Garden Was Rocking, Not The Rangers

I can tell you first hand, last night was one of the loudest atmospheres at the Garden that I've every been a part of. At first I planned on posting a retraction of my previous article that the thundersticks were a rather lame handout for a raucous fan base that didn't need "noise boosters". But as you can see in the picture, the neon blue illumination was pretty sick and actually made for a neat spectacle when the lights dimmed and the intro began. But it was all downhill from there. By the time the game ended, the thundersticks were clearly the wrong handout but for different reasons than originally thought. Angered fans were tossing the neon insert detached from the actual stick onto the ice. Granted the meteor shower did look exotic, along with glowing blue fragments on the ice, but this is not what we want to portray as a fanbase to national television. Bad call on the fans and bad call on the PR staff.

And speaking of bad calls, those refs were horrific. I'm going to say this once, I understand Sean has a debilitating reputation amongst officials, but he has matured (slightly) and for the refs to continually not make an effort to give him a fair shake especially in the post-season is inexcusable. Glen Sather needs to get on the phone with Colin Campbell and show him the tape of that atrocious goalie interference call. But don't show Colin his face wash of Capitals goalie Varlamov, though well-timed and one in which I have no problem with (or the call), it is a play that would enrage Colin. I need to give props out to Varlamov though, watch the clip below and his reaction. Cool as a cucumber. In fact, Tortorella was too (although clearly he was about to explode).

So Game 4 tomorrow will be a dandy. I say Tortorella should sit Drury, he is no help, if not a detriment. The rumor is that he has a hairline fracture in his hand. I really don't see how he is helpful in the lineup if he plays like he did last night. I don't think the answer is calling up someone from the minors, this is too pressurized of a situation to do that. Replace Drury with Voros and juggle the lines or move Drury to the 4th line and move Betts/Sjostrom up. Why not Betts? He is not getting much ice time outside of PKs, and aren't we having a problem winning faceoffs thus far in this series? Betts is one of the top faceoff guys. Give him a shot Tortorella, he deserves it with his work ethic, plus he is a calm experienced player. We'll see what the coach decides, but either way tomorrow night will be a big one. My guess is that The Garden will be a shade quieter with most fans probably having butterfly-stuffed stomachs. We can only hope the Rangers don't.