Photograph of Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist stopping a shot from Penguins player Sidney Crosby by Keith Srakocic/AP Penguins 5, Rangers 4: Martin Straka, Chris Drury and everyone's darling, Sean Avery, had the Rangers feeling good about themselves three minutes, 37 seconds into the second period. Game over? Not quite. Pittsburgh scored twice in 14 seconds near the eight-minute mark. Then they scored twice in a 20-second span five minutes into the third. Scott Gomez......

Photograph of Islanders celebrating a second period goal from Ruslan Fedotenko by Frank Franklin II/AP Islanders 4 Rangers 3 (Shootout): This was not a game for fans of goaltenders. Henrik Lundqvist was terrible, Wade Dubielewicz was too but better when it counted and the Islanders prevailed in a sloppy game. Blake Comeau got things started when he scored by throwing the puck off of Michal Rozsival to put the Islanders in front. The Rangers......

Rangers 5, Flyers 4 (SO): Maybe in the future coach Tom Renney will start backup goaltender Steve Valiquette against the Flyers. He came in relief of Henrik Lundqvist and stopped 17 of 18 shots, then put forth a perfect performance in the shootout. The reserve, who now has three wins against the Flyers this season, stabilized a game that saw both Lundqvist and Flyers goalie Antero Niittymaki yanked by the time two minutes were gone......

Rangers 5, Canadiens 3: Fans who tired of FOX's marathon Super Bowl pregame show may have migrated to NBC to catch this inspired effort by the Rangers. Playing in Montreal -- did any of them get to watch the Super Bowl, or even want to watch? -- the Blueshirts scored five unanswered goals after trailing, 3-0, early in the second period. Chris Drury had the go-ahead goal, and Scott Gomez, Michal Rozsival, Martin Straka and......

Rangers 4 Atlanta 0: Tom Renney shook up the lines and the lineup and the Rangers responded. Playing the opening game in their consecutive home game tilt with the Thrashers, New York set the tone early and played great defense allowing only 14 shots. Sean Avery, placed on the top line with Gomez and Jagr got things started with a goal at 12:12 of the first period. Brandon Dubinsky scored a few minutes later and......

Rangers 4 Montreal 1: The Rangers finally had a game they could feel good about, thrashing the Canadiens easily at the Garden Saturday night. New York jumped out to an early lead after Chris Drury made the defensive play, cleared the puck and then slipped a backhand into the net off of the pretty feed from Hossa. Martin Straka scored later in the first to make it 2-0. New York doubled that lead in the......

Nets 107, Heat 103: Udonnis Haslem forced overtime with an off-balance shot at the end of regulation, but the Nets shook it off. The overtime wasn't pretty, but it's the results that count. Richard Jefferson and Vince Carter had their moments in the son, but Malik Allen had 18 points (on 9-of-11 shooting) and tormented the team with which he started his NBA career. At last place in the NBA's Eastern Conference, Miami isn't the......

Boston 1 Rangers 0 (shootout): It was reasonable to expect that the Rangers would take some time to blend in their new acquisitions, but this is getting ugly. After seven games, New York has stumbled to a 2-5 record and looked lifeless in doing so. The offense, which was supposed to be the strength of this club, has struggled, being shutout twice and scoring only one goal twice. Saturday the Rangers couldn’t score again, despite......

Rangers 3, Capitals 1: Jaromir Jagr didn't break his scoreless drought to start the season, but he did help Scott Gomez end his. That was the first of three first-period goals -- all on the power-play -- that led the Rangers to their win. Henrik Lundqvist stopped 24 of 25 shots to pick up the win and help the Rangers even their record at 2-2. Martin Straka and defenseman Michal Rozsival also scored. Maybe it......

You may not have noticed that the NHL season started last weekend. While two games between two California teams in London may not have captured your interest, the three local teams that begin play tomorrow and the next few nights will all be fascinating stories throughout the season. No team enters the season with bigger expectations than the Rangers. After landing two big centers in free agency, Chris Drury and Scott Gomez, New York......

Randy on his way to Arizona: Sorry, Randy, no one is going to throw you a goodbye party. You forced your way out of Arizona to get to New York and demanded a three-year/$54-million deal. You never lived up to it and cameramen and fans everywhere will rejoice in your departure. Be gone, big doofus! The question is will this trade facilitate the return of Roger Clemens? Stay tuned…. Rangers 3 Flyers 2: Martin Straka......

-Rangers 3 Philadelphia 1: This game should have been a blowout. From almost the opening face-off, New York seized control of the action, peppering shots against Antero Nittymaki and keeping the puck in the offensive zone. Nittymaki did a good job keeping the puck out of the net, but the Rangers scored three times with rookie, Jarko Immonen, getting his first goal of the season and adding an assist. With Nittymaki’s strong goaltending, the game......

--Bulls 106, Knicks 95: MSG announcer Mike Breen called the Knicks the most schizophrenic team he's ever seen. Saturday's game was another example, but no matter how much heart they've shown in these rallies, Knicks usually end up on the short end, just like they did Saturday. Every time they see the Bulls, the Knicks are reminded that Chicago has the right to swap draft picks at the end of the season, an arrangement agreed......

- Rangers 3 San Jose 1: New York completed a successful west coast swing with their second win in as many nights. Kevin Weekes looked stellar between the pipes, stopping 29 of 30 shots and Matt Cullen, Martin Straka and Brendan Shanahan scored. With Weekes playing well in consecutive games, the question is, who will start in goal on Sunday? - Derek Jeter wins another gold glove: Jeter is many things, but a great......

One of these days Jagr will get his 53rd goal. The last time the Rangers faced the Islanders; it had appeared that Jagr had scored, only to see the goal credited to Martin Straka. Last night the exact same thing happened in the Rangers’ 3-1 victory over the Islanders. To his credit, Jagr didn’t seem at all interested in the record stating after the game, “The record you might remember two weeks after that. But......

If not for Martin Straka’s skate, Jaromir Jagr would hold the record for most goals in a season by a Ranger. Jagr appeared to have scored his 53rd goal of the year in the second period, but replays showed that it actually went off of Straka and instead of a goal, Jagr was credited with his fourth assist while Straka got a natural hat trick in the Rangers’ 5-1 win. While Jagr didn’t get the......

It looks like we have reached the crisis point of the Rangers’ season. Sunday they dropped their fifth game in a row, falling 3-2 in overtime to Atlanta. The loss was especially tough to take because of how well New York played in the first two periods of the game. At the end of the second period the Rangers had a 2-0 lead and had out shot Atlanta 27-13. Petr Prucha looked good coming back......

Kevin Weekes had not started in goal since the middle of January and figured to be rusty last night, but the Rangers picked up their defense and didn’t allow an Islander shot in the first eleven minutes of their 5-2 victory. With the upcoming Olympic Break, the Rangers will need to rely on Weekes more to get through the compressed schedule in March and April. While Weeeks was given a chance to warm up, the......

In the mid-90’s it was the best local rivalry we had. Both teams were among the NHL elite and ferociously battled each other whenever they met. Then the Rangers fell on hard times and the Devils kept wining. Last night the two teams squared off at the Garden and when it was over New York had beaten New Jersey 3-1 and snapped their nine-game winning streak. Darius Kasparaitis got things going by delivering a vicious......

It was a night to pay tribute to one of the greatest hockey players to ever lace up skates, so it was fitting that another one of the all-time greats provided the winning goal. Long after the cheers for Mark Messier had died down, Jaromir Jagr scored just 14 seconds into overtime to give the Rangers a 5-4 victory over Edmonton. Perhaps the lengthy ceremony took something out of the Rangers because they started the......

If the Rangers are going to be successful this season they are going to have to stop taking so many penalties. Thursday night the Rangers committed eleven penalties including two that put them in five on three situations in their 4-3 loss to Montreal. The game started well for the Rangers, as they appeared to feed off of the emotion of the crowd at the Garden. Marcel Hossa scored just over a minute into the......