Rangers 4, Islanders 2

Okay, here's the good news. We won! We won by scoring more than 2 goals! We won in regulation time! We won by more than a goal!

Actually, there's more good news than that. Scott Gomez played the best game he's played under, as Stan Fischler very embarrassingly calls him, "Torts-who-Snorts." I will do my damndest never to use THAT phrase again. Gomez looked a little quicker, like he was keeping up with the team.

Of course, maybe it's all relative. It's possible he looked like that cause the team was a step slower than they were against Colorado or even Florida. I understand that we beat a team that is technically a division rival, taking the lead early and never giving it to them, by a reasonably substantive margin. Fine. But we played better hockey when we lost 2-1 to Florida. We were quicker to the puck and made less stupid cross-ice passes. It looked easier for us to get into the zone, if not to hit the back of the net. But hell, the sun is shining, I *CAN* feel the brand new day, I'll chalk this up to "a bunch of new guys thrown into the already crazy mix, first game back after a while off, and hell stop complaining you got 2 points." Especially that last bit. Hot DAMN did we need to pick up those 2 points. We don't play again until Sunday, when we play the Boston Goddamn Bruins.

New Guy Review! Avery played good hockey. He made no major mistakes, played a solid game, hit a couple of people, made a couple of smart moves, talked at some people, drew a penalty, and only got called for one completely unreasonable never-should-have-been-a penalty. Morris was fine. He did not blow me away by being the perfect defenseman hybrid of Zdeno Chara and Brian Leetch. But he played good defense, showed an ability to know where to put the puck, and is leaps and bounds better than Kalinin. Antropov...is big and dumb. I like that he is 6'20" and weighs a fucking ton. But that is where the success ends. He failed at...doing much. He stood still a lot, and he sometimes glided around on the ice, and that was still a little effective because the dude is a wall, but...I'm not sure what we gain with this guy over putting an ACTUAL brick wall on some skates. I guess this is that whole "light a fire under him" thing. Torts, I think we're gonna need a bigger fire.