Bad Signs

So the coach who calls a timeout on the road in the opening minutes of the first period didn't have the brains to call a timeout to blunt Ottawa's onslaught. With a little over ten minutes to go the Rangers held a seemingly safe three goal lead. Ottawa kept skating and he Rangers, led by their coach, kept watching.

Brad Richards who scored two goals and an assist said it best. He didn't expect the score to go to 8-1 but he did expect the team to keep playing. Welcome to the Rangers Brad. Welcome to what poses as hockey on the biggest stage in the NHL.

Of course Richards was wrong. Maybe an 8-1 lead on Ottawa might have won the game. Maybe. Ottawa is getting a reputation for third period comebacks. So it was the perfect storm. A comeback type team against a folderoo type team.

The line changing coach took a different tack this time. He changed them before the game. It worked. Richards had two goals and Gaborik one. But no amount of line changes win games. Hard skating and forechecking wins games and the Rangers have shown they are not up to doing that for sixty minutes.

At his press conference the disagreeable one refused to burn Wolski for his penalty. Nice change. One wonders if a certain player, no longer here, but who had his name hanging from the balcony, had committed the penalty, what would the reaction be?

There were a lot of bad signs for the Rangers in today's game. Unfortunately they can't be removed as easily as they removed the sign from the balcony. I have a feeling that the Garden personnel are going to be busy removing a lot of signs this year.

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ICINGS:

Sean Avery sign hanging at MSG during Ottawa game

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game highlights:

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