I’m a little late with a wrapup, my apologies for that. I did want to chip in a little bit of what I saw last night during the Rangers vs Penguins game though.

The Rangers played the kind of game that they have the talent to play every night. Scott Gomez was flying, Jaromir Jagr looked unstoppable off the boards, the defense was shut down as well as physical, Ryan Hollweg made the boards rattle (and received plenty of ice time and penalty minutes for it, even though I feel the 10 minute penalty at the end was uncalled for, for either player) and for the first time in a while it looked like all four lines had some kind of chemistry.

With the Rangers going out to Minnesota and Colorado Thursday and Friday, they need to keep up that pace. Shooting whenever possible, taking the body and being defensively responsible are going to go a long way in determining if the Rangers can come away with four points. Look for Henrik Lundqvist to play both games, as long as he is healthy, and for the rest of the lineup remaining the same.

In other news, the suspension to Chris Simon is undoubtedly one of the hotter topics to discuss the last few days. 30 games is a long time to sit, but Simon has managed to draw that on himself. There was no place in the game for what he did, and he deserved every game. I also feel that this should be a last straw incident, and for the remainder of Simon’s career, he should be on probation. Anything else of this nature that has him looking to hurt someone should result in immediate banning from the NHL, no questions asked. There’s no reason to do the things he did. We don’t need to draw even more critics on a sport that is generally known for being violent when it is played within the rules.

Rangers and Minnesota, Thursday night at 8 pm.