We're going to let Tom Renney deal with the turnovers, with the Rangers' inability to get out of their own zone or even across the red line, or to protect themselves from any semblance of physical play. We'll let him deal with the penalties, penalty killing, and power play, all of which were exposed to the harsh light of the nearly unbeatable 25-6-3 Ottawa Senators in a 6-2 final that wasn't nearly as close as the score might indicate. He will certainly have his hands full there, especially if Jaromir Jagr suffers any lasting effects from the neck sprain he sustained in a second period collision.
We're going to stick to one subject, the one that might have put the Rangers in position to absorb this humbling defeat -- the inexplicable choice to start Kevin Weekes in goal, accompanied by an explanation that conceded defeat before the match even began. Tom Renney had in his stable a netminder who had won the only game the Rangers won in the past four, had been first star in that game, had been garnering rave reviews almost every time out on the ice in this his rookie season not just for his work in net but for his poise and presence, and had in the process compiled stats equal to those of the All-World keeper tending the nets of the 25-6-3 Senators.
But Renney decided to protect Henrik Lundqvist from the Senators. "I thought it would be in Henrik's best interests to watch this attack," Renney said before the game. "I thought it would be better for Kevin, as a veteran NHL goaltender, to see a team with a lot of shooters and a lot of firepower and give ourselves a chance to win off his experience, as opposed to somebody's lack therein." Translation: He knew they were going to get spanked badly and wanted to spare the rookie Lundqvist from the possible ego-bruising.
Despite all the evidence to the contrary. Despite Weekes's sum total of NHL experience that said he was ill-equipped to handle this kind of firepower. Despite his abyssmal career record vs. Ottawa of 0-7-4 with a 4.42 goals against average. Despite Lundqvist's shake it off and bounce back personality, lack therein of NHL experience notwithstanding. Despite the obvious fact that the Rangers play better in front of Lundqvist than Weekes. Despite the obvious fact that Lundqvist is simply a better goaltender.
Unfortunately, it took the evidence of four goals in fifteen minutes for Renney to turn over the reins to Lundqvist anyway, a move which though it had to of course be made laid bare the pre-game rationale for what it was, a concession -- if the idea was to protect Lundqvist from the Senators, an attack that was so potent in this game that the Rangers and Weekes were completely overwhelmed, why throw Lundqvist to the wolves after the horse was already out of the barn with nothing left to gain and those same things left to lose that he was afraid of losing before the game began?
Lundqvist of course did not wilt under the pressure. He didn't let himself get beaten by all those point shots, except the one that bounced in off a defenseman's back. All four of Weekes's goals against were generated by point shots, three directly, one off a rebound. Although it's hard to imagine Lundqvist allowing any of those in, let's say he stops half and is victimized by half the way Weekes was, what with the Rangers playing like chickenheads in front of him. The score would still be 2-2 and the Rangers would be in the game, no matter how bad it looked
Because no matter how bad it looked, there is always Philadelphia. You remember Philadelphia, opening night, Rangers on the verge of being blown out by the high flying Flyers, the way everyone expected the Rangers to be blown out in the ensuing 81 games as well. The Rangers held off the Flyer power play and came back to win. Energized by a goaltender able to keep them in the game -- and isn't that a big part of a goalie's job description? -- the Rangers could have turned things around. Maybe not, but things couldn't possible have gone worse, could they?
On top of which, Renney chose rookies Maxim Kondratiev and Ryan Hollweg to play ahead of veterans Jason Strudwick and Ville Nieminen, and those two were among the handful of players who showed up for this game, along with Petr Prucha and Martin Straka.
Starting Lundqvist would have given the Rangers a chance to get in this game, the way he gave them a chance to stick with Vancouver after a rocky start to that game. Starting Weekes was conceding defeat before the drop of the opening puck. Tom Renney likes to say that a lot of what an NHL coach does comes from the gut. He didn't need to use his gut tonight -- the choice was clear all along.
New York area game reports from the Post, News, Newsday, and Journal News. Even the Ottawa game reports wonder why Weekes started ahead of Lundqvist -- the Ottawa Sun leads off with, "Renney elected to start journeyman Kevin Weekes, despite the fact Weekes is winless (0-7-4) against the Senators. The decision left super rookie Henrik Lundqvist on the bench. Not for long though." The Ottawa Citizen reported that "Renney attempted to shield blame from Weekes," which really means shield blame from himself for choosing "surprise starting goaltender Kevin Weekes." Game report in the Globe and Mail too, as well as a nice (despite the game outcome) profile at Slam! Sports of the Rangers' "Off-Broadway" contributors.
Thank you very much for putting this farce of a "goalie contreversy" into light. I have no idea why Weekes gets the call for this game and why Renney is still using a goalie carousel. As you said, "Despite the obvious fact that Lundqvist is simply a better goaltender." That's all that needs to be said and it should be just as obvious to everyone else.
Posted by: Ed McGrogan | December 27, 2005 at 12:32 PM
i think its time to call a spade a spade here - Renney must be looking for any excuse to keep Kevin Weekes as the No. 1 goalie. Or maybe he's doing it to keep Weekes *thinking* he is the No. 1 goalie here. Maybe he's doing it subconciously. But its certinaly against all the weight of the evidence. I just don't understand why they are treating Lundqvist like he's an 18-yr-old who needs to be protected.
Posted by: [saget] | December 27, 2005 at 12:36 PM
At least I feel endorsed of my own thoughts when reading both Dubi's take and Saget's comments. I said out loud when Weekes started, What is Renney thinking? When we actually had the lead, I said to my son, "don't let that fool you. Don't get comfortable, it will not hold up."
Had to watch the Sen's broadcast team on NHL Center Ice. They pointed out the Ranger's conceding the point to the Sen's PP and said this is a big mistake. Boy were they right! They also pointed out that the Ranger's duo of Jagr and Prucha accounted for 35 percent of all Ranger goals. May now even be higher after Prucha's 17th last night. Hope Jags is not hurt too badly. Best to put this game behind us now but the Win/Loss record of the past 5 games can't be overlooked. This team is in trouble for the first time this year.
Posted by: Bob Merchant | December 27, 2005 at 12:49 PM
Agreed on the goalie controversy or would should be a lack there of. I want to talk about something else though. Should Giroux, Dawes or Immonen be called up? Hossa was getting unearned time on the 2nd line last night. What did he do with that time? Jack squat. He failed to make a single play, in fact, he made that first of three turnovers in the Rangers' zone that led to a goal when a simple outlet pass would have led to a 3 on 1. Petr Prucha has proved to be a threat on the 2nd line but I think Dawes or Giroux would make that 2nd line more potent, with my personal preference being Dawes. I would like to see Immonen up too but that would call for Rucchin to be scratched or moved from center, an unlikely thing. Thoughts?
Posted by: OHBABY81787 | December 27, 2005 at 02:53 PM
I have to wonder if Renney was told to play Weekes instead of Lundqvist. Remember that someone other than Renney signed Weekes to be the No. 1 goalie on this team and that someone is Renney's boss.
Posted by: Rich | December 27, 2005 at 05:30 PM
Renney was not told from above to start Weekes, that much I can assure you. He has complete control of the team.
Renney said just recently that the Rangers need both goalies going well in order to succeed, and he's right about that. That's why he will not take a chance on letting Weekes grow stale by riding Lundqvist too hard.
And I have to say, to a degree, he's 100% correct.
But this was not a case of giving Weekes some work to keep him sharp -- this was Weekes's third start in four games, and with all the days off recently, Lundqvist started only twice in the past 18 days.
Since Dec 8th, Lundqvist is 2-1-0 with eight goals against in 110 shots over 225 minutes (.927 save %, 2.13 GAA). Weekes is 1-3-0 (the only win that ugly OT win over lowly St. Loo) with 12 goals against in 104 shots over 200 minutes (.885 save %, 3.6 GAA).
Talk all you want about the lack of scoring and power play struggle, but a hugh reason for the recent 1-4 swoon can be seen in the numbers above (Henrik is 1-1, Weekes is 0-3).
Posted by: Dubi | December 27, 2005 at 06:23 PM
I was away and didn't get to see the game. It pains me to think that Renney was coaching scared by using Weekes, but how else to explain it? At this point it has to be a given that Lundquist is No. 1, and Weekes is a veteran back-up to give him a rest when needed.
A few quick questions: what type of penalties were the Rangers taking -- ie. were they senseless, lazy penalties? were they necessary to prevent scoring chances? What happened with the PK? Anyone in particular not effective? Did Ottawa look out of our league, or is this a team that, with a few adjustments, we could be competitive with down the road?
Posted by: throwaway | December 27, 2005 at 09:04 PM
Throwaway, consider yourself fortunate that you did not have to watch the game. If my memory serves me correct, Rosival started the parade to the box with under a minute gone by in the first. He put the puck on one of the Sen's sticks right in the slot and then had to hook the player down to prevent him from having a gimme. Someone correct me if I'm wrong about identifying Rosy as the perp on that giveaway. Heck I was just settling to my seat when the chaos started. Kasper was called for boarding about 3 minutes after Rosival. I thought its was a love tap, No way I said to myself. At the end of the first, we had 4 sent to the box and the Sens just one in the sin bin. The PK was awful as we held our tight little box and the Sens were free to roam the blue line firing away. 42 seconds after the Sens goal, we came right back with a long blast from Straka followed 5 minutes later by Prucha. We must have made them mad, at that point the Sens buried Weekes with 3 goals in under 5 minutes. If Hank did not take over this easily would have been a double digit embarrassment. After the first we only had two more penalties to the Sen's five. The damage had already been done and by the end of one the game was lost. We looked like a high school team against the Red Army team. It was that one sided. Near the end the Sen's broadcasters said, "You can tell the Rangers just want this to end and get the heck out of here." That may not be an exact quote but pretty close. It will be interesting if the boys can bounce back from having what I will call the worst performance of the year.
BTW ED, sorry I overlooked your name when Commenting earlier. I agree with you, Dubi and Saget but left you out by accident.
Posted by: Bob Merchant | December 27, 2005 at 10:22 PM
Ok so while everyone has walked right into the Renney trap and is talking about the choice of Weekes as the starter last night I will talk about what nobody else is talking about.
Think about it as even Dubi himself choose to dwell on the Weekes decision instead of those turnovers, instead of those stupid penalties that this team took, instead of how the Sens totally manhandled the Rangers without not a single peep from the team.
By the time I got here all people talked about was Weekes in goal. Give Renney credit as he suckered everyone.
Now the part nobody wants to hear: It didn't matter who the Rangers started in goal last night. Lundqvist could have started and the results still would have been the same. They still would have been badly beaten.
Weekes did not take the Rozsival penalty 45 seconds into the game did he? Nor did Weekes take Tom Poti's penalty which gave the Sens the 5 on 3 which took the Sens all of 4 seconds to score on did he?
People keep focusing on Weekes but you know what Weekes in my book is taking one for the team not only last night but also today. Everyone is so busy blaming Weekes that the reasons that should have been focused on have been ignored.
Congrats to Coach Renney on his solid strategy on how to buffalo everyone into talking about Weekes instead of what really caused this defeat: the piss poor team effort.
For getting people's attention onto Weekes instead of the 3 turnovers that led to the Redden's 2nd goal or the dumb pass that allowed Fisher to score the last goal unassisted.
I am sorry I am a big Lundqvist fan but last night he too would have given up just as many goals as Weekes did given the way the Rangers played.
Now if only Renney can learn how to coach the way he buffaloed Ranger fans
Posted by: Jess | December 27, 2005 at 10:39 PM
Jess, I'm not sure I understand how or why Renney buffaloed anyone on the Weekes issue. His comments about Lundqvist were made before the game, not after -- afterwards, he said exactly what you said, that it wasn't Weekes's fault but the players for their penalties and turnovers.
I chose to home in on his Lundqvist comments because I feel the effort last night (or lack therein) was guaranteed when the coach himself conceded the contest in advance by explaining why he made that choice in net.
I'm not letting Renney or anyone else off the hook for the effort, nor am I making Weekes the scapegoat -- I'm putting the responsibility squarely on the shoulders of the coach for setting the tone before the game even began.
Posted by: Dubi | December 27, 2005 at 11:09 PM
No doubt about it. The loss is squarely on Renney's shoulders for a number of reasons. Starting Weekes over Lundquist was not the only blunder. How about the lack of physical presence? We have none as Renney continues to dress awful Hossa instead of inserting Orr . How about Strudwick for Roszi or Kondratiev for more muscle?
After all you don't see Ottawa sitting McGrattan just because they are playing the softest team in the NHL. Right now folks we are the softest team in the NHL by a mile.
Watching Neil and then Fisher lambast Kasparaitis with not one Ranger teammate coming to his aid is symptomatic of a failed Renney philosohy . He simply does not believe in physical presence on this team or insisting that players stick up for each other.
Renney's go easy approach in practices was also evident as this team was not mentally or physically ready to play.
Posted by: Tony M | December 28, 2005 at 07:23 AM
Tonym has it right. Dubi was also right on that Renney conceded the game even before it began.We are the least physical pro hockey team I have ever seen. We play soft because we are soft.We have players who could help[Orr, Weller, Liffton, Grenier]. They never get a chance. Maybe these guys are not Beukeboom but are they so much worse than some of the ineffevtive guys we have been playing{Hossa, Niemanan, Rucchin, Poti]?You always need 2 goalies, my choice #1 Lundquist, #2 Weeks.now lets get a better team to help these guys. Surley losing 4 of the last 5 to better teams shold be indicative that we need help.
Posted by: brooklyn toni | December 28, 2005 at 10:26 AM
Bob Merchant I saw the game as you did in that the Rangers were totally outplayed,totally onesided. Can you or anyone else explain why Renney today and Rucchin yesterday were saying they were proud to realize that Ottowa was not that much better than the Rangers 5 on 5 and only the penalties separated the teams, Not on my tv. The Rangers were outplayed, outphysicalled and outclassed.Rucchin and Renney made these comments on MSG in interviews after the game. Jess God must love you to have spared you watching this debaucle.
Posted by: brooklyn toni | December 28, 2005 at 10:44 AM
You guys must have hit your heads ! You think most of the players are still from Canada ?
LOL...the game has changed , my favorite sport is dead (sigh) .Now we have NHL light.
I'm still a fan.
Posted by: jersey jay | January 01, 2006 at 04:32 PM
You guys must have hit your heads ! You think most of the players are still from Canada ?
LOL...the game has changed , my favorite sport is dead (sigh) .Now we have NHL light.
I'm still a fan.
Posted by: jersey jay | January 01, 2006 at 06:53 PM