Shootout Loss to Lowly Avs

Alain Vigneault has some serious problems. No, it's not that he chose to go second in the shootout. Doesn't matter, first or second, it's still stupid. Shootouts have nothing to do with hockey, it's a skill event. How good is the shooter, how good is the goalie. No impediments, no obstacles, maybe the pipes. No, AV's problem is how to get his team, the Rangers, to play consistent hockey. Right now the Rangers are a boring, listless team to watch. They are 7-6-3. Seventeen points in sixteen games. Wow!

The Rangers have no leader on the ice. No guy to grab his teammates by their collective throats and say let's go. Oh, you might say that the leader is Lundqvist. I might agree but Henrik is the goalie and the goalie has his mind on other things while the game is going on. Like stopping the puck. You would think that guys like Nash and St. Louis or Staal would step up. But no one has. Maybe one of the young guys like Kreider or Brassard. Maybe.

Dan Boyle came back and as expected played a so so game. His power play prowess didn't come into play as the Rangers were 0-3 on the power play. Another problem AV hasn't fixed. So what else is new. Another thing. He sat Anthony Duclair, again and played Jesper Fast. Now Fast is a nice young kid, but he basically is a defensive type player. Duclair has a big potential. Shouldn't he be playing now in these early season games? Who knows, he may become the leader the Rangers so desperately need. "And a child shall lead them."

The game? Oh yes. The Rangers blew another third period lead, their fourth in the last six games, to lose to the lowly Av's 4-3. These are the same AV's who lost to the Islanders 6-0 on Tuesday. They beat the Rangers. The same Rangers who blew out the Pens 5-0 on Tuesday. Hockey! Go figure.

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