After a long battle, the Caps finally put the dagger in the Rangers season with a Sergei Federov goal with five minutes left in the game.
A few thoughts:
- I’m not gonna kill the refs. The call on Dan Girardi on Alex Ovechkin was weak, but nothing came of it.
- Sean Avery played his heart out and earned his roster spot.
- Wade Redden‘s lack of physical play cost the Rangers late — he needs to play the body, soft players = playoff defeats…ask Ottawa.
- Marc Staal continues to develop into a top defenseman.
- Henrik Lundqvist made five saves that again prevented a blowout.
- Hat tip to Michal Rozsival. I kill him all the time, but coming back after getting his legs busted up twice showed some pride and guts.
- Brandon Dubinsky and Ryan Callahan should be Rangers for life — but 3rd liners.
- In his limited time, good things seen out of Artem Anisimov — solid in both ends.
- Nik Zherdev played his best game, but still was a non-factor.
- This may have been the end of Derek Morris and Paul Mara, both UFA’s come July 1.
All this was positive, but the fact is, the Rangers weren’t good enough. They need to make a lot of improvements, and it starts up front.
It’s going to be an interesting offseason…
rangers are in bad shape financially the next four years. with wade redden signed up for another five years, this team will never play past the second round. in retrospect, the signings of drury and gomez are a big mistake. i love them, but they can’t win the big games by themselves. before they came to new york, they were just two cogs in machines that knew how to win. they were never ever depended to take the games into their own hands like messier or jagr could. in new york, they are asked to do more than they can do because of their hefty pay raises they received. we need help, but sather can’t keep throwing money at players. the organization might have dug themselves a huge hole. do we have to wait another 54 years for another cup? it looks like it.
Unfortunatley our season has come to an end. Thank you for all the hard work this season, all the pre-games, post-games, news, and highlights, Thank You. I appreciate the hard work and will stay tuned to snyrangerblog.com this offseason as the Rangers will make a few changes.