On the night the banners signifying the number retirements of Andy Bathgate (9) and Harry Howell (3) were raised to the top of the Garden, the Rangers’ freefall continued with a 3-2 overtime defeat to the horrid Maple Leafs – 26th overall in the standings and last in the NHL in both goals-against average and save percentage.
When it was over, when the staggering Blueshirts lost for the 10th time in their last 12 games (2-7-3), Glen Sather talked for a moment to The Post, though the GM had very little to say.
“I can’t give you a lot of insight right now,” Sather said in the runway leading to the ice when asked for his take on his team. “There’s not much I can tell you.”
Sather was asked whether coach Tom Renney’s job is safe, whether the head coach who has taken the Blueshirts to the playoffs in each of his three full seasons behind the bench, would be on the ice for the club’s next practice session.
“I’m not going to get into that. You know that,” the general manager told The Post. “I’m not going to talk about that at all.”
Sather similarly deflected a question about his intentions regarding Sean Avery, who remains in Hartford on loan from Dallas.
“Sean is another team’s property,” Sather said before bobbing and weaving when asked when and if he would ask the Stars to place the winger on re-entry waivers so the Rangers could claim him.
“It’s more complicated than that,” Sather said. “There are cap issues. There might be other things going on that no one knows about.
“That’s really all I have for you.”
There were two more too-many-men-on-the-ice penalties in last night’s match that the Blueshirts tied on Michal Rozsival’s goal with 40 seconds to go in regulation but then lost on Niklas Hagman’s power play score at 3:00 of overtime. That makes nine such infractions on the season, an inexcusable number.
It’s difficult to know how much of this collapse during which the team has scored a sum of 19 goals in the last dozen games is inexcusable, and how much is inevitable given the questionable roster.
Still, Renney was nothing but supportive of his team when asked if the Rangers are in need of a drastic change.
“Drastic measures would be outside of what we need right now,” the coach said after giving his struggling players their usual allotment of ice time.
Maybe such positive reinforcement is exactly what is required, but the Rangers have been positively reinforced all year, and yet here there are, two points up on the ninth-place Hurricanes and five points up on the 10th-place Penguins with 21 games to go.
“I think we’re a pretty positive bunch in here, but we’re not blind to what’s going on,” Chris Drury said. “We know what’s being said about us. We get booed in our own building night-in and night-out, so we certainly know what’s at stake.”
The Rangers have looked tight. Nothing is coming easy. Drury was asked whether any of the muted talk about a potential coaching change has seeped into the room.
“Maybe I’m naive, but I’m not aware of any of that,” he said. “There is so much other stuff that needs our attention that it would only compound the problem by adding that to the list.”
Leafs 3 Rangers 2