One thing about sports: some teams win, but the rest lose.
I don’t make the rules. I just write about the games. Here’s what’s going on with some struggling teams:

* Over in Atlanta, they haven’t won in ten games. Sure, there was a goalie fight against Edmonton the other night, but the NHL just doesn’t award points for those yet. Yet. I’m pretty shocked over Atlanta’s troubles. I thought for sure that the return of Dany Heatley would be a huge boost to the Thrashers. I’m not sure why it didn’t pan out that way.

* Here in New York, the Rangers are always struggling (including their 2-1 loss to the Flyers last night). One reason? The Rangers are like 20 years behind the times. Seriously. The 1986 All-Star Game featured current Ranger coach Glen Sather, future and then ex-Ranger coach Bryan Trottier, and Mark Messier. Today’s Rangers are a history book.

* Things are bad in St. Louis, too. They’ve won just once in their past 11, including getting shut out by Colorado last night. Some people are blaming coach Joel Quenneville, but players are blaming injuries and a lack of talent. I’m going to second that. Losing Al MacInnis and Barret Jackman was a huge blow to their blue line.

* Out in LA, things are back to normal, in the sense that goalie Roman Cechmanek is imploding, just like he did in Philadelphia. Cechmanek has given up two easy, routine goals in the past three games (l:laexaminer;p:laexaminer). Interestingly, Cechmanek’s latest mistake came while he was playing behind his net. A Columbus Blue Jacket was able to pick off Cechmanek’s pass and score into the empty net. And the league wants to stop goalies from going behind their nets to increase scoring. It seems like plenty of scoring can result from the goalie leaving the crease. Maybe the league will only let Cechmanek back there.

* Finally, off the topic of struggling, check out Tasca’s Take, a new hockey blog. It’s interesting stuff