Rangers Continue Slide in Playoff Race

Things are getting ugly in New York as the Rangers continued their recent slide with a 5-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday afternoon, their seventh loss in the past eight games, putting them in the quagmire that is the bottom of the Eastern Conference playoff picture.

Aside from getting booed much of the afternoon (the only emotion the Madison Square Garden faithful showed) the Rangers were also getting crushed by NBC analysts Pierre McGuire and Mike Milbury for their lack of effort and intensity.

The low point of Sunday's game was a disastrous second period where the Flyers put on a goal-scoring clinic that hockey fans haven't seen since NHL 94 introduced the one-timer.

Trailing 1-0 early in the period, the Rangers found themselves with a two-man advantage. Instead of getting the equalizer, Philadelphia's Mike Richards somehow ended up behind the New York defense and scored the third three-on-five goal of his career, giving the Flyers a 2-0 lead.

As if allowing a goal with a two-man advantage wasn't bad enough, just moments later Simon Gagne forced a turnover at the blue line and also took off on a partial breakaway. Had he not been hauled to the ice by a pair of Rangers defenders he would have had a solid chance to add to the Rangers' embarrassment.

At one point, the Flyers scored on three consecutive shots -- including one from Glen Metropolit behind the net -- leading to an early exit for Henrik Lundqvist.

This latest meltdown from the Rangers comes on the same day Larry Brooks of the New York Post penned a scathing column in regards to general manager Glen Sather and his offseason signing of defenseman Wade Redden.

Wade Redden is Glen Sather's Folly. That has become painfully obvious fewer than 60 games into a six-year, $39 million contract that stands as the worst in the history of the NHL, if not in the history of hard-cap pro sports.

And that's just the first paragraph.

While head coach Tom Renney has to be sitting on a white-hot seat at the present time, one has to wonder if Sather isn't sweating in the chair next to him.

After all, aside from Redden, the Rangers are also on the hook for the $49 million that is owed to Chris Drury and Scott Gomez through 2013 season (and let's not forget Michal Roszival). Or, as McGuire stated during the game: "free agent signings that have blown up in his face." That's one way of putting it.

Of course, as Ted Starkey points out via e-mail, the Rangers have largely been a mediocre team all season with the ability to chalk up some "Bettman points" by going 9-3 in shootouts. Fair enough.

Is it too early to start the Sean Avery watch?