More of the same in terms of result, the Rangers lose again, and really have been playing godawful hockey for about 10 games now.? Still I thought todays game was an improvement over what we saw the previous 9-10 games.? The effort was there for the most part, just some poor defensive coverage by Pock, Tyutin, and either Betts or Ward (couldnt remember who it was) led to the loss.? Im happier with what I saw today than at any point in the past few weeks.? The decision making was much better, and the forward alignments looked interesting and innovative…for about 2 periods before Tom Renney decided to overload the top line.

As for Kevin Weekes, despite what some people may think,? I thought he played a good game, and I couldnt fault him on any of the 3 goals, none of them are what I would deem “soft” so not sure why some people want to lay the loss out on him.? Rangers played better than usual folks, perhaps this is the turning point.

-Inferno

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Sort of a double entendre here.? The Rangers are managing to stay out of the penalty box and Tom Renney appears to be doing some thinking outside the box.? Really interesting game to see, as Renney tries all sorts of new alignments on the PP and the PK, way too many to get into just now at least.? Hes trying a lot of line combinations as well (a cynic may say it is because he is forced to do that due to the injuries… and I am no cynic….ok, even I couldn’t say that with a straight face.) including what looks to be a “weaker” first line in favor of a stronger second line.? He has moved Straka to Shanahans line, and move Jason Ward up to the first to play with Jagr and Prucha.? Its an interesting combination, one I could see sticking perhaps.? Move Straka and Nylander to the 2nd line to play with Shanahan, then stick Jason Ward in between Jagr and Prucha to create a more balanced top line.? Now let me preface all that with saying I happen to think the world of Jason Ward, and dont think he is nearly as inept on offense has his numbers seem to dictate.? Remember this was a first round pick at one point.? I think that may be an interesting approach to the Rangers problems, kudos to Renney for trying it. (partially, Nylander is still out)

-Inferno

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One thing I cant stand is embellishment. Rangers, for all their bad points haven’t been embellishing anything for years now. But today I definitely saw some embellishment, particularly by Kaspar who threw his head back and grabbed his face when the stick of Roberts never made contact with his face (as far as I could tell from the replays). I almost want to give the goal back (ok not really), you hate to win when you cheat, and embellishing is definitely cheating. Lets get this stuff out of the game fellas, it has no place here.

On to the actual period, which did show some positive signs from the Rangers, who did seem to keep their heads up, and take the appropriate play, of course its hard to really gauge the period when the good guys spent about half of it on the power play. Credit the Panthers who have a tenacious penalty kill for keeping it close, it could have been worse, but they kept everything to the outside, and limited the quality chances against.

Also credit Tom Renney (omg!) for trying some new stuff on the powerplay, particularly noticeable was a new 5 on 3 alignment, which didnt score, but looked pretty good. They had Straka and Cullen at the points, Jagr and Shanahan in their “offices” and Hall parked in front. Seemed pretty smart to me.

-Inferno

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