The Game That Got Away

New York Rangers fans are irate about the way the 1-0 loss ended last night to the New Jersey Devils at Madison Square Garden. My immediate reaction was the same as all of the angry Rangers fans, that the refs were a bunch of morons, that the Rangers were robbed, etc, etc.

I'm not going to go into the many arguments and details of the play, because I'm sure that you have heard just about every take on the play from every person that watched the game.

What I will say, is that if the Rangers want to win games in the regular season, and even more importantly in the playoffs, they have to play a complete three periods.

Moshe and I had a conversation in the game thread about whether or not the Rangers played well last night. Moshe argued they did, I argued they did not, but we came to an agreement that they played well for parts of the game.

There lies the problem. Outside of the power play, the main problem for the Rangers is the inability to play a complete three periods is something the Rangers need to address. The lack of supplementary scoring to add to Marian Gaborik is something that needs to be addressed.

The problem with the call last night is not only that it cost the Rangers a point, but there's a large chance the Rangers will overlook their problems and chalk it up to bad ref'ing. I certainly hope not.