Another day, another short handed goal given up. This was pretty much a prototypical Rangers game. Lots of low quality shots on goal, bad turnovers leading to goals, lots of high quality chances given up, very few high quality chances seen, a putrid power play that was again a negative for the day, and another loss.
For the first 40 minutes we played pretty good hockey, but the last 20 minutes…not so much. Scotty Gomez followed up his brilliant -4 performance with a team worst -3 today, and the Rangers continued to look very much like a non playoff team, that they really should be at this point.
I mean, really, what more is there to say? I have said for a while now that I feel the teams biggest problem is Tom Renney, the guy has instituted a style of play that doesn’t make sense for this team. And while it is clear that these players are not trying their hardest night in and night out, it seems to me at least part of the blame for that rides on a coach who is more like a comatose victim than the firebreather we seem to need right now. That guy is definitely available in John Tortarella, but I have my doubts as to it happening since Sather has always been far too patient for my liking with his coaches.
The powerplay continues to boggle the mind with its complete ineptitude, for the 2nd straight season we are likely to finish right near the bottom of the league in terms of our Power Play, part of the blame on that goes squarely on the head coaches shoulders. He has not been able to fix this power play, and even all the Renney apologists have no excuses as to why it hasn’t worked.
I really am at a loss for words at this point. It just becomes more repetition than anything. We continue to play shit hockey, like we have all season, but now, like I always have maintained, the law of averages is catching up. When you play like crap, you will lose. We were somehow doing the opposite for much of this season, but now, it is catching up to us.
As of tonight, here are the updated Eastern Conference standings, not by points, but by winning percentage. IE, total points won/total possible points winnable.
|
Team
|
GP
|
W
|
L
|
OTL
|
PTS
|
GF
|
GA
|
Home
|
Away
|
L10
|
Winning %
|
|
| 1 | Boston | 26 | 18 | 4 | 4 | 40 | 89 | 56 | 9-1-1 | 9-3-3 | 8-1-1 | 0.769230769 |
| 2 | Pittsburgh | 26 | 15 | 7 | 4 | 34 | 84 | 71 | 7-3-2 | 8-4-2 | 5-3-2 | 0.653846154 |
| 3 | Washington | 28 | 15 | 10 | 3 | 33 | 88 | 86 | 10-1-1 | 5-9-2 | 4-6-0 | 0.589285714 |
| 4 | Montreal | 26 | 15 | 6 | 5 | 35 | 79 | 69 | 8-2-3 | 7-4-2 | 5-2-3 | 0.673076923 |
| 5 | NY Rangers | 30 | 18 | 10 | 2 | 38 | 77 | 76 | 11-6-1 | 7-4-1 | 5-5-0 | 0.633333333 |
| 6 | New Jersey | 24 | 14 | 8 | 2 | 30 | 70 | 63 | 7-4-1 | 7-4-1 | 7-3-0 | 0.625 |
| 7 | Philadelphia | 26 | 13 | 7 | 6 | 32 | 84 | 78 | 6-4-3 | 7-3-3 | 7-1-2 | 0.615384615 |
| 8 | Buffalo | 26 | 12 | 11 | 3 | 27 | 70 | 76 | 7-6-1 | 5-5-2 | 3-7-0 | 0.519230769 |
| 9 | Carolina | 28 | 13 | 12 | 3 | 29 | 71 | 83 | 7-8-1 | 6-4-2 | 4-5-1 | 0.517857143 |
| 10 | Ottawa | 24 | 10 | 10 | 4 | 24 | 60 | 59 | 7-5-2 | 3-5-2 | 4-4-2 | 0.5 |
| 11 | Florida | 26 | 11 | 12 | 3 | 25 | 63 | 73 | 6-4-2 | 5-8-1 | 5-3-2 | 0.480769231 |
| 12 | Toronto | 27 | 9 | 12 | 6 | 24 | 80 | 96 | 4-5-4 | 5-7-2 | 2-6-2 | 0.444444444 |
| 13 | NY Islanders | 26 | 10 | 14 | 2 | 22 | 68 | 90 | 5-8-1 | 5-6-1 | 5-5-0 | 0.423076923 |
| 14 | Atlanta | 26 | 9 | 14 | 3 | 21 | 77 | 93 | 5-6-1 | 4-8-2 | 2-7-1 | 0.403846154 |
| 15 | Tampa Bay | 26 | 6 | 12 | 8 | 20 | 60 | 83 | 3-6-5 | 3-6-3 | 1-5-4 | 0.384615385 |
So right now, despite having the easiest schedule to start off the season, despite having a nightmare of a schedule ahead of us, we are really the #5 seed, and by my guess, we will be the #7 seed within 4 weeks unless there is a drastic change in this team, mark my words.