RANGERS IN THE NIGHT

That will be the name (thanks Jeff!) of my irregularly published post concerning the New York Rangers and their quest for Lord Stanley's Cup, as well as other protective gear like Lord Kensington's shin guard and The Earl of Oxfords chin strap. After a listless couple of periods, the Rangers snapped to life and won game 1, 5 - 2 over the much improved Florida Panthers. Again it was Chris Drury with the late game heroics, only this time he scored a goal that didn't pierce my heart like a thousand daggers. This took a bit of the sting out of the Yanks loss to the Indians, in which Chin Ming Wang looked like he was throwing batting practice. Andy Pettitte needs to come up big today. (Took me what, 2 sentences to completely get off topic?)

I was supposed to publish the above nonsense some time ago and it is now, much like the canceling of "The Ropers" old and sad news.

In the interim, the Blueshirts have lost twice to the Ottawa Senators and as Jeff said earlier, the Sens look awesome. Big, strong, fast, and committed to team defense. Even though the Rangers outshot them in both games, most of the shots were from outside and rebounds were rare. I think the Rangers are going to be a very good team very soon, but it is clear they have work to do to be on the same level as Ottawa. A win over Washington and a typical loss to the Islanders, (in which they kicked fishstick ass up and down the ice and managed 1 goal) brings the Rangers to 2 - 3 in this young season. Next game, Thursday the 18th at the Atlanta Thrashers. The Thrashers will try to get some measure of revenge for the Rangers sweep in the first round of last seasons playoffs. Which makes no sense, since, as just reported, it was last season.

Back to those 2 games against Ottawa, the shots AT goal, which according to my research (none) is an official stat now, I'm going to say the Rangers had 945 and Ottawa had 5216. Honestly, does Bettman (who sucks) have an out of work nephew who's only skill is counting? Why else would they pay someone to keep track of this utterly pointless statistic? OK, Marik Malik winds up and sends an errant shot AT goal, missing by some 20 feet, caroming off the boards out of the zone and resulting in a breakaway opportunity and goal for the opponent. Eddie Bettman then puts down a little tick mark on the score sheet? Malik is credited with an offensive stat?

A word about TBS's coverage of the ballgames this post season - shitty. Try to keep the focus on the field fellas, I don't care about the guy banging the drum in the back row or LeBron James. And your little red light green light 1-2-3 graphic at first base is pointless.

[the following was written a couple weeks ago, and unposted due to extreme laziness and inebriation.] Oh and this is for the guy at the bar who wanted to watch Kentucky vs South Carolina last night, stay home. Both of those teams suck and will be out of the top 25 by the end of the month. [end]

Well it's not the end of the month, but SC and Kentucky are 6 and 8 respectively. This is why I don't gamble anymore. I suck at it. I also went on and on yesterday about how the "home, dome, monday night dog" Atlanta Falcons were a lock. Well, they were dogs allright, (nope, no M Vick reference coming) old, slow, blind dogs, and the Giants pretty much put their season to sleep.

Now lets see whats on TV tonight:

10 PM, Discovery, American Chopper - Will the bike be done on time, or will tempers flare?

11 PM, Discovery, American Chopper - Tempers flare when the bike isn't done on time.