Rangers Sing Blues as St. Louis Defeated Rangers 4-3 at Garden Thursday

The New York Rangers lost a very tough game last night 4-3 as the hands of the St. Louis Blues at Madison Square Garden. What hurts most is that the Blueshirts came up with no points in two straight home games and didn’t move up in the Eastern Conference standings. The Atlanta Thrashers won two-in-a-row and are now tied with the Rangers for 9th place in the Conference with a game in hand. Sitting in my seats it was dizzying keeping track of the all the line changes John Tortorella was rolling during the game. Lundqvist was far from perfect allowing 4 goals on 16 shots with the Blues hitting a couple of posts. The first Blues goal was scored at 1:10 in the 1st period on a shot that needed to be stopped as it sailed glove high. At 5:52 in the 1st period Ryan Callahan scored a tip-in power play goal on an Olli Jokinen shot from the point. At 17:02 of the 1st period Marian Gaborik scored to make it 2-1 Rangers. At 2:21 in the 2nd period a long wrist shot somehow got past Lundqvist to make the score 2-2. A few minutes later Erik Johnson took the puck coast-to-coast ala Brian Leetch and scored a power play goal to give St. Louis the lead 3-2. That was another goal that should have been stopped. It was the second intermission, time to meet friends and get ice cream. No more Haagen-Dazs dark chocolate and vanilla ice cream bars sold at the Garden! What gives? As we walked in after the 2nd intermission the Blues committed two penalties that gave the Rangers a 5-on-3. I looked up at the scoreboard and saw 1:17 left in the first penalty. I told my friend “We need at least one and maybe two goals here.” The Rangers did nothing and couldn’t even get a shot. That’s the story of the Rangers season unfortunately. Wade Redden scored the tying goal at 7:11 in the 3rd period on a nice shot from the top of the left face off circle. A minute plus later Jody Shelley lost the puck along the left half boards by the blue line. I was screaming “WATCH NUMBER 9” and bam, Paul Kariya streaked down the slot and scored on a perfect pass and tip-in, St. Louis up 4-3. Callahan simply lost Kariya on that play. Gaborik had two assists and had a 3-point game. The Rangers visit Boston on Sunday for a 12:30 PM matinee on NBC. The three stars of the game were Blue Paul Kariya, Marian Gaborik and Blue Brad Boyes.