The Fifth Liners

Next month Russia will have a contagious case of Winter Olympic fever as the 2014 games roll into Sochi! While many if us will be routing for the returning Jamaican Bobsled Team or praying that Team GB wins any kind of medal! But to us hockey fans, there us only one event that matters! But which of the great teams on display will take home the gold medal? And more importantly, can the thrill level go beyond the epic Canada v USA final of Vancouver 2010? Here are my main contenders, Gold - Canada: The clear early favourites and my personal pick for the games! Their roster alone gives us goosebumps with the sheer level of quality and with offensive starlets Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toes and Corey Perry among others on display- they will be a sure bet to rack up the goals and assists. But they have also defensive quality by the bucketful, and although goalie selection has raised a few eyebrows, Carey Price will be a great starter. On paper, this team will be hard to stop! Silver - S...

Today the Olympic Ice Hockey rosters for the upcoming Sochi 2014 games have been officially confirmed, after much speculation surrounding them there has been some interesting selections made and no doubt this will spark furious debate among hockey fans, let's take a look at the main contenders. Canada  The 25 man Canadian squad certainly isn't lacking in depth, and this year they will be the team to beat and 11 of 2010 Gold Medal team will make a return journey! The defensive selection is one I highly commend as they have mixed youth of players like PK Subban along with defensive quality like Jay Bouwmeester. The St Louis pairing of JB along with Pietrangelo could well be a wise selection! Offensively the star count is ridiculously high with Crosby, Toews, Perry, Stamkos and Kunitz among others being featured and Canada will rely on this goal power to see them through! There are few surprise selections with Marc-Andre Fleury missing out in favour of Roberto Luongo and the ...

Last night while in the wonderful city that is New York I had the pleasure of watching the Rangers entertain the LA Kings at MSG. Sadly the result wasn't to favour the home side as Ben Scrivens turned in a 1st Star performance for the Kings as he made 37 saves to record a second straight shut out win! Tyler Toffoli scored the games only goal after 1.23 of the second when his shot crept under Henrik Lundqvist. The Rangers were slightly flat throughout and despite having six powerplays,the LA powerkill shut them down! But were cruelty robbed in the closing minutes when a controversial call went against NY. Everyone thought Dominic Moore had scored the tying goal with 2.41 remaining. As I went wild with celebration with my good friend Ossie and high fived fellow Rangers fans in the midst of goal buzzer sounding, we were then informed the goal was under review and shortly after it was announced that the officials judged Moore kicked the puck past Scrivens and the goal was waived of...

The New York Rangers scored an impressive win last night at Madison Square Garden as they beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-1! They were lucky not to fall behind after 20 seconds though when Henrik Lundqvist stopped Sidney Crosby's breakaway chance! He was also faced with challenging efforts from Tanner Glass and Marcus Niskanen, but the Swede's efforts kept things at a tie game! But in a late 1st period flurry, the Rangers took control as Ryan McDonagh scored on 18 minutes to give them the lead and this was then followed up just over a minute later when Derek Stepan put the Rangers 2-0 up! Into the second period and New York went further in front when Brian Boyle slammed past Marc-Andre Fleury to make things 3-0 after 13.10 played. Kris Letang gave Pittsburgh a solitary reply when he scored on a powerplay, but Pittsburgh would get no further than that! But Rangers captain Ryan Callahan restored their three goal advantage shortly after when he deflected in Carl Hagelin'...

While the Phoenix Coyotes ' troubles off the ice seem to be resolved for now, any uncertainty about the team's future was definitely not reflected on the ice. The Coyotes really brought the game to the Rangers last night, ruining Alain Vigneault's debut. Kyle Chipchura netted first for Phoenix only a few minutes into the game after an error by Henrik Lundqvist allowed Rob Klinkhammer to set up Chipchura for the opener. The Jobing.com arena gave the Phoenix keeper a standing ovation after Mike Smith made a sprawling double save to keep the Coyotes in the lead.  The Rangers upped their game but the first period finished with the Coyotes leading 1-0. The second period brought more goals, Marc Staal cancelled out the Coyotes' lead during a Rangers powerplay. The game didn't stay tied for long though, Radim Vrbata was alert to a rebounding puck to fire past Lundqvist just before the halfway point of the game. The second period finished without inc...

The Boston Bruins claimed a 2-1 win over the New York Rangers last night at Madison Square Garden to push their advantage to a 3-0 lead in this series, but this win was decided by a moment in the third period where the puck bounced off Henrik Lundqvist to give Boston the game winning goal! After a scoreless first period, Ryan McDonagh's long shot in the early in the second period deflected off Taylor Pyatt to give the Rangers the early advantage. The Bruins however found a break through three minutes into the third period when Johnny Boychuk scored to level the scores. With time running out in the period, Hamilton's shot clipped the mask of Lundqvist and fell perfectly for Daniel Paille who drove the puck home to give Boston a deserved win! New York's offense in that game was clearly lacking as Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask was only required to make 23 saves where as Rangers goalie Lundqvist had a far busier night with 32 saves and single handedly kept them in the game. ...

The Boston Bruins welcomed the New York Rangers back to the TD Gardens arena for game two of the series tonight. First Period The Bruins were looking to capitalise on their first game victory but were pinned back for the first five minutes. Adam McQuaid made a desperate diving poke check to deny the Rangers. Boston immediately jumped on this and sent the puck up to Torey Krug who displayed some silky skills to pass the puck between his skates and slot past Henrik Lundqvist .  A few minutes later Ryan Callahan intercepted a stray pass and then won the foot race to go one on one with Tukka Rask . The Rangers' captain made no mistake in finding the net. Rich Peverley gave the Rangers a powerplay when his high stick caught Rick Nash in the face but Boston was not able to take advantage.  Shortly after, captain Zdeno Chara was given a minor for slashing. Bizarrely even though the offence was behind Rask's net, it was the official in the neutral zo...