By Brad Lee
The Rangers have 51 points on the season, just four more than the Blues, but that’s enough for sixth place in the Eastern Conference. That’s some weak ass sauce right there. Bring Florida and Tampa and Carolina and Ottawa and Toronto over here some more, Mr. Bettman and we’ll see where the Blues are in the standings. For such an East Coast-oriented league, the NHL must hate the fact that the conference is so mediocre outside of New Jersey, Pittsburgh, Washington and Buffalo. Of course I could be assuming the rest of the teams suck and maybe they’re all good and just beat each other up. I’m sure that can’t be true. Let’s move on.
The Rangers have been shutout two straight games to guys named Brodeur. Martin Brodeur, some guy in New Jersey, pitched a 1-0 shutout in a shootout win at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday. I’m sure the cretins in the rafters were ready to burn New Jersey to the ground after that one. Then on Thursday they managed zero goals against lowly Ottawa and Martin’s distant relative Mike Brodeur in a 2-0 loss – also at home. This Brodeur had been in the AHL that morning before getting called up and getting the surprise start. I’m sure that gave the Rangers a lot of confidence.
New York you might remember two summers ago was really active in free agency and lured Scott Gomez across the river from the Devils. The short forward joined the undersized Chris Drury with the Rangers. And they sucked while being paid ridiculous sums of money. Somehow they got Montreal to take Gomez and his cap hit off their hands…and then signed the oft-injured, perpetually pissy Marian Gaborik. And it fucking worked. Gaborik and his wonky groin are leading the Rangers in scoring with an amazing 28 goals and 26 assists. That’s a total of 54 points in 45 games. You know how many seasons in Minnesota would have to pass for Gaborik to play 45 games? He’s only missed two this year. He wouldn’t have overreacted to injuries and refused to play hurt just to get back at management and the coaching staff, would he? If there’s just one player the Blues need to focus their physicality on it’s Gaborik.
Here’s what you need to know about the rest of the team: only one other player has double digits in goals and that’s Ryan Callahan and his 10 scores. Don’t forget, Sean Avery’s still a douchebag, Vinny Prospal is overachieving with 32 points and Drury only has 16 points in 42 games. Horrible for the money he’s making.
Stop Gaborik, score a few goals and the Blues extend their streak. It’s that simple. Let’s. Go. Blues.