In her 1969 book, “On Death and Dying”, Swiss-born psychiatrist Elizabeth Kubler-Ross explains the Five Stages of Dying.  The Kubler-Ross Model describes five stages in which people deal with grief and tragedy.  They are, in order, as follows: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.  While this model applies to people with terminal illness, I feel that it can be applied to your favorite sports teams.  Because the truth is, we live through our teams.  Players and coaches have become so easy to access that we feel as if we know them on a first-name basis.  If you are as upset and distraught as I am over your beloved Blueshirts, consider what stage you may be in, because the Tom Renney Era is apparently on life-support this week.  Personally, I feel as if I’m in “depression”, because I don’t think anything can save this team at this point, so why bother trying anything.  Pretty dramatic yes, but this group has given me no reason to think otherwise….

UPDATE 7:22pm- Very strong start for the Rangers.  They have applied pressure in the offensive zone and controlled the puck when they have recovered it.  Sad part about it is that they really haven’t gotten too many quality scoring opportunities.  Nice to see them come out strong though after yesterday’s debacle.

UPDATE 7:45pm- No score after one.  Pretty strong period for the Rangers.  A start they certainly needed on the road in the midst of a big skid.  Still having difficulties finishing off the opportunities they get.

UPDATE 7:50pm- Versus is doing a piece on the firing of Michel Therrien.  Less than a year ago, he led this team to the Stanley Cup Finals.  Meanwhile, Tom Renney has had 3+ seasons to fix a power-play and he still can’t do it.  I’m really starting to believe that James Dolan hasn’t watched a game this season and Glen Sather is Cyberdyne Systems Model T-101 and has been sent from the future by Lou Lamoriello to ensure that the Rangers never prosper ever again.  Either that or that Isaiah Thomas’ “special reassignment” was to try and run the Rangers while Sather smokes his cigar on a deserted beach somewhere, which is becoming more believable by the minute.

UPDATE 8:01pm- Rangers power-play.  Those screams you hear are me…

UPDATE 8:04pm- Hank, I love ya pal, but since the puck is going to hit you in the head, it obviously isn’t going in the net, SO JUST LET IT GO!!! That’s twice tonight and we aren’t even halfway through.  Shots like that can pile up over time.  Just ask Mike Richter.  I can’t recall any reporter ever questioning as to why he does that either…I’d like to know his reasoning.

UPDATE 8:19pm- Aaron Voros doesn’t bring a whole lot to this team anymore.  Not only has his fighting become un-original because it always follows a Colton Orr fight, but he manages to take all the positive momentum that Orr generated and completely waste it by getting his ass handed to him.

UPDATE 8:22pm- Blues 1, Rangers 0.  And the negative momentum previously discussed reared its ugly head.  Hank gets beat on a long shot off the draw by Carlo Colaiacovo.  I still maintain that an NHL goalie should never get beat on any shot higher than the top of the faceoff circle that isn’t screened.  But thats the price you pay for being a butterfly goalie trying to stop long, high shots.  Either way, the Rangers need to respond quickly in order to avoid getting mentally removed from this game.

UPDATE 8:28pm- That makes it three times Lundqvist has deflected the puck with his head. I swear you can’t make this stuff up.

UPDATE 8:32pm- Rangers 1, Blues 1.  Blueshirts use a strong penalty kill to regain some momentum and even the score at a goal apiece.  That’s another one for Korpikoski, who has scored 3 goals in his last 4 games.  Him and Callahan have become quite the duo and are one of the few bright spots on this team lately.

UPDATE 9:30pm- FINAL: Blues 2, Rangers 1.  Doesn’t matter who is in your net.  If you can’t score goals in this league, you cannot win.  And when the Rangers need the big goals, they do not have players to turn to to go get them.  They used to have Shanny and Jagr, guys who can put a team on their back and put one in when needed.  They definitely put forth the effort tonight though, which is at least reassuring.  But now they find themselves losing to teams that they should normally beat.  Very puzzling to me that a team with the experience of Scott Gomez and Chris Drury (say what you want…these guys have won in this league) can be so shell-shocked that they can’t recover.  Wednesday’s game against the Isles should be very interesting.  You can throw the records out the window when these teams plays, and the Islanders always seem to be a “blood in the water” type team when they play the Rangers, meaning that if you’re not on your game, they can exploit you.  Part of that is because of all their injuries they are forced to play young guys, who are trying to make a name for themself.  Perhaps a game against their arch-rival is what this team needs though.

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