Quotes Of The Week: October 5th
by Alec Brownscombe
Entering week one of regular season action, these four quotes sum up accurately the current state of the NHL.
Blueshirt Fall In OT
The last time the Rangers played in Madison Square Garden for an NHL regular season game, was back on March 31st, 2004. That night the home team lost to the Buffalo Sabres 3-4, in what was perhaps a premonition of things to come. New York was looking to build on the momentum of an improbable opening night 5-3 come-from-behind victory over the much favored Philadelphia Flyers. Standing in their way were the slick skating Montreal Canadiens, also coming off an impressive road win, a 2-1 last minute win against their division rivals the Boston Bruins.
Things started well for the Rangers, who capitalized perhaps on the opening night festivities and overwhelmingly positive vibe of the building to score in just the second minute of the game. Marcel Hossa’s second goal in as many games, came from a tic-tac-toe passing maneuver, that saw the young Slovak winger score off of a nice feed from Martin Straka off of the rush. The momentum was firmly in their home team’s corner when the Canadiens took two consecutive penalties sending the Rangers power play (2/4 against the Flyers) to work. Unlike Wednesday’s game however, Jaromir Jagr and the first power play unit found little room to work on the man advantage, and both opportunities went by the way-side without a single shot registered.