I’m sure when I look back at the two seasons I’ve spent covering this team and writing this blog, there have been crazier days around the Rangers. It’s just that none spring to mind right now.

All I can tell you is for the briefest time—from the time when I first received a phone call about Sean Avery from my office, to when I started checking things out on my own at the MSG Training Center—I was under the impression that today was going to be a much darker story than it actually was.

Readers of the blog may know I like to poke fun at Avery, and not without reason. I’d call him colorful, but given the various storylines swirling around him this season—contract negotiations, shoulder injuries, inappropriate cancer remarks, wrist injuries, libel suits, media boycotts, dates with Olsen twins, prostitution rings, goalie interference rules, snubbed handshakes, more media boycotts, Vogue internships, and last but not least, cardiac arrests—I’m not sure colorful does him justice.

It doesn’t matter if only some of those stories are true.

And yet given all that, those uncertain moments today were hardly amusing. Avery may be the most hated player in the NHL, but he’s also someone’s son, and a number of people’s teammate. I don’t care how many F-bombs he drops at opposing players in a game. I doubt anyone wanted to hear that he was in serious danger.

And if he wasn’t ever in cardiac arrest, Avery was still severely compromised last night by playing with a lacerated spleen. But he kept playing nonetheless, and although he didn’t know the exact nature of his injury, he didn’t bother going to the hospital until after the was over. Suddenly the one hockey game I played with a mild sore throat doesn’t seem so tough.

“Sean’s an incredibly gutsy player and he takes this very personally,” Brendan Shanahan said. “We all do. We all take this very personally. And sometimes when you’re in a game like that and you’re hurting, (you think) maybe it’s a bruise, maybe its a pull.. It’s when you wind down after the game you realize its’ something worse.

“Sean gets a lot of attention for a lot of other things – some fair, some unfair — but the one thing you can never question his competitiveness or his desire.”

A couple of real quick notes:

The Rangers just confirmed that Sean Avery was rushed to St. Vincents’s Medical Center in Manhattan to treat a lacerated spleen.

The injury was caused by a hit in the Rangers’ Game 3 loss, the team said.

Team sources are refuting a report that said Avery was in cardiac arrest. Instead, they said Avery was complaining about an injury after the game, and that he walked into the hospital with team physician Dr. Andrew Feldman.

Here’s the official release:

SEAN AVERY SIDELINED FOR REMAINDER OF SEASON

New York, April 30, 2008—New York Rangers President and General Manager Glen Sather announced today that forward Sean Avery suffered a lacerated spleen in last night’s game, and will be sidelined for the remainder of the season. He was taken to St. Vincent’s hospital after the game, and was admitted following a CT scan. He is expected to make a full recovery during the off-season.

Both Greg Moore and P.A. Parenteau, possible replacements for Game 4, are on the ice for practice.

More in a bit…

The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced Rangers fans’ feelings of resentment should not be directed at Sidney Crosby or Marc-Andre Fleury or Ryan Hollweg (although none of those players should be very high on your list right now) but someone you probably wouldn’t expect:

Joffrey Lupul.

Think about it. It was the Flyers forward’s overtime winner against the Capitals that set up this second-round match-up with the Penguins, and what’s become increasingly apparent is the Rangers have run into a buzz saw.

Sure, the Rangers are not immune to blame here. Their power play has been dreadful, they let a potential tone-setting win slip from their fingers in Game 1, and last night at least, Henrik Lundqvist was several notches below brilliant. And this is to say nothing of Hollweg, a decidedly flawed but earnest player who may have chosen the worst possible moment to lose his composure.

But the reality is the young Penguins are riding too much of a wave right now. In a game when the Rangers had to bleed for every goal, the Penguins hardly needed to break a sweat for their five. Yes, the Rangers carried the play. But in a game they lost by two, that’s like saying they dominated everywhere but the offensive zone, the defensive zone, and all points in between.

Which brings us back to Lupul. I know what you’re thinking. Should the Capitals have beaten the Flyers in that first round series, all it would have meant is the Rangers would have a chance to get past a vulnerable Montreal team, and then run into the same predicament against the Penguins in the conference finals.

But timing is everything, and it seems like the Rangers drew Crosby, Malkin, and Co. at the absolute worst time.

Of course, there’s still at least one more game to go, and the Rangers say they’re not giving up. I don’t think they will, and if the stars align tomorrow, they very well could be headed back to Pittsburgh for Game 5.

But that’s the difference right now between these two teams. The Rangers have needed everything to go right to beat this team. So far, nothing has.

More from practice at noon….

The Rangers really are trying to convince us … and probably more accurately, trying to convince themselves, that the task they now face is not impossible.

“We have a chance to make history,” Jaromir Jagr said. “What else? It might be my last game, man. Let’s make it special.”

He sounded sad when he said it, sad that the next game, or the game after that, really could end his NHL career. Maybe he knows what we don’t know and he’s not letting on. Maybe he doesn’t know for sure yet. Maybe it really is up to the Rangers. Maybe it’s not.

But tonight, this was really the elimination game, because nobody comes back from 0-3. It happened twice, as you know—1942, when the Leafs did it to the Red Wings in the finals, and in 1975 when the Islanders did it to the Penguins. More often, a team that goes down 0-3 mails in Game 4. Or gives it a token effort and goes down. Or gives it everything and that isn’t enough.

It’s hard to say the Rangers haven’t played hard in this series, but it’s hard to say they’ve played anywhere near well enough to beat a Pittsburgh team that still seems eminently beatable, but very, very sound.

And when it was 3-3, and the Rangers had the Penguins trapped in their own end for what seemed like an hour late in the second period, and the crowd had awakened from its moaning, groaning nap, Ryan Hollweg’s penalty helped Pittsburgh get back to hits feet and get the lead.

Tom Renney admitted that was a tough penalty to take, and added that “nobody feels worse than Ryan Hollweg” and that the Rangers very nearly had it killed off.

Ryan Hollweg: “I was playing my game.”

That was the turning point, and it was the worst decision a Ranger made all night, but it certainly as far from the only reason they lost. Now they’re in trouble. If they’d won tonight, being down 2-1 would have felt, at least for a couple of days, that they were tied or even ahead in the series. But 0-3, that’s a whole other animal.

UPDATE, 9:33 p.m.: So this is how it’s going to end. The crowd here is dead. The Rangers in two consecutive power plays threw everything they could at the Penguins. But nothing could get through, and the rest of the game has been a formality as a result.

Now the only question is if the Rangers can even get back to Pittsburgh or if the season ends here on Thursday night.

UPDATE, 9:03 p.m.: Chris Drury is back for the third period.

UPDATE, second intermission: One post might not be enough to cover everything that’s happened. The Rangers tie it up, the place is beside itself, and then Ryan Hollweg takes a boneheaded penalty. Malkin scores his second to give the Pens back the lead. Pittsburgh has four goals on 13 shots, not exactly Vezina numbers for Henrik Lundqvist.

UPDATE, 8:22 p.m.: A 1:15 in 5-on-3s go nowhere, and Chris Drury is doubled over leaving the ice. Other than that, things are going great for the Rangers.

UPDATE, first intermission: The death watch might officially be on. Bottom line is the Rangers dominated that period but literally had to scratch and claw for their one goal, while the Penguins didn’t need to work much at all for their three. Yes, the Rangers can come back against this team. But it’s going to take a couple of bounces their way.

UPDATE, 7:40 P.M.: Rangers goal after a lengthy video review. The red light never goes off. But Michel Therrien’s face will have to suffice. The coach is livid. Martin Straka gets credit for the goal.

UPDATE, 7:29 p.m.: If nothing else, the Rangers are delivering on their game plan of peppering Marc-Andre Fleury, who has suddenly turned into Ken Dryden.

UPDATE, 7:14 p.m.: A potential crushing early goal spoils what had been a promising start. In other news, Shanahan is on the fourth line, while the third unit stays intact.

UPDATE, 7:04 p.m.: At least to start, Fred Sjostrom takes Brendan Shanahan’s spot with Scott Gomez and Sean Avery.

Warm-ups produced some priceless signs, not all of which are suitable for a family blog. But let’s just say people are finding new creative outlets for the Sidney Crosby diving theme.

Behind the Penguins net were a couple of signs that read “Ice Blog 8.7”, and at the other end there was a sign that said “Sidney Cryby” and had Crosby diving into a swimming pool with Gary Bettman looking on.

Easy there. You don’t want to tick the guy off.

I’ll check in during the game…

The guessing game continues regarding tonight’s lineup. We were at least right about personnel: Petr Prucha is out and Ryan Hollweg is in.

But Tom Renney also said just now he would likely mix around his lines, and judging from his answer about what he was looking for, it certainly sounds like Brendan Shanahan will be somewhere other than on the right side with Scott Gomez and Sean Avery.

“I think we want to apply more pressure on them off the forecheck for example,” Renney said. “Maybe have a little bit quicker counterattack. We do want to go to hard to the net. We would like to see a little more balance with our lineup in terms of its speed.”

All of that points to Shanahan being moved, but the question is how Renney mixes things up.

An educated guess: Ryan Callahan on the right side with Gomez and Avery; and either Fred Sjostrom or Shanahan in Callahan’s place with Drury and Nigel Dawes.

But the coach wasn’t tipping his hand, so we’ll have to stay tuned…

In other news:

Scratch those visions of Scott Gomez threading passes through the crease to Petr Prucha; or Jason Strudwick standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Paul Mara at the blue line.

After Tom Renney had tinkered with both possibilities yesterday in practice, the coach is going the other way: Both Prucha and Strudwick will be scratches, meaning Christian Backman stays in at defense, and Brendan Shanahan most likely stays on the second line with Scott Gomez and Sean Avery.

In Prucha’s place, Ryan Hollweg looks like he’ll be making his series debut. Go figure.

So was this deception on Renney’s part? Or was there another intent? The coach wouldn’t say today, but it’s worth noting the last time he toyed with moving Shanahan down to the fourth line—in the regular season finale against Jersey—the veteran came back the next game and scored a goal.

Something to think about.

Meanwhile, some other updates:

We all know the deal here. It’s quite simple.

The Rangers win tomorrow and this series has new life.

The Rangers lose? Well, both they and I will be focusing on golf sooner rather than later.

It’s only one game that matters at this point, or at least that is the way the Rangers see it.

“We know we can pull it off. We beat this team a couple of times during the year so the difference is not great between us,” Henrik Lundqvist said. “So let’s put all our focus and energy on tomorrow to get one win. A lot of things can change and the momentum can change in a series.”
It was an upbeat tone at practice today amidst the cluster of camera crews wondering what went wrong in Pittsburgh. The Rangers obliged those questions, but they also made clear they were moving on.

“I think we made that transition this morning before we came in here,” center Brandon Dubinsky said. “We woke up and we knew that (Sunday) was (Sunday). What was done was done. We can’t dwell on what happened and beat ourselves up over it. It’s a seven-game series. Two games doesn’t decide anything. So we just came back here and talked about the positives, and talked about how much character and leadership we have in this locker room and how many guys have been through this before.”

As players said, it would be one thing if the Rangers dropped two straight at home before venturing out on the road. But in coming back to the Garden, where they won all four games against the Pens this year, they’re expecting a boost.

“We have great fans,” Martin Straka said. “Every time we play at home, we feel like there’s another guy in our lineup. So we just have to give them something to cheer about and play hard and I’m sure they’re going to help us out.”

I totally missed this one earlier (proving again that I don’t pay enough attention to defensemen), but it’s also worth noting that Christian Backman was swapped out of in favor of Jason Strudwick in defensive pairings today; and that Paul Mara had taken Backman’s place alongside Michal Rozsival on the power play.

More from practice later, where the Rangers are saying all the right things headed into Game 3….