Spiller Another Victim of League Wide Violence

The Rangers dropped a wild 7-6 game last night to the Atlanta Thrashers in a game that was featured highlight reel offence and back street alley violence.

Pavel Bure tallied two for the rangers both of which are sure to make the best of highlight reels for the year. Both were on the powerplay in the second period. The first was an end to end rush that displayed the blazing speed and stickhandling prowness the russian rocket showed on a regular basis before injuries slowed him down and the second was a laser beam one timer while being checked from behind.



The violence in the game may be what is talked about most, however. Darcy Hordichuk of the Thrashers was being pushed and shoved when he retaliated by high sticking Martin Erat with an obvious intent to in injure. Dan Lacouture of the Rangers pounced on Hordichuk and pounded him. Hordichuk was ejected from the game and was served with a 2game suspension.

In the opening minutes of the third period Mathew Spiller delivered the devestating hit seen on the right while which flipped young star Nathan Horton into his own bench. The Atlanta Thrashers, in a desperate attempt to spark a comeback, had inexplicably donned Florida Panthers Jerseys for the third. Chris Bahen responded by attacking Spiller. The fight was one sided in favour of Bahen but when Spiller landed a hard right at the end of the bout Bahen responded with a vicious eye gouge that left spiller writihin on the ice. Bahen was ejected and received a 5 game supsension. Spiller is expected to miss 2 weeks with a damaged retina but it could have been worse.

After Spiller left the game the Thrashers victimized the Ranger penalty kill 3 more times - 6 in total - and edged the Rangers 7-6.

"We were sicked by the cowardice of Bahen," fumed Rick Nash. "We're glad Spiller's ok but this kind of stuff has got to stop. We lost the game on power play goals and Spiller's our one of our best penalty killers. Essentially, Bahen got what he wanted. He's a marginal player and he hurt our team. I think 5 games is light."

"We may dress Richard Scott next game," mused GM Burns.
Richard Scott LW L OK 99 72 70 62 58 49 74 58 53 57 61 53 64 69

"If the refs won't protect our players perhaps he will."