Nobody should ride for free

Tortorella - New York Rangers

If you want to look at the Monday night game between the New York Rangers and the Washington Capitals in terms of "good news, bad news." The good news was that the Washington Capitals did not beat the New York Rangers because the bad news is the New York Rangers beat themselves.

If there's anything that can be taken out of the first two games of this playoff series, it is that there would be no excuse for the New York Rangers not to win this series.

The Rangers gave this game away plain and simple. And sure, give the Capitals credit for taking advantage of Ranger mistakes because that's what you're supposed to do.

Nobody expects mistake free hockey but at the same time after 90 games together as a team. You would think that the Rangers were smarter then they showed on Monday night.



If you look really close you can see the steam coming from Tortorella's head as you can't blame him at all for being mad at his players. This was a giveaway of a game because the players who are supposed to carry the team cost the team and more frustrating is that you don't want to give a team like the Capitals any kind of confidence that they can beat you.

All 3 Capital goals were the result of Ranger mistakes that were preventable if the players used their brains. Take away the brain farts and the Ranger's win this game going away.

The most frustrating part of this game had to be the number of chances that the Rangers failed to take advantage of as there were at least four good scoring chances in the first period alone that the Rangers let slip away.

The Rangers outplayed the Capitals in every area except on the scoreboard, and perhaps in the hearts and minds of the referees. What exactly does Brian Boyle have to do to get a call?

Brian Boyle could get shot, stabbed, electrocuted, drowned, and other assorted things and still wind up being the one called for a penalty. If you haven't guessed, yes the holding the stick call Boyle was called for was as bogus a call as one gets.

Can't say the same thing however on the call that Brad Richards got hit with because, yes that was a penalty and a dumb one for him to take.

Maybe the most frustrating part about Monday's game was that you saw all the chances that the Rangers had despite being down 2-0 to win this game. You would've thought that the Rangers would've picked up on what they did in game one and continued to use those tactics.

But at the same time John Tortorella, if you don't have any confidence in Stu Bickel then you need to replace him with either Steve Eminger or if need be call up somebody from the AHL. Five defenseman doesn't work and you gonna burn out what you have before the series gets past five games.

Same thing for the fourth line as Washington's fourth line wound up with almost double the ice time that the Rangers fourth line did. We can understand shortening the benches, but using them for less than 5 minutes screams that you need to get three other people who you believe in playing there.

There was no excuse for the Rangers losing this game as the Rangers made the Capitals looks so much better as a team, then they truly are. It's time for the coach to kick the passengers off the bus, and put on the ice those who want to play.