We've got a game to win, here

OK basically I wanna say how much last night sucked. How little can we possibly stand up for one another, seriously? Yes, I know, there were a lot of fights last night. But come on. Am I really supposed to believe that waiting around until Avery came out against Carcillo 15 minutes later counts as "retaliation"? Carcillo fought Gaborik. And yeah, fine, good for Gaborik for standing up for himself. But how is everyone else on the team just standing around watching?

Anyway, in lieu of my words, here is Larry Brooks's scathing column, questioning what kind of "sense of honor" Tortorella is instilling in a team whose instinct is consistently to stand around and watch. The column speaks specifically about the lack of response to the Carcillo-Gaborik fight, but the question runs much deeper. It has been manifesting itself throughout the season, and it reared its head earlier than that fight last night, when in the first period, some Flyer (who cares, they're all the same) ran Lundqvist into his net, and no Ranger did anything. It manifests itself in Girardi's gut response to not going after Carcillo, "I didn't want to take another penalty."

And if Brooks's words aren't enough (his bitterness at our coach certainly rose last night, when in the post-game interview Torts opened by saying he wouldn't answer any of Brooksie's questions, then asked him to go stand somewhere else), even the guys on NHL Live today, guys who are paid advocates for "The New NHL," know the Rangers are a gutless team. Apparently they spent a great deal of today's show discussing our pathetic situation. Here are some choice quotes, selected by my father, who watches/listens to these guys regularly: "Girardi had a great view." "Help him out!" "Take the penalty!" "The Rangers continued their ages-old tradition of standing by while one of their stars gets beat up."

Yes, exactly. Help him out. Take the fucking penalty. Or do you really think that, at that point, the extra minor (in a league where minor penalties are handed out quite at random, by the way) was going to be the killer? No, guys: the killer is being a team full of bystanders. The killer is showing every team in the NHL -- a division rival, no less! -- that you can run over us day in and day out.

"We'll remember this for sure," Lundqvist said of Carcillo, "he should be ready for it." Yeah, well. You know what he, and 28 other NHL teams, will remember? That he did what he did, and that his team did what it did, and that the Rangers did nothing. Yeah, Avery fought some people later. That's not the point. The Rangers did nothing to step up as a gut reaction to this nonsense, and the Flyers saw they could do it all day. And so did 28 other NHL teams. That's what sends a message, here. Not "oh, he better be ready for us to remember this," from the locker room, at 10:00. The games are played on the ice. And you can bet that "the Rangers are a gutless squad of bystanders" is resonating pretty strong with Daniel Carcillo right now. He's probably not losing much sleep over "he should be ready for it."

But, hey, just think how much worse it would have been if we'd had to kill another minor penalty, right? We've got a game to win here.