Big Win, Big Loss, Cally Gets McDonald

The win last night was nothing short of monumental. The Rangers overcame what looked like a lackluster first period and turned in strong second and third periods (yes, a very strong third period), turning this game into a HUGE 3-1 win. And who came up big? Well, of course it was “Captain Clutch*” Chris Drury, who I mentioned would be the go-to guy down the stretch, even if I was less than enthused about that idea. He came up huge with the first goal, taking the loose puck after Komisarek coughed it up (from pressure from none other than Ryan Callahan, more on his extra effort in a bit) and roofing it past Carey Price. His second goal (the third Ranger goal) was just beautiful. If you haven’t seen the replay, go find it, because it started with a fantastic effort by Callahan (sense the common theme here?), getting the puck to Naslund, who fed Drury beautifully for the tap in goal. Just beautiful. Antropov’s effort to dive and poke the puck into the empty net for the second goal was pretty sweet too.

The Garden was getting real loud after the 3rd goal, and all those Hab fans who were occupying seats in the Garden were starting to squirm. The two next to me actually switched seats to be at the end of the row to make for an easy exit (they left in the middle of the 3rd). As loud as the Garden was, when they flashed that Philly beat Florida (with about two minutes left in the Ranger game), the place started rocking. I have never heard the crowd so loud after showing the score of a Philly win.

With the win and the Panther loss, the Rangers have a two point lead (and the first tiebreaker) with just two games left to play. Let’s play out the scenarios:

• Rangers go 2-0, 1-1, or 1-0-1: Rangers make the playoffs
• Rangers go 0-0-2: Florida must win BOTH games. This would put them in a tie with the Rangers for points and wins, and Florida has the head-to-head tiebreaker
• Rangers go 0-1-1: Florida again must win BOTH games. If they go 1-0-1, they would finish in a tie in points, but the Rangers have more wins.
• Rangers go 0-2: Florida must go at least 1-0-1.

I’m still cautiously optimistic. The game on Thursday is HUGE. In short, one more Ranger win, and they are in.

As for Callahan, he won the Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award last night, as voted on by the fans. Steven gave his usual speech before his son presented the award, and it went something like this:

Most of the league thinks that the Rangers’ season is over. To that, I say NO FREAKING WAY!

Well said Steven. Well said.

*-”Captain Clutch” is a copyrighted name, any use of this name must first be approved by the creator (Stas).