The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result. In the memorable flick Groundhog Day, Bill Murray faced the same things over and over, day after day, with nothing changing. Sound familiar? In the world of the New York Rangers, the Coaching staff keeps playing the same players expecting a different result. See the opening sentence. It is insanity as seen by any fan, with a rudimentary knowledge of the game.
Dan Girardi has never been the same player in my humble opinion since the Los Angeles Kings exposed him mercilessly in the finals a couple of seasons back. And this season his play has been screaming, I’m done. Today against San Jose was another cold hard reminder. On the second San Jose goal Girardi was beat like a piece of round steak. It was a all to common, stick out like a sore thumb, game changing blunder. NHL defensemen can not allow opposing forwards to go around them in a one on one situation. What happened after? Zero, zip, nada, nothing, that’s what happened. Girardi was right back out there next shift. When the same player continues to negatively change the momentum in hockey games and keeps jumping over the boards. Well see sentence one, pertaining to the definition of insanity.
The third goal against was a classic example of the lack of attention to detail that has plagued the Rangers all year. Hockey 101, if you have no play at the other teams blue line, get the puck deep. Kevin Hayes didn’t and the hockey gods saw fit to make the Rangers pay. Teams that make those types of self inflicted errors are invariably on the outside looking in, when all the marbles are in the circle. Hayes has struggled all year with consistency. He seemed to have found it centering Stalberg and Lindbergh on what had been a pretty good line, prior to the arrival of Eric Staal. Now he is back in flounderville, on the wing, resembling a candidate to replace the industrious Oscar Lindberg in the cheap seats.Â
And its not all on Hayes, the whole team has been making those silly little mental errors all season. And as I said earlier, you might make the playoffs, but you ain’t going anywhere unless unforced mental errors are eliminated. The coaching staff has to put a stop to the mental errors. Or it’s going to be a quick playoff toodle do.
The Rangers have to be asking themselves if they can win as the playoff series go on, with Girardi in the lineup. The answer as the season ticks down to it’s ending dinger is, he’s going to make the same type of mistakes. In other words he is going to cost you. But it won’t matter because he will be playing and how crazy is that?
PIT
CBJ
PHI