As the great Marty McFly once said, “Hey, I’ve seen this one before.” Another strong 40 minutes by the Rangers completely unraveled and thrown away by timid play, sloppy defense, and rough goaltending, leading to a 5-4 loss to the Islanders. It’s preseason, so the results aren’t as important as the process, but the process is lacking in the third period. Hopefully this is just some rust and not a sign of things to come.

Scott Morrow has been praised for his offense, but is anyone else as worried about Scott Morrow’s defensive play? It’s anecdotal for the time being, but it feels like the Rangers allow a goal every time he’s on the ice. He was on the ice for three goals against. On the first he didn’t box out his man enough, and allowed a puck to get re-directed by Gleb Veremyev.

Though to be fair, that was the only goal where he had a glaring issue. The floater by Kyle Palmieri was good defense, keeping his man to the outside on his backhand, Dylan Garand just missed it. I have no doubt Morow is going to be a solid puck moving defenseman for this franchise someday, but I think it would be best for him to be in Hartford and focus primarily on his defensive game, at least to start the season.

Noah Laba has been very impressive and is turning heads, to the point where he may force Mike Sullivan to alter his initial plans with the roster. He leads the Rangers in points this preseason and has been a playmaking machine when on the ice. Our prospect guru Hope has had her eye on Laba’s development for some time, and now we can all see why. He is a bulldog out there hunting pucks and knocking guys over for those pucks.

The competition for 3C has been fun, but if I had a vote, I’d absolutely be rewarding Laba with some NHL time. He’s earned it alone with his play while playing alongside prospects and veterans alike on his lines. But with Sully stating he sees Juuso Parssinen as a defensive, shutdown 3C, first the coach may need to adjust his overall strategy.

Brennan Othmann, who has not been impressive thus far, finally got some space to rip off his shot, scoring a rocket of a power play goal with the help of a Matt Rempe screen. I don’t know how a goalie can look around a 6′ 9″ forward, and Othmann took advantage. Othmann is an intriguing prospect with a solid skill set, but if he’s relying on others to help generate space for him to shoot, he won’t have a long NHL career. There are legitimate concerns, but hopefully he’s just shaking off a lot of rust and he continues to improve. As of now, Othmann isn’t forcing the issue with the Rangers.

With a long break until the next game on Monday, expect at least one more round of cuts, possibly two. We may not see anything Earth shattering this weekend, but tough decisions loom next week.

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