Straka breaks finger in loss to Bruins

The scoring troubles continued for the Rangers in their fifth loss in the last six games Saturday, not even recording a single goal in the game. Even worse news, Martin Straka broke a finger on his right hand blocking a laser slapshot from defenseman Zdeno Chara. After playing another shift after that Straka went to the dressing room and didn't return, and may not for a few games or even a week or two.

This doesn't help at all, since the Rangers are last in the league in goals scored with 13. They trail the Columbus Blue Jackets who tallied only 15 and the Atlanta Thrashers with 16 goals. You can attribute their lack of goal scoring with their style of play so far this season. Obviously the talent is there, but its the way they're using it. It's easy to see they are playing way too fancy and not going back to the basics like they did in the last few years of taking shots and having guys in front. Brendan Shanahan leads the league in shots on goal, but has only 1 goal. He has been an intimidator for the last 15 years, standing in front of goaltenders and slamming home rebounds, but this year majority of his shots have come from the hash marks or the point.

The Penguins host the Blueshirts Tuesday night at Mellon Arena, and who knows what Tom Renney is going to throw together on the 4 line rotation, but it seems like it can only get better because, at this point for Rangers fans it may seem like it cant get any worse in the early stages of the season.