Ok, that's that. Let's wipe the slate clean now. This has gone on long enough. They have a nice, comfortable four game homestand coming up starting Thursday night.
What is troubling, however, is that the games are getting uglier for the Blueshirts rather than appearing closer to a turnaround. On Saturday, they were shut out by Montreal. On Sunday they blew a 2-0 lead to the Thrashers at home. Last night, they were pushed around, out-skated, out-goaltended (???), and were the victims of numerous defensive breakdowns.
Yesterday was one of the few times this year they had bad games from old-reliables like Blair Betts, Jason Ward, and Jed Ortmeyer. The newest Ranger, Sandis Ozolinsh, has been rather unimpressive his last two contests. Jason Strudwick was a team-worst -3 yesterday, and continues to struggle.
Larry Brooks points out that Tom Renney may have made a poor decision to dress Marcel Hossa over sparkplug Ryan Hollweg. The Rangers do not have any other physical presence at forward other than Ryan, and his absence is noticeable. Messageboard member and Hockeybird writer, Gabe, made a great point about Marcel Hossa, that he is the only Ranger with a roster spot based solely on potential. Unfortunately, he isn't fulfilling it with any regularity.
Another bothersome point about Renney's lineup decisions was dressing Martin Rucinsky, who said before the game that his knee wasn't 100%. Rucinsky played only a few minutes of the first period before having to leave, thereby throwing the lines all out of whack for the rest of the night.
John Dellapina reminds us that, despite the six losses, they remain in first place in the Atlantic Division. Jaromir Jagr, however, believes these four home games coming up are of the utmost importance:
"Of course, it's not a good situation right now we are in," Jagr said after the Rangers' sixth straight loss last night, 5-3 to the Carolina Hurricanes. "Everybody knows how important those next four games at home are going to be. It might be our season the way I look at it."
Steve Zipay of Newsday writes that the Rangers came up empty on two great opportunities to score during the second period. One was the shorthanded Marcel Hossa breakaway, the other obviously being Martin Straka's failed penalty shot. Neither player was able to get off a shot on goal on those chances.
Colin Stephenson of the Star-Ledger has a paragraph regarding Jagr's recurring stick problems: Jagr, who has three times this season been caught using an illegal stick, said the problem is that his sticks come from the manufacturer that way and he is unable to bend the stick blade to lessen the curve. He tried to shave a little bit off the curve, but the referees would not accept that. He played last night using Rucinsky's sticks.
The guys at NY SportsDay have their coverage of last night's match.
The HockeyRodent: Where was Ryan Hollweg? Wouldn't he have made more of a difference out there than Hossa? I'm telling you this experiment with the Slovak has got to stop. It's wasting precious ice time. So what that Hossa's got talent? He has no clue how to use it. The team needs an injection of something. Maybe it's got to come from Hartford.
Speaking of the Wolf Pack, Bruce Berlet of the Hartford Courant thinks that the addition of veteran Brad Smyth bolsters the Pack's post-season roster.
Times are tough, but always remember the temporary Ranger mantra: We ain't the Knicks.
HDH
Posted by Jim at March 15, 2006 01:25 PMeMail this entry!
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