Rangers vs. Capitals: Joy and Sadness in Rangerstown
The Inside Out Classic was fitting. Sadness scored first. Joy followed. Anxiety about the tank lingers.
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- This otherwise meaningless matchup—at least for the New York Rangers—with the Washington Capitals on Easter Sunday evening was also ESPN and Disney's Inside Out Classic. I watched some of the first period on the Disney Channel and, as such, saw Sadness score the first goal of the game. I don't know that there has been a more fitting experience in my entire life as a Rangers fan.
- The NHL has been doing this collaboration games with Disney for the last few years, most recently with the program Big City Greens, and this year with the Pixar's Inside Out. Good for the NHL for working on expanding the game, especially when hockey has some in-world relevance to the Inside Out universe, as the young girl Riley whose emotions are being depicted by those adorable animated creatures is a hockey player.
- It was fitting, also, to have this game be the Inside Out Classic, because it pinged a bunch of different emotions. Let's process some of them.
- There was joy. Look, you're never going to get me to be too angry about the Rangers clowning the Washington Capitals. And that was a beat down. I wish they'd scored 10.
- As much as we can be annoyed at the Rangers ruining the tank by winning games like this one against the Capitals and Saturday's game against the Detroit Red Wings, we can take some solace in the fact that it's mostly the kids who are driving this now. Will Cuylle had his first career hat trick to hit 20 goals on the season. Adam Sykora had another goal, and continues to do more with his limited playing time than Brennan Othmann ever did with his.
- Go ahead and be annoyed that the Rangers are ruining the tank. But also, these were two games against two teams that desperately needed points in a playoff race. And both teams completely no-showed against a team that was eliminated from the playoffs a week and a half ago. Just absolutely inexcusable performances from both of those teams.
