NY blanked again as snakebit Rangers lose 1-0

In an all around well played game by the Rangers, their season long woes continued last night as the Penguins defeated the Blueshirts 1-0. The Rangers outshot the Pens 36-22, and had great chances but they were one upped by goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. He played great as well as his counterpart Henrik Lundqvist, but the lone goal scored by Evgeni Malkin barely slid past Lundqvist as Marek Malik did his best to try to stop it but it slid past his stick as well.

With their lack of scoring, bad luck attributed to the Rangers loss as well. 3 posts were hit by the Rangers tonight, as Dawes, Callahan, and Jagr hit posts tonight. Also to boot, the great goaltending by Fleury attributed to that as well, as he hasn't done all that well this season. It just seems like the bad luck has followed the Rangers around for the last week or so. They played against Manny Fernandez who came into the game with a 5.01 GAA and he blanks the Rangers Saturday, and Fleury came into tonights game with a GAA of 3, and he, as well as Fernandez blanked the Rangers.

The Rangers havn't helped themselves either in times of scoring goals, as Brendan Shanahan and Chris Drury kind of just hang around on the hash mark and the point on the power play. You couldn't find a Ranger within 20 feet of Fleury tonight when the Rangers were on the PP (Petr Prucha being the exception), except for that one time Drury got in front when Shanahan took a slapshot from the point.

They face another daunting task at Madison Square Garden Thursday night as the NJ Devils skate into town having their own troubles posting a 3-4-1 record and giving up 28 goals in 8 games with Brodeur posting a robust 3.51 GAA, not Brodeur like at all. We all know that the reception at the Garden, will not be a good one and just maybe, the Rangers can feed of the fans displeasure, and just win a game.