Hot Stove Players of the Week: Giants Offensive Line

If you’re a parent (and you’re like me), you’ve trained your child to hand you a beer the moment you walk through the front door on Friday evenings. And if you’re a Hot Stove New York reader, you know Friday’s the time to look for the Hot Stove Player of the Week.

The Jets didn’t play this week, but there were plenty of games to choose from with the other six area teams all in action. In honor of Donovan McNabb, the prize for this week’s winner is a copy of the NFL rule book.

Winner 

Giants Offensive Line: This week’s winner is a group effort. They weigh a collective 1,576 pounds. They eat a collective 1,576 pounds of raw meat a week. Their beer of choice is Bud Husky. They’re the unsung heroes. And they completely dominated Baltimore’s No. 1 rushing defense (who have now been knocked down to No. 3).

David Diehl, Chris Snee, Shaun O’Hara, Rich Seubert and Kareem McKenzie created 207 yards worth of rushing room for the Giants three running backs. And they only allowed one sack. And they’ll kick anyone’s ass. They’re the Hot Stove Players of the Week.

Runners Up 

Brandon Jacobs/Derrick Ward/Ahmad Bradshaw: We’ll just lump all these guys together. If Jacobs didn’t injure his knee and would have stayed in the game, he would have been this week’s winner. He set the tone for the game with his 36-yard run on the second play of the first drive for the Giants. He scored two TD’s and racked up 73 yards on 11 carries.

Derrick Ward rushed for 41 yards and is becoming Eli Manning’s go-to guy in the air, catching four passes for 54 yards. And Bradshaw put the Ravens out of their misery with 96 yards on nine carries, and broke away from a potential no-gainer to bolt 77 yards down field and set up a field goal.

Aaron Ross: The Giants cornerback came up big in Sunday’s game, picking off two passes and returning the second one 50 yards for a touchdown. Even his Olympic-gold-medal-winning fiancé couldn’t have caught him on that one (though Joe Flacco could have, if he had made even the slightest effort to knock Ross out of bounds).

Joey MacDonald: The Islanders goalie led the team to two wins in two games this week, and three in a row overall. He made 38 saves in the Fishsticks 3-2 win over Ottawa on Friday, and outdueled Roberto Luongo on Monday in a 2-1 win over the Canucks, making 31 saves through OT and was perfect in the shootout. It’s time for the Islanders to do the right thing and sign him to a 15-year contract.

Anti-Players of the Week 

Rangers Power Play: We went with a five-man group for the winner, so we’ll pick a five-man group for the Anti-Player of the Week, too. The man advantage for the Rangers went a combined two for 15 in their three games this week.

On Saturday, they let up a shorthanded goal, and it was déjà vu all over again on Wednesday. They had a four-minute power play against Vancouver and a goal would have gotten them right back in the game. But, of course, they couldn’t score. Their power play is starting to resemble the Mets bullpen.

Just when you think it can’t get any more disastrous than it already is, it does. I keep expecting Michal Rozsival to rip off a mask and find out it’s been Aaron Heilman back there on the point the whole time.