The Great Pretenders — Part I

That was a number one hit on the charts in 1956 when Rock n Roll was beginning its run. The Platters first did it live on Dick Clark and it later became a big hit. The song describes the Rangers perfectly. Many of the pundits, not me, are predicting great things for the Rangers in the playoffs. Many are predicting the Stanley Cup. I look at this team and see a team that could be dangerous, could make noise, could advance to the top but right now the way they are constituted I can't see it. Why?

The Power Play. The Rangers currently are ranked 20th in the NHL with a 16.6% success rate. Compare that to the Montreal Canadiens who are number one with a 24.7% success rate. Look at who is in first place in the East. In the playoffs the power play is a key ingredient in winning games. You can count on a lot of penalties in the playoffs. The Rangers have had this problem all year and coach clueless doesn't have an idea how to fix it. Yes, I said coach clueless for all of you apologists and know it alls who object to me calling him that. Have you been to the games? Do you see the same personnel out on the power play all the time? Do you see coach clueless sending out the usual suspects time after time and faltering time after time? Is it any wonder why the Rangers are among the teams that average the fewest shots on the power play?

Do you hear coach clueless lament about the power play not shooting enough, especially from the points? Do you hear coach clueless complain that there is no one in front of the net on the power play? So who is on the point? Straka and Rozsival mostly. Straka is the guy who passes the puck backward when he is ten feet from the goal. Rozsival is the guy who almost always passes the puck to Jagr, regardless of where Jagr is. So who is in front of the net? Jagr is over on one side near the boards, Shanahan is trying to get free for a one timer and that leaves the center to a) dig out the puck for the four statues and b) try to get in front of the net. By the time the second unit gets out there we are down to 20 seconds. But why is coach clueless complaining? He is the man who puts these guys out there. He acts like Jagr is calling the shots and he is helpless to change it. The second part of that is correct and so may the first part.

Whatever happened to Petr Prucha? Remember him? Thirty goals in his rookie year and sixteen of them on the power play. Had he not got hurt he would have broken the Ranger rookie goal scoring record of 36 goals. He was the most efficient Ranger on the power play. Last year he fell to 22 goals as his on ice time dwindled. This year his ice time has gotten lower and lately he has been a healthy scratch. He is losing ice time to Ryan Callahan and Fredrik Sjostrom recently acquired from Phoenix. You could make a case for Callahan, but Sjostrom? So Prucha has lost his spot to Sjostrom. As one writer said the other day, would you have traded Prucha for Sjostrom because by sitting Prucha and playing Sjostrom that is exactly what you are doing. For minutes played, Prucha probably has the best goal per minute ratio of any Ranger.

But that is the way coach clueless works. The Stealth GM pulls off a trade and automatically they are put in the starting lineup. Sjostrom is one and Backman is the other. Never mind that they were both marginal players on poor teams. They play because the Stealth GM acquired them. That is how you keep your job at Madison Square Garden.You obey the higher ups. See Isiah Thomas for further proof of this theory.

ICINGS: Part II will be about the defense.

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