Who's fault is it?
The GM who assembled the team? Partly. Wade Redden should never have been signed. Michal Rozsival should have received less money so a real 1st- or 2nd-defenseman could have been signed. They should have signed Scott Gomez or Chris Drury in 2007, not both. (However, signing Markus Naslund has worked out, and the trade for Nik Zherdev was a steal.)
The players who play? Partly. A 7th defender should be brought up so Redden or Dmitri Kalinin can watch the game from the stands.
The coach? Absolutely. When the power play continually doesn't score and gives up goals, why would he keep putting the same personnel on the ice? The GM gave him these players, the players play to (hopefully) the best of their ability, and when they faulter, he keeps giving them more and more chances. Petr Prucha seems to be a good player. I remember him having success on the power play in 2005-06 when he stood at the doorstep and banged in rebounds. Why not try them instead of the ineptitude of Drury-Redden-Gomez-Rozsival-Naslund?
I don't know if anyone out there can coach this team better than Tom Renney, but it's becoming obvious that the Rangers might need to try a replacement. As long as said replacement is not Glen Sather again.
The real question, however, is this:
Can this be the first team in history whose power play ends up a minus in the +/- catergory?
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Alex Ovechkin had 9 shots on goal last night. The Rangers' highest player was 3. Hmmmm. By the way, Ovechkin did score. It wasn't a picture-perfect goal, but if you get the puck to the net, good things happen.
It's funny, the other day I was looking at the standings and it was clear that your predictions about this Rangers team were right. Namely, that they weren't as good as everyone said and they'd be exposed soon enough. While the expose hasn't been too blatant, it's clear something is missing from this team. And as they say, you can't fire the players. I like Tom Renney a lot, and I think he's the Rangers' best coach since Mike Keenan, but maybe they need a different voice in the locker room. And as you said, that voice should not be Glen Sather.
ReplyDeleteOh, and Semin's fight against Marc Staal is one of the funniest things I've ever seen in hockey.