S.O.S: Save Our Swede

If there's one thing to take away from Wednesday night's embarrassing 6-3 loss to the Vancouver Canucks, it's that the Rangers are a very average team when Henrik Lundqvist isn't standing on his head.

After giving up his fifth goal of the night, the King bailed on the sinking ship and took himself out of the game.  While Lundqvist and Tom Renney both later claimed that the signal came from the bench, viewers at home certainly didn't see it.  And regardless of the circumstances, it was probably for the better.

Hank had given up five goals on 17 shots and wasn't in top form.  Why let him face further humiliation?  Older fans will remember the Patrick Roy situation back in 1995, when the legendary goalie gave up nine goals on 26 shots in a 11-1 Montreal loss to Detroit at home.  Irate that his coach refused to pull him, Roy refused to play and three days later, Le Trade.

Thankfully, that seems to be an unsubstantiated fear, since coach and goalie have said the right things to the media.  The real issue that Renney has to face is the deplorable blue line play of a defense-first team.  Accountability starts with the two highest paid defenders: Wade Redden and Michal Rozsival.

Redden probably had the most glaring error of the night, when he managed to let the puck slip over his stick on a routine pass to the point.  Breakaway and goal, Alex Burrows.

The play was one of three breakaways yielded by the Rangers, and the Canucks converted on two of them.  Burrow's goal was also short handed, the seventh that the Blueshirts have allowed in just 22 games.  Both Redden and Rozsival see an awful lot of power play time each game.

This season, Redden will make $8 million and Rozsival will take home $7 million, according to nhlnumbers.com.  That's $15 million of the $55.7 million that the Rangers have allocated towards salary this year.  Both players have nine points (2-7-9); Redden has a plus/minus of zero, while Rozsival sits at -9.

Dan Girardi (2-12-14; +2) and Paul Mara (1-7-8; +3) both make under $2 million, peanuts compared to those two, but have put up numbers that are just as good, if not better.  And they don't cough up the puck at the slightest hint of pressure.

However, for every turnover that leads to a goal, there's five that never end up in the back of the net.  That's the perks of having world class goaltending.  But now, having such talent in net has become a crutch.  Players expect Lundqvist to stop every single breakaway, every single one-timer.

Today, the King gets a much needed break, as the Rangers face the Ottawa Senators with Stephen Valiquette between the pipes.  He's a good back up, but make no mistake, Vali isn't Lundqvist.  If the King wasn't in for 19 games this season, does anyone think that the Rangers would still be sitting pretty in first place at 14-6-2?