Matinee Malaise

The Rangers goal scoring drought continued this afternoon in Boston as they shot blanks and misfired half the time against backup goalie Manny Fernandez who came into the game with a plus five GAA. Truth be told both teams were rather inept with Boston going 0-8 on the PP and the Rangers going 0-6. The Bruins got 19 shots on goal and the Rangers got 26. The Rangers were particularly bad in the first period when they got only 4 shots on goal against a goalie who might have been vulnerable in the first period.

Shanahan, Drury and Jagr shot blanks in the shootout as did Sturm and Bergeron before Phil Kessel ended the agony by putting one over Lundqvist. While making seven fewer saves than Fernandez, Lundqvist made by far the more spectacular saves. His save on Savard was all world and will be a film highlight after this season ends, which may not be quick enough.

Shanahan, Jagr, Gomez and Drury all got over 21 minutes of ice time and had a combined total of 11 shots and missed the net 6 times. So a grand total of 17 shots in a net total of 91 minutes and 31 seconds of ice time. Callahan, Prucha, Dubinsky and Dawes got a combined 7 shots on goal and missed the net 3 times for a grand total of 10 shots in a net total of 49 minutes and 38 seconds. That averages out to one shot every 5.35 minutes for the big four and one shot every 4.94 minutes for the 'small' four.

Also, the Rangers were awarded 8:50 of PP time of which Jagr had 7:50, Gomez had 7:25, Shanahan had 7:23 and Drury had 6:30. Conversley, Dubinsky had 1:25, Dawes had 1:08, Callahan had 1:00 and Prucha, the same Prucha who scored 52 goals in his first two years, had all of :19 seconds on the PP. Our PP is now 6-43, what is that .14% efficient or is it deficient? The point of all this? Maybe its about time we changed the personnel on the PP and maybe its time we distributed the ice time of the regular shifts a little more equal. What does that tell you about a coach who gives his most efficient PP goal scorer all of 19 seconds of PP time? This is the same Prucha who set a Ranger rookie record two years ago by scoring 16 PP goals and tallied 8 PP goals last year. But no, round up the usual suspects when its PP time. See Jagr hold the puck. See Jagr pass the puck to Rozsival. See Rozsival hold the puck. See Rozsival pass the puck to Jagr. Repeat 10 times and then shoot the puck or start the sequence all over.

So the malaise continues and the words continue. We have to look in the mirror. We have to gut it up. We have too much talent on this team. Blah, blah, blah. Shades of 1997-98 when the Ranger roster included five players who had been captains on other teams, hotshots like Mike Keane, Brian Skrudland and Bruce Driver. It was the same mantra, there is too much talent in this room. By the way, that team finished with a 25-39-18 record and no playoffs. However, that can't happen this year. There is too much talent in the Ranger locker room.

ICINGS: A Power Play Clinic

via Off Wing Opinion:
Want to know what it's like to spend 2:20 on the ice with the puck bottled up in your defensive zone and no way out? Then take a look at this sequence from Saturday [Oct 13] night in Vancouver, where the Canucks put on a virtual clinic on the power play while the Edmonton Oilers merely tried to hang on:

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