Money Talks...

GM Glen Sather has done it again. Instead of sending down Michal Rozsival, who has been utterly useless, he has sent Matt Gilroy to Hartford. The move clears some cap room to get a better look at Ilkka Heikkinen. The bottom line is when you make $5 million a year it doesn't matter how bad you are... Sather will just knock one of the kids down.

Gilroy has not been great as of late. He opened the preseason flying, opened the season cautious, and lately has been unnoticeable. He is a 25-year-old rookie that has been only been playing defense for 4 years though. There must be no time for him to grow with powerhouses like Rozsival and Wade Redden dominating like they do. A mop laying in the defensive zone all game might be better than ol' Rosy. Moving Gilroy comes on the heels of him getting beaten and outworked on both Chicago goals the other night.

Accountability was supposed to be the staple of this team with John Tortorella in town. Is he not able to see what a disaster Rozsival is every night? He made more mistakes than Gilroy the other night that very easily could have led to goals. You know where Rozsival would be if they did? Right on the ice against the Sabres on Saturday night. Even Wade Redden, who has been better this year, still sucks. His deal goes down as one of the worst signings in the history of the league. The team will go nowhere with these two clowns making $11.5 million and that's 4 more years in Redden's case... awesome!

If I was Wade Redden, Michal Rozsival or even Chris Drury I'd be embarrassed that the team can't be good BECAUSE OF ME. Drury is supposed to be a captain and leader. He must know that he is making about $4 million too much right? Imagine if Rozsival was making $2 million (I wouldn't have given him anything), Redden $2 million and Drury $3 max. That's $11.5 million that could be used to get someone good on this team besides Gaborik. But this is pro sports... you take the big money from the Rangers like every other over-the-hill free agent has in the past and accept the boos. Who cares? The people booing don't get to live like you do.

Rangers-Hawks Thread...

FIRST PERIOD

Game opens with Michal Rozsival giving the puck away twice for quality scoring chances. Pretty bad turnover by Ales Kotalik leading to Andrew Ladd blowing by Rozsival but Henrik Lundqvist looks sharp.

Vinny Prospal at the end of a shift tried to clear the puck and it took a Ranger bounce to Marian Gaborik. He fed Rozsival who dropped it back to Gaborik and what a pass to Christopher Higgins who buried his second goal in 3 games. Rangers being outshot 16-5.

Rangers lead 1-0...

SECOND PERIOD

All Henrik Lundqvist in the second period and little else. Rangers being outshot 14-10 and 30-15 for the game.

Rangers still lead 1-0...

THIRD PERIOD

2 huge penalty kills with outstanding work from Chris Drury, Ryan Callahan and Brian Boyle. Then a ridiculous call on Dan Girardi ultimately doomed the Rangers... for the second time in the game Patrick Kane looks like the most unbalanced skater in the league and falls over. Penalty of course and I wrote this before Chicago just popped it in as you knew they would. Jonathan Toews got it as Brian Boyle just stood there in a goal mouth scramble not picking anyone up.

1-1 as the refs tie it... Just a matter of time before the Hawks win this one... Rangers had no business in this one anyway...

Yep... they lost. Dustin Bfyuglien, a third liner, beats Gaborik and Matt Gilroy up the ice and embarrasses The King. The Rangers did not match Lundqvist's effort and he was pissed, slamming his stick against the glass. He was the only one who played tonight. The funny thing is Gaborik could've caught Byfuglien in his sleep but didn't start skating until the red line. They just find ways to lose and have no one to score... EVER.

Rangers had one shot in the third lose 2-1, as predicted during the game right here... They were outshot 41-18 for the game. What an embarrassment.

Questions...

The Rangers are in Chicago tonight to take on the Black Hawks who are best in the NHL at home at 11-3-1. A lot of question marks going into tonight and the foreseeable future for this team. Will Wade Redden play? Donald Brashear? Will we get another look at Erik Christensen?

The answer is who cares? None of these players will make any difference and that's exactly the problem with this team. There are no difference makers on it except for Marian Gaborik and Henrik Lundqvist. And now with the King faltering and letting in the most ridiculous goals I've ever seen late in games, you're down to one guy.

John Tortorella may want to play up-tempo but he doesn't have the players to do it. Now they just play boring, almost unwatchable hockey and win a few games 2-1 or so. I thought it was Tom Renney's fault but it's Glen Sather's. He built a team with (yes I know this is recurring) 4 marginal players at best taking up $26 million in Scott Gomez, Chris Drury, Michal Rozsival and Wade Redden. He somehow moved Gomez but there is no hope for this team when you are unable to get secondary scoring with no money. Not to mention the millions he threw away on guys like Patrick Rissmiller (3 years at $3 million), Tyler Arnason ($700,000), Aaron Voros (3 years at $3 million) Donald Brashear (2 at $1.4) and now Erik Christensen.

Somehow it's never even mentioned that Sather should be fired. Think about it... $3.4 MILLION on 3 guys that don't play (Brashear, Voros, Rissmiller). At least Voros and Brashear are with the club but they're invisible when and if they play except for always taking dumb offensive zone penalties. I'd love to say the future looks bright but boy... what a disaster.

King Without a Crown..

Maybe he was just tired playing the second night of back-to-backs... maybe he slipped... or maybe he just sucks. Henrik Lundqvist has been staying on his feet more lately and not surprisingly, has been better. The King saved the worst for the last 2:03 when he let up maybe the softest goal I've ever seen from him.

The Rangers lost 3-1 to a Red Wing team decimated by injuries and sits last place on the road in penalty killing. The deciding goal came on a cross ice pass from Henrik Zetterberg to Daniel Cleary, whose shot from about the goal line somehow got through Lundqvist. Kris Draper added an empty netter.

The Blueshirts didn't really go out and try to win this game. They seemed to be waiting to lose. Ryan Callahan missed a penalty shot and Christopher Higgins missed a breakaway. Other than that the power play was dreadful against the league's worst. 3 power plays in the third produced nothing but a few shots and very little set up time. The first unit, which had been so cohesive before John Tortorella started messing with Ales Kotalik, was terrible. The second unit generated a 2-on-1 down low in the third. Higgins fed Sean Avery for a wide open net but he didn't even get a shot off.

Marian Gaborik needs to be able to shoot but had no shots in the game for the first time this season. Niklas Lidstrom and Brian Raflaski had something to do with that but if he doesn't score a point, they have no chance.

Brian Boyle opened the scoring tipping in a Higgins feed after a nice rush. But Jimmy Howard was made to look like Patrick Roy the rest of the way. A little over a quarter of the way through the season, this team appears to be headed nowhere. They are an average team who can't make much noise in the playoffs... if they get there at all.

Back on the horse...

The Rangers and Henrik Lundqvist made a first period goal stand up til :59 left. Fortunately Ryan Callahan had added another one in the third banging in a Sean Avery rebound in a 2-1 win against the Buffalo Sabres last night. The Sabres had been on a four game winning streak.

The first period was extremely boring but ended with Marian Gaborik feeding Christopher Higgins for his 3rd of the season. Gaborik and Artem Anisimov made good defensive plays on Tyler Myers to get the play started. Gaborik has scored points now in 23 of 26 as a Ranger.

The King played the best he's played in a long time aside from the Jason Pominville goal. It was simply a puck that has to be stopped from a terrible angle. Thankfully the Blueshirts still had a goal to play with as they continue to miss open nets. I've never seen a team struggle so mightily to score in an empty net. Brian Boyle and Callahan both missed good chances.

Chris Drury was very good on both sides of the ice and won 13 of his 21 faceoffs. He still has a tendency to make dumb decisions with the puck though as he did on a second period power play. The Buffalo penalty killers were completely out of gas as Drury controlled the puck in the neutral zone. Instead of walking the puck back in he sent it over to his bench where his team was changing. Eventually he got what he was after when the Rangers were whistled for too many men. This could've been a huge turning point but thankfully wasn't.

Notes:
Ilkka Heikkinen made his debut and played well in 9:27. On his first shift he put a solid shot into Patrick Kaleta in the corner... Erik Christensen made his debut also and was a non-factor... Rangers get right back at it tonight against the Detroit Red Wings at the Garden.

Blockbuster!!! Yeah right...

The Rangers today waived Steve Valiquette and signed Eric Christensen according to Steve Zipay of Newsday. Chad Johnson, who is probably not ready to be up here, was called up to replace Valiquette. So much for Lundqvist not playing as much this year.

No Donald Brashear or Wade Redden at practice today. In Redden's case it's odd because Bobby Sanguinetti was already sent back to Hartford.

As for Christensen, he's another guy like Aaron Voros, Tyler Arnason or Patrick Rissmiller who were signed for no reason other than to waste money. He should contribute nothing and I'm looking forward to that.

Just Not Good Enough...

After winning back-to-back games for the first time since October the Rangers have dropped the next 3. The Penguins got a hat trick from Mike Rupp and 2 more from Sidney Crosby winning 5-2 at the Garden. The only guy playing for the Rangers offensively... AGAIN... was Marian Gaborik. His 2 goals gave him 21 to lead the league and tied him with Joe Thornton for the league lead in points with 37. Imagine if he had some other people on this team...

The officiating was downright embarrassing as it always is with a Sid The Kid game. That is not what doomed the Blueshirts though. What doomed them was Henrik Lundqvist who was awful at a key time again. If you just shoot high on him and hit the net... it's going in 80% of the time. He needs to be good enough to steal some games and he is not able to do that right now. Mike Rupp's go ahead goal in the third simply cannot happen and neither can Crosby's in the first period :11 after Gaborik gave the Rangers the lead.

The Rangers responded, battled and still came up way short as they will continue to do against most decent teams. They're just not built correctly. Brian Boyle made his way back in the lineup and Enver Lisin was out. Ales Kotalik is also in the doghouse. He was not used on the power play and played only 3:14. Donald Brashear was on the third line tonight... are you kidding me?

Somehow I don't think 'ol Glen Sather is going to be able to fix it with a deadline deal. Even if they make the playoffs, this is not the kind of team that can go deep. Right now they're boring to watch... they can't score... and they just suck. Their coach would tell you that too.

Notes:
The team doesn't play again til Saturday and will have tomorrow off. I'd like to say they need it but they certainly don't deserve it... Bobby Sanguinetti was returned to Hartford meaning Wade Redden should be back against Buffalo on Saturday.