Without a doubt, tonight’s 4-2 victory at home against the Islanders had to be one of the most enjoyable experiences of this season for Ranger fans. This was the kind of game we’ve been waiting to see this team play all year long. Sometimes Sam Rosen and Joe Micheletti go a bit overboard with the compliments, but tonight, Joe wasn’t far off when he said this was Jaromir Jagr’s best game of the season. It was up there, that’s for sure. Not just because of the goal Jags scored, either.

When Jagr got hold of the puck in the offensive zone tonight, it was reminiscent of the Jagr from two years ago and even last season. He was able to do what he wanted, weaving and bobbing with his great stickhandling ability. Usually drawing multiple defenders, Jagr is at his best when he can evade the opposition for long enough so that he can find the open teammate and he did that tonight.

It didn’t hurt that Marty Straka skated quite well, too. Straka was so huge for the Blueshirts last season and he played that way tonight. He was unlucky to hit the post in the third on a great scoring chance. He played very well. The days off between the Dallas game and this contest probably did the 35-year-old some good.

I said in the last post that I believe the Rangers need to find a way to make Drury work with Jagr and Straka and I stand by that. However, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the effective way in which Brandon Dubinsky gelled with the two Czech veterans tonight.

With every game, Dubinsky is becoming more and more comfortable on NHL ice. He’s starting to do things that he may not have been confident enough to do a month ago. He’s attempting to make moves one-on-one and making runs into open ice like a player that knows what he’s doing. That’s obviously a good thing and as long as he plays the way he did tonight with Jagr and Straka, it’ll be tough to break them up.

The Jagr line aside, a lot of other Rangers did good things tonight. Some random thoughts about tonight’s game:

- Henrik Lundqvist was once again solid in goal. It wasn’t his best game of the season, but that’s okay. If his teammates play every game the way they did tonight, Lundqvist doesn’t have to be lights out every night.

- Chris Drury was very, very good tonight. Not only was he in just the right position on the ice for the rebound from Dan Girardi’s point shot for the first power play goal, he made a smart little pass to Gomez for the second (yes, that’s right…second) power play goal. His offensive contributions aside, Drury made a number of great plays on penalty kills, especially early in the game when the Rangers were spending a little too much time in the box. I’m not saying he’s worth the salary, but I don’t think he’s a hindrance to the team. If he can start scoring consistently, even if it isn’t at quite the pace he did last year in Buffalo, he’s going to be very beneficial to this club.

- Major kudos to Ryan Callahan. In my last post, I said that early in the season he didn’t play the way he did last season. Well, that’s the way he played tonight. Every time he stepped on the ice, Callahan made something happen. He made so many smart, hard-working plays in this game. The best part of Callahan’s game is that he has an uncanny ability to get the puck on net no matter where he’s situated on the ice. He literally turns nothing into something. For example, late in the game, he skated the puck behind the net and with an Islander defenseman behind him, he no-looked a backhander on net that surprised DiPietro and turned into a pretty decent scoring chance. If he keeps this kind of play up, he’s bound to get more ice time. I’d like to see him get some power play time. Forget about them being tentative to shoot. With him on the ice, the puck would find it’s way to the net a lot more often.

- I didn’t know what to expect from Marcel Hossa on the Gomez-Shanahan line, but I think he was the best of the three tonight. He threw his body around and did what he does best: win loose puck battles along the boards. He skated very well, too. If he could only shoot the puck the way he did late last season. He had one chance tonight in a scramble in front of DiPietro, but he was hooked on a horrible non-call by the officials.

- I’m glad Gomez scored the power play goal, but overall, I still find it extremely frustrating to watch him. I feel he’s always the beneficiary, usually from Avery and tonight, the likes of Drury and Hossa. He’s rarely the one making his teammates better. I’m a lot more worried about Gomez than I am about Drury.

All in all, however, a great win for this team. Tom Renney, Perry Pearn and Mike Pelino need to be on these guys to take away the lessons they learned in this game. If the Rangers can maintain this style of play, this team will have success.

I guess Ranger fans should be thankful for the fact that the team is doing well, just four games out of first place. Still, it’s hard for anyone who follows the team closely to deny that there are problems. Some of these problems are underlying, while others seem to be coming to a head lately. The usual early-season excuses are getting old with over a quarter of the season already gone. I suppose it’s fitting, then, that it’s the Islanders that the Blueshirts face next, Thursday night at the Garden. The team from the Big Apple will try not only to work out their own issues, but look to finally defeat the surprisingly good Isles after an 0-3 record so far this season against their biggest rivals.

Before I go any further, I just want to take the time to introduce myself. My name is Eric Faynberg and I’m a young journalist trying to make my way through the tricky, treacherous realm of sports journalism. I’m a student and I have covered several local sports teams. I love the sport of hockey and as you’d have probably guessed already, I’ve been a hardcore Ranger fan for most of my life. This is my first crack at covering the team through the blog format and I’m hoping I can do an effective job. I can guarantee only two things. For one, I’ll update this blog frequently. Secondly, I’ll try to be as objective in my coverage of the team as possible.

I’ll talk more about myself eventually as I get on a roll with this blog (not too much though), but for now, I’ll stick to the important stuff. We’ve all grown accustomed to hearing how each game is important. Trust me; I’m just as tired of that phrase as you are. Unfortunately, I can’t help but truly believe that this game is actually quite important for the Rangers.

There is no hiding the fact that this team can’t score goals. All season long this hasn’t been a problem because of how stellar the defense has been, not to mention a certain Swedish guy in goal. However, we’ve seen a couple of times now what can happen if King Henrik is not on his game, most recently in the team’s last game, the 3-2 loss at home to the Dallas Stars. The Rangers were by far the better team, outshooting the Stars, 40-18. As has become commonplace, though, they just couldn’t seem to put the puck in the net. They got a lucky break when Jagr’s pass attempt deflected in off of a Dallas defenseman’s skate, too. It’s also hard to win a game when you’re 0-for-6 with the man advantage, while your opposition goes 2-for-3.

Yes, chemistry takes time to forge. Unfortunately, when you’ve made the kind of moves the Rangers did this summer, you don’t have that kind of time. The loss to Dallas should have been a message to Tom Renney and his coaching staff: get your stars to start scoring, because if Lundqvist or the defense start to struggle, you’re going to have some big, big problems.

What’s worse, the latest news from the team is that Sean Avery will undergo wrist surgery. Paul Mara had similar surgery before and was fine after two weeks. However, Mara’s surgery took place in the off-season. Expect Avery to be out for a little longer than that. That’s not the worst thing in the world, except when you factor in that the Rangers are 9-4-1 this season with Avery, but only 4-5-1 without him. The numbers are even more impressive for Avery when you factor in last season’s success with him in the lineup. Yes, sometimes he causes unnecessary problems, but if you watch closely, you’ll see that Avery’s hockey sense has been the centerpiece in a number of key plays this season. They’ll miss him.

They’ll be hoping that part of Avery’s contributions can be replaced by the return of Ryan Callahan. Callahan has been out over a month, injured in a loss to the Penguins. Callahan played in eight games before being injured and honestly, he wasn’t quite as impressive as he had been last year. Still, he’s shown what he’s capable of and you can bet that Renney and friends are really hoping that Callahan can play the way he did at the end of last year. Furthermore, he’ll likely be playing with Drury and Prucha, another couple of guys who the team desperately needs to start scoring goals.

While I still believe that Drury needs to be on a line with Straka and Jagr, I do see the appeal of playing Drury and Callahan. All three players on the line should be able to create a lot of open ice with their efforts in the corners and along the boards. Still, there has to be someone that uses that open ice to create. Prucha is also likely to see power play time with Avery injured. In his first two years, Prucha found quite a bit of success on the power play. Maybe this can get not only Prucha going, but the power play as well.

More on the game against the Isles later…