AlexanderScharf

"Talking New York Rangers Hockey, since 2007"

New York, NY • United States • 23 Years Old • Male

What A Wacky One!

What exactly was so strange about the Rangers 2-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning? Well...

The shutout jinx struck again...

The Rangers finally got a goal from a forward. But you will never guess who...

And the Lightning scored twice and lost 2-1.

Confusing? Lets start from the top.

Coming into the game, the Rangers had a streak of 5 straight goals by defenseman and 4 straight road wins. New York had also given up the first goal of the game for 5 or 6 games in a row. The Bolts had a streak of their own, an EIGHT game MULTI-POINT streak by Vincent LeCavalier. Believe it or not, that was a franchise record (please note sarcasm). 3 out of four were broken tonight.

Whats with all the offense, defense?
The Rangers got on the board first this time. The goal came from Fedor Tyutin, a defenseman (surprise!). He took a hard shot from just inside the blueline that found the net to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead. Blair Betts picked up an assist, his only point in 22 games this season. Mazel Tov! It was Tyutin's 3rd of the year, as well as the 14 total goal and the 6th straight for the defense.
1 STREAK DOWN, 2 TO GO.

Period 2: zzzzzz...zzzzzz...zzz
The game went into the second period with the score 1-0 and thats how it went out. No goals were scored in the second period. Since I have nothing to say about the period, I will tell you that Vincent LeCavalier did not pick up a point in the game, ending his fabulous streak. To the third we go!
2 STREAKS DOWN, 1 TO GO

Something's quite fishy
Early in the period, crazy things started happening. Call-up defenseman Ivan Baranka passed the puck to Colton Orr who moved into the Lightning zone. He shot it towards the net. It was a slow shot to begin with but when a defenseman got a piece of the puck with his stick it was barely moving at all. But it was bouncing. Enough to fool Holmqvist and hop over his right pad. After getting over the initial shock of the slowest goal ever, my mind began to go into overdrive. Who scored that goal? Colton who? Colton Orr! Let me say that again. COLTON ORR SCORED A GOAL! It was only his 3rd goal in 122 NHL games. Ivan Baranka picked up his 1st NHL point. And the Rangers finally got a goal from a forward although I would classify Orr as more of a "backward." In any event, the Rangers led 2-0.
3 STREAKS UP, 3 STREAKS DOWN

Getting Crazier By The Second
The Lightning looked to get on the board with 3 minutes remaining. A shot from the point got through to Lundqvist, pinballed around in the crease and went in. Unfortunately for the Bolts, the referee did not see it. And as Shanahan toppled on top of Lundqvist to push the puck out, the ref waved of the goal. Obviously, the play went to review. The puck clearly crossed the line but the glove of Shanahan blocked the only 2 camera angles from seeing the puck cross the line. He swept it back under Lundqvist and essentially destroyed any evidence to overturn the ruling on the ice. Still 2-0.

Don't Say It Joe!
Of course, this game would not be complete without the shutout jinx. With 1 minute remaining, Joe Michaletti of MSG Network decided to "mention" the wine lottery that Lundqvist holds after every shutout. Sam Rosen followed up with another brilliant comment of "We will talk about that in 1 minute." Well, obviously Tampa would score and they did after a brilliant deflection by Michael Oullet ended the shutout of a screened Lundqvist. Oh well, 2-1 still 2 points and the only streak that survived the night was the Rangers 4, now 5 game road win streak.

Blue Bites

-The Rangers improve to 13-8-1 and retain 1st place in the Atlantic division

-The Islanders lost to Montreal 4-1, the Devils beat the Penguins 2-1 and the Flyers trounced the Hurricanes 6-3.

-Michael Rozsival sat out the game with an undisclosed injury. He is expected to return Friday against the Panthers.

-The long awaited return of Martin Straka from a broken finger is to take place on either Friday on Sunday according to Tom Renney.

-Hope I didnt bore you too much with this one. I didnt have anything in the old writer's bag of tricks this time.

-The next game is Friday against the Florida Panthers.

R2R

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