After the Ranger's coach lost it with the media on Wednesday, it was obvious the Ranger bench had to step it up or heads would roll. I'm guessing no one took it more to hurt that King Henrik. He hasn't been "King" for their past few games, but last night he earned his crown.

There was one minor serious lapse in judgment when he skated out towards the boards, hit a rut and hit the ice, leaving his net vacant and vulnerable. Nate Thompson came skating down the right side, but failed the eye test as he his shot went just wide leaving everyone, including Lundqvist in utter amazement.

I won't get on Nate too much here. It was obvious how hard he was kicking himself in the butt for missing that golden opportunity that Scott Gordon called one of the turning points of the game. It would have changed the entire direction had he been able to make that shot. Nate will have nightmares for months.

No, it was all Lundqvist. Scott Gordon gave him all the credit in the world in his post game, while not being overly critical of his own squad. He wasn't even very critical of Roloson who seemed to look "It's pretty obvious what it was. The guy with the pads on was pretty good. Put another goalie in the net and we might have won this game 6 - 5. We kept going. That's one thing I complimented the players on." He must really be pleased with their performance last night. They have today off.

"You can't question yourself if the effort was there... It's more about the guy in net." And the guy in net let up one big goal for Andy MacDonald, his first NHL point and one to Frans Nielsen, who had a two point night. That was all he gave them.

My Blog Box Buddy Ken Dick from Okposonet.com asked Gordon about Kyle, who is still snake-bitten. Gordon said he would never question Kyle's effort. He's always going to give his best. For me the last three out of four games, it's been there. The Florida game was a bump in the road. It was unfortunate. Nobody had it mentally." Okay, then someone please get Kyle an Exorcist to release whatever it is that is plagueing him.

Certainly, many fans will say what is plaguing him is the line he is on. But considering the amount of chances Kyle has been getting, and the shots he has been able to get off, I am not sure if I agree with that argument.


And what about the stick breakage last night? When is someone going to be responsible for that? During his appearances on NHL Live these past weeks, Stan Fischler has been asking players if they would take $200 to play with a wooden stick for one period. So far he hasn't had any takers. But the question is the reliability of these composite sticks. They break at a moment's notice and the worst times changing the flow of the game and sometimes the outcome. Did anyone count how many broke last night? I think Bill Jaffe did.

Sean Avery and Jon Sim didn't seem to want to have too much to do with each other last night as I didn't hear their names very often while I was busy wrapping gifts in my living room. I did see Sim take a nasty Lisin stick to the nose which earned them a Power Play. However, the prior power play handed to the Rangers by the officials as Comeau, Nielsen and Witt all joined Freddie Meyer(already in there for a delay of game penalty) in the box at 3:12 of the third, while only TWO Rangers sat out for the same altercation. Oddly, the one who STARTED the pushing match was still on the ice. Bad call, bad break.

Bad night. But as Scott Gordon said -- That's the way it goes.

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