Rangers vs. Devils: Festivus Edition
Please let this be as bad as it gets. Please. We're begging.
- Yesterday, if you weren't already aware, was Festivus. I've got a lot of problems with this Rangers team. And now, you're going to hear about them. (You've already heard plenty about them, if we're being honest. But now you're going to hear about them again, because holy hell that game was atrocious.)
- I'm trying to remember a worse hockey game than what we witnessed against the Devils yesterday. I really am. I'm struggling to think of something worse. If it exists, I've washed it so completely from my memory that it's now lost to time. And that's probably for the better. If you can think of one, please don't remind me.
- Chris Kreider was a healthy scratch for the game. Ryan Mead of Blueshirts Breakaway was on this early. I can't argue against scratching Kreider. He hasn't been good. The problem is, most of this team hasn't been good. I feel I've beat this horse to death already, but the kids, namely Will Cuylle and Brett Berard, and the fourth line are the only ones who have showed any fight over the last week or so. So, if Laviolette wants to take Chris Kreider out of the lineup to send a message or whatever, fine. You want to hold players accountable for not being good enough? Great.
- But again, I have to ask: What exactly does Mika Zibanejad have to do, or not do as the case may be, to earn this treatment? What does Ryan Lindgren have to do? Laviolette is spinning the Wheel of Accountability here like it's the Wheel of Morality from Animaniacs, and the lessons we're being delivered are just as arbitrary and disconnected from what we've previously witnessed.
- At the end of the day, it didn't matter. No one responded to this move, and I'm not sure why anyone thought they would. It made no difference. The Rangers still went out, played heartless, lifeless, and utterly embarrassed themselves.
- There's no point in walking through every element of this game, so let's hit some of the low points of this one.
