I didn’t expect the Rangers to beat the Stanley Cup runner up Ottawa Senators last night. In fact, after losing to the Fishsticks on Wednesday, it was easy to see the Rangers being 1-4 by today. The fact that they are 2-3 is a bonus. Five games in to this season, there was no shame in being runner up to the Ottawa Senators last night.

After playing a decent 30 minutes of hockey, a series of horrendous gaffes by the Rangers defense and one soft goal triggered a 52 second Ottawa blitzkrieg that put this game out of the Rangers reach. Ottawa trapped them for the remaining 30 minutes.

One minute of poor defensive play still cannot excuse the lack of scoring on the part of the offense and their “gone missing” powerplay. So many times, this team tried to carry the puck over the blueline against the best trapping team in the league. One wonders if the concept of dump and chase is lost upon the top two lines who continued to try and finesse the puck up the ice.

That was precisely the time when the “kids” should be out there expending all that youthful energy. If the big boys didn’t have the footspeed and the energy after playing the night before, Renney should have thought about letting the kids lead the way. It couldn’t have been any worse than watching the ineffective play of the top two lines. Jagr and Drury playing 25 minutes each was not the answer.

Finally, on to Brendan Shanahan. Shanny took 13 shots and couldn’t score one goal. He missed a couple of shots where we were shaking our heads that those pucks did not go in the net. In a rare display of emotion and temper, Shanahan slammed his stick as he left the ice. This poor guy is snake bitten right now. All I can say is that Brendan should keep shooting the puck on net. Good things have to happen sooner or later. The whole team, including Brendan, ran into a brick wall in Martin Gerber last night.

It reminds me of the story Shanny tells of his first game in Detroit after being traded from Hartford. He barely got to the Joe in time for the game. He walked in just as the rest of the team was heading out to the pre-game warm up. He looked at Steve Yzerman and told him to go on without him and that he would be out as soon as he could. Yzerman told Brendan that they would wait for him and all go out together as a team. As a team.

So to Brendan Shanahan I say, it’s only the fifth game of the season. I cannot speak for the rest of the fans but I will wait for you Bren.