Slipping Away

It not only refers to last night's game it is also pertinent to the Ranger season. Shanahan, who personally lead the comeback to tie the game twice, slips in OT and the Rangers lose. The Rangers are 4-5-1 in the last ten and are merely treading water, or is it ice, right now? Do you also notice how poorly the team plays when it has more than one day of practice? Bad news for Sunday's game, three days of practice.

The Rangers who are on a 1-3-1 skid have been outshot 19-9 in those five games and the one win was the Devil shutout. Another thing. Since Washington changed coaches they are 6-3-1, overall 12-17-2. Another team that has blossomed since changing coaches is Atlanta which is playing way over .500 with its new coach. Hmm! Changing coaches in the early part of the season to wake up a lethargic team, what a novel idea. You think the Stealth GM would do it. The absentee owner would have to fire the Stealth.

The Caps were charging all night and the Rangers could not build on their two goal lead. Sounds familiar. Coach clueless blamed the team. How often has the team blown two goal leads. You don't think the team goes into its 'defensive mode' and stops attacking, do you? It sure seemed that way last night. Ovechkin ran all over the Rangers last night. A goal, an assist, five shots on goal and five hits. Jagr had an assist, three shots on goal, a few giveaways and many pirouettes. Ovechkin plays North American style hockey, Jagr plays Euro-soccer hockey. It's time to make Brandon Shanahan the team captain. Shanny tried to bring the team back with an assist on Straka's tying goal and then his own tying goal. But then he stumbled or slipped and so did the Rangers.

ICINGS: Rosen remarked about how he was surprised by so many empty seats in the Washington Arena. Why act surprised, it's like that many nights in most arenas. The Rangers have empty seats every night but we always get the usual 18,200. The NHL is not putting a good product on the ice. The Rangers, overloaded with offensive firepower, have morphed into the New Jersey Devils. So the games are boring and we have a ton of goalies with GAA's around the 2.0 stat. I'm stopping now, this team with a couple of exceptions is becoming annoying. Plus the sleet and snow are starting to fall.

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