Big Valley played his heart out tonight. If ever the phrase “leaving it all out on the ice” was to be used, it would be for the big guy tonight. Sadly this Rangers team, filled with enough firepower to take down an aircraft carrier, can barely sputter enough goals nowadays to take down a bag blowing in the wind.
Earlier in the year, I was preaching patience with the offense. Saying almost nightly that “it would come”. But here we are more than 1/3rd of the way into the season, and this team has yet to string together more than 1 or 2 games in a row where they play even “well” offensively.
I think it may be time to make a move. Maybe just something small to shake things up. Or perhaps acquiring a guy like Jokinen, who despite saying repeatedly he wasnt having problems with Martin, may be available. If Jokinen is available, I’d throw a ton Floridas way to acquire him. Im thinking Prucha, Montoya and another prospect (Baranka? Dawes?) would be a good starting point. Or perhaps a move to get Nikolai Zherdev whose offensive total so far this year would be right at the top of our team. Or hell, maybe see if Forsberg would sign a minimum contract to take a cup run with the Rangers. I dont know folks, but at this point in time, the offensive ineptitude of this team is downright frightening.
On a night where the defense played abhorrently, and our goalie bailed our asses out of trouble time after time, you would think the offense would at least score more than 2 goals (at least Drury got into the act). You would think Sean Avery wouldn’t miss 3 wide open nets in one game. You would think a team with Jagr, Drury, Gomez, Shanahan, Prucha, Straka, etc etc would be able to muster up more offense than that against a mediocre Florida team.
Sadly, the offense is lacking, and this might be the time to try to jump start it.
