For the majority of the first 40 minutes, the Rangers looked like they had 2 hours, rather than 2 days, between games. As much as coach John Tortorella has been denying it when asked, the Rangers looked like a tired team. The Devils dominated play, winning battles and spending an inordinate amount of time in the Rangers’ defensive zone. At 1:51 of the second, after Henrik Lundqvist denied attempts by Ilya Kovalchuk, Dainius Zubrus and Adam Henrique, the coach used his timeout to try and get the team to regroup. The Devils got 26 shots on goal in the first 2 periods, each and every one of them turned aside by Lundqvist, who was key in keeping the Rangers in it and the game scoreless.

But yet, as they have so many times this season, the Rangers found a way to collect themselves. They came out in the third looking like a different team. At 2:11 of the third period, Devils’ defenseman Bryce Salvador took a hooking penalty, setting the stage for the Rangers’ power play to go to work for the second time on the afternoon. Brad Richards won the faceoff and moved the puck back to Dan Girardi, who was all alone at the circle. Girardi fired and beat Martin Brodeur on the stick side, giving him his third of the playoffs and the Rangers a 1-0 lead.

“During the regular season and we’ve gone through the playoffs, that’s what I like about our team,” Tortorella said after the game.  “I’m not sure how far we go. I’m not sure what goes on from here, but it’s a team that stays with it. And, again, I thought our game started coming back a little bit in the second period. Our third period was more what we were trying to get to. We still have things to improve on. But there’s no panic. We know who we are. We know how we have to play. We’re trying to do that more consistently. And that’s how we’ll go about it.”

Girardi’s goal would prove to be the game winner when all was said and done. All three of the All-Star defensemen’s goals in these playoffs have been game winners.

The Rangers, however, were not quite done paying back their goaltender for his heroics on the day. Chris Kreider continued to write an incredible playoff story for himself, scoring 1:57 after Girardi broke through, giving him his 5th goal of the playoffs. The tip-in of Ryan McDonagh’s shot put Kreider in the record books, making him the only NHL player to score 5 playoff goals before ever playing a regular season game.

 ”I don’t even know the kid,”  Tortorella responded when asked when he sensed the rookie would be so good for them. “For me to sit here and say I thought it was going to be that time, I have no idea. I don’t know the kid at all. I’ve probably spoken to him probably three or four times since he’s been here. But he has a knack. The puck follows him around. And he has a ways to go away from the puck, but he has a knack with that puck. We talked about it in between periods. We needed him to be better defensively, but we felt he had the best chance to score the goal. We end up scoring a couple of them, and him scoring one.”

Ryan Callahan, who has struggled to score in the playoffs, solidified the victory with an empty-net goal at the 17:47 mark of the 3rd period.

Lundqvist stopped the remaining 10 shots the Devils took in the game to secure his second win and second shutout of the series. He agreed with the coach’s assessment of  how the team as a whole found a way to win.

“They had some chances in the second, and I felt like it was a good timeout by Torts, they came out flying there in the second created big chances. But we didn’t panic, and that’s the biggest thing. I think we had moments during the year where we got into some tough minutes, if you can call it that, but we didn’t panic, we kept our composure, kept playing the same way, and as a goalie, you know sooner or later it’s going to turn. It’s going to turn in our favor.  We’re going to get a chance. We’re going to get a break. And that’s the feeling I had.  In the third we came out big, made some really big plays and scored some really good goals for us.”

Without Lundqvist’s stellar performance, the Rangers would have never had a chance at being in this game, let alone the opportunity to win it. As the playoffs go on, “The King” continues to throw his hat in the ring for Conn Smythe consideration, and silence the critics who have criticized him in the past for not coming up big in the playoffs when he’s needed the most. He’ll need to come up with 2 more superhuman efforts in this series for the Rangers to move along. The Rangers will once again get an opportunity to take a 3-1 lead in a playoff series on Monday night. They have yet to do so, a part of the playoff pattern that they hope won’t repeat itself for a third time.

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Brandon Prust will have a hearing with the NHL Sunday morning regarding his elbow to the head of Devils’ defenseman Anton Volchenkov in the second period. There was no penalty called on the play, and Volchenkov was not injured and remained in the game.

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The scene is set before game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, which the Rangers won, 3-0.

For the second series in a row, the New York Rangers took their playoff series to the limit, and for the second series in a row, got past their opponent to move on. For the first time since 1997, they are in the Eastern Conference finals, battling against an old nemesis, the New Jersey Devils.

So much of this run has had fans looking at parallels to 1994. Of course this is 2012 and the teams are nothing alike – with this one focused on a young homegrown core instead of being a win-now, guns-for-hire group that stripped the franchise of so much of its up-and-coming talent to go for it – but it is hard not to. After all, they faced the Washington Capitals in the second round that year (defeating them in 5 games) and then faced the New Jersey Devils in that epic 7-game series that sent the Rangers to the finals. In an ironic twist of fate, should this year’s game 6 take place it will be on May 25th, the anniversary of the game Mark Messier “guaranteed” the Rangers would win (and they did, thanks in part to a hat trick from the captain). Game 7 would take place on May 27th, the same date as the double overtime “Matteau! Matteau! Matteau!” game that ended that series.

The fans were certainly ready to go last night, getting the “Marrrrtyyyy” chants going even before the puck dropped. Once again, the FDNY Emerald Society drummed behind the penalty boxes to get the night started. For the first time all playoffs, the pregame videos were projected on the ice, rather than strictly on the scoreboard. Stephane Matteau was brought to encourage the 18,200 in attendance to put on the blue t-shirts that had been handed out as fans walked in. Once again, Ron Duguay made an appearance to try and get the crowd going.

There’s been talk heading into the series about how no team has gone on to win the Stanley Cup after going the 14-game distance in the first 2 rounds. There’s been talk about how the week of rest the Devils earned by dispatching the Philadelphia Flyers in 5 would benefit them, compared to the Rangers being less than 48 hours removed from eliminating the Washington Capitals in 7. With or without any encouragement, the Garden Faithful were certainly ready for this installment of “The Battle Of The Hudson.” But would the Rangers be? In the end, the answer was “yes,” as the Rangers shut out the Devils, 3-0 to take a 1-0 series lead.

Looking at the score alone is deceiving, as the game was far closer than one would think by looking at those numbers. Henrik Lundqvist made 21 saves, but made them count, especially in the second period when the Devils surged and had the better of the play. The Devils flashed the aggressive penalty kill they’ve become known for this season. But Lundqvist came up big, stoning Zach Parise on 3 consecutive tries while killing off an Andy Greene slashing penalty, to keep his team in the game.

“As a goalie you always have to step up when the team needs you not when you feel good and you have your moments,” the Vezina trophy candidate said after last night’s game. “A lot of times it’s when the team’s struggling you have to step up. And it’s fun, too, to be there and try to make the difference sometimes when the team is going through a tough stretch.”

His strong play set the stage for a third period in which the Rangers finally broke through against Martin Brodeur. As good as his defensive partner Ryan McDonagh was, notably using his speed to catch Parise on a breakaway and to neutralize Ilya Kovalchuk as he came in 1-on-1 on his goaltender in the first, Dan Girardi had a rare rough night defensively. Girardi had a ghastly turnover in front of the net that Lundqvist was able to stop and then also had to shake off the painful after effects of blocking a shot and a cut near his eye when he was boarded by Steve Bernier midway in the 3rd period. But this can be a game where a hero can become a goat in an instant and vice-versa. Girardi found redemption when he struck 53 seconds into the 3rd period off a pass from rookie Chris Kreider, a goal that Lundqvist would make stand up as the game winner. Kreider would add an insurance goal on the power play, snapping it past Brodeur off a pass from Artem Anisimov at the twelve minute mark. Anisimov would seal the deal with 1:27 left and Brodeur pulled for the extra skater. Mike Rupp took a roughing penalty with 38 seconds remaining to put the Devils up 2 men, but Lundqvist denied them to earn his second shutout of the postseason.

The Rangers now find themselves in familiar territory – up 1 game to 0 in the playoffs and will look to go up 2-0 in a series for the first time in the 2012 playoffs Wednesday night.

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Rather than be down in the series 3-2 and have to fight for their playoff lives in game 6, they were up 3-2 with a chance on Wednesday to knock the Capitals out in front of their home crowd. Sadly, the Rangers didn’t really bother to show up. They got behind early after Anton Stralman took a tripping penalty 1:35 into the game on which Alex Ovechkin converted. Jason Chimera added the second goal in the second period and that was all the Caps would need. The Rangers’ power play that came up clutch for them in game 5, was nowhere to be found in this one. They went 0-for-5 on the night, the lowlight going shotless on Jeff Halpern’s double-minor for high sticking John Mitchell midway through the second period. A Marian Gaborik goal with 51 seconds left in the game with Lundqvist pulled prevented Braden Holtby from recording the shutout, but it was just window dressing on a night where no one (with maybe the exception of Lundqvist, who made some great saves to keep the Rangers close) really had a notable game for the Blueshirts.

Instead of opening up the Eastern Conference Finals at home Saturday night against the New Jersey Devils, they are hosting a game 7 against the Capitals. As they’ve done many times over the course of this season following a lackluster performance, they’ll have to find a way to bounce back. So how do they do that?

Score first. Heck, they just need to find a way to score, period. In the first 6 games of the series, the team that has scored first has won. With the exception of game 1, which the Rangers won 3-1, every game has been decided by either a 2-1 or 3-2 score, so goals have been hard to come by. Part of the credit has to be given to the Capitals taking a page out of the Rangers’ book when it comes to defensive hockey. A large part of it though falls on a  team with an anemic offense and an awful power play. With the way both have been going, a 1- or 2-goal deficit can seem insurmountable.

In practice Friday, John Tortorella reunited Chris Kreider with Derek Stepan and Ryan Callahan. The line was effective early in the series, until Kreider  made a major gaffe in game 4 that led to an Ovechkin goal. It was a game the Capitals wound up winning. Kreider wound up playing 7:43 in that game, followed by 6:57 in game 5 and 6:06 in game 6. As we’ve learned with Tortorella, and as we’ve seen with Kreider, ice time depends on trust. But in a game 7, and starving for offense, he has to play and just hope that, if the kid does have a defensive lapse, the other 5 players on the ice for the Rangers can bail him out. With their backs to the wall, the reward outweighs the risk.

Then there’s the power play that still has yet to find any regular effectiveness after 95 games. Move the puck quickly, cut down on the cutesy passing and just take the shot. Cycle. Get in front of the net. Easy for me to say, but it’s now or never for them to find success.

Get At Holtby and Outplay Him. Can the 22-year-old rookie, who became a father on Thursday, push that out of his mind  and keep focus for a few hours? We saw what happened in game 1 when he wasn’t focused, mostly because the Rangers only took 14 shots on him. He’s been good for the Capitals when he’s needed to be. The Rangers have to throw everything at him, and not just shots in the hopes of creating rebounds. Crash the net. Create screens. Staal scored the overtime winner from the point in game 5, a shot Holtby admitted he can’t see.

Like it or not, this game 7 will fall squarely on the shoulders of Lundqvist. There’s been quite a bit made in the last few days about the Capitals “finding” his weakness. Anyone who has seen Lundqvist since 2005 knows that high glove is the way you’re going to beat “The King.” A 1.73 GAA and a .936 save percentage ideally should be good enough, but when the 18 skaters aren’t generating any offense, it’s not. Lundqvist is going to have to have the game of his career for the Rangers to have any chance of playing on Monday night.

Get Back To Playing “Rangers Hockey.” While they failed to score, the first period of game 5 was probably the last time they played the kind of hockey the Rangers have come to be known for this season. For 20 minutes there was high energy, physical, controlling hockey by this team. That is the kind of effort they’ll need tonight.

Take Advantage of Home Ice Advantage. The Rangers worked all season to earn the number one seed and have home ice advantage. During several of the home games in the first 2 rounds the crowd was so into it during the anthem you couldn’t even hear John Amirante sing. Even when the team has gotten down in games, the crowd would cheer to encourage them to get back into it. There’s no reason to expect that the fans’ passion will be any less tonight. It’s not only about the Garden Faithful, some of whom will pay a pretty penny on the secondary market to be in the building (average price for a ticket per seatgeek.com is $441.00). It’s also about getting more desirable matchups with the last changes, which will be critical when trying to keep the likes of Ovechkin off the scoreboard. History doesn’t mean much, but for those who look for anything for some optimism, the Rangers are 4-0 in game sevens at Madison Square Garden. Why can’t they make it 5-0?

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Thursday night, the gentleman who was sitting in front of me at the game brought his “lucky hat” to wear – a helmet with a puck sticking halfway out of it, giving the illusion that it was embedded into the helmet. Needless to say, those of us sitting behind him ordered him to never take it off for the rest of the playoffs.

They’re not the only ones getting caught up in superstitions when it comes to the playoffs. After wearing different jerseys for games 2 and 5, for game 7 I went back to what I wore during the game 1 victory  – my 2010-11 Ryan Callahan heritage jersey. And when someone mentioned to me that they hoped the Devils would get knocked off, I said nothing. Didn’t want to wish any ill will on any other teams; didn’t need karma biting me and the Rangers in the behind. Why unnecessarily anger the hockey gods?

A lot of fans have all kinds of superstitions, thinking something they do are is what propels the team we love to victory. The game 7 win had nothing to do with a gutsy, gritty team once again rising to the challenge in the face of adversity. Not a thing to do with a Vezina- and Hart Trophy-nominated goaltender elevating his game when the team needed him to be just a little bit better. And it definitely had nothing to do with the offense coming from 2 unexpected sources in Dan Girardi and Marc Staal, who is inching ever closer to his pre-concussion self.

Hats, jerseys, foods. Those are what did it for the Rangers Thursday night, right? Well, of course not. But why risk it? Back in my Callahan heritage jersey I will be when the puck drops at 3pm to open up the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Washington Capitals.

The Capitals come into this series on the heels of some 7-game drama of their own, taking out the defending champion Boston Bruins in overtime.  But this time, there are a few twists, with the Rangers coming in the top seed and the Capitals the bottom seed, rather than the other way around. While many of the key Capitals from the last 2 times these teams met in the playoffs are still there, this is not Bruce Boudreau’s run-and-gun, defensively loosey-goosey team. Rather, Dale Hunter has managed to shape them into a more defensive-minded, shot-blocking squad.

Sound somewhat familiar?

Neither team was an offensive juggernaut in the first round (Capitals scored a total of 16 goals in the 1st round; the Rangers 14); their power play effectiveness were almost equal (Capitals at 15.8%, Rangers 15.6%). Even with the Capitals becoming more defense-oriented, they still possess many of the same weapons they did when they were offense-first. The Rangers will need to contain the likes of Alex Ovechkin and Alex Semin, while trying to get their own goal-scorers going. Brian Boyle, the Rangers’ leading goal scorer in round 1 who was concussed in game 5, skated Friday for the first time since he suffered the injury. He’s not expected to play today, but getting him back would be a boost. Chris Kreider has taken the opportunity afforded him by the Carl Hagelin suspension and the Boyle injury, gaining confidence and, in turn, John Tortorella’s trust. As he gets more comfortable and continues developing chemistry with Derek Stepan and Ryan Callahan, he very may well have a big say in the outcome of this series.

We all know what the Rangers have in goal in Lundqvist. The wild card may be what’s happening in the other net. The Capitals have had first-round success with NHL playoff newbies in goal over the last few years. Semyon Varlamov relieved Jose Theodore in 2009 and closed the door on the Rangers. Michal Neuvirth did likewise to them in 2011. Braden Holtby has managed the same feat against the Bruins this year. It will be interesting to see how capable he is at replicating that success against the Rangers. On paper, the Rangers should have the advantage in goal, but the same could have been said about Lundqvist vs. Craig Anderson in the 1st round.

Slowly but surely, the Rangers are slaying some of their playoff demons. Lundqvist coming up clutch in the postseason? Check. Making it past the first round for the first time since 2007? Check. Perhaps the next check will be for beating the Capitals and making it to the Easter Conference Finals for the first time since 1997.

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A lot of credit has to be given to the Senators. Craig Anderson has been good when he’s had to be, holding the Rangers to 9 goals in 4 games. They’ve also been able to adapt their play after game 1 to match the Rangers’ physical style, inserting Matt Carkner and Zenon Konopka into their lineup. The Senators have also managed to create more traffic in Henrik Lundqvist’s crease – Konopka making his presence felt in this area – something the Rangers have to contend with and find a way to clear out with the personnel they have. (I’ve contended several times this is what the Rangers have glaringly missed since the days of Jeff Beukeboom, and it’s probably what they are hoping prospect Dylan McIlrath will be down the line.) They do have 6’8″ 270 pound John Scott at their disposal to throw out there, but in a series where they’re trying to contend with the speed of their opponent, his overall game is more of a liability than his size would be an asset.

Konopka’s physical play is not the only aspect of his game that has had an impact. He also has a 68.6 faceoff win percentage in the 3 games he’s played. It’s not just him who has turned the Blueshirts into roadkill in the faceoff circle. Through Friday’s games, the Senators have the best faceoff percentage of the 16 playoff teams (54.5%) and the Rangers dead last (45.5%). A quick look at the faceoff stats show the disparity in the wins and losses:

The Senators have spent a lot of time with the puck, controlling play, carrying momentum and taking shots. Lots of shots. In the series, they’ve outshot the Rangers by 18 (134 to 116), but they’ve by far and away blown them out of the water on attempts (299 to 205). In Wednesday’s loss alone the disparity was a staggering 87 to 49. About a third of those (30) made it to  Lundqvist, with the remainder missing the net or being blocked.

After the early nastiness of this series and other series around the NHL, the referees called game 4 much tighter. The Rangers had trouble staying out of the penalty box and it did wind up burning them when Sergei Gonchar tied the game at 2 after Artem Anisimov took a hooking penalty. Ottawa did a pretty good job of marching to the box themselves in game 4, giving the Blueshirts 7 opportunities. They got out to a quick start with 2 power play goals (not a typo, they actually did score 2 on the power play), one by Anton Stralman and one by Ryan Callahan within the first 6:10 of the game. After that, nothing. For the series the power play is (dys)functioning at 16.7%, surprisingly that 1% better than they were in the regular season. Yes, the Bruins managed to win a Stanley Cup last season with a 16.2% power play in the regular season and a 11.4% effectiveness in the playoffs but they were able to generate goals in other situations to get them to the 16 needed wins.

The Rangers, on the other hand, have not cranked out a whole lot of offense. Part of it is the goaltending of Anderson and lack of puck possession noted above, but the places one would expect the scoring would come from have disappeared. Boyle, who began to heat up toward the end of the season, leads the team with 3 goals. Ryan Callahan has 2; Anton Stralman who had all of 2 in the regular season, has 2. Marian Gaborik had 1 in game 1 and aside from 2 assists in the series, hasn’t been heard from since. Perhaps Gaborik being so quiet can be correlated to the 3-game suspension of his speedy rookie linemate Carl Hagelin, which helps to create opportunities. Hagelin will serve his final game tonight and will be available to return for game 6 on Monday. Chris Kreider, who was thrown into Hagelin’s place after signing his entry level contract, has seen limited ice time. Derek Stepan has wavered between looking lost and invisible in this series. Brandon Dubinsky’s season-long offensive slump has spilled into the playoffs. Getting tossed in game 2 for being 3rd man in after coming to Boyle’s aid did not light the fire you might have expected in the games that have followed. This is not to place the blame for lack of offensive output solely on them or on missing Hagelin; there are plenty of people on that roster who need to try and step up. When Stralman, a defenseman who had 2 goals in 53 games in the regular season, is your 3rd leading scorer then something is terribly wrong.

The Rangers have handled adversity and distractions well all season. There’s no magic wand that can instantly fix the power play and faceoff woes that have troubled them through 86 games. Ottawa has managed to respond and adapt to the Rangers’ game. Now it’s their turn to do likewise if they want to be playing hockey beyond next week.

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Carkner did his job effectively, when at 2:15 in the first period he jumped an unsuspecting Brian Boyle, who did not fight back, as retribution for Boyle’s game one rabbit-punching of Erik Karlsson in game one. It happened right in front of the referee, who puts his arm up, blows the whistle and just stands there rather than attempt to stop Carkner from using a prone Boyle as a human punching bag.

Seeing his teammate in trouble, Brandon Dubinsky (and everyone else for that matter) got involved and the referees, who seemingly let it get out of control, not only gave Dubinsky 2 minutes for roughing but tossed him out of the game for being the 3rd man in on the altercation. The 3rd  man in rule states that “a game misconduct penalty, at the discretion of the Referee, shall be imposed on any player who is the first to intervene (third man in) in an altercation already in progress except when a match penalty is being imposed in the original altercation. This penalty is in addition to any other penalties incurred in the same incident.”  Much to the chagrin of the Gatorade cooler at the Rangers’ tunnel, the referees used their discretion to assess that penalty and Dubinsky was lost for the game.

Carkner, on the other hand, received 2 for instigating, 5 for fighting and a game misconduct as well. Carkner did his job and was done for the night. There’s no way of knowing if the outcome of Saturday’s 3-2 overtime loss would have been any different with Dubinsky available, but it certainly did not help the Rangers’ cause.

On Sunday, Carkner, a repeat offender who has a history of such behavior, received a one-game suspension for his deliberate antics. Meanwhile, Rangers’ rookie Carl Hagelin received a 3-game suspension for his careless elbow to the head of Daniel Alfredsson. Seemingly the difference? While Carkner’s repeated blows to the head did not cause injury to Boyle, Hagelin’s elbow to the head did, at least in that game as Alfredsson did not return to play in game two. Alfredsson, however, has not yet been ruled out of Monday’s game.

Sunday evening, the Rangers issued this brief statement on the Hagelin suspension:

The New York Rangers accept the NHL’s three-game suspension of Carl Hagelin and will not pursue an appeal.

However, we are thoroughly perplexed in the ruling’s inconsistency with other supplementary discipline decisions that have been made throughout this season and during the playoffs.

We will have no further comment on this decision.

Perplexed? Yeah, join the party.

The message these suspensions send? That an action that may or may not cause a player to miss time is a far greater offense than a premeditated attack on a player that didn’t cause an injury. What next? Why not up the ante? If the Senators sent out a sacrificial lamb – a player that losing for a game or two has no real impact – do the Rangers send theirs out on Monday in John Scott and send him after Chris Phillips for his elbow on Ryan Callahan? Then who does Zenon Konopka, who promised “blood and stitches” in the series, target next? I am certainly not advocating it, but when the referees fail to step in  and properly control the situation (not just in the Rangers-Senators series) and the NHL itself fails to mete out discipline with some semblance of logic and reason (feel free to lump in Shea Weber slamming Henrik Zetterberg’s head, WWE-style, that only led to a fine), it lends itself to some of the vigilante justice that we’ve seen in the first week of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

There were expectations (at least I had them), that when Brendan Shanahan became the discipline czar, he was going to be a drastic improvement over his predecessor, Colin Campbell. Unfortunately, even with the video explanations, NHL discipline has remained a confusing, arbitrary justice system that leaves everyone scratching their heads.

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It all started what seemed like a lifetime ago in Goteborg, Sweden, when he and the Rangers played an exhibition game against his former team, the Frolunda Indians. Not only was he honored before that game, but it gave him yet another chance to go head-to-head against his twin brother Joel, who captains the SEL club.

Add to that 24/7 and the Winter Classic, where he made that late-game save on Daniel Briere’s penalty shot; being selected to the All-Star Game and being given the “A” for Team Alfredsson, helping his fellow Swede draft his team; coming further to the forefront as a spokeman for the Garden Of Dreams Foundation, for which he launched a hat and t-shirt line to raise money for the charity. This week, he became the “cover boy” for a regional version of Sports Illustrated, highlighting their NHL playoff preview.

But it will feel like it was all for naught should he not backstop the Rangers deep into the playoffs. It’s the biggest knock against him – that he can’t get it done when it counts most. For all of his stellar numbers in the regular season (career – 252-155-54 (43 shutouts), .920 SV%, 2.27 GAA), they have dipped once the postseason arrived (15-20 (3 shutouts), .909 SV%, 2.60 GAA). In his five previous trips to the playoffs, he’s only won one series, a 4-0 sweep of the Atlanta Thrashers in 2007.

Though he just turned 30 earlier this month and is now in the prime of his career, he in cognizant that the clock is ticking for him to add the Stanley Cup to his resume. So, is this the season he finally sheds that reputation? Here are a few reasons why it very well might be.

Successful Execution Of The Goalie Rotation Plan.

Last season, a Derek Stepan shot that fractured Martin Biron’s collarbone in practice on trade deadline day 2010 meant John Tortorella had to scrap the “rest Lundqvist” plan that was in place. Lundqvist played a total of 68 games last year, the lowest of his career at that point. He made 26 straight starts to end that season, as they were once again in a dog fight just to make the playoffs.  He also made all 5 starts in the postseason as well, adding up to 31 straight.

Despite some shaky goaltending late this season, Biron actually went 12-6-2 for the Rangers. Last time a Rangers goalie not named Lundqvist reached double-digit wins? It was Kevin Weekes in 2005-06, Lundqvist’s rookie season (he went 14-14-3 in 32 games). Even playing a season-high 10 straight down the stretch, Lundqvist played in the fewest games since that rookie year (62) and set a career-high in wins (39). He also posted personal bests in save percentage (.930) and goals against average (1.97) even with his play coming back to earth over the last 2 months. His 8 shutouts also made him the only goaltender to appear in top 5 in all of the major goaltending statistics and makes him a strong candidate to not only earn his 4th Vezina nomination in 7 years, but maybe finally get the chance to take home that hardware. A lighter regular season workload should ideally mean there’s more left in the tank physically to make a playoff run.

The Team In Front Of Him Is Relatively Healthy.

Or as healthy as it can be after 82 games. That injury to Biron put more of a burden on Lundqvist, but injuries overall took their toll on the team last year. Lack of scoring and trouble on special teams were part of the reason the Rangers fell in five to the Washington Capitals but losing the heart and soul of the team, Ryan Callahan, to an ankle fracture in the closing days of the season all but sealed their fate. Coming into this series, they are not missing any of the major components that got them to this point. The only major injury that is sidelining a regular is the concussion of defenseman Michael Sauer, something he’s been dealing with since December.  A healthy Sauer would be an asset to an already solid defense, but players like Anton Stralman and Stu Bickel have been able to plug some of the holes left by the absence. Defenseman Steve Eminger is still trying to work his way back from an ankle injury. Aside from them, it’s all hands on deck ready to go tonight against the Ottawa Senators.

Not Only Is It Healthy, It’s An Improvement From Seasons Past. 

A goaltender can get hot and carry a team deep (see Halak, Jaroslav circa 2010), but it generally takes all 24 men who dress to lift that beautiful trophy in June. Back as a rookie in 2005-06, the only serious offensive weapon the Rangers had was Jaromir Jagr, and once he separated his shoulder trying to take a swipe at then-Devil Scott Gomez, that was pretty much the end of him being an threat. In the 4-game sweep, the Rangers mustered a total of 4 goals to the Devils’ 17. The defense consisted of the likes of Marek Malik, Darius Kasparaitis, the late-season acquisition Sandis Ozolinsh and Rangers fan favorite Tom Poti. Not exactly a group that will instill a whole lot of confidence that it can get things done.

Marian Gaborik  bounced back this year, putting in 41 goals and Callahan adding a career-high of 29. Unfortunately, players like Brandon Dubinsky and Brian Boyle saw their offensive numbers fall off from last year. Even with the addition of Brad Richards and Carl Hagelin, their goals scored per game average actually went down slightly (from 2.73 to 2.71). Should the Rangers get deep in this series and find they’re searching for additional offensive pop, newly signed Chris Kreider will be available to insert in the lineup.

Dubinsky and Boyle have been somewhat AWOL offensively, they’ve made contributions defensively. The team as a whole  blocks shots relentlessly, reducing the number of pucks that make it to the net. Dan Girardi and Ryan McDonagh have embraced their roles as defensive stalwarts. Michael Del Zotto has bounced back. Marc Staal is slowly coming back after missing half the season. Goals against per game dipped from last season, going from 2.38 last year to 2.22 this year. It’s a collaborative effort, with Lundqvist as the last line of defense.

The team didn’t get a drastic makeover from last year’s squad, but tweaked it by adding Brad Richards and Mike Rupp. It has allowed for a sense of familiarity with each other and growing more comfortable within Tortorella’s defense-first system. Call-ups from the AHL, where that same system is used, has allowed call-ups like John Mitchell and Carl Hagelin to make a smooth jump the the NHL. There’s that old cliche that familiarity breeds contempt, but in this case it has allowed the Rangers to form a cohesive group that plays hard for each other.

It’s been a pretty good year to be “The King”. It’d be an even better one for Lundqvist, his teammates and the Rangers faithful, if  he can exorcise his playoff demons once and for all and he team ends the 18-year Stanley Cup drought this June.

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His fiery temper and his outspokenness is part of why he was brought in, and is what makes him a polarizing figure even among fans of the team he coaches. That temper got him in trouble in 2009 in his first playoff series as Rangers coach, when an altercation with Washington Capitals fans behind the bench led to a 1-game suspension.

His outspokenness cost him $30,000.00 for his postgame remarks after the Winter Classic, when he intimated that the rash of pro-Flyers calls (including the Daniel Briere penalty shot that Henrik Lundqvist stopped) in the closing minutes of the showcase game were a conspiracy between the NHL and NBC to send the game into overtime.

During Thursday night’s 5-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, Brooks Orpik laid a knee-on-knee hit on Derek Stepan in the third period. Orpik received a 5-minute major and a game misconduct.  Stepan was able to skate off the ice without assistance. He did not practice on Friday and was reported to just be sore. If that’s the severity of it then the Rangers dodged  a huge bullet a week away from the start of the playoffs.

Understandably Tortorella was livid about the dirty hit and let his feelings be known about it in his postgame interview that aired after the game on MSG Network:

“Absolutely, it’s a cheap, dirty hit,” Tortorella said when asked about it. “I wonder what would happen if we did it to their two whining stars over there, I wonder what would happen? So I’m anxious to see what happens with the league with this. Just no respect among players, none. It’s sickening.”

Tortorella wasn’t done sharing how he felt about the team that had run afoul of another Atlantic Division rival, the Philadelphia Flyers, five days earlier, as well as Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin:

“It’s one of the most arrogant organizations in the league. They whine about this stuff all the times and look what happens. It’s ridiculous, but they’ll whine about something else over there, won’t they? Starting with their two (f—ing) stars.”

You think it would have ended there, right? Both teams report to their respective practice facilities on Friday and then close out their regular seasons on Saturday without further incident, right? Wrong. Crosby felt the need to fire back today, and actually had the audacity to imply, in quotes that appeared in a story on nhl.com, that Ryan Callahan whines far more to the officials:

“I mean, if you want you can put a camera on us all game, put a camera on [Rangers captain Ryan Callahan] all game. You’ll see who’s over there more [with the officials]. He [Tortorella] should worry about his own players.”

Callahan? Really Sidney? If Crosby felt that Tortorella’s remarks were “garbage,” why even respond to them with more than a “I’m not even going to dignify the comments with a reaction”? Crosby could have taken the high road and come out looking like the better person in this. Rather he chose to spew his own “garbage.” and drag Callahan, the hard-nosed Rangers captain who doesn’t have a reputation for slew-footing and getting away with all sorts of elbows and post-whistle punches, through the mud.

Tortorella also found out Friday just what happened with the League decided to do with this. Orpik did not receive any supplemental discipline, not even a call from Brendan Shanahan admonishing him for the dirty play. Tortorella, on the other hand, found his wallet another $20,000.00 lighter for having the nerve to come out and say what so many people think when it comes to the Penguins, despite the fact that the NHL decided to make it an even bigger molehill by splashing it on NHL.com and even tweeting a link to the initial story with Tortorella’s comments. Even as of 10:15 pm Friday evening, this war of words was still very prominent on the home page.

Fining a coach for making remarks that call into question the integrity of the League, such as the comments Tortorella made after the Winter Classic or the ones Renney made in implying there was some favortism by the referees towards the Los Angeles Kings in the Edmonton Oilers’ 2-0 loss to them on Monday because, to paraphrase, “maybe the NHL needs Hollywood in the playoffs,” a remark that set Renney back $10,000.00, makes sense. But fining the Rangers’ coach for venting and speaking out against another team does nothing to quell the prevailing thought, true or not, that the NHL coddles the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Wonder if Peter Laviolette, Craig Berube and Mike Milbury will give Tortorella a hand when it comes to ponying up the cash.

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Unfortunately for those in attendance, the party had to be put on hold as the Bruins finally defeated the Rangers this season, taking the game 2-1 and clinch the Northeast Division in the process.

Special teams made all the difference. After two consecutive games where the Rangers managed to score two power play goals, they went 0-for-3 (including a brief 5-on-3 after Daniel Paille was called for delay of game 43 seconds into the third period). A mistake by the normally dependable Dan Girardi while killing off Michael Del Zotto’s interference penalty at 10:30 in the second period led to the Patrice Bergeron goal that put the Bruins ahead for good.

Somewhat lost in the disappointment of Sunday night’s result was Marian Gaborik’s accomplishment. On a breakaway at 4:33 in the first period, Gaborik beat Tim Thomas and scored his 40th goal of the season. The tally put him in some exclusive company as he joined Jean Ratelle and Mike Gartner as the only players to score at least 40 goals twice as a Blueshirt.

The 2010-11 season was among the worst of his career, during which he suffered a separated shoulder in the home opener on October 15th that cost him twelve games off the bat. He went on to miss eight more games – one with a groin, one with the flu and six with a concussion. In the 62 games he dressed for, he looked utterly lost. He scored 22 goals, but they came in clusters – four in one game against the Toronto Maple Leafs and then three-goal efforts against the New York Islanders and the Edmonton Oilers. Not that three hat tricks in a season is unimpressive, but when close to half the goals he scored came in three games, it’s not the consistent offensive output you expect from your high-priced sniper. In what wound up a five-game series in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals against the Washington Capitals, he managed one goal and one assist.

In the offseason, he was dealt two personal blows. On May 13th, his friend and teammate from both his days with the Minnesota Wild and the Rangers, Derek Boogaard, was found dead in his Minneapolis apartment from what turned out to be an lethal combination of alcohol and prescription painkillers. Then mere days before the opening of training camp came the  Lokomotiv Yaroslavl tragedy that claimed the life of Gaborik’s countryman and good friend Pavol Demitra. Gaborik returned to his hometown of Trencin, Slovakia to remember Demitra. (Memorial stickers for Boogaard have adorned the helmets of all of the Rangers this season; Gaborik also wears one for Demitra beside it on his.)

Gaborik has been able to put the disappointing season and the offseason tragedies behind him, and has returned to the player the Rangers were expecting him to be when he signed as a free agent in 2009. At least for this season, Gaborik has been able to leave behind the reputation of being fragile. He has dressed for all 79 games the Rangers have played to this point, making him one of seven to do so. Staying healthy has been a key factor in getting into a rhythm. Gaborik has looked far more comfortable and confident in the Rangers’ defense-first system then he did last season. Earlier in the year he found chemistry with Derek Stepan and Artem Anisimov and now has done likewise with rookie Carl Hagelin and Brad Richards. When the latter trio gets the puck and heads down ice, it just feels as though they are going to make something happen. Of his 40 goals, seven have been game-winners, putting him third on the team behind Richards (9) and Ryan Callahan (8)

The Rangers have had many great storylines that have helped them surpass any expectations – Henrik Lundqvist’s Vezina-worthy goaltending; Girardi and Ryan McDonagh stepping up big-time for the injury-depelted defense;  Callahan having a career year and showing why that “C” belongs on his chest. A healthy and consistently productive Gaborik is also a big reason why the Rangers are on the cusp of accomplishing something no one thought they would do in 2011-12.

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News and Notes

The Rangers will get another chance to clinch tonight when they visit the Flyers. There will be no lineup changes, meaning Henrik Lundqvist will make his 10th consecutive start. They just need to earn one point tonight, or have the Pittsburgh Penguins lose either in regulation or overtime in Boston to give them the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference titles  … The MTA unveiled three Rangers playoff-wrapped subway cars that will run on the shuttle line from Times Square to Grand Central Station … Limited individual playoff tickets for the first two rounds of the playoffs go on sale Wednesday at noon.

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Callahan plays so much bigger than his 5’11″, 190-pound body should dictate, 6th in the NHL in hits with 237 and 6th among forwards in blocked shots with 76. When the captain is out there setting the example and putting his body on the line for the team, it’s impossible for others not to follow and buy in (Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi are in the top 10 in blocked shots with 169 and 165, respectively). The hard-nosed style is not without risks, as Rangers fans know well. Callahan went down at the end of last season with a broken ankle that was the result of a blocked Zdeno Chara shot and it was blatant how much he was missed on the ice. There was another scare this year when he blocked a shot against the Devils on February 27th that resulted in a bruised foot. Fortunately, he only missed 4 games with the injury.

He is thriving in his first year wearing the “C”, and it’s just not about the physical and defensive parts of his game. He is continuing to blossom offensively as well. Already through 67 games has set a career high in goals with 27, surpassing the 23 in 60 games he scored last year. That’s good enough for second on the team. Eleven of those goals have come on the power play, the most on the team.

After a rough first half of March, the Rangers have begun to right the ship and are getting back to playing the style of game that has gotten them to where they are now. They clinched a playoff spot Monday night against the New Jersey Devils, becoming the first team in the East to do so. Just making it in is not good enough with the way this team has overachieved this season. It’s about holding home ice as long as possible in the playoff run now. With the Pittsburgh Penguins suddenly surging and now fully healthy, what looked like a nice cushion for the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference titles has now become a dogfight for supremacy. Desperately needing breathing room, Callahan shifted his game into another gear Wednesday night, delivering a solid third period at both ends of the ice and eventually delivering the overtime game winner against the injury-depleted Detroit Red Wings with a little help from the post. Not a bad way to cap off his 27th birthday.

Fairly or unfairly, Rangers captains are always going to be compared to and measured against Mark Messier, and with good reason. Messier came here with a resume that in today’s NHL will probably never be matched. But this is the first time since “The Messiah’s” first go-around on Broadway that the image of the man wearing the “C” is reflected in the other 24 men that are wearing the uniform.

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A guest on Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live” online After Show last night, Avery declared that he was officially retired and that he threw his skates into the Hudson. Today Avery told Larry Brooks of The New York Post that it wasn’t a joke; that he would be retiring at the end of the season.

Avery came to the flailing Rangers in 2007 carrying with him a (deserved) reputation, notorious for his antics as an agitator. It didn’t take long for him to become one of the more popular Blueshirts, driving superstar Ilya Kovalchuk to distraction in a first-round playoff sweep of the Atlanta Thrashers in 2007. He followed that up in the 2008 playoffs, taking his superpest status to a whole new level when he screened New Jersey Devils’ goaltender Martin Brodeur, using his hands and stick while the Rangers were on a power play, prompting the NHL on-the-fly to amend the unsportsmanlike conduct rule to include Avery’s face guarding method. It also gave rise to Brodeur’s refusal to shake Avery’s hand at the end of the Rangers’ 4-1 quarterfinals series victory and Avery dubbing Brodeur “Fatso” in a postgame interview when asked about the non-handshaking incident.

The honeymoon appeared to be over when Avery became an unrestricted free agent that summer and the Dallas Stars signed him to a 4-year, $15.5 million contract. As popular as Avery was with the fans, the Rangers were certainly right to not offer him something comparable. Twenty-three games into his stint in the Lone Star State, Avery called over media in Calgary and uttered the two words that would eventually lead to a suspension (6 by the NHL but indefinite by the Stars), NHL-mandated anger management classes and a second stint on Broadway.

Avery though never quite was able to fully recapture the magic of his first tenure with the Rangers. Twelve days after Tom Renney was let go and John Tortorella was hired as his replacement, Avery was back in a Rangers’ uniform. He never found his comfort zone underneath the coach who had expressed disdain for him while he was a commentator on TSN – trying, and seemingly failing, to walk that edge of where being an effective irritant ended and an on-ice detriment began.

After a forgettable 2010-11, the writing was on the wall at the start of this season when he was sent down to the AHL. He was called up for 15 games when injuries necessitated someone be called up to fill a roster spot. It all unraveled after that second demotion on December 30^th. He suited up for the Whale for what would turn out to be the final time on January 27^th  and capped off by his omission on the clear day roster of the Connecticut Whale of the AHL. He was told by the organization to not even bother showing up for practice.

Avery’s interests away from the rink have been well-documented – interning at Vogue, being a partner in two restaurants in Manhattan, modeling for Gap and Hickey Friedman just to name a few – and he’ll undoubtedly have plenty on his plate to keep him occupied in his post-hockey life.  If he truly is done with hockey at 31, it brings to a close of one of the more colorful (and more hated, for that matter) characters of the NHL.

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That is, until playoff and 2012-13 season invoices were made available to subscribers today. If you haven’t gotten yours, or haven’t seen it yet, be prepared for sticker shock that is hitting sections of the Garden.

Want to see this live in the postseason and in 2012-13? Be prepared to pay more.

Since it’s first up on the horizon, let’s tackle playoff tickets. It’s normal for playoff ticket prices to be more than regular season prices, but when the full complement of 16 potential playoff games costs close to and in some cases surpasses the full cost of an 81-game season (one of my Twitter followers mentioned to me his playoff package for his seat in the 400s is over $700 more than his full season cost) it’s problematic. Last year, in section 327, tickets in the 6th row for round 1 ran $95 a ticket per game. This year in a comparable section they’ll set you back $102 on a seat that costs $59 to a subscriber during the regular season. (Online billing does not break it down per round up front, but to give you an idea how the prices can increase per round, last year’s tickets if the Rangers made it all the way to the finals were $220 a seat.) [Correction - online billing does in fact break it down by round. Those finals seats that cost $220 last year are $230 a seat this year.]

If you’re not a subscriber and want to go to a game next season, be prepared to pay up too. According to the pricing chart available to view on the Rangers site that shows the variation in prices from full season to buying individually on Ticketmaster, the cheapest seat in the house will be $40 a game if you walk up to the Garden box office (the same ticket costs $52 if you purchase it online). With phase 2 of the Madison Square Garden renovations continuing this summer, sections will also be renumbered. As you can see on the seating chart for next season, gone will be the 300s and most of the 400s, replaced by sections numbered as the 200s. Also in sections there is wide variation in pricing. The current 300s in the east and west ends of the Garden were renovated for this year. Tickets that are now $59 per game for a full season subscriber in the current section 320 regardless of whether or not you sit in row A or F will now be tiered pricing. Take the new section 219, which is in approximately the same place. Want to sit in row 4? That’s $73 a seat for the full season. Tack on another $6 if you prefer the second row. Want the first row? Dig a little deeper as those will cost $125. The lone consolation, if there is one for season subscribers, is that there are no preseason games to pay for because of the ongoing renovations. That’s a plus, because if history is any indication, those tickets would cost the same as regular season games.

The sad thing is, I wrote about this subject around this time last year too when 2011-12 prices were rolled out. That hypothetical family of four may find it a little more difficult to afford to get in the door next year, never mind be able to pay for some of the new food concessions that have been introduced this season. The Rangers and the NHL may lose a few more from the next generation of fans as the average person continues to get priced out.

Of course the simple thing is for someone to say “well, no one is forcing someone to renew or buy any tickets for that matter.”  That’s true  and a perfectly valid argument. I had another Twitter follower tell me that after 10 years, he’s out. It’s unfortunate that someone who’s been in for that long, and lord knows saw some God-awful hockey before this turnaround, is at a point where he can’t enjoy the team in the same way now that it’s good. For every current holder who is giving up their seats simply because they’re disgusted with the increases or simply can’t afford it, there’s someone right behind him or her who will be willing and able to pay the price and scoop them up. One can also argue that this is America, it’s a capitalist system, teams can charge whatever the market will bear. That’s true, and it’s certainly what’s going on here, but along with that a little more of what’s always made the Garden a great place to take in a hockey game goes away. You can renovate the building all you want, but when those who care and put their heart and soul into it for 41+ games get priced out and dwindle, what do you really have left? The insistence on “Cost Certainty” that wound up costing us a season and was supposed to help control ticket prices has, seven seasons removed, been certainly costly here in New York.

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- Dictionary.com

Two small letters carry so much expectation of what might come; of what could have been but never was. They’re two letters that could easily be applied to Wojtek Wolski.

The Colorado Avalanche saw something in the Poland-born, Canada-raised left winger to warrant using their first-round pick (21^st overall) to select him in 2004. The Rangers hoped that a change of scenery would help Wolski find his scoring touch, and in turn, help them produce more offense after Alex Frolov went down for the 2010-11 season with a knee injury.

Unfortunately for both player and team, it didn’t work that way. In the 37 regular season games he played as a Ranger last season after being acquired on January 10^th in exchange for defenseman Michal Rozsival he managed 6 goals and 13 assists. He was hampered by injury to start this season – first diagnosed as a groin, then a hernia and has not been able to get back in the lineup with any regularity. Wolski has played a total of 9 games, his last being January 15^th in Montreal and in those 9 games, was virtually invisible.

Today Wolski became a former Ranger, as the forward was shipped to the Florida Panthers in exchange for minor leaguer Michael Vernace and their 3rd round draft pick in 2013. The Panthers now become his 4th team since the 2009-10 season. The Rangers regain $3.8 million in essentially wasted cap space in advance of  Monday’s 3pm trade deadline.

If. If Wojtek Wolski lived up to the expectations people had for him based on his talent, perhaps he never becomes a spare part sitting on the sidelines, his Rangers days now over. Perhaps were he providing the offense Glen Sather had hoped he would when he acquired him last season, none of this Rick Nash talk would even be happening.

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Since falling to the Philadelphia Flyers in the Eastern Conference Finals in 1997, the Rangers have missed the playoffs eight times and have won one playoff round (sweeping the Atlanta Thrashers in the quarterfinals in 2007). In the post-lockout years, there’s always been an annual midseason slump to dig out of to try and earn a postseason berth. Five of those six seasons, they did.

So the cynical Rangers fan has sat and waited for that midseason breakdown to come. And waited, and waited. While waiting, the Rangers have managed to open up a 9-point lead on the defending Cup champion Boston Bruins. Somehow, they have opened up a 10-point lead on Atlantic Division rivals the Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins, and have games in hand on both.

Resiliency is a trait the Rangers have forged as part of their team identity. Last season it came in the form of withstanding a rash of injuries to key players such as Marian Gaborik, Brandon Dubinsky and Ryan Callahan and just in general not mailing it in when they’d get down in a game. This year it’s been managing to stem the losing and get the ship righted before a winding up in a damaging losing streak. Remarkably the Rangers have avoided any sort of a significant losing streak of any kind, with the worst being two.

“I think this year’s team’s a lot different from years past,” defenseman Dan Girardi said following the Rangers’ 3-0 victory over the Bruins Tuesday night. “We don’t want to lose more than one or two games in a row and that’s really been propelling us up the standings and creating some separation.”

Henrik Lundqvist took his game to yet another level in what turned out to be his Broadway-Hat-worthy, League-leading 7th shutout of the season, turning aside all 42 shots thrown at him by the Bruins, making that win on score alone seem deceptive. They were able to capitalize on Bruins’ mistakes and ride their Vezina-worthy netminder, something not lost on coach John Tortorella.

“I wouldn’t have paid for the start of that game,” he said. “I thought both teams were just there. I thought we played better the second half of the first period, from then on. We end up with a two-nothing lead. We defended really well, but that’s all we did. And when we had breakdowns, Hank was there. So, I’m happy we won. I need to respect the fact of our schedule a little bit here. I’ll give our team that. We have a lot of things to work on. Henrik should have six hats on tonight.”

When interviewed during the postgame show on MSG Network, Dubinsky (who suffered a swollen lip, received 10 stitches in his mouth and chipped a few teeth after taking a puck to the face in the third period) was clearly not satisfied with the performance either saying, “We need to be better than we were tonight.”

The Rangers from the top down are not team content to rest on its laurels and know there’s room to improve. They’ve gone from a team on the hunt, one scratching and clawing simply to squeak in to the postseason to the hunted, one that everyone is gunning for, one that the hockey world is finally taking seriously as the class of the Eastern Conference and emerging as a Cup contender. There’s still 27 regular season games to go and if they want to remain there they’ll need to keep striving for better. Whether or not upgrades come via trade some time in the next twelve days, this current roster of players is capable of being even better.

Stick tap to my Hockey Independent colleague Benjamin Woodward for his contribution to this post.

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There’s been a tremendous amount of buzz of late about whether or not he will turn pro at the conclusion of this his junior season. In the summer of 2010 the Rangers were successful in convincing Wisconsin Badgers Derek Stepan and Ryan McDonagh to turn pro prior after their sophomore and junior years, respectively. Stepan made the jump right away out of training camp while McDonagh spent half the season in the AHL before getting the call and becoming a stalwart on defense. Kreider has held off doing likewise, shunning the opportunity to turn pro this past offseason and instead committing to his education and his belief that staying in the BC program would be best for his hockey development.

He’s accomplished a lot at the amateur level, winning a gold medal for Team USA at the World Junior Championships in 2010 (both Stepan and fellow Rangers prospect Ryan Bourque played on that team) and a bronze medal in 2011; he won an NCAA championship with the Eagles his freshman year in 2010. Kreider has also had some experience playing with and against NHL talent as a member of Team USA in both 2010 and 2011 IIHF World Championships. Should the BC Eagles make it to the NCAA championship game, Kreider would not be available to join the Rangers until after April 7th, which is the same day the Rangers’ regular season concludes.

Last Friday night, Rangers fans had an opportunity to take a look at him when the NBC Sports Network aired the Eagles’ game against the University of Vermont Catamounts. Taking the 2 consecutive first-period penalties out of the equation, it was hard not to like what the 6′ 3″, 225-pound forward brought to the table, notching a 2 goal (including one on the power play), 1 assist performance that earned him first star honors. He was initially credited with the Eagles’ first power play goal of the game after firing a blast from the point that was later deemed deflected by teammate Kevin Hayes in front. Watching one game does not provide a full assessment of a prospect by any means. However watching some of his work on the power play when the Rangers’ own efforts have been relatively anemic the whole season makes it difficult not to fantasize about seeing him doing likewise for the big club and doing it sooner rather than later.

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Christensen was on the bubble in training camp and was kept over Sean Avery because he was perceived by coach John Tortorella as a more skilled player who was also an asset come shootout time. From a pure offensive skill perspective, Christensen is superior to Avery. However, he was never able to maintain any semblance of consistency when inserted into the lineup. Christensen himself has even admitted to having confidence issues. Yes, he is excellent in the shootout, but it’s hard to justify keeping someone in the lineup who may be invisible for 65 minutes simply for shootout prowess when there’s no guarantee that they will even play to one. The play of callups Carl Hagelin and John Mitchell further solidified his position as odd man out. He hadn’t played in a game since December 17th and on January 11th went to the Connecticut Whale on a 2-week conditioning assignment. He rejoined the Rangers at the All-Star break.

A third round draft pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2002 whom the Rangers claimed off waivers from the Anaheim Ducks during the 2009-10 season, the Wild now become Christensen’s 5th organization in his 7 NHL seasons. Christensen had 20 goals and 38 assists in the 132 games he played in a Rangers uniform, including 1 goal and 4 assists in the 20 games he played this year.

It’s a minor move that is good for all parties involved. In Christensen the injury-ravaged and struggling Wild get someone with some NHL experience, and he can step in and play for them right away. For Christensen, it gives him an opportunity to play on a regular basis. For the Rangers, Wellman, who has been assigned to the Whale, gives them a little more organizational depth. More importantly, it gets one extra forward off their NHL roster and opens up a little more cap space as the January 27th trade deadline nears.

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In other news, Steve Eminger, who suffered a separated shoulder on December 17th against the Phoenix Coyotes, has been cleared to play. It’s not been decided whether or not he’ll get back in the lineup Sunday afternoon against the Philadelphia Flyers, but look for him to take the place of Stu Bickel.

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Marian Gaborik, the only Ranger to wind up on Team Chara (though he did accidentally wander over to the Team Alfredsson side during the draft) wound up taking MVP honors with a 3-goal, 1 assist performance, scoring  two of those against teammate Henrik Lundqvist. After the disaster of last season, after losing two good friends over the summer in Derek Boogaard and Pavol Demitra, it felt good as a fan to see him thoroughly enjoy himself this weekend and have a little fun at Lundqvist’s expense, as witnessed by his going Artem Anisimov on that first goal celebration.

Carl Hagelin, a 6th round draft pick in 2007, was a last-minute rookie replacement for the New Jersey Devils’ Adam Henrique. He had a chance to show off his speed, taking the fastest skater competition on Saturday night over fellow rookie Colin Greening of the host Senators.

It was incredible to see Dan Girardi, the only player of this year’s All-Star group who wasn’t drafted by an NHL team, have his name called on Friday night and get to pull a sweater over his head. Unfortunately the All-Star weekend is never about the skills of the purely defensive defenseman (nope, no creative shot-blocking contest in the skills competition for him to partake in). He had a goal that had been initially credited to him in the game awarded to Jason Spezza. Despite not really being a showcase to show off his skills, it was great that the NHL had the sense to recognize what we here in New York appreciate about him as a player after leaving him off the ballot.

All-Star Henrik Lundqvist warms up prior to the Rangers' 3-2 overtime win in Boston on January 21st

Last, but certainly not least, is the Ranger who was the most prominent of the contingent the entire weekend and had the most thankless job of all – playing goaltender in an exhibition game where no defense is played whatsoever. Back on January 17th I was at Madison Square Garden watching the Rangers defeat the Nashville Predators 3-0. All I could think of as Lundqvist made yet another spectacular save on the way to notching his 4th shutout of the season was, “why doesn’t the NHL market the hell out of this guy?” He’s compiled some nice on-ice credentials and this season is playing arguably the best hockey of his career.  Toss in his calm, cool demeanor and his (sorry guys) good looks and you have someone made to represent a product. As the assistant captain for Team Alfredsson and mic’d up for his first period appearance, Lundqvist was one of the All-Stars to get a large amount of face time throughout the coverage of the  festivities on the NHL Network and on the NBC Sports Network.

For the New York Rangers, there has to be tremendous pride in what took place this All-Star weekend in Ottawa. Having the head coach and four players (three homegrown) representing the team is a testament to the organization finally going about building a team the correct way and seeing it coming to fruition.

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I finally decided this was the season. Little did I know this August that the game I thought would be perfect for a quick, relatively close weekend road trip would turn out to be a battle for first place in the Eastern Conference. The Boston Bruins’ come-from-behind 4-1 win over the New Jersey Devils coupled with the Rangers’ 4-1 lackluster effort against the Penguins put the Bruins 1 point behind the Rangers for the top spot in the Eastern Conference.

The biggest question for tomorrow’s “clash of the titans” will be which Rangers team shows up at TD Garden. Will it be the one that bounces back after the kind of effort they had Thursday and turn in one of those 1-0 or 2-1 games that seems to be the norm the last few seasons between these two teams? Or will it be the one that showed up Thursday with uncharacteristic defensive lapses; the one whose big guns such as Marian Gaborik and Brad Richards suddenly have gone dry; the one whose overall lack of scoring has magnified the woes on the power play?

The Bruins have hit a slight bump in the road themselves, going into a “lose one, win one or two then lose one” stretch since pummeling the Devils 6-1 on January 4th and the Calgary Flames 9-0 on January 5th. That makes them no less dangerous.

For my own selfish reasons, I hope the former show up tomorrow. However, it may not be the worst thing in the world if the latter Rangers make an appearance. The Rangers have lived a charmed life so far, finding ways to win even with their flaws. A pre-trade deadline gut check could go a long way to determine who stays and who may go to try and address the Rangers’ issues.

The Rangers are not the most skilled team in the NHL, and they certainly don’t have the wide range of weapons that a team like the Boston Bruins have. The Rangers trail only the Bruins in goals against per game average with 1.98 and have only given up 83 goals, again trailing only the Bruins in that category. It’s pretty funny to think back when Tortorella  took over the reins from Tom Renney in 2009, he came in with the belief that “safe is death”, because he’s adapted his style to the group that he has here, focusing on defense rather than run-and-gun. It’s not flash and dash and firepower that has them at the top of the standings. It’s incredible work ethic and attention to play in their zone that has them where they are.

Team MVP: 19 different Rangers have worn the “Broadway hat,” the fedora that’s passed along in the locker room to the Rangers’ best player in a win by the previous recipient. Five Rangers have been honored by their teammates twice, but one Ranger has worn it far and away the most – goaltender Henrik Lundqvist. Lundqvist has always been the backbone of this team since the lockout, but this year the 29-year-old Swede has been on another plane. Selected for the All-Star roster for the third time in his NHL career, he’s been stingy with a 1.89 goals against average and a .937 save percentage. Numbers like that will give virtually any team a good chance to win any given night, and should give “The King” his 4th career Vezina nomination.

Biggest Surprise:  After last season’s debacle, there was no real way of knowing just which Michael Del Zotto was going to show up this year. Would it be the cocky 19-year-old rookie or the 20-year-old sophomore who was as lost as lost can be? He’s looked more like the former than the latter, and that’s been great news for a team that desperately needed him to step up when Michael Sauer went down with a concussion.

Honorable mention here goes to Mike Rupp. Back on July 1st, I thought this was a good depth signing that would provide more grit to a team already known for it and would take some of the pressure off Brandon Prust to drop the gloves. A wonky knee from the get-go rendered him relatively ineffective. Since he’s returned from surgery, Rupp has been what was expected of him  – winning 54% of his faceoffs, racking up 45 penalty minutes (25 in fighting majors) and even chipping in 4 goals.

Biggest Disappointment: This one I actually struggled with. Some on the team who have not had great years to this point are ones who I did not have a whole lot of expectations for to begin with, based on their bodies of NHL work. Given that they have been what they’ve always seemed to have been, there’s no way they can be categorized as “disappointments.”

Erik Christensen has been his normal inconsistent self – same as he has been since he was picked up off waivers. He was on the bubble coming out of camp, and John Tortorella opted to keep him on the roster rather than Sean Avery, feeling he was a more talented player. A healthy scratch for 20 games, he was finally sent down to the Whale this week for a 2-week conditioning stint. Wojtek Wolski has been hampered by injury – first it was his groin, then it turned out he had a sports hernia that required surgery. Wolski just re-joined the lineup in the 3-0  loss to the Senators on Thursday, and only because of Brandon Dubinsky’s sore shoulder that has him day-to-day. Prior to taking Dubinsky’s place, he too was offered a conditioning stint with the Whale and had been mulling it over.

Brian Boyle? To some perhaps as he’s failed to replicate his 21-goal season of a year ago. I wasn’t thoroughly convinced they’d get that Brian Boyle again, and it’s why I had advocated against a multi-year contract in the offseason (he was given a 3-year deal). Offensively, Boyle has looked like the Boyle of old, with 3 goals in 42 games (last night’s goal against the Leafs snapped a 22-game drought). They certainly could use more offense from him, but he has been contributing in other ways, such as on the penalty kill. Brandon Dubinsky? He was the last of the Ranger RFAs to re-sign, and he signed a 4-year deal with a $4.2 million cap hit, putting the pressure on him to perform. He has not lived up to the offensive expectations to this point, with only 5 goals in 40 games, but that part of his game started to come around before being sidelined the last 2 games (and for tonight’s game against the Montreal Canadiens) with a sore shoulder. Like Boyle though, he has been contributing with other aspects of his game so he has not been a complete disappointment.

The biggest disappointment on this team has to be the ineffective power play. It’s not out-of-the-ordinary that this team is struggling. It seems to be a Rangers trademark no matter who the personnel is. The addition of Brad Richards was supposed to boost the man advantage, but they are only functioning at 14.6% (for comparison, the Vancouver Canucks are tops at 23.6%). They’re managed to compile a League-best 60 points with it being ineffective. Imagine how they could  take it to the next level if they can find a way to improve that aspect of the team.

Forty-two games and by all means the Rangers have surpassed the expectations anyone could have had for them. Cynical Rangers fans who have seen their team overachieve in the early part of seasons are just waiting for that other shoe to drop, as this is the time where they tend to go into that midsesason tailspin that sends them scrambling just to get into that eighth spot. Warding off complacency and the mentality of  “playing good enough is good enough” will be key for them as well. If anyone will not let them rest on their laurels, it’s Tortorella, who pulled the team off the ice early in a practice last week because he didn’t like the intensity at the start of the session. It’s hard not to put them as part of the upper echelon of the League.  So far, they’ve had success against some of the League’s “elite” teams. The next big measuring stick will take place this coming Saturday when they face the Bruins in a matinee at TD Garden.

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Unfortunately, reality hit my less-than-humongous-big universe last week and I was not able to do one.

Slightly more frivolous reality comes this week. With the Winter Classic happening on Monday, it gave HBO a much tighter turnaround time from the conclusion of the game to the usual Wednesday air date, so HBO pushed the finale back one day. Not really a problem if you’re at home and have just finished watching the Rangers defeat the Panthers 3-2 in overtime (if you’re not a Time Warner Cable customer, that is). A little more of an issue when you went to the game, the show began while you were commuting home and then you have to start watching it.

For the Rangers, episode 4 opens the morning of December 29^th, following the 4-1 loss to the Washington Capitals.  Brandon Prust and Sean Avery are having breakfast together, and Prust opines that they did not play poorly in the loss, it was the mistakes that cost them. Avery bemoans not being able to pick up an internet connection on his iPad. Avery keeps his sunglasses on and Prust tells him he has “pretty eyes.” As if he couldn’t afford it, Avery asks if orange juice refills are free when the waiter comes to refill the glass. John Mitchell and Carl Hagelin are sharing a separate table together, where Hagelin rehashes some of his outdoor game experience at Michigan.

After practicing in Washington, the Rangers board a plane and head to Florida with a date with the Panthers. Rather than hit the beach, the team has a video review of the loss to the Capitals. During the session, the projector conks out, prompting a tune about the video coach being in deep doo-doo. But the situation is rectified and the session continues. He does point out breakdowns; he tells Anton Stralman he has to be motivated for the group; he asserts that the Caps were dead in the water, and the Rangers simply did not play hard enough. Tortorella attributes the team’s patience to it’s maturity.

As the Rangers head into the BankAtlantic Center at 5pm for the game against the Panthers, narrator Liev Schreiber notes that one familiar face was missing from the group, as Sean Avery was again placed on waivers earlier in the day.

The Rangers get off to a roaring start in the game, scoring one 35 seconds in and then add 2 more in the first. Brandon Dubinsky adds their 4th in the second period. Matt Bradley answers back, but that’s as close as the Panthers would get. In the closing seconds of the third,  Del Zotto is sucker punched by Tomas Kopecky after Del Zotto cross-checked him. Mike Rupp jumps in to aid his teammate. Prust is seen at the bench, explaining that he had to keep himself under control in the situation, not wanted to risk a suspension for the Winter Classic as  result of any involvement in the melee. While Del Zotto is getting stitches to a cut over his right eye he asks the trainer who jumped in on his behalf. “Rupper,” he’s told.

On the heels of the win, the Rangers get back on a plane and head north for their outdoor date in Philadephia with the Flyers. Hijinks are abound, with Dan Girardi wearing some sort of silly, shiny headgear and Ryan Callahan pestering a blindfolded and napping Marc Staal with one of HBO’s boom mics.

With friends and family on hand to share in the weekend’s festivities, the New Year’s Eve celebration takes place in the hotel. Brandon Dubinsky asks his grandfather to impart some advice to America. And what sage advice it was: “drink up.” New Year’s Day arrives and the Rangers hit the rink for the first time to practice. In the dressing room, Martin Biron ponders whether or not he should put on some eye black, which he ultimately dismisses a pretentious. HBO points out that Marc Staal, who has been cleared for contact for awhile at this point, was out there with his teammates. After practice, the players get ice time with their friends and families.

Finally, the moment we’ve all been waiting for. It’s Winter Classic day. We get up close and personal with Staal’s jersey having the “A” stitched on to it. He is making his season debut on this day.

Tortorella gives the team some advice. The Flyers’ lineup changes don’t matter, they have to play smart and finish their checks. He then turns the floor over to veteran Mike Rupp, who played in the previous year’s Classic with the Pittsburgh Penguins. His advice is to play simple and get a lead because it will get harder as the game goes on. The period is physical; the ice needs repairs. The Flyers have control of the first period, but both teams get to the dressing rooms goalless. Between periods, Tortorella tells them they need to throw everything at the net and chase pucks down. Just past the midway point of the game, Brayden Schenn breaks the deadlock with his first NHL goal; Claude Giroux doubles the lead less than 2 minutes later. But the Rangers answer back 30 seconds later, thanks to the unlikeliest of players – Mike Rupp, who celebrates the tally with a salute a la Jaromir Jagr.

The Rangers head to the dressing room down 1 goal, but far from out of it. Tortorella wants the team to crash the net in the third and tells them they have to have the puck more, keep it simple and chase down pucks. Time for the third period. Out on the ice, while the Flyers are busy deciding who they are going to “shoot” at if they do an Artem Anisimov-style goal celebration, their conversation turns to Rupp’s “disrespectful” salute celebration. Rather than worrying about past goal celebrations, they probably should’ve been more concerned with preventing goals. It doesn’t take long for Rupp to net his 2nd of the game (sans celebration) to pull them even and for Brad Richards to put them ahead.

The final 2 minutes and 6 seconds felt like they were made-for-tv. Kimmo Timonen and  Callahan get called for coincidental minors – interfering and holding the stick, respectively. Callahan goes ballistic over the call, but to no avail. The Flyers pull Sergei Bobrovsky for the second time, giving them a 5-on-4 advantage. Then during a scramble in front of the net, Ryan McDonagh gets called for delay of game for closing his hand on the puck while trying to help out Henrik Lundqvist. A penalty shot is awarded to the Flyers.

Cue the dramatic music as Danny Briere comes down the ice, and Lundqvist stops him, essentially sealing the victory with 20 seconds left. After a pushing and shoving at the horn that gets broken up by the referees and the Flyers less then interested in hanging around to shake hands, we are taken inside the dressing rooms, where we get the juxtaposition of the depressed mood in the Flyers and the elated mood of the Rangers. Lundqvist awards the Broadway hat to Rupp. Liam Traynor, whom we met in episode 2, visits his good friends Tortorella.

We are treated to a montage of some of the moments of the series, and a glimpse back at some of those we have gotten to meet along the journey. Much like the series started, the series ends, this time with up-close black-and-white images of some of the players from both teams, this time laughing and smiling.

HBO’s gave viewers an incredible 4-week peek behind the curtain at our Blueshirts. It’s been fun.. We’ve seen and learned  some, um, interesting things along the way. If nothing else, this group of Rangers is seems incredibly tight. They look like they are willing to run through fire for each other. They look like they’d do the same for their coach as they are absolutely buying what it is that he’s selling.

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Not to be outdone by the controversy the Flyers’ $51 million goalie Ilya Bryzgalov created on Sunday by telling the media he would not be starting before coach Peter Laviolette made the official announcement, the Rangers upped the drama of the moment, by announcing before the game that defenseman Marc Staal, who had been sidelined the entire season with post-concussion symptoms, was going to make his season debut in the game (Staal started on the third pairing with Stu Bickel, and wound up playing 12:41). That’s the second consecutive Winter Classic that a Staal made his season debut returning from injury. Brother Jordan did it last year for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Little did anyone know of the drama to come this afternoon that would top both Bryzgalov’s benching and Staal’s return.

Shots in the first period were 12-9 Flyers, but it felt like the disparity was much greater than the reality. Henrik Lundqvist was stellar in the first period, keeping the game scoreless after 20 minutes.

In the second period, the game felt sloppy, perhaps from the ice conditions. At 12:26 the Flyers were the first to break through, with Brayden Schenn capitalizing on a rebound to score the first goal of the game. Less than 2 minutes later Claude Giroux backhanded one past “The King” to put the Flyers up by 2. All of the momentum  was on their side, but 30 seconds later, the Rangers stopped the bleeding thanks to an unlikely source. Mike Rupp snapped the puck past starter Sergei Bobrovsky to cut the lead in half. He capped off the celebration with a Jaromir Jagr-esque salute.

Late in the period they even got a little snow flurry in Philadelphia -  not quite the snowglobe of Buffalo, but a far cry from the rain that plagued last year in Pittsburgh.

The Rangers managed to take that momentum with them into the 3rd. At 2:41  Mike Rupp scored his 2nd of the game to pull them even, with Brandon Prust and John Mitchell assisting once again. Two minutes and 40 seconds later, Brad Richards, who has been struggling of late, put the Rangers up with his 14th goal of the season.

What was an incredible game got a bit of the luster taken off of it with some questionable calls by the referees late in the 3rd. First, defenseman Ryan McDonagh was called for delay of fame for dislodging the net when in fact he had been shoved into the net by a Flyer. Ironically, during that penalty that the Rangers were able to kill off, during a crease scramble the Rangers benefitted from an early whistle when the puck wasn’t dead). At 18:54 Kimmo Timmonen and Ryan Callahan were called for coincidentals – interference and delay of game respectively. It could be the Rangers bias in me, but it did look like Callahan put his hand  to the lade of Timmonen’s stick to protect his face on the way down. That gave the Flyers a chance to pull Bobrovsky and go 5-on-4. Fortunately no harm came from that. In one last ditch effort of poor officiating, with 20 seconds left in the game, the referees claimed McDonagh closed his hand on the puck while assisting Lundqvist on the goal line, and awarded the Flyers a penalty shot. Laviolette opted to go with Danny Briere to take the shot and Lundqvist stood tall, stoning him to preserve the lead and the 3-2 come-from-behind win. Fortunately none of the calls, which John Tortorella questioned postgame were some sort of an attempt to try and push the game into overtime for television (as you may know, NBC and Comcast merged last year, and Comcast owns the Flyers), had an impact on the outcome either way.

The Rangers are now 4 points up on the Flyers for the Atlantic Division lead, and 3 points up in the Eastern Conference on the Boston Bruins (though the B’s have 2 games in hand).  The Rangers have made it through the madness of starting the season in Europe and Western Canada, and now the hype of the Winter Classic. Now the Rangers can go home after fulfilling Glen Sather’s September 26th victory guarantee, leave all of the hoopla of the game and HBO’s cameras behind them and focus on the task at hand, securing a top-4 playoff spot. The return to normalcy begins the same night as the season finale of 24/7 airs, this coming Thursday, when they welcome the Florida Panthers to town.

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Then suddenly, the light bulb went on. On Halloween, the “soft” Rangers took down the San Jose Sharks 5-2 and closed the home stand with wins over the Anaheim Ducks, Montreal Canadiens and Winnipeg Jets and proceeded to rattle off three more against the Senators, the Carolina Hurricanes and the rival New York Islanders. There’s been a seven-game win streak, a 5-game win streak and their current 5-game win streak that have accounted for 17 of the 21 wins they have on the season. Since their home opener, they have not lost more than 2 in a row. A major factor in the Rangers’ success has been balance throughout the lineup.

The balance begins in net. Henrik Lundqvist has been exactly what you’d expect him to be. When they’ve needed him to be lights out, he has. But when he needs a break, there’s tremendous confidence that backup Martin Biron is up to the task. Following the win on  4-2 win on December 22nd over the New York Islanders,  Biron is now 7-1-0 (including a shutout) and boasts a .933 save percentage and 1.84 goals against average. After that game, John Tortorella called him the “1A” goaltender, as backup doesn’t seem an appropriate label for him. Tortorella is right. This combination is arguably one of the best pairings in the National Hockey League. At the rate that Biron is being started, Lundqvist would project to start in around 63 games, that would be the fewest starts since 53 in his rookie year when he started out as a backup. When playoff time comes around, having a fresh Lundqvist will be vital to a run.

Lundqvist and Biron have had plenty of help in front of them. Even before Marc Staal’s post-concussion syndrome issues came to light, there was some concern over the relative inexperience on the Rangers’ blue line. Relatively unnoticed outside of Rangers circles, Dan Girardi has stepped into the spotlight in his partner’s absence, leading the League in TOI with 27:27. Sophmore Ryan McDonagh has been equally up to the task partnering with Girardi. He’s 12th in the league in TOI with 25:15. They lost another top-4 defenseman, Michael Sauer, to a concussion on December 5th looked to be another blow to the the team. Steve Eminger and Michael Del Zotto stepped up to pick up the slack. Del Zotto has rebounded tremendously from the sophomore season from hell, and continues to mature.  As for Eminger, he suffered a separated shoulder  December 17th against the Phoenix Coyotes and is now out 8-10 weeks. When a team is built to be defense-first, losing half of  the defense corps would seem like the kiss of death. But the players who have been brought in have done a decent job of filling in. Two players picked up to plug some of the defensive holes -  Jeff Woywitka, plucked off the waiver wire from the Canadiens right before the season started and Anton Stralman, who was signed as a free agent on November 5th after failing to make the New Jersey Devils as a training camp tryout – have managed to hold the fort down. Stu Bickel, a callup from the Connecticut Whale when Eminger went down, has brought physicality and size back there and has put up 4 assists in the 4 games he’s played. How good have the Rangers been on the defensive side of things despite the injuries? They’ve only allowed 69 goals against in 34 games, putting them 2nd in the League  behind Boston. As Staal moves  ever-so-closer to returning, and once Sauer and Eminger are ready to come back to re-bolster the defense, tough choices will have to be made on who becomes the odd men out.

As far as the offense goes, they have not exactly been a juggernaut (101 goals scored is good enough for 9th in the League). Brandon Dubinsky, last year’s team-leading goal scorer, has all of 2. Brian Boyle, who shocked everyone with a 21-goal performance last year, also has scored only 2.  The return of the Marian Gaborik of 2009-10 has helped. Gaborik has scored a League-leading 22 of them.  He and sophomore Derek Stepan, who has 8 goals of his own, have clicked so perfectly together. Gaborik has accounted for just over 20% of the collective goal total, it doesn’t quite feel like it has in the past, where the offensive burden has been on one guy, the way it was when Gaborik first came as a free agent, or when Jaromir Jagr wore a blueshirt. The defense has chipped in 15. Ryan Callahan and Brad Richards are in the double-digits, with  13 and 12, respectively. Callup Carl Hagelin has dazzled with his speed and skill, with 6 goals in 16 games.

All around, this Rangers team feels far more balanced than it has in past seasons, not all on one or two guys to carry the load. It’s not always been pretty, perfect or complete, but so far it’s been good enough to put them at the top of the standings. However, they know they can’t just sit on their laurels, that they have to play better if they want to hang with the top of the pack and perhaps make some noise in the playoffs.

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This week’s episode opens on Monday December 12th, an off day with Henrik Lundqvist and his guitar meeting up for band practice with tennis legend John McEnroe. The two will playing at a charity benefit in February.

Lundqvist admits that when he’s winning can appreciate the city, but not so much when they’re losing. “New York is a place people work hard and want to reach their goals,” Lundqvist said about the city. “That’s why they expect a lot of their sports teams.”

Pretending that the snoozefest at home against the Dallas Stars never happened, 24/7 cuts to Dan Girardi, who is playing a little hockey in his apartment with 18-month-old son Landon. As with last year’s series where we saw Pascal Dupuis saying goodbye to his kids, we see the personal side of things, and the impact of Dad having to go on the road. We hear how little Landon sometimes tries following his dad down the hallway when he leaves.

The Rangers fly out Wednesday to St. Louis, where John Tortorella has scheduled a practice at Scottrade Center right after arrival. While not the most exciting stuff, the moment gives a behind-the-scenes look at some of the unsung heroes of a hockey team. Rangers equipment manager Acacio Marques and his team have to unload plane, grab all of the bags, load them on a truck and get to the arena before the team does (they do).

The team does some video work. Tortorella praises Michael Del Zotto’s play and calls Steve Eminger’s play ugly as hell (odd as it sounds, that was a compliment). Tortorella tells them they can’t let points get away and will have to initiate how game is played against the Blues.

It’s Thursday in St. Louis, and the Rangers are having a gameday morning skate. Marc Staal is on the ice, in a non-contact jersey at this point. For the uninformed, they fill the viewer in briefly on the brother-on-brother hit that led Marc to where he is. Tortorella admits they miss him but they can’t miss him. They just have to go about their business and play.

The viewer is then treated to a somewhat awkward scene of Brandon Prust and Brian Boyle waking up from their pregame naps. Boyle doesn’t quite want to get up with the cameras there because he’s naked. When he finally gets up, he is seemingly unable to dress himself, and needs Prust to suggest what to wear and lend him a tie.

Pregame, Tortorella tells them to keep their game simple against the Blues and grind it out. The message did not get through, as Rangers off their game and are down 2-0 after the first period. Between periods in the locker room, we are treated to a full-on eruption of Mount Tortorella, the kind that was made for this show.  He rages at the team for not defending, for not competing, for not playing hard. He tells the team to stiffen up, and that if they aren’t going to be stiff, they aren’t going to play. The Rangers eventually fell to the Blues, 4-1.

Friday morning before leaving for Phoenix, the Rangers have practice. Tortorella’s biggest concern about the team is whether or not they are doing the details.

Last week, Ryan Callahan and his 95-year-old grandma gave us the Kleenex moment. This week it’s Tortorella (yes the very same one who had ripped his team a new one a few segments earlier) and a 10-year-old boy with cerebral palsy named Liam Trainer. Liam had an opportunity to meet the Rangers through the Garden of Dreams Foundation, and formed a friendship with the coach (Liam texts Tortorella to wish the team good luck in Phoenix at the start of the segment). Tortorella absolutely beams when talking about the boy, and seeing that side of someone who is usually seen as being cantankerous makes it awfully hard not to like him as a person.

Mike Rupp, who had been practicing with the team after knee surgery, returns to the lineup against the Coyotes. The game gets physical. We get a great shot of blood dripping from a cut over Rupp’s eye. Ruslan Fedotenko gets a high stick over the left eye, and we see him go for repairs. While the training staff is busy with him, Eminger takes a hit and comes back with his shoulder. On-the-spot X-rays show the separation.

All the while, Liam is watching from home, and the action is interspersed between his living room and Jobing.com Arena.

Then comes the dramatic Brad Richards goal with .01 left in the 3^rd period. The Rangers celebrate and Liam goes to bed a happy boy. The Broadway Hat finally makes its first appearance, as Gaborik passes the hat to Brad Richards.

The Rangers get on a plane and come back home and we are left with Girardi reuniting with Landon.

My Rangers 3 stars of the episode:

1 – John Tortorella.

2- Liam Trainer.

3- Landon Girardi.

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They then upped the ante for the 2011 edition, partnering with HBO Sports to bring us the “24/7: Road To The Winter Classic” series, in which we got an unprecedented, behind-the-scenes look at a month in the life of  the NHL.

And now, the spotlight turns on the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers as the two teams prepare to meet up at Citizens Bank Park on January 2nd. The day after Thanksgiving, we were treated to a 12-minute appetizer that featured trash talk between former teammates Brandon Dubinsky and Jody Shelley (that continued in the media in the days that followed); John Tortorella not surprisingly calling the cameras “a pain in the ass” (something he called them again this week) and the seemingly quiet Dan Girardi deadpanning about the HBO cameras being like the paparazzi that usually follows him around.  Tonight, we were finally served the main course, with plenty of F-bombs to go around.

Unlike last year, where the Washington Capitals were struggling and all was right with the world with the Pittsburgh Penguins, 24/7 looks in on two teams that are currently in the top for in the Eastern Conference.

For the Rangers, their time opened with players heading to Madison Square Garden (Steve Eminger takes the subway. Who knew?) for their 4-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, a game in which they lost Michael Sauer to a concussion that was the result of a crushing but clean hit from Dion Phaneuf. The most interesting thing that came out of the footage was that in the 2nd period, Tortorella contemplated pulling Henrik Lundqvist, but the decision was made to keep him in.

That was also the game Michael Del Zotto  crashed hard into the boards on an icing. HBO had him mic’d for the game, and caught the audio. The cameras rode along with him to practice the next day when he was heading to the training facility early for treatment. The 21-year-old admitted that physically he felt 40 years older that day as a result.

We also got to ride along as some of the Rangers took local underprivileged kids in a limo to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Brian Boyle, all 6’7″ of him was the biggest kid of all. Someone had the audacity to put popcorn in Lundqvist’s hair (quelle horreur!).

What would 24/7 if Sean Avery didn’t get into the mix? On his off time, Avery went on a photo shoot, modeling clothes. He was surprisingly subdued and level-headed when discussing his demotion and subsequent recall.

Heading into the segment on last Thursday’s 3-2 shootout loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, part of the focus was on Richards signing as a free agent , and the fact that he and Tortorella won a Stanley Cup in 2004. Richards noted that in terms of being a coach Tortorella is not not the same coach he was in 2004. Cut to Tortorella, who spoke of his kids maturing and showing them respect – that the players need to have input and empower them.

Of course, overshadowing the loss was the Artem Anisimov “rifleman” goal celebration that devolved into a fracas. Dubinsky, who also received penalty minutes in the dust-up, quite colorfully asked why Vinny Lecavalier wasn’t penalized for starting it. After Anisimov was escorted off the ice to start serving his time in the locker room, when Tortorella was trying to get an explanation for the 10 minute misconduct, the referee called Anisimov’s celebration “not kosher.”

The team returning to the locker room between periods provided a laugh-out-loud moment. Avery was the first in the room and gave Anisimov, sitting at his locker, the most priceless look imaginable. Post game, Anisimov apologized to the team for this action.  The following day at practice, Brandon Prust jokingly suggested he work on some new stuff that would irk the other team.  When asked  by teammates about the rifle move, he explained that a teammate in Russia celebrated that way all the time, and it was something he wanted to do some day.

After an hour-long practice that day, the team took a flight to Buffalo. Captain Ryan Callahan, who was raised about 75 miles away in Rochester, had family in town. Callahan and his proud parents discussed his upbringing in the blue collar town that in part shaped him into the hard worker he is today, and Callahan himself credited his parents for instilling those values in him. When Richards was interviewed about him Callahan, he noted, “He’s got a different gear.”

While Callahan was dining with his parents, teammates were in the same place at two separate tables, and decided to play credit card roulette to choose who picked up the tabs. Henrik Lundqvist and Jeff Woywitka were the losers.

The following night, the Rangers took on the Sabres and won 4-1. Callahan scored a shorthanded goal in front of a suite-full of family. The most touching moment came post-game when Callahan met up with his family, his 95-year-old grandmother among them. Grandma told him he disagreed with the cross-checking penalty that had been called on him in the 2nd period. If that didn’t have you reaching for the Kleenex, I’m not sure what would.

My Rangers 3 stars of this episode:

1 – Ryan Callahan’s Grandmother. So incredibly proud of her grandson, she totally hugged at the heartstrings.

2 – Artem Anisimov. Yes, he gave us the overexuberant celebration. But this is a young man who just started to really learn English 2 offseasons ago, and seems to be really liked by his teammates and is breaking out of his shell.

3 – Brandon Prust. From joking with Marian Gaborik that he was consuming too much beer at dinner the night before the game in Buffalo to urging Anisimov to come up with some new moves  to kidding that he was going to “look out for the captain” and give him a rubdown on the flight back from Buffalo, he had some good material.

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It’s a vicious circle when it comes to the enforcer role. Boogaard’s livelihood was made with his intimidating size and with his fists. As chronicled in first part of the series in the Times, there was no plan B for him. It was hockey or bust. Oftentimes, the heavyweight enforcer is a player that does not bring another skill set to the table. (For example, while nowhere in the weight/size class as Boogaard, look at Brandon Prust. He will go in there and fight, but is a capable penalty killer and can score a few goals as well.) He is the most likely to be the odd man out in a lineup if offense and not muscle is needed in a matchup. If he goes down with an injury, there’s possible someone else in the system looking to take his place. There’s tremendous pressure on him, perhaps more than any other player on a squad, to do whatever it takes to stay in the lineup. It was no different with Boogaard. Speed and skating prowess were obviously lacking, as was offensive ability. Missing time for a concussion or other injury was not only a threat to his tough-guy reputation, but to his career.

The addict will always find a way to get the substance he’s most addicted to (as Boogaard did on the black market), and the addict needs to wants the help he or she is offered to overcome the demons. But this series paints a disturbing portrait of those who were in a position to help save him from himself, to see to it that he did what was best for his personal well-being, failing him miserably and further enabling his addiction. John Branch, who authored the series, writes in part 3:

“Most N.H.L. teams have about 10 affiliated doctors – specialists and dentists with practices of their own. Boogaard had learned that there was no system to track who was prescribing what.

In one three-month stretch of the 2008-9 season with the Wild, Boogaard received at least 11 prescriptions for painkillers from eight doctors – including at least one doctor for a different team … Combined, the prescriptions were for 370 tablets of painkillers continaing hydrocodone, typically sold under brand names like Vicodin.”

Branch also notes that when Boogaard became a free agent in 2010, the Rangers were fully aware of his addictions, and in all likelihood his injuries (including the concussions that had actually been recorded ). Troubles be damned, the Rangers gave him a 4-year, $6.5 million contract. Taking his substance abuse issues out of the equation, its length and amount made it a head-scratcher for a one-dimensional player.

On December 9th, 2010, Boogaard suffered not only a shoulder injury in a fight with Ottawa’s Matt Carkner, but a concussion as well. And the Rangers continued to fail him too, based on what the enforcer’s father observed in his son’s Manhattan apartment one month later:

“Len Boogaard, knowing that his son had been enrolled in a substance-abuse program since September 2009, was surprised to see so many prescription bottles in the bathroom with the names of Rangers doctors. He was also surprised to hear from his son that he had been given four days’ notice for his next drug test.”

Boogaard had been involved in the joint NHL/NHLPA Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health Program. He had spent time at a rehab facility at the start of the 2009-10 season while with the Wild, and then yet again in April 2011 with the Rangers. A little over a month later, while on an approved leave from the facility, Boogaard was back in Minnesota, and on an alcohol and prescription drug binge that in the end, took his life.

When all was said and done, the Boogaards chose to donate their son’s brain to C.T.E. research at Boston University. The results, also made public this week, were shocking. At the age of 28, his stage of CTE was far more advanced than it was in fellow enforcer Bob Probert, who had passed away at 45 and also battle substance abuse. In all likelihood, had Boogaard made it to 45, he would have been living with dementia.

Despite him being the 1st non-retired NHLer diagnosed with the disease and the 4th player in the last 2 years, the NHL has chosen not to see the validity of the research. While the League has worked to try and eliminate head shots from the game, they have not taken precautionary measures to protect those who are the most susceptible to repeated blows to the head.

Why? No one’s going to come out and say for sure. Let’s face it though, professional sports is big business. There’s big money on the line for the team who signed the free agent to a huge contract, and the player may feel an obligation to live up to that contract, even if it’s not in his best interest. Violence sells in all facets of pop culture, including sports (witness the rise of MMA’s popularity in North America). There will always be that faction of NHL fans who love the fights, and attend games in hopes of seeing one. As fans we too, are just as guilty of enabling this cycle to continue. When both were with the Wild, Boogaard’s jersey sold better than that of Marian Gaborik’s. Clearly it wasn’t because Boogaard was the more talented hockey player. We glorify the players who play through pain and broken bones and all sorts of injuries, and mock other professional athletes that seem to be out two months because of a mere hangnail. Go to any NHL arena and when there’s a fight, the majority of fans are up out of their seats cheering their guy on, applauding his efforts when he takes down his fellow combatant and the referees finally break it up. I certainly fall into that category. While I personally don’t go to games hoping to see a fight, I can certainly tell you that I was up on my feet Tuesday night rooting on Prust on in his early first period fight with the Leafs’ Jay Rosehill.

Nobody knows how many more Derek Boogaards there are in the League – whether obtaining painkillers legally or illegally so they can stand to take the physical punishment the game metes out on a nightly basis, or already suffering from some stage of CTE. Perhaps we’ll never know. The NHL, its clubs and the NHLPA need to do something to protect these players from themselves, but will they? The NHLPA’s job is to look out for the player. Are they going to stand up and demand something be done about their well-being, even if it may lead to some of the rank and file losing their jobs? Not likely. Is the NHL fearful that its fanbase is so into the fights that taking actions that may make it safer or perhaps curbing the bare-knuckled combat altogether will cause them to turn away from the sport and eat into revenues? There’s no way to know for sure, but I’d be willing to put money on it. If it were so, it’s a sad state of affairs when the almighty dollar is far more important than the well-being of young men, some of whom may wind up as vegetables before they have a chance to have a mid-life crisis.

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