De-Clawed

Tonight the New York Rangers (31-24-8) defeated the Florida Panthers (28-30-7) by a score of 5-0. Marek Malik scored his first goal of the season, and Jaromir Jagr netted his second in two nights for the Rangers. Henrik Lundqvist stopped 23 shots in his eighth shutout, which makes him the first Ranger goaltender since Eddie Giacomin in 1970 to post eight shutouts in a season. Scott Gomez staked him to a 1-0 lead in the first period. Malik added an assist on Nigel Dawes’ 10th of the season that made it 4-0 in the third. Martin Straka made it 5-0. Gomez also added two assists. For a full recap go to Yahoo! Sports.

...I'm almost more impressed with this win than I was with last night's against Buffalo. This game had all the makings of a let down and the Rangers took it to Florida from the drop of the puck.

...this was the third weekend in a row with back-to-back games and the Rangers went 5-0-1 in those six games. The Rangers are now 5-0-2 in their last seven and 10-3-2 in their last 15. Not bad.

...I think the Ranger players read this blog before the game. Before last night's game I said Jagr had to starting scoring he's now scored in two straight games and before the game tonight I said that Gomez needed to score and he scores. Maybe before Thursday's game I'll say that Betts needs to score to get him going.

...since most of my time on this blog has been taken up by criticizing Malik, I've got to give him props for a great game tonight. Not only did he have a goal and an assist he actually roughed up a Panther player after he tried to poke the puck loose from Lundqvist. I was also really happy to see the positive reaction the fans had when he was named second star. If he continues his improving play of late he will win the fans back in no time.

...loved FSN micing up Ranger Assistant Coach Mike Pelino. Not sure if anyone saw the exchange he had with Jagr when they were talking about trying to get Malik the Gordie Howe Hat Trick after his goal and assist and then Pelino says "Should we put Aves out there with him?" Great stuff.

...the Rangers are now off for three more days (what kind of wacky scheduling is this), which means they won't be playing again until after the trading deadline. Let's hope when the Rangers take the ice against Carolina they are not a completely different team.