Brad Penner-Imagn ImagesThere is something very wrong with the Rangers and it's not simply because they are in St.Louis tonight only one win over the .500 mark.
One reporter, who has chronicled the National Hockey League since pre-expansion days, viewed the Vancouver-Blueshirt game at The Garden on Tuesday and came away shaking his head in disbelief.
"Somehow the Rangers get more boring at home each game," he says. "It's even much more interesting to go to the visitors' clubhouse postgame."
On X, Jonny Lazarus writes: "The energy in MSG is lifeless right now." Also on X, Linyreg opines, "The Rangers were slower in skating than any Canuck player."
The promotion yesterday of previous roster failures, Gabe Perreault and Brennan Othmann can't hurt. Who knows; they just might squeeze some energy out of an otherwise blah offense. At last report the Blueshirts rank 30th out of 32 with. a 2.51 goals per game average.
Meanwhile, Coach Mike Sullivan's post-game pressers sound like the redundant drones of bagpipes. "Sullivan has become a master of long cliches," one beat writer notes.
Sean Avery, who bleeds Rangers blue, puts it this way: "It's hard to put into words how hard it is to sit here and watch this team 'compete.'"
They have lost to the worst teams in the league – Vancouver being the latest – and can't get out of their own way; or the way of linesmen.
After the Rangers losing effort on Tuesday night, Jerry Hack, the British Columbia- based member of "Bottle Rocket" podcast, writes: "That was the easiest shutout of Thatcher Demko\'s career."
Hack, a goalie, knows a bit about goaltending, having authored "Memoir Of A Hockey Nobody."
Maybe the Blueshirts will beat the Blues in St.Louis tonight and return home and then spank the Flyers on Saturday afternoon. Maybe New York's Skating Yo-Yos will pull out of their lethargy.
Right now the bottom line is summed up by veteran hockey author-reporter Rick Carpiniello: "It's a mess!"
Mess-busters Perreault and Othmann have their work cut out for them!