All Good Things Come to an End

Last night the New York Rangers (37-25-9) were defeated by the Florida Panthers (34-31-8) 3-2. Olli Jokinen’s tiebreaking power-play goal 7:12 into the third period stretched the Panthers’ winning streak to a season-high six and handed the Rangers their first regulation loss in more than a month. The Rangers had been 10-0-3 since a 4-1 home loss to Anaheim on Feb. 7. One of those victories was a 5-0 shutout over the Panthers on Feb. 24. Florida’s winning streak is the third longest in team history. The Panthers have 76 points, three fewer than eighth-place Philadelphia. Dan Girardi and Scott Gomez scored for the Rangers, sixth in the East with 83 points. Florida’s Tomas Vokoun stopped 32 shots, five more than Henrik Lundqvist of the Rangers. The game, played in front of Florida’s fourth home sellout crowd of the season, had a playoff feel. For a full recap go to Yahoo! Sports.

...I guess you can't win them all. Got to give props to this team for the 13-game streak. We ran into a hotter team. Nothing you can do.

...I thought the defense was scrambling tonight. Not only the defensemen, but the forwards weren't responsible either.

...once again the power play does us in. While we did score on the 5 on 3, we ended the night going 1-6. Which included the final failure on the power play, when we pulled Lundqvist to give us a 6 on 4. The Rangers are obviously not going to be making a coaching change this late in the season, but Perry Pearn (I know you're loving this fleisch14) has to be on the chopping block this summer. Too much talent on this team to score only 16.6% (20th in the league) of the time on the power play.

...I thought Lundqvist played well, except for his once again horrific stick handling that led to the game winner by Jokinen. I always thought Richter was the worst puck handling goalie in league history, but Lundqvist makes Richter look like Brodeur.

...another reason why it might have been better to start Valiquette in goal last night is because now that we lost, do you trust Valiquette to get us the win tonight or would you rather see a still sick Lundqvist back in goal. Tough decision for Renney. My money is on Valiquette.