Every part of my being was telling me we’d lose this game (kinda like this Yanks/Sox deal that’s top-6 right now), yet somehow we pulled it out. VIVA LA GOMEZ!!!

Well, another big weekend in New York sports has passed, and what did we learn? A lot can happen in two days, apparently…

First off, before I get into all the baseball and hockey, I finally checked out 21 with my brother. Everyone’s talking about this flick and with good reason— it’s got a legit plotline, Kate Bosworth supplies ample eye candy (no worries, they hid her anorexia very well), it takes place in Vegas (so you can count on some pointless scenes in strip clubs for even more eye candy), and it’s based on a true story, which adds the always important “I can’t believe someone actually did all this crazy sh*t” dimension to a movie. However, (Spoiler Alert!!! If you haven’t seen the movie yet and plan on doing so, I’d suggest jumping to the next paragraph right about now. Unless you’re like my mom and enjoy having significant parts of/the endings of movies ruined for you. Strange, I know.) that’s a double-edged sword because if you’ve read the book that it’s based on, then that also opens the flick up to all those “Woah, woah, woah, that person never actually did all that crazy sh*t” criticisms— there was no diabolical professor seizing all those poor, naïve MIT kids’ money like an IRS agent on the 2nd Monday in April… along those same lines, no one was counting cards simply as a way to pay their broke ass through Harvard Med. No, these were incredibly cocky, calculating, “I’ll buy you and sell you 20 times in the next 5 minutes” MIT geniuses Vegas was dealing with here… No one got the crap kicked out of them for taking the house for a quarter-million bones… I may be going out on a limb here, but I’d be willing to bet another quarter-million dollars that there were no chicks as hot as Kate Bosworth on the MIT blackjack team, let alone attending the school to begin with… and the Asian dude played a far more significant role in things beyond just saying random funny stuff and being a kleptomaniac, damn bigotous Hollywood casting directors. Still, I had no beef with the flick until I realized that all the supposed shots of the “MIT dorms” and “classes” were really filmed at The Towers and the College of Arts and Sciences buildings at my alma mater, BU. You MIT bastards!!! It wasn’t enough for you to have a frat on our campus that threw the best house parties BU has ever seen? No, you had to go ahead and pawn off our idyllic, city-within-a-city campus as your own too, right? Jerks.

As far as the sports portion of the weekend goes, I managed to intermingle it with some hardcore socializing, which helped me keep a glass-half-full outlook on the respective debacles that the Yanks and Rangers turned in this weekend. Concerning the Yanks—like I said on Friday afternoon, I’m not going to freak out about these early-season series with Boston. Even when we were dropping giant deuces on the baseball world prior to 2004, we would always lose and/or get swept by the Sox in April. What does trouble me, though, is how shoddy Phil Hughes has looked after his hot first outing. I know he’s going to be a borderline ace within the next two years or so, but if this nonsense continues, we’ll all just have to be content with hanging around .500 for the rest of the season.

I’m also aware that people are losing their minds over Girardi’s decision to let Moose pitch to Manny with the game on the line Saturday, but I kinda liked it. No, I’m not crazy and yeah, my judgment was probably influenced (impaired) by the fact that Yellow Angel and I started our pre-game “warm-ups” around 2pm at the Village Tavern, met up with our buddy Chettamos— who knows his way around a beverage or two… or 11 or 12— around 4, and then moseyed on over to Mr. Dennehy’s to catch the rest of the game, but I liked the move for a couple of reasons. For starters, you really can’t take a guy out when he’s only around 80 pitches and he just got done making Big Papi look like a mannequin for an entire at-bat. I don’t care how badly Ortiz is struggling, Moose was dealing and, for the first time in forever, I was actually confident that he could get Manny to expand his zone. It didn’t happen, but still, everyone has to like what they’re seeing from #35 this year. The other thing that sold me on it was how Girardi showed confidence in him there. Last year, Torre would’ve taken Mussina out in that spot, and with someone as delicate as he is, that could easily lead to a boatload of walks and home runs in his next few starts. Now don’t get me wrong— I’m not saying it was the right move, ‘cause it obviously cost us the game, but I didn’t mind it and I actually think it’ll do Moose/us some good down the line.

I will lose my mind over the Rangers’ Game 3 crapfest though. Just when it looked like we had finally put all that regular season inconsistency behind us (not sure why I even entertained the notion that we had), we go ahead and give a game away to a team that plays from behind about as well as the Knicks play period. The stupid penalties just have to stop, even if it means giving guys healthy scratches in the playoffs to get the point across. I know, I know, some of the calls were total BS (the goalie interference on Sean Avery is the first one that comes to mind), but seriously, when you’re dictating the flow of the series the way the Rangers have been, you almost have to beg the referees to blow the whistle on you, and that’s pretty much what they did. I mean seriously, if you catch the puck with your right hand, throw an outlet pass up ice that would make Jason Kidd proud, and then you put on the “What, me?” face when you get sent to the box for a hand pass, then you deserved to be fined and/or suspended for a game in my book. It’s just inexcusable. I still think the Blueshirts will make good on my prediction, but if they don’t, they’ll only have themselves to blame, which would be fitting considering that’s been the story with them all season long anyway.

So what’s the silver lining in all this? In another two days, the Yanks will get a crack at redemption against the Sox, as will the Rangers against the Devils. Let’s hope for the best…

The Rangers and Yankees combined to deliver New York sports fans one of the greatest nights in recent memory on Friday. Here are some quick thoughts on both.

First, the Rangers going up 2-0 on the Lamoriellos…
- This series is over. I know you Blueshirt die-hards are sitting at your computers right now saying, “Now why’d you have to jinx it?” but do you really think the Devils have it in them to come back? Right, didn’t think so. The most ominous sign for them had to be when every time Brodeur froze the puck in Game 2, the Devils began sucker-punching, horse-collaring, and/or slashing our forwards. Usually that’s reserved for when a team is already down 2-0, or on the verge of going down 3-0, and they’ll do anything to shift the momentum in the series, even if it means instigating a bench clearing brawl. The fact that the Devils resorted to doing this after the first game of the series tells you all you need to know about where they think this thing is heading…

- … and that sense of dread is the result of two harsh realities. The first is that the Devils simply can’t slip the puck past The King enough times to even have a shot in this series. Now a lot of this has to do with the fact that the Devils just flat-out suck on offense, but Henrik Lundqvist’s dominance is obviously a huge factor as well. It’s not like the Devils didn’t have their opportunities in Game 2– they had plenty, including 5 man-advantages– and it looked like hell was going to freeze over before they’d score (pun 100% intended), and even when they did put one in, it took a perfect “pass” by Elias and subsequent redirect by Madden to do the trick. Simply put, Henrik is out of his mind right now and, if history is any indicator, a blazingly hot King might be all the Rangers need to be parading down the Canyon of Heroes in June.

- The second sign that the end is near has to be the “shaky” play of Martin Brodeur. Now I use the term “shaky” in a relative sense considering he’s arguably the greatest goalie ever, but there’s no question Lundqvist is outplaying him, especially in key spots. Plus, it was interesting to see how Marty unraveled a bit there in the third after Jagr’s fluky goal. You could tell Marty was fuming after teammate Paul Martin accidently nudged Brodeur off balance and basically gave Jagr an open door to fire one off his back and into the net (sorry so detailed there, just making sure all you non-hockey fans/people who didn’t watch the game have some concept of what I’m referring to)… and just 23 seconds later, he got beat on a shot that he probably stops 99 out of 100 times IN HIS SLEEP — a knuckling wrister from Sean Avery from about 20 feet out. It’s rare to see Brodeur off his game like that– letting one bad goal cloud his judgment– but he was, and the Rangers capitalized.

- And that’s how this series has gone so far anyway– the Rangers pounce on every little Devils’ mishap, while New Jersey can’t do anything even when they have the upper hand. To me, Ryan Callahan’s shorthanded goal on Wednesday night was the turning point. Game 1 was tied 1-a-piece, the Devils had a chance to go for the jugular with the man advantage… but instead, the Rangers not only ended up stealing home-ice advantage, but then they went ahead and took both games at the Rock to boot. I know I picked the Rangers in five, but I wouldn’t be shocked if this thing is over by Wednesday.

Alright, the Yanks’ big win in Fenway…
- I know it’s still early, but Brian Cashman is looking like a genius right now for believing that Chinny-Ming could expand his repertoire and become a true ace instead of jumping the gun trading Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy, et al for Johan (and really, who could’ve blamed him if he did?). The guy looks absolutely unhittable so far and, if not for Bobby Abreu, he might have been, literally.

- Speaking of Abreu, what the hell happened there?! Dude, your glove is a f#@king picnic basket, there’s no excuse for that.

- He’s no Derek Jeter… hell, he’s not even the Attorney General anymore… but I like this Alberto Gonzalez kid. He’s got a decent bat, plays a solid short, and keeps his wits about him. And “ssshh,” keep this on the D/L, but it looks like he’s got way more range than #2. The credit here has to go to Joey G though. The easy thing (aka the Joe Torre thing) to do would have been to stick Wilson Betemit in Jeets’ place and then watch him commit like 15 errors in a big spot Friday night. Instead, Girardi called up a young’n, got him in the mix at KC so he wouldn’t be shellshocked in Fenway, and then threw him head-first into The Rivalry. So far, so good…

- Everyday I think my man-crush on Joey G can’t get any bigger, but it does. First of all, I love how our pitchers are attacking the inside part of the plate. Never would’ve happened with #6 in charge of things; he’d call for meatballs to be served up to Manny and Ortiz (somewhere, John Kerry is convinced that’s a typo) all day long, with an intentional walk or two sprinkled in here and there. But, most importantly, I am infatuated with Girardi’s use of defensive shifts. Remember all the times we would play the Sox and our guys would smoke the ball, and you were sure it was gonna go for a base hit… until you realized they had their guys perfectly positioned so it just turned out to be an at-’em-ball? Now that’s happening for us instead of against us. About damn time someone started paying attention to the freaking scouting reports.

- Anyone else cool with Molina being the full-time catcher, having Jorgie DH, and just letting Damon rot on the bench? After seeing Molina’s defense/the way he calls games for the last week, I’m not sure I ever want to see Jorge behind home plate again. Plus, Jose’s offense ain’t half-bad either. Still, I love Jorgie’s bat, so DH he must. Damon can just give Melk-man and Godzilla a day off every month or so.

- Again, I don’t want to jinx anything, but I don’t believe in stuff like that anyway so here goes– when was the last time you can remember David Ortiz having an 0-fer against the Yanks? Better yet, when was the last time you can remember him grounding into a double play against us? I don’t know what to make of his slump, but how long do you think this has to continue before terms like “steroids” and “HGH” start entering the conversation? I’ll be fair and give it at least until the end of April.

I’m gonna keep this relatively short and sweet because I know the majority of you will gloss over what I have to say here anyway. It’s ok, don’t worry– I won’t take offense. I’m well aware that most of you have no idea that the Rangers and Devils are about to drop the puck on the playoff version of their Hudson River grudge match tonight, and if you do, then you probably don’t give two sh*ts anyway. I mean come on now, we’ve only put out like 4 hockey-related articles in the last 4 months; we know the drill, SC Nation. Still, I’ve gotta say something about this series because I’d be remiss if I didn’t…

For those of you still reading this blurb– likely because you’re Blueshirt diehards– you’re well aware that the Rangers owned the living crap out of the Devils this season, going 7-0-1 against them. More than just outscoring them, Henrik Lundqvist put on a show against Jersey, posting a 1.09 GAA with 2 shutouts. When asked if “The King” was in their heads, Devils center Dainius Zubrus responded ever-so eloquently, “No, it’s not like he’s in our heads.” Wow, very convincing, Mr. Hockey-player-with-a-chick’s-first-name. The funny thing is, I tend to agree with him, but not for the reason you might think. It’s not that the Devils’ are psyched out by Mr. Gold Medal so much as they have a harder time scoring than the dudes in Superbad. They set a franchise record by being shutout 11 times this season, and they recorded their lowest goal output (208) since the team came over from Colorado in 1982. Yeah, that’s bad. Couple that with the fact that, for the first time since ‘94, the Rangers have WAY more playoff experience on their side with the likes of Stanley Cup winners Drury, Gomez, Shannahan, and Jagr, not to mention the rest of the crew who have been through the wars the past two years, and I just don’t see how this series even gets interesting. And that’s not to say that the individual games won’t raise your blood pressure, but when the Rangers win the thing in five games, there won’t be a whole lot to get nervous about overall. Bring on the Habs (who should knock off the Bruins in five as well)!!!

Wanna know when the handwriting’s on the proverbial wall? When you gag on a 2-0 first-period lead, back-in to a 3-2 shoot-out win… and then you celebrate like you just won the Stanley Cup because you didn’t choke away home-ice advantage in the first-round to the Rangers after you held a 4-point lead on them in the standings with just a week to play… not to mention it was your FIRST WIN OF THE SEASON AGAINST THEM IN 8 GAMES!!! Sorry to break it to the Devils, but they don’t hand out points for overtime losses in the playoffs. Come to think of it, there aren’t any shoot-outs either. Good luck extending things beyond five games, douchebags.

What’s more satisfying than clinching a playoff spot? Doing it at the hands of the New York “Stick ‘em all on their own” Island-ers, and in their glorified-garbage-dump of an arena no less. And don’t look now, but for all the issues we had during the first few months of the season, Jags is starting to heat up, the power play’s coming along nicely, and, low and behold, we’re right where everyone thought we would be when the puck dropped in October– among the Eastern Conference’s elite. I know we most likely won’t have home-ice in the first-round (though we’ve still got a shot at it if we take care of business again tomorrow night and the Devils choke on some Philly cheesesteaks), but who cares? If there’s any sport in which home-ice/field/court advantage means jack, it’s hockey. Plus, considering the Lamoriellos can’t buy a win against us anymore than Martin Brodeur can resist “playing the puck” inside of his sister-in-law’s trapezoid, I like our chances. Let’s Go Rangers!!!

I thought the Rangers/Devils game was about as good as it could get, and really, can it get much better than seeing a guy score the game-winning goal with 3:06 left in the game while skidding along the ice ON HIS BACK?! (Make sure to catch the highlight. Sure, it was probably a lucky goal, but Chris “I eat big-game-situations for breakfast” Drury’s assist on the play was pretty impressive nonetheless.) Well, apparently during Tournament time that’s the wrong question to ask ’cause it can ALWAYS get better as the back-and-forth OT thriller between Xavier and West Virginia proved. R.I.P. Mountaineers– while you may not be moving on to the Elite 8, you will always hold a special place in our hearts for giving us the greatest moment of the Tourney thus far.

As Chuck Wipple astutely pointed out a few weeks back, there’s about as much interest in hockey these days as there is in women’s basketball. Though, for the record, if this was the kind of action going down at WNBA arenas across the country, “chick ball,” as I like to call it, would be America’s new favorite pastime. (Disclaimer: the players would have to look like this too, obviously. Sorry, just looking for an excuse to show that picture again.)

Anyway, this isn’t the first time someone’s used hot chicks to get people interested in hockey, so now that I have your attention, let me be the first to tell you that your New York Rangers have been the NHL’s hottest team since January 20th, winning 15 of 21 outright, while notching 33 points altogether in that span. So after languishing anywhere between 8th and 11th place for the better part of the season’s first few months, the Rangers now find themselves 3 points out of first place in the Eastern Conference with 11-games left to play. Sounds like a playoff run to me. Granted, I still expect the Pens to knock us off in the Conference Finals (I’d explain why, but I know you don’t care), but at least the Blueshirts will be playing some meaningful hockey in May for the first time since 1997. And while you may not give a crap now, you will when watching the Rangers becomes the hip thing to do like it was back in ‘94. So treat this little Ranger update as a PSA of sorts and jump on the bandwagon before your buddies do sometime in the next two months. Still not interested? Well then make yourself useful and start petitioning the WNBA competition committee for matchups like this.

PS– Here’s a bonus pic of a another cutie I found while doing my hockey “research”.

Does anybody really care about the NHL? I was perusing the newspaper last week and randomly discovered that the NHL is already in the second-half of its season. I was even more dumbfounded when I found out that they actually played their All-Star Game a couple weekends ago. I spend a lot of time watching Sports Center and I swear they never mentioned anything about it. Come to think of it, I heard more about Tom Brady’s frequent trips to New York to visit one of his baby mommas (what happened to the other one anyway?) than any news about the NHL. Now, I must admit that I don’t particularly care for hockey, and I’ll only “glance” at a hockey article when I run out of other material on the “throne,” but hockey to me is the equivalent of women’s basketball— there are only like 10 people who actually love it. Even ESPN agrees. They have no nightly program dedicated to Canadian Ice Jousting like they do with shows such as “NFL Live,” “NBA Fastbreak,” and “Baseball Tonight.” I think hockey will become the first sport to have all its games broadcasted exclusively on the internet, and even then I’m pretty sure Subway Chatter will have more internet traffic than anything the NHL puts out.

Now bear with me here. I know that no one watches hockey, but something pretty big happened at the Garden last night: the Greatest Ranger of All Time– Brian Leetch– had his number retired. Think that title is misplaced? Well that’s understandable considering all anyone remembers is Mark Messier’s guarantee during the ‘94 Conference Finals and the ensuing hat trick that spared him the misfortune of becoming hockey’s version of Patrick Ewing. But had it not been for #2’s Conn Smythe-winning (playoff MVP) performance, the Rangers wouldn’t have even sniffed the Stanley Cup; Leetch racked up 34 points in 23 games, the second highest total ever for a defenseman. And that doesn’t even account for his two Norris Trophies (best defenseman), his Calder Trophy (rookie of the year, which is unheard of for a blue liner), and his 75 Ranger records. Leetch was one of maybe 3 players in the last 20 years– the other two being Ray Borque and Chris Chelios– who could control an entire game from the blue line. Yup, the guy was THAT good. My only beef with Leetch is that he played one season at Chestnut Hill University (commonly referred to as Boston College). But I guess I can let that slide.