Brodeur made some nice saves, but they need more than 14 shots to win this game.

Good job shutting down the Devils – only 10 shots.

More later….

Also their one power play looked bad. If the Devils power play is sponsored by PSE&G then the Rangers is brought to you by the ’77 blackout.

BTW Willie O’Ree, the first black player in the NHL dropped the first puck. A real nice man, you can read more about him here.

More later… 

It’s interesting because all season, I don’t remember the Devils taking an early lead like that.

I will have more as it comes in…. 

«FULL STORY»

Henrik Lundqvist is back in goal, but other than that, the same lineup will go out with both Marcel Hossa and Jason Strudwick taking seats.

Tom Renney is looking to build some momentum by getting three in a row for his Blueshirts before they take the dreaded Western Canadian trip next week.

And for those who are counting that’s five games in a row against teams from the north and six out of seven.

Oh Canada!!

Even with such a bad December, remember the Rangers are only three points behind the Devils for the second most total in the conference. So it’s not so bad.

With the power play coming alive and Sean Avery back, the Rangers look like they can take on the world in 2008.

Sure, he gave up Nik Antropov’s third goal in, but you can’t blame him on that. He came in cold and it was a power play.

But Lundqvist was terrible with rebound after rebound. It almost looked like Henrik and Joel pulled a Parent Trap on Tom Renney.

Anyway for those who are wondering, Henrik was pulled last year four times. Twice [Dec. 3 against the Isles and Dec. 16 at Toronto] in favor of Kevin Weekes and two times [Feb. 17 against Philly when Brendan Shanahan was concussed and Mar. 27 at Montreal] when Valiquette took over.

The Rangers do play tomorrow at Atlanta, so Tom Renney could be wanting to use Hank down south.

The duo of Drury and Gomez is playmaking as the Rangers scored two power play goals.

With that momentum, the Blueshirts need to stick it to the Leafs this period.

On a side note, Howard Berger is here and credentialed, so now that’s two things he’s incorrect on. Is he ready for strike three?

With Callahan in the lineup, the Ranger forwards will be fully healthy for the first time since the first game of the year, but also presents a problem on who gets scratched.

Marcel Hossa is the probable candidate, since he has no goals and three assists and seems like he took a step back this year. But also Petr Prucha could be scratched as well, yet that seems unlikely since the Rangers do like him, although he isn’t having a good year [2 goals and 5 assists].

They also could scratch Ryan Hollweg or Colton Orr, but that fourth line played very well so far, so why mess with the one consistant Ranger line.

Coach Tom Renney will have a decision to make in the next few days, but at least there may be a consistency to the Ranger lines over the next few weeks.

Now if they can get the power play working. After an 0-6 yesterday and 3-for-39 over the last eight games. Renney has tried a number of different combinations, including just rolling lines out there. Nothing has worked.

“Believe it or not, it’s better than it’s been,” Renney said after yesterday’s loss. “I thought tonight we showed good puck movement, I thought we had some chances. We still need to shoot more, naturally. That certainly is an area we have to improve upon, and work habits are a part of that.

If our power play doesn’t get clicking, if we beat ourselves, which may have been the case tonight, then the statistics will bear out where we belong. Every team is a work in progress, but at some point in time there is a level of excellence that is acceptable, and only that, and we’ve gotta make sure we continue to strive for that.”

One bright spot about Thursday. The Islanders may be a little tired since they have a game at home against the now slumping Ottawa Senators.

Going into the third, the Blueshirts will need to keep the pressure up and continue to prevent any shooting lanes to be open.

With on 14 shots with 16:36 left, the Ranger have done a good job keeping the Flyers at bay.

More later on NYSD with a game recap.

The Rangers started to get sloppy there in the second giving the Sens a chance on the power play.

Unless they can mount an offensive in the third this game is pretty much over.