Rangers Start New Year With Dud

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The New York Rangers were defeated by the Buffalo Sabres by a score of 4-1 in their first game of the new year. For a box score, click here.

And I was hoping a new year would bring with it a new team. Silly me!

Honestly, does anyone want to read a recap on whatever that was? The Rangers were out of this game from the first puck drop until the final buzzer. Sure they had a shift here and there that they almost looked awake for but overall, the Sabres were the better team. And as is the case most nights, the better team won.

Instead of recapping the game, I’m going to recap the Rangers broadcast for tonight.

Sam Rosen is a legend but I’ve thought for a while his best days were behind him. On the first shift of the night, he and Joe Micheletti commented about a hit Brady Skjei threw on Ristolainen. The two then spent the rest of the period trying to figure out why the Sabres kept going after Skjei. They blamed the visitors wanting to play a rough game and them wanting to go after the rookie to see what he can handle. Neither mentioned the hit he threw. I don’t know, seemed like an easy link to me but I guess not.

But my favorite comment of the night came from Steve Valiquette in the second intermission when he called the Sabres a fragile team that the Rangers would be able to pounce on. Absolutely nothing in the game to that point said the Sabres were fragile or the Rangers had any pounce in them but sure let’s call the Sabres fragile because they are 28th in the standings. I guess the Rangers didn’t want them to look bad since it took them 14 and a half minutes to get their first shot of the period. That’s the best way to start a comeback if you ask me! Best part is from watching the first 40 minutes, it wasn’t even surprising.

And if the use of “fragile” wasn’t enough, the post game took it a step further saying they were “vulnerable” due to all their injuries. Since when does injuries make a team vulnerable? And if they do, wouldn’t that make the Rangers vulnerable right now?

Anyway, I’ve already given this game more words than it deserves so let’s just move on to the next one which lucky for all of us is tomorrow night in Philly.

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On a separate note, I know there has been a lot of talk of the blog being no more due to the change in commenting. First of all, the blog is still here so let’s just get that out of the way. In regards to comments, we want everyone to know this wasn’t our doing and we are as unhappy about it as you are. We promise we are working on a solution as we miss the crazy gameday threads as much as you do. Please keep commenting and complaining about it below. We are using this as ammo to show the site admins this isn’t working for us.

In the meantime, Neill and I just want to say thanks to those who still come by and read. And since I forgot on my recaps before the holidays, I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday season and here’s to a happy, return of the comments, parade down Broadway, new year!

 

(Photo by Scott Levy/NHLI via Getty Images)

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