Everyone was taken by surprise by the power outage at the Super Bowl. Not Ranger fans. We get that every night. Last night against the Devils the Rangers were 0-5 on the power play and are now a dismal 3-35 for the season. It's hard to pick out one culprit when the whole team is non-productive, but why does Michael Del Zotto still gets close to 25 minutes of ice time, when he is the worst defenseman on the team, is a lousy power play QB and always escapes the wrath of the coach? Del Zotto, Nash and Gaborik were all a minus two last night. Gaborik was ripped, the others escaped.
The Rangers have had power play problems for the last, what six, seven years. Both coach disagreeable and his predecessor, coach clueless, have had no idea on the what, where and why of the power play. In an attempt to shore up the team and prevent a deep slide the Stealth GM acquired some additional players. Who was the key? Darroll Powe acquired in a trade for Mike Rupp. On paper that's a plus, getting rid of Rupp. Powe is a defensive specialist. He kills penalties and last year he was the number two shot blocker in the NHL. Great. We can't score goals and we get another shot blocker.
Speaking of blocked shots, the number one shot blocker on the team, Dan Girardi, with 17, missed the game because he was "banged up." You don't think it's because of those blocked shots or the fact that he is averaging about 25 minutes a game this early in the season? But "banged up" may be a minor issue when the next 100 mph puck hits a Ranger in a more vulnerable spot.
The tide which had turned toward the Rangers since the arrival of Lundqvist seems to have reversed. It started with last years playoff and has continued with the strong play of Brodeur. Without Lundqvist at his best, and right now he is not, the Rangers have no chance of beating the Devils or of making the playoffs. No amount of ranting by the coach will change that. He now claims that some of his players are playing scared. Hello. Guess where that comes from coach?
So next is the Islanders. What lies ahead? What will the caption be? If this keeps up the Rangers may star in their own realty series. How about, "Coachless in the Garden."
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It really is true, people do not see themselves clearly. Coach thinks he so aggressive and so tough. But how aggressive are we? We come out slow most of the time. We don't go to the net. We shoot from the safest spot possible to prevent a turnover on our pp. We don't shoot the puck until we are absolutely certain it's a shot worth taking. We play every game with the same level of emotion, "just another game for us", "play it straight" the coach says. Every year it's the same song and dance. The pp is coming, on hey "we got some good looks", "we had chances but we just couldn't convert". Yeah what a shame. Maybe just maybe the coaches have no idea how to create offense. Now that Henrik is playing human instead of super human we can't pull these games out of asses anymore. Last year Henrik, an unbelievable penalty kill and shot blocking up the ying yang held us in until we could get going energy wise and convert some decent chances. This year without those key elements early goals by the opposition are deflating the rangers and we don't seem to have the ability to overcome. Coach idiots degrading tirades seem to be getting old in the locker room and it's showing on the ice. Hopefully we can figure out a way to overcome the hurdles of a 30th ranked pp and a 15/0-16th whatever it is today pk, or else we are in for one long sad season.
There were tweets from a Devils beat writer on my timeline yesterday that said DeBoer told his players to be aware that the Rangers would come out hard after losing to them in the playoffs last season because nobody likes to lose. Good warning from a coach trying to prepare his team for battle. You would think that would be the case right? Halfway through the game there was another tweet from a Ranger fan that read; anyone who thinks the Rangers would have come out "all guns blazing" against a team that has only one regulation loss is not being realistic. I guess even Pete DeBoer is unrealistic. You see, the brain washing runs deep. The tapes run over and over in the players heads and eventually as coach repeats the statements Jeanine brought up in her post "just another game for us", "play it straight" , "The Right Way", "Even Keel", "Go about your business" block shots", it becomes the mindset of the players and some of the media and fans. Honestly if you truly want to be "realistic" then here's the cold hard truth: The Rangers NEVER come out "all guns blazing" - EVER. Who here honestly expected them to come out hard? To go for it? To get revenge for last season? I certainly didn't. It would have been nice but it's not safe. It's not "a smart road game" - just too risky.
In Andrew Gross's Ranger Rants today coach acted somewhat human for a change which clues me in that he's starting to feel like his back is against the wall, as it should be. He said last that the Rangers have guys who are playing too careful and we don't play careful hockey here. We ONLY play careful hockey here because if we don't its riding the pine for you and if that doesn't work you get to punch the next ticket on the "Tortorella Experss" to borrow a phrase from Mike. And the offense, the PP continue to suffer for it and will continue to suffer as long as this over rated jerk and his mini me sidekick are behind our bench. Period. Last season I commented on here that he always glazes over the questions regarding the PP because our PK was so strong it makes up for the lack of PP. One sort of washed out the other. Yeah the PP sucked but we didn't get burned too often because the other teams couldn't score on their PP so the PP wasn't necessarily the difference maker in most games, it was just the difference of weather we won by one goal or not. Coach didn't care as long as he got the end result he was looking for. Well that attitude always catches up to teams and here we are. So today coach is making nicey nice because he has no idea what to do and he is smart enough to know that he is losing the room so he doesn't want to push the players to the point where they turn off completely. Yes suddenly today he has taken on this new attitude of "we're all in this jam together" - but make no mistake the guy is squirming. If the players don't put a few wins together soon, then they won't be able to save his sorry ass again. You know what he needs to save himself? A spark plug. A player who can come into the game and get the energy going, one who starts up the forecheck, stirs things up, changes the momentum- you know - a player like Avery. Too bad he was kicked to the curb. Karma may just be biting someone right about now.
BTW- speaking of those Avery type players - looks like Pete DeBoer isn't dumb enough to kick his guy to the curb. As a matter of fact he believes in his guy, helped him use his talents and now he's just about the most valuable guy on the team. Yup Clarkson will alway have DeBoer to thank for letting him out of the pigeon hole and helping him becaome a complete player. He will always be a very valuable player now. Sort of reminds me of Rick Tocchet. His first couple of seasons he was a 3rd / 4th line "goon" until then Flyers coach Mike Keenan saw more to his game then just being used as a punching bag. He helped Rick find his game and the guy went on to have an excellent career. Captain and all. With Clarkson's personality, hard work ethic and skill, I can see a possible captaincy in his future. Real coaching goes along way. Look at the Rangers and Devils on paper - they're not a better team - they are a well coached team with a better game plan. We are a top skilled team with an average coach, and average game plan and average results.
It makes me want to vomit when Sam and Joe say that the Rangers look good when they are in fact losing the game and getting worse.
What is this the Fernando Lamas school of hockey announcing? So "it is better to look good than to play good" and you say, "you look marvelous!" when in fact the team is playing like crap. Enough!
As you have pointed out this power play death rattle has been sounding for years. But, nothing changes. And now with the PK sucking it's double trouble.
Torts has nothing but gaping holes to fill in this team's game play. A spark plug would be nice, especially with Callahan laid low. But Torts would never give a player like that any minutes.
I'm pessimistic that Torts is the man to fix this this team. I think the only savior for Torts is if Lundqvist finds the game he had last year.