B R O A D W A Y***B L U E S H I R T S

BlueShirt Bulletin wrote:

There is no excuse for the cowardly Garnet Exelby to have been targeted by the Rangers for his dangerous and unsportsmanlike play. After he and Steve McCarthy went hunting for Petr Prucha's head and knee, and after he jabbed Jaromir Jagr after a whistle, the Rangers -- Colton Orr, Ryan Hollweg, and Shanahan -- should have gone after Marian Hossa, Ilya Kovalchuk, or someone of that order. An idiot like Exelby will not be deterred if he's targeted -- he will only be deterred if the same caliber players he targets are targeted in return. That said, kudos to the Rangers for going after him anyway, for sticking up for their teammates, as they should.

There is no excuse for the type of hellacious officiating we saw tonight -- both ways. The Rangers gave up an early five on three goal on a pair of penalties that were not, by any interpretation of the rule book, new NHL or whatever, penalties. Fedor Tyutin was interfered with going for a puck and was called for a high stick while falling out of control, while two seconds earlier Dan Girardi's high stick was unseen and/or uncalled. And the non-call on Exelby headhunting Prucha -- many might say Exelby should be suspended for that, we say the referee should be suspended for not calling it.

Worst of all, the Thrashers scored a goal on an offsides that Stephen Walkom, NHL director of officiating, had the gall to tell Joe Micheletti was correctly uncalled because the guy had control of the puck while preceding it into the zone. Except that the very reason he was preceding the puck into the zone was because he had lost control! And Joe accepted the explanation even as the replay showed how wrong the call was. Sure, the Rangers were guilty of incredibly undisciplined play in allowing that goal to happen, as Joe pointed out correctly. But that still should have come to an end when the player put himself offsides.

Finally, despite it all, there is no excuse for Ranger fans to jump off the bandwagon so early in the season. The last two seasons proved, at both ends of the spectrum, exactly what this stage of the season means in the grand scheme of things. Some things obviously need to be improved on -- some of them dramatically. But a fan base who like to believe they are among the most knowledgeable in hockey surely knows that nothing was ever decided in mid-October, especially the fate of a successful coach who has not done a single thing that any GM in his right mind would consider fire-able. This is a season of high hopes, and that is what everyone will be judged on. But that will happen next spring, not this fall.