03-06-2006, 02:12 PM
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Head Coach
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Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 14,847
Points: 160,508.16
Bank: 0.00
Total Points: 160,508.16
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the new nhl=gay
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercu...s/14006689.htm
Quote:
Rangers drub Flyers, widen division lead
BY JOHN DELLAPINA
New York Daily News
<!-- begin body-content --> PHILADELPHIA - Somewhere, Herb Brooks was smiling. And nodding knowingly.
On a night of utter torture for Philadelphia fans that had to bring back 20-year-old memories of Brooks' Smurfs confounding the lumbering lot from Philly, the Rangers absorbed some physical punishment but administered a scoreboard beating in a 6-1 thrashing of the Flyers at the Wachovia Center.
Picking up right where they left off before their 18-day Olympic break, the Rangers won for the 11th time in 13 games (11-1-1) and pushed their Atlantic Division lead over the second-place Flyers back to four points.
The only negative on this otherwise satisfying night for the Rangers? After scoring two goals and setting up a third, Jaromir Jagr left the game early in the third period after aggravating the hip injury he suffered in the Olympic bronze medal game from a Darius Kasparaitis hit.
Jagr said afterward that he believed he left the game before doing any serious damage. The same could not be said for Flyers enforcer Donald Brashear, who spent the entire evening attempting to avenge another Kasparaitis Olympic hit - the hip check that knocked Flyers/Canada winger Simon Gagne out with a groin injury.
With 1:53 left and the Rangers leading 5-1, Brashear hunted down Kasparaitis and punched him to the ice. Brashear was given 29 minutes in penalties - including the instigator penalty and game misconduct that will draw an automatic one-game suspension. Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock also will receive a $10,000 fine.
"He told me I wasn't going to finish the game," the fearless Kasparaitis said of Brashear. "I finished the game but he didn't - he got thrown out."
Brashear wasn't particularly politic afterward.
"This game is gay now," he observed. "You can't even do anything anymore. ... They changed the game to favor the superstars. You can't do anything anymore to set some respect out there."
Rangers coach Tom Renney believes his team earned some respect by standing up to the Flyers' aggression and then punishing it severely with a 4-for-6 night on the power play.
"It's huge," said Renney, who thought long and hard before choosing savvy and skill for his lineup over trying to counter Philly's physicality. "Every time you play, you sign your work at the end of the night. Not just with the results, which is ultimately pretty important, but with how you play and how you deal with different situations.
"I thought tonight we signed our work in a unique manner in a positive way that maybe we would be somewhat underestimated for being able to do."
After Kevin Weekes' goaltending and some damage-minimizing team defense weathered the predictable initial Philly storm, the Rangers began striking with lethal precision. All the more infuriating for the hosts, the Rangers did their most devastating damage on power plays that resulted from out-of-control Flyer aggression.
Jagr - who else? - delivered the critical scoring blows for the Rangers. Jagr set up the Michael Nylander goal that gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead at the end of a first period in which they were outshot 15-5. Then Jagr cashed in on both ends of a five-on-three power play to break it open at the outset of the second period - his league-leading 41st and 42nd goals of the season 1:31 apart made it 3-0 and gave him 1,400 career points.
When Blair Betts - back after missing seven weeks with a knee sprain - and Jason Ward took advantage of Flyers defensive-zone gaffes to score unassisted goals, it was 5-1 by the end of the second.
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I completely missed the logical connection. Thanks Donnie for enlightening me.
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