Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Rangers 2, Islanders 1

One of the great rivalries in all of hockey resumed at the Nassau Coliseum last night, with "YOUR FIRST PLACE NEW YORK RANGERS" scoring a thrilling 2-1 victory over the LAST PLACE New York Islanders. The beauty of this series is that regardless of how the teams are faring in the standings, they always play these cross-town games with passion and fire. And the crowd certainly lends a playoff-type atmosphere to the proceedings, even in January. It must be galling to Islanders fans, though, to look around and see more Rangers jerseys than Islanders sweaters in the stands, but I guess it'll be that way until Islanders management commits to putting a winning team on the ice. (But that won't happen until Nassau County officials commit to owner Charles Wang's plans to rebuild the "Hub" with a new arena and a surrounding village.)
With all that swirling around the team -- and despite having the fewest points of any team in the league -- it was good to see that the players still brought their 'A' game to the rink, and competed to the best of their abilities. And, unlike the Detroit Lions, the Islanders even manage to win a game every now and again.

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