17 years ago (wow has it been that long?) Adam Graves broke the Rangers single season goal scoring record. He scored 99% of his goals within 5 feet of the net. I bet if you added up the total distance traveled of all of those goals you wouldn’t hit 10 feet. It’s a shame the Rangers of tonight never got to see Adam Graves play, because if they did, they would remember just how important it is to clear that area of the ice. In front of your own net is the single deadliest area of the ice. Tonight the Rangers were absolutely torched there. It wasn’t just the goals they gave up either, it was the numerous point blank chances they gave up, and how many blown coverages in front of the net I saw all night that the Thrashers just weren’t able to get pucks through to. The Rangers didn’t play that badly. I mean outside of that one aspect I was fairly happy with the way they played. But it shows just how important that aspect of the game is when the team can blow such a crucial game because of that one tiny aspect.

I know everyones favorite punching bag on the blueline now that Rozsival is gone has become Michael Del Zotto, which I find absolutely absurd, but then again I’m never surprised with what Ranger fans can do. But to me the worst defenseman on the ice was Matt Gilroy…again. The guy just has no strength in his own zone, he was pushed around like a rag doll, the Thrashers were constantly going right after him. T o me if the Rangers really want to make a difference here they need to try pairing Del Zotto with Girardi and Staal with Gilroy. I think it’s time to break up Staal and Girardi in an effort to gain more offense with Del Zotto, and stabilize the hole that Gilroy really is out there (frankly he shouldn’t be playing over Eminger).

Also, Artem Anisimov needs to start finishing some of these chances. How many posts with wide open nets can a guy possibly hit? Sheesh!

Ok, that’s all for now. Night all!

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I was stuck on the highway the entire night due to this car accident. I did manage to watch the game, but am too damn tired to write about it. I’ll just have to make the next writeup extra special. ZzzzzzZZzzZZZZzzzzz

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You didn’t have to watch the entire 60 minutes of tonights game. No, it wasn’t really necessary. Really all you had to do was watch the game up until the point where the Rangers had 4 straight power plays and generated all of 1 half assed shot on goal. That was all you needed to watch. Once the 4th one ticked off, all you needed to do was to stand up, turn your TV off, then go ahead and hit yourself in the privates a half dozen times, and you’d get the same experience as watching the full 60 minutes.

The Rangers played well, but didn’t generate enough chances. They played good D but still gave up the games only goals. They got good goaltending, but still didn’t get the W. The reason is simple. The Rangers power play if absolutely horrific. Watching it is like watching the “Miracle Of Life” video for the first time when you’re taking sex ed class. Just when you think it can’t get any worse, it does.

If the Rangers are going to turn around this recent cold streak it needs to happen with the man advantage. In most other areas they are fine. Even strength they look good. On the PK they look good. But with the man up, you can’t believe the crap you watch.

Personally, I don’t think the answer is a trade, or to pick up an aging Sheldon Souray who has all of 3 goals in 20 games in Hershey. No, what the team needs to do is to go inside to outside quicker, and to take those shots from the point. They are doing everything right except for shooting pucks directly off the pass. It’s that quick decisive shot that brings everything together. The Rangers are slow and methodical with their shots, and they are taking lots of wrist shots from the point. They need to work on those 1-timers from up there. That will pull the defense up higher to respect the shots coming, which opens up the play down low. THAT my friends is the key to getting Gabby going. Right now everyone is just suffocating him because nobody else will shoot the puck, they are force feeding it to him a-la Jagr a few years back. That’s not the way to win games, because Gabby is not a Jagr who can do it all by his lonesome. He needs to find his space and dart through while getting the pass, he can’t post up and create stuff with his massive lower body strength. That’s not his game.

Rangers need to get some points, and quickly, or they could find themselves on the outside looking in.

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Once again Coach Tortorella and I are in agreement. The Rangers played well enough to win, they didn’t because of their goaltending. Simply put, Henrik Lundqvist wasn’t good. He was so-so at best, and didn’t give the Rangers a chance to win a very winable game. You saw some good things from a very young Rangers team, including limiting the Devils to a very few quality scoring chances, none of which went in. In fact the only goals scored were all saveable shots. Yes, including the Kovalchuk snipe shot. Henrik committed low WAY too early giving Kovalchuk the entire top of the net to shoot at. This isn’t the minors, NHL shooters can hit that spot if you give it to them.

Henrik has to be better, and we all know he will be. What more is there to say?

Vinny Prospal looked like he never left, showing his usual enthusiasm and his relentless style of play to lead to many of the Rangers quality scoring chances. You can also look at it like the Rangers hit 2 posts and missed 2 WIDE open nets. They should have won even though Henrik was terribad. But they didn’t They will need to be better if they want to salvage what has already been an awful start to the post all-star break stretch run. I would like to see more of a concerted 60 minute effort from the boys in blue, particularly to start the game. We all know they have a knack for coming back when down going into the 3rd, but how about going into the 3rd with a lead every once in a while eh? It’s a hell of a lot easier to try to hold a lead than trying to take back a lead, that’s for damn sure. I wouldnt be surprised if we see Martin Biron in the next game, nor would I be surprised to see the Rangers put through an intense skate tomorrow. They need to show up for games and play the entire 60 minutes, and one way of getting that message through is putting them through the paces.

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The Rangers have stolen a lot of points this season thanks to the shootout. Tonight, they couldn’t make it happen. However, it’s not as though the Rangers played a good game. Quite the contrary, they played a severely depleted Pittsburgh team that lost 2 players mid game, and still couldn’t pick up the W. Give credit to the Penguins, they won playing the way the Rangers have won through their injuries, but it isn’t enough to win those games, the Rangers now have to find a way to win these games by playing the same way they did back then, with their more skilled players back in the lineup. There is no excuse whatsoever for the Rangers not coming up with 2 points tonight. NONE.

I’m not mad at the team, but I am very disappointed. I felt they didn’t crash the net with any degree of consistency, sometimes doing it for several shifts in a row, and then inexplicably not doing it at all for half a period. Also Henrik Lundqvist gave up an unbelievably soft rebound goal to Rupp I believe when he had an easy save flub out to the slot for an easy tap in for the Penguins forward. Not a good goal to give up, especially when that really ended up being the difference in the game. The shootout is a crapshoot, the Rangers needed to win this one in regulation.

Give high marks to Wojtek Wolski though. Since the Rangers have acquired him it’s hard not to be happy with the kids play. He’s consistently around the puck, never seems to float like the Coyotes and Avalanche fans said he did, and he picks up points with regularity, and they aren’t lucky points either.

On the flip side Drury continues to be a huge gaping black hole of nothing when it comes to the scoresheet. He’s not playing awful, but he’s not helping either, and this is a case of not getting enough from the Captain rather than him doing the wrong thing. 7 million bucks for a 4th line penalty killer? Yuck.

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I have my outline for what I want to say with regards to Chris Drury, unfortunately it’s just a crazy busy time in my life right now. I’m usually happy if I have enough time to actually watch the game, but nowadays that is at like 2 or 3 am by the time I get a chance to watch the game, and then get to write about it. Hence why the Drury thing isn’t done yet and why my recaps have been shorter. I’m hoping in the next 2 weeks to finish a major project which will free up some time. Sorry guys, I’m not slacking, if anything it’s the complete opposite!

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