A typo? Nope.
A red flag to the selection committee for the Winter Classic? Possibly. A point and laugh at those people buying Bettman's boy band, NHL poster-boy marketing campaign, YOU F*CKIN BETCHA!!!!
Those numbers come courtesy of fellow DARK writer, The Graying Mantis, one of the best stats guys I know. I myself am not much of a stats guy. In fact, in school math was my worst subject. Still, even I am aware of the disparity between those goal tallies and understand the importance of it, despite the entire NHL front office spanking their monkeys to Crosby's 20-game streak and how much he leads the voting for the All Star Game.
You can read the official recap of last nights game here.
All in all, I wouldn't have called last night's game a stellar piece of work by our boys in blue. I liked that we managed to shadow them for most of the game and harassed the diving primadonna (Crosby) every time he touched the puck. Holding everything together, despite losing Cally to a broken hand, is another feather in our cap. For most of the game, Drury seemed to look like one of the sharper players on our team, which leads me to think that he wasn't spending all his time away counting the money as it rolled in.... in fact, maybe some of the under-performers should spend time watching the game from the GM's box for extended stints. We'll see how long it lasts for Drury though. Hopefully at least till Callys back on the ice.
Despite Drury's comeback, it did seem as though we were happy to accept what we were given for the first two periods and were almost a step behind as our attention and focus on second chance efforts was a little lacking. We weren't out played as much as out-focused. In fact we didn't truly play like a desperate team till the 3rd. A good sign that our opponents sensed it was when their goalie (B. Johnson) after making a save, decided we didn't pose much of a threat and chucked the puck back out into the slot, right past Drury. In days gone by,a goalie would often cup his glove to his chest and skate away in terror before thinking of unloading it, out of fear of getting his glove hand lopped off if he stuck it out.
A routine deflection off an Erik Christenson shot in the third, started the first crack in the Penguin armor. It rather snowballed from there... As I sat there watching the mayhem that ensued, I couldn't help but remark to myself that... it all seemed so familiar... .. Where had I seen this before? Oh right... this would be the second poster-boy and flagship team in a week that had been trampled by us. FEED US TOEWS AND KANE, next... We'll sort out this smoke and mirrors crap for the force fed masses who long for hockey the way it used to be, when winners were obvious and didn't seem to miraculously coincide with whatever flavor of the season the league was pushing.
So while we're snubbed over the Winter Classic, take solace Ranger Fan,s in that our last \Cup was earned... and played for against the odds and that any success our team achieves started in obscurity and not under the protective wing of favoritism and marketing campaigns.
Till next time,
J_Undisputed
Lets Go Rangers!!!
stellar work as always:
ReplyDeleteSo while we're snubbed over the Winter Classic, take solace Ranger Fan,s in that our last \Cup was earned... and played for against the odds and that any success our team achieves started in obscurity and not under the protective wing of favoritism and marketing campaigns.
Booyhah!