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May 23, 2013; New York, NY, USA; New York Rangers left wing Chris Kreider (20) scores the game-winning goal on Boston Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask (40) during overtime in game four of the second round of the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Madison Square Garden. Rangers win 4-3 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Debby Wong-USA TODAY Sports Going into last night’s game I wasn’t very optimistic about the Rangers chances. Then after they went down a couple goals I really didn’t like their chances. I didn’t think they showed, grit, or any determination to get back into it. Then Carl Hagelin’s goal was the turning point. Up until then the Rangers really didn’t get anything going offensively. The fluke goal boosted their confidence and had a snowball effect for the rest of the game. I had a feeling that after Tyler Seguin scored the Rangers would find a way to get a goal. The Bruins were going to be on their heels a bit, and 12 minutes can feel like hours when you’re defending a lead in an elimination game. The Rangers couldn’t have picked a better time to get their lone Power Play goal of the series by the way, and Brian Boyle of all people scored it. Really, great timing on that one. Rick Nash and Chris Kreider did the rest and now the Rangers are off to game 5. I just like how the team crawled back into this game. Sure they got some bounces, but they’ve been denied a few of those throughout the series. They were down by two goals at one point and managed to draw level, then went down another goal and equalized again. They never led the game until the overtime goal. Next on the agenda is a tough game 5 in Boston. The Rangers have nothing to lose at this point and should play a loose game. That being said, this will probably be the toughest game to win. Boston definitely does not want a game six, and the Rangers will need to fight tooth and nail to pull out a victory. Still though, if the Rangers win tomorrow the floodgates open up. All the pressure will be on Boston to close out the series, and the media will act like 2010 is happening all over again. Still have a long way to go, but just take it one game at a time. Oh, and can somebody stop Torey Krug from scoring? Be sure to follow me on twitter @11Matt_Josephs8

Metropolitan Diary: A security officer at Kennedy Airport's passport control had an unexpected question for a much-traveled businessman.

We’ve got something special going on this morning! John Bernhardt, one of our esteemed writers at MetsMinors.Net, co-hosts a radio show called “Tip Off” every Friday morning at 8:00 AM. John comments on the site under the moniker “B-Mets Fan” and always provides great insight – and you might also know him for his excellent work charting some of our pitching prospects in AA. His guest this week is none other than myself! That’s right, I’m jumping on the show to talk about the world of blogging, my own life, and most importantly – Mets Minors! You can tune in through many avenues to check out what looks to be a fun exchange between John, his co-host Dawg, and myself. I’ll be on from 8:15 – 9:00 AM for you early birds out there who want to give it a listen. You can stream the show live by going here or here. John recommends the second link. For those of you who want to catch it later on in the day, you can use a free service on this website to have it recorded and sent to your email for your listening convenience. And for those of you in the Binghamton area, you can tune in to 91.3 FM WIOX Radio. I can’t wait!

- About time the New York Rangers won an overtime game in the playoffs, no? That pass from Rick Nash couldn't have been any better if he placed it by hand, and that finish, well, that's what we have to look forward to in Chris Kreider for the rest of his career. - THAT is the type of fight the Rangers need to turn things around. They've needed to play like that from the start, and they haven't. Thursday night they did and they won the game. It's not a coincidence. - This game showed how much fight this team really has (it also makes you wonder where that fight was the past three games). They're down 2-0 in an elimination game against a team that's simply out worked them all series. And then the Rangers get a really, really lucky goal, Derek Stepan ties the game early in the third and the Garden is rocking. Then the Bruins go up 3-2 (again, another opportunity for the Rangers to lay down and die) and Brian Boyle scores a power play goal (not a typo) and the Rangers claw their way into an overtime win. You have to lay your guts on the line in those situations. The Rangers did just that. - Quite a game from Derick Brassard (again) two assists. He also just missed the net on a Rangers power play late which would have avoided overtime. He seems to play better when the lights are brighter and the pressure is mounting. That's really good to see since he was one of the main reasons the Rangers got out of their first round series against Washington. The Rangers will need him to be big here, too. - Henrik Lundqvist was outstanding. Simply outstanding. He deserved that. - Boyle had a hell of a game, too. Scored the tying goal in the third and almost scored the go-ahead goal a few minutes later. He's another guy that seems to play better in the playoffs. - Ryan McDonagh. Wow. That's a special player. Really special. And when his offense comes around (and it will) he's going to be that number one defenseman everyone keeps begging for. - Kreider looked good with the big boys, no? He was solid in the corners, his speed made him one of the Rangers most effective forecheckers and he brought offense. Even without the goal he was really good in my opinion. The Rangers need more of that from him, but John Tortorella should have been playing him more from the start. Let him play. - Derek Stepan had a big game. A hustle goal (where he stole the puck from Zdeno Chara and swiped it into the net) and a pretty assist. I think Stepan's been much better offensively in the playoffs than his numbers show. Thursday was a really good showing, though. - John Moore, too. He played over 20 minutes in the win on Thursday and didn't look out of place at all. This series against the Bruins, I think, has really shown his true colors. Against the Capitals Tortorella was able to hide him in the Capitals weaker third and fourth lines. Against the Bruins Tortorella doesn't have that luxury, and Moore has still looked good. - That revamped fourth line everyone was complaining about didn't look that bad, right? And they can keep up with the physicality of the Bruins' fourth line and neutralize them a little bit. - Give Steve Eminger and Roman Hamrlik credit ,and not just for their long, long, long shift on the overtime goal. - Anyone think Brad Richards will dress Saturday? It's an interesting question for sure. My guess is no, let what worked go again, but it's just a guess. - The goal now for the Rangers (of course) is to get this series back to Madison Square Garden. It requires a win on the road in the playoffs which the Rangers have only done once this year, but maybe there's some life in this team after a win like that. It's also a little deflating for the Bruins, but again, they're the team up three games to one. Regardless, I loved the fight in this team showed. Thoughts?

We all have a story as to how we were lucky enough to become New York Giant fans. Let me preface this story by telling you that I truly believe we are lucky to be Giants' fans in the way that Joe DiMaggio thanked the Lord that he was a New York Yankee. Some people are born into being a New York Giants' fan. Children are literally welcomed into the world by being placed into a Giants' blanket and their blood begins to run with the Giants' blue. Others have season tickets passed down generation to generation since the days at Yankee Stadium. While others around my age were a product of the dominant run the Giants had under head coach Bill Parcells in the mid to late 1980s to early 1990s. I was none of the above. My family had no allegiance one way or the other. Richard Todd posters hung next to cut out Sports Illustrated pictures of Dan Fouts on my teenage brother's wall. Joe Klecko was as celebrated as George Martin in my house. We were football fans first and foremost without a true rooting interest. My father never told us which team to support. He let us decide for ourselves. My father's theory on sports teams and their importance mirrored Chazz Palmenteri's from 'A Bronx Tale.' My Giants fan journey began as any other summer day does for a 5-year-old during the 1980s. I was playing by myself in the backyard when a very large man jumped over the fence to ask for directions. I know what you're thinking. This story sounds like an after-school special and not the typical "How I became a Giant Fan" story, but remember this was the summer of 1983 -- well before " I Know My First Name is Steven" made every parent in America a nervous wreck. The man needed directions to the local high school and I needed a playmate. A bargain was struck and four short years later I was watching Phil Simms set Super Bowl records with a joy that chokes me up to this day. My brothers headed home in between double session football practices to try and eat some lunch and rest their weary legs before heading back to school for another round of sprints in 90-degree weather. They weren't concerned when they weren't met at the door by their precocious little brother. They were focused on re-hydrating and trying to see if my mom had baked any cupcakes. My brother Tom walked out on the back deck to hang his practice clothes to dry when he heard a mans voice say, "Okay this is the last one." I called back,"Okay" and wham a wiffle ball was slammed from one side of the yard to the other. My brother peeked over the deck and saw Bruce Kimball of the New York Giants chasing a wiffle ball across the yard as I was pretending to round the bases with my over-sized plastic bat. Dumbfounded my brother asked me what I was doing, and I said I was playing with my new friend. Mr. Kimball was just passing through my yard trying to get to the high school to rehabilitate his injured leg when he made a Giant fan for life. His Giants career consisted of exactly one game before a broken leg derailed his career. His chance meeting with me has given me 30 years of being a very lucky Giant fan. I thank him during every draft, every opening day, and especially after all four Super Bowl victories I have witnessed. I have chosen to raise my girls the right way and that's to be a Giant fan from Day 1. Luckily I am spending their formative years with them, and they will know Lawrence Taylor's career sack totals (132.5, btw) before they know the Pledge of Allegiance. Just to let you know a little about me and why I am sharing my Giant fan introduction story. I am a former high school football coach who is now a stay at home father of triplet girls. When I am not setting world speed records for diaper changes and having imaginary tea parties you will find me writing about all aspects of fantasy sports. My passion has led me to become the newest contributor here at Big Blue View, where I will be writing a weekly column forecasting the Giants' pl

Yesterday, the Edward Hopper Drawing show opened at the Whitney Museum and I had a piece published on it at the New Yorker magazine's "Culture Desk" blog. In the piece, I interview the curator of the show, Carter Foster. A few years ago, I conducted a search for the original source of Hopper's Nighthawks diner. My interest in finding Hopper's inspiration gave me the chance to visit Foster at his office, where he had collected bits of Hopper ephemera--Xeroxes of the artist's sketches, photographs of Greenwich Village streets, antique maps, and newspaper clippings.It was exciting to see it all in one place, bits of evidence compiled to show how Hopper came to paint what he painted--from the vanished block of "Early Sunday Morning" to the military uniform of a movie theater usherette that appears in "New York Movie," as well as parts of "Nighthawks."I never found the diner, and eventually concluded that it did not exist--at least not as one thing. Carter Foster comes to the same conclusion, saying that Hopper was a synthesizer, taking pieces of the city and combining them together. “Edward Hopper is called a realist,” he told me. “But his real process was about memory, the way it infuses subjectivity, and he focussed on the material memory of the city.”That material memory is on view at the Whitney Museum, where Hopper's sketches are presented with photographs of the city as it was. You'll even find Hopper's easel, on loan from his studio at NYU (nice of them, especially considering NYU tried to evict Hopper in 1947).Check out the show and please visit the New Yorker to read the whole story.Further Reading:Finding Nighthawks Part 1Finding Nighthawks Part 2Finding Nighthawks Part 3Coda&Hopper's Studio

The 2013 Dominican Summer League is starting on June 1st and the Mets have two teams there, as well as players that they have signed or might sign working out there. The reason that the Mets have two teams in the Dominican Summer League is that the second team is a replacement for their once Venezuelan League team. It was disbanded in favor of the second DSL team as tensions and violence grew in Venezuela. In mid-July of 2008, when I was 18 years old, I was sent to get a look at the new Dominican Complex that the Mets had built in Boca Chica. After volunteering in a micro-credit foundation called Esperanza International, I had lived in several places in the Dominican Republic such as Quisqueya, a little village near San Pedro De Macrois for a week, a weekend in Santo Dominigo, and another week in Puerto Plata, before heading to the Academy. It had not achieved its inauguration until the day I was leaving the facility, but I had lived there among the players and coaches, and found myself immersed in Dominican Baseball. This new complex, located in Boca Chica, stood tall among the trees, with beauty throughout. It had modern design, with glass-panes covering their center where the players would relax on their free time. It was state-of-the-art – it had TV’s with cable and many table games in the center. It also had its own locker room and a very large gym. There were 2 fields and one still being developed at the time. The main field where players would go was modeled after the dimensions of Citi Field, and the second field had its own, larger dimensions. The third field was being developed still at the time, and only had an infield to practice on. I hung around with players from the Academy, and new signees such as Aderlin Rodriguez, and scouts such as Ismael Cruz. On some road games, I accompanied the players to games in other complexes on their buses. On other days, I sat and watched players work out as Cruz and other scouts watched from the bird’s nest that had been built to watch over all of the fields. We would sit and watch the tryouts of these players, watch the guns, and test players for speed. I learned a few important lessons about scouting Dominican players. I learned about timing and approach, as well as the slide-step delivery. I also learned the difficult nature of scouting the players, such as age. I watched an 18-year-old hit 91 MPH on the gun and pointed it out to Ismael. He told me that his age might be wrong. That knowledge has been reflected in the recent discoveries about age falsifications surrounding some players. Lying about their age affects their signing bonus, and if they can hit 90 MPH at 16-18 years of age, it’s a bigger bonus. I stayed at the Dominican Complex for a couple of weeks back in 2008 and have fond memories of my experience there that I would like to share. I also did some digging around the organization and  recently interviewed a front office official that has experience working at the complex. This official. who prefers to remain nameless, gave me some information as part of a look-in to the operations of the Dominican Complex. During my interview, I asked him a few questions about operations down there, including schedules, what amateur level they can be compared to, and a few other things. This interview took place on May 10th.  Enjoy! Are people already there at the Dominican academy? Yes, there are people there. We’ve had players work out there since Mid-April. We actually had some exhibition games yesterday. We have players here that we have signed that are getting work in for the season. We want to make sure to get in as much work as possible. Can you compare them to any kind of league, high school or college? Well, yes, probably college, but the developmental times are different between them. College guys are a bit more polished than these guys at this point. Honestly, the experience levels are different between these two levels, it’s like apples and oranges. What happens o

Good morning, New York Giants' fans! Here are your Friday morning links. You can forget about the injury to Henry Hynoski leading to a return to the Giants by Brandon Jacobs. The 265-pound former Giants running back tweeted Thursday night that "I ain't playing no damn fullback." So much for doing whatever it might take to continue a career. Hynoski, remember, undergoes surgery Friday. A pair of Giants have finally made the NFL.com list of the Top 100 players of 2012. Jason Pierre-Paul landed at No. 55 and Victor Cruz at No. 58. Ernie Accorsi not convinced Brian Urlacher is a Hall of Famer | ProFootballTalk "I think he’s a borderline Hall of Famer," Accorsi said. "I don’t know that he’s a definite Hall of Famer. I think there is a host of them, like Willie Lanier, that were dominant players. He was good, but I wouldn’t put him in that level." Asked if he’d put the "guaranteed Hall of Famer" label on Urlacher, Accorsi said he wouldn’t. Instead, Accorsi said, Urlacher was a somewhat limited player who doesn’t deserve to be mentioned among the all-time greats. "I definitely wouldn’t," Accorsi said. "That’s my opinion. I don’t think he’s a guarantee. I mean, he may get in because he got a lot of publicity and he was a hard player. But his span that he covered was really restricted. Now a lot of those middle linebackers were in those days. They didn’t have three or four wide receivers so they stayed on the field for three downs. They might be off today. But, no, I certainly don’t have him in [Dick] Butkus or Ray Lewis [category]. And I don’t think he should be in there, really with [Joe] Schmidt and [Ray] Nitschke and those guys, either."

Really. (It’s in the comments section of the link, in case you cannot find it.)