The New York Rangers meandered their way through 82 regular season games to finish sixth in the Eastern Conference.  Certainly, they played better hockey at the end of the season than they did at the beginning, but, let’s face it, the Rangers were expected to finish better than 6th in a weak Eastern Conference.

Now, we all know a hockey season isn’t judged on the regular season, unless, of course, you don’t make the playoffs.  The Rangers are in the playoffs, and they are expected to make a serious run through the Eastern Conference.  While the playoffs appeared to get off to a good start for the Blueshirts, as they won the first two games of their opening round playoff series on the road against the Devils, there was cause for concern.

And, when the Devils got on the board in the series by taking Game 3 at MSG in OT, it seemed easy enough to chalk the game up to the fact that the Devils won the game on a lucky-bounce OT goal by John Madden.

But, the fact of the matter is that the Devils have carried the play far more than the Rangers have throughout the first three games of this series.  The Devils have worked harder, initiated the physical play and done the little things that win hockey games.  The only reason the Devils didn’t have anything to show for their effort in the first two games, is that Henrik Lundqvist considerably outplayed Martin Brodeur.

Brodeur is a surefire first-ballot Hall of Famer and, quite possibly, the greatest to ever play between the pipes, but he has not been close to his A game in this series.  King Henrik, on the other hand, was brilliant in the two games at The Rock.  Lundqvist, however was not at the same level in Game 3, and the Rangers suffered for it.

Heading into the series, it seemed obvious that Brodeur would have to steal games for the Devils to have a chance to win.  That the Rangers had enough other big-time playoff performers to overcome a hiccup here and there from The King, whereas the Devils didn’t. 

In hindsight, that line of thinking ignored everything we had seen from the Rangers all season long.  While the devils managed to win a game last night when Brodeur wasn’t on top of his game, the Rangers have not yet shown they can win a game in this series when King Henrik doesn’t win it for them.  It’s 85 games and counting for the Blueshirts this season, and for most of those 85 games, it’s been Henrik or bust for the Rangers.

The Rangers have gotten strong play from a few individuals.  The Captain, Jaromir Jagr, has been dominant in this series.  Sean Avery, faceguarding and all, has been tremendous.  And, rookies Brandon Dubinsky and Marc Staal have played far beyond their years.  But, not enough Rangers-certainly not enough of their big name players-have performed at an acceptable level. 

Scott Gomez and Chris Drury were brought to Broadway, because during last year’s playoffs, the Rangers couldn’t score enough goals when it counted to advance beyond the second round.  While Gomez got off to a fast start, torching his former team by dishing out 3 assists in Game 1, he has been rendered ineffective since.  Drury has struggle mightily in this series and Brendan Shanahan has not contributed offensively, since his bad-angle goal opened the scoring in Game 1.

It was ok when this happened during the course of the regular season, because there were nights when they looked every bit the the team to beat in the East.  It was a veteran team that knew how to pace itself.  A team that knew it wasn’t about finishing first in the Eastern Conference in April.  It was about finishing first in the Eastern Conference in June.  On nights when they played disinterested hockey, it was ok, because, once they reached the playoffs, where every game is critical, they would raise their game.

Well, here we are.  Game 4 of the playoffs and Game 86 of the season Wednesday night on Broadway.  They will be playing in front of a raucous crowd at The Garden in a game that will either give the Rangers a stranglehold on the series, or give control back to the Devils.  If the Rangers best players were waiting for a big game to step up, this is it.  There are no more excuses.  This is the time to step up and get the job done, and not wait for The King to steal the game for them.

***

The NHL’s directive, in the wake of the Sean Avery incident in Game 3, instructing officials to call unsportsmanlike conduct on players who attempt to distract the goalie while facing the goal, is another example that the league’s leadership is asleep at the wheel. 

There is nothing in the rule book that makes it illegal, thus this rule “interpretation” is nothing more than changing the rules in mid-season, which is supposed to require a 30-0 vote of the Board of Governors.  So, the NHL’s method of Law & Order is to violate its own rules to stop Avery from doing something that doesn’t violate any rules at all.  And, of course, if the player who did this wasn’t named Sean Avery, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion. 

Suggesting that players in front of the net have to be there to make a play is a joke, and goes against all of hockey history.  Not that we should expect the current NHL leadership to know much about hockey history.  So, are we supposed to believe that when the Bruins park Zdeno Chara in front of the goal, he is there for his superior playmaking skills?  Yeah, the fact that he’s 6′9″, 251 LBS and the perfect size to completely obstruct the view of the goalie has nothing to do with it.

It is interesting, though, that the NHL had to invent a new addition to Rule 75, which governs unsportsmanlike conduct, when they failed to enforce a part of the rule already on the books in Game 2.  As the rule book states regarding Rule 75.3 section (i):

A bench minor penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct shall be assessed under this rule for the following infractions:

When a player, goalkeeper, Coach or non-playing Club personnel throws any object onto the ice from the players’ or penalty bench (or from any other off-ice location) during the progress of the game or during a stoppage of play.

Devils Head Coach Brent Sutter clearly threw a stick on the ice late in the game in frustration over shoddy officiating.  As if to prove his point, the referees allowed this to go unpenalized. 

Perhaps before Colin Campbell interprets new meaning to Rule 75, he should instruct his officials to read the parts that actually exist.

One more thing on this topic.  Many hockey pundits have reacted to Avery’s actions in such dramatic fashion, tossing around phrases like “embarrassing the sport” and “this is not how the game is supposed to be played.”  Spare me the hyperbole.  Let’s see one of these guys gets the courage to bash players (yes, that means you, Sidney Crosby) for feigning injury to draw high-sticking penalties, which actually is far more embarrassing to the game than finding a creative way to screen the goalie.