11-9-1: If Your Record Looks Like This Then You're Doing It Wrong

This season, there are two crucial players on the Rangers: Marian Gaborik and Henrik Lundqvist. The Blueshirts go as Hank and Gabby go.   Much like most other nights in the last month and a half, Hank and Gaborik were the only two Ranger players who made a difference in last night's game against OV and the Caps.

Since the beginning of October, nagging issues have become glaring problems for the Rangers. Secondary scoring is non-existant. No player except Gaborik scores on a consistent basis. In addition to having abosolutely no snarl, the defense lacks cohesion. The powerplay that roared out of the gate is hobbling along, and penalty kill has gone from good to mediocre.

Interestingly, the John Tortorella we saw in training camp is nowhere to be found. To be fair, if he were to try to hold everyone on the team accountable for their mistakes by benching individual players, then only Hank, Gabby and Vinny Prospal would play every night. But come on, Torts - where's that hot fire bro?!  Have a public feud with a player! Get these guys going! Swear at Larry Brooks! Menacingly brandish a stick at a fan after squirting him with water! I'm tired of Even Keeled Torts. I want Bad Torts back - the Torts who claims not to know the names of all the players on his team, then sends the group of alleged strangers he's been hired to coach on a five mile run just because he feels like it. Bad Torts scares and punishes players until they win.  Bad Torts got them to the playoffs last season, and Bad Torts sent them hurdling out of the gate like man-eating, goal hungry hyenas at the beginning of this season.  We need that guy back. 

A performance this dismal, though, can't really be blamed on the coach. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink - the team has to want to win. The Rangers horse hasn't been particularly thirsty lately, apparently. I wouldn't necessarily say that the Rangers are calling it in. They're not. The effort is there, but it needs to be more focused. The powerplay needs to get strong again, and the even strength attack needs to be more sustained. Most importantly, these guys need to start finishing on quality chances. This is a problem that's plagued this team sinces the lockout. Elite players bury the puck whenever they see daylight in the back of the net, especially when they're right on the crease. The Rangers fan on those kinds of shots pretty regularly, and those are the ones that can really make a difference in a game. One timers come around once in a while, and snipers like Kotalik and Gabby pick their spots whenever they can. But there are quality rebounds in every NHL game. The Rangers need to start capitalizing on them.

The Rangers don't play again until Saturday against the Panther at MSG. Hopefully, they're at the practice facility in Westchester right now, where Torts is punishing them until they do it right.