The New York Rangers (20-18-5) lost tonight to the Tampa Bay Lightning (16-22-5) by a score of 4-3. Karri Ramo bounced back from an early mistake and made 31 saves, 12 in the third, snapping a seven-game losing streak for the Lightning. The Lightning had gone 0-5-2 following a win over Toronto on Dec. 20 that ended a 1-4-1 skid. Tampa Bay is last in the Eastern Conference with 37 points, and only Los Angeles has fewer in the NHL. The Rangers showed life after returning home from an 0-2-1 trip to western Canada, but couldn't finish the rally. Jaromir Jagr gave them a 1-0 lead in the first period, and Scott Gomez and Michal Rozsival scored power-play goals to get them closer. For a full recap go to Yahoo! Sports.
...I know we were undermanned tonight and made a valiant effort to comeback in the third period, but that's as bad as it gets. A loss at home to the second worst team in the NHL who is riding a seven-gaming losing streak. That is unacceptable. I don't care how many of the starters are injured.
...the Ranger's had a chance to bury this team early, as Tampa's goalie, who is horrendous (I'll talk more about that in my next post), gives them a gift goal to take a 1-0 lead. And what do we do against a now very rattled goalie? We proceed to only have 5 more innocent shots the rest of the period, while allowing Tampa to build a 2-1 lead.
...now to Tampa's goalie Ramo. This guy was god awful. He was fighting pucks all night, he couldn't make a clean stop to save his life and we can't put more than 3 goals past this guy. On the 5 on 3 in the third period I don't think we had a shot on goal. We kept going for the tip play. Why? If we would have just shot the puck on net I can guarantee you we would have scored. Instead the kid ends up with 31 saves and Tortorella says he was "spectacular." If we could only shoot the puck on goal Tortorella would be sending this kid back to the AHL.
...speaking of kids. Maybe ours aren't as good as we think they are. Dawes, Moore and Prucha were all invisible tonight. I'm starting to think the Rangers have it right by sending Dawes down to work on his overall game because his defensive lapse directly lead to the second goal when Ward cut behind him received the pass and then fed a wide open Gratton.
...Renney deserves some blame tonight for his overuse of the fourth line in the first period. Do you know they actually had more ice time than the first line in that period? I know that Renney likes to play matchups, but you can't have your first line, which was flying early in the first period, sitting on the bench with the likes of Hollweg and Orr getting extra PT. Bad job by Renney.
...now having said all that, the Rangers still would have won if it weren't for a few bad breaks in that third period. Mara hits the post, Jagr feeds Gomez on the doorstep for a tap-in, but Drury thought the pass was for him and tipped it wide, then Drury tips a perfect feed on the doorstep right into Ramo's sliding pad as the 5-hole is wide open.
...Oh yeah and if the Islanders win tonight the Rangers are in last place in the Atlantic Division.
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