TeamPoints
Flyers . . . 21
New York Islanders . . . 21
Washington . . . 20
Buffalo . . . 19
New York Rangers . . . 18
Ottawa . . . 18
Tampa Bay . . . 15
Montreal . . . 14
New Jersey . . . 14
These are the things you spend time figuring out, in between scoring the fights and waiting for the Rangers to vow revenge. It is what happens after a 2-0 Flyers victory whose main event featured professional heavyweight Dan Carcillo's annihilation of the untested Marian Gaborik, followed by several attempts by the Rangers to even things up. They didn't.
Gaborik is an excellent player for the Rangers, a skilled player, a scorer who happens to fight like somebody named Marian. He really does not do this kind of thing for a living. I mean, put it this way: Carcillo had as many fights last night (two) as Gaborik has now had in an NHL career that began in 2000.
And, well, it showed. Carcillo dropped him with a half-dozen quick right hands and said afterward that he was "licking his chops" when Gaborik dropped his gloves first; nice. This has the makings of a hell of a first-round playoff series.
Because the Rangers are steamed. The belief in their dressing room was that an unwritten rule was broken when Carcillo obliged Gaborik's invitation - and, between you and me, don't you wish somebody would write down all of these unwritten rules and be done with it, so the rest of us don't have to be guessing all the time?
Anyway, Rangers coach John Tortorella said, "There's no honor, there's no honor in that. As I've always said, I don't play the game, I don't wear the uniform. I don't want to say too much about it but there's simply no honor. It's pretty embarrassing."
(For the record, Tortorella saved his best stuff for New York Post reporter Larry Brooks, with whom he has been very publicly feuding for a while now. At one point, Tortorella told Brooks, "You were probably beat up on the bus stop most of the time." Mike
