Sing-Along At Bell Centre

For a while I thought I had fallen asleep and woke up in the 60's and was listening to "Sing Along With Mitch" as the Canadien fans kept serenading the Rangers. Those of you a little younger than me probably don't recollect the show. Mitch Miller was an orchestra leader who became a choral director and made a lot of money with a series of sing-alongs. It was a hit on TV in the 60's. Anyhow, the Habs fans were having a ball at the expense of the Rangers.

However, there is nothing new in that, Ranger fans have been serenading their team for years. Back in the 40's when Frankie Boucher was the coach the song was "Let Me Call You Sweetheart", which was sung in a waltz tempo. Boucher was a great player but as a perennial Lady Byng winner he imposed the same style on his team. Then there was the late 70's and 80's when the serenade from the Ranger fans was "Ooh La La, We Suck". This was to mock the players who were doing a Sasson commercial. So you see there is tradition in serenading our heroes. Unfortunately it is a tradition steeped in failure and most often a tradition that implies a softness, an unwillingness to battle, a failure to compete.

No where were these traits more visible than they were last night. For the second straight night, and for the fourth night in seven, the Rangers were shutout. The opposition has it figured out how to beat the Rangers. It's simple. Crash the nets and Lundqvist, and put a clamp on Gaborik. Gaborik has one goal in the last nine games. So, no goals from Gabby and a Swiss cheese defense add up to losses. Add in the overall softness of the team, with minor exceptions, and you have the prescription for disaster which we see in its early stages.

We see it in a coach, Tortorella, who becomes testier with each loss and is not on speaking terms with the top hockey writer in the New York area, Larry Brooks. We see it in the unwillingness of players to come to the aid of their team mates. We see it every time Lundqvist is crashed and the response is no more than a glare. We see it in an invisible, isolated GM, who is beholden to no one and disrespects the fans of this franchise. Every other GM in New York is visible and communicates often with the press, but one. That one is our fearless Stealth GM.

Ooh La La, We Suck!

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