WRIST SHOTS: HE LITERALLY VENTED HIS SPLEEN

Well, it looks like it's just about over for the Rangers. Jagr started off like a house on fire, exhibiting emotion and that sweeping wraparound move (that brought back nightmares from the numerous times he'd done that vs. the Devils), but in the end they couldn't stop The Malkin Machine. Sidsburgh is now up 3 games to none.

It was also nice of Jagr to show up, considering this might have been his penultimate game as a Ranger/NHL player. Do you know the way to Omsk?

Browsing TSN for NHL news I happened upon this article:

Sean Avery has a lacerated spleen and will be out the remainder of the season, sources tell TSN. The source went on to say that the laceration was detected with a CT scan after Avery was taken to hospital following the Game 3 with the Panguins. Full Story

Why do good things happen to bad people? I mean, the other way around??? (Uhm, the Panguins?)

I also commented on Chris Drury, who appeared to hurt himself while celebrating a (non) goal last night in the 2nd period. Shooting from MAF's right side of the crease, he put his arms up in anticipation of the puck going across the goal line along the far post, but Hal Gill deftly swept it out. Drury put his arms about halfway up and then he winced and put them back down. He looked like a broken man for the rest of the game, skating at half speed and unable to keep a puck in the zone during a key sequence in the 3rd. At the time I was thinking he pulled a muscle in his back or something; TSN said he was "hampered" and may have injured his shoulder (it looked like his right side).

As it turns out The Pensblog has a frame-by-frame account in their goofy-ass Game 3 recap . (The "Sidney Plissken in Escape from New York" yesterday had me LLOL.) If anything sums up the Rangers awful play and horrible luck in this series with the Pens, it would be that: a key player getting injured while celebrating a goal that never happened.

Meanwhile, both Detroit and Dallas have taken commanding 3-0 leads in their respective series. So tonight we're going to have a conference finals party like it's 1-9-9-8!

If you haven't checked out Hockey-Reference.com yet, you must. My favorite stat is Bobby Orr's plus/minus of +124 in 1970-71. That season, he wasn't even the leading scorer on his own team, and total goals for vs. against while on the ice was an astonishing 258 to 85. Since they scored 399 goals that year, that means he was on the ice for about two-thirds (65%) of them. Basically, only good things happened when he was out there.

Another question I meant to ask last night in my anti-livebloggery: why aren't there more songs about hockey? Sure, there's "The Good Old Hockey Game", but what else? It seems like they make a craptacular Super Bowl Shuffle-esque song every year, and there are more baseball songs than I care to remember. I have one I'm working on about the Avs called "Hejduk" (to the tune of Pink Floyd's "Hey You"):

Hejduk
Skating in the cold
Sakic and Forsberg growing old
Can you help me?
...
Hejduk
Why can't Theodore make a stoooooop?
Together we stand, divided we flop

Uhm, that's all I've got so far.



(Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)