A Badly Needed Win for the Rangers

Well good evening folks, what looked to be a sure path to another loss at MSG suddenly turned into a huge 7-4 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets tonight.  There was finally some secondary scoring as Avery netted a pair, Del Zotto, Gilroy, and Anisimov each had one.  Gaborik was also huge tonight with a pair and for the moment took the lead in scoring for the NHL.  Also, Parenteau had a great game tonight with a few assists that he chipped in.  This game thankfully ended a 3 game home losing streak with the previous win coming against Boston back on 11/1.

One great sign was the fact that even though they fell behind early by a pair, the timeout that Torts called after the 2nd goal was a true turning point.  They had been outplayed up till that point and needed something to change the momentum.  This indeed changed the games flow as the Rangers scored not long after that point.  They rang up 7 straight before the Jackets could realize what hit them.   Lundqvist didn’t have too much work bit was solid when he had to be, but hey he usually is their best player. 

In other news, Drury was skating with the team today and is going to join the team on their 3 game road trip, and hopefully be returning to the lineup, which is good news for the team since his presence has been missed both on and off the ice.  The Rangers next road trip will take them first to Sunrise, FL to face the Panthers on Wednesday, who previously beat them on Saturday at MSG, then to Tampa on Friday to face LeCavalier and St. Louis and finally to Pittsburgh on Saturday where they will face Crosby and Malkin for the 2^nd time this year, having lost to them on opening night back in October. 

The main key to this trip is that they need to get at least 4 out of the 6 points since the 4-9-1 slump they have been in has dropped them into a pack of teams right around the playoff bubble. Basically, the more points that they can pile up now, the better chances it will give them as they push towards a potential playoff spot.  This is also important since they have a ton of games in January right before the Olympic Break.

Well folks, that’s all from me till Wednesday evening

Your NYR blogger,

Howie