Friday Morning Bathroom Break (3-5-21)
This Day in Music (3-5-1982)
Beloved actor and lead singer of The Blues Brothers, John Belushi, dies of a drug overdose at age 32. Some day, Joliet Jake and Elwood Blues will get the band back together again.
Thursday evening was a mostly successful one for New York’s winter franchises. At Madison Square Garden, in the heart of the city, the Knicks once again topped the Detroit Pistons, 114-104, and continued to let the good times roll. The Knicks are a team that, dare I say it, is beginning to play with a certain level of innate swagger. This is not on display every night, as the young team still will look a bit over-matched from time to time when the competition gets stiff. However, this Knicks team led by Tom Thibodeau has learned to play with confidence and an understanding that there are teams in the league they are capable of running off the floor. Long-suffering Knicks fans are breathing the air of this confidence like they have not done so in years, and truth be told, they haven’t. All too often, fans have seen even the most competently hapless Knicks teams play down to the competition of any and all comers. While it may be too soon yet to say these tendencies have been thoroughly exorcised, the play of this current iteration of Knicks has fans turning on the MSG network half-expecting their team to win. There isn’t a Knicks fan under 30 who knows what that feels like with any consistency. Yet, consistency is just the thing that Julius Randle and the workman-like Knicks have provided. After years of what’s felt like an abusive relationship between the franchise and its fans, New York is learning to love again.
Across the river to the Jersey side, the Broadway Blueshirts found Thursday evening to be something of a mixed bag. The final box score would give one little to no indication of such ambiguity, as the Rangers thoroughly pounded the New Jersey Devils, 6-1, in an offensive onslaught led by yet another hat-trick by Chris Kreider. Though, as the old law of Murphy states, “whatever can happen will,” and things certainly happened in the third period for the Rangers. After a rather terrific performance stopping 32 of 33 Devils shots, Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin went down for a save with 5:52 left in the game and stayed down, collapsing in a heap before two of his teammates carried him off the ice. Though I must advise that my eyes have not been accredited with a PhD, this was not a comforting sight for Rangers fans to see. After taking lumps to start the season, Shesterkin has been rounding into the form fans expect to see out of their net-minding phenom. While Alexander Georgiev remains a more than competent replacement, any injury of significance to Shesterkin would put an inordinate amount of responsibility on the former of the Rangers dynamic duo. Shesterkin’s injury is, for the time being, is considered a “lower body injury,” according to reports and will be re-evaluated Friday. The Rangers and the Devils will re-convene in Newark on Saturday, and the Blueshirts will look to keep rolling offensively as the team completely overwhelmed New Jersey Thursday night. The aforementioned hat-trick by Kreider led the show, as the longest-tenured Ranger continues to pick the team up by the scruff of its neck in the absence of Artemi Panarin. Rangers fans were also treated to a moment of sheer brilliance by 2020 first overall pick Alexis Lafreniere who buried a devastating wrist shot over the shoulder of Mackenzie Blackwood from along the boards. While it was truly a team effort at the Rock on Thursday, Rangers fans had to like what they saw out of the teams driving forces.
Offense was the theme of the night Thursday as the Islanders set the Old Barn on Hempstead Turnpike ablaze in a 5-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres. Though the tenor of Islanders write-ups have often been defense-centric, as that is after all, the Islanders way, Thursday offered a taste of what this team can look like when firing on all cylinders. First period goals by Noah Dobson and Matt Martin gave the Islanders the onus to play their game from the jump, and every Buffalo counter-punch was answered by an equally stiff knockout by Lou’s Goons. While the Sabres were twice able to come within striking distance of the Islanders, goals by Jordan Eberle and Anthony Beauvilier kept Buffalo at bay until Matt Martin was able to vanquish any fleeting hopes of a comeback with just over five minutes remaining with his second goal. The win keeps the Islanders stride for stride with the Washington Capitals for first place in the Eastern Division, though the Caps do find themselves with a game-in-hand on the Islanders. Despite this, the path forward for the Islanders is fairly clear. The team sets the standard for goal differential in the East at +11, and they find themselves a dizzying 8-0-2 when playing on home ice. One has to believe that the (hopefully) inevitable addition of fans to the mix will only solidify the Nassau Coliseum as a fortress of pain for opposing teams. Though the team has much work ahead of them if they hope to improve on last year’s Eastern Conference Final-berth, the Islanders continue to prove they are up to whatever challenge faces them.