Call To Action, Public Flogging of Marek Malik

Here ye, Here ye. Tomorrow at The Garden at high noon, Rangers coach Tom Renney invites fans to throw whatever you'd like at Ranger Marek Malik in it's first ever public flogging - season ticket holders get to participate first, so The Dark Ranger will be first in line.

Tonight, the New York Rangers dropped our second meeting this week to the Ottawa Senators 3-1, mostly due to the merits of Marek Malik - our floundering, overpaid, most boo'ed New York Ranger defenseman. The Senators mauled their way through our defensive lines three times in a row during the 2nd period, all within a 52 second window. The first and third goal against the Rangers happened because Malik forgot to play basic zone defense and cover the open man. An over-sized schmuck on ice.

"Our team this year is about scoring a lot of goals, rather than building veteran defensive lines. We are a team unit."
- Anonymous current NY Rangers coach

Rangers fans and beat writers were always worried about the lack of defensive veterans in the roster during the off-season, something never addressed by management (giving them the benefit of the doubt that they knew something we didn't) - and now we might be witnessing a weakness greater than anyone anticipated. The defense was not alone in their performance tonight. Even the experience of our superstar front lines couldn't overcome Ottawa's defense; Senator replacement goalkeeper Martin Gerber was remarkable tonight as the Rangers could not take advantage of any power plays, including a 5 on 3 with 11 minutes left in the third period, our first line pounding their defense - and nothing connecting and no dirty goals to claim.

Though the Blueshirts are 2-3-0, it is early and it's obvious they haven't found their game. I believe in the New York Rangers, I believe in Tom Renney. I believe in Jagr motivating his teammates to play better hockey. The night was not a complete disaster and honorable mention goes to "The King" Henrik Lundquist for preventing more goals, having saved 20+ real scoring opportunities for Ottawa (and unable to make up for the complete breakdown of our defense).

I do not believe in Marek Malik. He must have secret pictures of Tom Renney with farm animals or something similar that keeps him in the game.

I also want to acknowledge the efforts of Brandon Dubinsky who played hard, threw some punches and, hopefully, proved to Coach Renney that former Islander David Scatchard is not a good replacement for our rookie known as 'Dubie'. Taking a cue from Colton Orr, our resident Blueshirt enforcer, rookie Dubinsky attempted to challenge veteran Luke Richardson to a fight. Poor kid absorbed a devastating right hook: he earned a "10" on effort, "2" for ugly-ness.

..and so I digress, canned goods and previous New York Rangers' paraphernalia from the 1995-2003 seasons will be perfect for the flogging of Marek Malik. Known to take a lot of abuse from the fans and press, after tonight's game the coaching staff and management upstairs are finally acknowledging that he is unreliable, not worth the $3 million per season and are prepared to trade and dump him from the roster in order to rebuild our defense. That's a nice wish.

tdr