Rangers tumble to 9th place

Well, as Torts said himself afterwards: "We're just not going to win if we don't score goals."

And, I think, that expert analysis sums it up pretty well. Those Hurricanes have 5 shutouts this year - and our Rangers haven't exactly been wearing out the twine behind the goalie this year - and our win streak wasn't going to last forever - and you can't win if you don't score - and it wasn't Hank between the pipes - but still - this one hurt.

And I'm surprised the refs managed to look away from Avery long enough to call any penalties on anyone else....

Looking at the standings this morning, our local hero's are, in fact, themselves standing. That is, standing on the outside looking in - in 9th place of an 8 team playoffs field. It's not a good feeling.

So we are in a tough scramble to the finish now - with the schedule against us and time running out.

One thing I have to say I liked - resting Lundquist, I thought, was a good idea. Renny usually rode him to death in prior years so that our star player was worn down just when we needed him most. Let's hope Hank comes out of the gate and down the stretch better than ever.

Otherwise, we may have just seen the beginning of the end.

Dave