Patsies

November 30, 2008   ·   Derek Felix   ·   Jump to comments

Apparently, the Rangers cared as much about their game as I did. I didn’t watch it as I was taking in a team which never lets down in the rating Super Bowl champion Giants.

How do you get beat 4-0 on home ice to the woeful Panthers two days after blowing two leads and needing the shootout to bail you out? This team sucks. I don’t care what the record says. They’re not that good.

Alright. Maybe I’m overreacting. They’re not exactly dreadful but can you think of a more overrated team than this one? They’re softer than the Pillsbury dough boy. This is the GM’s fault. He is the one who thought signing Wade Redden and bringing back Michal Rozsival were brilliant moves while paying Patrick Rissmiller to waste away for three years and keeping Petr Prucha in jail thanks to our coach. For those keeping score, that’s $2.6 million in cap space which could’ve been used a lot more wisely.

I swear Slats has no brain. He’s the Scarecrow.

Glen Sather and the Scarecrow from Wizard of Oz have a lot in common. Most Ranger fans know the truth about this team.

Now ain’t that quite the picture? Fitting. For those asking who’s the depressed soul next to Scarecrow, that’s close Point Pleasant buddy Harry “Balz” Ambrosino who runs the fantasy hockey league I’m part of. That was his expression following a bad first in a shootout loss to the Oilers a few weeks ago.

Notice the lack of enthusiasm. This is a first place team. But who’s fooling who here? This team has fizzled out in the second round two years running and our clueless GM didn’t do anything to improve them. Would it shock anyone if they lost in the first round to a more physical opponent? Of course not.

Any fan who thinks this team is Cup bound has their head up their ass. They’re not even close. Those with 20/20 know that.

Honestly, I’d like nothing better than for them to prove me wrong since I love this franchise and want to see them play the kind of rock’em sock’em hockey it takes to win. But our roster just isn’t cut out. Unless there’s a style change or our third and fourth lines suddenly explode, they’re lacking. Other teams have better offenses with more balance a la the Bruins, Pens, Habs and Flyers. The Sabres if they got in would be a tough out too.

In this league, you gotta be able to score and not just from the same sources. The Caps get goals from other guys aside from Ovechkin. What about the Canes who somehow win enough to stay afloat despite losing arguably their best scoring forward in Justin Williams?

It’s frustrating seeing the Islanders who have a lot less skill scoring more than this Ranger team. The Devils do too now that Patrik Elias and Brian Gionta have awoken along with Dainius Zubrus.

Why can’t the Rangers score more? Look at these stats entering today and tell me if they’re satisfactory:

Drury-26 GP, 8-6-14

Gomez-21 GP, 4-10-14

Redden-26 GP, 2-8-10

Dawes-19 GP, 2-3-5

Kalinin-26 GP, 0-6-6, minus-10

Sjostrom-26 GP, 2-1-3

It’s hard to accept the output for Drury and Gomez even tho the latter played through a stress fracture before missing time. What is our coach doing? Dubinsky has 16 points but the five goals are also not good enough. When Blair Betts is your most consistent center night in and night out, there’s a problem.

I don’t like including Sjostrom because he always plays hard but is misplaced on the fourth line. I can’t critique Ryan Callahan who always gives an honest effort and has scored like expected. Nik Zherdev for some of his ups and downs has done well and Markus Naslund after a bad start has fit in.

Dan Girardi is our most consistent scorer and he plays on the blueline. Most of Aaron Voros’ offense came alongside Dubi and Zherdev early plus that two-goal game versus the Devils where he parked in front of Martin Brodeur. Why isn’t he used more on the power play? This team has nothing.

You’re telling me Dawes can’t be part of this offensive juggernaut and Prucha can’t at least get a decent shot?

The Rangers have Henrik Lundqvist to be thankful for and that’s all that’s keeping them from falling apart. Without him, they’d really suck. Guess that’s my case for him winning the Vezina tho he’s unlikely to get many shutouts due to the D.

Something needs to change with this team.