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| DUCK HUNTING! |
How the hell do I even start this blog?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Welcome everyone to another blog here on the new and improved DOINOW.com! Suffice to say, there is tons to get into, so check out the right hand of the site for all the goodies, don’t drink & drive, tip your bartenders, always buy tickets last second on Stubhub and always, and I mean always, use “IN CAM WE TRUST” as your personal mantra.
WHAT A NIGHT. Let me repeat, WHAT A NIGHT!
The last time I saw a rape this brutal, it was in the 1995 cinema classic “Showgirls”, when that black chick got raped by Jesse Spano’s male acquaintance at that party that Charlotte’s husband from “Sex in the City” threw. The Rangers brutalized the number 1 team in the league, the not so Mighty Ducks, with a final score of 7-2. As a result of the the thrashing, the Rangers return to first place in all of the NHL. Of course you know the Rangers are setting all kind of winning records under the guidance of Cam Talbot, as the $8.5M man continues to look overpaid & overrated with each passing day.
The Rangers returned to MSG, for the second game of a back-to-back, after playing in Carolina the night before. The infamous JEFFREY wanted to go to this game, and since I had off from the real job on Monday, I was game. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much. In fact, I saw the Rangers playing a similar game that they played with the Blackhawks. If the Rangers lost tonight 2-0, I wouldn’t have been shocked. Taking that LIRR train back, after a 7-2 win? I still can’t believe it. It’s like seeing Jesus Christ smoking pot with Hitler. It just isn’t believable!
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| JEFFREY (Samardzija) was excited about the big Rangers win! |
Let’s face it – the Rangers have played like shit recently but have been able to escape with wins. The Rangers, despite giving up 1 goal a game, due to the strong play of Cam Talbot for 8 out of the last 9 games, struggled to score. The powerplay was more atrocious than a fresh hot diaper on a summer day. The Rangers were on a goal drought, after previously lighting lamps, 4,5,6 times a game. Whether the Rangers bottled up this offensive explosion and let it all out here, or if this is a sign of things to come, bottom line, the Rangers made a huge statement, thrashing the now second best team in the NHL.
I won’t get ahead of myself here. This win is forgotten come game 1 of the playoffs. However, for fans like us that care about the regular season, this was a game the Rangers told the NHL that they are here and ready to win NOW.
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| BOUGIAS! |
There won’t be many games left this season to pull the Stubhub trick, but on this Sunday, JEFFREY & I were able to make it work. We were able to score $256 face value tickets for $125, by buying tickets two hours before game time. If we waited out a bit longer, we could’ve bought LOUNGE tickets for $135. I talked about this in my Chicago/NYR blog, but the difference between sitting in the 100’s/bridges vs 200’s/400’s is really night and day. MSG has a class system. You are treated like a fucking asshole if you sit in the 200’s/400’s where in the 100’s or bridges, you are treated like a winner, like a King, kind of like Mike Richter. Hopefully Henrik Lundqvist will know that feeling of being a real king one day.
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| Lundqvist can make all the silly TV shows he wants, there is only one real blueshirt goalie King & one mask that matters |
I am telling you. If you ever have the money or time, you need to sit in the 100’s. It’s going to be tough this late into the season, but the veteran move is to buy tickets right before game time, when the sellers trying to rip people off, panic and unload their good seats for cheap. There is a downstairs bar and bathroom at MSG, which you can access by taking the downstairs escalator by section 103. There are no bathroom lines, a spacious bar and no one bumping into you. You really feel majestic down there. It’s bougias as all fuck, but a great experience. If you do venture to the bar by that center of the arena escalator, make sure to ask for Frank! He’s always accommodating and a close personal friend of JEFFREY!
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| Long time Ranger season ticket holder & converted Talbot fan, Mike B. & myself at the bougias bar! |
Oh yea, so there was a game tonight too! After a few drinks at the bougias bar, where few men wear jerseys, it was time to catch the game in our cheap seats, but that were so close, we could feel the ice. It’s times like this that you really appreciate the game. I’ve said it a million times on these blogs – nothing beats an NHL game live. The NFL, NBA, MLB… all that stuff is made for TV. The live NHL experience is like no other & I cherish being at a game every time I go. Perhaps I blow too much time and money on all this, but I could spend money on worse. After all, I don’t have a drug problem, buy fancy clothes, have a fancy car, buy jewelry or anything else. This is what I enjoy and my vice (outside of drinking, gambling, smoking, Rose’s Penn Station Pizza, but who’s watching?)
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| No clue if Talbot was praying for goal support tonight, but whatever he did, it worked! |
As I said above, I was nervous about this game. The Rangers barely beat Buffalo & Florida, lost 1-0 to Chicago and were lucky to escape with two points against the lowly Hurricanes. Never in my wildest dreams would I imagine the Rangers destroying the Ducks 7-2 here tonight.
The Rangers kicked off their barrage of goals, with an ALL-AMERICAN goal, as Kreider took a pass from Stepan and buried it home. Rangers Captain Ryan McDonagh picked up the secondary assist on the goal. Kreider’s 18th goal of the season came 90 seconds into the game. What a difference from the 1-0 game I saw at MSG on Wednesday already!
The celebration was short-lived, as Corey Perry got his 30th goal of the season a minute later. It was a soft goal. We all know I’m the conductor of the Talbot Train and all that blah blah blah, but we’ve seen enough of Talbot to make this assessment of him. He’s either lights out all game, or he gives up one really bad goal, then settles down. Just like in some of his previous games as starter, Talbot gave up a bad one here, and was strong the rest of the game.
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| Believe it or not, the Rangers won this faceoff! |
Within three minutes, the score was already 1-1. The Rangers then went on a powerplay, after Girardi was boarded 4 minutes and change into the first period. I hate that milk carton picture of the Rangers PP that I’ve been posting. I’m now happy to report that the powerplay was found, at least for this game, as Derek Stepan took a pass from Keith Yandle (Who finished with 3 assists tonight, his best game as a Ranger) and got the Rangers first PP goal in what seems like forever. 2-1 Rangers, and the game was barely five minutes old.
Carl Hagelin continued the scoring, as he tipped in a shot from Kevin Hayes, 10 minutes into the period. The Ducks saw enough, and Ducks goalie Frederik Andersen was pulled, to a raucous ovation.
Let me tell you something – if you ever go to a game at MSG, just watch Hagelin. The guy is so fast and does so much. Even on the Rangers PK’s tonight, he was all over the place. The Ducks would pass the puck and he was able to cover two guys at once, outskate everyone else and make clears and just fly around like a circus monkey. He’s in a contract year, and it would be a fucking shame if the contract of another Swede on this team prevented the Rangers from keeping him. He is a huge asset to this team in so many facets.
With 10 minutes to go in the first, the Rangers up 3-1 & with Andersen now pulled, everything was coming up blueshirts. However, the Rangers left Perry wide open in front of the net a minute later, and you were back to biting your nails, as the Ducks cut the lead in half, making the score 3-2. This goal was on the Rangers defense, as opposed to Perry’s first goal, as he was all alone for his second tally. However, it would be the last goal Talbot let slide, and he would finish with 36 saves, none bigger than preventing a Perry hat-trick in the third, that illicted huge “TAL-BOT” chants in MSG.
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| Stepan broke out of his point drought tonight, with 2 goals, 1 assist & the number 1 star of the game |
With Gibson in net for the Ducks, the game settled down. I thought it wasn’t because of Gibson, as much as the Rangers slowed down. The fourth line was brutal tonight. They were constantly on defense, the Ducks had too many chances in the Rangers zone and with a 3-2 lead in the first, the Rangers opted to go back to over-passing the puck, rather than taking the shots that gave them the 3-2 lead in the first place.
JT Miller & Derek Stepan would each add a goal in the second period, making the game 5-2 and seemingly deciding the game result right then and there. For JT Miller, he continues to be hot. For Stepan, he broke out of his scoreless slump.
If anything concerned you, it’s the fact that Rick Nash is not scoring goals right now. As I said yesterday, the Rangers will need him to produce if they want any shot at winning a Cup this year. In the meantime, it was great to see everyone else produce.
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| I don’t think Cam was drinking Molson’s like I was |
With a 5-2 lead, heading into the third, Ranger fans were able to relax and enjoy what we were seeing. Everyone in that building was aware that within 20 minutes, the Rangers were back to being the best team in hockey and with games in hand on everyone. The Islanders, the Canadiens, the Ducks, the Blues, the Predators, anyone & everyone, the Rangers have the most points and have the most ROW victories to boot. I’m not going to start another Hank vs Cam debate here, but man, pulling Cam could backfire for the Rangers, and everyone knows that.
Jesper Fast & Derrick Brassard would add goals in the third period, as Gibson became a victim of the Rangers explosion tonight. The game has been over already for three hours as I write these words, and I’m still fucking giddy. The Rangers got production from their top three lines, saw Yandle fit into the system, had another strong (not his strongest though) performance from Talbot and really just kicked the piss out of the Ducks.
It is amazing how this NHL rollercoaster goes. You look like shit against a bad team, but then put on your top offensive performance of the season, against a top team in the NHL, off a back-to-back. How do you explain it? The Rangers were due to score goals, but no one imagined this.
I don’t like to fill blog space by copying and pasting, but these post-game notes from the Rangers official website will make any Rangers fan grin from ear-to-ear:
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| Talbot is now 15-3-3 as Rangers starter, but people will still say trade him |
However, it is Hank’s job to lose. At the same time, the Ranger fans that are already writing about Talbot to Edmonton or wherever, are fucking out of their minds. No one knows what will happen in the playoffs.
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| I can look at this all night, it’s better than porn! |
The NHL season takes no break for no man. It is a shame how the schedule broke down this year. The Rangers have been 3-4 games behind in the Games Played stat all year against their division and conference rivals. It’s all because of money. The Rangers have a ton of NBC games. The NFL has been over and the Rangers are in these late Sunday games on NBC. It is what it is, but if the NHL was so concerned about player safety/health, why schedule the Rangers for a shit load of back-to-backs and 6 games in 9 days towards the end of the season? MONEY is what runs sports at the end of the day.
The Rangers busy month of March continues on Tuesday with a rematch with the Kings, a team Talbot beat earlier this year. Imagine if we could say Hank beat the Kings last year? The Rangers then take on the red-hot Senators, in Ottawa on Thursday, before their third back-to-back weekend in a row, heading to Boston on Saturday afternoon (NBC money game) and then hosting the Capitals at home on Sunday (NBC money game.) If all indications are right, chances are that Hank returns for that Sunday showdown with Washington.
Whether or not the Rangers win the President’s Trophy or not is not as significant as the ultimate goal – winning the Stanley Cup. Sure the President’s Trophy would be nice, but this team is in a Cup or Bust year. Let’s just get to that third week in April and take it from there.
I feel like this was a long blog, but more on the game experience than the actual game itself content. It happens. This is a blue collar blog for blue collar fans. Recapping 9 individual goals is an all-night affair, but I think you get the point – The Rangers kicked ass!
HUGE WIN EVERYONE!
LET’S GO RANGERS
IN CAM WE TRUST
SEE YA TUESDAY NIGHT!
Sean McCaffrey
BULLSMC@aol.com
@nycthemic on that twitter machine
