New York Rangers Keep Winning, But the Fans Start to Complain

Ah, the glory of playing in the sports capital of the world—New York City. A city where a team can be 6-1-0 and the fans still find something to complain about.

For the first time since 1983 the team got off to a 5-0-0 start. only to fall in their sixth game by a score of 3-1. Instead of cheering the team for getting off to such a great start, fans already start to knock the offense, the chemistry, the coaching staff and the powerplay after one loss.

Now let me ask you this, did you expect an 82-0-0 finish this season? If you answered "yes" to that question, then please don't watch hockey ever again.

So now we move on to the next game, when the Rangers found themselves taking on the Toronto Maple Leafs. As I read through the various blogs of Rangers' beat writers and the message boards and saw the comments that were left by fans, I couldn't believe it.

People saying that the Leafs are a pushover and that a win for the Broadway Blueshirts would be easy. Well now, if you've been a Ranger fan for half as long as I have, dating back to the time when you could buy tickets to a game fifteen minutes before the start time and sit right behind the glass, then you must know that nothing ever comes easy for the Rangers.

Three seasons ago, it was Vitali Kolesnik and the Colorado Avalanche coming into the Garden and beating the Rangers. Last season it was Jason LaBarbera and what could quite possibly be the worst hockey franchise ever assembled in the Los Angeles Kings beating the Rangers on their home ice.

So after all that and hundreds of more occasions where the Rangers simply "blow it," how can you expect this team to completely destroy a young, energetic, nothing-to-lose original six team such as the Maple Leafs?

Well it turns out the Rangers did win, 1-0 in a shootout—which is still the dumbest event to ever happen to the sport of a hockey. An event where Vesa Toskala shuts out the Rangers and still gets credit with a loss. But anyway, that's not the point.

Instead of reading after that game about how good the defense was—and more importantly, how the game-saving efforts of goaltender Steve Valiquette and the penalty killers helped them win the game—I read about how the Rangers' offense is starting to struggle.

I'm not going to lie.  The offense hasn't been stellar lately. The first line of Naslund, Gomez and Drury hasn't clicked since the first two games in Prague, and every line except the second has been unable to put the puck in the net.

But this team is 6-1-0, people! Should I say it again? 6-1-0!

If we lose the next three games we would be 6-4-0, and if we won six out of every ten games for the entire season, we would finish with ninety-six points—more then enough for the playoffs.

So instead of complaining about lack of offense, how about we focus on and enjoy the stellar defense and goaltending this team has. I don't know about you, but I would much rather win games 2-1 then 6-5—mainly because when the games start to really matter in mid-April, defense is all that will count, because no team has ever won a Stanley Cup based entirely on offense.

I will end with this—chemistry can't be formed over one night, and it seems Renney is doing what he didn't do last season—keeping struggling lines together. If they play with each other long enough they will develop chemistry and I have a feeling that it will still take them a few more weeks for the offense to get rolling.

But until then, let's be grateful that the defense we have is allowing us to win games, instead of worrying about an offense that will arrive in due time.  And don't forget, this team is playing a lot of games in a small amount of days, and still recovering from the lingering affects of the trip to Europe.

Greg Caggiano is the community leader for the New York Rangers on Bleacher Report. He co-hosts a hockey radio show called NHL 2Day which can be heard here.