Carcillo, Flyers win Round One

The Rangers took it on the chin literally in their first meeting against the hated Flyers, falling 4-1 at Wachovia Center. So much for making a statement after how last season ended. I only caught the first period and penalties definitely hurt us. While they killed them off, only two shots were registered in a physical stanza that also saw our luck end with a couple of posts early, including a Brandon Prust try.

Being that I hungout with friends, here's how unlucky I was. Ran into CVS for Starburst while the Rangers were on the power play starting the second. Of course, Brandon Dubinsky scored his team-leading eighth putting us ahead while I was inside. Then, as I'm picking up friends, the Flyers scored three unanswered including two from ex-Rangers Blair Betts (rebound) and what sounded like an awful goal off the stick of Russian enigma Nikolay Zherdev. Just dandy. At that point, I turned it off. It'd be sad if it weren't so funny in a gallows sense. Haha

Obviously, I didn't see Daniel Carcillo's hit on Ruslan Fedotenko (seen above) but heard plenty about it from our fans over on Twitter. I'm just going to clarify that I hate Carcillo with a passion. Especially after the garbage he pulled last year with our goalie. However, I don't feel he meant any harm. Fedotenko had his head down and got caught. Still, Carcillo left his feet and it should've been a penalty. How it wasn't I don't get. As for the debate over shoulder or elbow, I'm not sure. I'll leave that to other bloggers from both sides.

Am I upset? A little bit. They did go toe to toe with a better club early but when you get into penalty trouble warranted or not (some claimed it was one-sided), it usually comes back to haunt you. They have to be more disciplined against the Devils tonight. Save me the excuse of a back-to-back against a rested archrival. I don't want to hear about Anton Volchenkov even if it likely will give my fantasy team a boost. This team has proven they can win without Marian Gaborik by playing a grinding style that can frustrate opponents. They simply have to get back to that. The Rangers have been resilient thus far. Get the two points.