Rangers Watch: MTL 1, NYR 4

The Rangers earn first win of the new year. New York's play was 180 degrees from their recent five-game skid, which ended today with the victory over an under-heralded Montreal team. Marek Malik made his way back in the line up and looked surprising strong, especially on the penalty kill. His only real misstep was getting beat wide early on - Henrik Lundqvist turned away the resulting shot.

Steve Soldwedel makes a case for coach Tom Renney to keep his job and that the team's inconsistency may be more tied to its mercurial captain. Jaromir Jagr is the greatest bargain in the league with the Caps picking up half the bill for the Blueshirts, but if the team's option doesn't kick in, he's not worth twice the price. Whether or not he does return next season, I wouldn't be surprised to see a change in leadership. Does anyone really think they brought in Chris Drury - yet to score 70 points in a season - at $7M a year to be without a letter? Dallas got out of their funk after they took the C away from Mike Modano. No doubt New York is also better off letting Jags do what he does best - essentially anything but backchecking or exhibiting leadership.

Either way, the jury is still out on Renney.

Recaps: Y!/AP, TSN Broadband