Asshole of the Night

Goes to Chris Simon. You suck buddy! What you did to Ryan Hollweg was bush league. And if the league has any guts, you'll be suspended a long time for that reckless stick swing across Hollweg's face dangerously close to his neck. Disgusting! If you thought what Neil or Janssen did was bad, this was an utter disgrace.

And I'm so glad what that idiot did cost his team in what was another gutwrenching game between the two bitter rivals as the Rangers made a big statement by coming from a goal down to win 2-1 at Nassau Coliseum. Michael Nylander setup Petr Prucha's power play winner on Simon's major penalty (attempt to injure and end Hollweg's career). But he didn't succeed! Hollweg somehow got up after it and didn't have to leave the bench. No.44 was really lucky. And good too because the hit he threw on Simon was a clean shoulder. Simon went to play the puck and didn't take a vicious check. But after taking it, he clearly lost his brain and pulled one of the most gutless acts ever. It's really amazing Hollweg was okay. What a tough son of a gun!

So, even after Prucha scored his 17th with 5:14 remaining, I knew it wouldn't come easy for this team to sweep the Fishsticks and vault over Toronto (who lost in Ottawa) and idle Carolina into eighth in the East. And when Michal Rozsival was called for a hook, it gave the Islanders a huge chance to tie. They didn't capitalize on their abbreviated man-advantage but with Rick DiPietro pulled for an extra attacker, the Isles came about as close to tying it as possible. I wish I had a picture of it because after Mike Sillinger won the faceoff with under 30 ticks left, it looked like they scored. As the puck was going over the line though, a sprawling Henrik Lundqvist got his stick on it at the last possible moment to pull it out forcing a six minute review. It was eerily similar to Tampa-Calgary Game 6 three years ago when the Flames believed they went ahead with under 9:00 left. But replays were inconclusive on Nikolai Khabibulin's stack of the pads which allowed Martin St. Louis to be the OT hero and force a Game 7 which Tampa took 2-1 to win the Stanley Cup.

In any event, Lundqvist kept it out and then there was one more nervous moment where he was out of position and Jason Blake had what looked like an open net. But before he could get to it and force OT, Rozsival saved the day and poked it away and then Lundqvist danced a jig. Hilarious stuff. But I did the same thing as well. :)

Great win! Now on to Pittsburgh Saturday.