Monday, April 7, 2008

The Marty & Sean Show, Part II

It's playoffs time, folks and coming off a ridiculous SO loss to the New Jersey Devils yesterday, our New York Rangers do not have home-ice-advantage going into the first round this week and we end the regular season in fifth place in the Eastern Conference. Official recap here.

Beyond that, the game was a wash - a preemptive look at what this first-round NY Rangers/NJ Devils will look like: defensive hockey, stellar goaltending, and Sean Avery grating on Marty Brodeur! Though Avery was 'below the radar' during most of the game, this week should see the return of the most famous instigator/goaltender rivalry we've ever seen between these two organizations. We should also look toward some pretty hard hitting from the start. The first period of yesterday's game the Devils dominated with physical force, which the Blueshirts immediately adjusted to come the second period.

With the Blueshirts winning 7 of the 8 meetings this season against the NJ Devils, and with Marty Brodeur looking mortal lately, it should be a fantastic series in the world of professional hockey. With the first games in Newark this upcoming Wednesday, April 9 (first game) and Friday, April 11 (second game), MSG will look forward to it's first home games on Sunday, April 13 (third game) and April 16 (fourth game). Hopefully, the Rangers will not need more than the first four games to close out the series (IT'S OKAY TO BE WILDLY OPTIMISTIC......WE MADE THE PLAYOFFS FOR GOD'S SAKE). Let's go Rangers!

As The Dark Ranger is wildly bias these days, especially at the opening throngs of the first round - I share with you a terrific hockey blogger Faux Rumors' comments that put into perspective how Rangers fans are feeling these days:


Faux says, "If we were Ranger fans we'd be happy with our matchup. Sure we'd be wary of any team led by Brodeur, but he's human. Just do what worked 7 times this year. Also, last year Marty started to look a bit weary from all the work. Perhaps it'll happen again? This Ranger team is NOT the same as last season. Drury is on your side this time, AND there are some very hungry young guys. Should be a great series!"

It is exciting stuff and I am confident that Coach Tom Renney will remember to bench Marek Malik (after slamming our own goaltender Henrik Lundqvist yesterday) and, mostly, allow our forwards to break from the defensive posture and score some goals (exactly what they did after our system broke down after the first horrible period yesterday). The young guys will give it their all - we can count on that - the veterans have decided something is worth fighting for (i.e. Chris Drury body checking to make a point & Jagr scoring goals lately) and our goaltender has recently found his old self in net - the key to our Stanley Cup run. There.....I said it. The SC words.

Possible? Simply, yes.

tdr

2 comments:

  1. Congrats on the playoffs and 5-seed. I think you guys matchup very favorably to the Devils. I will, hopefully, be able to watch some of that series as I think it will be the best in the East

    ReplyDelete
  2. 1) Thanks for the plug TDR! Good luck.

    ReplyDelete

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