Thanks for all the great comments after last night's game. I will list some of them below and apologies if I leave anyone out. The comments reflect for the most part how I feel as well. However, that said, I am not about to jump ship or abandon the season due to a three-game losing but would be deluding myself if I felt all was well with this team and if the path back to where they were the first 60-odd games of the year was going to be easy.

It was anything but Sweet Home Chicago for the Rangers yesterday and the least the Windy City could have done was give me a nice parting gift of a win after I left there this week. For the first 40+ minutes, the Rangers played the style that won them so many games until recently. Timely goals, this time by AA and Prust, good goaltending and minimizing turnovers had the Rangers up 2-1. However, just like that, it was all gone.

John Mitchell failed to convert an excellent chance and shortly thereafter, a bad turnover, as has happened so much lately, occurred and boom, tie game. All the confidence and good feelings were gone and now, Rangers fans are hoping that at least we get to OT. So much for that idea, 62 seconds later another turnover, a relatively harmless shot that hits off Cally's stick and it's 3-2 the wrong way. If this was earlier in the year, we all would have believed that the Rangers would find a way to win. That was then, this is now and for whatever reason, that ability to come back and find a way to get a point or pull out an improbable or unlikely win has been lost.

Here are some of the comments from Midnight, Gkmkiller and others and will give my thoughts after.

"These losses are foundation issues. All of their hustle and hard work, that resulted in a lot of success throughout the season, has completely gone away. They are making stupid plays all over the ice, their offense will never bail them out and now Lundqvist is looking less than the flawless goalie he needs to be for this team to win.

I am right. I am not saying this team will win the Cup. I love where this team, currently the best in the East record-wise, is at. Still young in many places and with the best goalie in the league right now. They have been unbelievably consistent this year. They win on the road, they win at home. This is the frst losing streak of any king all year after 67 games. Three freaking games. Not 5, not 6. Three. There is enough character and veteran leadership to get us past this blip. I love, LOVE the way Gabby is playing. He is our most talented scorer and he is skating well and playing hard. That bodes very well to me.

As for Richards, he isn't producing big point totals but I have a feeling he brings more to the team. His teammates look up to him. He is grounded and he gets it. I think he'll play a big role down the stretch.

The Rangers have had a great season, much better than anyone could have expected, but they are clearly running out of gas. It's not the end of the world, but it does finally expose the fact that the team is speed and goal scoring challenged. They got by on guts and glory to this point, but in the end you must have the talent to put the biscuit in the basket as well. A seven game home streak could help them to hold off Pittsburgh for the top seed, but make no mistake this team is not TALENTED up front enough to win a cup, and there's nothing wrong with that. It gives the organization the knowledge they will need to continue to build a cup contender.

They are entitled to a bit of lapse. Because as much as we may all hate to admit it, slumps happen to every team over the course of an 82 game season. It is impossible to stay mentally and physically sharp throughout that entire period. But, they get no leeway from people around here, which sucks. Because again they deserve it.

I have been a fan of this team since the early 1990's. That's about 20 years. I've seen my share of disappointments and collapses. I understand how this mini-slump can be reminicent of previous seasons that resulted in absolute failure. However when I look at this team closely and as objectively as I possibly can I don't see any of those teams. I see a team that won't give up. I see a team that has the fortitude to not allow a late season collapse. I see a team that doesn't have spoiled, overppaid and over-the-hill stars with no heart. I see a team that has fought for everything they have today and a team that won't simply fold up tent now that things have gotten a little tougher. 

Does this team have the type of top-shelf skill to compete with the most talented teams in the league? No, they don't. Is this team as constructed capable of competing with and beating those same teams in a 7 game series? Yes, they can. The playoffs are a different animal and I think this team will be better in the postseason in no small part because of this short period of poor play."

As some of you know, and I wrote this in my first blog, I have been a Rangers fan since watching the 72 Stanley Cup Finals as a four year old with my grandparents. I lived through the ooh la la Duguay days, the loss of Nilsson to a broken ankle, Steve &$$@¥' Shutt in the Stanley Cup Finals, the Smurfs, John Druce, Ron Francis from 65 feet, the Messiah and 94, losing to the Legion of Doom (which I still thinking Sundstrom had been healthy along the D, the Rangers would have won), 7.7 seconds and up 3-1 to Washington and losing three straight. All of these memories and history make me on the one hand a jaded Rangers fan and on the other, someone who bleeds Rangers blue. No one expected the team to be in this spot when the year began. Their current point total is something that we would have expected at year end. However, it is that hot start and play the first 60 games that raised our expectations, provided the push to possibly get Rick Nash and the why their performance the last week or so is so disconcerting. Yes, this is a flawed team as the margin for victory is thin, the ability to generate offense easily is just not there and why the system has to be followed to a T. When it's not, what you saw the past several games is the end result. It is also why to rule this team out either from remaining on top in the division or making a run once the playoffs start is fallacy. The name on the front is more important than the back. That said, I would call some players up and shake things up. Give Zucc a shot, maybe Erixon with MDZ banged up. Mix and match some lines as Torts did with putting Gabby and Richards together.

This is not the time to panic as that would be counterproductive. Despite the losing streak, don't make massive changes. The players themselves have to do a better job of limiting the bad turnovers, which has been a huge reason for the current losing streak. Maybe the home cooking will be just what the team needs, but that said, a poor start tomorrow night and the boobirds will be out in full force.

The time to play Rangers hockey is now as well it being the time for the fans to show the support the team needs at this critical junction.

Blueshirts forever 

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