Pens Oust Rangers, Emery Starts Strong

Some things to chew on from the Pens/Rangers contest last night:

Wade Redden and Michal Rozsival tallied zero minutes on the power-play. Redden had a quality game defensively (how sad is it now that as long as he's okay defensively Rangers fans don't get too upset - we don't even expect any offense from him anymore), but Rozsival was brutal.

Matt Gilroy had a very strong game. Michael Del Zotto seemed to have an early case of the jitters, but picked up his game a bit in the second.

Marc Staal played well, leading all Rangers in ice-time. However, I can't help but wonder if Torts is trying to get some offensive out of Staal that might not be there. Time will tell, I guess.

I liked the effort from the Rangers top two lines. Gaborik, Dubinsky, Prospal, Callahan, Drury, and Higgins all played hard.

Marian Gaborik is a beast. I'm really going to enjoy watching him play this year, health permitting, of course (knock on wood).

Why did Chris Drury play under two minutes on the power-play?

The Rangers third and fourth lines were pretty bad.

Marc-Andre Fleury and Henrik Lundqvist both played well. Fleury made two game-changing saves. The first save came when Fleury was just able to get enough pad on a Marian Gaborik break away bid. It's worth noting he was sprung by a great Del Zotto break out pass. The second save came off a Vinny Prospal shot on a two-on-one - pretty sick glove save. Both saves happened when the score was 1-1 in the second period.

Crosby had a very strong game - he doesn't seem to have any problems with the groin.

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Ray Emery started off his season in style, shutting out Cam Ward's Hurricanes.

People seem to forget he went to a Stanley Cup Final as a 24 year-old. The Flyers have a strong leadership group, so I don't expect any shenanigans from "Razor."

Also, kudos to James van Riemsdyk for notching his first NHL point. It's still kind of surreal that I played against this guy atleast two times a year until he went away to the National Development Program.

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The Red Wings/Blues game yesterday was very entertaining - should be another good one today.