Could it really be just half a second.

While watching the Rangers muster no goals for the second game in a row I made a few observations. First off it is really starting to look like this team may click soon. Now this is the first time that I have said this mostly because of how skeptical I am as a ranger fan after watching teams that should be amazing fail. It really does look like passes are about half a second later than they should be. A lot of passes the rangers are making are ending up in players skates and become a turnover or stall the rush. This can be seen more often then not with passes leaving the defensive zone and on the powerplay. Now this is a combination of both bad passing and players being in the right place just a half second too early while finding a seem through the defense. It's time to start skating boys and its time to make decisions quicker because not only are the passes a little behind the players but the players are just a step behind a gimme goal or an amazing rebound in front of the net.

The second thing that I noticed is the rangers go back more often than any other team in the world. There is not a team in the NHL today that goes backwards as much as the Rangers do. This frustrates me to no end while watching the rangers play; always backwards letting the other team set up a trap. Every team in the league runs some variation of the trap and slowing things down and constantly passing back to the defensemen and trying to find an open player (which never works) is just wasting time. Get the puck across the redline and dump the puck then hustle and make something happen. Every once in a while passing back is fine but 5-7 times a game to find an opening is spending valuable time away from the scoring zone to play with the puck.

On the upside Nigel Dawes was the best player on the ice for the Rangers tonight. Except for a play early in the games where he fumbled the puck on the way out of the zone. This didn't hurt the team at all but it did make me angry none the less. Ryan Callahan also had a great chance on a rush. These are the type of players that need to start getting the puck into the net.


Looking on the ice tonight in a lot of situations tonight, I think Sather needs to consider talking to Dino Ciccarelli about coming out of retirement and standing in front of the net on the powerplay, because there is no one in front of the net on the powerplay. Prucha does a great job on the second unit, someone needs to do it on the first unit. Move Prucha up to the first unit or make one of your 5 shooters stand in front of the net. I just want to see the Rangers simplify their game and put the puck in the net. Send someone to the front of the net, hopefully Avery when he gets back and just screen the goalie don't really help out in the corner nothing but stand there. Maybe every once in a while play in the area around the trapezoid behind the net, other than that nothing but right at the edge of the crease.