Im glad the Rangers lost this game. If they won that would have been 3 consecutive games where we didnt play well at all only to come away with a win. We needed some humble pie, and got a big dose of it here. I expect game 4 to be a helluva lot better by the Rangers, because if they keep playing like this, we will lose right here in the first round.
Give credit to the kids, they played a pretty strong game, and although I am sure Marc Staal is kicking himself (and not the puck) for scoring an own goal like that, it happens. You move on, and forget about it. These are valuable minutes for these kids. They are going to look back at this playoff series and remember how important it was to lose a game like this for their future well being.
But the fact remains. 3 games in this playoffs, and not a one that we well played by us. Sloppy turnovers, sloppy defense, sloppier offense, sloppy everything. Even our penalty killing was sloppy today. Our goaltending was average at best, and even despite Uncle Daddy having another crap game, we weren’t good enough to overcome all these deficits.
This one lies squarely on the coaching staff. All week long they have been giving the credit to the Devils, they have been saying “We can improve our play” while totally glossing over the fact that not only do we have to improve our play…our play has been absolutely terrible. Any sane fan will look at this series and say, without Henrik playing god-like in games 1 and 2, we would be down 0-3 against the swamp rats right now. Shift after shift they seemed to elevate their play, and shift after shift there has been no consistency, let alone elevation to our play.
Be afraid folks. Even though I proclaimed this series to be over, it was with the understanding that the good guys would actually play a good game. They have done nothing to make me feel like they DESERVE to win this series.
Tom Renney better be putting these guys through the ringer…oh…wait, what am I talking about, this is Tom Renney. We will just have to be content with the same talk about being patient, putting pucks to the nets, playing 5 in the picture, blah blah blah, without any emphasis on what this team is doing wrong, and giving them a tongue lashing for playing like this.
I am scared, I will admit it.
EDIT:
I want to add one more thing. If Tom Renney does not even attempt to go back to the lines that work..
Avery Dubinsky Jagr
Dawes Gomez Shanny
Straka Drury Callahan
Then I better not hear crap from all you Renney lovers. This guy is simply not giving our team the best chance to win with his line combinations. IMHO he is being badly outcoached by Sutter, as I predicted.
