Vinny Prospal Night; Accountability?...

The average ice time for a forward in a 60-minute hockey game is 15 minutes.

The average ice time for a defenseman in a 60-minute hockey game is 20 minutes.

Explain to me how, in an "Era of Accountability" (my phrase), Michal Rozsival skates 3 more minutes than the average defender (23:18 against Florida).

The original intention of the writing was to praise Enver Lisin, yet wonder about how he skated 2 minutes less than average tonight (13:05).

To be honest, Lisin skating 13 minutes is 4 or 5 minutes more than he normally skates (and he only skated 4 minutes last Monday in the shootout loss to Atlanta). And on a night where Vinny Prospal, Sean Avery, Marian Gaborik, and even Chris Drury were playing good, I guess there wasn't a ton of ice time to go around. So I'm happy with 13 minutes for Lisin.

But Rozsival rocking 23 minutes? He had over 9 in the first period! The reason Lisin didn't play much was allegedly because he was atrocious defensively.

So is Rozsival! Or was the Panthers' lone goal too early in the game for everyone to remember how awful he looked on that first goal. He played pretty poor the remaining 22 minutes he was on the ice as well, including his 1:59 on the power play. (To be fair to him, his penalty killing isn't atrocious, but he refuses to look at anyone except the puck carrier, and it almost bit him in the behind twice tonight on the same Florida power play).

* * *

My pregame prediction of a hat trick by Prospal was officially killed when Gaborik scored a shorthanded goal. I figured up 3-1, Tomas Vokoun would head to the bench, Gaborik would have an open empty net, pass to Prospal, and he'd have his 3rd of the evening.

* * *

Ales Kotalik looked so disappointed after missing that breakaway on Vokoun in the 2nd period. He's trying hard and he wants to score, it just isn't happening today. It was good seeing him on the point on the power play, though, tonight.

* * *

I'm not all negative, you know. Lisin had a really good game. He looked like Wayne Gretzky on that first goal where he out-hustled the opponent, kept with the puck, and passed it perfectly to Chris Drury, who pounded it home. Drury got credit for the goal and Avery got the biggest applause when it was announced, but Lisin did the legwork on that one.

Drury was huge on the 4th goal though; the pass from his knees to Gaborik was money. How Gaborik put that home is still a mystery to me, but that's okay.

I'm just happy they scored today. The Garden was rocking for the first time in two months tonight.

* * *

About those "Asshole" chants you heard towards the end of the 3rd period.

Two guys in Islander jerseys, one with a jacket, one without, were leaving the Garden. Instead of going out the gate closest to them, they - v e r y s l o w l y - walked halfway around the Garden and went out a different exit. Every section they passed yelled at them.

It was priceless.

And very ballsy by those guys. Some people were getting pissed. I found it hilarious.

A Big Two Points...

Yes this was indeed a big two points - two points that if the Rangers wound up losing this game and missing the playoffs by 1 or 2 points, you look to this game as being the reason.

However, a (basically) 2-1 victory against the worst team in the league when you are desperate?

 

I will still harp on the fact that Scott Gomez does not deserve such grandiose amounts of power play time. It was a crappy shot - one of his famous ones - that happened to go in. 99 out of 100 times, that shot is saved, but Yann Danis dropped it, it fell, and went in the net.

It was Gomez's second PP goal of the year. No doubt, he plays more time on the power play than nearly anybody on the team.

Wade Redden - highest paid defensemen on the team, 5th best in terms of talent - still gets put out on the point regardless of how many times he can't shoot and can't control the puck. Oh, the perks that come with an irrationally high contract.

Listen, it was a big win. They needed the points. But if they can't score more than 2 goals with a goalie in the net against the worst team in the league (while they are playing a cache of AHL players, no less), you are going to have a hell of a tough time playing Boston, Philadelphia, and/or New Jersey in the playoffs.

Ice Time...

Ice time on the power play tonight (of the Rangers' 4:35 total)...

Wade Redden - 2:30

Marc Staal - 9 seconds

Scott Gomez - 2:31

Chris Drury - 2:53

Petr Prucha - nothing

Lauri Korpikoski - 22 seconds

I'm not saying Prucha is the be-all-and-end-all of the New York Rangers. I'm not saying Korpikoski is worth the 2004 1st round draft pick. But Gomez has done nothing - in an incredible fashion - on the power play lately. Redden has done nothing the entire season, on the power play AND even strength. Drury - eh, nothing, at least Drury wants to play for the Rangers.

Could it really hurt the Rangers to put Prucha or Korpikoski on the power play? (Ryan Callahan played just over 2 minutes today on the PP). Korpikoski has 3G, 1A in the past 4 games and, along with Callahan, Prucha, Henrik Lundqvist, and Paul Mara, appear to be the only Rangers interested in playing past early-April.

Listen, I love Tom Renney. He will go down in history with Lester Patrick, Emile Francis, and Mike Keenan as the most important coaches in Ranger history. But, he has an over-reliance on these bums - for lack of a better word. Gomez and Redden don't perform. Why keep putting them out there? 

I sincerely think that Renney won't get fired, because either GM Glen Sather is clueless, or he is out on vacation somewhere. He is an absentee GM, and because Jim Dolan will make money on the Rangers (and Knicks) regardless of how they finish, he has no need to change things.

It makes me angry just typing this. Redden either needs to refrain from showing his loyalty so much, or he needs to step away from the bench and move to a cozy office a few floors below ice level at MSG.

Drop the Axe...

Aaron Voros's size, Chris Drury's leadership, Scott Gomez's incredible shots from the boards, Wade Redden's fantastic play from the point on the power play, and Petr Prucha looking snazzy in a suit and tie brought the Rangers another shutout - the 2nd in 4 games (and almost the 3rd if Markus Naslund didn't connect with 10 seconds left on Adam Graves Night).

Yet, the "coach" deploys the same players in the same situation, night after night. Gomez played 19:49 tonight, nearly an entire period of uselessness.

I can hear the axe coming for Tom Renney's head. The hammer should be falling sometime this week.

* * * 

Oh, and was that not the most boring fight you've ever seen between David Clarkson and Eric Reitz?

Henrik Lundqvist was sharp tonight, whcih was the one saving grace for them.

But seriously, Tom Renney's time is up. He's lost this team.

Ridiculous...

We all know that "coach" Tom Renney likes to keep lines intact after a win. Well, apparently he has given up on the team, because he isn't tampering with them after a 10-2 "game."

Okay, that's not entirely true. If the beat writers are to be believed (and they should be), Aaron Voros is down on the 4th line and Fred Sjostrom is up on the 3rd.

Why even play Voros? He was great, great!, in October, and has since faded to obscurity. He can't skate, barely hits, is awful on the power play, and takes bad penalties.

Yet, Petr Prucha sits. What has Voros' "size" given this team? I know I harped on this a few days ago, but it adds nothing to the lineup. It doesn't get them power play goals, that's for sure. They couldn't even score in two games against Boston or Atlanta until the 120th minute. It didn't help them not get slaughtered against Dallas.

Ridiculous.

Once again, I know Tom Renney can't do anything about the players he has on the team. But dictating ice time is his one power tool, and he has lost control of that. 

Regardless of whether he thinks Voros is a good player (and besides Voros' family, he might be the only one... which hurts me to say because I know he grew up a Ranger fan and I respect that he is living his dream in blue), wouldn't he want to shake up the lineup?

Remember when they lost in a matinee to Florida in November? It was a 4-0 horror show, and the next game, he inserted Prucha in. Prucha got the game-tying goal in the 3rd and the Rangers beat the Penguins in a shootout.

Is it really time for Renney to go? I'll give him one more game, but if he keeps deploying the same personnel (aka Voros, Scott Gomez, Wade Redden, even Michal Rozsival on the power play), then yes, it is.

Not Much to Say...

What do you say about a game in which the Rangers were nearly shut out 1-0 for the second time in a row?

Well, for one, it was a miserable performance. Losing 1-0 to Boston proved to be an exciting game where the Rangers relied on defense and couldn't penetrate Boston. (Not that they played great, but atleast they weren't atrocious on Saturday.)

Losing 1-0 to an Atlanta team is unacceptable for a team that thinks it should be in the playoffs. One team in the league has given up more goals than Atlanta has, and the Rangers couldn't score one goal until 59 minutes, 50 seconds in? (For the record, the team with the most goals against in the NHL is Toronto - whom the Rangers battled to a 0-0 tie earlier in the year.)

What went wrong? Well, for one, the Rangers have an awful defense - regardless of the fact that Wade Redden actually played pretty well on Adam Graves Night. So since the defense is so bad and can't stand alone, they are forced into a "team defense" system. To be sure, if they didn't play that system, the forwards would be able (hopefully) to pot more than 0.5 goals a game. However, they would also give up 4 or 5 per game, regardless of how good their goaltender is.

So the team defense is stifling the Rangers, but it's also their only choice if they want to win games. They can't run-and-gun like Buffalo or Carolina, where the defense has holes but the team still wins games because if can score goals in an instant. And they can't sit back on leads and pounce when the opponent makes a mistake (like Boston does) because their forwards aren't that good.

But isn't Scott Gomez paid $7M/year for that reason? Yes. And he is overpaid. The year before he became a Ranger he only had 13 goals (and 47 assists... why that equals a $51M contract mystifies me). He is not a goal scorer, he is a playmaker.

Yet, he makes no plays. He had 21:17 of relatively useless ice time in Boston. Last night, his reigns were shortened and he played "only" 18:12. Yet, he still got 1:57 of power play time (the Rangers only had 4 minutes on the PP). 

Why does Tom Renney still employ the same personnel night in and night out on the power play? Aaron Voros played 1:57 on the power play also. He hasn't been effective since early-November yet still wastes space there (oh, I forgot, his size makes him more useful than Petr Prucha). 

Artem Anisimov - him of 9 power play goals and 2 shorthanded in Hartford - was brought up for 9 minutes, all at even strength. Why even bring him up? So he could play as much time as Colton Orr (who actually had a very good game)?

If you are going to bring up a scorer, use him. Tom Renney is overly loyal - we saw it with Jaromir Jagr when he was hurt and ineffective, and we're seeing it now with the shell of Scott Gomez, and with Chris Drury, and with Markus Naslund (who scores a goal then seems to disappear for 3 games). 

Until Tom Renney sits a "superstar" - in reality a 2nd line center who is making huge money to underperform on Broadway - who isn't playing well, this team will not chance. When ineffective players are ineffective and still get huge minutes, and players who give heart and soul sit on the bench (Ryan Callahan) or in street clothes (Prucha, Nigel Dawes), nothing changes. 

This team might have to fight to make the playoffs. And to do that, they'll have to give up something good at the trade deadline. Lord knows Gomez isn't going anywhere, except on the ice in overtime.