NHL

A Freebie

Not to take anything away from the Rangers’ performance tonight, but Toronto didn’t even show up to play. It was a pleasure to see the endless stream of Ranger goals, particularly that five came on the power play and two came from Petr Prucha. It would be great to see him return to his rookie and sophomore form, especially with the trade rumors.

It was all Rangers almost all the time, with the one exception coming from the one lapse that let Darcy Tucker capitalize late and break Steve Valiquette’s shut-out bid. Jaromir Jagr scored and notched three assists, Brendan Shanahan and Marty Straka each tallied power play goals, and Blair Betts opened the scoring with a goal from behind the net in the first. It’s refreshing to witness games like this from the team you support. It provides hope for renewed team confidence and that it’s a taste of further dominating performances to come. But the Montreal Canadiens are not the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Habs are the Rangers’ next opponents before the Blueshirts head off to western Canada.

Considering the dichotomy we’ve seen so far this season, it’s foolhardy to assume the Rangers have finally gelled and that we’ll be seeing more performances like those recent games against Pittsburgh, Carolina and Toronto. This is still the team that refused to show up against Minnesota (and Ottawa, and blew it against Colorado). True Marian Gaborik had the game of his life, but it’s up to the Rangers to ruin those moments. Until they can spoil any opponent’s party, weary skepticism will linger in the blue seats.