Rangers No Show The Saturday Night Dance In Edmonton

Ouch.

What a diva.

True, though.

Soft loss for the Blueshirts late Saturday night. With an exception of Gaborik and maybe Brandon Prust, no one showed up to play the game the right way. Undisciplined offensive zone penalties continue to boggle fans and plague this team's sustain. Our no-urgency 5 on 3 man advantage was demoralizing and ill-timed, as a tally would've put us right back in the contest tied at 1 apiece. Instead, Dubinsky hesitated on the back door, Richards missed the net and sent Taylor Hall down the other way on a 2-zone breakaway, and Stepan sent the best chance of the entire PP up into the rafters on a shanked one-timer. Torts benched most of his team in the 3rd period and scrambled the lines with the leftovers-- I'm sure the ride to Manitoba wasn't a smooth one. Defenseman Brendan Bell had a decent start in his NHL debut showcasing some speed and defensive saavy, but it was overshadowed by a costly pinch that sprung Taylor Hall on a long 3 on 2 where he dished to the trailing 18 year-old phenom Ryan Nugent-Hopkins for the Oiler's first goal. Dubi got caught in no-man's land on the penalty kill as ex-Rangers Corey Potter blasted a slapper from the point for the Oilers other tally.

The only positives out of this game were that Lundqvist admitted he left the game because of his skates bothering his feet and not a more serious injury, and this seemingly unending road-trip (Sweden to Winnipeg and seven games between) comes to a close Monday night against the Jets and then it's time to get the Garden crowd factoring into this season. Hopefully that will help us in establishing ourselves and pushing better 60 minute efforts out of this road-weary bunch.