Modified Postgame: Rangers Fall Short of Flames Despite Great Effort, Drury Suffers Concussion

I do not know what angers me more. The fact that there was no penalty called when Curtis Glencross cut a path across the ice to take a cheap-shot on Chris Drury's head, or the fact that none of Drury's teammates came to his defense. Say what you want about Chris Drury, no one deserves to be the victim of a headshot like the Rangers Captain was tonight, it is simply uncalled for. It has just been deemed a concussion...not good.

Just nineteen seconds in, Drury did not have the puck on the play, and his head was looking down, having no idea that Glencross was approaching. Drury was clearly blindsided and Glencross took advantage of that and faced absolutely no consequences for his actions. I expect a suspension to be handed out to Glencross as soon as tomorrow.

Brandon Dubinsky also left the game after he took a shot to the wrist/hand, and headed off to the locker-room. Neither forward returned, but it put the Rangers down two centers. No word just yet on how long they will be on injured reserve list, as that will most likely come either tomorrow or Monday.

Anyway, now I will just run through some key points in the game.

I felt that Dan Girardi had a spectacular game, scoring the goal in the first, but also on the defensive side of things.

Vinny Prospal gave it his all tonight, and his effort was displayed on Girardi's goal which he basically created.

I also did not agree with the refs calling a penalty on Kotalik twenty seconds after the fact. I do not care what these rules that have been thrown out there say, a linesman does not have the right to make a call of that sort after the play. I also do not understand as to why Kotes sat for four minutes, because there was no blood shed from what I saw.

That penalty ended up costing the Rangers, as former Blueshirt Nigel Dawes fed Jarome Iginla in the slot for what would turn out to be the game winner.

The Rangers had multiple powerplay opportunities after that, and did a pretty good job on them, just weren't able to convert.

Ales Kotalik played very well, despite not burying two prime scoring chances.

The game came down to goaltending, and Kiprusoff out-dueled Valiquette in most aspects. The third goal by Rene Bourque, which I still cannot believe went in, was an extremely soft goal allowed by Vally. Besides that, he was fairly solid, but Kipper was better.

The Rangers displayed great effort in this one, and even though they lost, you must give them credit for staying in the game despite losing two key players and dealing with very weak calls. Nonetheless, the Blueshirts will come home as there Western Canada road trip has come to an end.