New York Rangers: Where's the Hustle Guys?

First off, let me say how wonderful it was to call Petr Prucha's goal last night and for him to actually score!

This kid has been working his butt off on the ice, whether it's always hustling to the puck, drawing penalties, or keeping the puck in the offensive zone. Just glad all of that continuous hard work and extra practices have paid off for Prucha.

You can definitely take some positives out of last night's win, and there were finally more positives than negatives. But you still need to look at what this team is missing and realize that come the second half of the season, they may very well tire themselves into the basement of the Atlantic Division.

Also, getting into OT's and shootouts all season long isn't great for the team. I know most fans believe it is, but they gave Pittsburgh yet another point last night. If the Rangers continue to falter against teams like the Panthers, then you can be assured that the Penguins will catch up with the Rangers in no time.

There are three things that the coaching staff isn't preaching to this team lately and you can see it in their play. What are they?

HUSTLING - Besides players like Fredrik Sjostrom and Blair Betts who deserve the more ice time they are FINALLY getting, it just baffles me that Tom Renney isn't preaching the word HUSTLE to this team.

They show flashes of it each game for no more than five minutes of ice time then look like they are ready to roll out their sleeping bags and call it a night.

PASSING - Yes, passing a million times in your defensive zone is fine if you are being chased down by the opposition, but how many times on open ice will you hang around your own zone and pass it around five to six times before taking off down the ice?

It looks like they are practicing how to pass during games instead of at practice.

ACCURACY - What's going on with guys like Brandon Dubinsky and Wade Redden? They can't hit the net even if the goalie was pulled lately.

In my book, these are three things all hockey coaches teach their teams from the beginning, yet who's teaching it to our Rangers lately? Sure isn't Tom Renney; doubt it's Perry Pearn.


Colton Orr - Thank you for taking the game into your own hands last night and shutting down the crybaby Cindy Crosby. How many times after a clean check is Crosby going to complain to the refs that this can't be happening because he is the NHL's Golden Child?

Gotta love watching Crosby getting flattened, especially by Marc Staal. Enjoy!