Last Thursday night after the Pittsburgh debacle Tom Renney came out of the dressing room and declared that the Rangers were ready to play the Flyers then. Maybe we should have played them then because we sure didn't play them today - suffering a 4-1 defeat which leaves the Rangers one point ahead of the Flyers and three points ahead of the Devils for first place in the Atlantic Division. Both the Flyers and the Devils have two games each, one against each other, we have one game left. We need the Devils to beat the Flyers tomorrow and we must win our last game against Ottawa at the Garden Tuesday night.
However, this defeat should not be blamed on the team but on Tom Renney. Renney forgot everything that got the Rangers to 100 points. He benched Ortmeyer, dressed seven defensemen, using one, Strudwick as a sometimes forward and changed the four lines completely. Jagr who has played almost all year with Michael Nylander as center along with either Straka or Prucha on the wing suddenly had Straka at center with Sykora on the wing. Nylander centered Prucha and Hossa, who scored the only Ranger goal. Betts centered Hollweg and Ward and Moore centered Orr and Strudwick. There were changes during the game with the end result being a disoriented type of game with very little offense until it was too late.
Renney has to go back to the basics. The strength of this Ranger team has been: (1) Jagr (2) Lundqvist (3) the HMO line (4) stay at home defense and (5) strong fore and back checking. With the pressure on Jagr and the injury to Lundqvist it is imperative the other three components work. Unfortunately they are dependent on number 3. Why break up that line? How can you bench Jed Ortmeyer the heart and soul of this team? He is second in hits and blocked shots. Kasparaitis is first.
Why play Colton Orr if he is not willing to mix it up with El Goono, Donald Brashear? Why was he in there? He should have been in retaliating against the Flyers for the way they were going after Hollweg. Was it his fault or Renney's for not being more aggressive? If Orr doesn't feel like he could give a good account of himself against El Goono, then why was he in there? For his scoring? For his passing? And when does the NHL crack down on El Goono and Ken Hitchcock for this blatant attempt to intimidate and injure someone.
I also think the Rangers owe Peter Forsberg a few licks for his head hunting attempt on Ryan Hollweg. I guess Philly objects to their star being legally checked but it was okay to go after Jagr with cross checks, holdings, late hits after whistle's and hooks. The Rangers should be on alert for this motley crew if we meet them in the playoffs.
Renney has to get this team back to ground zero. Hopefully the return of the Prince will help, but Renney has to get the teams confidence back. Hey, it's the Holy Season full of redemption and hope. Happy Easter and a belated Happy Passover to all.
ICINGS: The post Olympic record is now 9-10-1-3, officially under .500. Jagr has now lost his scoring lead to Joe Thornton and seems destined to finish second in the race. Everything is going down.
Avs F Nichushkin to make season debut vs. Caps
33 minutes ago
What's the express "dance with the one who brung you" Renney has officially panicked. He is tilting at hunches and the Rangers are going belly up. Sad to see a great season getting flushed in the last two weeks of the season. Can someone remember the last game the Rangers came out and got a lead. It seems like they are slow out of the gate every frick'n game. If I see another flat first period I am gonna puke.
Isn't Ortmeyer benched because he's not scoring. Zero offense.
To po'd in Brooklyn. Hope you are not sitting behind me at the next Ranger game.
To anonymous. Not scoring. Thats not Ort's role. His job is checking and blocking shots, all which were missing against the Flyers.
Renney deserves a HEAPING level of blame for his inability to adapt to when other teams exploit our weaknesses. First major weakness: Our current crop of defenseman are incapable of clearing the puck out of our zone. Only pock and kasparitis have shown ability to clear or carry the puck out of the zone...
Solution, come up with a plan to clear the puck using one forward, or try and work on a coherent break out plan... its been a recurring problem all season long, and now teams are exploiting it by pressuring our defenseman...
Second major issue: NO ability to clear bodies in front of the goalie. Not such a problem with lundqvist, but extremely exposed with weekes in nets. Kaspar was good at it, and Malik can do it, and does to a lesser degree. Solution, if you HAVE to trade a niemennen (HORRIBLE TRADE) then you do so to get a keith carney, ruslan salei or the like, or dont trade anyone at all!
Bottom line, Ozo should not be on defense from here on out. His downside is FAR outweighing his upside...
If we face the devils, we need to have rucchin and rucinsky back...
As for the "HMO" line, they are ineffective unless they are getting a lot of ice time, well specifically, Hollweg... and he only sees time if we are leading or tied. Renney needs to give him more time. That is where ville came in, he killed penalties and had offense, AND had that nasty edge, so he always saw plenty of ice time, and caused problems all day long... trading him was the biggest mistake imaginable... he was huge in that march second win against philly.. he pissed ppl off left and right...
I suppose sather was allowed to lay one egg this year, i just wish it hadnt been this big, and i wish they would let ego go, and just admit it was a bust and just SIT ozolinsh, give hollweg more time.
The Renney blame-o-meter is going off the scale after the Philly loss Looks liking wacking the Rangers around yesterday had them all tired out today vs nj. You still get tired beating a dead horse. Getting all these moving parts you have mentioned realigned and magically working in the last game seems like a tall order. It has to start with building confidence. Do the players now trust Renney to put together a winning game plan? I'm getting a bad feeling.
To JagrMeister-Never happened sitting Ole Ozolinsh. Sather never admits to a mistake. See Tom Poti.
To Rink Skipper-That bad feeling comes with seeing ghosts of Rangers past failures. Going to be tough to turn this ship around now.
Question: Why in the world are Poti and Ozolinsh on the ice at the same time during a penalty kill? With these two “offensive” defensemen on the ice it’s like having 3 forwards and no defensemen trying to kill the penalty. Ozolinsh has single handedly lost 2 of our last 4 games with his piss pour pinching and ability, or lack there of, in getting back on the breakaways.
Not only do I think “El Goono” #1 should be suspended but I also think Forsberg should be too, for going after Hollweg. But leave it to the new NHL, they’ll probably come up with a new rule next year that says “If you are penalized for hooking more the 3 times in 5 games you’ll be suspended without pay. And the teams coach will have to pay $10k in fines.”… but hay leave your feet and try and clubber some guy… or hit a player in the back of the head… or hit our star player, who is carrying the puck, in the mouth with your stick… or break someone’s finger with an blatant slash… well as long as the refs didn’t think it was a penalty we’ll just let that go.
To Anonymouus-Or slash Jagr acrosee the mouth and two refs and two linesmen see nothing. But until someone punches out El Goono's lights there will be no suspension coming until we have another Todd Bertuzzi incident. Then everyone will be shocked.