There are probably 2 ways to look at this game tonight. Either, the Rangers had a very hard time against a terrible Islanders team featuring a who’s who of AHL rejects. Or the Rangers had a nice come from behind win in a game they absolutely had to have against a team that seems to play over their heads versus the Rangers. Either way you look at it, the Rangers picked up 2 valuable points that they needed if they are indeed to pull off one of the biggest playoff pushes in recent memory.

The key to tonights game though seemed to be balance. All 3 lines looked to have a lot of jump. Anisimovs line continues to play superb hockey, Jokinen finally realized he is a hockey player instead of a lawn ornament, Drury had a few good plays, and Gaborik played like a man possessed. Luckily the Rangers were able to compensate for a suddenly mortal Henrik Lundqvist who has looked quite shaky in several of his recent games. One has to wonder if the load of playing 67 Rangers game so far, plus another 3 or 4 games in the Olympics during this condensed schedule is starting to wear on Henriks focus. He’s lost track of pucks, he’s fumbled easy shots, and he’s let in horrible angle goals with alarming regularity recently. If the Rangers are to have any hope whatsoever Henrik has to regain his focus, and soon. He’s the backbone of this push, no Henrik, no playoffs. Period.

Another thing that is interesting is that John Tortorella would rather give Corey Locke a look see rather than play Enver Lisin. I think that tells you where that kid is in our organization. He’s done. Kid has absolutely no brains for hockey, we should try to trade him at the draft for a 3rd or 4th rounder, if Brian Boyle can get a 3rd, why can’t Lisin get a 4th?

Finally, how about the play of P.A. Parenteau? Hes showed me a lot these last 2 games. Played smart hockey away from the puck, done some nice things on the cycle, and set up a few good scoring chances with some nice passes. Frankly, I wish we could have seen more of Parenteau this year, and a lot less of Lisin.

Next game against the Lightning will be crucial. It’s definitely a game we can have, and should win. Let’s see if these guys can make a miracle happen. I’m still not getting too excited though.

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When this season is (mercifully) over, we are going to look back and think of all those lost moments. All those games the Rangers could have, and should have won, but didn’t. All those games where a bounce here, a save there, etc, would have been the difference between a win and a loss. And how all of those games added together could have meant so much more than the shitshow we have seen for the bulk of the season. Sadly, tonight was another example of just that. Henrik Lundqvist gave up 2 horrendous goals to give away a game tonight. Let’s just get that out of the way. He was strong for the bulk of the game, he made some great saves, but the game tying goal was disgusting to watch, and the game winning goal was pretty effing horrible too. It’s tough to not crucify Henrik, but I won’t. I know what he means to this team, he saves their asses more nights than not, so let’s just ignore his performance tonight. Truth be told we could have been much worse. We played a pretty good game, we seemed to try hard, but what we seemed to do a lot of was make foolish mistakes. Gaborik going for the outside guy instead of the inside guy being a shining example of it.

It’s how this season has gone. It’s why I really don’t believe we will make the playoffs, and even if we miraculously do, I think we will be swept out of the first round. Sometimes, you just gotta look back on this season and shake your head. And you don’t even have to look much farther than tonight.

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So, the Rangers won a pretty huge game today if they wanted to stay mathematically in the race. And while I was very pessimistic before (and remain quite pessimistic still) the Rangers are still, mathematically, in the race.

The Rangers have likely set their sights on Philadelphia, who are playing with a 3rd string goalie, and without their superstar forward in Carter. The reason you have to set your sights there is quite simple, if the Rangers can get within 3 points of the Flyers with 2 games remaining, they can control their own destiny with 2 games against the Flyers. As we stand today the Rangers are 5 points behind the Flyers, so they would still need to gain at least 2 points to have that chance. So let’s take a look at the 2 teams remaining schedules.

For the Flyers:
@Pittburgh
VS New Jersey
@ New York Islanders
VS Montreal
VS Detroit
@ Toronto
@ New York Rangers
VS New York Rangers

The cumulative winning percentage of their opponents if .5407, their own winning percentage is .5405. Meaning they are pretty much facing teams that are their equals.

For the Rangers the schedule is as follows:
@ Toronto
@ Islanders
@ Tampa Bay
@ Florida
@ Buffalo
VS Toronto
VS Philly
@ Philly

The cumulative winning percentage here is .5085. The Rangers winning percentage is .5067. Comparing the 2, you would have to say the Rangers probably have the harder schedule of the 2, still though, it’s within a margin of error that you would have to call the schedules a push. So what is the key here? Health. If the Rangers can get Cally back without him missing more than a game, they have a shot. Not a good shot, but a shot. If the Flyers go .500 the rest of the way, the Rangers will need to go 7-1-1 to catch them. That is a daunting task. This stretch run may have some important games yet, but I am not getting my hopes up just yet.

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First, I want to apologize for the lack of updates and the lack of the defensive statistical analysis. I swear I will get to it, but real life issues and a sheer lack of time has really hindered my ability to sit and crunch lots of Ranger related numbers. Thankfully though this hasn’t interrupted my ability to watch Ranger games, and I was able to watch tonight’s shellacking of the Isles in beautiful 2D (3D is for wimps). Tonight was really a case of the Rangers playing a pretty good game, and the Islanders absolutely stinking up the joint. Sure, the Rangers were good, anyone with half a brain could tell you that, but the fact of the matter is, the team from Long Island just didn’t show up tonight. This may have been the worst opposition performance this season. The Isles were slow and disinterested. They almost looked like a team that wanted the better draft pick.

And really, that’s all that is left to discuss this season isn’t it? The Rangers draft pick. Because despite what the team tells you, this season is done. Over. Finished. Kaput. Sure, they aren’t mathematically eliminated, and sure, stranger things have happened, but let’s be real here. The Rangers would basically have to run the table, and get some serious help with the teams in front of them absolutely collapsing. I suppose the Flyers are probably the most likely to actually collapse, but I still find it hard to believe a team that has been as inconsistent as this one has it in them to go on a ~10 game winning streak. I just don’t see it.

Getting back to this game, it was good to see Marian Gaborik put some points up. I still don’t think he is healthy because that supreme high end speed just isn’t there. This is definitely the best he has looked in weeks, but the Gaborik would could fly by the opposition in 2 strides just isn’t there. Give the guy a ton of credit, as quite literally the only weapon on the Rangers, he has done his very best to get this team to the playoffs. If he had his version of Nylander and Straka on this team, you know we would be in it.

Let’s hope Sather gets off his ass this summer and gets Gabby some help. The offseason game plan post will come upon the completion of the season, which will basically be in a few short weeks.

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I’ll actually be back on later with my full writeup including a statistical look at the defense, but yeah. Its over. Rangers threw in the towel with a pretty gutless effort today. 1 goal was all they could muster. Sure, Henrik gave up a softie for the winner, but he stopped several key odd man rushes, and a penalty shot. Tough to fault him on 1 bad goal. More later, I’ve got 2 games to play tonight, so hopefully I’ll have the energy to come back and do this.

Update: I injured my left foot today playing hockey, I’m going to take some Vicodin and get some sleep, hopefully It will feel better tomorrow and I can make my post. Sorry guys.

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Things are looking grim in Rangerland, and not just for people who bet online. With a chance to climb within 1 point of the 8th placed Bruins the Rangers instead fell further back in the standings as the Thrashers…yes, the THRASHERS, leap-frogged us for 9th. It was a rather difficult game to judge tonight because I think we can all agree that the Rangers, by and large, were the better team. They had a territorial advantage, they had a shot advantage, they had some great scoring chances (though the Blues probably had the better chances, albeit fewer) and all in all played a pretty good game. Unfortunately it was their rock that let them down. Henrik Lundqvist was not good tonight. Dare I say he was terrible? Honestly, I would have probably pulled him after the second goal. Henrik was fighting the puck all night long, easy shots were flubbed, his glove hand was consistently lower than usual, and pucks just weren’t sticking to him. Lundqvist gave up a softie for the game winner, probably should have had the deflection goal that went in off of Reddens stick, and was not properly set for the Boyes goal. All in all I almost want to fault Torts for not pulling Henrik when he had the chance. Especially when the game winner was such a terrible goal for your goalie to give up. I understand the rationale though. He’s your guy, you want to win or lose with the best guy in net, sadly, today, it cost us. Henrik didn’t have it, and the Rangers couldn’t muster up enough offense to bail him out like he has bailed the team out countless times before. It’s that seemingly never ending paradigm this team has. Two things go right, one thing goes wrong. That thing goes right, the other 2 start failing us. Very rarely are we able to muster up a full 60 minute effort with all the cylinders clicking. That could be a result of having a deeply flawed team, or it could be the result of having deeply flawed leadership. At this point, I am thinking a little bit of both.

This next game against the Bruins is quite simply a must win. If the Rangers lose in regulation, they will be 5 points back with the Bruins having 1 game in hand. If the Bruins go .500 the rest of the way they would finish with 87 points. In order to overtake them, the Rangers would need to go 8-1-1 in their final 10 games, a daunting task to ask of any team, especially one as bi-polar as this one. Let’s see how this all plays out.

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Gonna have to keep this one short, it’s 3am and I am pretty tired. With such a huge game tonight, I figured the Rangers would try to pound the Habs into the ground. We can’t keep up with their speed, but we could definitely hit them and hit them hard causing turnovers. Not only did we not do that, but it looked like we really didn’t want to win this game all that desperately. The Habs wanted it more. They wanted to win the board battles more, they wanted to win the battles in front of the net more, they wanted to win the races for loose pucks more, they wanted to defend more. Just about the only place where we wanted it more was our goalie, who only gave up 2 deflection goals and other than that was stellar. But Henrik can’t score you goals. Henrik can’t motivate you to get off your ass and go win a battle or 2. That needs to be up to each and every individual player. That needs to be up to the captain, and yes, that needs to be up to the coach. It’s got to piss you off that this team can come out so flat against in so many important games throughout the year. I get that it’s going to happen, but it can’t happen in games that are just about do or die. If the Rangers want to do anything in the playoffs, they need to be thinking about finishing in 7th, not 8th. 7th place will probably get you a matchup against either the Pens or the Devils, 2 damn good teams, sure, but nothing like the juggernaut Caps. If the Rangers want to make any noise, they need to do it by winning these games, by leapfrogging the teams ahead of them, by showing that they give a damn about things like that instead of the whimper we saw tonight.

I am disgusted, and I am sure you all are as well. It’s gut check time boys, get your heads out of your asses and put together some wins.

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Apparently their pissing match with DirecTV is finally over. I will be able to watch tomorrows game, and, Lundqvist-willing, the playoffs.

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Over on the message boards the benching of Sean Avery has gotten some pretty animated responses, nearly all of which were along the lines of crucifying the coach. I for one happened to agree with the coach as the play of Sean has been severely lacking for the bulk of this season. I would say out of the past 30 games or so Sean has been almost a complete non factor in about 25 of those games. Not really generating much in the offensive zone, not throwing other people off their games, in short, his game sagged quite substantially. People say that Torts has neutered him, and I say BS, especially when I hear comments from the coach where they want him to be more aggressive, make more plays, to do more things, and all we see is less, less, less. To me that screams of a player who is on cruise control and needs a kick in the pants. Torts gave Sean that kick with a pretty emphatic (and deserved) benching against the Thrashers.

It seemed to me that Torts picked his game very smartly on when to bench Sean. It was a game where he knew with or without Sean, the Rangers would still have a good chance to win, and he played the odds. It’s tough to bench him against the better teams in the league, which we have been playing for most of the past 2-3 weeks, but against a team like Atlanta, you can take a risk there, and it paid off in spades this afternoon against a very good Philadelphia Flyers team.

It’s also worth noting that Chris Drury has been playing some pretty good hockey of late. Not great hockey, and definitely not “C” worthy hockey, but much better than what we have seen over the bulk of this season. Chris has played his usual stellar PK, while managing to put up 8 points in his past 11 games (3 goals, 5 assists). Those certainly are numbers you would expect to see on a consistent basis from a guy making as much money as he is, and more importantly, from a guy who has been more or less a perennial 50-70 point player (8 points in 11 games is 60 point production over a full season). I give him a lot of crap, but I also want to point out when he is playing pretty well. Keep is up Chris, in fact, give me more while you’re at it.

Rangers have a Versus game on Tuesday, it’s a double whammy for me, since I have a game myself so I can’t even catch the radio broadcast of it. Let’s hope for a nice convincing Rangers win at home against a beatable, but red hot Montreal team.

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Even with tonights win the Rangers are precariously close to falling completely out of contention. With only 14 games left in the season the Rangers are 3 full points behind the Bruins, who have 2 games in hand. That could balloon up to 7 points in a hurry. *gulp*. With such a daunting task in front of them, give credit to the Rangers who had control of this game pretty much since minute 1. They outforechecked the Thrashers, they out scored them, they out defended them, and they out goaltended them. It’s not really all that surprising though, since the Thrashers lost Kovalchuk they look like a very poor team on paper, one would only imagine to see such results play themselves out. Give credit to the Rangers and coach Tortorella, in a very questionable move, he sent a message to his team that nobody is beyond being sat, even at this important juncture. Torts decided to sit Sean Avery for this game, and frankly it probably was the right decision. Sean hasn’t been a very good player for us for much of this season. He seems to score 3 points in a game, or do absolutely nothing. Far too often this year he has been a ghost on the ice. You don’t see him getting people pissed off, you don’t see him making player, you just see him skating around doing more or less nothing. Torts sat Avery, and the Rangers responded. It’s not so much about the message to Avery as much as it is the message to the team. What the frak up, or we are going home. Looks like the Rangers have no intention of going into that sweet night quietly.

One player who seems to stand out in a positive way almost every game, at least to me, is Artem Anisimov. I guess you have to appreciate smart, subtle play to really “get” Anisimovs game. Arty is a guy who can dangle around you, for sure, but what you have to appreciate is the way he reads the play and reacts. Kid is probably the smartest player on the Rangers right now, and he’s only what…22? That’s incredible. As his body fills out, and as he gets more confidence in his offensive game, I think this kid might become our version of Pavel Datsyuk, sans the 90+point seasons. A smart, defensively responsible player, who makes those around him much better. A guy you can count on in all situations to be a productive player. I think Arty can probably be a 30-30 guy for us while putting up Selke like performances defensively. But, no pressure.

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