It’s painfully obvious that Gabby has a “lower body injury.” As he stated in one of his interviews after the olympics that he is not 100% but it is crunch time and we are trying to make the playoffs.The olympics indirectly hurt the Rangers this year w/Gabby the way they did in 06’ w/ Lundqvist. All in all the season has been considered a success when it comes to Gaborik cuz if you would have told us at the beginning of the year that he would play in at least 90% of the teams games and score around 80 points we all would of jumped up and down. It’s just a damn shame that he fizzled at this time of year. And i do disagree with one of your points that the Rangers were scoring w/ out him in the lineup and now they are not with him back just being a coincidence. Def not a coincidence. This team relied way too much on him to carry the team offensively all year and when he wasnt in the lineup everyone tried that much harder and we all saw the results. There is so much wrong with this team top to bottom. Dysfunctional at best. From Dolan all the way down to whoever sweeps up the locker room at night…….

It is obvious that the Rangers as a team play differently in the lineup when Gaborik plays. And when Gaborik is not scoring, this a not a good thing. They rely on him too much and he doesn’t seem to be able to deliver right now.

It was similar with Jagr as these superstars seem to dictate the states of the teams play.

The Rangeras were doing fine with scoring (4 per game) while Gaborik was out for 4 games around the Olympic break.

Now its disappointing if the team can only lift its game when Gaborik is out, because they should be bringing it every night.

But Torts said he asked Gaborik that he should only play if he can perform at his usual level.: I assume Gaborik was honest – for the sake of the team I hope he was and not trying to play at 50-60%. It onlt hurts the team as a whole.

It’s obvious he’s got something hampering him. If it’s a groin/leg issue, it’s going to affect his skating and shooting a lot.

Early in the season, what I saw from Gab’s goals were quick one timers from the high-slot, and hawking the front of the net for rebounds and slam-dunks. Lately though, there’s been a complete reluctance by most of the team to attack the middle of the ice. I don’t think we’ve even seen an attempted one-timer by Gabby in the high slot in months-he’s been on the perimeter, not finding the soft spots like he does. Some of that’s skating, some of that just seems to be part of the laziness in this team. Same thing with his net-presence; he’s been spending a lot of time (especially on the PP which is why it’s been terrible of late) on the outside, rarely attacking the middle, rarely shooting.

He’s still got more offensive talent at 50% than most of this team at 100. If he is hurt though, I’d rather we shut him down now so he can heal for next season.

And, let’s face it, when we do score goals, they’re usually against teams that are FAR, FAR from being defensive or goaltending juggernauts. The last games we scored 4 or more goals-Thrashers, Pens (Fleury is still streaky and their D isn’t last year’s), Ottawa, Tampa, and the Caps.

Also, to add, teams quickly figured out the Rangers were a one-trick pony. You throw all your defensive effort against Gaborik because most teams know the rest of this team isn’t going to beat you. Especially if you pressure the hell out of Gab’s linemates. Gabs isn’t Jagr who would control the puck and use his strength to shrug off a checker to get a shot on goal. Gabs is a give-and-go guy who like to hand it off and use his speed to get open. If you bottle up Prospal et al., you’ve got a good shot and keeping Gabs off the score sheet.

In my fantasy league, I have formally changed my name to GaboriksLowerBody.

Gotta give him credit for continuing to play when he’s not 100%, but we really do need others to step it up. Maybe Sex Panther will tweak his Finnish nipples and launch into overdrive.