Welcome to the playoffs

I can't imagine a game feeling better than that game last night. Peter DeBoer decides to open by putting out Cam Janssen, Eric Boulton, and Ryan Carter, which is a pretty classy opening. Torts screamed at DeBoer for it from the bench, which was awesome, and then put out Rupp, Bickel, and Prust to answer the call. Hey Cam Janssen, riddle me this: what happens when you come into the Garden and try to fuck with the Rangers like that?



Rupp absolutely destroys Boulton, Bickel turns Carter's face into a bloody crazy mess, Rupp and Janssen more or less draw, and Bryce Salvador, as classy as his coach, jumps onto Bickel's back after his fight with Carter ends, earning himself an extra 10-minute misconduct. Then, with that out of the way, 1:08 later, Dubinsky rips one past Uncle Daddy, and the Rangers never give up that lead.

Fatso should take comfort in this: while he might not be the goalie he used to be, the stripes still give him special treatment no other goalie gets, so in that sense, he is still relevant. Just think, Marty: you're the only goalie who's allowed to skate out of the crease behind your net and interfere with forwards nowhere near the puck. You're the only goalie who, if you're particularly scared of how a penalty kill is shaping up, can just knock the net off of it's moorings to get a stoppage in play. And you're certainly the only goalie who gets called the best night in and night out despite boasting a .906 save percentage this season. So, buck up! That's totally relevance!

Oh, and did we mention that the Rangers have clinched a playoff spot? Seeds 9-15 can no longer catch the Rangers, so no matter what else happens this regular season, they're in. Only the Blues clinched before the Rangers this season. With 10 games to go, we're 3 points up on the Penguins (who have a game in hand) and 5 up on the Flyers (who don't).

I know I'm usually the guy who looks at wins and says "we're not that good," but looking at the 2 consecutive losses to Pittsburgh at Colorado last week, I'm ready to say "we're not that bad." The Penguins were surging before they got back Crosby and Letang, and the Rangers were missing Callahan, Del Zotto, and Lundqvist, and lost Anisimov, Fedotenko, and Eminger. Even so, they kept Crosby to one assist on the night, gave up some goals on weird bounces, and failed to capitalize on a number of very good chances. That's a promising loss to a team as hot as the Pens.

On the heels of that loss (which, in score, sounds worse than it was), the loss to the Avs is pretty heartbreaking. But no one watched that game and thought the Avs didn't get totally outplayed by the Rangers, from start to finish. Sometimes, you do everything except win, and it's hard to swallow, but it's not discouraging.

In conclusion: everything is fine, fuck the Devils, and we can all definitely look forward to some playoff hockey in a few weeks. Oh, and: J-E-T-S! Jets! Jets! Jets!