Rangers Man Up At The Garden, Power Play Pounds Sharks

Look at that smile on the Captain. It's like when your grandpa would let you sit at the card table with him and all his friends and plop his hat down on your head cause you were his little buddy and they would all curse and drink and you felt like a grown up for the first time, even though you couldn't hide the fact that you were the happiest kid alive.

And when the Rangers are winning, and the offense is flowing, everyone is the happiest kid alive. The Rangers pulled off a full 60 last night, and the result was dominance against a Sharks team riding a 5 game winning streak.

Lets WORK THE POINTS

Captain On Track
As expected, Ryan Callahan has used his heart and tenacity to drive the Rangers' offense, now tied with Marian Gaborik for the team lead in goals. What's as important is that the Captain, especially in last night's 5-2 win over San Jose, finally got his forecheck working effectively, forcing turnovers and running Sharks' defenders to disrupt their passing comfort. And the effort was contagious, as linemates Dubi and Richards have also turned up their game away from the puck and the line has been highly effective since the 3 were put together. That Dubinsky doesn't have a goal yet is mind boggling, but he had 2 huge assists last night, is really beginning to assert himself as a horse in all 3 zones, and anyone who has watched him closely the last few games, especially the coaching staff, can recognize that he is palpably on the verge of breaking out.

Power Play Productivity
6 goals for the last 15 doesn't sound so bad to a group of fans that have laughably seen our team go 1-25 multiple times over the last few seasons. We're still 20th in the league on the PP, which means we have a lot to improve on, but the guys are getting more comfortable managing the space out there, and we have the personnel to really make teams pay with Richards, Gaborik,Del Zotto, and now Cally if they give us the opportunity. You can tell B. Rad wants to eat up scoring chances--he relishes the situations where he can work the puck around and undress other teams' shorthanded units--and I think that will only propel G Money and Del Z to be better as they are two players with skill that can really flourish. A key to a good power play is really wanting to score. It's one thing to talk about getting one, or needing one at a key time, but it's another to really live for the PP, to want to dominate and to feel that if given the opportunity, you can. We probably aren't there yet, but with this personnel I feel we can get there. We're moving in that direction these last 2 games.

Intestinal Fortitude
"The collapse" has haunted the Rangers so far this season, not having the strength to finish a game with the intensity and effort it started with, sometimes not having the intensity at all. Against the Maple Leafs we folded when they tied the game up, against the Senators we folded when they tied the game up in the 3rd. Against the Sharks they tied the game, but we held our own, even with blood in the water and San Jose pressing we were able to put up 3 goals in 6 minutes to regain the advantage. Somewhere in that mishmash of momentum swing, memory, and doubt we recognized our strength and our identity and did not stray from it, despite a weak call against Brian Boyle that forced us to start the 3rd shorthanded.

Step and Artie
Both these guys were dying to jump on the goal horse and their lack of productivity was beginning to mess with their self-esteem. Stepan conceded in a between-period interview with Al Trautwig over the weekend that his goal-less campaign was definitely in his head, and Anisimov has looked, for the most part, like a shell of the player he was emerging to be last year. Both forwards have served time on the 4th line after failing to get the job done on one of the top 2 lines, though Step re-gained his position due to some nice passing chemistry with Gaborik. Fortunately these two youngsters netted nice goals last night and were involved on every shift. Sometimes it only takes one to get the ball rolling.

Rupp Out, Avery In? Christensen Still In
With Mike Rupp's knee injury taking longer to heal than expected, and maybe requiring knee surgery, a spot has opened on the club for #16 who cleared waivers and re-claimed by the Rangers today. The best thing about this, in my opinion, is we don't have to sacrifice Christensen to make room for Avery, because I don't think the two are comparable. You give up a lot to have the other, and neither is going to make much of a difference when all is said and done, so I'm glad we can have both because I think they each have unique skills.


In other news, Shark "bad boy" Joe Thornton took some digs at the Blueshirts in his post game interview.

"They were probably the softest team we played against all road trip"

We got the 2 points and we don't play them again this season, so The Brigade is going to take the high road on this one. Probably just kick back and eat some Cherry Pie and youtube 'Shark playoff disappointments'...

***Torts on the other hand had some choice words for Thornton. Gotta love how Torts sticks up for his troops and always protects his players:
It surprised me, and I've never heard a player say that. Joe's a heck of a player, but here's a player popping off about our team, and Joe hasn't won a g--damn thing in this league. He could go down as a player, being one of the better players in our league never to win anything. So what he should do is just shut up. It was uncalled for, it was classless, and I've never had it happen like that before.