Go back to my last post. My post, dated 12/13/07, entitled Slipping Away, not jb's flights of fancy posts. In the last sentence of my first paragraph I wrote, "Bad news for Sunday's game, three days of practice."
Just as sure as God made little green apples the Rangers collapsed after not being able to score on an early minute power play. Check it out. The more time off the Rangers have to practice the worse they play. So what do they learn during practice? The practices according to 'inside' sources are gruelling. Wonderful. They must have left their game in that intense practice Micheletti was taking about after the game. So they are telling us if we really want to see the Rangers at their best we best schlep up to Westchester County and watch coach clueless and his lieutenants run an intense, hard skating practice. The only hard skating the Rangers did tonight was skate off the ice after the final buzzer.
Poor Valiquette, I feel for him. The Coyotes first goal was off of Tyutin's skate and then the Rangers stayed away from the net leaving Valiquette hanging out to dry. For some reason coach clueless felt impelled to put Marek Malik back in the lineup. Why? Watching him and Rozsival trying to get out of their own zone was a comedy act worthy of Abbott and Costello in their prime. The young ' Yotes forechecked the hell out of the Rangers as did the Caps the previous game. The Rangers are now 1-4-1 in the last six and have been outscored 24-10 in those contests. Whatever happened to coach clueless comment that not playing defense is not an option. He should restate it, maybe one of the nots fell out of the sentence.
Staying home has its benefits. I got to see the news conference. There was coach clueless with the look of the deer in the headlights. He sat Hollweg so Hollweg could see from the stands what he can do better when he returns to the lineup. So that's how it works, you have to sit to see how you can play better when you return. It didn't help Malik. If his logic is correct, then I suggest coach clueless goes and sits, for the rest of the season, and maybe he might learn a thing or two about what's wrong with his team.
What's wrong with his team? Well, obviously they can't score. They have no forechecking ability. Their attack is more ad-libbed than planned. They are not able to handle a tough forechecking team. Their defense is soft not only with taking the body but even their passes are soft. This is something that Girardi and Tyutin are doing more of, soft passes. Are they learning from Rozsival/Malik? Ray Bourque, the great defenseman had a philosophy on hockey. He said, you skate hard, shoot hard, hit hard and pass hard. I think tonight we were 0-4 on Borque's theory. The Rangers do everything opposite. Every facet of the game is soft. The cutesy passes that are often picked off by the opposition leading to odd man rushes.
But the worse part is that there is no idea on how to fix these problems. The Rangers are in a free fall and all we hear are words. Well we are only four points out of first you say. Were it not for Henrik Lundqvist and his sparkling play we would be about four points out of last place. He has carried this team so far without any support from the big guns. Or the little guns either. Lately there have been signs that Henrik is starting to crack. If the crack becomes serious the season is over. The other thing that is obvious is that the 'detrimental' Avery is sorely missed. Without him the Rangers have no spine. What he and the Rangers need are more Averys. We need more check mates for Avery and less Czech mates for Jagr.
Of course what we really need is a coach that has a clue about what's going on. However, then we would need a GM with a plan and an owner with some vision. Boy, are we in trouble.
Crosby plans to talk extension with Penguins
1 hour ago
Sather mast be doing drugs with MR.Dillon and I.Thomas ,or he would
have fixed the biggest problem Rangers have by firing coach clue-less.
I couldn't even watch the 3rd period, very depressing.
Pundit,..this was perhaps the worst of the lot...you & I have called for the removal of "C.C." and I foresee that the Rangers will drop the next three games and before the New Year, Tom Renney will be removed as coach of The Rangers.
Tall order. Can we not dream a little?
agizzmo-Madison Square Garden chiefs act in mysterious ways.
wes-I usually start channel surfing when I'm home. Its embarrassing to watch and the team should be embarrassed the way they are playing.
the dark ranger-Everytime I think that I have seen the worst they come back with a bigger stinker. We can dream but if Sather takes over not much will be accomplished. We need a Pat Burns type coach.
The one thing that will keep me watching is that the rangers were terrible mid-year last year and finished strong, and somehow Avery makes a huge difference to this team when he is playing.
But some things must change:
Prucha = non-factor
Callahan = non-factor
Drury = underachieving, but I will cut him some slack as he is always a much better playoff player. Didn't expect to see fifty goals from him in reg season anyway.
Jagr has been atrocious. You can tell the effort is not there. That said, I wonder to what extent he realizes this is an 82 game schedule and just may be sand bagging the season a little bit so that he is rested later on.
Gomez is good, but he is not worth what he is being paid. We've seen this before.
Avery - Must be in the lineup.
Lastly, two years ago I think the Rangers had a team that very rarely was out worked by the opposition. This year is the exact opposite. I really cant remember a game where the Rangers have outworked the opponent. Maybe the last Ottawa game if you appreciate the irony. This has to change.
Chris-I have been following that logic and kept watching for 70 years and look where that logic has gotten me. You can go down the entire list of players and except for Lundqvist and Staal they all are underachieving. Outworked? Underachieved? Sounds like a coaching problem to me.
I don't think Mr.Dollan cares about
any sports or the fans ,as long as
people go to the home games at the
Garden,when fans stop going to the
home games then he will notice,when
it starts hurting him his pockets.
It's all about money.
anonymous-You are right on target. Also they make out like bandits at the food courts so who cares if the team stinks. Look at the Knicks. Thomas is still coaching and the Knicks are still losing. But the money still rolls in.