Wendell Cruz-Imagn ImagesNo, it's not too late to pray for a Rangers surge into an April playoff berth.
But prayer is all that's left for a team with a deadbeat general manager named Chris Drury, a coach named Mike Sullivan who's had more than three months to figure out his team and still hasn't a clue.
Last night at The Garden, the once-Beloved Blueshirts not only did not obtain one of the three stars but the only outstanding performer was the anthem singer.
Carolina Rial not only knocked them for a loop with the Star Spangled Banner but proved a perfect inspiration with her rendition a cappella.
Alas, it inspired the wrong team. Coach Travis Green's Senators were so inspired they exited the first period 4-0 and the second, 6-1. The final score – 8-4 for the Visitors – tells The Maven that Mademoiselle Rial sings better than the Blueshirts skate.
And after over-the-hill goalie Jonathan Quick got the hook after another porous – six goals on 17 shots – performance, Mlle. Rial might even be worth a trial in goal.
"The Rangers are in such deep doo-doo they will have to start Spencer Martin in goal against the Flyers in Philly on Saturday," says The Old Scout. "At least Martin is nine years younger than old Quick – Martin is 30!"
What's so ironic about that is the fact that Dreary Drury has been grooming Dylan Garand in Hartford for the past two years but prefers unreliable retread Martin in the crease.
Then again, desperate times call for desperate measures and – who knows? – by the time
you read this Garand may be riding Metro North to Manhattan.
When the chips were down – a two-pointer there for the asking – the overpaid core led by useless captain J.T. Miller failed them again. It was 20-year-old Gabe Perreault's two goals that gave reason to cheer for the mostly booing audience.
Miller, by the way, won The Maven's "Alibi Ike Award" for the night when he explained his club's latest debacle with this dumb-dumb line: "They were more ready to play!"
Really, commodore? The Senators were on the second of back-to-back games and arrived late from Ottawa.
YOU – and your overpaid frat buddies – should have been more "ready to play." It's the middle of January, pal, and you guys just don't get it!