Last Night's Action: Isles Extend Rangers' Misery

As sublime as the first half of the second period was for isles fans...the third period was much more interesting.

It was, on whole, one of the better rivalry games I'ever seen them play. Interesting though, as more is at stake now, considering both are fairly good teams, instead of one being fantastic and one being down-in-the-dumps.

This is true. I have to agree that the Rangers did an awful job of challenging the Islanders and never seemed to put them off or get under their skin. On the whole for a rivalry game it was surprisingly lacking in energy, the third period being the only time the Ranger's showed any real signs of life.

Of course, if you were on the other side of this, being the team with the lead and constantly being on the powerplay, you take advantage of the situation in this manner and hoping to score a goal on a bigger powerplay, rather than fighting.

Even if the Islander (I believe it was Brendan Witt) was to win the fight, just engaging in it gives the Rangers the edge, b/c it proves that they can be intimidated, even with a lead.

The PIMs are not the point. If you are squaring off and jawing at somebody and he challenges you to a fight, you fight, anything less is shameful. It's not like he was challenging their top scorer or top defenseman.

The reason he didn't fight was because he was smart enough to have the act result in a 2minute minor for Orr, instead of a 5-minute major for both.

Smart move actually...

I was at the game last night and at least half of those calls by the officials were horrendous. There was one interference call where there was no contact whatsoever with the opposing goaltender.

As to Weeks, he looked fine in goal, though he doesn't exactly inspire confidence...Did anyone notice DickPietro's showboating when he tossed himself the puck and smacked it up the ice in the third?

Also notice the Islander who turtled like a punk rather than fight Orr? Why is it that the Isles are such wusses? Ever since Cairns backed down from fighting McCarthy it's been like this.

the officiating last night was horrendous...I screamed at the TV on a few occasions, even when it was a Rangers penalty, wondering why it was even a penalty to begin with.

Though there was a goal on a 5-on-3, you can't argue that Isles didn't do their job in capitalizing on the advantage. If they hadn't, that would have been depressing.

We'll see what happens next week at the Colisseum.

And they did not trail throughout - they had the lead in the first period for all of 43 seconds

Lay off Weekes - two of the Islanders goals were on the power play - and one was a 5-on-3. The continuous march to the penalty box has cost the Rangers dearly these past few games.

did anyone else see Blake's third goal?

Also - why can't Bruce Beck on NBC4 ever attribute the correct first names to the Kozlov's in the NHL?

Last night, he called "Slava" Kozlov from Atlanta "Viktor", even though Viktor plays for the Isles. Last time the Isles played the Rangers, and "Viktor" Kozlov scored 4 goals, he called him "Slava" Kozlov. At least this time, both were playing on the same night, but come on. Is it that hard to distinguish two different players from two different teams with the same last name?

What's a hockey?