure be brutal for a Philadelphia fan, as it’s been 25 years since a championship in any of the major sports (’83 Sixers if you’re counting, and no one really cares about basketball - no, Rocky doesn't count). Always a contender, the Flyers have made the playoffs an impressive 34 of their 41 years, but mostly as a pretender, with only 2 Cups in the trophy room. So here we find ourselves in the same familiar place, on the eve of the playoffs, waiting to see if they will step up and shine like they’ve shown at times this year, or limp through their remaining 13 games, planning tee times on April 7 instead of post-season travel.

That’s the mindset of THF going into tonight’s Rangers/Sabres contest, that of “how can this game help the Flyers?” Considering the Rangers have officially gotten their act together, it only makes sense that we assume they’re in (reverse jinx) and hope for Buffalo to get the goose-egg. So go….Sabres. Yup, I can’t help it, as soon as the puck dropped and Pomanville scored 16 seconds in, I knew that emotion would overtake logic, sorry Blueshirts. So then Tyutin’s soft goal and a fairly interesting fight between Peters and Orr and I’m thinking “alright, this game has some real potential.” Well, clearly I was wrong. About ten minutes into the 1st when the ice in the neutral zone melted and the game become sloppy with limited scoring chances. Turnovers galore. The snooze-fest carried on until the last 5 minutes of the 3rd when Buffalo started to remember that they’re not in the playoffs yet. In fact I began anticipating the game finishing and catching my 15th viewing of Roadhouse (after the game on Versus).

So here are some observations in no particular order, as a bitter, jaded Flyers fan trying my best to be objective:

1) Lundqvist is rock solid. Preaching to the choir here. When there was that breakaway against him late in the 3rd, you know he’s going to save that 2 out of 3 times. Other goalies it’s 1 out of 3. TDR says Lundqvist will steal a couple of games in the playoffs due to his ability to dominate in the pipes, and I agree, but, your Rangers defense is gonna have to tighten come playoffs when there aren’t shootouts to ensure the W, and points don’t exist.
2) Chris Drury played tough on the penalty kill, cleared it twice on that 5 on 3, and hustled throughout every PK. He and Gomez played quiet, solid hockey tonight.
3) Sean Avery should have gotten two assists on Jagr’s goal. It was literally adding insult to injury when he maimed that defender into the boards leading up to the goal, and it made up for the dumb penalty he took causing that 5 on 3. Plus he used to bang Elisha Cuthbert (still?), so that’s extremely impressive. I go back to hating him tomorrow.
4) The officiating was poor, favoring the Sabres. Ample opportunities for makeup calls that never happened. When Andrew Peters sucker-punched Colton Orr from the bench at the end of regulation in front of everyone, only 10 minute misconducts were given to both players. I woulda been livid at Ref McCreary during the TV timeout for missing the instigator (from the bench!), and what’s his nuts Ranney didn’t appear affected.
5) Jagr looked sssslllloooowwww out there.

So that’s the scoop from The High Flyer. I do hope the Rangers continue to climb in the Eastern Conference, as it would be sweet to be the underdogs against a hated rival come playoff time. Just like I know Ranger fans secretly want the Flyers there too, I mean who really wants to play a 7 game series against Carolina or Montreal when it could be a bitter rival. I mean, c’mon, didn’t you miss us last year? Dark, keep up the great work, good luck tomorrow (and the next 18 years) to you and J. Go Flyers, take 4 against the Leafs on the home and home!!!