The Rangers Tribune

Drury Played With Broken Hand

In today's New York Post, It was reported that Rangers Captain Chris Drury played games two through seven in this series with a broken right hand. The injury was suffered in the Blueshirt's last home regular season game against the Flyers. During last night's handshake, Drury shook all of the Caps players' hands with his left hand, because of the injury. ----- More Later.....

Rangers 1 Capitals 1 After First

The first period of this game is the best period the Rangers have had all series. They held the Caps to only two shots in the period, and have controlled the pace of this game thus far. All of the Rangers' players are collapsing to the net and are preventing the Caps from getting much through to Lundqvist. They are also pressuring the Capitals in the neutral zone, and forcing them to turn the puck over. The one shot that did go in was a lucky goal for the Caps.

The Rangers are controlling offensively and are pressuring Varlamov. Great play Avery, Dubinsky, and Antropov on the goal. The Blueshirts are carrying the puck into the zone, rather than dumping it which is allowing them to develop chances.

Overall, the Rangers dominated in what was a fantastic road period in this Game 7, they must keep this up, and continue to produce the scoring chances on Varlamov.

Rangers 1 Capitals 1 After Second

Another tremendous period by the Rangers. The offensive forecheck was a constant in that period by the Blueshirts, as they once again, controlled the pace in the game. The Rangers forecheck is so good that the Caps fans were booing the Caps because they didn't clear the zone. The Rangers need to convert on their chances in the third period.

The Blueshirts also continued to break up plays in their own zone. Backcheck is awesome in this game, and it has showed. Lundqvist made a spectacular diving save to keep the Caps from gaining the lead.

This will be an eventful third period of this Game 7! Hopefully the Rangers will keep up the great work and find a way to come out of this game victorious.

More after the game.....

Anisimov Called Up, Brashear Suspended For Six Games

It has been reported that Artem Anisimov has been called up from the Hartford Wolfpack, in order to replace an injured Blair Betts. Betts was significantly hurt after after he received an elbow to the head from the Capitals' Donald Brashear. Rumor has it that Blair Betts has broken an orbital bone, but the team will not confirm that. As for the hit, it was a dirty cheap shot to the head. Because of this, the NHL has felt it necessary to suspend Brashear for the next six games. This was the right call by the NHL, as not only did he cheap shot Betts, but he also was starting with Colton Orr in warmups.

I was hoping that Anisimov was going to be called up even before this, but we now will surely see him in action Tuesday Night in game seven. Korpikoski came up and scored a big time goal while facing elimination to the Pens last year, so we hope that Anisimov can repeat this year against the Capitals.

Morrisonn Denies Biting Dubinsky

Well you all have heard by now that Brandon Dubinsky was supposedly bit by the Capitals' Shaone Morrisonn. Dubinsky left the ice for his 10 minute game misconduct waving his hand in the air to show the officials. The officials did nothing about it. When Morrisonn was confronted about the matter he said this:

"I have no idea," he said. "I have no idea what he's talking about, what that's all about actually. It's weird that they're talking about that."

You could not clearly see the scrum in the replay, so it was unclear what went on. But we have two different stories here, Who do you believe? Well, what would Dubinsky get out of making that up? And of course Shaone is going to deny that he did such an idiotic thing.

This is just another one of things that they call "A game within a game".

Intermission Analysis Posts For Game 7

For the second straight game, I will be making a post analyzing the Rangers' performance after both the first and second periods of Game 7. Many viewed them last game, so I decided to try it once again for this game. Tune in if you would like!

Game 7 preview to come closer to Game Time.....

Today's Probable Lineup/ Intermission Analysis

Sources are reporting that the following will be the probable lineup for today's Game 6 matchup at 2pm, as It was not announced at the time of my Pregame Post(see previous post below).

Avery-Gomez-Callahan

Naslund-Dubinsky-Zherdev

Drury-Korpikoski-Antropov

Sjostrom-Betts-Orr

Staal-Girardi

Redden-Rozsival
Mara-Morris

**Also, for today, I will be posting an analysis of the Rangers play after both the first and second periods. If you are interested, you are more than welcome to stop by and check them out.

Capitals 3 Rangers 1 After First

Sort of a broken period for the Rangers, as two of three Capital goals were scored off of Blueshirt turnovers. Lundqvist allowed two goals on the short side, should have had both, and then the Caps made a beautiful play on the 3 on 1 for their third goal. The Rangers converted on the powerplay on a deflection from a Wade Redden shot.

The Rangers have to challenge Varlamov more in the second, as the rookie goaltender did not look sharp in the first. Lundqvist has to be better if this team wants to go anywhere, and the Blueshirts must clean up their game and stop turning the puck over.

Capitals 5 Rangers 1 After Second

Terrible effort by the Rangers, actually, I can't even say that the effort was terrible because the effort was not there. Defense looks terrible, offense isn't getting anything started, and we are turning the puck over like mad. This is extremely embarrassing to the fans, and the team should be insulted because they are being toyed with right now.

Dubinsky and Callahan are the only players that are doing anything right now. There is no leadership in the game, and absolutely no motivation. Game 7 in Washington will be one wild ride.

The Torts Incident...

...was a quite a scene at the Verizon Center last night. The whole occurrence behind the Rangers bench was not shown on television, as there was a tv timeout during the exchange between Tortorella and an intoxicated fan. What was shown was this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh9wY6qb8ac

Rumors have it that the fan attempted to spit on Tortorella and then followed up by throwing a beer at him. Tortorella retaliated by throwing a water bottle over the glass at the fan, and then stood up on the bench, and threatened the fan with a stick in his hand. Jim Schoenfeld restrained Torts from making his way over the boards, by grabbing him and giving him some words of reason.

Don't quite know what the outcome will be just yet. It will most likely result in a fine to Tortorella, and possibly a suspension. If that occurred, assistant coach Jim Schoenfeld would take his place for the time being. We will probably know more information on the matter later today.

More later.....