Feel Free to Concuss Our Captain

Last year, one of the few bright spots of the Rangers mediocre season was that they remained relatively injury free. The team lost very few man games, which paid off after the all star break as they made a push for the playoffs. No such luck this year. Even though Gaborik has avoided any major injuries thus far, Drury (concussion symptoms) and Dubinksy (broken hand) will be out for a while.

Curtis Glencross's hit on Drury was off the puck, to the head and flagrant. All four officials missed it, which is an indicator of a) poor officiating, and b) how far away from the play the hit took place. If they're going to have four officials clogging up the rink and obstructing plays, they might as well use their whistles to make a good call once in a while.

Aside from the hit itself, the most egregious part of the play wasn't the non-call from the officials, but the complete lack of a response from any Ranger player. I would guess that most teams in the league might actually take exception to their captain getting dropped inside their own blue line by a hit to the head. Well, not the Rangers. If no one on the team felt compelled to stand up for their captain, then there isn't much else that can or should be said for this team. Their play and their mentality brings to mind the regretful years between '94 and the lockout, when the players had little interest in representing the logo on their jerseys.

Not unlike those squads, this year's team can be positively brutal to watch. Gaborik will score some great goals, Del Zotto will wrack up some points. What else do they put on the ice that makes them worth watching? Their defense is soft. But they skate the puck in deep! Who cares. They don't (can't?) deliver big hits, and half of them can't keep up with Tortella's system in the first place. Also, outside of two forwards, Gaborik and Prospal, no onen on the team can score consistently. Dubinsky held out for a huge contract that he obviously can't play up to. He's a second line center who's going to put up 13 goals every year. Before they handed him 1.8 million a year, he would have been trade bait. Afterwards, not so much.

Frankly, since the 9th or 10th game of the regular season, watching this team has been like pulling teeth. No one wants to acknowledge it, but they were actually better last year, and their record at the end of the season will show that. So they can score on the powerplay now?  This being the Rangers, they've found a way to score on the PP and still lose all the time.  Tortorella's vaunted take no prisoners attitude seems mainly geared towards beat reporters and Dan Girardi.   This teams is sliding towards .500 quicker than you can say all star break.