Well said. I feel bad for johnson … not the way he envisioned his first debut for the rangers in the regular season.

Higgins should be on the third line … not 1 or 2 line

it was my first and only game of the year. it was the worst piece of hockey i have ever seen. we came out completely flat. passes were sloppy. i can’t even remember one hit we threw all game. i will not attend another ranger game until sather is gone and we can fix the joke that is our team, the New York Rangers

I mean, I know I’m his lone defender at this point…but they get destroyed 6-0, and we’re scapegoating Higgins? Really? The guy who led the team in SOG and total shots tonight? Really?

Where the hell was Drury tonight? 0 shots. 0 hits. 30% faceoffs, Team leading (in the bad way) -11 Corsi,

58 seconds into the 1st: Avery-Dubinsky-Gaborik are scored against
23 seconds into the 2nd: Avery-Dubinsky-Callahan are scored against.

How does that happen two periods in a row?

Dubi was a -4. Every member of the defense was at least -1.

Jesus, I mean god knows it’s frustrating as hell to watch Higgins fail and fail some more every game…but let’s be realistic.

The team suck suckity suck sucked for 60 minutes tonight. This was not a one man effort.

anyone think somethings gonna come after this game? maybe a demotion of some sorts? maybe sather tells torts that garborik isnt performing up to par and he needs to be benched? MAYBE we’ll see roszival finally be held accountable for his actions. Its unfortunate but overall, Who are the worst 3 teams in the NHL…. unfortunately in MY opinion as well as countless other nhl overseers, we are damn well there.

As if the lack of effort and heart wasn’t bad enough, I had three drunk and moronic Flyers fans behind me rubbing it in loudly with tons of profanity until they were thrown out by security. I wish security had thrown out the whole team as well.

There’s no excuse for a group of highly paid professional athletes with a devoted and passionate fan base to come out and play like they have been up all night partying.
 
Once a season I can see it, but the season isn’t quite half over and there have been at least three of these I can remember – Tampa, Islanders and now this garbage.

So…What’s Next?
Someone asked the inevitable question tonight on the open-game thread: Is Torts job on the line?
I say Sather is too complacent to fire him, but more importantly that would just be admission of yet another failure on Sather’s part. However the fact is this team is simply not responding to Tortorella anymore. His ranting and raving is falling on deaf ears. He’s run out of options. And how many more times can he juggle lines before all combinations have been exhausted?
There is no excuse for this team to not “be ready” for divisional games that have playoff implications. What more motivation do they need? It’s hard to put your finger on it… Are they playing to get the coach fired? I believe some players are doing just that.
My assessment: This is just a poorly constructed team. They have too many weaknesses to really be competitive. No true #1 center, only one scoring threat in Gaborik, no big, tough defensive-minded defenseman, no capable back up goalie to periodically take pressure off Lundqvist, questionable leadership, and 2 lazy, selfish players in Redden and Kotalik. Not a good recipe for winning hockey.
To make matters worse, they have very few options if even considering a trade.
Problem #1: Drury, Roszival, and Redden, because of their contracts, are essentially untradable.
Problem #2: They have very few players other teams would be interested in, aside from Lundqvist, Staal, Del Zotto, Anisimov, and Callahan, and those guys aren’t going anywhere.
Problem #3: The rest of the league is well-aware of the Rangers issues, and they’re not simply going to accommodate the Blueshirts with a trade (Kind of like Gainey did by taking Gomez and his fat contract off their hands).

Okay, I realize we all want to give the kid a break on his first time between the pipes at this level – but honestly, he looked like he was moving in slow motion on that second goal. On the first, he had no motion (big problem for a goalie). Look, there was a helluva lot more that wrong on the ice than the way the kid broke his cherry tonite – but honestly, he’s not quite NHL material just yet. It was a shame Torts put him in and that fault rests with him – but he sucked, so let’s just say so and stop echoing Michelletti’s false praise – which was just as ludicrous as his comment on the Flyers “just playing hockey”. Duh, thanks Joe.

Don’t know about you guys, but this is the point in the season where I typically watch games (on center ice) not to see them win – but to watch them lose in the hope that one day, maybe, someone will actually be held accountable for this sad excuse of a team. And forget about draft picks – we’d have better luck training my cat to program my DVR.

So on to tomorrow in Carolina – let’s all hope we don’t bench anyone, play Johnson again, and usher in the New Year with another vintage Ranger performance. Perhaps Torts will even wear a tux – hey, it almost worked for Espo!

“There have been enough times where we’ve heard ‘Well we gotta come back with some effort’ and ‘What are you gonna take out of this game.’
If life was a learning experience for this club, they’ve had plenty of experiences to be better, when it comes to committing to compete.
And there’s something amiss here where there’s the consistent inability to compete, in all honesty…At some point you go, ‘OK what is really going on?’”

Yeah I agree in that something may actually get done if we continue to put up poor efforts like tonight. I hate seeing the team lose but if it can bring about change then I would prefer that.

What does it say about the Eastern Conference that a win tomorrow gives us sole possession of 8th place?

I think it’s time to call in some of the kids in Hartford and when the World Junior Championships are done, call in Chris Bourque, Chris Kreider & Derek Stepan to show some of these guys how to play with real heart, real Passion and ACTUALLY GIVE A DAMN ABOUT WEARING THOSE JERSEYS THAT SAYS RANGERS ON THE FRONT GOD DAMN IT!

Henrik, Del Zotto, Gilroy, Avery, Gaborik are the only ones actually doing something. Callahan has to wake up, Dubinsky has been decent. Someone call Marc Staal’s Dad to come over and smack him across the face to wake him up.

Chris Drury is such a big talker when he is sitting in the dressing room, yet he can’t talk a big game on the ice. STRIP THE “C” OF HIS JERSEY! Remove that “C” off his jersey and either give it to someone else who truely wants it, or hand Gaborik an “A”. Drury doesn’t deserve to wear that letter or any form of a leadership letter on his jersey.

I was at the Garden to watch this game and I was so disgusted I left after the 2nd Period. For the first time in my life going to Rangers games at the Garden, I have never left in the middle or after two periods of play. I was so disgusted watching this piece of garbage team for the umptenth time come into a game at home or on the road and lay an egg that stunk so bad, it wasn’t worth staying to see if they would make any form of a comeback.

How much more can Tortorella do? This is not his fault. These bastards tuned him out on purpose. They don’t want to play for him. So now it’s time to set the record straight. If Sather has any brains left in that old body of his, send those vets down to Hartford and bring up Grachev, bring back P.A. Parenteau, Corey Locke is the leading scorer.

Kotalik is garbage, Brashear is garbage, Redden & Rozsival are complete garbage. Higgins should be sent back to Montreal and while we are at it, Send Him with Redden there for Paul Mara & any other prospect the Habs will give us. At least Mara showed passion and bled for the Rangers Jersey.

I feel so sorry for Henrik & Chad Johnson. I feel so sorry for Henrik because he is working his rear end off & no one wants to help him out on defense. Chad Johnson actually looked solid going into the 2nd period, just Dubinsky hung him out to dry and he got scored on so fast for no reason. This kid is going to be a future NHL’er someday

I am so ticked off right now. HOW THE HELL IS IT POSSIBLE THAT ALL OF US AS SUPPORTERS OF THIS GREAT HOCKEY CLUB WERE READY TO SEE THE FLYERS GET TAKEN OUT AND THESE PLAYERS DECIDED TO QUIT BEFORE THE NATIONAL ANTHUM WAS SUNG!

If Dolan had any hockey sense he would fire Sather now and either allow Messier to run the ship or call the Blues and try to bring J.D. back to run the club. I will also apologize to Tom Renney as I thought he was the cause of this mess not prepairing the team to go out and fight. It seems to me that the players have already cut their own balls off dispite both Renney & Tortorella.

This was a divisional game that should’ve told the Rangers to get ready and smack these dirtbags around and smack them thru the boards and glass. Whatever fight they showed down in Philly about a week or two ago, they left it down there inside over a foot & a half of snow. This is what they should do inside the Rangers locker room, when they show the film of “I AM A RANGER” before the game starts, show the players that same damned film. If that doesn’t get them ready to play against the Flyers or anyone else in the NHL, that’s when you start trading them, banish them to the minors or just release them a.s.a.p.

This really ticks me off. I’m glad I didn’t have to hear the Flyers fans chanting in the 3rd period.

I refuse to spend another cent this decade to support the Rangers after watching tonight’s “effort”. It was like watching the Mets on skates (yeah lucky me, I root for the Rangers AND the Mets). I have so many angry things to say, yet I there’s not even a point to saying them. Fuck Sather, fuck Dolan, fuck this sorry ass excuse for a team. I’ve been about as loyal as you can ask from a fan who has watched this kind of shit for the last decade and a half (and more), but I’m honestly about ready to jump ship from all New York sports unless something changes.

I’m so glad my girlfriend spent over $200 to get me tickets to this game for Christmas. Next year I’ll just ask her for a bottle of cheap liquor and a copy of Platoon and get depressed for $14.

I hear Torts say " find a way to get it done" I think he’s not doing…exactly that! Adapt for what you’ve got – commit to something…let something develop. sorry, i’m just at the end of my rope seeing this kind of play. Utterly embarrassing.

So are we all in agreement here? We’re pulling for a lopsided loss tonight, and for every night thereafter until some material changes are made – Drury loses ‘C’, Rozi and other offenders sent to Hartford, Sather sent to Edmonton / Palm Springs, etc.?

I’m totally serious here – not that anyone in this organization will care, but let’s face it squeeking out a win tonight just prolongs the misery that much longer.

So who’s with me?

The Knicks lost to the Nets last night… seriously. The stench in little Jimmy’s empire is now at an all time high.

I will start to get really excited about the 2010 draft :)

The problem is simply the most of the highest paid guys are only leading the team in Age.

I’ve been a fan of blueshirt banter for over a year now and never planned on commenting…I just enjoyed reading other Ranger fans thoughts and opinions. After reading a lot of fans opinions on Higgins, I have to say something…

I’m getting really sick of everyone making Higgins out to be the bad guy. Should he be scoring more goals? Yes. But is he the reason the Rangers are losing? No. I get angry when I read all these comments about how the Rangers should trade him, bench him, etc. Personally, I feel he’s put in a lot more effort on the ice than others. He has consistently led the team with SOG’s. They might not be hitting the back of the net but he’s not the only one. He can penalty kill and forecheck harder than others. He might not be getting the points Gaborik is getting but whether people want to admit it or not, he is a player worth having right now. The problem this year is the WHOLE TEAM, not Chris Higgins.

…how many coaches are hired to get it done in their first year with a lackluster team? I think the plan for Torts was more along the lines of a 2-3 year deal and more long term. We make the playoffs this year or not we are hardly a threat, next year we get some more youth in here for Torts to mold. If you look at his stats in Tampa, this is promising.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tortorella#NHL_coaching_record

This team is awful and there isn’t much that can be done about it. I have been right here along with all of you, ranting, voicing my albeit unprofessional opinions. Is there even a shread of a chance that anyone in the organization actually reads along. I doubt it. I am 32 years old and played hockey for over 25 years. I never miss a ranger game, go to about 10-15 games a year and some playoff contests when I can afford it. But I can actually say, for the first time in my life, I just don’t want to watch anymore. It’s too much to watch your team go out and lose in that type of fashion nigh in and night out. The frustration is overwhelming as is to all of you i’m sure from reading your posts. Drury is by far, the worst captain this team has seen in a long time and with the rest of these losers we have the must just look around the locker room and not care either, if your captain can’t even get fired up, at 7 million a year why would they. I don’t even know where to go with this , I’m just saying for the record, I’m getting a Bergfors jersey and moving into the armpit…..

Wow, that 4 game win streak seems like it happened months ago.

sad days but first of all, i think there is an organization wide problem ( the rangers and the wolfpack) I saw the Wolfpack play in early Dec. against the penguins. the wolfpack got blownout, but what i took from that game in studying the players and coaches ( i was right behind the wolfpack bench) is that there were only a few players that still played hard and cared. the wolfpack scored first but then Justin Soryal got beat up and didnt return and it went downhill from there. Some that stick out are Brodie Dupont, who tried to get the boys going by yelling some encourgement ( i dont think many guys listened) Corey Potter played a decent game and was on ice for all situations, Dale Weise and Dane Byers tried hard. and while Grachev is big and has talent and hopefully will be a good ranger some day, that day is not this season. He is not ready. the coaches stood out for good and bad reasons. the bad coach Ken Gernander didnt say one peep to his players. and during the timeout coach JJ Daigneault did the talking and communicated with the defense.
 But what is this lackluster stuff going on, dont any of these guys in the AHL or NHL want to be rangers and what to play hockey and want to at least try and win. Up in the big league its a different story. Under Renney, the rangers got to do whatever they wanted with a players coach and still left him out to dry. Now they have a firebrand who yells and yells to no avail and that doesnt work. what is the problem here. It would be sad to see coach Torts go, he wants to be here and shows he cares (just like renney) but i dont know if we can get rid of “almost” a whole team and start over. Can anyone put their finger on what they think the problem might be with our teams.

get rid of or at least try to get rid of (even for a washing machine, i watched semi-pro last night) the following players; redden, rosival, boyle, brashear, christensen, drury, voros, kotalik. Play lisin to see what we have here, he does try hard higgins is trying and has the worst luck i dont know if it will ever change but at least give some more time to change things. I dont understand when some people come down on girardi, yes he isnt perfect but either is staal and i am tired of letting good young defensemen go. call up potter let the kids play it cant get much worse. how come other teams play there kids no matter what the outcome might be but the rangers cant? bring back p.a. and byers give weise a shot shake things up do something

i wonder if the senators want to part with chris neil?

i dont know about getting rid of sather lord knows he has made some bad moves but there are some good ones sprinkled in here and there. what we need is a series of checks and balances, someone to keep an eye on sather and stop him from the bad moves

The Rangers have only two elite players, Gaborik and Lundqvist. Prospal is a journeyman who has resurrected his career by playing with Gaborik. Avery, Callihan and Dubinski are high energy guys (not skill guys) who could constitute one of the top grind lines in the NHL. The remaining players are either young guys who may eventually become stars or older guys who are way past their prime. Reconstituting the Rangers’ roster will be a real challenge, but needs to be done. Sather has crippled the team by choosing has beens such as Drury, Redden, Roszival, Kotalik and Brashear. He compounded the problem by grossly overpaying them. I doubt whether any GM in the NHL would want to take on the contracts of these poor performers. The Rangers as presently constituted are one of the least talented teams in the NHL. The combination of poor talent and poor motivation spells disaster. I’m afraid that the team’s deadwood may hamper the development of the younger players. If the older, better paid players don’t put out the effort, will the younger guys? I think that you need to get rid of the nonperformers any way that you can and play the guys who really want to play.