A note before we begin: it is more important that you read these two articles by Larry Brooks than that you read this. Go read those. Then, if you still have time to read about the Rangers, come back here and read this. Thank you.
Man, I used to hate going to the Igloo, but I fucking love going to the Consol Energy Center.
Game started out with a few "huh?" calls: a missed goalie interference here, a trip-that-wasn't-a-trip-at-all there, Dustin Jeffrey sent to the box for something Matt Cooke did, and so on. Nothing remarkable, but a pretty good hockey game. By the second period, which Torts rightly called "brutal," the action was all Pens, all the time. There was no way we were winning this game on our own.
So the Penguins did us a favor and once again became the Flyers, despite Coach Dan Bylsma's continued, appropriate scratching of Arron Asham in the face of slightly more man-games lost to injury than even the Rangers have had this season (I believe the count was 288 for the Pens, 280 for us). I'm not here to debate the cleanliness of Matt Cooke's hit on Ryan McDonagh, which can be seen in all its glory here. Thankfully, few are defending this hit. But imagine me sitting in that arena, watching Cooke go off to the locker room, hearing an arena of Pens fans boo.
Maybe you were booing Matt Cooke for doing something stupid that could end a guy's career. Or at least something stupid that puts his team in a really bad position to win a hockey game. Maybe you were booing your coach for putting the 'A' on Cooke's sweater, thus lifting him up as an exemplar on the Pens. Or your hypocritical management, for using its creepily close relationship with Gary Bettman to whine about this kind of behavior while continuing to employ it. 'Cause there is no way you were booing Cooke's penalties, right?
Anyway, a few minutes later when Matt Niskanen irresponsibly got his stick up in Ryan Callahan's face, cutting open his nose (again, Penguin fans, I assume you were booing due to your disappointment in Niskanen?), the Rangers finally decided to start shooting the puck (the 5-on-3, which started 7:54 into the period, gave us our first shot of that period), and the whole game turned around. Once again, Penguin fans leave the building in shock, and I leave happy.
The question, of course, now becomes how long Cooke gets suspended for. No one is even debating how dirty that hit was, but no one knows what the NHL would do. If we are to listen to the Penguins, through either the owner's complaints that are so well-known by now, or the fans who complained that Trevor Gillies's recent 10-game suspension was too short because he's an obvious repeat offender, Cooke deserves at least the rest of the regular season, and probably however far the Pens go into the playoffs, as well. However, McD skated away fine, and this is a league that historically suspends to the injury, not the action. So, we'll see.
And stop calling them the "'Guins." It sounds stupid.
One more thing: 20-goal scorer watch! I off-handedly said to my girlfriend during some game in December or January, "you know what I would love? If this season, the Rangers had no 30-goal scorers and like 6 20-goal scorers. That would just be awesome."
Well, here we are, with nine games to go in the regular season. Our leading scorer, Ryan Callahan, has 23 goals. Behind him are Gaborik with 22 and Dubinsky and Boyle with 21 each. Stepan's at 19 and Anisimov's at 18. So, a new thing I'm gonna root for is at least one more for Step and at least two more for Arty. I'd love to be rooting for a team with six 20-goal scorers and no 30-goal scorers, wouldn't you?
Anyway, the point is: we come away from Pittsburgh with another two points, and we breathe that much easier coming into the stretch. Nine games to go.
I love going to Consol Energy Center.
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