Thirty games into the season and the Rangers are not only regressing, but regressing to the point where they actually claimed with straight faces that progress had been made with last night’s 3-0 Garden defeat to the Flames.
Progress was made measured solely against Thursday’s 6-2 debacle of a defeat in Montreal. If that’s how low the Rangers are now willing to set the bar, if this team now gains solace from a performance like this, there’s not much point in continuing the season.
The Blueshirts have been shut out twice while losing three of their last four games, and in two of their last three on Broadway. They’re 4-5 in their last nine, with five of their last six victories coming in the shootout. They have one regulation (or overtime) victory in their last 11 games. They’ve scored two goals or fewer in 12 of their last 17.
There isn’t a Rangers forward who’s close to the top of his game. Scott Gomez, who frittered away a couple of glorious scoring chances in the third with the Rangers down 2-0, was booed thereafter every time he touched the puck. Markus Naslund had an extremely difficult night. Nikolai Zherdev, who has scored in three of the last 17 games, was no factor, and neither was Chris Drury.
The power play, 0-for-4 while yielding a shorthanded goal (eight and counting) and 3-for-30 the last eight games, is an outright embarrassment. It was nearly impossible to discern what they were even looking for on the PP, unless it was criticism.
“The guys who are expected to produce have to produce, and that starts with me,” said Drury. “I think we can take a little bit of good from this game, but you take notice any time you lose, and you should.”
There’s no doubt the Rangers needed to tighten up their game following Montreal, but the response was caution in the extreme. Coach Tom Renney, who was obviously never comfortable with a Gomez-Naslund-Zherdev line, used Thursday’s fiasco to break it up after two games.
And so the Rangers lined up with Naslund, their most talented left wing, on one line; Zherdev, their most talented right wing, on another; and Gomez, their best, if struggling, playmaking center, on yet another. It was an overreaction by Renney, who has utilized 31 different line combinations in game-opening rotations.
The Rangers not only lack the pieces (right, nobody misses anybody who was here last year, because this team is so tight-knit it can win by generating good vibes), but the ones they have don’t seem to fit.
“We’ve gotten ourselves into a rut that we have to stop now,” said Gomez. “It’s up to the veterans on this team to lead the way, and obviously I have to be much better.”
The Rangers outshot the Flames 22-9 through two – and 17-4 from the 5:16 mark of the first through the end of the second – but Jarome Iginla scored from in front at 15:50 of the second for a 1-0 lead after three Rangers were outmuscled on the scoring play. The 2-0 goal came early in the third off a Gomez neutral zone turnover.
“The booing? Hey, listen, these people pay good money to come watch us play,” Gomez said. “We have to give our fans a lot more than we’ve been giving them.”
Flames 3 Rangers 0