How The Rangers Are Fooling Everyone To Think They Are Bad

The Rangers strategy actually is working; except nobody seems to get it.

By stinking out the joint last night at The Garden against Columbus, they have all their fans and gullible mainstream media thinking they are bad.

But The Maven knows that it's a mere illusion. The Blueshirts are playing possum. Get it; PLAYING POSSUM

By quitting on a 3-1 third period lead and losing on a dumb  K'Andre Miller pass in overtime. That's possum stuff. (You can't make this up.)

By playing like a Beer League team against a staggering Columbus sextet – which had lost two in a row – wow. The Bronx Zoo Possums are laughing their Possum heads off.

Translated from Possum language, they're saying: "Ho, ho, those Rangers have stolen our act; good for them. Now we'll get royalties."

However, the non-Possum realists believe that this Rangers team really stinks to high heaven and above beyond that; maybe even to Mars.

I mean since when is The Great Jonathan Quick supposed to lose a game – as he did last night – by only making 21 saves out of 28 shots. Could Quick have been that slow? Or is he reading too many Maven columns?

I mean how does a team lose a game after scoring two shorthanders on one kill? The Rangers have turned idiotic play into an art form.

Yeah, yeah but what does this all mean when we recall the grand challenge; PLAYOFFS OR BUST!

For a serious answer to that vexing question, I have convened a group of the smartest hockey mines I know; so here are their well-thought-out conclusions:

My Council of Geniuses is turning thumbs-down on "Playoffs" and thumbs-up on "Bust."

Genius One: David Perlmutter: "The Fat Lady is singing." 

Genius Two: Bernie Rohde: "The Rangers mailed it in. They have no sense of urgency and they make bad decisions."

Genius Three: Jess Rubenstein offers the most professional view: "The Rangers just barely showed up and got embarrassed on home ice. You try so hard to believe that this team can make the playoffs. But the players are the ones who kill any hope that I have that they will."

Bottom Line: My Three Geniuses do not believe in possums.