Nothing To Be Proud Of

The third period of tonight's game was painful to watch, not only because each second seemed to last an hour, but because it is not fun to watch your team so thoroughly manhandled and immasculated as the Rangers were throughout the entire game tonight, but especially in the final 23 minutes.

Starting with the coaching staff, every Rangers except Lundqvist needs to take a long look in the mirror. John Tortorella, who once preached "safe is death" while leading the Lightning to a Stanley Cup in 2004, allowed his team to play the entire period waving white flags and begging for mercy. It was nothing short of sickening to watch the Rangers line up at their own blue line, not even breathing on a Penguin until he was over the red line. Not since the days of John Muckler have we seen the Rangers bury their head in the sand over the final stanza the way they did tonight.

When you play not to lose, you've already lost. The Rangers showed no determination -perhaps no INTEREST- in generating a forecheck or slowing the Penguins down in their own end. On the rare occasions when they found the puck on their stick in Pittburgh's zone, they looked nervous. They spent the period chasing Pittsburgh immaculate cycle and and relying and save after save after save from a heroic Lundqvist.

What is equally trouble is that Tortorella is losing Del Zotto. Del Zotto should have realized after a few shifts that his 100-foot passes were not going to connect without Gaborik's powerful stride to receive it. Yet Del Zotto seems to be so frightened of making a mistake these days, so worried about making a mistake, that he is overthinking every shift. The good news is that this kind of slump is normal for a neophyte defenseman over the course of his first 82-game season. The bad news is that, whereas Tom Renney often proved to be a calming influence when his young players stumbled, Tortorella has not shown the same tact with the most important defenseman on the Rangers' roster.

They'll take the point and run, but they'd better ask themselves what will happen two nights from now, when they play the only offense in the league more dynamic than Pittsburgh's. The King aside, each and every member of the Rangers' organization should have the taste of humiliation to motivate them in Washington.