Rangers Keep Owning The Rock

by: Joe McDonald | Publisher and Editor-in-Chief | Thursday, November 13, 2008



NEWARK, NJ - Jeffrey Vanderbeek may own the Devils and the City of Newark may own the Prudential Center, but when the Rangers cross the Hudson, one thing’s for certain:

New York owns the ice.

After years of getting a beat down at the Meadowlands, the Blueshirts continued their dominance in the Devils new home. It doesn’t seem to matter who is playing or who is in goal, the Rangers just dominate.

“I don’t know why,” Henrik Lundqvist thought. “It must be the hotel.”

Whether it’s the hospitality, the food or whatever, the fact remains, including the playoff last season, the Rangers are now 7-0-1 at the Prudential Center and they tend to play raise their game against one of their chief rivals.

“It’s a great environment,” said coach Tom Renney. “It’s a bright building; it’s new; it’s impressive in lots or ways; and of course the opponent. We have to acknowledge that they bring out the best in us.”

The Rangers always seem to play their A-game in Newark. Last night they bombarded Kevin Weekes with a 20-shot second period, which saw the former Blueshirt give up four goals. It was just too much to handle as all four lines seemed to be moving the puck into the Devils end. And after the Rangers chased Weekes, Scott Clemmensen gave up one in the third.

The best part about it was everyone contributed. Nik Zherdev scored two goals, while Dan Fritsche, Dan Girardi, and Nigel Dawes had two assists apiece. Captain Chris Drury also had a goal and an assist.

“We've been on the other side of this in Toronto, where one team has it and the other team just can't do anything,” Drury said. “So it was good to have this.”

Of course there’s Lundqvist, who now improves his career record against the Devils to 13-2-4 not including the playoffs. The King allowed one goal in the first but otherwise kept New Jersey at bay when the Devils outshot the Rangers 13-5.

“We have a lot of confidence in this building,” said Lundqvist. “We didn't panic after going down 1-0. We didn't play that bad in the first although we only got five shots. We knew we could find a way to come back. We've done that a few times so far this year.”

And that’s what the Rangers need to keep on doing. Although they sport a record of 12-5-2 for the season, San Jose now has more points, despite the fact they Blueshirts have played two more games. New York can’t afford to keep taking steps back or the league will pass the team by,

And now with Boston coming into the Garden this weekend, it’s going to be a good test for the team. The Blueshirts need to continue their solid play if they plan on getting the two points against another solid conference rival.

Hopefully, for the Rangers sake, it will. Although the Garden isn’t “new and shiny” it’s still home and the Rangers will need to dominate their own ice, if they plan on going far this year, because you can’t play them all in Newark.