Rangers Robbed in Philly, Will Get Revenge in the Garden

I want to predict a big win for Sean Avery and the New York Rangers today in Madison Square Gardens for the NBC Game of the Week. They need it, and if they play like they want it, again, they'll get it, with the help of Rangers fans in MSG.

They played well in their loss to the Philadelphia Flyers yesterday in Philly, peppering Martin Biron with 41 shots. They'll be giving Biron a rest today.

After the game, Gomez was quoted in the New York Times saying getting that many shots on net while on the road is huge.

That's true. Having a goal disallowed is huge, too. Gomez got a goal that would have tied the game at two, but the referee said "No goal!" and the video goal judge agreed.

Apparently, the video review by the NHL in Toronto was inconclusive, according to Steve Zippay on Newsday.com.

The officials said it looked like Gomez hit the puck with his glove and it went in the net off his knee. Gomez said he hit the puck with the shaft of his stick. That's the way it looked to me.

Anyway, if the puck bounces into the net off your knee, it should count. Getting a goal disallowed knocks the wind out of you and your team.

How did Ashem Smash-Em get two goals and grab headlines in the game yesterday, playing on the fourth line with Claude Giroux and Daniel Carcillo? He practically doubled his points production for the year in that one game.

Giroux is a good playmaker and Carcillo leads the NHL in penalties, mostly from fights. He took that job away from Avery when he joined the Rangers the first time and cut his penalty minutes in half, almost.

A win today would put the New York Rangers in sixth place, jumping over the Carolina Hurricanes to tie the Pittsburgh Penguins, with 80 points. That would mean playing the Washington Capitals in the first round of the playoffs instead of the Boston Bruins or New Jersey Devils.

The Capitals, Devils, or Bruins would be favoured to win, putting the Rangers in the role of the underdog, without home ice advantage.

The Rangers fans played well as the sixth man on the ice in the game against Boston at Madison Square Garden, helping their team beat the Bruins, 4-2. I predict they will do the same thing today and the Rangers will beat the Flyers 4-2.

The Penguins play the Bruins today. The Penguins went on a seven-game winning streak after the NHL Trade Deadline, but they lost their last two games to the lowly Ottawa Senators and the Columbus Bluejackets. That's not logical, it's counter-intuitive, and that's sports.

The New York Times and the New York Post both ripped the Rangers for playing the way they did before Tortorella, Avery, and the NHL Trade Deadline that brought in Antropov and Morris. I don't think they got 41 shots on net in the old days, even in their own building.

Tortorella keeps changing his lines around to get the offense going. Yesterday, he moved Avery from the first line to the second, with Dubinsky and Zherdev, in the third period, and gave a lot of ice time to a new first line with Drury, Gomez, and Antropov.

The result? The first line got no points, Zherdev got lots of shots on net and some good scoring chances, and Avery scored at the end of the game.

With Tortorella, the Rangers lost two, won three in a row, beating the Avalanche, Islanders, and Bruins, lost to Carolina, beat Nashville, and lost to Philly.
That's four wins and four losses in eight games.

Avery's arrived a little later and was with the Rangers for the three game winning streak, the loss to the Hurricane, the win over the Predators, and yesterday's loss to the Flyers, so he's 4-2 with the Rangers so far this time.

Gomez has come alive and thrived with Tortorella as coach. He has four goals and four assists in his last five games.

How about captain Chris Drury? He ended a career-high 17-game goal scoring drought Saturday by scoring against the Bruins in the Garden and has two goals and three assists in his last five games.

Drury had 25 goals and 58 points last season, playing on the third line. This year he is a top-six forward and it looks like he will finish with  20-25 goals again.

Avery, the spark plug, plays particularly well with Gomez, Callahan, Zherdev. I'd put goal a game Avery on the first line with Antropov, who also scored yesterday, and give them Gomez at centre.

The Rangers power play has not been good this year. I'd change it up by sticking the spark plug in there, too.

Any time you play the fans' favourite, you get the fans in the game and it's like having another man on the ice, so the Rangers power play would be more like a 6-4 than a 5-4.

Tortorella believes a good offense is the best defense, obviously, and counts on Henrik Lundqvist a lot.

I predict Lundqvist will have another great game, to add to his historic 30 wins per year since joining the Rangers, the team will resolve its defensive lapses from last game, Antropov and Avery will score again, Gomez and Zherdev will score some more, and Drury and Callahan will also get on the scoreboard.

That's right: Six goals for the New Yorkers playing with the man advantage from the Rangers fans in Madison Square Garden. The Flyers will be shut down and shut out.

The Rangers are 20-10-4 at home this season.

The Rangers will play four of their next five at home. They play in Montreal on Tuesday and host Buffalo next Saturday, so they should pick up six points this week.