Rangers Analysis: Mistakes hurt Rangers
Like a bad dream the Rangers poor play continued Saturday night. But unlike a bad dream I didn't wake up in a cold sweat and breath a heavy sigh of relief when I realized that it was not reality. I mean I did wake up in a cold sweat, after the Rangers play put me to sleep in the seats of Madison Square Garden, but the poor play was all to real. (I hope you enjoyed this joke because this are about to get real dismal here real fast).
Today I opened up Newsday and guess what I saw. Four full pages of jubilant Islander chat. And you know what? Good for them. Good for the Islanders who have started a real rebuilding program and are actually starting to show some signs of life. They have relied on high draft picks and some well planned free agents, the real essence of a rebuilding program. Good for their general manager Garth Snow who-dare I say it-may actually be building a pretty good team over there? And for you Ranger fans who want to jump down my throat that I am commending the Islanders, guess what? They are tied for us in points and showed more heart in the second half of their season so far then we have all year.
The New York Rangers have no secondary scoring. Thus far every one of John Tortorella's "plans" to get secondary scoring has failed. Newsday outlined that Chris Drury is coming back soon ... big deal. He isn't scoring either and although his penalty killing is solid the Rangers need something more than him, unless he can find the Chris Drury of old and start potting a few goals.
Join me after the jump.
At the beginning of the year I commended Glen Sather. I thought that the moves that he made for Marian Gaborik, Vaclav Prospal, Ales Kotalik and Matt Gilroy were great moves. I even endorsed the Donald Brashear signing when it happened. And both Jim and I swore up and down that both Wade Redden and Michael Rozsival would have bounce-back years. Wow we were wrong on Rozsival and Brashear.
Recently I have been calling for Glen Sather to send Michael Rozsival down. And many of you have said "he never will because he doesn’t want to admit that the signing (4 years 20 million dollars) was a mistake." Really? So let me get this straight: playing the poor excuse for a defenseman, and allowing his 5 million dollar cap hit to squeeze the Rangers up against the ceiling is not a much bigger mistake? At least Redden has been solid, he will never live up to his contract but he’s been okay thus far.
Glen Sather needs to man up, he needs to make some moves and he needs to fix this team. Honestly I have no idea why I am even writing this. We all know what will happen. Sather is going to sit pat, wait until the trading deadline, and then make a move for some secondary scoring (giving away vital draft picks and prospects) when it’s too little too late.
This team is his product, his concoction, his mistake; I would be embarrassed if I were the GM. Hell I am embarrassed and I’m just a fan. Yesterday was the first time in my life I have wanted to remove my Ranger jersey after a game. I didn’t want to talk about it on the train, I didn’t want to hear other people talking about it after woods and the 35 dollars I spend on beer sure didn’t help either.
Anyway I plead to you Sather to make some changes. Maybe Patrick Sharp or someone like it. But please don’t be afraid of admitting to a mistake because thus far this team is a mistake. I am so sick an tired of reading John Tortorella saying: "We just need to stick with it the wins will come." Or a player saying: "We played pretty good hockey we just didn't get the result tonight."
Some of you might blame Tortorella, and I agree he needs to shoulder some of the blame. But you know what? If a coach isn't getting the job done it's the general managers job to take him into his office and talk to him. It's the general managers problem to fix. Sather is Tortorellas boss, he better start acting that way.
I just want to see a team that goes out there and competes for 60 minutes. I want to be entertained I want to love my hockey team again. Help me out Glen Sather, fix your mistakes!