Sportsfrog.com

In their 10 games leading up to the Christmas break, the New York Rangers were terrible. They were 2-6-2 over that stretch, Henrik Lundqvist wasn’t stopping much (86.24% save percentage), the offense wasn’t scoring enough (2.1 goals per game), and Jaromir Jagr was goalless.

Back from the break, in their victory over Carolina last night the Rangers may have had one of those games that can snap a team out of a funk. Not only did they score three unanswered goals in the third period to win 4-2, but it was clear there was something mentally going on with the team that led to their breakout performance.

For one, Jaromir Jagr scored his first goal in 11 games and added another in half way through the third to extend their lead to 4-2.

The good news for Jagr doesn’t end there. The Rangers are reportedly close to making a deal for Columbus’ David Vyborny. Jagr has struggled with his centers this season and has clearly missed Michael Nylander’s ability to give and go and play with the puck along the boards. Vyborny is a Czech national, and Jagr has a history of playing well with a number of Czech and Slovak trained players. The Rangers have an extra defenseman right now, and have been rumored to have been offering Marek Malik.

Sean Avery was fired up all night and looked like a real dipshit in trying to punch Andrew Ladd during a third period scuffle that started because Avery was being called for interference. Both Ladd and Avery, a player I have defended in the past, were being held back by linesmen, but Avery had an arm free and kept throwing cheap shots to Ladd’s back and head. Nice job Sean. You tit.

If Avery isn’t suspended for his stupidity, expect the Rangers to surge over the next few weeks. This season, with Avery in the lineup, NY is 10-5-1. Without Avery the Rangers are 7-9-3.

The MSG announcers last night noted that Matt Cullen was a ‘marked man’ for some reason. I’m not entirely sure why, but the Rangers hit their mark in the second period when Cullen, a former Ranger, crossed the New York blue line with the puck on a 2 on 3 and left a drop pass for a teammate. He had his head down and didn’t see that Colton Orr had lined him up perfectly for an open ice hit. Unfortunately for Cullen, Orr either had an intent to injure or just didn’t think he was a big enough man to finish the hit in a clean manner, so Orr launched himself at Cullen’s head and knocked the Hurricane center to the ice, unconscious. Cullen did not return and neither did Orr – after he received a game misconduct to go with the fighting major that came after Mike Commodore came to Cullen’s defense and pounded on Orr for a bit.

So what got into the Rangers? Maybe they were just happy that sexual discrimination suit got settled. Either way, this is a very dangerous team that is no fun to play against.

UPDATE: All this has Carolina looking for an enforcer. Welcome to the new NHL.