1. Sean Avery: the new GAG guy? Seriously, it's so much fun to watch him be good at hockey. "The Rangers are a better team with him," sportswriters love to say, implying the unasked question "but why?" They then posture for a while, ignoring the simplest explanation: he is kind of good at playing hockey. I loved hearing the 'Canes announcers try to explain it away last Friday ("Well, sometimes conflict is a good thing"?), and I might have had more fun last night when it was against the Islanders.
2. Speaking of Avery, let's talk about this minor penalty at the end of the first period. First of all, if it's Avery who drops his gloves while Mottau leaves them on, Aves gets 5 minutes for fighting while Mottau gets nothing. Because the situation is reversed, they each get 2 for unsportsmanlike. That's the usual bullshit. But then, for some reason, they make Avery sit the final 56 seconds of the period from the locker room, while Mottau sits in the box. No explanation, no difference in penalty, just sent Avery off and left Mottau alone. As Avery said to the media last night, "Obviously, we know why. I don't know, why would they send me off? It's a regular penalty. I'd like you guys to start calling and asking that and give me an explanation."
3. Dan Girardi, on behalf of all Ranger fans, I'm sorry. We're sorry we brought up the idea of you as an All Star: clearly it went to your head and threw off your game. Haven't seen you play a game that weak in a year and a half. Forget the whole thing, go back to the shadows, where you're unrecognized and therefore can remain one of the top shutdown* defensemen in the game.
4. Aaron Voros apparently called Glen Sather and asked for a chance at a Professional Tryout for the club. Sather obliged, and Voros is now skating for the Whale on a tryout basis. Don't count on it, but how much fun would it be if he really excelled and all of a sudden the fourth line was Voros - Newbury - Prust or something?
5. Olivia Munn! Richards is dating Olivia Munn! And apparently they started dating between that game we blew in the 3rd against the Senators and the following game, which kicked off our currently-running 7-game win streak. So, let's all give thanks to Olivia Munn for inspiring this streak, and let's hope Richards and Munn stay together for a while. (Also, that is a very, very attractive couple. And they're into, respectively, my two biggest interests: hockey and video games.)
I can't tell you how hard it was for me to keep it classy and not link to a different fantastically NSFW image of Olivia Munn each time I typed her name.
*Perhaps I should have just said "defenseman" here. When the media calls a guy a good "shutdown defenseman," they mean he's a good defenseman for actually playing defense. As opposed to a good offensive defenseman. So, from my perspective, that just means he's one of the best defensemen in the league.
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