UGH!!! Are you kidding me???

Ok, so this NOT going to be a happy blog from me this morning. I just thought I should warn you all right now.

Start off with the fact that I was unable to watch the game last night cause I had to take care of some personal things, throw in that I had to go straight from work to do it, and then finish it off with not getting home until 11:30 last night, and was completely exhausted. That's # 1.

# 2, I had my walkman with me, so I was able to listen, but the battery was on it's last life and I kept having to shut it off, and give it a little bit before I could listen to it again. But I was getting text updates, heard they were up, 1-0, then 2-0, then 3-0. So I'm thinking, "Great, 3-0 lead. This is going better then I thought it would!".

AND THEN MONTREAL HAPPENED!!!

ALL OVER AGAIN!!!

Blowing a 3-0 lead in the playoffs for the first time since 1967, the Rangers dropped Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals, 5-4 to the Penguins at the Igloo last night. Sidney Crosby's one timer deflected in off of Evgeni Malkin's knee with 1:41 remaining in the 3rd period, after a questionable interference call on Martin Straka, awarded the Pens a power play.

I've only seen the highlights people, so I can't really talk that intelligently on the game. But from what I could gather, from highlights, articles and from Tom Renney's press conference, the Rangers didn't play a good game last night. The defense was attrocious. They turned the puck over in all 3 zones, and once Pittsburgh got some life, the lead disappeared, and disappeared quickly. 2 goals in 14 seconds cut it to 3-2. Two more in 20 seconds gave the Pens a 4-3 lead. Are you kidding me? How do you do that? How? Someone explain that to me, please.

And then you wanna talk about penalties? Giving Pittsbugh 6 power plays? Just completely unacceptable. Now granted, Straka's call was, from what I could see, complete garbage, and granted the little whiner, got away with another diving call. And a lot of the goals did take funny bounces (one actually went in, IN BETWEEN Gomez' skate blade - is that even possible???). But does any of this really matter people? The bottom line, when you have a 3-0 lead, YOU DO NOT ALLOW THE OPPOSING TEAM BACK INTO THE GAME!!! I don't care what you have to do, YOU JUST DO IT!! And you don't give the other team life either by rubbing it in there faces, which from what I heard, is what Sean Avery might have done after he scored last night. Are ya kidding me? Knock that crap off Sean. You've had a great postseason, you're getting plenty of publicity this year, and if continue to play well, you'll get an extension. But for the love of humanity, pick and choose your spots!!

Alright, this has basically just been one long complaint from me, and I'm sure you all want me to just shut up and give you the links, so here they are. The News, the Post, NHL.com, and Rangers.com

So, there you have it folks. They sucked last night. And that needs to change. Everything I talked about in my playoff preview the other day, about what the Rangers could not do if they expect to have a shot in this series, they did. And if they continue to do it, this series will be over very quickly. So, they better take a good long look at themselves in the mirror today and come out prepared to do everything humanly possible to win Game 2 tomorrow. I know it's only Game 1, and I should not be panicking, but I am. Sorry.

On a non related note, did you all hear about the Montreal-Philly series? Apparently, a Montreal fan poured beer all over Mike Richards either during or after the game the other night. Nice job Habs fans. Good to see you're starting to act more and more like Philly fans with each passing moment. Burning cars after winning the opening round, pouring beer on an opposing player. What's gonna happen if you win the Cup this year? You gonna burn the city to the ground? Grow up you losers. You represent a legendary NHL city. I have no problem with passion, but show some freaking class. Idiots.

Anyway, I'll probably be back on Monday with a recap of Sunday's game. Hopefully, it will be more positive then this.

In the meantime, enjoy the other series everyone. GO BLUE!!