Lack of effort in latest debacle alarming

December 28, 2008   ·   Derek Felix   ·   Jump to comments

So, you’re the Rangers and you just blew a 4-0 lead falling in overtime to Alex Ovechkin and the Caps 5-4 before the Christmas Break. Something which hadn’t happened in some 29 years on their own home ice leaving coal in their fans’ Christmas stockings.

You then get a few days off and as misplaced captain Chris Drury indicated, he wouldn’t allow the blown lead ruin his Christmas. It’s that sort of loser’s attitude which is what’s wrong with this 2008-09 Ranger edition heading the same way John Candy’s classic Del Griffith character was on a highway while Steve Martin’s Neal Page character realized the doom ahead with two trucks coming right for them. They’re going wrong way!

That’s what the Rangers appear destined for after not even bothering to try against what’s supposed to be a bitter rival falling 4-2 to the Devils at The Garden earlier Saturday night.

Who was the more rested team? A Devil club who played the day before getting shutout a second consecutive game or a Blueshirt club that had ample time to prepare with what should’ve been revenge on their mind following the Dec.13 8-5 humiliation at The Rock ending their domination.

If you took the Rangers, quoting legendary sports announcer Warner Wolf, “You lost!”

Instead, they botched the match from the very beginning picking up another mistimed bench minor for too many men leading directly to Brian Rolston’s power play marker which btw took just under three minutes for a team which entered scoreless in their last seven periods (159 minutes, 18 seconds).

How many times have we seen this team get caught with an extra man during a line change? How difficult is it to correct? You’d think nearly half a season in, this wouldn’t still be an issue for a Tom Renney coached team with even the normally unflappable man steaming after the latest debacle labeling his team’s performance, “brain dead.”

That would be one way to describe a start which also saw the Rangers surrender yet another shorthanded goal with Travis Zajac outmuscling slumping sophomore Brandon Dubinsky to a puck headmanning Patrik Elias, who beat Henrik Lundqvist gloveside for a quick 2-0 lead before you could get comfortable in your seat.

Amazingly, the Rangers did get it back by actually scoring on that same power play following their league worst 11th shorthanded goal allowed when one of the guys who showed Nigel Dawes got to a Paul Mara rebound and beat Scott Clemmensen with a backhand five-hole. That the goal read Dawes 5 from Mara and Marc Staal felt appropriate because these were players who still cared and gave a solid effort.

More than one could argue for MIA members Scott Gomez, Wade Redden, Markus Naslund, Aaron Voros and Dmitri Kalinin even if he somehow scored in this one.

Renney always preaches effort and battle level. There was none all night as Devils were allowed to do whatever they wanted picking apart the swiss cheese defense which was without Michal Rozsival, who was tending to a family member. For as much criticism as the Czech gets, remarkably they were much worse without a player who logs big minutes and had shown a pulse lately following an awful stretch.

There were a few shifts in the second where the Rangers seemed awake after a strong shift from the fourth line followed up by a change where Dawes nearly setup the tying goal. But it didn’t take long for things to fall apart with one of the ghosts Naslund sent to the box for slashing.

When the penalty expired, somehow the Devils found themselves on a three-on-two with all sorts of space for a changing Zajac to bury an Elias pass off the crossbar and in on his way to a three point night (1-2-3) with his 10th coming only 10 seconds later at even strength.

How was this possible? This has been going on for a while. Even when they were up four on Washington, the Rangers repeatedly lost checks allowing four clean breakaways with Ovechkin later cashing in to tie late before his team completed the comeback.

The goal was a backbreaker killing the Rangers’ momentum when they finally seemed to be playing. There would also late be an abbreviated five-on-three in which they peppered Clemmensen with five shots but only one was of the quality variety meaning Martin Brodeur’s replacement didn’t even have to work hard despite facing and stopping all 17 shots.

This came after the Rangers were outshot 17-7 and 26-11 at one point never allowing the home supporters to get into it. Another disturbing trend. The team’s failure to get off to quick starts. Anyone who watched the Capital game knew that was an aberration for one of the league’s lowest scoring teams whose leading scorer Nikolai Zherdev was draped all night by at least two Devils making sure he had no time and space.

Conversely, the Rangers lack of physicality was evident in how they struggled to get out of their end unwilling to compete with Kalinin making an adventure out of the puck during one extended shift nearly leading to a Devil goal. Most notable was how each time one-time failed Ranger Bobby Holik’s line went out there and dominated their shifts pinning the smaller weaker club in. When David Clarkson is allowed to come out with the puck and attempt a wraparound, something’s very wrong.

It reminded you of Rangers past when they missed the postseason for nearly a decade with their Hudson rival doing whatever it wanted. You just never got a sense they would comeback and win. So what if Kalinin tallied his first with rookie Corey Potter netting his first NHL assist and Dubinsky actually getting a point.

Potter will probably be back up in box watching when Rozsival returns and Kalinin somehow remains in the lineup when he’s always been the weak link making a few fans even contemplate if Marek Malik was really that bad.

That’s what it’s come to. How does a home team not gain any momentum from a goal coming from an unlikely source which made it a one-goal contest with 11:01 left?

You’ll have to ask a fly on the wall in the Ranger dressing room because they then were dominated by a hungrier opponent who wanted nothing better than to pickup their first win at MSG in nearly two years (12 games).

Instead of building, they allowed the Devils to lockdown the neutral zone and salt it away when nobody took a wide open Zach Parise, who buried his club-leading 19th from Langenbrunner and Zajac 3:59 later.

If you’re going to not bother taking their best player, you may as well pack your bags and give the fans a refund. That’s exactly what should’ve happened because that’s how lackluster they were. As if they didn’t care with some players being indirectly called out by their coach, who predictably ducked a personnel question in reference to sitting players for exiled Petr Prucha and Dan Fritsche when the Islanders visit town Monday.

It might say the Rangers only got outshot 35-33 by the Devils but anyone who watched knows better about how closely fought this game was.

Unacceptable. When is enough enough? Not a moment too soon for an organization in complete denial heading the wrong way.