Post Game Notes

In spite of the Blueshirts’ second straight loss, this one by a 2-1 margin out on the Island — the Island! — the more equanimous Rangers faithful will not get down and instead look on the bright side: The team gets back on track with a pair of back-to-back wins at the Garden this weekend, and by late Saturday night our guys can be boasting a 3W, 2L, winning record. Most importantly, whatever little confidence has been mispalced during the course of this sluggish start is on its way to being fully restored.

That said, it is hard to win games when you only manage two goals over six periods, regardless of who you’ve signed, dressed or mixed-and-matched in lines.

Throughout the first two periods, with the exception of Petr Prucha and Ryan Callahan, the Rangers didn’t seem to be moving their feet, appeared back on their heels, watching, letting the play come to them rather than dictating the pace and taking it to the Islanders.

Said Scott Gomez, who squandered an open-net opportunity, “…it’s just one of those things right now.”

Amen.

Once again, Henrik Lundquist was excellent, the only consistent asset in the Rangers arsenal so far. And if it had to be anyone in an Islanders uniform to get the game winner past Hank, it couldn’t be a nicer guy than Brian Berard.

Broadcast Notes 

With Versus’s sleepy-voiced NHL hockey spokesperson soon headed to the pokey, I wonder if the on-air promo preceding the broadcasts will be re-recorded, from, “The following is a presentation of the National Hockey League,” to something like, “If you make more money than God starring in an idiotic television series and are stupid enough to repeatedly fail to hire a cab when cross-eyed from tequila, you deserve to go to jail…enjoy the game. Does anyone know if the LA County hoosegow gets Versus?”

The fact that Versus play-by-play announcer Joe Beninati was repeatedly allowed to pronounce Marek Malik’s name as “Ma-REK Ma-LIK” confirms our suspicion: No one watches these broadcasts, because no one directs them. There must be a producer, however, because in not one, but two intermission interviews with players, Versus managed to drape a branded hand towel conspicuously, and ridiculously, over the breast of the interviewed player.

You’re right, I shouldn’t nitpick…while I sorely missed Stan, Al and Sam, at least for an evening I was spared the comments of MSG’s neuron-challenged, color man, JM. And on Versus, I did enjoy several charming reaction shots of New York Islander Mike Comrie’s girl-friend, Hilary Duff.

Final

NYR 1

NYI 2