I'd love to see tonight's game replayed, or at least the third period anyway, with a referee that will make three obvious calls, that for some reason didn't get made in the game that I saw.
One: A Ranger's player blocks a shot from the neutral zone and breaks his stick in half. He then proceeds to skate almost all the way to the bench holding both halves of the stick. This is a penalty. All players on the ice must immediately drop a broken stick. The only exception is the goaltender who may play with a broken stick until the whistle sounds.
Two: Jaromir Jagr snags a clear out of the air, holds it in his glove, skates four strides and then drops the puck cleanly onto the ice so that he can control it with his stick and skate into the offensive zone. This is a penalty. No player on the ice is permitted to close his hand over the puck. The only exception is again, the goaltender who is permitted to glove the pucking in his catching glove.
Three: Ranger Defensemen Marek Malik shoves an oncoming Sidney Crosby into the Ranger's net and the Ranger's goaltender is standing poised in his crease when he fails to stop a shot from Tomas Surovy. According to the NHL rulebook, there are 3 scenarios for this particular rules infraction. One, the player was intentionally looking to run into the goaltender in order to open up the net for a clear shot. This results in a penalty for the player making the contact. If a goal does happen to go in, it will not count. Two, the player was pushed into the goaltender by a defender. This will not result in a penalty, but will disallow a goal. Three, a player is pushed into the goaltender and subsequently the net, it is at the discretion of the referee whether to a.) allow the goal and b.) add a penalty to the player making contact. Apparently they decided to muddle the rules and not only disallow the goal, but add the penalty too.
With these three calls being made correctly, it would have been a very different game. And maybe, just maybe, I'd be up a lunch instead of out a lunch.