Rather then post the highly objectionable lyrics of this “song” by one Young Jeezy, I am using its title tonight because the New Jersey Devils trapped and the Rangers died. So far this season, John Tortorella’s “safe is death” system of hockey has entertained the Garden Faithful and has so far brought the Rangers a modicum of success. That is until tonight. 

Apparently Mr. Tortorella needs to school up on his cross river rivals and adjust the Rangers style of play when facing the Devils. Recall that Lamarillo has Grand Master Trap LeMaire coaching the Swamp Rats again this season. It doesn’t seem to matter how many different players run through the organization in New Jersey or how talented they are, they will still win if they deploy their trap and that is exactly what they did tonight.

You cannot succeed against a 2-2-1 trap by trying to make passes through the neutral zone. The only way to succeed against the Devils is to have one player either bull the puck over the blueline like Jagr used to OR dump and chase.  The Rangers did neither of those two things successfully tonight and as a result they were on the losing end of a 4-2 score. Hell, the Devils stood them up and the blueline during their powerplays.

Chris Drury had every opportunity to run Marty good but he stopped. He put on the brakes. He didn’t even snow Marty. Someone should tell him that nice guys finish last.  Once again, I didn’t see too many Rangers taking the body or  finishing their checks. Weak. 

Unfortunately, the officiating was atrocious for the first time this season. When you see all the clutching and grabbing by the Devils going uncalled, it reminds one of the bad old days before the lockout. Compound that by the fact that CryBaby Brodeur can get away with deliberately knocking the net off its moorings and not get a penalty. In fact, the net was off for more then 15 seconds and the Devils were allowed to keep on playing and went down into the Rangers zone and scored their second goal. That wouldn’t have happened if Marty had been called for delay of game and the Ranger powerplay faced off in front of him.

By the way, as if we didn’t know that the Officials in this league hate Sean Avery, we had to witness them let the fight between Avery and Mottau go on for over a minute before they stepped in. Were they secretly hoping Mottau would beat down Avery? If they were, they were sadly mistaken.

Lastly, in spite of doing all they could to insure that Marty got the win, he didn’t get the shut out. Too bad for Uncle Daddy.

Posted under New York Rangers