Rangers. The Freaking Rangers.

Well, the DP drama continues. Is he hurt? Is he not hurt? Coach says yes. Team calls up Yann Danis to carry MacD's bags tonight. Botta vs. Logan in one of the stranger faceoffs in our time.

Let's face it: weird shit follows this team around like a bad girlfriend.

The Logan vs. Botta debate is nothing I am going to touch. You know why? Because I know nothing about it. When Linzi and I started this website, I knew for a fact that I was not going to cover pissing contests. My only "deal" (for lack of a better word) with either of the websites is that I am super-glad each exists so that we can get some straight-shooting and news about the team we all love. If there is a professional beef or whatever, out official position is that we hold out hands up. While we are linked from Greg's site--and we love the feedback we've gotten from the traffic funneled our way--we rarely post or make comments there. I've done it maybe twice on the Botta site and that was to get some clarification regarding Mark Parrish's PTO contract with Bridgeport from a guy who would know a heck of a lot better than me.

So, tonight we have the Rangers. No Ricky. No Brendan Witt (for how long?) and no Freddy Meyer (for what, exactly?). Brett Skinner has been called up to the main roster according to multiple sources. He's been enjoying one heck of a start in the American League after what was termed a good camp with the Isles. So we will see him in action tonight.

Ricky was, as you all know, pulled after the first period Saturday night against the Whalercanes. He had a couple of giveaways where he was trying to force the play with the long passes and man, that one he handed to Iron Hands Chad LaRose was a stomach punch. Sing along with me, because we all know the words: Rick needs to trust his defensemen and not try to do too much. Scott Gordon told Point Blank the same thing we've been hearing for years. FOR YEARS.

Joey MacDonald came in and played admirably for the remainder of the game. The Isles put up a team-record 60 shots on Cam Ward (by the way, Ward is pretty good) and even a PENALTY SHOT with seven-tenths of a second on the clock wasn't enough to pull the Isles through to tie Carolina.

Seriously, though, Dougie, right in the breadbasket?

Oh, and Kyle Okposo, Frans Nielsen, and Jeff Tambellini haven't scored yet this year. Bergenheim has 2 and he plays like hi pants are on fire every shift he is out there. Nate Thompson took one for the team in a fight with Tim Gleason. The size difference was almost as funny as when Lou the sandwich girl told Chuck that their vast height differences intrigued her last season on "Chuck". Different kind of dance partners, I know, but Nate gave it a shot and it did fire the team up for a while.

Last, I know you all saw the hit on Brandon Sutter from the previously mentioned Doug Weight. Legal hit; Welcome to the NHL. The Carolina players knew it too because no one stepped in to start a fracas or anything with Weight as Doug looked over to see if the kid was okay. Doug is a classy dude and known throughout the league as a good guy and not a cheap guy. Big thumbs up to Chris Campoli, too, who was right there playing Sundance in case someone was going to come after his teammate, bad shoulder and all.