Flames 5
Rangers 0
Credibility is a fleeting concept around the Rangers.
Stepping up in class against the Flames in last night’s return to the Garden from a road trip during which they won three of four and talked about their great character, every single one of Blueshirts’ deficiencies was exposed – both on the ice and behind the bench. They were far too slow, far too casual, far too weak on the puck to compete against one of the league’s better and hardest-working clubs, losing 5-0 in front of a surly crowd that rained boos on the team and GM/coach Glen Sather.
“I am embarrassed from both a team and personal standpoint,” Bobby Holik said. “That this was the first game after coming back east from a road trip is not an excuse.
“We talked about that. We were aware of the situation. When you are aware, it is not an excuse. We let it happen.”
The Rangers were beaten all over the ice, their stunning lack of speed and quickness never more obvious. Even when they arrived on time, they lost nearly every battle – mostly in docile fashion. The specialty teams were inadequate again on both sides of the man-advantage, failing on three power plays that included 1:21 of five-on-three, and allowing a Flames’ team that had been 1-for-50 to score a PPG on its first opportunity. They again committed senseless penalties.
Of course, not a soul sat, not even for a shift, no matter the level of individual malfeasance.
What’s more (or less), the team’s problematic goaltending situation has descended into chaos. When Jussi Markkanen was pulled at the end of the first period after allowing three goals on 13 shots, it marked the third time in six games Sather had used the hook. And while Markkanen was not even close to the primary culprit in last night’s match (Eric Lindros launched an impassioned post-game defense of the team’s netminding duo of Markkanen and Mike Dunham) neither was he able to make the upper-echelon stops defective teams such as the Rangers require.
“We were on a [4-1-0-1] run, but it wasn’t really warranted,” Mark Messier noted. “Our game had been slipping. We got what was warranted.”
Everyone was to blame. The Rangers allowed Flames open access to the slot on which they capitalized to assume a 4-0 edge 1:44 into the second. Still, it bears noting that in a game in which he did not play well, Messier led the forwards in ice time through two periods, his 12:22 dwarfing the 8:51 Sather allotted to Lindros.
It was just so predictable that Sather would respond to Messier’s effectiveness as a fourth-line center (No. 11 was named the NHL’s Offensive Player of the Week for the period that ended Sunday off his 2-4-6 road trip) by ramping up his time. When Sather moved Alex Kovalev to Messier’s right wing on Saturday, the increased time became inevitable. Kovalev was comatose last night. By the midway mark of the third, Kovalev was back with Holik while Messier went between Anson Carter and Petr Nedved. Jed Ortmeyer, lauded on the trip by Sather, was sent to a patchwork fourth line.
Of course he was.
*
Dan LaCouture received 12 stitches to close a laceration on the back of his head he sustained when slammed to the ice by Robin Regehr with 4:00 to go in the game. LaCouture will be re-evaluated today.
