A Stick to the Head, A Kick to the Gut

The Big Picture: The Rangers were all but run out of town in the second period, with no shots on goal over a span of nearly fifteen minutes and with not one single hit to their credit. That helped the Pens take a 2-0 lead, scoring another power play goal (natch) and another Evgeni Malkin goal (natch). But the Rangers roared back with two goals by two rookies within a span of less than 90 seconds early in the third period, Lauri Korpikoski scoring his first NHL goal in his first NHL game on his fourth NHL shift on a blistering shot to the top corner.

But the Rangers ended up losing the game and series on Marian Hossa’s overtime goal. The power play failed them again, as it has much of the season, and Jaromir Jagr did not follow through on the faith he asked us to have in him after his monster games in the Garden. If not for Henrik Lundqvist's heroic goaltending, this game would never have gotten to overtime. At that point, the Rangers should have won it for him if for no other reason. But as has been the case in virtually every game the Rangers have played, there was a higher power at work -- not the one Jagr hoped to rely on, but the one Gary Bettman relies on.

The Deciding Factor: As in all previous cases, the Rangers have no one else to blame but themselves -- especially their power play -- for the predicament they always seemed to find themselves in. But in every case, that predicament was still a tie score that was ultimately influenced by an official call. And except for the boarding call on Ryan Hollweg in Game 3, the call in question left Ranger fans scratching their heads at best, or fuming at worst.

Today, the Rangers' momentum was blunted with less than 90 seconds left in regulation when Chris Drury was called for a double-minor for high-sticking Ryan Malone. A good call, without question. But it stood in stark counterpoint to an unpenalized Malone high stick that bloodied Drury early in the second period and sent him off for stitches — a horrendous non-call that jump-started the Penguins’ domination of that period, especially since Malone drew the marginal hooking call on Jagr that turned the tide when he should have been in the penalty box. That the deciding goal was scored off a rush that the Rangers believed to be offside entering the zone was just the icing on the cake.

What They Said: “Yes,” said Renney when asked if he thought the winnng play was offside. No more, no less. Later, when asked about the high stick Drury took that was not penalized, he said, “If there’s been one thing that’s been consistent, night after night, different coaches, different teams are wondering about calls or non-calls. Maybe it’s a backhanded testimony to the speed of the game and the talent of the people playing it.” Maybe that's a backhanded way of saying that the officials are too visible influencing the outcomes of games.

“It seems that, especially in this building, it was a constant parade to the penalty box,” said Brendan Shanahan. “It was a great job by the guys to kill off the penalty,” Drury said of his penalty. “I hoped that would give us some life, a little bit of an edge like we had in the third.” “Giving up those games early came back to bite us,” said Shanahan. “We had an opportunity in Game 1. It would’ve been key if we held onto that 3-0 lead and put them behind the eight ball.” “Even when we had the 3-0 [series] lead, every game could have gone either way,” said Crosby.

“You come in September with one thing in your mind, and when you don’t get it, it’s disappointing,” Drury said. “I’m sure fans are disappointed, as are we. The only thing that would be worse than losing would be not learning from it.”

Game reports: Daily News, Journal News, Newsday, Times, Post, Record, Star-Ledger, NY Sun, AP, National Post, NYR.com, and the last report from Pittsburgh on Rangers-Penguins by Inside Hockey's Angela Carducci, a Blueshirt Bulletin subscriber, at FoxSports. On Jagr's future: Daily News, Journal News, Newsday here and here, Post, Record, Ledger, AP, PA Sports Ticker, Toronto Sun, Globe & Mail, ESPN, Tribune-Review. Additional notes: Daily News, Newsday, Inside Shots. From the reporters' blogs: Blueshirts Blog, Rangers Report, Blue Notes here and here, Slap Shot, Blue Seats, and Prospect Park. From Pittsburgh (Ranger-related content only): here, here, here.

Here are our immediate and long-term plans at Blueshirt Bulletin: We're going to wait until tomorrow to start looking ahead, and we will start with how we project Jagr's future. Tomorrow afternoon is break-up day for the Rangers, and there are always a ton of interesting stories to come out of that which will probably take two or three days to present. On Friday, the May issue of Blueshirt Bulletin goes in the mail -- we'll let you know more about that at that time.

From then on, we'll keep tabs on everything that is going on in Rangerland, from the draft to free agent season to prospect development camp. We'll have links for you on a daily or near-daily basis as we find them. And we hope to continue to get reports from the Czech Republic and Russia. Come September, we will be at training camp as we have for the past three years, and we might even go to Europe for the pre-season festivities there. So stay with Blueshirt Bulletin, even in the off-season, for complete Ranger coverage.

Comments

[captjamesom]

the game winner being possibly an off sides play (haven;t seen an angle to prove other wise yet) may have been an even up call. the rangers went in off sides on an earlier shift with no call. oh well, they need a little more size and finish on the wing and a crease clearing Dman or 2.

[Pavel]

I DVR'd the play and watched it at least 30 times. It was offsides. Barely... but off. I guess the linesman was too busy blowing kisses to Crosby and forgot the whistle.

[ER]

how about a puck moving defenseman?!?!?! the play from the points on the PP was god awful all season long!

[stan the man]

the most promising thing to come out of this game was Korpikoski. He looks like a player. One can only hope Sanguenetti is all thats been advertised and can quarterback the pp. The stat that showed the Rangers having 4 pp and 1 shot on goal says it all. Lets face it their pp looks like one you see from expansion teams, inexcusable!

[Jed Orts]

was the play really offsides?

i skipped all of the post-game celebrations to watch the play because that was my initial thought. at first i thought i was being a bitter person because they had just lost but i kept watching the replay.

that missed high sticking on drury, reallllllyyyyyyyyyyyy killed them

and i don't think it hit me yet that there won't be another rangers game for another 5 months... i hate the offseason

these series make you hate a team so much. i really want philly to win and i think they have a good chance. the rangers played really physical in the 4th game and really frustrated the pens. if philly can do that the entire series i think they will make the cup finals... but, you never know

[Cindy Criesby]

You lose - easy to say when you had 3 of your 4 victories HANDED to you by the refs. easy to take the high road when you have divers and slew footers who get away with it because the NHL needs your team in the Finals are you might go bankrupt again. Yea, our pp SUCKS!!! We didn't want to trade PPs with you. I can say the team with the better PP won, and their zebra friends enabled it.

[Chris]

The play was offsides.
The Pens got way more powerplays than they deserved for various reasons and at crushing times
The Pens got away with murder like the devils did.
The Goal in game2 was the back breaker, could have potentially went home 1-1.
Yes the rangers should have scored more on the PP.
Yes they need a puck moving defesnsman.

PPs are part of the game? So you would rather see teams score off bs penalties and stand around in one place for 2min, rather than observe the beauty of the game which is transition hockey played from the defensive end through the neutral zone into the offensive zone.
Standing in one spot is not hockey.

-TL;DR: your a bandwagon fan, go back to your bird blog.

[rangerbill94]

A PP QB is just an excuse. There is a systematic problem with our PP. Did you notice that almost everytime we put the puck back to the points we regained control, when we got stuck on the halfboards abd tried to work it out, we didn't do well. I will agree that our point men aren't the best, but Girardi, Mara and Staal moved the puck well from the points. They just didn't have the puck for much of the time. Did you notice how often the Pens got the puck to the point? That wasn't for a big shot, it was to re-load. The PP let us down all season and the PP coach needs to go.

[ddamn it]

rozy, malike, shanny, mara, straka and jagr can all not be on this team next season in my book...jagr maybe comes back on a huge discount... 2.5 million..thats it...we need a hard hitting number 1 dman...staal is not totally ready yet...and we need a sniper who can score 40-50 goals...simply not enough offense and not enough physical play on the d corp...def could use someone wiht some kahones to shoot fromthe point...

[Paul R _ _ _ _ _ D]

well it's official, I hat sindy and his mery bunch of refs. but my wishes for the off season, sign Avery, Jagr, and for the love of god a defenceman who can QB the PP PLEASE GOD!!!! oh and go philli, wow my keyboard just lit on fire.

[Chris]

Rosy and Straka have to go. Too much passing and not shooting when your supposed to. And Rosy has made so many mistakes you would never know hes a veteran. Doubting Shanny is back. We need Avery, Jagr and Mara(discount please) back.

[oleosmirf]

anon

i completely agree with you. The Rangers got outplayed in 4 out of the 5 games and as a result the Pens won 4-1.

Maybe if the Rangers had a semi-decent PP or werent playing the game in their own end the majority of the time they could have won some more games but they didnt.

The Pens got a much deserved win and offsides or not the Pens were winning this game no matter what. The Rangers were on their heels the whole game and in overtime the Rangers didnt even enter the Pens zone. Complain all you want but don't turn around and call Crosby and the Pens fans whiners and then whine about them winning. Its a little hypocrtical don't you think

[traviesso]

hey, let's please not keep arguing about the effect the refs had on the series. We were in a very good chance to win every game but pucks didn't bounce our way, calls didn't go our way, it happens, as much as it's hard to say let's not keep saying the same things over and over again. Let's look ahead to next season and what needs to be done, as far as the pens fans, we're not arguing with intelligent pens fans who have anything interesting to say we're speaking with the ones that think it's funny to have a full page filled with silly photoshop pics.
is anyone watching the sj-dal game from tsn, the camera angle makes the game look completely different, it almost makes the players look much bigger, or maybe they just are.

so lets look at potential wingers or d-men that can help out, and look to our farm system instead of repeating the same things over and over.

[Dubi]

Alright, let's just take a break until tomorrow and cool off. By then, the Pens fans will have their hands fulls of Flyer fans, who are not going to respond to them the same way we did. That'll be fun to watch.

[jj]

its time for re-organizing the rangers. sather and renney kicked one position higher and shoenfeld an independent gm. sather has proven his inability to build a decent stanley cup contender and he should have a title but no power. renney should be in charge of player development as he has gone as far as he can as a coach. dolan can spin this any way he wants but ranger fans deserve better than this. all year the flaws of the team have not been addressed by sather and alot of credit must be given to renney for getting this far with the lousy team assembled by sather. no one need to be fired but we deserve a better result. holmgren in philly turned the bad flyers around to this group in one year. how come he can turn a bad team around and the ranger fans must endure sathers mediocrity.

[i]

Jess & Dubi guess I missed Stuart's answer, and I'm better off. This is a hard day to accept what has gone on. Yeah Renney needs to learn how to work refs over, but his style is not mine. The NHL needs to be worked over. I won't watch the next series, but I'll bet the officials will continue their MO. It's a sad day for NYR fans, and a sad day for hockey. The commissioner is clueless, but NBC isn't . They go by ratings. I'm sure the rest will be lower than today's, but the nhl leader thinks his boy will make his league. Too bad he preaches parity, but doesn't practice it with his rules.

[Marc]

i dont know if anyone is watching, but Nabokov just made, arguably, the best save in a playoff game beside of course any save by a NYR goalie, i have ever seen...

[ThisYearsModel]

How poetic that a blown offsides call results in the winning goal. I guess the Rangers organization are simply supposed to sit by and allow the league off the hook on these terrible calls? Eddie O mentioned the play being offsides twice, but no one at NBC was interested in pursuing it. Oh well. On to the offseason. We have a new team to hate. Without the Islanders and Devils to give us a game, Pittsburgh is a good rival to hate.

[Alan]

barely out of the funk i've been in all night, but seeing the nightmarish end in my head over and over, the nhl needs to make major changes if it wants to have any credibility as a second rate organization. they talk about the speed and the changes post-lockout, blah, blah, blah. four officials on the ice has not helped one iota to remove the complete and utter inability to adhere to the rule changes with consistency, make the game less complex to attract newbies to join the 43 others who watch the nhl on vs or nbc, or avoid the every game experience of missed or blown calls. it's beyond pathetic. to have a series decided on a missed offsides is making me nauseous to even type, let alone watch as it unfolded before my eyes. the f'ing morons who run the league think of ways to make the game more fan friendly or increase the viewership: we need more goals so let's make the goalie equipment smaller. no, let's increase the net sizes. no, let's limit the size of the players to 6'2". whatever. no one can take them seriously with these never-ending tweaks that three years after the lockout need more tweaking than ever.

i thought before today the last two games in this series were officiated fairly well, i.e. not too much controversy and no glaring mistakes that i recall at this time. we all saw what happened today. and maybe that is my point as you may think i'm forgetting to make one. we see these things develop on tv and/or have the tools (tivo's and the like) to look back and see what's missed or what was a good call or non-call. it's amazing when we're at msg what we miss as i revisit the games on the msg tv broadcast later that same evening. has this game just surpassed the ability of human eyes alone judging the actions on the ice to be with or without incident? this has to be taken seriously by anyone and everyone interested in the viability of this league. does any other sport have incidents like this multiples of times during the regular and post-season play? i don't think so. and it happens to every team, not just the one we ranger fans support.

for starters, and i have mentioned this before, just as in tennis where all the lines have sensors that take the potentiality of a missed call out of the line judges' hands or eyes, why can't the same thing be done on the blue lines or the goal lines? it can't be too difficult these days technologically, can it, to install a device that would sense the movement of the puck over a line to see if a player precedes it or follows it into the zone, or one that completely crosses the goal line, not impeded by the limitations of camera angles to make a 100% determination that, yes, it was a goal? or if that can't work, just make offsides, PARTICULARLY WHEN IT LEADS TO A GAME WINNING, SERIES CLINCHING F'ING GOAL, as reviewable as when the blind f'ers on the ice, perpetually out of position, can't tell if it was or was not a goal and need the help of the "folks" in toronto.

we certainly have personnel issues that need to be addressed on the team, something that we'll all debate over the coming months, but to have it taken away from us like that, and the call in game one that led to the winning goal, so two out of four wins tainted by horrific officiating in one series, that's more than i can bear and does overshadow our play on the ice. is it sour grapes? maybe. is it just wanting things to be more fairly decided, without the input of arbitrary decisions made in the blink of an eye, when maybe that blink caused them to miss what happened on the ice? for me, that's it.

i hate that i can't go to msg tomorrow night because of that. i am really f'ing angry.

[Alan]

i don't usually disagree with you, dubi, but it won't be fun to watch anyone but us playing philly.

my off-season personnel changes: get rid of rozey, malik, hollweg, shanny, straka, tjutin and jagr. or if we keep jagr, sign hossa who is much better as a complementary player than the star. or maybe he will complement dru and gomer so don't sign jagr (which is what i would prefer.
sign ryan malone. if san jose's done tonite (they're going into 2nd ot) maybe dru convinces hime to play here. and sign orpik too. and most definitely sign sean avery!!!

dubi, cally & hossa
gomer, sean and malone
dru, korpi & dawes
betts (anisimov) prucha (orr) sjostrom (jessiman)

staal/orpik
campbell/girardi
mara/baranka?

[Jess]

I

Yeah Renney needs to learn how to work refs over, but his style is not mine.

To be honest, Renney is not my style either but I respect the job he has done in turning the Ranger franchise around. After what we went though with coaches like Campbell, Muckler, Low, Trottier and even Sather, Renney is a breath of fresh air.

JJ

You are not going to see any changes made to the Ranger management structure because when Dolan looks at everything he sees the Rangers as winners.

They have made the playofff for 3 straight years and home playoff games are typically cash cow profit makers. The Dolans also have a new excuse to raise ticket prices for next season as well.

Dubi

Can I say Booger here?

[ThisYearsModel]

Really, how are players supposed to know what is a penalty and what isn't? These games are being called completely differently than they were at the start of the season. Interference and holding are apparently only penalties now and then. Jagr was held by Gill on nearly every shift. How is that OK? We do away with goal judges, and we get refs who lounge in the corner instead of move to the goal that results in quick whistles. How about that absurd no-goal call on Morrow the other night? Icing by the Devils while shorthanded? Winning goal on an offsides play today? It really is comical. Great work, Steve Walkom. You and your employees are embarrassingly incompetent.

[craigZ]

What chance does POck have to make the big club next year..Tyutin is expendible...

[Mark]

I'm a Pens fan and enjoy the fact that we won, but there were a lot of odd calls throughout the series. I was especially baffled by the no call on Malone, and then no real make-up calls. Also, I don't think Crosby goes down as much as the refs call penalties. He plays hard, he's going to fall. Good luck next season and hopefully we can continue to be the best division in the NHL.

[DonK]

I do not think there is any team happy with the officiating in this year's playoffs -- not to mention a couple of the video reviews (see: Stars-Sharks; Dallas thinks it should have won the series Friday night).

The non-call on Malone cutting Drury was awful. The offsides call on the GWG was close.

But face it, folks: The Rangers were beaten by a more talented team. When there was a big play to be made, more often than not, it was a Penguin who made it. The Blueshirts' power play was horrible -- 3 PPGs (one an empty-netter). And the vaunted penalty-killers, who weren't good against the Devils, weren't good in this series, either (5-24).

BTW: Did anyone see much of Scott Gomez in this series? Or Shanahan? Or Drury? Me neither.

The Rangers have hit a plateau -- good enough to win a round; not good enough to do more than that. Sather/Renney have to find something that gets this team to the next level. If Jagr leaves, the task gets tougher (he's still their best, most-talented forward, and the only player opponents have to account for on every shift). In fact, they may have to take a step back and let more of the kids play next year.

The Penguins have game-changing talent. The Rangers do not. Until they find that player(s), either from within the organization or outside, this is likely as far as they get.

[ant]

Brian Campbell just cost Sharks the whole season by taking a penalty in 4th OT

[Ros]

WoW. What a game b/w Dallas & the Sharks!At least the other Lundqvist is moving on.

[Marty]

I think Sanguinetti might show something in camp next year.

What's your thoughts Dubi/Jess?

[Joe in DE]

I don't understand how anyone can argue with the idea that the power play wasn't the reason we lost this series. Every game was a 1 goal game, and every game we didn't score on the power play. With the lone exception of our win at MSG, our PP has been atrocious. I actually would watch the games and hope the Rangers don't get a PP because then it's 2 minutes where I KNOW we're not going to score. PP's are the easy goals where the offense can flex some muscle. Pittsburgh sure understands that, and they made us pay dearly.

[pj]

'PJ

"wake up" Jess was directed to the cheer leaders who see nothing negative about the team or their situation ever.

First off what gives you the right to call others names?"

While I am more of a lurker than a regular poster is of no importance. I have posted from time to time throughout the season.

I take offense at Jess claiming that I am calling someone names by saying "WAKE UP" this was in response to what I thought was cheerleading as opposed to a detached and realistic view of the team.

But then again, those are opinions of fans as opposed to someon who claims to be a "journalist."

But, whatever. I am not the only one to be attacked for attempting to tell the truth.

The most encouraging thing about yesterday was seeing Lauri Korpikoski play. I remember Maloney gushing at the draft that "we hit a home run with that pick." Hope it turns out to be true.

Korpi seems to have filled out. I was impressed with his speed and his shot. In the new NHL where if you touch a puck carriers body with your stick while he is on the rush, you are penalized, speed becomes the most important factor.

Pitt does things at very high speed and were successful against us.

I hope that the Rangers part ways with Rozival. Had enough of him. His play yesterday was putrid in my opinion.

Don't think we can count on Sanguinetti next year. Let him play a year in Hartford and dominate at that level before we rush him up.

I still have major doubts about how we will match up to the Pens in the future. The fact that they have both Malkin and Crosby on the team will make them both a force and very difficult to beat for years to come.

I will always have hope though. I am a ranger fan and will stick with them no matter what. Any guy like me who paid for season tickets through years and years of teams that didn't even care will always stick with this team through thick and thin. A lot more THICK these past few years.

What I love now is that this team has hunger and committment and seems to care greatly. The infusion of young talent makes my heart swell with pride. In 40 years as a Ranger fan, I can not remember there being this much home grown talent on the team and in the system.

[kwill]

You know its bad when the NBC crew is complaining about non-calls again the rangers. I have never heard Ed or Mike on our side as much as in that game. Looks like they even got fed up with the one sided calls. I mean come on I almost had a heart attack when Milbury said "I think Straka has legitimate beef here Doc the stick was just slashed out of his hand!" Nearly died right there.

Other than that my biggest complaint about the refs is the complete and utter one sidedness to the games. The pens got all the calls. Calls that weren't made 3 seconds before when a Penguins hooked a ranger on the hands was called on a ranger because a penguin lost a chance to shoot the puck at the net. It was painful to watch.

I also want to point out another borderline call/lack of effort or whatever that helped pitt score their second goal. Hollweg had got run into and knocked the penguins net off. This is a referee's opinion call. Hollweg had stopped skating and the net was completely off. The ref looked at the call and didn't make it. This left Hollweg in no man's land no where near a place to make a play.

[rcm]

had the high sticking to Drury been on home ice the fans would have influenced the call to the point that the decision would have been made by the fans. more decisions based on video replay are needed to make the came fair to both the players and the fans

[ivrydov]

I think that Sather has done a good job building up the team in the last few years but his move to bring in Backman at the trading deadline was dumb. Maybe Malik was in the dog house, but it would have been better to go with Strudwick and maybe give Hutchison a shot than a guy who had a reputation in St. Louis as having more holes in his game than swiss cheese. I wouldn't have minded if he had been spotted, but Renney, the same as he did with Ozolinsh, gave him a permanent spot and he just dragged everything down. It was too late then as now when Renney finally gave him the hook.

But it gets worse. The four teams who are now in semi-finals made moves at the trading deadline to bolster their lineups: Hossa and Gill to Pittsburgh, Richards to Dallas, Prospal to Philly, and Stuart to Detroit. Going for broke doesn't always pay off. Washington with Huet and Fedorov is out, the Sharks with Campbell, and Colorado with Forsberg and Foote, the same. But the Rangers were the only team who brought in a bum and put him in the lineup. Better to have done like Boston and stood pat. Montreal for some reason decided to roll the dice on an untried rookie goaltender, which was a worse move than the Rangers made.

I think they need Avery, like bread needs yeast, but if Sather doesn't want to pay the price, what the hell try for Ruutu. Too bad Burrows may not be unrestricted. They also need someone like Gill or Hatcher on defence to keep order. And while the young forwards are promising, they lack size. If the right side needs to be shored up, they could do worse than going after Michael Ryder who has done 30 goals a year twice.

[paulinflorida]

We can all argue the officiating of this series as can every other team (victims) in the league. It's a league wide problem that probably will never be totally fixed. Championship teams usually find a way to overcome the obstacles of bad officating. I think it's safe to say, with much regret (because I am a Ranger fan till death) that this years version was not a Championship caliber team. It's a very good competitive team with much potential, but not all the pieces are in place to take it to the next level. It's been an exciting three seasons since the lockout. Making the playoffs the first post lockout season brought all of us lots of joy after many horrible seasons. Last year and this season were almost like carbon copies....bad first halves of the season, awesome second halves leading to the playoffs...and then elimination in the semi-finals. Everyone thought that Gomez & Drury were the answer to taking the next steps to go deeper into the playoffs. One can't take anything away from both players, but there is still work to be done. The foundation is there but the organization has to address the short comings in order to take the next steps. It will be an interesting off season...........the worst time of the year for sure.

[Bob Merchant]

All in all with looking back the Rangers gave us an exciting season after the All Star break. I still find it disappointing that we took last years series to game 6 in round two and now we took a small step backwards. So in that respect, it was a disappointment.

This was not a feel good, just wait till next year thing for me.
I think we will see a vastly different product next year. I have no idea if it will be better than this club or once again will we be nail biting to get to the Playoff again?

There does not seem to be anyone for Jagr and Shanny to pass the torch. No mega scorer star players waiting to break out. Players like Dubi, Dawes and Cally will always be good but I'm not pegging any of them to score 54 goals a season.

Much to watch see and learn this summer.

[adam]

Yesterdays loss wasn't as hard for me as some of you ar taking it, as this series was over after the Hollweg penalty in game 3, end of story. They left no room for error after going down 0-3 and I didn't for one second believe they had a chance to win 4 in a row. This is the point I made to my friend when we spoke after game 3..I said this team, over 82 games, not once was able to play a 60 minute, complete hockey game without the typical Ranger lapse. It was just silly to think that all of a sudden, after game 90, that this team would be able to do that, let alone do it 4 times. They have been terribly inconsistent ALL year long, they've had an awful power play that hasn't been changed at any point, and a defesne, that unfortunately, is subpar. Turning point of this series was the meltdown after the 3-0 lead in game 1, that set the tone.

Now, here is my main problem with Renney. Aside from his stubborness to make a change on the PP and give players like Cally and Dawes time, and his absurd over playing of the 4th line all year long (esp that we had a player like Korpikovski down in Hartford when a useless turd like Hollweg was played all year long, and his monster 2 goals in 07-08 in the same period against Tampa)

Now, my main issue is this and why I think they wont win with Renney as coach (I give him credit for help turn this thing around, but I haven't seen enough from him to warrant another year): Renney had this team playing defensive hockey without the correct personell on the roster. That is the problem with this entire season. We never had the d to play 1-0 games all year long like Renney wanted, they are sloppy as hell in their own zone. It's also not coincidence that every offensive player on our team had a down year. With the players on our roster now, we need to play a more offensive game, end of story.

I dont think it's life or death if Renney stays or goes, but he has 1 more chance after this year. I like his demeanor, but I hate how he doesn't lose it or make adjustments when things like the PP dont work for, well, 91 games in a row.

As for off-seaosn moves, best comparison is we need a "Philadelphia Flyers" type makeover. We have key components like Gomez, Drury, Dubi, Dawes, Cally, Prucha, Staal, Tyuton, Girardi (I thought Tyuton and Girardi didn't have the type of year and playoff I expected, but they are young) We need to ONLY bring back Jagr, literally every other FA on our team should be gone. There isn't one reason to bring back a Rosival if all it would take is another 1-2 mill to get Cambell. Rosival is average..Defensively he turns the puck over all the time, he never shoots and when he does, misses the net far more than he hits it. Back to the makeover, we'll need size and speed up front, and bruisers defensively. Our soft d never clears anyone out of the crease, never punishes anyone, and are, for the most part, soft. Notice how getting Backman out and Struds in helped, but Struds can only hit. We to sign 2 strong d men, and 3-4 forwards, one of which must be a Gaborik\Hossa type player, someone who can bury the puck, and the other 3 need to be a Ryan Malone type guy.

Look, this team took to game 81 to clinch a playoff spot, they never really got going this year at any point, I think it shows that Sather and Renney overrated their team, and that they need major changes if they are going to beat the likes of Phily or Pittsburgh. Phily turned in around in one year from a bottom 3, we were minimal points from being the 1 seed, yet we need that type of makeover. I swear to god, if Sather brings Straka or Rosival, or Malik back I'm going to slap the living hell out of him, metaphorically speaking of course :)

Tough way to end the year, but I'm happy this happened as we needed a wakeup call for this team, to stop trying to get by with an average defense and a system that holds back all of their forwards. If Willie Randolph keeps his job after the worst collapse in the baseball histroy, then its safe to say Renney is back even tho I think they need the coaching change.

[adam]

Also, enough with the refs. I thought originally heading into the Pitt series that the refs could have a lasting effect on the series...And they did, they kept giving the Rangers PP opportunities, and that in the end was their downfall. It was the refs fault for calling penalties on Pitt and taking 5 on 5 away from us...

[Koz]

What about instant replay for high sticks causing blood so they can determine "whodunnit?"

There was a similar play in the Flyers/Candiens game where I think they ruled the puck hit someone in the face, when it looked like it was probably an opponent's stick.

Reality seems to be when there is doubt (like with two or more sticks in the area) referees tend to make no call. Again, looking at a replay there is certainly no doubt, but when things are all happening at once and next thing you know someone is bleeding, sometimes its too late to tell what happened. Also, these can happen away from the puck and fans of course see it, but the referees won't. This isn't the first time someone left the ice bleeding with no call being made and it won't be the last.

Also, do linesmen have any say in the matter?

[captjameson]

i don't share your sentiments either Dubi. i detest philthy and pitt fans and quite frankly i'm rooting for season ending injuries for both teams and the for the cup to venture west. the only solice i will take is hopefully Sather can pluck one of the ice ckikins UFAs away from them. Bettman has a serious problem on his hands if Hossa's goal came on an offsides play. there is not a single team through these playoffs that hasn't been scratching their heads and the apologist commentation on
VS. and NBC is sickening. it seems to me the best officiating tandem the rangers got in these playoffs was the fraser crew. they may call the "thunder bay rules" but at least they were consistent with their calls. this is a bitter pill to swallow and it is clear, going fwd, that any team on any given night has to be better than the officiting as well as the other team.

[Ryan Sevean]

I don't know if i am the only one who noticed it, but right before Malkin scored his goal, in the Pen end, gomez chased behind the net and ran into it, and it came off the moorings, but play continued up ice, and malkin winds up scoring. did fleury fix the net? did the ref skate over and fix it so not to stop the play? Why wasn't the play called dead and a face off in the neutral zone, as should have been the appropriate call.
I didn't see it because every replay I saw, the camera angle shows the net off, but then the net isn't in the picture so you don't see how it got fixed.
And the ref was looking at it the whole time. And of course, because it was NBC (National Broadcasting of Crosby) - they weren't going to say anything that the play should have died or the fact that they didn't even notice it.
Speaking of NBC - Doc Emerick is a boob. He was getting players names wrong all game long except for the stars. And they vanilla coat everything. No color analysis at all, no going against the grain or questioning a missed call or anything. Now, I didn't see the high stick on drury so I don't know how they covered up the refs mistake on that one, but there was stuff that kept me scratching my head that a good commentator would have questioned why something wasn't called or was.
There were no way the rangers were making it out of this series with the PP they had. Not enough shots. Not enough traffic in front of the net like game 4. They didn't have the killer instinct in game 1, when they were up by 3. They should have gotten to 10 before letting up.
enjoy the summer - I hope the Dallas Stars win it all. Mike Modano deserves another one. His wife is really HOT!!!

[NYRanger4Life]

Alan - no way are we going to sign Hossa, Malone, Orpik, Campbell and then re-sign Mara and Avery.... it just cant happen in the salary cap era.

[Jameson]

On the loss and the season being over...

It was such a roller coaster of a season. I feel so heart broken, I watched just about every game this year. Even listened when I didn't get the tv feed. But I'm proud of this team, if they get a bounce or two or a call or two yesterday this game is headed back to the garden with the Rangers having a chance to tie it. Despite them letting game 1 slip away and coming up just short in the next two there was no quit. We could've rolled over and died like the Senators did. But Shanahan was out there not missing a shift despite being just drained, Drury's out there playing his heart out, Straka and Jagr were skating like they're 20, and the kids were coming up huge. Lundqvist was huge the past two games. Seeing his reaction as the game winner went past him and his post-game press conference I felt sick to my stomach. Next year will be exciting, we should all take a step back and look at the way this team is built, we've got a great foundation for years to come.

[neil]

Hossa? really, oh the pain. let's not try and knee jerk panic on the players here, tyutin was very effective and is still quite young, sanguinetti could be the pp qb, staal is posed for a breakout season, we have hungry young players within the organization with pride for the jersey who will be an upgrade over a mercenary tin man like hossa.
as far as the nhl pr department influencing the refereeing, I must say that although it was frustrating and lopsided, we needed to get past it and capitalize with the pp, look at dallas with two goals called back and they bared down and took the series back!

[Sam]

No more hockey. =(

Rangers still had a good season despite the ups and downs. 3 consecutive playoff appearances and 2 straight Round 2 appearances. Hope the rookies had a real good post season experience and be hungry for it next year!

Bring Jags back, pleaseee.

[paulf]

Whatever with the refs, we got beat and I can't really say it was unjust. The Devils got favorable calls but we were better so it didn't matter. The Pens simply are a better team. They loaded up at the deadline with Hossa and Gill and it is working.

We just didn't have any answer for Crosby, Malkin and Hossa combined. Our hope was to outgoaltend them consistently, but we didn't in three of the games (not that Lundqvist was bad, or that the 2-0 game he did anything wrong, but Fluery pitched a shutout so by definition he was better that day).

The PP failure has nothing to do with strategy, we just lack a guy at the point who is dangerous. Hopefully Sanguinetti can be that guy for a decade. I don't think this team needs major surgery, but we do need another scoring forward and a PP defenseman. I think we can get a couple of big-tme players with the money saved by the departing Shanny, Straka, Malik and Mara (I expect).

There is no shame in not winning the Stanley Cup. We made the final eight, it was a good year. We developed a bunch of kids, and more are coming. The future looks bright.

[Dubi]

Joe in DE is right -- Every game was a one-goal game until fairly late in the proceedings, every game was up for grabs, and the Rangers could have taken some of them if only they could score a timely power play goal or two. The Pens are obviously loaded with talent, yet the Rangers were right there every single game. The Pens are clearly the better team, and yet the Rangers could have knocked them out with a few power play goals.

That said, the deciding factor in each game was an official's call, only one of which was a good call (though the jury is out on the offside call last night -- no replay has conclusive video evidence because none show where Dupuis's skates are). Yes, the Pens converted their power plays when they got them and the Rangers didn't (except for that one that whistled dead). The one times the Pens didn't convert (the penalty shot) is the one time they lost.

The Rangers could have won by reversing the special teams equation. Or if they got some of those calls. Pens' fans can crow about being the better team (even Crosby knows better -- "every game could have gone either way," he said), but they shouldn't be surprised if the breaks start going the other way and they start to lose.

The other big factor that someone pointed out was the trade deadline -- the Rangers got Backman, the Pens got Hossa. Probably the difference in overall talent level between the two teams right there. This is where it gets tricky -- this year vs. the future. Could the Rangers have afforded to give up those kinds of assets for just one playoff run? The Pens could because the drafted wisely with all their top ten picks, while the Rangers threw every one away. Not to mention that the Rangers might not have had the cap room.

[Chris QCT]

You know what's funny? The Philly fans were swearing that there was a conspiracy to help Montreal. They ain't seen nothing yet...

I know it was a missed call, but how do you explain to casual fans why there was no penalty when the ref has to stop the play because Drury is pouring blood from his face with replays showing he was clearly high sticked?

What bothers me the most is the utterly horrible PP that not only cost us this series, but was our achilles the entire season. I do not think a PP QB would have helped at all. Not when the philosophy and strategy behind the PP is flawed. The names have changed, but sadly the approach and results have not...and that is coaching. Dubinsky, Mara, and Backman all continued to pass the puck around just as much a Nylander did.

It also bothers me that we got to watch them slog through the season playing the stupid trap only to watch them blow a friggen lead in Game 1 and ruin the series.

And IMHO, Hollweg still deserves a plane ticket out of town.

[Paul R _ _ _ _ _ D]

5 months to see who stays who goes, 5 months to sit and sulk, 5 months to complain of the refs and the linesman, all this until we can do it again next season, well on the upside I have a lot more free time to study for my LSAT, and play with my son and maybe my wife won't be as upset with me because I am watching hockey. I hope we have something to look forward to next season.

[DC]

Ryan Sevean,
The correct call since the net gets knocked off it's moorings by Gomez, the wistle would have blown when the Rangers got possession of the puck. Since the Pens kept possession, the play was allowed to continue. I couldn't find the rule on NHL.com but I do believe I read it on TSN.com last night.

[Dubi]

Oh, by the way -- I didn't say I would enjoy watching the Flyers beat up the Pens, I said I was going to enjoy watching Flyers' fans beat up those idiot fans from Pittsburgh. As Ranger fans, we have to deal with Islander fans, Devil fans, Flyer fans, even the occasional foray from Habs fans. But I have never seen such poor behavior as I've seen from these two-faced fair weather bandwagoneers from Pittsburgh. And Flyer fans being what they are, they're not going to lay off the Pens fans the way we did. I don't care what happens on the ice other than not giving the idiots from Pittsburgh the satisfaction, but I'm going to keep my eye on the online bloodbath.