Blueshirts are the Pitts: Crosby and Pens crush Rangers, 8-3

how crosby had a hat-trick on hat night of all things. So we had to sit threw like 10 minutes of them celebrating our awful loss.

Maybe Torts should bench himself in the locker room for the next game?

painful to watch that game

This team is in a complete tailspin and cant see anything that tells me were starting to come out of it. When do you get to the point where the players get sick of losing? When do you get to the point where your tired of walking off the ice after not picking up 2 extremely valuable points? Rangers are dying and they are taking theyre fans with them. It is becoming very difficult to sit there and have to endure 60 minutes of garbage hockey every other night. But I will and do you know why? Cuz I am a diehard fan just like the rest of the guys out here on BB. But we have NOTHING to be happy about. We have nothing to cheer for or get loud about. Honestly I keep watching to see if Gaborik scores again to keep the league lead. Pretty sad………….no? What happened to the team that started the season 7-1? THAT was a long time ago boys, a real long time ago. Sorry to be so negative here guys but im just very frustrated w/ this team. I love this team and it really affects me after all these losses keep piling up and I know im not the onl 1 out here too so whatsup boys who’s feeling my pain?

The reason I joined this site is to help me deal with my anger issue when watching this organization for the last ten years. This game played out exactly how I thought it was. watching the rangers this season I just looked at a team that progressively is getting worse with each game. San Jose game we had a 2-0 lead and we were firing on all cylinders then John Tortarella feels his 4th line needs ice time against the other team and Donald Brashear makes a horrible pass that leads to San Jose’s 1st goal. Our 1st loss in seven games should be no big deal right? Well it’s the way our defense looked in that game that has carried over for this long stretch that has gotten worse with each game. If our team has a lead it isn’t long before the other team is back in the game if the other team has a lead it’s difficult for our team to generate any offense. We aren’t getting any points in these games and we absolutely wasted our great start and look like we are not a playoff team by any stretch. We all saw the defense tonight and how many quality scoring chances Pittsburgh generated just by going to the net. Our players look like 4 year old kids following the puck and not picking up anyone trailing coming in our end. We take needless offensive zone penalties that have nothing to do with preventing the other team from scoring and we stand around in our end watching the other team plant themselves in the slot with not a ranger in sight. We are not physical, we don’t score, we spend way to much time in our end of the ice leaving our goalies to make countless point blank saves. The softness of this team was again exposed tonight as you had Matt Cooke cream Anisimov in an already decided game with no one on the ice at the time of the hit to step up for him. This team is so fundamentally bad you wonder watching the game if there is any coaching taking place. These players have had all success at some level of hockey and many coaches. They all of a sudden don’t know how to play? I hate to say it but the last time I saw this kind of effort back to back we fired Roger Neilson during that dreaded 92-93 season. Say what you want about Tom Renney but his teams all made the playoffs and he brought respect back to this organization. John Tortarella has shown me very little and in fact had a team 3-1 up on Washington that collasped. You would think a coach of his caliber would of started to fix these glaring defensive zone coverage errors by now. You can’t blame this all on Redden and Rosival either the whole team looks lost. It’s not their fault they were offered the money they were and Brashear can be thrown in the same boat. I feel we have capable players to at least make the play-offs but I’m starting to question whether John Tortarella can take us there.

anybody else realize that the fishsticks beat the penguins last night?

just sayin

I was at the game against the Lightning and it was just plain sad to watch. Tonights result was no surprise. This team has no heart but should we really be surprised? Drury, Rosey and Redden have big time contracts with basically no movement clauses and are advanced in age. What exactly do they have to play for? As long as they don’t get hurt life is good for them. As we already said none of them are gettting moved or sent down so they basically have free passes to do as little as possible without fear of punishment. These guys are supposed to be our leaders especially Mr. Drury. He is supposed to be Mr. big moment a real winner. After watching him play for us the last couple of years you could have fooled me. This is a major problem and we are going nowhere with these 3 on our team eating up about 18 million in cap space execept maybe some early round draft picks so we can at least be revelant again when they finally leave. Maybe we get lucky and these guys have some class and step aside like Nasuland did.

i was working and wasnt able to catch any of the game..i had the espn alerts though…after the first period..i didnt want to keep getting those text messages anymore…

torts cant take all the blame, but clearly theres a personnel problem, and i think it stems from voros(which i sound like a broken record, but hes even more terrible than last season, and thats saying something…) brashear and boyle, our 4th line isnt our energy line, they dont get the team pumped and its difficult to keep any momentum when you give everyone a chance and they arent performing up to their best…its really time to bring in people who can #1 put up points and #2 energize the team, not just with a fight, but a powerful forecheck that has other teams scared to pass the puck in the defensive zone, and keep it up instead of fluttering out half way into the period…

our defense needs to pick it up too..maybe we need to make a trade for a big name person who isnt going to play like shit once they come to the rangers(redden and morris)

He talks a talk about holding players who make mistakes accountable. And says that he’ll bench players who make mistakes, people mess up, come off the ice, he looks at them and says “you f*cked up, now get back out there and do it again.” Benching Lisin for the whole game when you had so many other players making mistakes left and right? Bench him for the first, and then hell, put him on D. He can’t do worse than -5. Someone in the locker room has to step up and take charge. It can be Brashear for all I care, but it seems its not going to be Drury or Torts. Wouldn’t surprise me if its Prospal, but someone has to put their foot down and change the teams attitude.

Almost every Ranger on the ice is a defensive liability. Although all 3 Ranger goals were scored by defensemen, those same defensemen are terrible at defending. The Tortorella system is all wrong for this group of players. We simply do not have good defensive defensemen. The forwards have to do a better job at helping out with defensive responsibilities. Sather and Tortorella have assembled entirely the wrong group for Tortorella’s system to work. Tom Renney would have much more success coaching this group than Tortorella. Since it is almost impossible to make significant player personnel changes at this point, the only change that Sather can manage is to replace Tortorella.

sometimes really have to hit bottom before they can really pick themselves up and clean themselves off. Maybe it is our time to hit bottom and start over. Maybe Sather will retire or move on or let go so we can build on a new era. The signs are there for the possiblilty of a change in leadership with messier coming on board as an apprentice. Keep in mind, there is a lot of heat in that NYC kitchen when our boys in blue are losing big and getting blown out by teams like tampa. If we are losing again on monday night watch out for the fans to show some serious disatisfaction. And I can’t see Sather taking the heat for another full season of this because everything points up. They might even be calling his name on monday. This team is embarressment right now in many ways. Just read the messages and it is evident in every other fan’s message. We are drowning in losses and it could finally be the start of a major regime change. I know a lot of you don’t always agree with me but thats the way I see it.

I’m pretty sure the MGMT will stick with their guy for at least a season. The first big change will be trading some of the players to mix it up. We’re 25% through the season and the team has not gelled together at all. Good start, but something happened and its becoming a disastrous. Expect Higgins to be gone in the next few weeks. Maybe Girardi. Hopefully, Dubi, Calli, Staal, MDZ, Gilroy are not on the chopping block.

If I were making the calls, I’d go youth and and sit some vets who aren’t performing:
Send down Rosi (once Redden is healthy) and leave Sanguinetti up.
Send down Voros and Boyle and call up Locke and Grachev.
Keep an extra forward (Lisin, P.A.P., Brashear, etc . . .) and give people a rest every now and again. EG- Drury looked really fresh against Tampa, but horrible last night against Pitt.

I wish this team finally goes into a true rebuilding mode………..trade away ALL of our veteran players who are worth anything and go with the kids………strictly!! And i say that knowing how much I love watching Gaborik play. This team has always tried to stay competitive regardless of the outcome. they say you cant rebuild in NY, that the fans wont be patient………….gotta try to win now. Thats a bunch of b.s. If you ask any true die-hard Ranger fan they would say yeah, I’ll wait a few years so we can build a team of kids who will someday turn into a true cup contender. But we gotta sell tix, it’s more about money……………..what a shame. We went from missing the playoffs for 7 years being miserable to making the playoffs last 4 years to being just as miserable…………..I love this team no matter what but i just wish it was run with some intelligence………finally.

MSG would sell out if the Rangers put 6 dead dogs on the ice. That’s the problem. As long as the money rolls in, ownership has no incentive to make painful changes like firing Sather or Tortorella or buying out some of the deadwood. They are content to go with the flow. I think that the Knicks are already playing 5 dead dogs on the hardwood floor.

What would you trade for and who would you trade? I mean we have good players who are proven 20 goal scorers but if you made a trade now I think you would be getting low balled based on their performance this year or you’ll end up making a stupid trade where you give up on a young player that will come back and burn us later on. I personally would like to see the team get a fore checker that can inflict damage on his hits so the other team’s defense has to keep their head up and would like to see a bigger forward with decent fighting skills that can take a regular shift replace lisin and higgins. on defense we would all like to see redden and rosival gone I also think giradi is expendable to make room for one more of our young talented offensive d-man and you replace two with rugged stay at home clear the crease and occasionally scrap d-men to balance out this teams softness and give protection to gaborik , delzotto, lunquist, and staal because i think these message board would have a different feel if it was gaborik taking that head shot last night instead of anisimov. Voros, brashear, and boyle aren’t really a deterrent because when we put them on the ice the other team puts the puck in the net and they are too slow to fore check and not talented enough to carry the puck.

                          Seeing as how everyone is venting their frustration at the quarter mark, I feel like its time to give my two cents. The Rangers were projected to be in the same boat they’re in at the beginning of the season. This really didn’t surprise me much. Sure we got on fire the first 8 or 9 games, but we did that last year as well. The only reason for that was, the NHL wasn’t familiar with our system and the combination of our players. Now they know, and there is nothing else more to say.
                           It starts at the top, Sather…….should i even dedicate a segment to him? All he did was COACH a stanley cup dynasty stock piled with arguably the best players ever to play the game under one jersey. He butchers the set-up Neil Smith had, which won us the CUP. We miss the playoffs for what seemed like forever and he gets lucky with probably the best trade of ALL time(just an opinion), Anson Carter for Jagr. Jagr essentially saved saved career and all he did since then was put us in what looks like another 7 year drought.
                      Now to Torts…. He won a cup PRE lockout with a system that was structured to win PRE lockout. He had his shot post lockout and got fired by Tampa because without the red line, his system is garbage. MAYBE it will core a couple goals on some teams with weak D and a “run-and-gun” system similar to ours but not against any team with the likes of a Regheir and Phaneuf. Torts lost all his fire and seems to have given up on his team as much as his team has given up on him. You know Mike Keenan would LOVE to get off TV and back behind the bench and to be honest, I wouldn’t mind a change. Maybe we can get another 7 game win-streak before he’s fired too.
              Now to the players……… We have it ALL wrong. I know this is where all the “man Doug your an idiot these players are our future and can score 50 goals” comments. I’m going to list 3 of these players. First is our future hall of famer, Ryan Callahan. The guy has grit, he has heart, he has leadership, a SMALL scoring upside. Now with “all those powers combined” he’s probably the best 3rd liner in the league. Not going to go into much more detail because this could go on for DAYS. Second is Dubinsky. Again grit, heart, hands, vision, but lack of “hockey smarts”. Now let me explain, how many times when you watch Dubinsky, do you say to yourself WOW if only he shot the puck or made that outlet pass to spring whoever, which in comparison to other teams #1 centers, hes a second liner at best. Third and last, oh my captain my captain, Chris Drury. I don’t know if any of you remember when he got to the team, a phrase Sam Rosen said over the air, “Anywhere Drury seems to go, teams win, he’s a winner” . Just the site of Chris Drury ALONE puts opposing teams into shock, make them go into the fetal position and let him score 60 goals a year. THAT is why we pay him 7 million a year. He has a presence unlike any other player the league has ever seen

with you Dougee. Cally and Duby are role players on a good team not guys you build a team around

as far as offense, i just scouted a UFA list, and Alexander Frolov from LA is an upcoming UFA, hes a young player, got 6 years under his belt in LA, and has had pretty good seasons in the past..just imagine it Frolov-Prospal-Gaborik, i think it would be a good jumpstart to all of em before the trade deadline just an idea to put out there

thanks Jim, and BLS thats exactly what I was trying to get at, I’m glad you grasped my point. We’ve invested time and precious money into 3rd line players. Sather AND our scouting team have a lack of “star” perception A la Hugh Jessiman and Al Montoya + countless others. But we can’t forget the ONE they did do right….the next Pavel Bure, Mr Alexei Cherapanov that DIED. Sadly we could’ve had Zack Parise AND Ryan Getzlaf. Don’t get me wrong, we got EXTREMELY lucky with Lundqvist as they saw him as just a backup to Weekes and Staal was a pleasant and average 1st round pick. It also looks like the next 5 or so draft classes lack the stars the past 5 or 6 had. So even if we do start tanking seasons…theres no more Crosby’s, Ovechkins, or Tavares’ left.