Rangers Beat Washington: All Is Not Lost

After losing twice on the road, the Rangers were finally able to score some (3 to be exact) goals in a victory over the previously undefeated Washington Capitals. The Rangers pushed their record to .500 and there was much rejoicing. Scott Gomez scored his first goal as a Ranger, and Jagr firmed up his new role as the go-to guy for setting up goals. Lundqvist was excellent as usual, with only a power play goal by wonder-kid Ovechkin getting by him.

Although it was fun to watch the Rangers score 3 goals on power plays (they had been 0 for 15 prior to this), the game sort of dragged. One thing I have noticed over the years is that the Friday night crowd of families and dates lacks some of the screaming passion that a weeknight crowd offers. Of course, it could just be the Caps, which, despite their excellent record this year are often are hard ticket to give away.

My only other comments are on MSG's new scoreboard. I have now seen it in action several times and have some criticisms. Compared to the criticism
the Garden is getting from so many other quarters, its pretty minor stuff but...

1. MSG no longer posts the penalty committed on the scoreboard, only the player's number and the time left in the penalty. Given that its difficult to hear the referee announce the penalty up in Section 314 it would be nice if this information were available
2. There is no clock anymore. Its all digital... put one back
3. The new graphics are OK, but the rapidly changing still photos of a player that appear when he scores a goal are quite a bit cloying and clearly very annoying. Just because you have the graphics doesn't mean you should use them.
4. I'm waiting to see Dancing-Granny up there soon, even though I sit sort of near Dancing Larry.
5. I miss Pink Floyd as the musical warning that the second and third periods are about to start.