Prior to the game John Tortorella put the challenge to the boys. To come out strong, to win the tough battles, to take a hit, and give a hit to make the play. To out work, out muscle, and out “care” the opposition. And against yet another bottom feeding opponent, the Rangers came out flat, disinterested, sloppy, and occasionally downright stupid with their play. Henrik Lundqvists Goals Against Average continues to take a beating, thanks to stupid unforced turnovers, and braindead decision making by almost every player out there leading to breakaways and undefended shots from the slot.

The most heartbreaking aspect of tonights game was that there was so little offensive zone pressure in the areas you have to pay the price to get to. The Rangers just stayed to the perimeter, had battles on the boards, and more often than not, lost those battles leading to rushes against. What angers me more than anything here is that it is the rookies, Dane Byers, PA Parenteau, and the other young players who are playing relatively well. Meanwhile guys like Donald Brashear, and Chris Drury, older veteran guys who have very specific roles, are playing like absolute crap. Brashear you sort of expect, the guy is a pugilist, he is there to knock out some teeth, he’s going to make some dumb plays out there. Drury though has been nothing more or less than what Blair Betts was to us last year. A penalty killer, a strong defensive player, and a hard worker. With zero offensive ability whatsoever. He isn’t getting good scoring chances, he isn’t setting up good scoring chances, he isn’t even winning faceoffs anymore. All he does is plays defensive hockey. Which would be fine if he was a 3rd or a 4th line role player. But no, this guy is the CAPTAIN of this team. The CAPTAIN!!! The guy who needs to lead this team, to wake their asses up, to get them to play hard, to lead by example and score some clutch goals. Instead Captain Cardboard has done nothing to warrant a 2 million dollar a year contract, nevermind the unfathomable 7 million dollar a year deal he is actually on.

Don’t use the injury excuse either, we have played 2 of the weakest teams in the NHL who have had their share of injuries the past few years, and they took us to task. This falls right on the lap of the leadership of this team. I’m looking at you Chris. Oh, don’t worry, I don’t expect this loss to ruin your Halloween.

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Rangers Review | Comments Off

The Rangers lost again, and this time, to a team they most definitely should have beaten. But, there were a few things worth noting. First, the Rangers hit the post 4 separate times…a few millimeters here and there, and the Rangers win this one 5-3. Second, the Rangers didn’t have Marian Gaborik. Which alone should scare the hell out of you. If he is already hurt, this could be the beginning of the end for this team, because as good as we were with Gaborik, our talent level just isn’t on par with the upper echelon teams in the East.

Enough from me, the Yankee loss has me fuming.

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After a pretty nice bounce back win, the only thing on Ranger fans minds are, how is Marian Gaborik. I was thinking it, you were thinking it, it’s all anyone who watched the broadcast was thinking. You see Marian Gaborik have issues with his lower body, not finish the game, not skate out for the first star announcement, and all you can think of is, well, seasons over.

You don’t want to be too melodramatic here, I mean, this Ranger team is clearly not a 1-man show, but Gaborik and Lundqvist are the reasons we are 1 point out of first place, and not one of those middle of the row teams right now. The Rangers have 4 players, including Gaborik, in the top 15 in scoring right now, including rookie phenom Michael Del Zotto (MDZ Soren!) who notched his 12th point in 12 games played and is now halfway there to eclipsing the point total of Mara, Girardi, and Staal for all of last year. But this really all goes back to Gaborik though. Gaborik who is now tied for the lead league in goals. Gaborik who is now second in the league in points. Gaborik who has either scored or assisted on 39% of the teams total offense is the key figure here.

When you see Marian Gaborik leave the ice with a lower body injury, you have the same reaction as we all did when Henrik Lundqvist was writhing in pain 2 days ago. You freak the hell out. And I don’t blame you one iota.

The good news though, is that apparently the injury may not be anything major. According to Gaborik it was unrelated to the groin and hip issues that have plagued his career, and was “nothing major”. To me, it looked just like a Charley Horse, and the Rangers were being overprotective (and rightfully so!) of their 7.5 million dollar investment. It’s also possible it was a knee issue, as he definitely appeared to be flexing his leg at the knee itself (which is why either explanation really seems possible). Considering Gaborik wasn’t limping after the game, my guess is he skips practice tomorrow, and will be on the ice on Wednesday in a game I am sure every New Yorker is waiting for with bated breath instead of watching anything else that’s going on.

With regards to the game itself, I was a lot happier with Lisins play after the first period. He again looked extremely weak with the puck on his stick, and often shot either wide, or turned it over immediately unlike his counterparts on the line who hold on to the puck for a bit and take a look around before doing something with it. Lisin was a bit more decisive and quick to react as the game wore on, and even scored a goal (granted there are maybe 3 or 4 NHL goalies who give up that one…he just happened to get one of those goalies in the net for that shot), but more importantly had a few quality scoring chances, and was involved in the play. He bought another game in my eyes just because I am curious to see how he follows this up. Will he continue to build on the last 2 periods, or will he go back to playing like he has the bulk of this season. Remember, we are playing a guy with 8 points (only 2 points more than “4th liner” Artem Anisimov) with 2 guys who have combined to scored 34 points. Personally, I think Anisimov has more offensive talent, and wouldn’t mind seeing him getting a game or 2 at the pivot position with Prospal moving back to left wing just to see what the kid can do. But that’s just me.

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Even a drugged up woozy sick old yours truly could see this one coming a mile away. The Rangers lost a heartbreaker tonight, which they had 2 separate leads of 2 or more goals thanks to 2 blatant things that have been continuing since the Kings game. The Rangers gap control has gotten worse, and their turnovers continue to happen at untimely moments in the game.

Let’s start with the turnovers. Turnovers are what saw Brandon Dubinsky end up on the bench. Turnovers are one thing, but today the Rangers had a plethora of unforced turnovers, and today they most certainly came back to haunt us as they ended up in the back of our net more often than not. The sloppy passing seems to be a staple of a team that is getting worse as the season goes on, and will most certainly need to be addressed if they plan on snapping out of this now 3 game losing streak.

But what concerns me more than anything right now is the gap control. The gaps have consistently gotten bigger and bigger since the Kings game. In the first several games we gave the opposition very little time and space to operate, but as the games have gone by, that time, and space have both increased ever so slightly, culminating in tonight where the Habs had all day to pick and choose where to shoot the puck on Henrik. I’m sure some misguided Ranger fans will blame Henrik for this loss, which is ridiculous considering the manner in which the goals were scored, but regardless, no goalie is going to stop the opposition when they have all day to pick their spots and fire pucks home top corner. Defense is all about controlling your gaps. Play on your toes, not on your heels, and that is something the Rangers have gotten away from.

Another thing that continues to frustrate the hell out of me is Torts’ continued use of Enver Lisin in a position he flat out hasn’t earned. If Dubinsky and Higgins were benched because of sloppy play (and rightfully so) then someone needs to explain to me on the flip side what Lisin has done to earn such a position on the team. Watch the guy when the puck is on his stick, it’s either turned over, shot wide, or mishandled, or he is pushed off the puck within 1/2 a second of him touching it. It’s like clockwork. The guy does basically nothing positive in the offensive zone whatsoever. I just don’t get it, I really don’t. Someone out there will be like, well what about that great pass to Gaborik for the breakaway goal, but seriously, if it was such a great pass, why did Gaborik have to reach behind himself deflect the puck back towards him, and skate into it, rather than taking it in on a tape to tape pass. Right now, to me, there is only 1 player on the Rangers roster who draws as much attention to himself as Marian Gaborik does, and his name is Sean Avery. You want your opposite winger for Gaborik who will create time and space for Gabby, you have it. It’s time for Torts to stop drinking the Kool Aid and to realize that Lisin is nothing more than a borderline 4th liner being paired with 2 solid players who are dragging his worthless behind up and down the ice. Kid has speed, but he handles the puck like a live hand grenade.

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Another short one from me as I am extremely ill with the flu (Not H1N1 I hope…). The Rangers once again play a game where they are beaten to pucks, where they are making costly turnovers, where they just aren’t sharp out there. This includes their goaltender. Sure, Henrik made some great saves, but the game winning goal was atrocious, even if it was a deflection you have to stop that. Ok, Tylenol night time is calling me to bed. I’ll be back with some more stuff for the Rangers next game.

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5 to go.

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Yet again I was screwed by Versus and unable to watch the game…looks like that’s probably a good thing. Things were trending downwards, a loss was inevitable.

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It is now 5am, and I just finished watching both the Rangers and Yankees games, the Yankees one being a marathon win. Just a few quick thoughts before I hit the sack. Rangers looked very much like they did against the Kings. This better not be a recurring theme. They scored some goals against some shoddy goaltending, but they gave up a lot of chances…a better offensive team keeps this game a helluva lot closer if not wins it outright. 1 game is an exception. 2 games are coincidence. 3 games makes a pattern. Rangers better snap out of this quick before it becomes a pattern. Good night.

By the way. 5 down, 6 to go for the Yanks.

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