Rangers fire blanks at Rask

January 31, 2009   ·   Derek Felix   ·   Jump to comments

Apparently, the Rangers did about as much as I did this afternoon. Well, at least offensively as they were blanked by rookie Tuuka Rask and the Bruins 1-0 in Beantown.

At least I had a valid reason. I stayed up and watched Serena Williams whip Dinara Safina for her fourth Australian Open title and then recapped it not going to sleep until early this morning.

What was the Blueshirts’ excuse for getting shutout by a 21 year-old emergency starter who was making his first start of the season and fifth fourth of his career? I could care less if the promising former No.1 pick acquired from Toronto for immortal Andrew Raycroft stopped all 35 shots including 15 in the third.

If you can’t beat a third stringer who was only recalled due to Tim Thomas needing a blow after starting eight straight with Manny Fernandez sidelined, what exactly does that say about your team?!?!?!?!?! Not much.

I realize this Tom Renney coached team is offensively challenged. But this part of the AP story courtesy Yahoo is quite telling:

The Rangers looked much better in the third period after coming out of their defensive shell.

“It was a fairly tight game for two periods,” New York captain Chris Drury said. “When they scored, we opened things up and that’s the way we have to play.”

Isn’t that an indictment of the conservative coach’s philosophy? That’s the team captain basically saying they weren’t aggressive enough against the top team in the conference who were coming off a tough overtime defeat to the Devils.

Did they really expect to win the game 1-0 by playing the same boring style that’s driven fans nuts and convinced me to not even bother getting up on short rest to watch. I knew they weren’t winning this one. That it came 1-0 on a Marc Savard deflection off a Dennis Wideman point shot with 22.2 seconds left in the second makes it even worse.

Bruising forward Milan Lucic caught the much smaller Nigel Dawes with a clean hit against the boards forcing the turnover that allowed his first place club to score the only goal needed to blank this popgun offense.

So what if the effort was better in the final period with close calls from Nik Zherdev, Scott Gomez, Ryan Callahan and Michal Rozsival. Why does it even matter? They lost!

They couldn’t score one lousy goal against Rask. A guy who came in from Providence. This on the heels of that humiliating third against Sidney Crosby and the Penguins three days ago. Inexcusable.

It’s awfully hard to take. Where is this team going? They aren’t playing the kind of hockey needed to make a dent in the playoffs. Does anyone see them making a run? They’re probably going to wind up third in the Atlantic just struggling to make it.

I honestly would rather miss than get knocked out by the Devils who do everything right. They don’t care about needless PR like the Evil Dolan Empire who will celebrate Adam Graves’ No.9 retirement Tuesday by ripping off fans taking advantage of one of the classiest Rangers who never was that way given all the community stuff he did out of the goodness of his heart.

It will again be about the past. 1994 was great but it’s time to move on already! This team is content with winning a round so Dolan can hike ticket prices teasing a loyal fanbase. All cause the senile GM deproved the roster. They’re going to waste Henrik Lundqvist who according to NHL Arena Program buddy Chris Wassel deserves to win the Vezina if this flawed roster makes the postseason.

I’m not sure I agree. There’s this great rookie by the name of Steve Mason on Columbus with a league best seven shutouts looking to get that franchise into its first postseason. If that happens, he deserves to sweep the Calder and Vezina which brings us to the answer to last week’s All-Star Weekend trivia question.

The last rookie netminder to sweep the Calder and Vezina was Eddie “The Eagle” Belfour who turned the remarkable feat during the 1990-91 season even getting nominated for the Hart which was won by Brett Hull, who scored 86 goals for the St. Louis Blues. He might’ve been a bit ornery on and off the ice but The Eagle deserves to be in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Belfour ranks third all-time with 484 victories with two Vezinas, five All-Star appearances, a Stanley Cup along with two other Finals appearances including the memorable 1999-00 series Dallas lost to New Jersey.

It’s also worth noting that former Buffalo Sabre Tom Barrasso  swept both in 1983-84 when he went straight from high school to the NHL as a teenager. Not surprisingly, he went onto win consecutive Stanley Cups with his second club the Pittsburgh Penguins which will probably draw a reaction from our resident Sabre blogger Brian Sanborn.

Back to the original topic as I close with a final thought about what frustrates me most about this franchise.

Devil fans have always complained about playing second fiddle to our team due to location. However, I feel like its the Rangers who play second fiddle to a team that only cares about winning and might just add their fourth Cup in over a decade while ours is stuck with that many in nearly a century speaking volumes.

Who would you rather be a fan of? A team whose GM responds following a humiliating first round exit at the hands of a bitter rival by bolstering the roster so they can seriously contend for Lord Stanley or a team with a GM whose whereabouts are unknown having not helped our franchise goalie to seriously challenge for a championship.

The Devils care about championships. The Rangers care about winning a round so the owner can rip off loyal customers. They settle!

So, which fanbase is really playing second fiddle where it COUNTS most?