A few years ago, when the NHL decided to create the “7th Man Award”, the first recipient of the award was an Islander fan named Roger Farina.  He was an Army Helicopter Pilot that was in Iraq at the time.  When he won the award, he came to New York and was NHL Commissioner for a day.  His first wish was to revoke the charter of the Rangers and have the Islanders be the only New York City metro area team (with no disrespect to the Devs, we just mean of teams that have New York addresses).

Well, Roger, we want the Rangers to exist.  Except now, we just want to play them 82 times a freaking year!

Hey Isles - forget about the streak… It’s over now!  The Rangers were just what the doctor ordered.  The intensity was there, the passion was there.

Remember - I bowled last night, and did not see much of the game, but from the recap, it seemed like the intensity was not there from the Rangers.  I actually heard the press conference from Tom Renney after the game, and to put it mildly, with the exception of Jagr, he is peeved at the entire team, for their lack of effort and execution.  Paraphrasing, his quote, the Islanders are up for this game, and we are not.  We may have won four in a row before this, but it means nothing that we could not be up for this one.

Tom, really, I feel bad for you.  You had a plan and it did not work.

If you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I could broker a deal for….

Mike Sillinger had a great game, too bad he missed the hat trick on the empty netter.  Brendan Witt had his first goal in just about a year.  And he almost had two himself.  Ricky played well.  Gave up two PP goals, but stopped 24 shots, for his fourth in a row against the blueshirts.

This is making the METRO MUG STANDINGS better in our favor.  I bet the fans were crazy last night.  I got a call at the bowling alley from Derek Felix, my co-host on the New York Hockey Report.  I never heard so many f-bombs come out of his mouth, and in rapid fire too. 

I hope that for the first time since 1999, the Isles can add on to the Ranger win with another one over the Bruins.  Keep the momentum, and remember, just visualize the Bruins in Ranger uniforms. 

OTHER THINGS:

Congrats to Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr, on their being voted to the Baseball Hall of Fame.  They are class guys, that totally deserve the accolades.  As a long time Ripken fan, I am totally thrilled by this.  I wish I could go to Cooperstown to see the induction, but I think the rooms and such have been reserved years in advance in anticipation of this.

The things that rips me is that how people could NOT have voted for these guys, is totally INSANE.  I know that the original class of HOF’ers (Ruth, Johnson, etc) did not get in unanimously, so people will not vote for people so that does not happen; but c’mon, get a grip.  In this age of steroids (ala Mark McGwire) and ‘me, me, me’ players, here are two guys that not only cherished the game, but gave the game the respect it deserves.

Should be an interesting show tonight (NEW YORK HOCKEY REPORT).  Let’s see how Joe makes out Lundswiss to be now???  I can lose 10 in a row, I don’t care, but if we beat the Rangers, I am totally happy! 

Have a great day Islander fans, we totally DESERVE IT!