Simply put, the New York Rangers’ 6-4 loss to the Atlanta Thrashers was very predictable. 

Prior to last night’s tough loss, the Blueshirts had won three straight games and did so by playing smart, getting good goaltending and timely scoring.  A pretty simple formula for success in hockey if you ask me. 

Last night, however, the team did not do any of the above and it cost them.  They do this year in and year out and last season, it was one of the reasons the team did not make the playoffs. 

Yes, the Blueshirts were able to score four goals but they did not get the timely saves from Martin Biron and the team’s overall effort was too little too late as time ran out on them in the third period after they cut the Thrashers’ 5-2 lead to 5-4. 

For one, I was quite surprised that Biron started this game.  Yes, I know that head coach John Tortorella wants to get him in 3-4 games a month, which is great considering how many games starter Henrik Lundqvist usually plays. 

With that said, however, Lundqvist is on a roll.  He was terrific both against the Boston Bruins on Saturday night in Boston and the New Jersey Devils on Sunday night at the Garden.  Why didn’t Torts just go with the hot hand? 

Now, we can’t blame this game on coaching alone.  The team simply didn’t show up after playing extremely well for the first ten minutes of the first period. 

Tomorrow night, the team gets set to take on the Carolina Hurricanes.  Lundqvist will more than likely get the start but what will be really interesting is to see who will start on Saturday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs at the ACC, a team and an arena that Biron has already won in this season. 

Hopefully, the team will come out with a much better effort tomorrow night at home because it certainly needs to be a heckuva lot better than it was last night. 

About Goal Line Report

Patrick has a tremendous passion for hockey.  Besides covering the Rangers and the NHL for Kukla's Korner, you can also find Patrick's work over at Sportsnet.ca, The Red Light District Hockey Blog, NHL Home Ice, and Liam Maguire's Ultimate Hockey web site. 

Prior to writing for the above mentioned outlets, you could find Patrick's musings at hockey web sites/outlets such as TheHockeyNews.com, TheFourthPeriod.com, Spector's Hockey, Hokeja Vestnesis, Blueshirt Bulletin, SNYRangersBlog.com and many more.