Just Imagine When They Start Playing Well...

The Rangers had one of their worst periods of the season in the first frame Monday night on the Island. The official stats sheet says the Rangers only turned the puck over 10 times all game but I'm pretty sure I counted that many cough-ups in the first alone.

Only luck and Lundqvist—and a lack of finish from the fishsticks—got them to the first intermission without facing a huge deficit.



If the contest was indeed a trap game, the Rangers did their best Wile E. Coyote impersonation and stomped all over the thing until they just about fell into the hole themselves.

[Meep! Meep!]

Renney's words from the after the Stars game applied in the first period and I'm sure will apply time and time again as the season progresses:

We were stupid. It's not a case of one guy trying to beat four. You have to share the workload up the ice. Eight, ten, twelve foot passes [and] get pucks in behind. [You] get on top of that. Then you're able to get on the hunt.

Without those concepts in mind and without far better puck management, the Blueshirts can play some pretty terrible hockey.

The Rangers started making more intelligent plays with the puck--mostly--and took over in the second half of the game with Renneyisms like that likely being whispered into their ears at the bench. When they play smart, look out. The only problem is they only do that about 20-30 minutes a game.

I've said Drury and Naslund were coming out of the fog. They delivered more proof tonight. Now with Scotty buzzing along--as he has been for weeks--Drury and Naslund simmering up, and Henrik Lundqvist delivering Vezina-worthy performances night in and night out, the Rangers are starting to look more legitimate..ish.

That being said, he goaltending will probably cool down at some point--at least for some amount of time--and the scoring isn't exactly dependable yet. They just need to play a more intelligent game.

It also wouldn't kill them to pop in an instructional video on faceoffs. Outside of Scott Gomez, they were awful at the faceoff dots last night. If they want to play a puck possession game, someone should tell them, it helps if you have the puck.