Ecstasy & Agony

Two words that could describe the Rangers last two performances. On Saturday afternoon, against the Ottawa Senators, the Blueshirts played possibly their best first 20 minutes of the season en route to building a 3-0 advantage after the first period.

Dan Girardi, Jaromir Jagr and, Brendan Shanahan all lit the lamp in the first period, with Jagr's goal coming on the Power Play. Shanahan also scored a Power Play goal in the second period on a beautiful deflection from the high slot off a feed from Martin Straka.

The first line was dominant in the Ottawa zone throughout the game, playing a puck possesion cycle with Brandon Dubinsky having a strong game. This made the third game in a row that the top line played like a top line. A mere coincidence that Straka returned and Marcel Hossa was moved down the lineup?

After the second Shanahan goal the Rangers seemed to let up a little bit, and the Senators seemed to awaken. The final score ended up being 5-2 with Blair Betts sealing the scoresheet with an empty net goal, his first goal of the season, off of a beautiful pass from Tom Corvo. Unfortunately for Corvo, who scored the first Senator goal, he was not given an assist on the play.

It was a big win for the Rangers. A win that they haven't had many of through the first quarter. A win against a first place team, A win against the Eastern Conference leader. All signs seemed to be pointing upwards for them. It was a game where they could all look around the locker room and say that they took two steps forward. Well, I don't think I need to say the next part of the cliche'. But I will. Because the next game on Monday night was exactly that, well, maybe not exactly, it might have even been two steps back.

Monday night the Rangers had a chance to come back to home ice on a high after a nice road win and put the exclamation point on it. A win against the Southeast Division leading Carolina Hurricanes could have done so.

If the first period on Saturday was the team's best, a frontrunner for the worst would have been Monday night's first frame. The Broadway boys came out slow, they came out flat, they came out unfocussed. And the 2-0 deficit at the end of the first certainly showed it. Marek Malik, playing in his first home game in a month due to a back injury lasted a good shift and a half without being booed for a bad turnover.

Brandon Dubinsky made bad plays that led to both of the 'Canes goals. Jagr looked like his head was still in Ottawa, if not his head than his legs.

For one night Henrik Lundqvist seemed to say, "Hey boys, I don't have it tonight to carry you on my back, how about you guys take this one?" And the rest of the team replied, "Huh". I can't recall a decent scoring chance from the entire game for the Rangers. So Cam Ward got a shutout that may be the easiest shutout I've ever seen.

The final score was 4-0, and I don't think there was a single positive to point out, other than Sean Avery seemed to have a good time up in the Heavenly Blues again. He's out at least another 2-4 weeks after undergoing Arthoscopic Surgery on his wrist.

As he was shown signing autographs up in the rafters I thought, wouldn't it be funny if the Rangers recalled 20 year old defenseman Ivan Baranka and had Malik sit out. Would Avery be able to take Malik on a tour of the blue seats, without a riot ensuing?

The Rangers face Darcy Tucker and the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night and it's a shame we won't see Avery defend his home turf.