Doubled Up

The 7-1 start seems like a century ago.

The New York Rangers fell to Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals, by the final of 4-2. And yes he scored a goal, a rocket from the point on the power play, his return wasn’t the deciding factor of the game.

No, the turning point was the Rangers inability to produce anything offensively, outside of the Elegant Assassin(thanks Larry Brooks) Marian Gaborik. Once again he was left all alone on the score sheet and this above anything else is what’s killing this team.

Yes the Rangers hit, led by the revival of Sean Avery, and even won the lone fight(Aaron Voros manhandling Matt Bradley) but Capitals controlled play for most of the game and that same Matt Bradley, who looked like Miguel Cotto on Saturday night, scored the game winning goal off a crucial Wade Redden turnover.

Henrik Lundqvist was steady, if not spectacular last night. Unfortunately with this Rangers team unable to score more than two goals on most nights, he needed to be spectacular.

The Rangers saw in the Capitals what a contender truly looks like. Washington, playing without two key forwards of their own, Mike Knuble and Alex Semin, were still able to manufacture many solid scoring chances. Ovechkin’s return was paramount but he only registered one shot on goal…albeit that shot did find the back of the net. But depth players such as Brooks Laich and the aforementioned Matt Bradley were able to help their superstar out. Marian Gaborik must have been envious of this because for most of the season, especially in the last thirteen games, he has received little to no help scoring.

Depth is a serious issue and it’s going to be interesting to see if the Rangers will be able to address it during the season. If not, don’t expect much out of team too heavily reliant on two superstars. Forget about Peter Forsberg coming here, as Glen Sather was informed earlier this week by Forsberg’s agent Don Baisley, that his player will remain in Sweden this entire season.

With the Rangers off a few days until their next game, Saturday night against the Panthers, maybe they can think of a way to get somebody else to score other than their second leading scorer in the league. I, for one, am not holding my breath.