Nothing Wild about Ranger performance

October 31, 2009   ·   Derek Felix   ·   Jump to comments

Sadly, the script was identical. Again, a shorthanded Ranger club couldn’t or just wouldn’t. So, the regressing Blueshirts fell in St. Paul to the Wild 3-2, dropping a second straight on the heels of the Islander debacle.

John Tortorella’s club has only one win in their last six and whatever good will they had from a hot 7-1 start is basically kaput. I could care less that Marian Gaborik missed a second straight while lifeless Sean Avery and MIA Christopher Higgins didn’t suit up last night. All teams have injuries. Just ask a Devil club that’s minus their second best scorer along with top penalty killer and blueliner. The good teams battle through adversity. Right now, the Rangers are the opposite, headed the wrong way.

Perhaps everyone’s right about this team. One which has scored three times in two bad losses minus their offensive leader. It’d be easy to point at Henrik Lundqvist, who’s supposed to be the other star on the roster. But all three Minnesota goals came off faulty coverage against another opponent who wanted it more. Sad to think the Wild entered with only 26 goals but we warned that they’d won all three of their 12 at home.

Again, the Rangers were nowhere to be found with only a handful deciding to show. That included rookie Dane Byers, who after landing late 20 minutes prior to the start, notched his first career NHL goal while creating a few other chances. Other notables included Artem Anisimov, Vinny Prospal and Wade Redden. That’s it. Nobody else competed. Our courageous captain was again MIA logging too much time (20:33, SOG, minus-1). Brandon Dubinsky (-1, SOG) again mailed another night in. Marc Staal and Dan Girardi were again a disaster, on for two goals against. Even Ryan Callahan (21:44, SOG) was dismal. Just pathetic. The lack of passion is alarming. Even the coach seems out of answers.

“We go back to work, there’s no magic potion trying to get out of this here,” Tortorella said. “It’s just a matter of trying to cut down on our mistakes, especially the turnovers in the neutral zone, and go back to work and find a way.”

It would help if he figured out some combinations that worked instead of continuing to shuffle the deck. At least he took our advice after the second, moving Anisimov up to the first line with Prospal. Any coincidence Artie was on for both goals, assisting on Staal’s third period tally while going plus-two? The lanky Russian is good. Regardless of who returns Sunday, he needs to continue to get more ice like tonight (16:20, A, +2). If that means decreasing Dubinsky and Drury, we’re all for it. Tort said he’d give it to those who worked. Well, Anisimov’s time has come. In 14 games of which many he didn’t see a ton, he’s got three goals and four assists. More often, he shows up ready. It’s time to find out what our future can do.

As for the game, it was disgusting. The Wild continually attacked the front of the net, doing whatever they pleaded. Somehow, Lundqvist stopped everything until a brutal Donald Brashear turnover led to <gulp> Petr Sykora reemerging. A healthy scratch much of the season, the one-time Ranger suddenly was in vintage 2000-01 Devil form finishing off Mikko Koivu’s feed for the lead at 18:31 on a play started by Andrew Brunette. When it was scored, I couldn’t find the words for why the fourth line was out that late. Was Tom Renney behind the bench in Halloween costume? Brutal.

After being severely outplayed and outshot 12-5, the Rangers at least tried early in the second, getting the game tied when Byers rebounded home a Redden shot. It was a great play by Tinman, who stole the puck and fired with Byers beating Niklas Backstrom for his first at 5:33. However, the momentum didn’t last long with Sykora again involved in helping setup Eric Belanger just 2:16 later. On the go-ahead tally, Pierre Parenteau didn’t take Belanger, which allowed Martin Havlat to break his seven-game funk with a nice primary helper. Of course, Michal Rozsival (pronounced Woh-zsival) was out there. But it wasn’t his fault that Parenteau didn’t do a better job in front.

The Wild controlled the rest of the second as the shell shocked Rangers went through the motions. Yes. They managed eight shots but most were easy pickings for Backstrom, who only needed to make 18 saves, summing things up. It was pretty evident that the third goal was coming. Maybe that’s why even my brother who never likes to miss a second switched to the more exciting Isles’ win over the Caps along with Buffalo’s ‘W’ over Toronto. He even mixed in the pathetic Knicks, who somehow were on MSG losing to the Bobcats.

Naturally, we didn’t miss anything except another slumping Wild player making the score sheet. Antti Miettinen got his first by rebounding home a Koivu shot as Staal and Girardi watched. In typical Ranger fashion, it was his first. Last week, it was Nicklas Bergfors. It’s always someone who scores their first against us. I was chatting with close pal James about it and he went on and on. It’s what this team does when it stinks. Of course, it came with under a minute left, burying any realistic hopes of a comeback.

I hardly saw the third but did catch the end of a great Isles’ win over the Caps in which they gave max effort, with prize rookie John Tavares making a great backhand pass from behind the net to setup Mark Streit. That at least made me smile. Why would I at the nemesis’ win? Because of the kinda hard work they put in, coming back to tie three times against one of the league’s best. How come Scott Gordon can get that from his rebuilding group while Tort can’t? It’s almost as if they’ve stopped listening already. Scary.

Before I left, I did at least see some more good work from Anisimov lead to Staal actually doing something, by finishing a nice Prospal diagonal feed for his second, cutting to 3-2 with 14:59 left. Unfortunately, it was as close as they got with only Byers coming close in front as I listened on ESPN’s lousy secondary 970 AM feed. As if 1050 wasn’t bad enough. On the subject, ESPN Radio sucks. It’s God awful and doesn’t register in many spots. It’s time for Dolan to wake the heck up and get a new station. He not only rips off paying customers but can’t afford a listenable radio station. This is New York City fool! I loathe that man with a deep passion.

Oh well. Anyway, the team is off today but returns to MSG to host the Bruins for one of those annoying 1 PM games. Yeah. We’re not going. And I doubt we’ll miss much. Hopefully, at least the Yankees will make it a good weekend.

Trick-or-treat. Be safe everyone!

BONY 3 Stars:

3rd Star-Dane Byers, (1st NHL goal, 3 SOG, 2 PIM, +1 in 9:33)

2nd Star-Mikko Koivu, (2 assists, 3 SOG, +2 in 17:46)

1st Star-Petr Sykora, (goal, assist, SOG, +1 in 13:55)