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AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

The Rangers came out of their bye week with a critical matchup against their division (and actual) rival Islanders. They should have come out strong. With fire. With passion. They did not. They no-showed. Only Michael Grabner and the goalies showed up. They embarrassed themselves on home ice.

If this shows us one thing, it’s that the Rangers are not truly ready to compete. There are a number of reasons for this, and we’ve covered them all by now. But the fact remains, this team does nothing to help out their goaltenders on a nightly basis.

On to the goals:

https://twitter.com/hayyyshayyy/status/952244164930035714

Matt Barzal fought off Mika Zibanejad. Dished to Jordan Eberle and cut to the net to spread out the defense. JT Miller left his man and cut to Eberle, leaving Anthony Beauvillier open for the finish. Ideally you want Kevin Shattenkirk to control the gap on Eberle better to pressure the pass.

Kevin Hayes gets the puck deep and literally not one Islander watches him go to the slot from the point. Rick Nash saw him and hit him with the pass. Isles missed the assignment so bad even the Rangers laughed.

Vinny Lettieri got rocked by the Brady Skjei slap shot, and the Isles turned it to a quick goal. Shane Prince got behind everyone, but the thing that bothers me here is that it looks like Shatty’s controller unplugged when an extra stride could have broken up the shot.

A lot of people torched Steven Kampfer for this goal. I disagree. This is just a helluva shot by Barzal. Wow.

Another one by Barzal. This time he got by Skjei, who isn’t exactly a slow skater himself. Barzal got enough room –or just Skjei didn’t tie him up properly– to receive the pass from Beauvillier, get a shot off, and get his own rebound. Not a good game by Skjei (or Shatty).

Jesper Fast with the turnover. Then Beauvillier gets 15 steps on Nash to receive the pass off the boards and rip it past Ondre Pavelec. Nick Holden also with a pansy check on John Tavares to prevent the pass.

Oh hey the Rangers scored. This was good puck movement and then a good luck by Mats Zuccarello to get the shot in a spot where Mika Zibanejad could deflect it. This was a nice one.

Presented without comment. I’m also not bothering with the last goal.

Is this rock bottom? Wasn’t it last week? Last month? November? The sad thing is that the club actually had a chance in the first. And then they just no-showed.

The Isles, specifically Barzal, made the Rangers, a team built on speed, look slow. It was pathetic, especially on home ice against a historic rival. The worst part? No emotion, whatsoever. This is probably the worst game I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot of clunkers.

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