Blueshirt Boggle

Avery Out With Lacerated Spleen

Sean Avery is out for the season after sustaining a lacerated spleen during last night's game. He is expected to make a full recovery but will be out of action for the remainder of the season, even if that somehow miraculously extends beyond next week. Earlier reports that he had suffered cardiac arrest at 3:00 AM were retracted after the Rangers said that he was in discomfort during the game, finished playing, and then went to St. Vincent's Hospital in Greenwich Village with a team doctor shortly thereafter. For full reports, see the Daily News, Newsday, Rangers Report, and NYR.com.

Avery was one of three players injured in the disheartening 5-3 loss that put the Rangers in a 3-0 hole in their second round series against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Chris Drury suffered what is believed to be a muscle injury in his side. He too finished the game after missing much of the second period, but was in obvious discomfort during the third period, unable to take draws or even get his stick down on the ice on occasion. Nevertheless, it is possible that Drury will attempt to gut it out and play when the series resumes tomorrow at the Garden.

Blair Betts may have sustained a broken cheek bone when he was hit in the face with a deflected puck, also in the second period. He left the game and did not return and is unlikely to play tomorrow night. For more on Avery, see the Record, MSG.com, Toronto Sun, Globe & Mail, ESPN, and AP. A couple of other new stories to read that were written before the news about Avery: Newsday and NY Sports Day.

Penalties and Power Plays Kill Rangers

Well, it doesn't take a Ph.D. in Hockey Science to understand what happened to the Rangers in their 5-3 loss at the Garden tonight that puts them down 3-0 in games to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Once again, special teams determined the overall outcome of the game, with the Rangers going a woeful 0-for-5 on the power play, including two five-on-three advantages, while the Penguins scored twice on only three opportunities, including the game winner after the Rangers rallied to tie from a 3-1 deficit and had all the momentum going their way.

Once again, in a game that was the product of the disparity in special teams, the situation ultimately boiled down to a single call. This time, the referees were not part of the equation -- Ryan Hollweg was fully culpable for the boarding call that killed the Rangers and led to the game winning goal, the same type of boarding call he has taken far too often. In the end, Tom Renney's sole line-up decision, to re-insert Hollweg in place of Petr Prucha, made more of a difference than he ever imagined, and certainly not in the way he imagined. The series isn't over, but it is certainly on life-support, especially after another disheartening loss in wich the Rangers outshot the Penguins 39-17, with a whopping 75-42 margin in shot attempts.

For the third straight game, the Rangers came up short in a key area while the Penguins managed to locate the one thing they most needed to win. In Game 1, the Rangers had the offense, but their defense was non-existent -- the Pens got the goals they needed on a night their goalie was off his game. In Game 2, with Henrik Lundqvist stellar in net, the Rangers could not get a power play goal or any goal at all (thanks partly to a bad call) -- the Pens got the defense they needed on a night they couldn't score more than once. Tonight, the Rangers got goals and they got pressure, but Lundqvist let in some weak goals, the power play failed again, and Hollweg short-circuited their spirited comeback with his penalty -- the Pens got the penalty killing and power play goals they needed on a night when the Rangers were all over them in their own end.

New York area game reports are all about Jaromir Jagr saying that he hasn't given up and that if it's going to be his last game as a Ranger, he wants to make it special -- see the Daily News, Journal News, Newsday, Times, Post, Record, Star-Ledger, and NYR.com. More from the Daily News, Journal News, Newsday, Post, Record. Additional notes from the Record and Inside Shots. From the reporters' blogs: Blueshirts Blog, Rangers Report here and here, Blue Notes, and Slap Shot. Live blogs: Rangers Report, Blue Notes, Game On!.

The guy who's really killing the Rangers and is the Pens' true MVP is Malkin, not Crosby, and considering how he plays the game, you have to respect him, unlike his more highly marketed teammate -- see the Daily News, Newsday, Record, Star-Ledger, Toronto Sun. The neutral zone: AP, NHL.com, CBS Sports, Globe & Mail, National Post, ESPN, SI, FoxSports, Sporting News, Vancouver Sun, Faceoff.com. Pittsburgh reports (optional reading): here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here.

Double Down on the Man Advantage

The difference in each of the first two games of the Rangers-Pens second round series was a power play goal -- the game winner both times was the power play goal the Penguins were able to get that the Rangers could not get (never mind why the Rangers couldn't secure theirs in Game 2). That will have to change in the next two games at the Garden if the Rangers are to get back into the series the way they did a year ago when they came back from Buffalo down 2-0 in games.

After two years, the debate among the Rangers remains: shoot first and ask questions later, or move the puck around looking for the best shot? That debate was rekindled yesterday as the Rangers looked to solve the problems with a key area in their game that has remained inscrutably inconsistent (to put it kindly). You already know where Jaromir Jagr stands on the issue -- he has always insisted that shooting can only be productive if the shots are good, and that you need to be patient and creative to get those kinds of shots.

"When you look at Pittsburgh, they don't shoot the puck," Jagr said yesterday. "They make cross-ice passes, making four guys tired, and then somebody is going to be open. It's not about just shoot the puck on the net, especially in the first twenty seconds. If you do that when guys are fresh, it's easy for them to get the rebound. You make them tired by passing it around, then it makes more sense to shoot." The counterargument was voiced yesterday by Jagr's linemate, Brandon Dubinsky. "We've had the tendency to pass up shots a little too much on our power play," the rookie center said. "If you look at every successful power play, when they're shooting and creating traffic, that's when they're most dangerous. That's one of the things we want to get back to doing."

Of course, the truth is that these notions are not mutually exclusive. The idea of a power play is to take advantage of your, well, advantage. You don't take hail mary shots just for the sake of shooting the way you might at even strength. You remain patient and try to find the open man, the open shot. If Jagr says that you do that by passing, well, that's a truism -- how else do you find the open man? And if Dubinsky says that you shoot when there's traffic in front, well, that's a proven formula for success too. In either case, the idea is to shoot at the right moment, not just shoot at any moment. Take advantage of the advantage.

And that brings us to another advantage -- home ice advantage. If you've been to Madison Square Garden this season, you know how the fans act during power plays. They scream "Shoot!" every time a player touches the puck. Never mind that they can't see what the player sees -- shooting angles that may or may not be open, or shooting lanes that may even be too open, making for an easy save, or teammates that are open elsewhere. You don't beat an NHL goalie by shooting into him, you beat him by making him move, forcing him to open up.

And so the Garden faithful can do their part tonight to help the Rangers overcome the Pens, especially when the Rangers go on the power play. The Rangers have to be patient, and so do the fans. Be the extra man on the Rangers' side, not the extra penalty killer for the opposition by getting on the Rangers just because you think you know better than an NHL professional when the best time to shoot may be. "It's our building," Jagr said. "We have to make sure we win the game." And we, the fans, have make sure we give the team the edge than the building can give.

Here's today's reading list: Daily News here, here, and here (on Avery), Journal News, Newsday here and here, Post here (Jagr on the power play) and here, Times (on Chris Drury), Record here and here, Star-Ledger, MSG.com, NY Sun, AP, Inside Shots, NYR.com, and Rangerland. From the reporters' blogs: Blueshirts Blog, Blue Notes, Rangers Report, and Prospect Park. FoxSports on interference, with quite a bit about the Rangers in there. On the Pens: with Ranger interest here (Staal brothers redux), here, here, here, and here, without Ranger interest here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Of course, as we know, only the Rangers, their media, and their fans whine -- the Pittsburgh players, coaches, media members, and fans always speak the unadulterated truth and are justified in everything they say or do. So this column on the evil Sean Avery targeting pooh widow Sidney Cwosby, replete with name calling and whining, er, I mean astute reporting and legitimate discussion with the league on disciplinary action, is the epitome of Pulitzer-worthy journalism. Similarly, Newsday reports the legitimate concerns of Pittsburgh's coach about the Rangers' heinous crease-crashing.

"They tried to put pressure on Marc-Andre," Michel Therrien said. "They tried to get in the crease, and we discussed it with the referees. They're not supposed to stand there, and if there's a goal, it's not a goal. It's tough to give penalties if they're really close to the crease, but if Fleury's in the crease and he can't play the puck, it's no goal. This is what the referees told us. I noticed what Shanahan did. I addressed it with the referees. They were saying that they were going to pay attention, there's no doubt, you can't obstruct the goalies."

When Tom Renney says that he will address various concerns with the officials, without any specific references as to what those concerns are, he's whining to the refs about diving, and Therrien goes on an extended rant trashing Renney. Therrien himself can go on and on about talking to the refs about the Rangers crashing the crease, but that's not whining, that's a legitimate concern. God forbid he should tell his players to get those players out of there, god forbid he should tell him players to do so without taking a penalty cross-checking a player into his goalie, god forbid he should voice any concern about his goalie slashing players near his crease. No, the Penguins don't whine -- only the Rangers.

Another Angle

Make no mistake about it -- the Rangers should've won Game 1 by holding onto their 3-0 lead, and they should've won Game 2 on the power play, given Henrik Lundqvist's superlative goaltending. That the two games came down to arguable calls in the end that prevented the Rangers from taking the games into overtime was the Rangers' fault for those reasons. But the Rangers can look at all that transpired and recognize that beating the Penguins was, and still is, well within their grasp.

Only the final result of the two games have placed the burden on the Rangers -- how the Pens let the Rangers jump to a 3-0 lead would have been the story of Game 1 had the Rangers taken care of business, and how the Pens could only muster one goal would have been the story of Game 2 had the Rangers been able to mount any kind of attack on their power play. Those "ifs" don't change the past, but they do provide a clue as to what can happen in the future, beginning tomorrow night when the series shifts to Madison Square Garden.

Despite all that, it remains an indisputable fact that both games did not go into overtime because of disputable calls by the refs. We really don't want to beat this dead horse, but we are nonetheless going to see what a former NHL player thinks about it. Chris Kotsopoulos played the first 54 games of his 479-game NHL career as a Ranger in the 1980-81 season. Fans of the era surely recall his promising rookie season as big, two-way defenseman (he was traded to Hartford for Mike Rogers before the start of the following season), as well as Ranger analyst Bill "The Big Whistle" Chadwick mangling his name. These days, "Kotsy" is a color commentator himself for Quinnipiac College in Connecticut, and he writes his own thoughts on sports at Kotsy's Korner.

Kotsy's angle is unmistakable -- his bio reads, "Once a Ranger, always a Ranger," and a look back at his articles shows him following the Rangers through the playoffs, not the Penguins or any other team. Nevertheless, as a former NHL player, his insights carry some weight. For example, he knows as well as anyone where a referee is supposed to be positioned. "Referee Dan O'Halloran's quick, and I mean QUICK, whistle nullified the apparent goal," he writes. "My beef with the call is, when a referee is standing behind the net, of course he's gonna lose sight of the puck, DUH! He's BEHIND the net, not in the correct position to make the right call." He has more to say about how NBC explained the call.

Interestingly, Kotsy also had a beef with the penalty call that led to the Pens' only goal. "I think it was a weak call," he writes. "It appeared Hossa was grabbing Drury's stick rather than Drury hooking him." Of course, you can guess what Kotsy thought of the officiating in Game 1: "There were some very dubious calls in the Penguins favor," he wrote. "Was that Sid the Kid, or Sid the Flopper? Publicly, Crosby claims that's he's not a flopper - there was no evidence of that tonight. He flopped not once, but twice. He knows that, the fans know it, and the players know it. I personally expect more out of him, but if the NHL doesn't care, why should he?" He also had a problem with the non-call on Jarkko Ruutu for waving his stick in Michal Rozsival's face.

Kotsy was realistic in his assessment of the games -- he saw the Game 1 result as the product of the Rangers' defensive sloppiness and Game 2 as the product of the Penguins' defensive superiority. There's no arguing either of those points, because they're true. Still, however we got there, both games ultimately hinged on a pair of late calls, and Kotsy, for one, is clear on what he thought of those calls. We've added Kotsy's Korner to our list of links over on the right -- although he doesn't write exclusively about the Rangers, he does follow them closely. Thanks to his son Cody for letting us know about it.

Game reports from the New York-area media can be found at the Daily News, Journal News, Newsday here and here, Times, Post, Record, Star-Ledger, and NYR.com. Additional game and team notes can be found in the Daily News, Journal News, Newsday, Post, Record, Star-Ledger, and Inside Shots, many of them including Jaromir Jagr scolding Crosby for his flopping. From the highly alliterative and/or blue reporters' blogs: Blueshirts Blog, Blue Notes, Rangers Report, Slap Shot, Prospect Park, and Blue Seats.

Game reports from "neutral" parties: NHL.com, Toronto Sun, Globe & Mail, National Post, Yahoo! Sports, SI, ESPN, AP, CP, and PA Sports Ticker. Feature stories -- Toronto Sun on Straka's woes, NHL.com on Dan Girardi, NY Sun on Sidney the Diving Pony, and Howlings on a Post report that the Rangers plan to re-sign singular draft bust Hugh Jessiman. For stories from the Pittsburgh point of view, those of interest to the Rangers can be found here, here, here, here, here, and here -- others here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. And this is what passes for headline news in Pittsburgh: "Rangers awarded more power plays."

Rangers Unplugged in Pittsburgh

The easiest way to win games in hockey is on the power play. With all their firepower -- so much that not everyone capable of contributing to the power play gets to play on it, and even those who do play on it don't get as much power play ice time as they might otherwise -- the Rangers have simply not been able to win games this season (and last season too) with their power play. Today in Pittsburgh, in a game in which the defense and especially the goaltending of Henrik Lundqvist limited the high-scoring Penguins to just one goal, the Ranger power play had chances early, and they had chances late, but they could not come through.

A lot of the credit has to go to the Penguins, their underrated defense turning in an outstanding performance in limiting the Rangers' scoring chances at even strength as well as on the power play. They blocked 22 shots, six during Ranger power plays. Honestly, did the Rangers have even one single scoring opportunity through the course of this game in its entirety that looked good enough to have a chance to go into the net? Only luck or an error by the Penguins was going to get the Rangers on the scoreboard today.

But luck and error worked against the Rangers today, or else we'd be talking about how the power play redeemed itself late in the game by scoring at long last. Late in yet another exercise in power play futility, Jaromir Jagr centered from the far corner to Brandon Dubinsky sliding down the slot. Penguin netminder Marc-Andre Fleury stopped his redirection. Martin Straka poked the puck loose. But the referee blew a quick whistle even as the loose puck was in the process of squirting through Fleury's legs and over the goal line. Technically, the referee did what he was supposed to do in whistling the play dead once he lost sight of the puck. But he made a bad call in losing sight of it while it was still alive.

Just as with the arguable interference call against Straka in the last game, the Rangers have no excuses for leaving themselves in a position to be so adversely affected by a bad call -- they shouldn't have blown their 3-0 lead in Game 1, and they should've already taken advantage of their power plays and Lundqvist's goaltending in this game before the quick whistle negated their only sniff at the net. They even had another power play later in the game that they failed to capitalize on, a two-man advantage in part with Lundqvist pulled for an extra skater.

No matter how you slice it or dice it, they came up one goal short again and go back to New York down 2-0 in games. And now they're starting to sound an awful lot like the Devils sounded in the first round, believing that they are only one good bounce or one bad call away from at least taking these games into overtime. The difference, though, is that the Devils reached that place after throwing everything they had at the Rangers, and they did it at home -- the Rangers, by contrast, know they have a lot more they can throw at the Penguins, including home ice advantage, the Penguins having come up losers in all four visits to Madison Square Garden this season. But it all has to start with power play goals that make a difference.

That's exactly what the Penguins did in this game. With the Rangers tighetning up their play in their own end -- no parade of turnovers this time, even though they appeared to be on the verge of panic through the first period -- the Penguins played a very Ranger-like game. They collapsed on defense, kept their goalie clear of good scoring chances, and waited until they got their own chances on the power play to rev up their own offense. The Pens got nearly half of their shots on goal (15 of 32) during their five power plays -- and they were high quality shots. How they managed only one power play goal with all those chances is a testament to Lundqvist's netminding.

But it really was just a matter of time before they got one -- and get one they did. And one was all they needed in this one, thanks mostly to the Rangers' inept power play, and thanks in part to a quick whistle. More tomorrow...

The Good, the Bad, and the Crosby

UPDATE: Petr Prucha will make his first playoff appearance today in place of Colton Orr in the only line-up change for the Rangers. Thanks for the reports from morning skate from Blueshirts Blog, Rangers Report, and Blue Notes.

The good news for the Rangers today as they head into Game 2 of their second round series in Pittsburgh is that they have always done well this season rebounding from bad losses, at least since just before the All-Star break when they finally got their game together during Brian Leetch week. While fans were slitting their wrists after the Rangers blew that 5-0 lead to Montreal, the team said it was just one game, it was behind them, and they went about their business as if nothing extraordinary had happened. One can expect to see them approach today's game the same way -- the only question is whether their defense can hold up against the Pens' potent attack.

The bad news, though, is that today's game is a matinee, for the benefit of NBC. Hockey players are creatures of habit, and the early starts can really throw them off their game. In four NBC matinees this season, the Rangers are just 2-2, including a 3-1 loss to the Pens on March 30th. But wait -- upon further review, the Rangers were 7-3-4 overall in early starts this season, so perhaps the start time is not such bad news after all, just the media outlet. But regardless of the time and network, the real question is whether their defense can hold up against the Pens' potent attack.

So why do we keep harping on Sidney Crosby's high diving act? Because we're whiners, right? Wrong -- it's because we're trying to influence the way the game is perceived. As Larry Brooks so aptly sums it up in today's Post, "The national spotlight now will be on the diving issue and the NHL's perceived bias toward its headline act. Everyone now will be under scrutiny, including Crosby, the referees calling the game, and the announcers working it. If this series truly is going to be the Rangers against the world, it will be plainly and painfully obvious by dinner."

And as for the notion that only Ranger fans seem to see Crosby's act, Brooks also reports that an NHL official spoke to him about it last year -- that's the same NHL where friends of ours who work there say that Crosby is informally known as "Bettman's Pet". As the always irreverent Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo! Sports says, "If Peter Forsberg thinks you're a diver then, son, you're a diver." Wyshynski's article is wonderfully illustrated by a photo a flightless bird of the Antarctic that is famous for the entertaining way it -- dives! And as one of our readers pointed out, "Rodney Dangerfield had a hilarious comedy in 1986 called Back To School which culminated when he made the high dive of all ages. Is that when they named the Pittsburgh arena after his character Thornton Melon, in honor of the Penguin tradition?"

While the Penguins remained focused on the diving issue, the Rangers have moved on, more concerned with tightening up their defense -- see reports today in the Daily News, Newsday, Times, Star-Ledger, and NHL.com. Other New York area game previews from NYR.com, AP, and Rangerland. For more on the Therrien rant and Crosby's triple-lindies, see the Daily News, Journal News, Star-Ledger, Record, Slap Shot, Prospect Park, NHL.com, ESPN, Toronto Sun, CP, Post-Gazette, Tribune-Review here and here, and Beaver County Times. Even after a quiet night, they can't leave Sean Avery alone -- nevertheless, this article that looks back at his past is excellent, and this one suggests the Leafs, his nemesis, should sign him. The bad ice in Pittsburgh was a lightly touched issue -- see the Globe & Mail and Beaver County Times. Jaromir Jagr is the subject here. Other notes -- Post, Yahoo! Sports, and the Pittsburgh press here, here, and here. If you want to read what they're saying on the Pens' side, see reports here, here, here, here, and here.

Breaking News: Pot Calls Kettle Black! Film at 11:00!

Pittsburgh coach Michel Therrien went on an extended rant today about the Rangers' calling out Sidney Crosby for his obvious dives in yesterday's games. He accused Ranger coach Tom Renney of gamesmanship in trying to get the referees to call Crosby for his dives. "We all know what Tom Renney’s trying to do," Therrien told the press today. "He tried to do it before we started the series. He tried to do it last night. I saw his comments today. He’s trying to get attention to the referees and complaining about the penalty last night at the end of the game."

This is of course the same coach who, before the series started, said, "We hope the referees will protect the goalie. That's supposed to be done, and I expect that it's going to be done. You have to make sure the goalies have a chance to stop the puck. We know they played hard on Martin Brodeur. Was it, all the time, fair? I'm not quite sure." Pot, kettle, black -- in black and white. And as flightless and the bird on the crest of the sweater.

Gamesmanship? Aside from ignoring his own pre-series play to the refs, Therrien apparently seems to be a mindreader. Before the series, when asked about Crosby, Renney merely said of his pre-series meeting with officials, "I don't want to single out one thing, but there's things that we'd like to address." He said nothing about diving. Asked what he thought of the interference call on Martin Straka that led to the Pens' winning power play goal in the final two minutes of the third period, Renney said, "What did I think of the call on Straka?" He paused and said nothing, then said, "I just answered it. Next question." In other words, Renney said nothing, leaving to the eye of the beholder to guess what it was that he thought -- and to a man, including Therrien, everyone thought he was thinking: Dive.

And why not? If it wasn't interference on Crosby himself or a dive, then at the very least it was not a penalty on Straka, not in the least, as video replay demonstrates (you can view it at TSN.ca, about two-thirds of the way through their highlight package). "I tried to catch up to him and ended up falling," Crosby said of the play. "I don't know what I tripped over, whether it was his stick or his feet or what it was. I think he was just trying to get back and get position on me." It was Straka's skate. Look closely: Crosby strode into Straka's skate -- Straka did not take him down. As Crosby said, Straka was just trying to get position on him, he did not interfere with him.

Did Crosby dive or embellish the play? He dipped down to one knee -- dipped, not tripped, leaving himself available to get up and rejoin the play if there was no call. One cannot conclude from the tape that he went down on purpose, but a) Straka did not go down, and b) his body language was exagerrated -- an Oscar-worthy performance. On the other hand, the penalty call on Brandon Dubinsky is not under dispute -- Dubinsky never touched Crosby, yet somehow he went down to the ice and Dubinsky was sent off of it. Either a dive or a bad call -- making it two such instances on the only two penalties called in the latter half of the game (nearly), with all sorts of other shenanigans happening to all sorts of other players all over the place.

To read Therrien's rant and more on Crosby's acting career, see Blueshirts Blog, Blue Notes, Rangers Report, Toronto Sun, Globe and Mail, AP here and here, Newsday, and NY Sports Day. Rangers Report and Blue Notes are also reporting that Petr Prucha is likely to see action tomorrow on the fourth line in place of Colton Orr. One other reading note of interest is another piece on the Staal brothers.

Rangers Can't Stick to Script

Just about everything we thought might happen in this series happened in the opening game last night. We just never expected to see it all happen in one game. The first half of the game went almost exactly according to the script we laid out at Reel Sports Fan. The Rangers stopped a potent Penguin attack from the net out, starting with at least four super saves by Henrik Lundqvist when the Pens poured it on early on. They collapsed in their own end -- "Five men in the picture," as Tom Renney likes to say, as portrayed during the telecast. Then they countered the other way, taking advantage of some of their own offensive weapons.

The Rangers also won the special teams match-up in building a 3-0 lead, as we said they had to do, expertly killing off three Penguin power plays and striking quickly on one of their own. They got a goal from Sean Avery, the Ranger superpest striking at the Pens in one way even while not being the supreme agitator he is capable of being. And they quickly got to Marc-Andre Fleury, tearing his goals against average, save percentage, and string of games giving up three goals or less to shreds. It was all going the Rangers' way, maybe not exactly like they planned, but exactly like it had to go for them to win -- error-erasing goaltending, team defense, counterattack goals, special teams play, X-factor Avery.

And just like that, it changed -- and it changed just like we thought it might. It started of course with a goal that never should have been scored -- yet another deflection into the net by a Ranger. Yes, the Rangers scored a goal off a Penguin skate earlier, but that wasn't an accident, it was a play that stood a good chance of going into the net no matter who deflected it in. The Pens got on the board on a harmless little pass to no one in the crease that Michal Rozsival saw all the way and still kicked into his own net with no Pittsburgh player near him.

We said it the other day -- Lundqvist was going to have not let these kinds of goals, which plagued him throughout the regular season and in the first round, get to him. You can't fault him for the goal that came 14 seconds later, Christian Backman being responsible for the turnover to Sidney Crosby and several other defenders responsible for leaving Pascal Dupuis open in front. But we knew the Pens would get those kinds of chances, we knew the Rangers, Backman in particular, would commit those kinds of turnovers, and we knew it was going to be up to Lundqvist to erase those mistakes to keep the Pens from doing exactly what they did -- cut a commanding 3-0 Ranger lead to one within a matter of seconds.

The scenario repeated itself in the third period -- a fluke goal, somehow deflecting off or through the skate of Scott Gomez on a shot from the corner, followed twenty seconds later by another defensive miscue (or set of miscues) that Lundqvist had no chance of erasing. Then came the final scene in the script everyone had written for this series -- the Crosby effect. Only two penalties were called after the middle of the second period, both of them embellished by Crosby. On the first, Dubinsky was called for a trip despite never touching Crosby. The Rangers killed that one off. Late in the third, Martin Straka was called for interfering with Crosby, and this time the Pens scored -- a deflection by Evgeni Malkin of a Crosby shot that was going wide.

Did Straka interfere with Crosby? Possibly. He was also cross-checked hard in front of the net seconds earlier when the Rangers were attacking, with no call. And with Gomez having swatted the puck off Marian Hossa's stick, neither team had possession, so it may have been Crosby interfering with Straka -- or more likely just two players battling for a loose puck. The difference is, Crosby dove, so he got the call, a call that was not being made any other time in the game on behalf of any other player, let alone at such a critical juncture.

Did the call put the Rangers in a position to lose? In that particular situation, yes it did -- it allowed the Pens to break a tie and score the winning goal. But the Rangers obviously put themselves in the position for such a call to make a difference -- they had a three-goal lead, they had the Pens in disarray and their fans sitting on their hands, they had their goalie wondering if was ever going stop another shot. Game 1 was there not only for the taking, it was easy pickings. Then another own-goal, and another turnover that Lundqvist could not erase -- lather, rinse, repeat -- and the matter was taken out of the Rangers' hands and placed onto Crosby's diving board.

The good news is, after blowing a big lead, after three deflections and two Crosby calls, after solving Fleury and withstanding everything Crosby, Malkin, and Hossa threw at them except for bad luck, the Rangers were a Jaromir Jagr goal post away from sending the game into overtime. They have bounced back from adversity like this all season long. So when Gomez said this game is over, it doesn't matter how it was lost , it's on to the next game, one can come away from this knowing that there is still enough left in the Rangers' arsenal to turn this outcome and this series around.

Game reports from New York-area beat writers: Daily News, Journal News, Newsday, Times, Post, Record, Star-Ledger, and NYR.com. Additional notes on the Rangers from the Daily News and Blueshirts Blog on the late penalty, Newsday and Blueshirts Blog on Avery, Blue Notes here, here, and here, Rangers Report here and here, Slap Shot, Record, Ledger, Prospect Park, and Yahoo! Sports. Game reports from neutral parties (though their sentiments are obviously not neutral): Toronto Sun, Globe & Mail, ESPN, AP, and CP. More from the T-Sun , Globe & Mail on Jagr, ESPN on Avery, NHL.com on the Lundqvist twins, NHL.com naming Marc Staal the best rookie in the first round, and the T-Sun on the Staal parents. Pittsburgh stories here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Where Have We Heard That One Before?

UPDATE: Colton Orr returns to the line-up in place of Ryan Hollweg. Gary Roberts will not play because Sean Avery is apparently too much of a pain in the cup for him. Sidney Crosby doesn't dive -- film at 11:00. Thanks for the info to Blue Notes, Rangers Report, and Slap Shot reporting from the morning skate in Pittsburgh, with the latter containing some great quotes from Jaromir Jagr on why he left the Pens.

It's deja vu all over again. Here for your consideration, on one hand, are the Rangers, with nothing but praise for their opponent as their second round playoff opener in Pittsburgh approaches. "They are a good team," Henrik Lundqvist said of the Pens. "We know it's not getting any easier." "You're talking about two guys who right now could be the best in the league," Scott Gomez said about the Pens' Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. "It's fun and exciting and good for the league. You can't take a break with this offense. You don't want to play with fire with these guys. They are that explosive, and any mistake can cost you."

And there, on the other hand, are the Penguins, already complaining to the refs about the Rangers before a single puck has been dropped and insisting they will ignore Sean Avery while so far doing anything but. "We hope the referees will protect the goalie," Pittsburgh coach Michel Therrien said yesterday. "That's supposed to be done, and I expect that it's going to be done. You have to make sure the goalies have a chance to stop the puck. We know they played hard on Martin Brodeur. Was it, all the time, fair? I'm not quite sure."

The Devils didn't get very far with this attitude, the Rangers killing them softly off the ice with praise while killing them on the ice in every other way. We will begin to learn in a few hours whether the Penguins can avoid falling into the trap of letting Avery and the Rangers' crease crashers distract them, assuming the Rangers continue crashing the crease, one of the big keys to their success since the All-Star break. Of particular interest is Georges Laraque, who has a history with Avery from before he came to New York that does not reflect well on the Ranger superpest.

But forget about Avery, and forget about almost everything else. The Pens are going to score some goals, and Lundqvist will be regal in the Ranger net all the same. Whether the Rangers can score enough to offset that will depend largely on whether they can unravel Marc-Andre Fleury, who has some unbelievable stats since returning from injury at the end of February. He has given up as many as three goals only twice since then, allowing two or less in 15 of 17 games. Even before his injury, he gave up two or less in five of six starts. He has a GAA less than 1.50 and a save percentage of .943 in his last 25 appearances, and that includes being pulled twice after giving up some quick goals.

No shortage of reading material to prepare us for Game 1 tonight -- the topics are what you'd expect: Jagr, Avery, Crosby, and the 1992 series between the two teams, plus assorted others. See the Daily News, Journal News, Newsday here and here, Times, Post, Record here and here, Ledger, Slap Shot, Rangerland, Toronto Sun here and here, Globe & Mail, AP, PA Sports Ticker, NYR.com, and NHL.com here (on Ranger youth) and here (on Fleury). Series previews can be found in the Post, Newsday, and Rangers Report. From the Pittsburgh point of view, see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

For your listening and watching pleasure, check out Sam Weinman at NY Rangercast and yours truly at Reel Sports Fan (my presentation may be stilted, but I think we have all our bases covered in looking ahead to the series, without even mentioning whiners, divers, or referees). The Rangers recalled a taxi squad from Hartford to accompany the team and get a taste of NHL playoff hockey (hopefully with a winner) -- see Howlings. Bruce Berlet recaps the Wolf Pack's playoffs in the Courant and also provides a list of players' contract status. As we reported yesterday, the Rangers signed Miika Wiikman to an NHL contract. Prospect Park recaps the end of the season for the last man standing in the playoffs outside the NHL.

Breaking the Laws of Physics

The laws of physics usually only come into play in hockey when it comes to the dynamics of puck movement, skating speed, bodies crashing into each other, and the like. But there is a famous statement in quantum physics known as the uncertainty principle or the Heisenbergian effect that says that the very act of observing a particle has an impact on the observations made. In the Rangers' upcoming series against the Penguins, there is a certain annoying particle that goes by the name of Sean Avery that has the Penguins facing some elements of uncertainty.

So while Pittsburgh's players insist that they will ignore Avery, as Buffalo was able to do with success a year ago but which New Jersey was unable to do a week ago, their very protestations make one wonder if they will actually be able to do so. And even if they do manage to let his incessant yapping go in one ear and out the other, will he still be able to get under their skin by hurting them on the scoreboard, as he did to the Devils, scoring three goals and two assists in five games and driving their goalie to distraction by driving to the net?

That's where the uncertainty comes in -- there is no NHL player better able to add injury to insult than Avery. So when Hal Gill, obtained by the Pens to stop Jaromir Jagr in this series, says something like, "I find it pretty easy to ignore him," you know he's talking about Avery's trash talk, but by the same token, recall that Gill ignoring Avery on the ice in order to go after Jagr led directly to a key Avery goal during the regular season series. The bottom line is that one way or another -- and there are more than two weapons in Avery's arsenal -- Avery will have to make it impossible for the Pens to ignore him.

So there is the goaltending match-up that will be key, there will be two sets of underrated defense units that will have to help shut down some superstar snipers, there will be power plays that will determine much of the outcome both in terms of who takes penalties and who can or cannot kill them off, there will be young players undergoing trial by fire, which was the Rangers' X-factor in their first round win. But the uncertainty principle -- who will win the war over Avery -- may prove to be the ultimate tipping point in this series.

The principle goes both ways, as Jagr may learn. The Ranger captain should have known better than to compare current Penguin scoring stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin to the one he played alongside, Mario Lemieux, still the owner of the Pens. While his intentions were good -- praising the kids but not granting them Lemieux status yet -- his words can easily be taken out of context and used to fire up the Penguins and their fans against Jagr, to prove him wrong. The Rangers have done an admirable job of staying above the fray -- Jagr should have kept it that way and withheld comments like these, even if they are true.

To read about Jagr, see the Daily News, Times, Post, Record, Star-Ledger, Blue Notes, AP, and Pittsburgh papers here and here. To read about Avery, see the Pittsburgh papers here, here, and here, ABC News, SI.com, and AP. For Staal vs. Staal, see Newsday, Record, and Slap Shot. For other articles from New York area outlets, see the Daily News (Ranger youth), Journal News (various storylines), Newsday (Crosby and the refs), Post (Avery Rule shirt), and MSG.com here (stopping Crosby) and here (Ranger history vs. Pens). Series previews from Ranger Nation: Daily News, Newsday, MSG.com, Rangers Report, Blue Seats, Record, and NY Sun.

Other series previews break down almost perfectly along national borders -- Canadian prognosticators mostly pick the Rangers to win (Toronto Sun here and here, Toronto Star, Globe & Mail, CP) while U.S. writers mostly pick the Pens (ESPN, FoxSports, CBS Sports, Sporting News, USA Today, Inside Hockey). Other reading: Rangers Report, NHL.com (on Ranger teamwork), Yahoo! Sports, AP, and Pittsburgh papers here, here, here, and here. Elsewhere, Prospect Park has a report on Ryan Hillier and Halifax.