… and plenty aggravated about what happened to it. We may never know, so I just want to repeat the base of the message:

Susie Arth, the sports editor of The Journal News and LoHud.com, worked her last day Friday. I don’t know if I can rephrase all I said about her, but she was the driving force behind all of our digital sports products, especially this blog. She was behind Sam Weinman when he started it, she was behind my return to hockey when Sam left and the contributions from Laurel and Jane and Josh, 26.

She was responsible for the video chats and the beard contest and the guest blogs, and the trade deadline and July 1 madness, and pretty much everything good we’ve ever done here, and she fought to keep this blog going, and to give me some time in my schedule to do it, and to continue to cover the Rangers to whatever degree was can still possibly do it. What I’m saying is we here all owe her a debt of gratitude; and also that, while she was here there was no chance this blog was ever going to go anywhere. Hopefully, her successor feels the same way.

She also meant an awful lot to me and my “second” career as a columnist, but I won’t get all mushy about that here. Plus she’s a big Walter’s Hot Dogs fan.
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Two reminders: One, if you’re going to the game tomorrow, remember that it’s NYC Marathon day, which means gridlock in the city. My advice is don’t even think about driving in. Take a train. Two, change your clocks tonight.
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No analysis from Rangers-Wild because I didn’t see any of it. Here are the official game summary and event summary.
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EVENING UPDATE, 8:30 p.m.: P.A. Parenteau was returned to Hartford.
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EVENING UPDATE, late: Laurel here….I’ll add this as a comment, too, in case you miss this update, but I had to add my thoughts about Susie since I’ve been absent a bit since Friday afternoon. Carp mentioned it, but I have to give Susie a personal shout out for embracing this non-sports reporter/Ranger fan and letting me have the time of my life here, and contributing to the live chat with her, and letting me host with Carp!
I worked with Susie on a lot of non-Ranger related business, too, and I am going to miss her immensely. BTW, congratulate her, she’s getting married in two weeks! Yay! Susie, I’m gonna miss you at the 3:30 :)

I have no idea what the byfuglien happened tonight, either in the Rangers-Wild game or at this blog!

No idea.

I was at a football game, and when the game was over and I got to my laptop to write my story—poof—tonight’s post and all your comments were gone.

I still don’t know what happened in the game, and I don’t really care at the moment. But I am desperately trying to find an answer to What In Holy Hell happened to the game thread.

If you guys can shed any light on when it all disappeared, time of day, time of game, roughly how many comments were up. Whatever. It might help the investigation.

Byfuglien!
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POST-GAME NOTES AND QUOTES, FROM THE RANGERS:

October 30, 2009 – New York Rangers 2, Minnesota Wild 3 (Game #14, Road #7)

• The Blueshirts were defeated by the Minnesota Wild, 3-2, tonight at Xcel Energy Center to fall to 8-5-1 overall, including a 3-3-1 mark on the road.
• Dane Byers, recalled from Hartford (AHL) earlier today, tallied his first career NHL goal at 5:33 of the second period; he finished the contest with three shots and a plus-one rating in 9:33 of icetime.
• Five Rangers players have notched their first career NHL goal this season, the most in a single season since 2005-06 (Dominic Moore, Petr Prucha, Ryan Hollweg, Maxim Kondratiev, Jarkko Immonen).
• Rangers defenseman Marc Staal recorded his second goal of the season early in the third period and logged 20:52 of icetime.
• Wade Redden registered an assist on Dane Byers’ second period goal and logged 15:25 of icetime.
• Artem Anisimov collected one assist and tied for the game-high with a plus-two rating.
• Vinny Prospal tallied his 13th assist of the season on Marc Staal’s third period goal, and he has now registered five assists in the last five games.
• Rookie defenseman Michael Del Zotto led all skaters with 24:01 of icetime, and delivered a team-high five hits.
• The Blueshirts practice schedule for tomorrow, October 31, is 12:00 p.m. at the MSG Training Center.

• The Rangers return to action on Sunday, November 1, when they will face-off against the Boston Bruins at Madison Square Garden (1:00 p.m.), in an Original Six matinee matchup; the game will be televised live on MSG Network and can be heard on 970 The Apple.

I told you guys I saw Frank Brown at Yankee Stadium last night and some of you spoke very highly of him as a gifted writer (he is; I almost said “was”).

By coincidence, today he wrote a story for NHL.com today on goalies’ masks. This week is the anniversary of Jacques Plante’s invention (NHL Network will do a big piece on the mask this weekend).
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Not sure of the timing, but NHL.com also has this story on the Rangers’ 54-year curse and the ghost of Red Dutton.
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Hope to have updates on Gaborik, Brashear, et al, later, then a new post for the game thread.
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AFTERNOON UPDATE: Higgins, Gaborik and Avery are all out tonight. Brashear is back in. And Dane Byers has been recalled from Hartford to play tonight, along with Parenteau.

I got nothin. But the previous thread was getting too long for a non-game night. So I figured I’d cut it off.

I’ll be honest, I only saw some highlights (lowlights?) and the first half of the game on Rangers In 60 (Rangers in less than 30?).

So I might be wrong with some of these presumptions. But I’d bet I’m more right than wrong about:

1) Without Gaborik, this lineup looks a lot like last year’s lineup, especially since Higgins, Dubinsky and Callahan were supposed to be a big part of the difference offensively. There’s not another top-50 NHL forward on the team. No knock against the young guys who will probably be very good players some day. The veterans are, as a group, below average

2) Captain Drury. Never mind that he’s not scoring. He’s not doing much of anything, as if the Higgins (can we call it the H21?) flu has spread to him. That first goal was clearly Gilroy’s fault, and Gilroy clearly struggled. But Drury and Kotalik gave no support at all. And there they all were, with Redden, in the replay of Moulson celebrating.

3) Gilroy has struggled too. You live with it. End of story.

4) Rozsival’s been bad most of the season, but what the heck ever happened to Staal and Girardi?

5) Which offense had a more putrid night, the Rangers or the Yankees?

6) As bad as they look without Gaborik, I still wouldn’t rush him back. Lose a game or two in October to win more important games later.

7) Time for Tortorella to step up. His aggressive system is great and fun to watch, but you better have players who know, or learn, that within that system you have to do a little extra to support or back up when the defensemen go deep; and defensemen who understand that there are times to go and times to stop. They are still being taught. A lot of this falls on the coach.

8) Last but not least, neutral-zone turnovers. They are deadly no matter what system you play. Lethal.
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AFTERNOON UPDATE: 12:47 P.M.: Gaborik did not skate today. He remains out day to day.

From the Rangers:

NEW YORK RANGERS POST-GAME NOTES
October 28, 2009 – New York Rangers 1, New York Islanders 3 (Game #13, Road #6)

• The Blueshirts were defeated by the New York Islanders, 3-1, tonight at Nassau Coliseum to fall to 8-4-1 overall, including a 3-2-1 mark on the road.
• P.A. Parenteau, recalled from Hartford (AHL) yesterday, tallied his first career NHL goal, an unassisted tally, at 8:30 of the first period in his Rangers debut; he finished the contest with three shots and a plus-one rating in 14:07 of icetime.
• Ryan Callahan registered a team-high, six shots and delivered three hits.
• Defenseman Matt Gilroy led the Rangers with three blocked shots.
• Michal Rozsival led all skaters with 24:14 of icetime.
• The Blueshirts practice schedule for tomorrow, October 29, is 12:00 p.m. at the MSG Training Center.
• The Rangers return to action on Friday, October 30, when they will face-off against the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center (8:00 p.m.); the game will be televised live on MSG 2 and can be heard on 970 The Apple.

From me:

So how’d you like the game? Geez.

Here are the official game summary and event summary.

First the news, which is really no news at this point. Gaborik and Brashear are out. Voros and Parenteau are in. Nobody gets prucha’d. Lundqvist starts in goal.
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I am at Yankee Stadium, and certainly not complaining tonight because 1) it’s not too cold tonight, so far at least, and the rain is supposed to let up this evening; and 2) I HATE driving to Nassau Coliseum, where once, about 12 years ago, my car was demolished, absolutely T-boned, with me in it, by a peabrain who ran a red light at about 50 mph right at that main intersection between the Coliseum and Hofstra.

I hated that drive before then, and have hated it even more since.
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Here are tonight’s pre-game notes. And here is a preview from NHL.com.

Enjoy the game.

AFTERNOON UPDATE: 12:32 p.m.:

Andrew Gross tweeted (Twittered?) that Gaborik is out tonight and Parenteau will play in his place. Also that Brashear will not play again (fourth time in five games). So no prucha for Voros.
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Still waiting word on whether Gaborik will play tonight. If I were Tortorella, I wouldn’t even think about playing him. You’ve got a tough schedule coming up … let him sit this one out, take tomorrow off, and see how he feels Friday. Why push him even a little?

Gaborik didn’t skate today … but it’s an optional on game days and a lot of guys don’t skate, or just go for a quick twirl to get the body going. As soon as we have something I’ll post an update right on top here.
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Just a little link between the Rangers and the Islanders’ dynasty was revealed this week by ex-Islander Dave Lewis, in a story about playoff beards on NHL.com. Lewis told of a “souvenir” the Islanders stole from the Garden which they used for good luck, and carried with them, at the start of the dynasty. Read it here.
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Here’s a little more of Tortorella’s post-game press conference from the other night. I know we didn’t see nearly enough of it live.
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The Garden announced that its own (owned by Cablevision) Optimum Online will be available throughout the Garden now. Customers who are Optimum Online subscribers will have unlimited internet access throughout the building, and guests (non-subscribers) will be able to have limited access.
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Headed to Game 1 of the World Series with my radio tonight. Keep me posted on the score, please. Reception tends to be really bad in pressboxes. Back later with game notes and a blank canvas.

That’s the official word from the Rangers, who aren’t saying exactly what his (likely knee) injury is. But they are saying it is not related to any of his previous injuries and it is not serious. He didn’t skate today and he will be reevaluated tomorrow.

Steve Zipay is reporting that Henrik Lundvist was involved in a fender-bender this morning. He’s totally fine.
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Now, why don’t you guys just ignore the Devils’ fan and let him go away?
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EVENING UPDATE, 5:28 P.M.: Sorry I’m late to the party on this … spent the day at Yankees/Phillies workouts. This in from the Rangers, which I assume means they can prucha more than one player tomorrow if Gaborik plays, but that he might not play:

NEW YORK RANGERS TRANSACTION / PRACTICE UPDATE
New York, October 27, 2009 – New York Rangers President and General Manager Glen Sather announced today that forward P.A. Parenteau has been recalled from the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League (AHL).
Parenteau, 26, has recorded eight goals and six assists for 14 points, along with 12 penalty minutes in nine games with Hartford (AHL) this season.  He currently leads the AHL in goals and is tied for the league lead in points.  He is also tied for first in the league in power play goals (five) and fourth in power play assists (four).  Parenteau has registered five multi-point efforts this season, including three straight (four goals and seven points) entering today.  He notched his first hat trick as a Wolf Pack player, including his first penalty-shot goal with Hartford, on October 10 against Springfield.  Last season, Parenteau finished ninth in the AHL in points with 29 goals and 78 points, and was named a First-Team AHL All-Star.
The Hull, Quebec native was acquired by the Rangers from the Chicago Blackhawks on October 11, 2007, in exchange for a conditional draft pick.  He was originally Anaheim’s ninth round selection, 264th overall, in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft.
The Blueshirts return to action tomorrow when they will face off against the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum (7:00 p.m.), in an Atlantic Division matchup.  Prior to the game, the Rangers morning skate is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. at Nassau Coliseum.  The Rangers posted a record of 5-1-0 in six meetings with the Islanders last season, including a 3-0-0 mark at Long Island.  The Blueshirts enter the contest having tallied a power play goal in nine of their last 10 games, clicking at a 35.0% (14-40) success rate over the span.  The game will be televised live on MSG 2.

Let’s start fresh shall we….I was thinking recently, and the decent comments on the last post brought home the point, what happens if Gabby does get hurt in a way that seriously affects his ability to play/ice time etc. He’s obviously had a huge impact on this team and while we have a lot of fine up-and-comers, and one man does not necessarily make the whole team (well, with some exceptions, Mess being one), what do you think will happen if Gab can’t make the whole season? Who steps in, or up? Thoughts?

And really, do not make me spend the rest of my day as I did on the first post. You have no idea how ugly my charming self can become when I’m pushed too far. :) Thanks!