Another Garden Embarrassment

Last night, I was in attendance at Madison Square Garden to watch the Rangers fumble away a must-win game against the worst team in the Eastern Conference. The 5-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes was the Rangers' fourth consecutive loss in regulation and dropped their record at home to a dismal 12-13-4.

The thing that stood out the most to me during the game was hearing Rangers fans chanting "We Suck!" in their own arena. The Canes scored twice within the first 4 minutes of the game, and immediately after, the "Fire Sather!" chants began. At the end of the third period, the Garden faithful were dueling over their favorite baseball teams!! BASEBALL IN JANUARY?!?!

That's how bad things have gotten at the world's most famous arena. Overall, the Rangers are still 24-23-7 and in 8th place, worthy of the final playoff spot in the East. While that may be, the Rangers are clearly spiraling in the wrong direction. If there's one word to describe this team, it's Inconsistent.

Merely a week ago, the Rangers scored 14 goals in 5 periods while dismantling the Canadiens and Lightning at MSG. Since that game, the Rangers have scored three times in 12 periods. They beat Montreal 6-2 at the Garden then lost to the same team 6-0 up north a week later. That's inconsistent.

With the Olympic break coming up and the trade deadline on March 3rd, it's safe to say the Rangers need to make some changes. They need another scorer if they want to compete in the East with teams like Washington and Pittsburgh. The Rangers are extremely soft and often show a lack of desire to finish checks and forecheck the whole game. They need to obtain a guy who checks all game long and can also create some offense (Dustin Brown anyone?).

A friend of mine and I had a chat the other day about who the Rangers need to keep and who needs to go. Out of the list of keepers, we came up with Marion Gaborik, Brandon Dubinsky, Ryan Callahan, Sean Avery, Marc Staal, Michael Del Zotto, and Henrik Lundqvist for sure. After watching last night, I might even consider taking of Del Zotto for the right deal. However, if the Rangers are going to trade for a big scorer, they'll likely have to give up Dubinsky or Callahan.

In the end, the Rangers have a few key forwards, two to four young defensemen, and a solid goaltender (who actually looked pretty bad last night). If the Rangers want to be successful, they have to re-tool and get some key role players. The first guy that needs to go though, is probably Glen Sather. Until that happens, I don't see the Rangers getting deep into the playoffs.