Hank's for Nothing

16 shots. The Ranger's defense limited St. Louis to just 16 shots on goal. That is outstanding.

And then the Rangers' offense produced three goals of their own.

That is exactly what this team is trying to do every night - what we were built to do. You would sign up for whole a season of that if you could. Limiting the opponent to 16 shots and staking your goaltender 3 goals - you have to love your chances.

You're not asking Lundqvist to be amazing. If he can stop 90 percent of the shots you win easily. If he stops 80 percent of the shots - a bad night for any goalie - you still get to OT.

But Henrik's save percentage was a junior league .750. That is a performance that does not give your team a chance to win.

We all see it now. Our franchise goaltender is not what he used to be. It's heartbreaking. And it's killing us.

And it's hard to watch.

The Goalies - Hank - 12 saves on 16 shots. 0.750 save percentage. Conklin made 26 saves on 29 shots. The difference. Terrible night - in crunch time.

Special Teams: The Blues scored once on two powerplays. We were one for five - and failed to score in a 5 on 3. Another key battle lost.

The New Veteran Rangers - Marian Gaborik returned to us - scoring a goal and grabbing two assists. Jokinen had an assist. Prospal had an assist.

Your Returning Rangers - Wade Redden of all people - scored a goal and gets an assist. Callahan scored. Dubinsky had an assist.

The Kid Rangers - Were not on the score sheet tonight.

Defense on Offense? Goal and an assist

In conclusion: In a game they desperately needed - the Rangers played well enough to win - except for their man between the pipes. I'm sorry to say that in all likelihood our backup netminder Auld would have won this game for us.

We've been saying you have to rest Hank a lot more this year. Even the Swedish Olympic team realized that. We didn't - and it came back to bite us.
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Next Up: Season on the line Sunday. Beat Boston or die trying.
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Where we stand - Still 9th. Still 3 points out of 8th - having wasted a golden opportunity. But now we have company - the Atlanta Thrashers have tied us in points and hold a game at hand.