A “Nightmare-ish” Night at the Garden
So I’m sitting in the Garden with my brother last night following that disastrous second period, when I get a text message from a close friend and fellow Rangers fan. It reads, “Nightmare period. Nightmare.”
My response to him: “Nightmare season. Nightmare.”
(Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
Because that is exactly what this ‘07-’08 campaign has become…A NIGHTMARE!
Last night’s 6-2 loss at the hands of the division rival Flyers was the worst I can remember in this “New Era” of Rangers hockey. The Rangers team I saw last night had no heart, no smarts, and most of all, absolutely zero gumption. They took dumb, lazy penalties and in the words of my co-host Eric “folded faster than a cheap suit” when adversity stared them in the face. They couldn’t capitalize when Ryan Hollweg of all people staked them to a 2-0 lead. They played like a last place team, which is exactly what they are now.
The power play was awful, the penalty kill was awful, the defensive zone coverage was awful, and the goaltending performance made me check to see if the #30 in nets was actually Mike Dunham.
Something’s very wrong right now with this team and I’m really at a loss trying to figure out how it’s going to get better. And I’ll tell you something else. If Sean Avery goes under the knife and is out for a lengthier period of time than expected, you can book your tee times folks. The Rangers simply CANNOT and DO NOT win without #16 in the lineup.
Which begs the question: If a team is forced to rely on one player that much, is the team really that good anyway?
It’s officially time to press the panic button folks. This season opened with expectations of a Stanley Cup, yet more than halfway through the year the Rangers find themselves in the same precarious situation that they were in last year. The Rangers had to go on a 17-6-6 run just to sneak into the playoffs last year.
Let’s just put it this way…there’s not another Sean Avery out there to catalyze a run like that again.
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Tags: Avery, Dunham, Hollweg, Power Play, Steven Gelbs
4 Responses
masud January 11th at 1:15 am
last year this team didn’t have scoring problem but this year even after half the season this team can’t score timely goals.They are still one of the lowest scoring team.I believe Henrik is gonna be better but he won’t be able to steal games every night. Their offense has to run in full swing . I don’t know what sort of change they need but they need to change their non-winning habit.
UB Bull January 11th at 4:51 pm
What does the People’s Champ know? He calls for the benching of Hollweg and he supplies all of the offense against the Flyers. Did he want the team to be shut out?
Leave the line out to control the other team’s top line.
Ryan Mueller January 11th at 7:28 pm
I think they just need to work on team chemistry, maybe they need to switch up the lines a little bit an see what happens
ThePeoplesChamp January 12th at 3:43 pm
As the Champion of the People, I must give credit where credit is due. Hollweg did in fact have a career night against the Flyers. But let’s not mistake his offensive miracle (and I call it a miracle as his second goal deflected from his stick to Nittymaki’s pad to Jason Smith’s face to Nittymaki’s helmet and finally into the goal) for anything other than what it is, a miracle. The fourth line is not a shutdown line! We should not mistake a lack of goal scoring for a defensive powerhouse. Betts is phenomenal defensively, but Orr and Hollweg are anything but. While the fourth line has been doing an admiral job against top lines as of late, they are not a shutdown line! If Renney/Sather wanted a true shutdown line, Jed Ortmeyer should still be playing in Hollweg’s spot. Given Hollweg’s tendency to take untimely penalties, Renney should promote a few of the Hartford guys for a few games. And seeing that our scoring problems have not gone away, we need a fourth line that can produce more than three goals a season.
- The Peoples Champ