Embrace the Dull

Jesus Fucking Christ

No wonder, really, MSG only a handful of blocks north of Chelsea

Rangers 5, Florida 2

Pay Henrik Lunqvist whatever he wants.

Send Mark Staal to Hartford, hell, Send Jagr to Hartford if you have to, ink Henrik until he's 40. You know what happens when the best player on the ice is your goalie? You get to mail in the first two periods and still walk away with a win.

The good: Lundqvist. Save for the first 37 seconds, the Rangers were quiet in the first two periods (strike that, quiet in the first, abysmal in the second) mustering only 9 shots in 40 minutes. Henrik was there, per usual, dancing on his head and holding ground waiting for the offense to engage.

And engage it did, blowing the game open in the third with 4 goals in 8 minutes; Jagr's feed to Drury on the go-ahead was life-affirming

Also good: Jagr (he was fore-checking!), Rozsy and, of course, my former classmate, Chris Drury whose opening minute assist pretty much wrote-off any possible contract questions (were there contract questions?).

Also, also good: props to Paul Mara for having Gomez's back when Horton got in Gomez's grill for diving (Gomez didn't dive).

The bad: It seems like the Dubinsky line was caught out of position a number of times, and Mark Staal got juked out of his shorts by Nathan Horton, but I can't pin anything "bad" on anyone in particular. As I said, the whole team was flat for the first two periods and a lack of emotion can't be attributed to one guy or one line.

All in all, I'm really pleased with the team's opening performance - 2 lines that can play with anyone in the league, a solid D and a potential Vezina winner.

The first real test comes on Saturday against The Sens.