R1 G3: Renney's Rangers Return

As a woman in Penn Station said to me, it was just like this Rangers/Caps game was in mid-February. She went so far as to say that her section in the blue seats chanted "Fire Renney" at one point. And they were right, it was a return of no heart, no hurry Tom Renney hockey, and at the worsT possible time. The Rangers had a chance to make a statement and essentially put this series in the bag and instead have their own diehard fans talking about a six game series loss. It was embarrassing, it was sloppy and it was a slap in the fans who paid good money to watch the game.

The Blueshirts never got into any kind of rhythm, never challenged a rookie goaltender and hung their netminder out to dry. It was a lackluster mid-winter doldrum effort, not a pivotal playoff game before a hungry home crowd. The only redeeming factor is that you have to imagine the current coach not standing for the garbage, where the former bench boss seemed willing to roll over and die.

Some notes:

*It is a sad state of affairs when you can seriously say that the goaltender that gave up four goals played significantly better than the one who posted a shutout but that was the case. The Rangers failed their King.

*That idiot goon Brashear dressed to make a physical statement and he did his job. With the score 1-0, he crashed the net, took a few facewashes and skated off unscathed. He and Colton Orr got matching roughings but there never was any retribution. Brash skated out of the penalty box and went to the bench, Orr finished off a shift and neither was heard from again. The Rangers could have announced that they wouldn't stand for being abused on their home ice, could have announced that touching Hank was strictly a no-no but instead they rolled over and Washington scored a few minutes later to ice the game.

*If the fans weren't insulted enough by the lack of effort by the Blueshirts, the Rangers had to add insult to injury by allowing Tom Poti to score. Terrible, just terrible.

*I previously ripped on the bandwagon Washington fans but the part-time Ranger fans returned the Garden and were annoying as all hell. These people actually were surprised and upset when the power play didn't score time after time! Can you believe that? They believed that the special team was actually special and yelled and booed when it failed miserably. Helloooooo welcome to New York Ranger hockey. Just be happy they were able to kill those two minute minors off.

*On the subject of penalties, Sean Avery. The referees won't give him the benefit of the doubt and they won't protect him. Seconds after he was cross checked away from the play into the Caps net, he took a very, very dubious high sticking call. That is almost as bad as the two minutes for roughing he took when he was cross checked from behind and hit in the nuts with the goaltender's stick in the final minutes of the game. If the ref called either of the early calls, or the linesman actually did his job and broke them up, then Avery wouldn't have been able to throw a light jab at Varlamov.

*But many of the penalties on both teams were weak so what can you do? Gary Bettman doesn't want hard-nosed playoff hockey, he wants the same boring antiseptic garbage that he force feeds us in the regular season. Ryan Callahan's high stick? Please.

*I just turned on Ranger Rewind and see that New York Life bought in to that creepy virtual advertising on the glass. I went to say something bad about New York Life but can't, they employ Snoopy. Subway, on the other hand, had ads pop up on the ice at least once (I saw them with 13 minutes left in the third). That's not cool.

*In an attempt to find something positive to speak about, Michal Rozsival deserves accolades for taking a high stick to the face (for which there was no penalty) and returning the ice - I think he missed one shift? Not too shabby.

*Ovechkin didn't score but he did make a brilliant play to knock the puck away from Korpikoski on a shorthanded breakaway. How there is any doubt that he is the best player in the world is shocking to me and it is a disgrace that Bettman made that pathetic crybaby Crosby to be the face of the league when he couldn't hold Captain Caveman's jock.

*Nik Zherdev spent his first few shifts in the game finding new ways to fall on the ice and lose the puck and then disappeared. He has pretty much ensured that he will make a nice salary next season back in Russia because he has proven he doesn't have the heart for real hockey.

*Markus Naslund worked hard to replicate his better efforts in the first two games but he certainly tried too hard. Nothing worked right and he spent a lot of time in the penalty box and a lot of time on the bench as a result.

*Aside from showing off his ridiculous mohawk while skating helmetless in the warmups, did Mike Green actually participate in this game? And this guy is a Norris candidate?

*Those Thundersticks may have been the worse giveaway in Garden history. And the silly blue lights in them? Did anyone get chills or anything for the 10 seconds the Garden kept the lights down prior to the game? LAME. And the announcement at the end of the game saying how fans should not throw anything on the ice after the so-called souvenirs began raining down was almost as bad. If the Rangers had given something good like a shirt, a hat or even the usual towels, the odds are damned good that people wouldn't throw them on the ice, no matter how disgusted they were. (Hats thrown on the ice at the Garden? That almost never happens.)

*PHW Three Stars
3-Nick Backstrom - three assists.
2-Alex Semin - two goals and one assist.
1-Simeon Varlamov - 33 saves.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-John Erskine - The top Washington defenseman, Erskine was always there to help the Rangers abort their attack and he drew several penalties as well. Simple, smart hockey.
2-Backstrom - He has some incredible hands and he showed them off, taking advantage of the massive holes in the Ranger defense.
1-Bruce Boudreau - Boudreau had his time ready and prepared to fight for their lives. Some pundits said that Torts had been 'outcoaching' Boudreau - which was laughable - but there was no doubt in this game that even the fiery Tortorella couldn't ignite the Rangers while Boudreau's bunch came to play.

Happy Trails Tom

"I thought we played hard. Anything drastic, is to go outside of what the needs are right now. We are going to continue to play hard, stay the course, keep working hard (and) go after wins." --Tom Renney, after last night's loss

Sorry Tom, staying the course just isn't good enough. After staying up so late last night, I awoke to the news that Renney was canned, and I can't say I am shocked. I don't think anyone is.

Perry Pearn was also thankfully shown the door, something that should have happened at least a year ago, if not more. He openly admitted that the power play was his responsibility and the special team is more of a disaster than Penn Station at 3am on a Saturday night. Mike Pelino and Benoit Allaire kept their jobs, which is good because they are both capable and intelligent. Pelino has the players' ears and Allaire has made Hank into a top five NHL goaltender.

But back to Renney. Say what you will, the man coached the team to three straight playoff appearances. He managed to keep the enigmatic Jaromir Jagr interested while not letting the Sean Avery circus get out of hand. He brought back some honour and respect to a franchise that had failed so often since 1994 and was largely responsible for the lockout.

Don't fool yourself, firing Renney will not solve this team's woes. Glen Sather dragged the team down with big money signings at the turn over the century and he has done it again this last summer. The money mistakes won't be fixed by putting a firebrand behind the bench but it should help.

Renney too often threw his hands up, either not knowing what was going wrong or not being able to fix it. And when a coach does that, a negative light is shown on the general manager and the Rangers general manager is a petty, petty man. Sather plays the recluse to hide his incompetence while collecting his massive paycheque and when people started to blame him of all people for the team's woes, well ... he just can't have that.

So Renney takes the fall. As I said, he was a good coach, who did some good things for the Rangers. He will get another job somewhere else and I for one certainly wish him luck. He just wasn't the right coach for Sather's crop of overpaid miscreants and now the dark master general manager has his big chance to pick that proper person to head the ship. Let's hope he picks well (but I wouldn't bet on it).

Absolute Brilliance

From Rangerland, via Puck Daddy:

The 2008-09 Rangers Line Generator.

And still no Pru ... ha!

29-20-5: No Effort In Newark

Sitting in the bar after wasting my time and money to go to Newark, I asked my buddy Ben, "how the hell am I going to come up with something good to talk about after this one?" His reply was "Good? There's nothing good to say about tonight."

It is hard to disagree but I did come up with two things - the Rangers didn't give up 10 goals and Colton Orr fedoruk'ed Mike Rupp. So that was good. But that was pretty much it.

The lines didn't click, the players didn't skate hard, they couldn't complete more than two passes in a row, they didn't win a single loose puck, they were outchecked, they didn't forecheck, they had no discipline, their vaunted defensive scheme completely failed to cover Bobby Holik on the first goal and the power play ... well, is there anything about it that I haven't said before? It bah-lowwwwwwws.

This is one time that I wish I was wrong and wish I can't say I told you so but while everyone was etching the Rangers on the Cup after their hot start, I said that this team just wasn't that good and they aren't. They are showing their true colors: overpriced, overpampered stars who play without motivation, a coach doesn't hold anyone accountable except for Petr Prucha and a general manager who sits in his ivory tower and counts his money. It is simply atrocious and sadly it appears we are doomed to six or so more years of it with Drury, Gomez and Redden dragging the team down like an anchor and Renney and Sather safe as long as Garden revenues stay up, which they will since it is New York.

Odds and ends:

*It is comedic that because it was a light night in the league, the NHL Network spent a segment airing a clip from their Captains show focusing on Drury. Amazingly the woman interviewing him didn't ask why can't he score, why can't he lead and does he feel like he is ripping off the Rangers by taking home that huge paycheck.

*Nice to see Shanny collect an assist. It is surprisingly easy to root for him, even while in red and black. That man gave his all for the Blueshirts, something no Ranger is doing right now.

*Why is this Reitz kid getting a regular shift while Corey Potter was sent back to Hartford? Is it because Reitz is willing to fight? He gets himself out of position chasing after hits and then gets into fights and loses. I can't see how that is a better contribution than a legitimate Ranger prospect getting to play.

*Speaking of the kids: there was no reason for Prucha not to play, Nigel Dawes disappeared, Renney limited Korpikoski to seven minutes of ice time and for all of his skating, Ryan Callahan couldn't make anything happen.

*That Cameron idiot who the Devils hire to jump around like an moron and throw tee shirts around during every break is annoying. I kept praying he would trip down the stairs. Sadly, he didn't.

*Scott Clemmensen skated away with a shutout by making 27 easy saves. The Ranger "offense" never really challenged him and I don't think they got to a single rebound. Not that they tried ...

*Nik Zherdev pulled another disappearing act, but that is to be expected from a heartless Russian. You would think that he would step up his game to start playing for his next contract but I guess he realizes he can get a big money deal back in the motherland without breaking a sweat here.

*I couldn't tell who was booing more when the Mexican't Gomez had the puck, the Ranger fans in the building or the Devil fans. Maybe I couldn't tell because I was one of the louder ones booing. BOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

*Wade Redden. No. I think the only thing left to do is hope for a career-ending injury. When you take his contract and add his stupidity and softness, you have someone far more infuriating than Christian Backman, Marek Malik and Tom Poti ever were. Well, maybe not Poti. Not yet.

*Hank played decently. So add that to the two things up top that was good about the Rangers.

*Johnny Oduya was credited with five blocked shots. Really? And if so, don't you think the Rangers would have learned not to shoot with him right in front of them? No, they probably wouldn't have. They don't learn or adapt because they don't have to - they are still guaranteed their paychecks and are guaranteed ice time (unless they are Petr Prucha) so why should they worry their pretty little heads over something like, say ... scoring?

*PHW Three Stars
3-Zach Parise - two goals.
2-Bobby Holik - one goal.
1-Scott Clemmensen - 27 saves.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Colton Orr - Yet again he seemed to be the only player wearing a Ranger jersey to actually care about the team's fortunes. He looked like he was ready and willing to take on the entire Jersey team after sending Rupp to lala land.
2-Jamie Langenbrunner - The Devil captain always plays a motivated game against the Rangers and he did on this night - he created chances with his physical play and collected two assists for his efforts.
1-Zach Parise - A constant scoring threat who netted a pair of goals while constantly worrying Hank and the Ranger D. He was picked 17th in 2003, Hugh Jessiman was 12th. And Glen Sather still has a job ...

29-17-4: A Tale of Two Games

I wish I could make this up but I stayed late at work to watch the Ranger game and left right after the second period. I was taping the game at home so I figured I would watch it when I got in. Leaving work I thought 'wow, this may be the best-played game of the season, I can't even make fun of Redden.' So after commuting home, I threw the tape in and some interference made it unwatchable. As MSG+'s replay wasn't until 12:30am, I figured I would just check out the final box score and kill the suspense.

Yeah.

Well, I guess the band-aid theory is a good one - just rip it off and get a quick little pain, as opposed to slowly peeling it and drawing out the agony. For you folks who sat through it, I feel for you - I stayed up to watch the replay. For those that didn't, the Rangers fell apart in the third period and allowed a 1-1 game to turn into a 6-2 loss.

It was pathetic, it was disgraceful and it was more than enough proof that Tom Renney is not the man to get the Rangers to the Cup. As I have pointed out multiple times this season, this coach cannot motivate his players, makes imbecilic roster moves and cannot adapt to game situations. Sure he is nice, but a coach isn't supposed to be the players' friend, a coach is supposed to be a ruthless dictator who demands victory and is relentless in the pursuit thereof.

When a team is as infuriatingly inconsistent as the Rangers are, a change has to be made. Let's face it, you and I both know that the coach won't go but the topic deserves to be broached as this rollercoaster ride is making me ill.

Some notes:

*Was the Colton Orr vs. Eric Godard tilt off of the opening faceoff an ominous sign of things to come? Both goons traded solid punches for the majority of the bout before Orr faded and Godard beat him down to the ice. It certainly seems like a harbinger in hindsight as Renney stupidly put Orr out for the opening faceoff opposite Godard - a flaw in his gameplan. The risk/reward of the staged buffoonery simply wasn't worth it, especially on the road.

*Granted, as I said at the top, the first two periods of play were as good as any that the Rangers have played. Of course, their power play went 0-for-3 and they outshot the Pens 18-8 in the second period without scoring but that kind of thing has to be expected of this Ranger squad. Sadly now monumental collapses are also to be expected ...

*But hey, Aaron Voros got himself a point! Somehow Voros was awarded with an assist when Brandon Dubinsky's feed hit him in the back but hey, it will be something bandied about by Tom Renney when he defends the slow-footed, cement-handed idiot's place in the lineup. To include him on a team that has problems scoring is just foolish. When Callahan came down with the flu, there should have been a call made to Hartford to bring up either PA Parenteau (if he doesn't have to make it through waivers) or AHL All Star Artem Anisimov. Both of them are averaging a point per game - something NO Ranger is currently doing. Voros can't score, he can't fight - that's him getting knocked over by Cindy Crosby ... what can he do aside from collect the salary that my season ticket money is paying?

*Now this may be considered heresy but perhaps it is time for the King to rest. After the game Henrik Lundqvist told the AP that "I just lost my game in the third, totally, and that’s definitely not good enough." It isn't good enough and it isn't like this is the first time this has happened this season. Actually, by my count, it is the fifth. When you consider that Stephen Valiquette has had it happen just once and that one time was as much as the rest of the team's fault as it was his, perhaps it is time for Valley to get a few more starts - even on back-to-back nights.

*Jordan Staal's goal was a terrible goal for Hank to allow but the worse part of the play was watching Michal Rozsival give Staal several feet of room in the corner to make the play. He should have hammered him through the boards but Rozy isn't that kind of defenseman. Sadly, none of the Ranger blueliners are that kind of a defenseman.

*A crease-clearer perhaps would have also helped out on Wang-Tang Letang's first goal of the night as Hank was clearly distracted by Malkin wandering about the crease, allowing Letang to fire it past his glove. Letang's second goal wasn't much better as he forced Kalinin to turn over the puck then took advantage of the room Paul Mara gave him to fire another puck past the Ranger netminder. Another complete failure by the Ranger back end.

*Do you think it is coincidence that Redden and Kalinin were both in the penalty box when Sykora essentially iced the game with his second goal of the night (making it 4-1)? We have gotten spoiled as Ranger fans seeing Blair Betts and Chris Drury all too-often bail out the boys when they are down 5-on-3 but when you have a sniper like Sykora on the opposition, a goal is all but a given.

*Crosby's goal on the other other hand was pure luck. He had a ton of room and time to throw the backhand at the net (thanks for nothing Redden) and frankly, you could have beaten Hank with a beachball by that point of the game.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Petr Sykora - two goals.
2-Sidney Crosby - one goal and three assists.
1-Kris Letang - two goals.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Ryan Whitney - His injury, much like Gonchar's, will likely prove to be quite the boon for the Pens as he will be fresh for the playoffs. He grabbed two assists, blocked five shots and skated for 25 minutes - not a bad stat line for someone who has played a month.
2-Malkin - Yes Cindy came out of this one with four points but he wasn't as good as Gina, who seemed to continually press the Rangers deep into their end. Crosby has the flash, Malkin has the substance.
1-Jordan Staal - Talking to some friends a few months back I said the Pens ought to let Staal go. He had the sophomore slump and slow start this season but he proved tonight that he has the potential to be a top flight power forward.

24-15-3: Collapsing Before The Canadiens

The first two periods of hockey at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night weren't particularly pretty. In fact, there were stretches of outright boredom. But those doldrums came due to two pretty evenly matched teams keeping their cards close to their chests. When the third period started the Rangers started showing off their hand and fell apart, leaving Robert Lang and the Canadiens to pick up the pieces and put together a 6-3 victory.

I am just going to get right into it:

*You have to start in net, where Henrik Lundqvist was a sieve. I overheard someone float the idea that the Rangers should platoon Hank with Valley the way they did with Beezer and Richter and I can't say it is a bad idea. Hank is not playing all-world hockey right now, that simple. His first period gaffe behind the net that gave the Habs their first goal said it all. His confidence isn't where it should be right now and he hasn't shown the ability to play out of it. At least three of the five goals scored on him were stoppable.

*And he has no one to blame but himself. For the first two periods, the Ranger defense played the best they have as a unit all season long. They moved the puck well, they were in good positions and - while not a physical lot - they didn't allow the Habs to crash the crease. Of course, in the third period that changed. Marc Staal decided to remind everyone that he is a second-season player and allowed Robert Lang to walk around him for the nail in the coffin. Bad, bad, bad timing. But the good stuff is that Dmitri Kalinin's great play in the second period set up the equalizer by Callahan and Rozy's third period tally came as a result of good work. I am loathe to give Wade Redden credit, but if he hadn't cheated and cross checked a player into the Montreal crease in the first period, the Rangers wouldn't have scored to tie the game at one. A real referee woulda called it back, but whatever.

*The officiating was a little iffy, making five straight calls on the Blueshirts but what can you do? The zebras have been inconsistent to the point of idiocy since the lockout.

*Some of those calls were quite justified. There was no grey area with Callahan's high stick and none with Scott Gomez's holding. Cally's infraction came on the follow-through of a play, Gomez's was just laziness and stupidity. Just when you thought the Mexican't couldn't soil that A on his chest any more ...

*Can we end the Aaron Voros experiment now and bring back someone who will actually try? I don't necessarily think that the hooking call on Voros was a clear-cut call, but that was the only time he was visible the entire night. You couldn't help but notice Lauri Korpikoski every time that kid was on the ice prior to this benching. How the oversized Voros could play so small is startling and unnerving.

*But if you are to bench Voros, then it is also time to give Markus Naslund and Nik Zherdev a taste of the pine. Nazzy made a few plays but his scoring touch, what little there is left of it, has disappeared. And we knew Z was enigmatic, but he hasn't shown up in a few weeks. Perhaps he can find himself up in the press box while PA Parenteau finally gets a shot at the NHL.

*Of course, a decision like that would fall to Tom Renney and he is proving more and more incapable of making this team win. Of all of the dubious moves - and there are so many every single minute of the game - I wonder what took him so long to pull Hank tonight. Down two goals with a power play, he waited until Roman Hamrlik's penalty was more than half over to call time out and remove his netminder. Last night the Devile scored two goals with their goaltender on the bench - the first coming on a power play with almost eight minutes left. That takes cajones and our fair leader doesn't have any. He won't bench players who play poorly, he juggles the lines incessantly and he can't make tactic changes on the fly.

*The Canadiens seemed primed to be intimidated and Renney had Colton Orr on the ice for all of 5:39. And it isn't like Orr was a step behind or was useless out there. He had a few good hits and nearly scored. His linemate Blair Betts, the best centerman on the team, played six minutes at even strength. Two words: bad coaching.

*Perhaps a better coach would be able to find the switch on Brandon Dubinsky and turn it back on. Dubi is skating hard but things just aren't clicking. A friend suggested that putting him on the shelf for Artem Anisimov, who is looking good in Hartford and I can't disagree. But at this point, with this team playing the way it is, I have no problem with most any personnel move if it gets a hungry young player into the roster.

*Just look at Nigel Dawes and Petr Prucha. For the third straight game they were by far the best Rangers on the ice. And the reason? They played like they cared, they played like they wanted to play in the NHL. It is amazing how that works.

*It was amazing to see the sheer number of Montreal fans in the Garden. An interesting moment came when the in-house camera found Ranger great Brad Park in the crowd. Most of the Montreal fans I saw clapped for him while a large number of Ranger fans didn't. For shame. And the fact that the idiots were back doing the "Potvin Sucks" whistle every five minutes was just as disgraceful. Stuff like that makes me sad to call myself a Ranger fan. And on that depressing note (only appropriate after this game):

*PHW Three Stars
3-Jaroslav Halak - 36 saves.
2-Andrei Markov - one goal and one assist.
1-Robert Lang - hat trick.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Prucha/Dawes - They get a co-star because it is almost impossible to distinguish between them. Both hustled, both threw what little body weight they have around and both initiated action.
2-Roman Hamrlik - Sure he took a bad penalty late that could have cost the Habs but with the Ranger power play being what it is, it really wasn't that egregious of an error. The rest of the night Hamrlik was all over the ice and he collected three assists for his effort.
1-Lang - It is always great to see a hat trick, even if it is against you. Sure some cred is lost with one of the tallies being an empty netter, but it was shorthanded so more power to him. And, while I took Staal to task before, Lang's goal around him was quite purty. Not only did he take the kid's jock strap away, he stashed it in the upper corner of the Ranger net, along with the puck.

Renney = FAIL

According to Sam Weinman, Tom Renney has scratched Lauri Korpikoski for tonight's game and is dressing Aaron Voros in his place.

“Getting Voros back in, getting his game back into the lineup, and his presence at the net to help our power play,” Renney said when explaining his rationale.

To help the power play? The power play that Voros was incapable of helping prior to his benching? The power play that Voros scored one goal on in his last 33 games?

Renney went on to acknowledge that Voros, who has been a scratch the past two games in part because of a drop-off in his fitness level, has worked his way back into shape; and that the move tonight was an effort to reward that.

So Renney will reward players who work out off the ice but he won't punish the ones who don't work on it ...

22-13-3: Rangers Give Fans Coal

The Rangers have now officially ruined the Christmas spirit in New York. First they stop playing after a period against the Capitals, then they never really start playing against the Devils. If you or I put in such a pathetic half-hearted effort at our jobs, we would be fired. That simple.

Listening to Rangers in 60, Dave Maloney and Joe Micheletti (idiot) put Henrik Lundqvist on the hook for the loss with about two minutes left in the game. Don't get me wrong, Hank didn't play well - he should have stopped Hepatitis Elias' shorthanded breakaway - but to place the main blame on the netminder is foolish. The failure here lies with Tom Renney and Glen Sather.

The coaching staff didn't prepare the poorly constructed team to come out hard after their holiday break. And on top of that, they put the team down early with the stupid too many men on the ice penalty and it just snowballed from there. There is nothing positive to come out of this 4-2 debacle on the Ranger side. And the worst thing that makes it all hurt that much more is that the team utterly gave up at the end. After Zach Parise scored to make it 4-2, the Rangers didn't look like they wanted to play any more. There was absolutely no urgency, no interest, no anything. They just wanted to kill the clock and go home. My disgust with this franchise knows no bounds right about now.

*Let's start with that Parise goal. It was the only time that I noticed Chris Drury on the ice the entire night and it was because he couldn't cover the young Devil. Parise got body position and Drury didn't have the muscle or speed to get inside of him. Just as egregious was a stationary Scott Gomez hanging out between the hashmarks just watching the play. The only other time I noticed Gomez was when he tripped over himself and fell behind the Ranger net. These are the on-ice leaders of the Rangers. They take up 14.4 million dollars of cap space this season and, for that money, have given the team 46 points (16 goals) in 61 games with a -20 total. That seems worth it, right??

*While talking about money for nothing, Wade Redden. Yeah. No.

*It being a Saturday game during holiday season, there was a large transient crowd in the Garden. These are people who kinda like the team, but don't usually come to games and are treating themselves, or indulging their curiosity. By the end of the night the one question I heard asked in the hallways several times was "this team is in first place??? Really????"

*I refused to take part in a "Fire Renney" chant that started up in the third period, for the sole reason that there is no way on earth that Renney will be canned at least as long as this team is near the top of the standings. So why bother? Once the East catches up with all of their games in hand, the Blueshirts will be back down to where I predicted them to be - fighting for the final playoff spot.

*And no matter how bad the Ranger power play is - and man is it bad - Perry Pearn is safe as long as Renney is in charge. And that will at least be for another season or two of disappointing disasters. Both Renney and Sather are loyal to a fault, and the product on the ice is suffering for it.

*Conspiracy theorists were abuzz with the reasons for Michal Rozsival's absence but there is likely no cause for it. If he wasn't having mysterious family problems when he was being booed left and right and playing piss poor hockey, then there is no reason to make one up now. Hopefully whatever was wrong with his family gets resolved.

*I say that not because I wish he returns, just because you don't want anything bad to happen to these people's families. With them themselves perhaps, but not their families. And Corey Potter didn't do too poorly in his place. The kid made a few rookie mistakes and was forced to do double duty as defenseman and babysitter for Dmitri Kalinin so what do you expect the result to be?

*Before I get suicidal, I do have to find a positive in the performance. Lauri Korpikoski had an utterly fantastic shift killing a penalty in the first period where he took the puck to the Devils zone, skated around, pulled it back out past the blue line, dumped it back in and then went in to follow it and laid down a hit. It was beautiful.

*What happened to Brandon Dubinsky? He seems to be getting into decent spots but his hands and strength appears to have abandoned him.

*The Devils had both David Clarkson and Mike Rupp on their roster tonight - a pair of minor league thugs. Why didn't Renney sent Voros or Orr out to pick a fight with one of those clowns? There were several good times for it and yet there was just one instance tonight where Orr approached Clarkson and was quickly separated by a linesman so nothing happened.

*Stat of the night: The Mexican't Gomez won two of 15 faceoffs he took in the game. And he is the Rangers' star first line center.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Scott Clemmensen - 31 saves.
2-Patrik Elias - one goal and one assist.
1-Travis Zajac - one goal and two assists.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Paul Martin - No one will ever mistake him for any of the great Devil defensemen of the turn of the century but Martin played more than 25 minutes, gave Clemmensen time and space to stop the impotent Ranger shots and made some good first passes.
2-Zajac - The former Fighting Sioux fought well in this one, taking part in three of the four Jersey goals. His feed to Hepatitis on the shorty was a sweet pass.
1-Zach Parise - Parise singlehandedly swarmed the Ranger net all night. He ended up with eight shots and one goal but he was constantly weaving in and around the flatfooted Ranger defenders to worry Hank. It was impressive.