Blueshirt Boggle

Lemieux Shocker: Pot Calls Kettle Black

Stop the presses! Mario Lemieux is worried about the integrity of the game. So much so, he is even suggesting that he cannot be part of it any more. Especially after having to endure it for the two decades since he called the NHL a "garage league" (although I don't recall seeing him put a garage league asterisk next to the two Stanley Cups he won since making that remark).

Mario, I have three words for: Pot, meet Kettle.

Lemieux of course is angry about his precious Penguins getting roughed up by the big bad Islanders Friday night in a game his team lost 9-3, trailing 6-0 barely more than one period in even before all the nonsense broke out. Now far be it for me, a Ranger fan who despises the Islanders even when they do good things, to rush to their defense when they do (admittedly) bad things, like Max Talbot sucker-punched and some other guy I never heard of blindsided in the head.

But Lemieux's two-faced whine is equally as galling.

Mario, where was your outrage when Talbot blindsided Comeau? Where was your outrage not only at your player's headhunting, but at his getting away without even being penalized, let alone suspended? That was one of the reasons the Islanders were so hepped up at getting at Talbot.

And if you're all hot and bothered about the sucker punch Talbot turtled on, why did we not hear a peep from you when your guy Jordan Staal suckered Brandon Prust? Where was your indignation at the NHL rescinding Staal's automatic one-game suspension, blaming the victim for diving, despite the indisputable fact that the dangerous sucker punch was in fact delivered?

And where was your outrage when your resident dirtbag Matt Cooke ran the Isles' goalie and your goalie skated the length of the ice to fight said goalie and break his face with one punch? Where was your concern about the integrity of the game safety of the players when your players were the one committing the sins, and getting away with them?

There's a word for that. To paraphrase a TV pundit, it's a word that rhymes with schmipocrisy. Or as many others say, you can dish it out, but you sure can't take it.

That was your Matt Cooke who was not even in the line-up against the Isles because he was suspended for plastering Fedor Tyutin into the glass from behind with a charge -- he took ten strides from the red line to the end boards to deliver that hit on the former Ranger defenseman. Where was your outrage that the monstrous "Cookie" only got four games for that, the same length given Daniel Paille for his first offense, after getting nothing for his latest kneeing, this one on Alex Ovechkin.

I guess it was in the same place where you left your outrage when Cooke blindsided Marc Savard right off the ice on a stretcher and right out of his career. The same Matt Cooke who was suspended two games for blindsiding the Rangers' Artem Anisimov last year. The same Matt Cooke who has a highlight reel more than four minutes long filled with head shots, knee shots, and in one case a kick to the head of a goalie (view the video here).

Sure, some of those "highlights" were from his years before coming to Pittsburgh. But you, Mario, signed this sociopath as a free agent, giving more than a million a year to a guy who has never scored more than 15 goals in a season, only once more than 30 points in a season, a guy you re-signed at the start of this season and are paying more than two million in cold hard greenback dollars. The kind of marginal player who targets skill players that you used to rail against -- this one targeting them not with hooks and holds but with elbows and knees meant to injure.

And while we're at it, let's go back in time. I expressly remember Mario the Magnificent striding to the podium to express his disappointment that the NHL did nothing about Malkin repeatedly slewfooting the Rangers' Paul Mara during a playoff game. I remember the outcry from his office when Malkin got a penalty shot in that same game after a clean hit, for a reason that to this day has never been explained by the NHL.

And I remember Mario running down to the ice to exhort the officials to call his player for a high stick when Chris Drury was bleeding profusely from the high stick Ryan Malone inflicted upon him that not one of the four zebras saw even though 20,000 viewers did. And I remember him running down a second time in that game to exhort them to give Drury the same leeway when he high-sticked Malone.

No, I'm kidding. Mario gladly accepted both the non-call on Malone and call on Drury that went his team's way without issuing a statement about the integrity of the league and the safety of the players.

Mario Lemieux worried about integrity. What a laugh. This from the guy who went to Pittsburgh after they tanked the regular season in order to be in position to draft him -- an act so unsportsmanlike that the league had to create a new rule to keep it from happening again. And this from the guy whose team is so obviously favored by the league and refs that sympathizers have to write exhaustive statistical studies proving that that is not the case.

And how about that Sidney Crosby tirade that HBO caught on tape after he was hit with a penalty, aimed at an NHL referee and laced with more F-bombs than allowed by the laws of physics? Or Crosby whining to the ref about not getting a penalty shot after drawing a penalty with an obvious dive? Or Cooke's ceaseless assault on the refs about how much he was being victimized while continuing his relentless assault on his fellow players?

Where was all your indignation, Marion, when it was your players threatening the integrity of the game and the safety of opposing players?

Take your puck and go home, Mario. Never mind that your pooh widdow Penguins lead the league in fights, in major penalties, in minor penalties -- by a wide, wide margin. You have no problem with integrity and safety when your players are throwing the headshots and punches. But god forbid anyone should touch your precious Penguins!

Patience Still a Virtue (Mostly)

The big surprise this season is not that the Rangers have lost five games in a row, it's that they have gone this deep into the season before sustaining their first such streak. You'd be wealthy if Vegas had extended odds on that happening and you took that bet back at the start of the year.

This season has been about developing a team. Developing teams go through such growing pains. The Rangers have remarkably been immune to it until now. And still, every one of these losses has been a one-goal loss, with real chances to pull a rabbit out a hat every step of the way.

And that's with a pair of rookie defensemen (Sauer and McDonagh) hunkered down on the second unit, making smart steady plays most of the way. And with a pair of rookie forwards (Stepan and Zucarrello) forming the nucleus of the most consistent forward line, the one that has been most effective on the forecheck.

And that's with a pair of former fourth line forwards early in the second hundred games of their careers (Prust and Boyle) stepping up to energize the team in all three zones. And with a pair of sophomore offensive defensemen going through the ups and downs of becoming major league blueliners.

This losing streak is no reason to press the panic button. This is not the time for the faithful to test their patience. We wouldn't have wanted the youth movement unplugged had these losses come in October or November, so let's not allow that to happen now just because the playoffs have unexpectedly come into sight.

On the other hand, there is the coaching. John Tortorella pushed all the right buttons all season long. He insisted the young guys get the chance. He insisted a Six Million Dollar Man on defense be banished to the minors and went with the untested Sauer right from the get-go. He demoted his $7 million captain to the fourth line to keep the upstart youngsters up front on the ice.

And he got them through a serious rash of injuries. By sticking to his work ethic and his system, they came back from one deficit after another, and kept doing it through one devastating injury after another. Dubinsky and Callahan carried the team through Gaborik's early season absence, and everyone else carried their load when they went down.

But now Tortorella has to step up to the plate. Marty Biron played well enough in Detroit to gloss over the foolhardiness of keeping Lundqvist on the bench two and a half straight games after one bad outing. The impact on Lundqvist's confidence remains to be seen -- as much of a competitor as he is, he may yet make Tortorella look like a genius while I eat my words.

The power play is different story, though. If there is one area where a coach has the ability to make an impact, it's on the power play. Numerous chances to complete the comebacks in all of the recent losses were squandered with the man advantage. The latest example was last night -- three minors, two of them overlapping, in the closing minutes of the one-goal loss to Detroit.

When you get one shot on goal every 65 seconds at even strength but only one shot on goal every 115 seconds with a one- or two-man advantage, it's no wonder the coach eventually sends out his third line on the power play to play their usual five-on-five game. But that just underscores the continuing failure to make a difference on the power play in more traditional ways via coaching.

You also have to wonder what game Tortorella watched last night after he called out Prust and Dubinsky for errors leading to goals, errors that just weren't there. On the first Detroit goal, he said Prust made a blind pass into the middle -- in fact, Boyle was stripped by Datsyuk behind the Ranger net and then he failed to stick with the ultimate goal scorer as the play went to the net.

On the second Detroit goal, Tortorella said Dubinsky blew his coverage, forcing Prospal to have to race over to pick up his man. In fact, Dubinsky was covering down low for Prospal, who was out by the blue line. The blown coverage was Prospal's, not Dubinsky's -- and then, after the turnover, Dubinsky stuck with his man, who had no part in the scoring, while Prospal let his man go, and that's who scored the goal.

Then there is the ongoing Gaborik situation. Kudos to Tortorella for getting significant ice time to the guys who are actually making things happen -- Step and Zuke, Cally and Dubi, Wolski and Avery, Prust and Boyle. And for the most part sticking with the line combinations that work best, though he juggles them eventually when there is no need to do so.

Meanwhile, the utterly useless Christensen centers Gaborik. And just what is up with Gaborik? As time wound down on the Rangers' last power play, there was a moment where he had a chance to get to a puck at the left point, but he never hustled and allowed Zetterberg to get there first and clear.

Tortorella has to get Gaborik more ice time and a better center -- two birds that can easily be killed with one stone by benching Christensen and moving Dubinsky to the middle, where he has a history of working well with goal-scoring right wingers like Jagr and Zherdev.

Tortorella was working on a bona fide case for the Adams Trophy for his work with this young, injury-decimated corps of players. Now he has to compelte the case by a) getting a viable power play on the ice, b) getting Gaborik a viable center, c) ceasing to call out key contributors when they didn't even do anything wrong, and d) ceasing to put Lundqvist's long-term confidence at risk with short-term thinking (though the jury is out on that one).

Random Boggles

Don't Touch That Dial: There is just no turning off a Ranger game. Regardless of the score, the Rangers continue to rule the third period of games. They have the best point percentage in the NHL when leading after two (19-0-0) and the best winning percentage when trailing after two (7-14-3 for .292, although Boston edges them out for best point percentage, .368 to .354).

Last night, down by three, they came within a last second goalpost of taking the Devils into overtime. Before the All-Star break, they came within Artem Anisimov's back of coming back to take Florida into OT. And that was after coming back in the third period of each of their two previous games to win.

But despite the continued comebacks, slippage is seeping in. Last night was the fifth time in the last nine games the Rangers found themselves behind by two or three goals at some point. Four of five times, they came back in the third period to within a goal or to tie. But they ended up losing all five.

In their game against Pittsburgh, the Rangers blew a two-goal lead for only the fourth time this season (the other three times were all against the Islanders in two separate games, including their only blown third period lead of any kind back in the second game of the season). They did come back to tie and take the game to a shootout, where they lost.

The overall picture: the Rangers remain competitive until the final buzzer, but they are falling behind more frequently and as a result coming up short more often than they did previously. In their first 34 games, they trailed entering the third period on 12 occassions and went 4-7-1 in those games (a .375 point percentage). They have been behind entering the third period an equal number of times in the 20 games since, going 3-7-2 (a .333 point percentage).

No Gift of Gab: Waiting for Marian Gaborik to score that last goal that completes those comebacks has become a losing proposition. He did it once against Washington when a shot caromed in off his arm, but that's it. His 33 points in 40 games is only the third worst pace of his career, though it's the first time he's below a point per game since the lockout.

But aside from 10 goals and 13 points in three games, he has just 6 goals and 20 points in his other 37. He has just two goals in 14 games since New Year's Day other than his four-goal outing against Toronto. I am on semi-forced hiatus from my blogging gig at MSG.com for worrying about Gaborik having slowed down, perhaps due to injuries. Whatever the reason, he is just not the explosive skater and shooter he was last season.

As in past seasons, almost all wins and losses can be pinned to the success or failure of the power play to score the key goal. They got the equalizer against Pittsburgh, but that was the only goal in nine minutes on the power play from the moment Jordan Staal took his match penalty, including a short two-man advantage. They came within one of the Devils after converting a five-on-three but could not tie in three subsequent advantages.

One may be tempted to wonder what the coaches are doing about the flagging power play. But without increased production from Gaborik, it's too much to ask for very much more from the rest of the crew, who are already overachieving. Gaborik has just one power play goal since late December, and it came with the Rangers already comfortably routing Toronto (though to be fair he does have four power play assists in that time).

Face-Off Mess: Hard to believe the Rangers aren't the worst team in the league on face-offs, but they are third-worst. And that's despite the coaching from Mark Messier. They would in fact be worst without Chris Drury's 56.2% record. Other than Drury and Brandon Dubinsky (who otherwise plays on the wing) at just over the 50-50 mark, all other Rangers who have taken over a hundred draws are well below the breakeven point.

Interestingly, face-offs are not hurting the power play. They are slightly better than 50% when up a man, led by Dubinsky's remarkable 64% win rate -- and Dubinsky has taken 35% of the power play draws. Dubinsky is also nearly 60% at home overall and close to 40% on the road, suggesting that he needs to just concentrate harder in all situations.

Serving Youth: With his relegation to face-off specialist, penalty killer, and fourth liner, there has been more attention paid to Drury's decline than ever. John Tortorella has been the first Ranger coach in memory to make decisions based on performance rather than reputation, name, or salary. He will have to make the tough decision on Drury the next time a forward comes off the injured list -- or, at least, the next forward not named Erik Christensen.

Actually, that's my opinion, not the coach's, who said today that Christensen will replace Drury in the next game in Montreal. Drury apparently has a wonky knee -- with his no movement clause precluding assignment to the minors and a trade not possible at his salary (even if he approved it), I have long said the best move is to find a way to get Drury on IR to take advantage of the long-term injury exception to free up his cap hit.

Despite my longstanding preference to go with youth over veterans and my early-season criticism of Steve Eminger, I am quite surprised and a little unhappy at his benching since the All-Star break in favor of the increasingly erratic Mike Del Zotto. I get that Tortorella wants Del Zotto to help jump-start the power play, and I'm thrilled that Ryan McDonagh (who should have made the team out of training camp) was not the defenseman scratched.

But at this moment, Eminger helps the Rangers more than Del Zotto, and down the road, Del Zotto will help the Rangers more with more seasoning in the AHL. Especially when you see what they've done with McDonagh and Mike Sauer down there.

Salary Crap: The struggles of Gaborik and Drury underscore the astonishing disparity between salary and scoring on this Ranger team. The six highest-paid forwards, who earn a combined 28 million cap dollars this season (though not all of it hits the salary cap because of injury and waiver exceptions), have combined for 29 goals and 82 points (more than half the goals and 40% of the points from Gaborik).

The Rangers' top six scorers among forwards who earn less than the top six earners have combined for 80 goals and 170 points, more than double in both categories despite earning a combined $8 million.  That's $100,000 per goal and less than $90,000 per assist, versus nearly a million dollars per goal and over half a mil per assist for the guys getting the big bucks.

On a personal note: Condolensces to John Giannone on the passing of his nephew. John is one of the great personalities in the Rangers' press room and post-game locker room scrum, and he is an underrated play-by-play man backing up the impeccable Sam Rosen. I extend my sympathies to him and his family in this moment of tragedy.