1) The New York Rangers took a 3-1 lead in their best-of-seven series against the Washington Capitals last night. The Rangers were a team that played without an identity for many years before the lockout. Since? They've been identified by two men: Henrik Lundqvist and, until this year, Jaromir Jagr. This year, only King Henrik is left and he is by far the best player on the Rangers. By far as in: if the Caps decided to field a team of 5 position players from these two teams, would there even be any Rangers on it? The answer is probably no (though the Broadway Blueshirts may sneak in a defenseman next to Mike Green). Henrik Lundqvist has carried this series (The Rangers LoHud blog points out--truthfully--that if you switched goalies, this would be an easy sweep for the Caps). Can he carry them another round? Another few rounds? To the finals? We'll get into that a little bit later.
2) Steve Zipay of Newsday and Andrew Gross of the Bergen Record openly ask whether Avery should play in Game 5? I say yes. But on a much tighter leash. Avery's antics at the end of the game could have cost the Rangers a game. And this was one of the first times we've seen him this unhinged in his Rangers career. Previously, Tom Renney had been able to keep him calm; but he just blew up under Tortorella. Bad sign?
3) I think Avery be moved down in the rotation with Freddy Sjostrom moving up. While Avery (like Jagr before him) should NEVER be in the last two minutes of a game where you have a one goal lead, Sjostrom should be in there as much as possible. He's their best penalty killer and probably best defensive player. He's an unheralded Callahan, a guy who plays with grit and speed and does all the little things to win, including drawing a big penalty
4) As a Yankees fan post-2004, I hate hearing this type of math from the LoHud Rangers blog: 229 teams have gone up 3-1 in a best-of-seven series in the Stanley Cup playoffs and only 20 teams have come back (8.7%). There is hope for Washington. As I've pointed out before, this is a Rangers team that gave up more goals than they scored in the regular season. But they've done the same so far in the postseason and have a 3-1 lead in the series. The Caps were down 3-1 last year to the Flyers and forced a Game 7 before bowing out. And there has been no momentum so far in these playoffs. The Caps lost two at home and then shut out the Rangers 4-0 in MSG, following it up with last night's loss. The Rangers just seem to have more players sacrificing whether on blocked shots on individual efforts. Chris Drury is one, as he's playing with what most people think is a broken wrist (and his fluttering goal last night may have proven so) and, as I said before, the Rangers have Henrik Lundqvist and Pierre LeBrun of ESPN likens him to a Patrick Roy in this comparison. This series is not over yet, but if King Henrik continues to play like this, the Caps are in serious trouble.
5) Last hockey comment: one of the reason for the Rangers success has to be their 67% success rate on faceoffs (as ESPN noted), including an insane 88% for Brandon Dubinsky. One of those Dubinsky faceoff wins led directly to Paul Mara's goal.
6) The NFL draft is coming up this weekend and the big question before for the Giants is whether they are going to acquire Braylon Edwards or Anquan Boldin or neither one. Gary Myers breaks down the two players for the Daily News. But it may not matter. Despite reports that the Giants were close to a deal with the Browns for Edwards in exchange for the two picks they got for Jeremy Shockey and a receiver, word is that the Browns are holding out for Mathias Kiwanuka and a first round pick! I agree with Ralph Vacchiano who thinks that's insanity. Luckily, ESPN's Sal Paolantonio is reporting the Giants think so also (H/T Paul).
7) I was a big fan of Darren Rovell when he was with ESPN but just recently got into his column, Sports Biz, for CNBC. Some New York-centric highlights from recent posts: A look at how close Bernie Madoff and the Mets owners were and a post on how advertising has moved on to include the tarp.
8) I was going to post this article a week ago, but I wanted to understand it before I did, but I still don't understand the "fourth-out rule" so I'm just going to post this article about it from MLB.com and let you figure it out for me.
9) Lastly, I'm heading up to Boston this weekend to catch the Yankees and Red Sox on Saturday afternoon from on top of the Green Monster. In Boston's honor I have Deadspin on Patriot's Day and a pretty freaking intense Boston sports tattoo.
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