Rangers Fall to Ottawa 2-0

All you really need to know about this game occured early in the first period when the Rangers gave up two terrible goals. First, shorthanded, Alfredsson beats out two Rangers defenseman to the puck and throws the puck through the middle of the ice. None of the Ranger forwards decided to help out and an Ottawa defenseman was wide open directly in front of Lundqvist for the score. Soon thereafter, Drury was trying to rush up ice when he decided to backtrack because of a Rangers line change. Unfortunately, he backtracks right into the group of changing players and gets knocked over (by his own team). It looked terrible and Ottawa capitalized after a breakaway save by Lundqvist and another terrible defensive breakdown. Guess who... Alfredsson... he is just an unreal player. Renney follows with a timeout. Avery also hurt his shoulder on a terrible Chris Neil hit in the first and never returned.

For the remainder of the game, the Rangers had short bursts of offense, but not any glorious scoring chances. Tyutin did hit the post on what seemed like a harmless, bad angle shot. Ottawa pretty much shut down New York with their version of the trap. Ottawa's group of talented forwards had several pretty good scoring chances, but Lundqvist stopped everything for the rest of the game. The unbearable early goals were tough to swallow when you see that this game should have been a scoreless tie going into overtime.

My observations:
1) Staal looked pretty darn good out there. He was put in all situations including on the penalty kill against Ottawa's number one unit.
2) Gomez just doesn't look like he belongs. He has some great rushes into the zone, but there is never anyone there with him, so he always loses the puck to the opposing defense. But even when somebody happens to be around him, he can't keep the puck on this stick or even make a pass. I'm sure it will get better but he has been unbearable to watch.
3) Drury had a rough game, producing nothing on offense himself or for his teammates.
4) Jagr was visibly frustrated all night, because he has zero chemistry with any center on the team so far. He created a couple of his own scoring chances, but otherwise there was nothing.
5) The Rangers didn't play like five-man defensive unit like they were at the end of last year. The forwards, especially Jagr and Shanny, are leaving the zone extremely early and not helping out the defense.
6) The best player on the ice was Callahan, but he didn't get any help.
7) Hollweg is a waste of roster space. All his does is hit... he doesn't fight... he doesn't score. And most of the time he gets penalized for his hits. So what is the point in having him?

Next game @ NY Islanders (7 pm)