They weren't supposed to beat the Senators in the first round but they did. They weren't supposed to beat the Capitals in the second round but they did.
So now are we going to have to listen to why New Jersey's going to beat the Rangers until the Rangers beat them? Everybody wants to talk about history this, history that, and because of that the Rangers can't win this series either.
History was my favorite subject in school and one thing that I have learned about history is that one can also make history happen. History is written by or about those who won not by those who lost.
20 years from now, nobody's going to care whether it was a picture perfect effort by the Rangers or not. History will record that the New York Rangers shutout the New Jersey Devils 3-0 in game one of the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals.
They'll talk about how Henrik Lundqvist recorded his fifth career shutout in the win. Nobody's going to care that the Rangers played "brain-dead" hockey in the second period. They will remember Dan Girardi scoring first goal, Chris Kreider scoring the second goal and they'll probably remember Brian Boyle's unselfish play setting up Artem Anisimov for the empty net goal.
Maybe what they should talk about is how this game was basically the New York Rangers season in a nutshell. A first period where neither team could put together any kind of sustained offense or defense.
A second period where Henrik Lundqvist stood on his head while his teammates turned off their brains and played a period where making bad decisions was the norm. Talk all you want about Marty Brodeur's save on Marc Staal, but we will take Henrik's three consecutive saves on Zach Parise as the turning point of this game.
In the third, we saw what happens when the Rangers work together, play smart hockey making intelligent decisions and working as a team. We just wish they could flip that switch and become that team every night.
As soon as the game was over and we heard the three stars being announced; we thought about the three people who were responsible for those three players becoming New York Rangers.
So how about a historical three stars of the game for this one?
Third Star- Glen Sather for somehow convincing Montréal to include Ryan McDonagh in the Scott Gomez trade. Remember Ryan is still just 22 and he's going to get even better.
Second Star- Tom Renney who everybody is scratching their head wondering what the heck he possibly could have done. The answer is simple during the NHL lockout, it was Tom Renney who while on a scouting trip watched an undrafted free agent play and fought long and hard to convince the Rangers to sign him.
That free agent was Dan Girardi, thank you Tom.
First Star- Christer Rockstrom as where in the world with the New York Ranger franchise be if not for Rockstrom convincing the Rangers into using a seventh round pick in the 2000 NHL draft draft on a then very unknown Henrik Lundqvist?
A really good guess would be not winning game one of the 2012 Eastern conference finals. Thank you very much Christer.
Speaking of History
It is amazing how people think what happened in 1994 defines Marty Brodeur's career. Oh yeah excuse our sarcasm but three Stanley Cup wins later; we can see how Marty was scarred for life losing to the Rangers in that playoff series.
Kenny Albert might've said it best when he mentioned when Marty Brodeur made his NHL playoff debut against the New York Rangers are back in 1992; Chris Kreider was three days from turning all of turning one year's old.
I seriously doubt that Chris Kreider or Derek Stepan were watching the 1994 playoffs to help them prepare for this year's playoffs.
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Do you remember last week the rumor started by the Russian sports website Sports.ru that claimed Kirill Kabanov (NYI 2010 3rd) was going to sign with KHL?
How so many people were so quick to trash Kabanov thinking that this rumor was true? So is anybody surprised when Kabanov wrote this on his Facebook page:
Im getting ready for the Memorial cup right now and thats the only goal. And can tell only that in a month from now i will be ready to prepare myself for a big season with Islanders/Bridgeport. But all mind is about Shawinigan Cataractes and The MEM CUP right now. and sorry for not answering all ur messages. It is the 2 biggest weeks of my life and i dont want to screw it. Thank you
Gee another rumor on the Russian sports website not being true what a surprise?
(Kreider- BlueshirtsUnited.com)
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