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Game 78: NYR-TB, Last home game, G, McD, JT all back, Hank sits, Badge #104 |
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The Rangers play their final home game of the season tonight against the Lightning. Two events mark the game. First, it's awarding of the Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award, which went to Mats Zuccarello last season. Second, it's the return to MSG of the ex-Rangers, Dan Girardi, who left in the off-season, as well as Ryan McDonagh and J.T. Miller, who left at the trade deadline, not to mention Anton Stralman and the injured Ryan Callahan.
If anyone doesn't get a misty eye tonight at seeing G and Mack Truck, they are nuts. Miller will get applause, mainly he was a Ranger and because many of us believe he has more to give and is doing so, aided by his linemates in Tampa. But G and McD were warriors, who gave their heart and soul and body to the team and cause. Larry Brooks covered this beautifully today. The bolded section summarizes what they meant and what they still mean to the team and organization. Leaders of the squad, always willing to step up. Maybe not always getting the job done, but faces of the franchise, out in front by virtue of the place on the team.
Girardi was a Ranger from the All-Star break in 2006-07 until last June’s buyout and McDonagh was a Ranger from Jan. 7, 2011 until the trade on Feb. 26 that sent the captain away. They played as a pair for the first time on Feb. 25, 2011 in Washington and they are playing as a pair now.
Beginning with the 2010-11 season, the McDonagh-Girardi pair has played more five-on-five minutes together than any and every other tandem, according to calculations performed at my request by naturalstattrick.com.
The two had been together for 5,373 minutes, all of but 89 of them as Bluebloods, entering the Lightning’s match in Boston on Thursday. The Sharks’ Justin Braun-Marc-Édouard Vlasic duo was next at 4,885 minutes, nearly 500 minutes fewer than No. 27 and No. 5 had logged. The Blackhawks’ Duncan Keith-Brent Seabrook tandem followed at 4,862 minutes. Roman Josi and Shea Weber are next at 4,523 minutes for the Predators with the Wild’s Jared Spurgeon-Ryan Suter pair rounding out the NHL’s top five.
This was an uncommon, if imperfect, union on Broadway of two men whose fabric and fiber helped define the era that just passed before our very eyes. They left pieces of themselves on the Garden ice and on rinks across the league, did Girardi and McDonagh, hockey warriors who distinguished themselves with the integrity they brought to their team night after night after night
Ondrej Pavelec gets the nod tonight, The rest of the lineup should be the same. If you want my view, here it is.
The Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award is one of those awards that represents the heart of the team. Zucc getting it last year made complete sense. I could see him getting it this season. But seeing what Chris Kreider battled through to come back and what he was playing with before he was finally shut down for the surgery makes him the winner in my book with Jesper Fast a possibility.
The bottom six spots in the NHL are all but locked up. As you will see below, spots 7-10 are still up in the air. In fact, Carolina is only four points up on the 10th and Calgary five points up, but with five games to go for the 'Canes and four for the Flames (whose pick is owned by the Islanders from the Travis Hamonic deal) either of them falling any further is somewhat unlikely.
Tankathon:
Happy Easter and Passover to all those who celebrate.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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