Same mistakes, early goal, late goal, no matter who's goalie is pulled it ends up in our net, how many times can this happen from one season to the next before you fire the guy in charge?
- KreiderBomb

Even more telling than recent blown 3rd period leads, &/or losses near the end of games or in OT, as this ugly loss fits both types, Sather should have learned of this warning of A.V. in not being able to close out games a few seasons ago. That especially most telling game back then involved Hank mouthing off words about A.V. after an OT loss to the Capitals at MSG.
The Rangers were leading by one due to Hank stoning the Caps throughout, who in the final 1:30 of regulation, were maintaining consistent non stop puck possession deep in the Rangers zone, and firing multi shot attempts at Hank. Then at a play stoppage with under around 20 seconds remaining with Hank completely gassed, he motioned to the bench for A.V. to use his timeout call. A.V. did not, and off the ensuing face off, the Caps tied the game, and then won it in the OT, with of course, OVI tallying one of those two goals.

You want Ruff behind the bench?
- Fenrir

After this latest most revealing loss, Gorton would have to start considering for this entire coaching staff possibly to be replaced, due to their repetitive slow starts, lack of playing 60 minutes, and poor player management usage. Many of the players are also at fault due to their own poor decisions, and repetitive mistakes, giveaways, and careless and lazy play throughout games.

Zuke and OEL 'leads' the league now with a -9.
Saver can explain, I'm sure
- 21peter

Zucc. is also lost at words, as he is in wondering which two players will be his line mates on his next shift from shift to shift.
(I didn't get the time yet to check your -9 rating stat on him, in just finishing seeing the entire game on DVR about 1 hour ago. I had returned around 11:00 pm from a 140 mile drive with a friend, in visiting a former hockey playing mate of ours, who was suddenly hospitalized a week ago with colon cancer.)
"Bedtime ... you can explain, I'm sure."

Just watched the game on DVR. Here's what I saw and what I think.

The Pros: Not that there were many, but some of the players that needed to wake up offensively did so. Credit to Deshairnais, he had a good game.

The Cons: Long list here. When one facet of this team is good, the others are bad. That shows how incomplete this team is. They have no killer instinct. That 5 on 3 was the turning point of the game. Not only did they fail to do anything on it, Kreider who was playing a good game up until that point takes one of the dumbest penalties I’ve seen in a while. So dumb. Lundqvist was terrible. He needs to stop goals 1, 2 and 4. He has to have them if the Rangers have any chance of winning vs. any other team in the NHL. They have no leadership, on the ice or behind the bench. This is a ship without a captain.

The Penguins were undisciplined and Murray stunk as well, and the Rangers left to door wide open for the Penguins to waddle right in and poop on the carpet.

The Rangers stink folks, that’s it. They’ll win a few games here and there, but they’ve dug themselves a hole they won’t be able to get out of. And when the going gets tough they have nobody to turn to and lead them.
- tomburton99

I agree Tom in that the missed chance to capitalize on that 5 on 3 advantage with about 5:30 remaining in the second, & being up 3-2, was THEE turning point of the game. They had earlier scored 3 goals within 2:30 of that period, with 2 coming on Crosby's double minor penalty infraction on Vesey. On those two earlier PP goals, they made way fewer, but more crisper passes, and shot the puck more.
On the 5 on 3, they were moving the puck too slowly, & strolling around for a PERFECT position to be in, in order to get the best possible potential shots off, especially with their OVER PASSING, which in effect, helped kill the penalties for the Penguins. That culminated with Kreider taking that stupid crosschecking penalty to the back of a Penguin, resulting in the Penguins taking advantage of that power play, and tying the score at 3 heading into the third, instead of the score possibly becoming at least 4-2 Rangers after two.
But the Rangers also had some bad luck with goal posts hit by Shatty and Nash in the game, on top of Nash's other two moves up close in getting Murray down, & being unable to score due to LeTang getting enough of his stick on one. He also ran out of room on the other, and hit the outer bottom left side of the net a couple of inches from the post.

The Rangers under AV simply can’t close out games. Just like they did in the playoffs against LA in the SCF during AV’s first year or as soon as last season against Ottawa, the rangers tend to turn into a defensive shell where they just try to protect the lead and kill time. Even if they have the puck in the offensive zone, they just try to cycle around the net rather than score to put the game away.

How the hell does a team go from being like 100-0-0 when leading after 2 periods under Torts to blowing what seems like every 1 goal lead in the final 3 minutes of every game under AV?

While McD probably played one of his worst games, he was according to Corsi the best Ranger on the ice...
And of course Shatty was the 2nd best

Recap blog up

Huh?
- tomburton99