I've got the plate

for Scott's piece of humble pie.

Rangers 4, 'Canes 0

At least the Rangers could claim in losing 2-1 to 'Canes last week that it was back half of back-to-back games. What is the 'Canes excuse for last night's pathetic performance?

Rangers just seemed to dominate. There didn't seem to be much hitting by either team (big disadvantage for 'Canes; since Rangers do not have physical defense, they actually can be disrupted with physical play)

I watched most of the game, and of what I've seen this year, it was the Rangers best effort. Solid skating through all 3 periods, with no let-up. Both of their first two lines dominated the top lines of the 'Canes. And Lundquist clearly was the better goalie over Ward.

There actually are a lot of similarities between these goalies in that both were celebrated rookies last year. The difference is that Lundquist played the whole season as Rangers regular goalie last year and so acquired the experience that helps him through tough stretches. Ward is now finding out what it means to be a full-time goalie in 80-game season and may not be quite as ready. If I were the Laviolette, I'd be spelling Ward much more, giving Grahame, their backup, a good 30 games during the year. That's exactly what Rangers coach Tom Renney is doing this year, giving Kevin Weeks a good number of games. A lot of teams in the past 10 to 20 years have gone to a dominant #1 goalie for like 95 percent of their games, a la Martin Brodeur and Dominik Hasek and Patrick Roy. But I believe with young goalies, you need to spell them more in the first year or two. As good as Buffalo is right now, watch out for Ryan Miller later in the season if he plays too many games. I think they were actually fortunate that he missed a few games with injury.

Meanwhile, it sure is fun to watch these great young goalies come of age with their teams. This is the next generation, as opposed to, say teams that still depend on old warhorses like Hasek or Osgood. Sorry, Scott, couldn't resist.