Sun 25 Nov 2007
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Rangers Day of Reckoning arrived at 19:08 of the first period this afternoon when the Rangers defense was caught deep and Jussi Jokinen blew one by the King.
What has been painfully obvious to me over the last three games is that, if this team’s defense and penalty kill starts to crumble like it did later in this game, the Rangers will be well and truely screwed. Our powerplay is nonexistant. Henrik, unfortunately, had an uncharacteristically pedestrian game. Did his parents attendance throw him or was it the presence of Mike Richter?
After Dallas went up 3-2, they started to trap the Rangers real good. To their detrement, the Rangers have no spark of creativity when they are behind. They are unable to adapt and insist upon trying to carry or pass the puck to gain the zone. It is then that they should dump and chase and get guys out there that are willing to dig in the corners because they can’t bring it up the middle.
The last time you can say that the Rangers played a complete game was against the Devils two weeks ago. The defense pinched a little and actually took some shots to generate rebounds. They need to get back to that. They need to keep changing the location of their shots and be less predictable. Instead of looking to feed the so called “scorers”, they need to go back to overall team offense. The amount of quality shots they had today were about half of the amount they were credited with. The rest of their shots were softballs to Smith’s midsection.
They need to get Drury with Straka and Jagr and stop the Hossa/Dubinsky experiment. It’s time to pound the round peg and build chemistry between their marquee players. Jagr needs to work with the rest of the talent because at this rate, there is no way in hell he’ll make his contract triggers. You gotta give a little to get a little. Nylander isn’t coming back. He needs to adapt his game. The coaching staff has bent over backward to try and build chemistry with anybody and Jagr. It is not working.
Avery Gomez Shanahan
Dawes/Prucha Dubinsky Callahan
Orr Betts Hollweg
Hossa is quickly becoming the next Malik up in the Blues. It’s just gonna get uglier. If we can’t waive him, he needs to be scratched or traded. Jason Strudwick is a better forward. 
Shanahan got third star which I thought he deserved more because of his sprawling block then for his goal. That feed by Avery was a classic Red Wing play and Shanny was in the slot to put it home. Bang, Bang. That said, I was disappointed in Shanahan’s decision to take himself out of the game for five minutes by figthing Ott.
PS. By the end of the game, some people in the Blue seats were cheering every time Zubov touched the puck. Gotta love the angst, the sarcasim, the irony of the folks up top.
