NYR/ARI 11/13 Review: Dr. Gallant & Mr. Turk’s Rangers Revert to 2021-22; Defy “ANALytics” Again; CZAR IGOR’s Best Game Yet, Ugly Win Staves Off Panic For One Day; Tough to Get Excited, Kravtsov & His Miserable Molars Tries to Infect Team, M$GN & More

Greetings and salutations everyone and welcome to another blog here on BlueCollarBlueShirts.com.

Off puck drop, and before getting into Sunday night’s tilt at “The World’s Most Expensive Arena,” here’s last night’s blog in case you missed it:

NYR/NSH 11/12 Review: POWER OUTAGE! Power-Play Goes 0-5; Rangers Lose To Another Bottom-Feeder, The “NashVegas Flu;” Kravtsov Remains The Ultimate Wuss, FB Jail, Black-And-Blueshirts’ Bruised, Henrik Lundqvist & “First Ballot Hall of Famers” & More

I am plugging last night’s blog at the top of this for several reasons.

One, I received many messages from Facebook users on Sunday, all asking, “where’s the blog?”

That question is answered in the link above.

Two, from the feedback that I received from you guys and gals who have already read it – I was told this was the angriest blog that I’ve posted in some time. I’d concur – although I thought the piece on Henrik Lundqvist and the Hall of Fame was pretty spot-on.

Three, and most importantly – this win over the Coyotes doesn’t change anything. The link above explains why.

If you’re a regular reader of this site, then you the following to be true. (And for new readers, just check the archives of this site for the evidence):

Ever since the new regime took over, no one has been more “glass half-full” about this team than me.

I bring up this disclaimer for one reason – this win from Sunday night doesn’t change one damn thing.

Wow, they beat the Coyotes! Whoop-de-doo!

Sure, Arizona has given the Rangers fits during their most recent bouts, but despite the desert dogs currently exceeding expectations this season, let’s also not omit the black-and-white facts:

— The Coyotes, just like the Rangers, entered this game with a record of under .500. (They are now 6-8-1.)

— The Coyotes are missing their best defenseman, Jakob Chychrun. Also true? The ‘Yotes played their back-up goalie tonight. The Rangers played their 2022 Vezina Trophy winner (and their full line-up too).

— The Coyotes, due to their current building issues, have only played in their new home on four occasions, where their “fans” were out-numbered by supporters of the visiting team during each game.

— In addition, the Coyotes are also filling seats in their 4,700 capacity building by giving out $20 tickets to college students – co-eds more interested in boozing it up and having a good time – rather than living-and-dying with what happens on the ice. In other words – Arizona games are largely a night out for people looking to do something.

— This was the Coyotes third game in four nights.

— This was also the Coyotes fifth consecutive road game.

And while Sam Rosen, Joe Micheletti, Sieve Vagistat and the rest of the M$GN crew did their best to pump-up the Coyotes tonight, where Micheletti must’ve said, “THEY WORK HARD SAM” no less than 895678956857675 times – none of the above was mentioned once on the broadcast.

Instead, the bumbling network talked about how the Rangers had to play three games in four nights. Boo-hoo, they had to go to work. All of us work – except for that creepy 45-year old blogger from Staten Island!

Put it this way: while we know that the Vegas odd-makers (check my previous blogs) have been way off about the Rangers this season – they did get this game right – but probably not in the way that they envisioned it.

After all – who had CZAR IGOR and company dialing the clock back to a year ago, when the goalie did everything imaginable – and then waited for the team in front of him to score a lucky goal or two? (That pattern later changed a few weeks before the 2022 Trade Deadline.)

The Rangers entered this game as a whopping -385 favorite – their best odds of winning a game all season thus far.

In turn, and perhaps by hook or by crook, they lived up to the billing and won.

For as positive as I am, and knowing all of the information above (including what I wrote last night) – so what?

Nothing was proved tonight.

Want to make a statement? Win the next four games prior to Thanksgiving.

I apologize for sounding like a crusty old curmudgeon following a Rangers’ win; but yep – I’m still not over the loss to Nashville – just like how I’m still not over the losses to the Islanders, Sharks and Blue Jackets!

The Rangers, now 8-6-3 (eight wins, nine losses and for a grand total of 19 points – good for fourth place in the division – although they have played more games than anyone else in the division sans Washington), are still in a win one, lose one pattern.

They took care of business tonight – but how long will it last? Nobody knows.

You just never know what team will show up – as the “Jekyll and Hyde” photo at the top of this manifesto would suggest.

Will it surprise anyone if they drop a 3-1 stinker to Seattle when they play next, on Thursday, November 17th?

Until this team rips off a major winning streak, which I believe they are capable of – I remain cautious and concerned – rather than cocky, confident and anything else.

And while I’ve said many times (including last night), that I’d rather win ugly than lose pretty; there wasn’t that much impressiveness tonight, nor did the team play a full sixty minutes.

Of the nineteen players who were on the ice tonight, only CZAR IGOR, Adam Fox, Ryan Lindgren and Barclay Goodrow gave you a complete sixty-minute game, where need I remind you – Arizona entered this season as a favorite to win the 2023 NHL Draft Lottery.

(Also deserving of praise is Braden Schneider – but we’ll soon get into him.)

I guess what I’m getting at before covering everything else tonight is this – this was a “whew, thank god they won” type of a victory, and not a “King-Kong beat the hell out of your chest” type of a win.

And yep – this was another game where the Rangers defied all ANALytics.

Gratefully, they were finally on the right side of defiance (as they were last season), but more on this once we get to the GAME REVIEW.

Before getting there, let’s cover the pregame news first.

Since the Rangers played on Saturday night, and flew into New York early Sunday morning (they didn’t land until 3:00AM); there was no pregame skate.

The only thing that really took place was when Gallant gave an update on the biggest wuss of the league, Vitali Kravtsov, during his Sunday edition of “TURK TALK.”

Take a look:

As noted last night, Kravtsov went from having a stomach bug and the flu to having an all-out attack on his chompers.

And does anyone buy any of this?

Even if Kravtsov had the flu – then what the hell was he doing in the locker room after the game? Trying to spread his illness to the people who actually play hockey on this team?

While listening to Gallant speak about the maligned crybaby, I was reminded of a classic “The Simpsons” episode:

As previously opined on this site, while Gallant will never say this publicly (maybe one day down the line, when he’s retired and doing the podcast circuit, then, and only then, will he admit it) – you can tell that the head coach no longer has any respect for the mercurial Russian in the #74 jersey.

Gallant was practically biting his lip, as he tried to prevent himself from exploding with laughter, when talking about Kravtsov’s messed-up molars and his inability to stay on the ice.

I said everything that needed to be said last night.

There’s no need to go further besides stating the obvious – get rid of this experiment. You tried your best. It didn’t work. He’s a detriment to the team.

As far as any real pregame news about the actual HOCKEY PLAYERS on this club; Gallant said that all of his banged-up players from Saturday, Ryan Lindgren, Sammy Blais, Ryan Reaves and Jimmy Vesey, were all 100% and ready to play on Sunday.

However, Reaves was later made a healthy scratch, in lieu of Ryan Carpenter. Let’s talk about him.

Before getting into the line-up and the GAME REVIEW, an opinion.

I was shocked that the Rangers didn’t waive and/or send anyone to Hartford on Sunday.

As mentioned last night (and really, all-season long too), the Rangers, with 22 hockey players on their roster and Crybaby Kravtsov too, have only been able to accrue extra salary cap space for a time-span of two-days this season.

With three days off following the events of Sunday’s game (and with both an extra forward and defenseman to spare); I thought this would’ve been a great chance for the Rangers to accrue extra cap space – even if at the least – it would’ve only been for a time-span of 96 hours.

Who knows, maybe someone gets some bad news tomorrow – but I don’t see why Rangers’ general manager, Chris Drury, didn’t make his move on Sunday.

It’s not like you needed an extra player in the press box for this one game.

Since I feel that the Rangers will continue this Kravtsov experiment, as if it were some sort of a scientific experiment gone wrong from a horror movie, and then wait for the proverbial hydrochloric acid to explode in their face; I thought that Ryan Carpenter would have been the best candidate for a demotion.

And yes, while he did score tonight – that doesn’t change anything.

The Rangers have to find a way to improve this team come the trade deadline (when every other playoff contender will be looking to do the same thing).

As of this writing, they have had no success when trying to create more cap space to play around with.

While Patrick Kane may have been a pipe-dream to begin with; with each passing day, the Rangers are burning money with a 23-man roster. It’s going to be tough to find depth once the deadline approaches.

Then again, if this win one, lose one stuff doesn’t end; the Rangers won’t have to worry about the deadline anyway.

Perish the thought!

Here was Sunday night’s line up:

FIRST LINE: Kreider/Zibanejad/Vesey

SECOND LINE: Panarin/Trocheck/Goodrow

THIRD LINE: Lafreniere/Chytil/Kakko

FOURTH LINE: Blais/Carpenter/Gauthier

FIRST PAIR: Lindgren/Fox

SECOND PAIR: Miller/Trouba

THIRD PAIR: Hajek/Schneider

STARTING GOALIE: THE HALAKNESS MONSTER

BACK-UP GOALIE: CZAR IGOR

BOX SCORE time.

The following graphics and information come from ESPN.com:

SCORING:

PENALTIES:

TEAM STATS:

GOALIES:

FIRST PERIOD:

Once returning to the M$GN at 7:00PM; Sam and Joe told us how the Rangers were honoring veterans from the armed forces tonight.

And not for nothing – but I rather see those veteran jerseys as the team’s third jersey, rather than those putrid Liberty jerseys.

Once it was noted that we’d see a “Battle of the CI’s” tonight; CZAR IGOR vs Connor Ingram (and for the second time this season); Ben Hightower, from the U.S. Air Force, belted out a nice rendition of the National Anthem.

Come puck drop, Nick Bjugstad beat Zibanejad to win the game’s first face-off.

Right after this face-off, Micheletti, who really hasn’t had that many opportunities to excitedly shriek out “FABULOUS” this season; gave us our first of no less than 789678969575675765685 “the Coyotes work hard Sam” observations.

Sam’s response each time? “Mmmmmmm,” where he sounds like a hungry cow going “mooooooo!”

The first period, and really, the first 35 minutes of this game, were an absolute bore.

If you had a late Saturday night and your eye-lids were perhaps heavier than usual, then you would’ve passed out during this snoozer of a first period.

However, if you were like me, and your nerves were shot and on full-alert following Saturday’s game – then until Chris Kreider’s power-play goal scored during the third period – you were beyond frustrated and could never relax.

I’m not even going to waste my time giving you the full blow-by-blow.

Here’s all that you need to know regarding this first period:

— The game’s first shot on goal took place at the 6:53 mark, an easy save for CZAR IGOR.

— Patrik Nemeth, who did get a “Thank You” graphic (but it was never shown on-air – the usual – as for whatever reason, M$GN doesn’t want to share the team’s tributes to their alumni), made two strong defensive plays on Kreider.

— It took Sam and Joe nearly eight minutes to realize that the turnover-happy Rangers didn’t have a shot on goal.

— At the ten minute mark, the Coyotes were out-shooting the Rangers by a tally of 4-0.

— The Rangers killed back-to-back power-plays, penalties assessed on both Lindgren and Trouba, including 13 seconds of a 5 x 3 road-team two-man advantage. Much like last night – the Rangers’ penalty kill, and the goalie, did a great job.

— When Lindgren came out of the box, he received a jack-in-the-box opportunity at Ingram – and registered the first Rangers’ SOG – at the 12:30 mark.

— Down to four minutes remaining, the Coyotes were out-shooting the Rangers by a tally of 14-1. What a true “ratio!”

— Trouba was stopped – an easy save for Ingram.

— As Sam and Joe talked about anything but the game, because there was really nothing to talk about; the Rangers received their first power-play of the game, when Juuso Valimaki held Panarin. The only thing that came to my attention here? How many Juuso’s and Juuse’s are in this league?

— The Rangers’ power-play didn’t do much, and like last night, allowed the opposing team to challenge their own goalie ten seconds into the man-advantage.

— A predictable Mika one-timer was stopped with 1:13 to go. In other words, the first Ranger forward to put a SOG took place at the near nineteen minute mark. That’s not a recipe for success.

— Ingram, with fifty seconds remaining in the frame, made his best save yet, on Fox. Of course, this doesn’t say much, as the goalie could’ve caught up on “Yellowstone” during this period.

That was it.

The only Ranger highlights? Fox, Lindgren, CZAR IGOR, and the penalty kills.

The Rangers were out-shot this period, 17-4. Let me put the following in bold print:

Not one Ranger forward registered a shot while at even-strength.

Aside from Goodrow, who eventually scored the first goal of the game (unassisted) – every Ranger goal was created by the right-side of the defense – where yep, Trouba wasn’t involved in any of them.

Goose-eggs on the board after twenty minutes. Here’s what I said at the time:

Scoreless after 20. 1P Thoughts:
— Aside from Igor, the most uninspiring and most boring period of the season.
— Sam & Joe with a ton of excuses.
— No sense of urgency at all.
— SOG 17-4, FO’s 10-6 Yotes; Hits 8-all
— At least the #NYR PK looked good
— Tough to watch.

— BlueCollarBlueShirts (@NYCTheMiC) November 14, 2022

SECOND PERIOD:

Until Goodrow scored with 4:55 remaining during this middle stanza; the first fifteen minutes of this period were pretty much identical to the first twenty.

While the Rangers did shoot more – they just looked feckless out there – where the top-six didn’t really do much of anything tonight while at five-vs-five.

(And do I need to mention that the Rangers’ top six earns more money than the Coyotes’ top-six, and significantly more at that?)

As a way to shake things up; the fourth line began the second period, where Carpenter won the face-off. Immediately afterwards, Gostisbehere broke up a Rangers’ odd-man rush.

At the 62-second mark, Ingram stopped Kreider. At least we wouldn’t have to wait nearly nineteen minutes for a Ranger forward to put a puck on net. Progress!

Braden Schneider, who was absolutely remarkable tonight, first started to make himself noticeable during this period. He blocked his first of a team-high five blocked shots, doing so at the 2:01 mark, when he got in front of an O’Brien slapper.

When he wasn’t blocking shots, #4, who did pick up a primary assist on the final goal of the game, was also breaking up Coyote odd-man attacks.

While the Rangers would later score two goals, this period got so boring and drab where at one point, Sam Rosen was jizzing his pants over the Henrik Lundqvist gambling commercials.

“OH JOE, CAESERS SPORTS BOOK JOE, LUNDQVIST LOOKS GOOD PUSHING GAMBLING ON OUR YOUTH JOE!”

“GAMBLERS WORK HARD SAM!”

Okay – Rosen didn’t say that verbatim (and Micheletti didn’t say the above either), but he definitely said those first nine words!

As the Rangers’ offense looked devoid of life; at the seven minute mark, Gallant tinkered with his lines a bit, and flip-flopped Goodrow and Blais. Once again, an in-game coaching move would soon pan out for “The Turk.”

Down to eleven minutes remaining, CZAR IGOR made a spectacular save on Bjugstad. At the time, the Rangers were up to five shots on goal.

The Rangers’ sixth shot on goal saw Kaapo Kakko (who despite the lack of production, has been playing well – although he was a passenger tonight), get right to Ingram. However, once there, the Finn couldn’t lift the puck over Ingram’s pad. Ingram’s “Sixth Sense” earned him sixth save.

As we hit 10:11 left on the clock, Ingram made his best save yet – a major denial on Carpenter, as the man with the cursed #22 jersey (I explained why the #22 isn’t exactly a hot number of Rangers’ history a few blogs back) was robbed.

Right after Ingram made the save, Carpenter, for some inexplicable reason, interfered with Keller. In turn, the Yotes went back on the power-play, and once again – the Rangers’ PK was absolutely flawless.

In fact, this was the best penalty kill of the game, as the Coyotes couldn’t set up at all.

Furthermore, Vesey had a breakaway during this successful kill, but once getting the puck, it took a bad bounce and he was forced to shoot an unsettled puck – a puck that then went into the wrong netting (the one above Ingram, rather than into the net behind him).

Once returned to full-strength with 8:10 remaining; a minute later, Trocheck interfered with a man who has a perfect movie character’s name, Jack McBain. For the fourth time at this point in the game, the Rangers’ penalty kill went to work.

Again, the Rangers’ PK looked great here, including when the BFF duo, Mika & Kreider, had a two-vs-one odd-man rush – a good save for Keller. On the other end, CZAR IGOR made a better save, when he robbed Keller.

As we hit the five-minute mark and with the game back to five-vs-five; just five seconds later, Goodrow capitalized off of a rare Arizona mistake:

GOODY IN FRONT! 1-0 #NYR pic.twitter.com/wgqE5sVjzi

— Rangers on MSG (@RangersMSGN) November 14, 2022

1-0, GOOD GUYS!

And while I don’t win anything for this, how about this pregame prediction:

Ahem #nyr pic.twitter.com/V1WuEuPuwX

— BlueCollarBlueShirts (@NYCTheMiC) November 14, 2022

Finally, we had a goal on the board.

Better than that, and in what feels like a rarity these days – it were the dog-ugly Rangers on the right-side of a broken play.

The Coyotes were the far superior team at this point, but it were the Rangers, because of CZAR IGOR’s performance, that struck first.

Following a bad turnover from behind Ingram’s net, the puck bounced to the goalie. Rather than freezing it, he poke-checked it right to the slot, where #21 was eagerly awaiting such a foolish move. Boom.

Just 1:18 later, and with 3:37 to go, it was Fox’s turn:

FOXY! 2-0 #NYR pic.twitter.com/hnlYgtkitO

— Rangers on MSG (@RangersMSGN) November 14, 2022

2-0, GOOD GUYS!

The following shouldn’t go unnoticed – the two most recent Rangers to win NHL Year-End Awards, Fox (2021 Norris) and CZAR IGOR (2022 Vezina), were the two best Blueshirts of this game. It wasn’t a surprise when they finished 1-2 in the “Three Stars of the Game.”

(Igor finished first, Fox second and Goodrow third. For what it’s worth, I would’ve thrown Lindgren or Schneider a bone as third-star, but I got no issues with how it played out.)

Fox now has five goals in seventeen games played. His career-high in goals took place last season, when he scored 11 goals in 78 games.

In other words – he’s on pace to set his career-high in this department during this 2022-23 campaign.

And this too – I think you can argue that Fox looks even better this season when compared to his Norris Trophy winning season.

Of course, Cale Makar will look to prevent Fox from becoming a two-time winner – but Fox, as he’s been during the past two seasons – will be in consideration.

In a penalty that will be discussed around the league by every Monday morning quarterback; with 75 ticks remaining, Zibanejad was charged with goaltender interference.

While every Ranger was incredulous about this call, and while Micheletti cried foul too (and there were also 18,006 fans chanting “ASSHOLE” at the zebras) – I was in the minority. This call, even if it was bad, didn’t bother me.

On this play, Mika streaked to the net, Ingram went way to his left-side (thus abandoning his crease), and Zibanejad’s behind caught Ingram’s head.

Again – Ingram was out of his net and Mika was playing the puck.

Was this a penalty? Probably not.

But similar to NFL quarterbacks, and the ever-popular “roughing the passer” penalty – this will always be called – especially when this happens in real-time, and without the benefit of replay.

Why didn’t this penalty bother me? Easy. Had this happened to CZAR IGOR, I would’ve been crying bloody murder.

This penalty was a deterrent call and a reminder – you must avoid colliding with the goalie – no matter what.

So to be clear – yes, this wasn’t the best penalty ever called – but knowing how important goaltending is to the Rangers – I’d want this penalty called 100/100 times – especially if CZAR IGOR was on the receiving end.

That all said and out of the way – despite Ingram’s head spinning around his neck – there was no concussion spotter to be found.

Yep, on one hand, the refs erred on the side of player safety. On the other hand, the league did not. Just sayin’.

The Rangers’ PK continued to remain strong. And with 3.1 seconds remaining, and perhaps in a make-up call too – Ritchie was boxed for tripping Trocheck – a penalty that you would never see called in the playoffs.

In turn, the Rangers would soon receive over a minute of power-play time at the start of the third period.

2-0, good guys, after two periods. Here’s what I said at the time:

2-0, GOOD GUYS, after 40. 2P Thoughts:
— The narrative and intensity of this game changed 35 minutes in.
— Igor is #NYR‘s MVP – that’s why I don’t mind the Mika call. I want those calls.
— SOG 26-17, FO’s 23-12 Yotes; Hits 19-16 R
— Another game that defies ANALytics.
LGR

— BlueCollarBlueShirts (@NYCTheMiC) November 14, 2022

THIRD PERIOD:

In another rarity from this season – the Rangers protected a lead during the final frame tonight.

Following 49 seconds of foreplay; the Rangers’ 1:11 of a power-play didn’t produce anything.

At the 2:59 mark, Bjugstad took a blatant tripping penalty, when he took down Kakko – one of the few times that you noticed the third line tonight – a third line that had been the Rangers’ best line since being reunited.

(To be fair, Chytil did help to set-up the Fox goal, but in no fashion did this line stand-out as they have previously done during the last two games.)

With just ten seconds remaining on the power-play, and following all of Panarin’s wild-and-crazy passes to nowhere and his refusal to shoot the puck too, this happened:

CHRIS KREIDER! IT’S A POWER PLAY GOAL! pic.twitter.com/mGN9qyYw9Z

— Rangers on MSG (@RangersMSGN) November 14, 2022

3-0, GOOD GUYS, as Mika blasted a one-timer right off of his buddy and in turn, Kreider was credited with his seventh goal of the season.

Both #93 and #20 were cracking up after this goal. They knew they got a break here. But hey – good things happen when you shoot the puck!

Oh, and that “Breadman” guy? Do you remember him? He finished with zero shots on goal tonight.

While #10 did pick up a secondary assist on Fox’s goal (just because he happened to touch the puck before Fox did), once again, he was rendered useless tonight – and for the second game in a row.

Yes, Panarin leads the team in points (22 – both Zibanejad & Fox, tied for second-best, have 19); but it does feel that his points come in bunches, via multi-point games during big wins. (And there’s a lot of secondary assists involved too.)

It also feels like other teams, even bad ones (we just saw it in Nashville), can easily shut down Panarin, as this has been the fifth or sixth time this season where you barely noticed him, outside of his cross-ice passes to the other team – something that even “Jumpin’ Joe” routinely brings up.

Speaking of Joe, despite his 67867896789697867867866 “the Coyotes work hard Sam,” comments; he was pretty on-point when he mentioned that Gallant had shortened his bench.

Kreider’s goal, scored at the 4:39 mark, put the Rangers up 3-0. At the time, Gauthier, Blais and Carpenter all had less than 5:00 of ice time to their names. Their TOI stats only increased once it was apparent that the Rangers had this game in the bag.

Down to 13:10 remaining, Lindgren was boxed for hooking a streaking-to-the-net Christian Fischer.

I saw some people complain about this penalty, especially when the Coyotes scored on this power-play – but I didn’t mind it.

None of the beat reporters asked this, since none of them besides Larry Brooks have a clue – but I did wonder if Lindgren took this penalty, in an attempt to prevent retaliation, with CZAR IGOR being the target.

After all, following the Zibanejad penalty on Ingram, the game got chippy a bit, where we started to see more scrums.

This is just my gut-feeling – but I think Lindgren didn’t want anyone touching his goalie, and up 3-0, took this penalty to prevent anyone from even getting a whiff at CZAR IGOR.

The Coyotes, now on their sixth power-play of the game, finally scored.

I wouldn’t say that the Rangers’ PK was bad here. They just ran out of gas. (And then there is the law of averages too.)

This was the one-time where they didn’t get any puck luck or breaks, as the Coyotes were able to attack and keep pucks in the zone.

In turn, at the 8:33 mark, Keller scored on a shot that Igor had no chance on.

3-1, good guys. And goodbye to my 4-0 final score game prediction/bet too – and this was the closest I’ve ever got to it this season!

(So if anyone should be mad about the Lindgren penalty – it’s me – but I’m not! I 100% supported it!)

With 10:57 remaining, the Rangers had a chance to regain the three-goal lead when Matias Maccelli, who was pesky all game, high-sticked Kreider.

The Rangers’ power-play looked good, as Ingram had to make two strong saves on Kreider. However, no goal.

Once back to full-strength, it only took forty seconds for Carpenter to put goal #4 on the board – following a major assist from #4 himself.

4-1, GOOD GUYS!

On this play, Schneider bombed a shot from near the point at Ingram. The puck bounced off Carpenter. That’s all she wrote.

Again, these are the bounces that the Rangers received all last season, but not many of during this season. Maybe the luck has turned. Then again, I won’t hold my breath.

I just need to see the Rangers put a win-streak together before I can say that they’ve turned things around.

Down to 5:32 remaining, Kakko made a god-awful turnover on an ill-advised pass. No matter – CZAR IGOR stopped Bjugstad’s odd-man rush shot anyway.

Now in garbage time – Sam Rosen pretty much echoed the tone of tonight’s blog – but in a much more friendlier manner. This can’t be a one-off.

After so many stop-and-go starts, this needs to become the first win of many consecutive victories.

4-1, GOOD GUYS, your final – and in a game that the Rangers really showed their teeth in – sans Kravtsov of course!

Here’s Gallant after the game:

As you can tell, the bench boss knows how important this win was. Duh.

It doesn’t matter how they won, all that matters is that the Rangers won.

With three days of idleness ahead – had the team lost this game, it would’ve been 72 hours of the “SKY IS FALLING” rhetoric – where I probably would have had to second-guess the club myself too.

Instead, Gallant and his players received a temporary reprieve.

The team is off on Monday. They will then practice the next two days, before boarding their Wednesday afternoon flight to the shithole known as Seattle, Washington. (Check out my Seattle road-trip blog from last season for a true explanation on that “shithole” comment.)

As mentioned earlier, I have to believe that the Rangers will make a cap-related move between now and their flight to Frasier Crane’s home city. You know who I’m hoping for – but once getting his braces on and cavities filled – I’m sure that Kravtsov will continue to waste a spot on the roster.

Also worth noting? The Kraken, who lost a 3-2 overtime decision to the Jets on Sunday night, will also have the next three days off.

No excuses. Just win.

I’ll probably return to this site either on Tuesday or Wednesday – unless Drury grants me my wish and waives #74 on the off-day, Monday!

Until then, I’m back to working on my next book project. But if you haven’t heard, my new book, “Tricks of the Trade,” is now on sale.

Speaking of…

PLUGS TIME!

My first plug of tonight’s blog – the mandatory plug for my book, “The New York Rangers Rink of Honor and the Rafters of Madison Square Garden.”

As mentioned previously, the book is now available in hardcover, in paperback and in Kindle formats. To purchase a copy of the book, visit this link:

https://www.amazon.com/Rangers-Rafters-Madison-Square-Garden-ebook/dp/B09CM5N2WD

For those still looking for signed paperback versions of the book, I have re-ordered more copies. I now have a few signed copies for sale at $25 a pop (includes shipping price) through me directly. Here is all the information on that:

Order “The New York Rangers Rink of Honor and the Rafters of Madison Square Garden” Book Today

My four-volume set of books, “One Game at a Time – A Season to Remember,” is a game-by-game recount of the Rangers 2021-22 campaign.

My second title as an author, “One Game at a Time – A Season to Remember,” is now available in eBook, paperback and hardcover formats.

To obtain signed copies, visit: https://bluecollarblueshirts.com/onegamebook/

To purchase all four volumes on Amazon, visit: Amazon.com – “One Game at a Time.”

“Tricks of the Trade – A Century-Long Journey Through Every Trade Made In New York Rangers’ History,” a four-volume set of books that meticulously covers every trade made in franchise history, is now on sale.

All four volumes of the title can be purchased on Amazon.com and are presented in three different formats – eBook, paperback and hardcover.

To purchase Volume I: Conn Smythe (1926) – Craig Patrick (1986), visit Amazon.com

To purchase Volume II: Phil Esposito (1986) – Neil Smith (2000), visit Amazon.com

To purchase Volume III: Glen Sather (2000-2015), visit Amazon.com

To purchase Volume IV: Jeff Gorton (2015) – Chris Drury (2022), visit Amazon.com

To purchase signed copies of all four volumes, visit https://bluecollarblueshirts.com/tricksofthetrade/

Here are my last few blogs, in case you missed them:

NYR/NSH 11/12 Review: POWER OUTAGE! Power-Play Goes 0-5; Rangers Lose To Another Bottom-Feeder, The “NashVegas Flu;” Kravtsov Remains The Ultimate Wuss, FB Jail, Black-And-Blueshirts’ Bruised, Henrik Lundqvist & “First Ballot Hall of Famers” & More

NYR/DET 11/10 Review: New Look Rangers Ride an Eight-Goal Blue Wave Over Red Shirts; Blow Away Wings in Front of Their Fathers; Team-Wide Sixty Minute Victory; But This Can’t Be a One-Time Thing, NHL HC’s, M$GN, Multi-Point Games Galore & More

What’s Old Is New Again: Gallant Shuffles Lines Again; Reunites a 2016-17 Line (And Lafreniere/Chytil/Kakko Too), Trouba Injuries Confirmed; Shattenkirk Comparison, NYR Dads, Have Your Voice Heard in New Book & More

If you haven’t already, subscribe to this blog for the next update:

Don’t forget to order my new four-volume set of books, “Tricks of the Trade!”

If you don’t order through me, all four volumes are now available on Amazon.com

For more details, check out: https://bluecollarblueshirts.com/tricksofthetrade/

Thanks for reading.

LET’S GO RANGERS!

Sean McCaffrey

BULLSMC@aol.com

@NYCTHEMIC on the Tweeter machine