The Blueshirt Beat

Who Knew?

2010-04-10T10:10:00.007-04:00

I'll be honest... I gave up on this team, this coach and this General Manager a long time ago. The first two are making me believe again. This team is starting to come together. The fourth line of Brandon Prust, Jody Shelley and Artem Anisimov have been amazing. They've brought excitement back. Coincidence that Sean Avery hasn't been playing for most of this 7-1-1 run?

The game and the team became very boring to me and I was actually rooting for them to lose so they could either get a good draft pick or get Glen Sather fired. I have since realized as Joe Benigno of SNY and WFAN says, Sather will be fired 5 years after he dies.

The Blueshirts battled last night, got the lead, lost the lead, but prevailed. They started down :40 in after a Marc Staal turnover (pretty much the only one I remember him making this year) was converted by Mike Richards. Chris Drury ($2 million per goal this season now) responded on the power play off a beautiful feed from Eric Christensen (Sather makes great moves... just has no concept of contracts). The fourth line then struck again off a faceoff with under 7 minutes left in the first. Brandon Prust battled through a check to feed Jody Shelley who scored his first of the season and first as a Ranger, igniting the Garden.

Marian Gaborik got the second period going with a brilliant rush and feed to Brandon Dubinsky for his 20th of the season and a career high 44 points. But you know it couldn't be easy. Danny Briere and Mike Richards then sucked the life out of the building with goals to tie it. It didn't look good... but then again... the Rangers have Gaborik. 2:13 after Richards tied it, Gaborik stole the puck in center and walked in on a semi-breakaway. His wrist shot deflected off Matt Carle and over Brian Boucher giving the Rangers the lead... the win... and life.

Sunday at 3 in Philadelphia... it's win and in.

Notes:
Marian Gaborik has hit his career high in goals, assists and points in his first year as a Ranger... Brandon Dubinsky also has set new career highs in goals and points...

Deadline Day...

2010-03-03T12:04:00.004-05:00

The Rangers should be sellers this year on deadline day but of course now that they have won 3 straight... they won't be. This team is not one or two players away from a Stanley Cup so why bother buying? The answer is the raising price of tickets at the Garden. They simply have to make the playoffs even though they'll get knocked out in the first round.

If you're a Ranger fan like me you can feel where this is going. They'll pick up a Pavol Demitra or some other scrub like that and try to squeak into the playoffs. This year they won't make it and if they do it's a waste of time.

Ryan Callahan's stock will never be higher than it is right now. Would trade him provided the team involved takes Wade Redden in the deal? I might but then again, I'd rather not see Glen Sather rescue his cap disaster by trading away the one guy who gives his all on every shift, every night.

Updates throughout....

** Rangers get 28-year-old F Kris Newbury from Detroit for 23-year-old F Jordan Owens... Awesome!

The dreaded "lower body injury"...

2010-02-27T16:13:00.002-05:00

Henrik Lundqvist made i through the Olympics and is getting a little rest... Marian Gaborik of course... did not. He left Slovakia's loss to the Canadiens last night in the second period with a lower body inury. Being that no one has said he was reinjured, this is something new... or old depending on how you look at. It could be his groin (awesome).

The Rangers have also claimed Goaltender Alex Auld from the Dallas Stars on re-entry waivers. He became expendable with the addition of Kari Lehtonen and also because the Stars didn't want to carry 3 goalies.

More on Gaborik (the whole team) as it becomes available...

(Sather Really Knows What He's Doing!)

2010-02-12T11:50:00.005-05:00

*** Parenthesis means sarcasm from now on

The Rangers face the Penguins tonight in Pittsburgh. They're coming off a very disappointing 2-1 l0ss to Nashville the other night.

"We need to play hard. I'm not going to get into defining how. That's between the team and I," Coach John Tortorella said yesterday. They haven't seemed to listen to him all year. Let's see if the latest pep talk does anything.

The hits keep coming from GM Glen Sather as he continues to show he doesn't understand the value of players. $1.4 a year Donald Brashear has been placed on waivers. He's been utterly useless and still has another year on his deal, meaning it's not likely anyone picks him up.

*** Update: Brashear clears... (big surprise)

The Olympic roster freeze kicks in at noon today and the Rangers should be sellers. They're going nowhere and I'm not sure what anyone would want from this team other than Brandon Dubinsky, Henrik Lundqvist, Ryan Callahan, Marc Staal or Marian Gaborik and it's not likely any of them move. I would give up Dubinsky to a team provided they take Wade Redden or Chris Drury. They don't even have to give anything back... just take them.

We'll see if Sather can fix more of his mistakes today... but don't hold your breath. Updates throughout...

Notes:
The swelling in Gaborik's leg is down. He will test it in practice to see if he can go tonight. It doesn't seem likely being that he has 21 stitches in his leg... This will be the last regular season appearance for the Rangers at the Igloo.

Gaborik Injured...

2010-02-09T15:05:00.003-05:00

Marian Gaborik was injured toward the end of practice today. Apparently he tried to jump over Henrik Lundqvist's outstretched leg in a breakaway drill. You really can't make this stuff up. Gaborik limped off the ice and received stitches. It hasn't been determined if he'll play against Nashville tomorrow.

Get it done...

2010-02-04T22:24:00.003-05:00

Turns out my proposed deal would've gotten it done. Ilya Kovalchuck was moved tonight... to the Devils... for nothing. The Devils gave a bottom 4-6 defenseman with a third or fourth line forward, a prospect and a draft pick and that got it done. Niklas Bergforss, Johnny Oduya, Patrice Cormier and a draft pick is all it took to get one of the most explosive forwards in the NHL. They'll have him for a few months as there's no way he signs in Jersey.

For the Rangers, they continued losing. They finally figured out a way to score but their goaltender decided not to show up tonight. Henrik Lundqvist returned from being sick and gave up two questionable goals to Alexander Ovechkin and one to Tom Poti. The Rangers held a 5-3 lead late in the second only to lse 6-5. Simply unacceptable but for a team going nowhere... I guess it's par for the course.

The Blueshirts went ahead 2-1 in the first on a power play goal by Ryan Callahan and a goal by Vinny Prospal. Mike Knuble and Alex Ovechkin responded in the second putting the Caps up 3-2. The Rangers then responded with 3 power play goals by Olli Jokinen (first as a Ranger), Vinny Prospal and Brandon Dubinsky. A 5-3 stranglehold would be critical going into the third... but they blew it. With under :10 to go in the secong Michal Rozsival was simply afraid of Ovechkin, as was the King. Alex the Great put a one handed effort somehow over Lundqvist and won the game in the second.

I say he won the game because the Rangers didn't show up for the third. They simply waited for the game to be taken from them and it was. A 5-3 lead turns into a 6-5 loss in the blink of a eye. A season high 4 power play goals... completely useless. They skated with the best tonight but were clearly not on the same rink... and they won't be. Kovalchuk may have helped this team but he is gone. As is any excitement that may have been generated toward this team. They simply dont have the firepower to do anything this year.

Notes:
Vinny Prospal had 2 goals and 2 assists... The Rangers power play got going with 4 goals... Niklas Backstrom was incredible with a goal and 5 assists... the Caps have won 12 straight.

The Kovalchuk Kompetition...

2010-02-04T14:22:00.011-05:00

There's are 5 or so teams that seem to be in on the Ilya Kovalchuk trade talks. The Rangers may be one of them and Devils may be another. The Islanders were also talked about. Thrashers GM Don Waddell wants NHL ready players and possibly a prospect or draft pick for Kovalchuk. Complicating matters, no team would can negotiate with Kovalchuk prior to him being part of their team. Quite a gamble considering he could just walk at the end of the season.

Kovalchuk already has turned down a 12 year deal for over $101 million according to a statement just released by Waddell:
http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=308935

TSN's Bob McKenzie is also reporting the Russian scoring machine wants the league max of $11.2 a year. That brings us to the Rangers and the salary cap disaster built by GM Glen Sather. The way I see it, if Chris Drury ($3 million tops), Wade Redden ($3 million) and Michal Rozsival ($2 million) were making what they should, that's over $10 million to work with. Would have been more if they let Rozsival go, which any team would have done with a player his age coming off hip surgery. But they didn't... so where's the money for this guy?

If we continue to dream, let's come up with a scenario. Waddell would demand one of Dan Girardi, Brandon Dubinsky or Ryan Callahan. I'd give two of them in Brandon Dubinsky and Dan Girardi. You may then be able to force Waddell to take Rozsival. If he wants a draft pick, throw it in there. The Rangers are going nowhere and have nothing but the same type of player on it (Drury, Dubinsky, Callahan... etc.). Those worried that Dubinsky could be a future Captain of this team... forget it. He's a second to third line player at best which I talked about all summer. Marc Staal is the future of the team.

This is the most boring team in the NHL. It sure would be nice to see Ilya Kovalchuk in a #17 Blueshirt. I'd give them whatever they want aside from Staal. Well it was nice to dream the impossible... but this financially cannot happen. Oh well... now I must prepare to watch an exciting team for once with Alex Ovechkin's Caps coming in. Maybe I won't fall asleep during the game after all....

Just weird...

2010-02-02T10:53:00.010-05:00

Well after the trade made news on Sunday, it finally went through early Tuesday morning. The Rangers traded Ales Kotalik (3 years at $3 million) and Christopher Higgins to Calgary for Olli Jokinen and Brandon Prust.

Kotalik started off a house on fire this year with 12 points in his first 12 games only to sizzle out. He's been a healthy scratch for 8 of the last 9 games. Kotalik wound up with 8 goals and 14 assists in 45 games. He was also a minus 18 which is stellar. Higgins worked hard but has been snake bitten all year. Just 6 goals and 8 assists to go with a minus 9.

Jokinen will be the first number 1 type center to play with Marian Gaborik this year. Gaborik is the whole team so you might as well build around him. Jokinen's $5.25 million dollar salary also is up at the end of the year. Jokinen has a pretty bad reputation of not being a team guy but he could put up number playing alongside Gaborik. It's hard not to except for the guys on this team. The underachieving Jokinen is now third in Ranger scoring with 35 points. GM Glen Sather has tried to fix ANOTHER one of his free agent signing disasters and something tells me he's not done. He wants Ilya Kovalchuk... who wouldn't?

To be honest I'm more excited about Brandon Prust, who is second in the NHL with 18 fighting majors... it's about time. Aaron Voros has tried to be the enforcer when he plays but he can't fight. Donald Brashear should retire so there pretty much has been no one to defend anyone the whole year. Prust is a good middle weight fighter who will hopefully infuse some life into this lackluster lineup.

Sather has built a disaster. Every free agent contract he's given out has been awful except for Marian Gaborik. Has there been another free agent signing in the last 10 years you can remember that was good? I can't... Eric Lindros, Pavel Bure, Bobby Holik... those were great ones. Scott Gomez, Chris Drury, Wade Redden, Michal Rozsival, Donald Brashear... the list goes on.

The greatest part of this story is that although no one in their right mind would have paid a player like Kotalik $3 million... Sather somehow did it AND gave a 3-team no trade clause. Are you kidding me? Calgary was on that list... guess that worked out for you Ales... have fun bud...

He's just the man...

2010-02-01T02:15:00.008-05:00

It's no surprise the Rangers' five-game losing streak came in conjunction with them not standing up for each other as a team. Daniel Girardi stood by and let Marian Gaborik get pummeled by Flyers enforcer Dan Carcillo. The team lost that game and 5 more. Without Gaborik, this team would have 5 to 7 victories this year.

Gaborik came up with a natural hat trick to lead the Rangers over the Colorado Avalanche 3-1. He literally is the whole team. For the second straight night Henrik Lundqvist sat out while Chad Johnson made a strong bid for his first NHL shutout and ended up with his first win. He played very well especially during a 18 shot barrage in the third.

Ales Kotalik was sent home before the game as GM Glen Sather is trying to move yet another of his free agent mistakes. 3 years at $3 million per has been another disaster just a few months in. Aside from Gaborik's contract, Sather has not given out one that makes sense since before the lockout. It's a constant struggle for this guy to erase his mistakes but then he goes ahead and makes them again (See Donald Brashear, Wade Redden, Michal Rozsival, Chris Drury, and Kotalik to name a handful). It's ok though because he has a job for life.

Word on the street is the Rangers are getting ready to send Kotalik and Christopher (another disaster) Higgins to Calgary for Olli Jokinen and Brandon Prust. I'd rather see them trade Kotalik and Higgins for just Prust because he's a tough kid but that can't happen. This deal is in a holding pattern though. The Blueshirts are also heard to be trying to get in on the Ilya Kovalchuk sweepstakes. Not sure how that could possibly happen salary cap wise unless Jokinen and his over $5 million per is flipped.

Rangers-Flyers...

2010-01-21T20:39:00.006-05:00

Well the boys have reverted back to getting pushed around embarrassed. The second period got really going when Dan Carcillo went after Marian Gaborik from behind him. Gaborik was just trying to push him back and defend himself but ended up having to drop the gloves and get the living shit kicked out of him by the Flyers' best fighter... hysterical. Gaborik didn't throw a punch but got 5 for fighting and the Flyers wound up with a power play somehow.

Joe Micheletti was going crazy that the Rangers will respond... my question was with who? Donald Brashear played two games and fought so he's out for a month. Sean Avery dropped the gloves with Scott Hartnell and his visor... Avery demolished in 3 punches.

Sam Rosen made the game almost unwatchable as he went on about how it's a one goal game with a division rival... this being a reason the Rangers should not go after Carcillo... and Joe SOMEHOW AGREED with him. Absolutely unbelievable. We all know Sam doesn't condone fighting but as a team can you stand there and do nothing when MARIAN GABORIK is getting killed by their best fighter? Dan Girardi could watch it and ought to be embarrassed. Sean Avery could not and thankfully he was not listening to Sam or Joe.

Right after the fight, Gaborik tried to stick check Mike Richards but that's not allowed anymore. Though the league knows these sticks break when accepting passes, if it breaks when another stick touches it, it's an automatic penalty. And of course, Richards scored with 2.5 left off of Marc Staal's Skate. You can't make this stuff up. Hope you enjoyed the 2 games of goals. Now watch them go get pushed around some more in the third... wouldn't want to go after anyone and take a penalty with this "important" game so close.

It's 2-0 Flyers but it might as well be 12-0. They showed support for each other and won... seems they forgot about that and are just afraid.

Let's fight..

2010-01-21T11:41:00.005-05:00

Something may be happening with this team. Though we had no reason to think this was coming... the Rangers are scoring goals. They scored 8 goals for the first time since 2002 when they beat the Boston Bruins 8-4. The Tampa Bay Lightning were annihilated 8-2 at the Garden, which came on the heels of a 6-2 demolition of the Montreal Canadiens. And the outburst has nothing to do with Marian Gaborik scoring... well not goals anyway.

Gaborik tied a career high with 4 assists the other night but Brandon Dubinsky, Ryan Callahan, Vinny Prospal and even Chris Drury are all heating up. 8 goals from 8 different scorers the other night. This team needs everyone to be involved and that may be starting to happen. Of course they could come out in Philly tonight and score 1 goal again... but there's always hope and cautious optimism. More goals equals less pressure for Henrik Lundqvist, who continues to be stellar.

Anyone else find it interesting that since they started defending themselves and each other they started playing harder scoring? Anyone surprised Donald Brashear has NOTHING to do with it? I'm not. Aaron Voros dropped the gloves :10 in with Zenon Konopka and although he lost, the building was still electric. Voros, who has been good, was rewarded with some power play time late in the game and converted a beautiful feed from Brian Boyle. Ryan Malone kicked the shit out of him later but that's ok. Brandon Dubinsky also dropped em' with Jeff Halpern with under two minutes to go.

Bottom line and memo to Gary Bettman... Fighting works.

Notes:

The Rangers suffered their most embarrassing loss to the Flyers in the Garden 6-0 last time they faced each other... Gaborik has a goal and 6 assists in the last two... Dubinsky has 3 goals and 3 assists in the last 2.

Signs of Life...

2010-01-19T14:51:00.006-05:00

The Rangers are reading and listening to the Blueshirt Beat. Two days after flipping out about how this team doesn't care about each other... they come out hitting and fighting for one another. They ended up blowing out the Montreal Canadiens 6-2 in the Garden Sunday. The Garden was packed and as juiced as it has been all year.

Sean Avery has been fired up and playing closer to himself lately. He went at it with Josh Gorges and knocked him down in the end... did a good job getting Gorges' face shield off before blasting him a few times in the face. The Garden exploded when Avery raised his hands on his way to the box.

How about Wade Redden? He was singled out by me the other day and all of the sudden he's ready to drop the gloves. He fought a much bigger Benoit Pouliot and what happened? The Garden went bananas especially because it was Redden stepping in for teammates.

The Blueshirts finally stepped up and defended one another. The building rewarded them and they rolled. Maybe there is a little life in this team but they need to build on it. As for the game Ryan Callahan was fantastic with 2 goals and 2 assists, including a great individual effort on Brandon Dubinsky's second period short-handed goal that tied the game at 2. Dubinsky added another goal and had an assist. Of course Marian Gaborik scored again, and added 2 assists.

Notes:
Rumors are starting to fly again about Vinny Lecavalier tonight with the Rangers facing the Lightning tonight. The Ottawa Sun recently had the Rangers sending Matt Gilroy, Wade Redden, and either Ryan Callahan or Brandon Dubinsky for Lecavalier. Tampa GM Brian Lawton called the rumors "complete B.S.".

Cassee Was Angry 2day...

2010-01-15T00:02:00.004-05:00

Rangers got embarrassed on home ice by the Ottawa Senators 2-0 and here's why...

Marrrr-tyyyyyyy.....

2010-01-13T02:27:00.003-05:00

Vinny Prospal returned for the Rangers and the offense exploded on the Devils with a season high 51 shots. Unfortunately, Martin Brodeur was standing in front of them and nothing got by. I guess you can give them an "A" for effort though as they do salvage a point (9-1-3 in last 13).

Henrik Lundqvist and Brodeur were fantastic in this game. It was about as exciting as a 1-0 game could be. Back and forth action and spectacular saves at both ends. Brodeur was just better stopping every shot he faced all night and adding to his constantly growing NHL record of 107 career shutouts.

The difference for the Blueshirts this year is the shootout has become a weakness and is losing them games. You can almost feel every player sawing his stick off in his hand skating in. Erik Christensen, who is supposed to very good at it, didn't even get a shot off. I've never seen a team that doesn't get shots off in a shootout as much as this one (see Kotalik and Callahan the other day against Atlanta). John Tortorella continues to trot Marian Gaborik out there but he's been awful in his career and this year going 1 for 5 so far. But really who else can he send out there?

The problem remains scoring and where is it going to come from? Prospal played 21:14 in this one and Gaborik was good... but no goals. When will someone else step up for this team? It just can't be that they're running into a hot goaltender every time out... it just can't.

Notes:
The Rangers have lost 6 straight overtime/shootout games since beating Florida in a shootout November 25th... Fans chanting "Marrrr-ttyyyyy" before the shootout apparently didn't bother him.

Prospal returns...

2010-01-12T11:25:00.004-05:00

Vinny Prospal will be back in the lineup against the Devils tonight. He's been out since December 26th when he injured his right knee in the loss to the Islanders. The Rangers went 4-3 in his absence.

The interesting question now is what happens to Erik Christensen? He's had 3 goals and 4 assists in 6 games playing with Marian Gaborik since Prospal went down. I don't see why you couldn't have a line of Gaborik-Christensen-Prospal so we'll see how it plays out.

The Devils come in 31-11-1 this year. One reason is because they're consistent but another one is they can score goals... into the opposition's net and everything. They're led by Zach Parise's 20 goals and 26 assists but they also have 5 other players with over 10 goals. The Rangers have two... TWO GUYS with 10 goals or more and Ryan Callahan just got to that number.

Hopefully Prospal's return can help the Rangers but it's not as if they were scoring a lot before he went down. I have no reason to believe the scoring is going to heat up any time soon.

Hanging Chad...

2010-01-08T12:30:00.003-05:00

Only the Rangers could lose to a team that hadn't won in 9 games. Rookie goalie Chad Johnson was spectacular trying to keep his team in it and had a shutout going into the third. Sean Avery returned to Mr. Invisible and Marian Gaborik didn't score so... yeah 1 goal seems about right.

Marc Staal got it started taking the puck from Johnson behind his net and flying up right side of the ice. He pulled up just inside Atlanta's blue line before he whistled a perfect pass to Enver Lisin who tipped in his 5th of the season. That should have been enough right?

A bad line change by Chris Drury left Brian Boyle defenseless to stop Jim Slater who walked in alone and beat Johnson through the legs on a nice backhand move. Drury was otherwise stellar blocking and injuring himself on several shots.

The shootout doomed the Rangers as 3 of the 5 participants (Del Zotto, Kotalik, Callahan) couldn't even muster a shot on goal... amazing. Slava Kozlov and Bryan Little beat Johnson through the legs while Marian Gaborik did the same to Johan Hedberg in the shootout. The Rangers fell 2-1 but still managed to get a loser's point.

New Podcast as promised...

2010-01-07T15:23:00.002-05:00

Cassee Was Angry That Day....

Wake Up Call

2010-01-07T03:04:00.004-05:00

The wake up call Sean Avery needed arrived last night in the form of the Dallas Stars and the Rangers won back-to-back games at the Garden for the first time in over 2 months. Number 16 was simply awesome with a goal and 3 assists, but he was all over the ice and in everyone's face.

Avery's old teammates weren't too happy to see him. “I would have loved to have seen that delinquent do that for us last year,” Stars goalie Marty Turco said. The Stars threw Avery away 23 games into a four-year $15.5 million contract after comments about an ex-girlfriend among other things. Sweet revenge for Avery who also received the most ridiculous 10-minute misconduct I may have ever seen. More on that later.

Avery popped into third-person... which is always great, “It was the way that Sean Avery needs to play. I’ve been thinking about it a lot... I’ve got to stay consistent". That's the thing I don't get with him. He is fast, explosive in his stride, has a good shot and is a pretty good passer. You'd think he could put up 40 points every year in his sleep but that consistency has never been there. The most he ever had was 39 for the LA Kings in 2005-06.

The Blueshirts got goals from Marian Gaborik (tied for league lead with Patrick Marleau at 28), Ales Kotalik (second in 2 games), Chris Drury and an empty-netter from Ryan Callahan. Marc Staal was amazing again and Henrik Lundqvist made 25 saves.

Notes:
Special new podcast called "Cassee Was Angry That Day..." coming later. I'll give you a hint of what's angered me...The idiots wearing referee uniforms.

A Garden win?

2010-01-04T23:03:00.005-05:00

Somehow the Rangers won a game at MSG tonight beating the Boston Bruins 3-2. They did what they could to lose it though, including another 5-on-3 featuring Marian Gaborik and Ales Kotalik lined up incorrectly. The Blueshirts entered the third with a 2-0 lead but it unraveled quickly as Matt Hunwick and Blake Wheeler scored 1:26 apart to tie it.

A first period blast on the power play by Ales Kotalik put the Blueshirts up 1-0. It was Kotalik's first since November 5th which is not a bad stretch. Erik Christensen doubled the lead in the second on a beautiful backhand through the legs of Tuuka Rask off a brilliant breakout. Brandon Dubinsky assisted on both goals.

With 1:29 left, the last guy on the ice you thought would score did. Christopher Higgins caught Rask leaning and put the puck in on the backhand from the side of the net. It was Higgins' first goal at the Garden all year and proved to be the winner. This had all the makings of another home loss and you were just waiting for it to happen. Maybe a win like this can turn the tide at home.

Notes:
Watching Donald Brashear tonight in his 5:51 of ice time I realized he hasn't made one productive play all year. I could do what he does for $1.4 million a year. This guy even had the nerve to turn down Dan Carcillo who was challenging him in the 6-0 blowout to the Flyers last week. Brashear skated away as if he NEEDS to be on the ice for offense or something other than fighting, which he's also not very good at any more. I never thought I'd say this but Aaron Voros deserves to be out there more. What a joke... Rangers outshot the Bruins 35-28... Eric Christensen has 2 goals and 2 assists in his last 3 games.

Rangers-Canes home-and-home wrap...

2010-01-03T14:41:00.008-05:00

The Rangers responded with a 2-1 win in Carolina on New Year's Eve only to come back to the Garden, and fail to score again. Here's some thoughts on both games:

Rangers-Canes wrap

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Wow.... Happy New Year!!!

2009-12-31T12:50:00.012-05:00

The Rangers showed up last night and glided around, losing every battle in the game and initiating none. The Philadelphia Flyers blew them out 6-0 with Simon Gagne picking up a hat-trick. I didn't feel like writing so take a listen to the new aspect of The Beat....

Ranger-Flyer rant

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Prospal out

2009-12-29T14:03:00.003-05:00

Vinny Prospal had arthroscopic surgery this morning on his right knee, which was injured in Saturday night's loss to the Islanders. The Ranger's second leading scorer will be gone for 2-3 weeks. Just what a team struggling with scoring needs.

Christopher Higgins will get a shot with Brandon Dubinsky and Marian Gaborik. Ales Kotalik will move up to one of the top 3 lines and Eric Christensen will probably play. He's shown enough to make you want to see more of him but he hasn't gotten a chance to play. Not sure why you'd sign a guy like this if you won't even look at him for more than 5 minutes a game. The power play has been struggling and Christensen has a good shot... why not give him a try? Maybe he gets a chance now in the absence of Prospal.

We'll see where the scoring will come from but it wasn't exactly coming in droves with Prospal out there.

2009-12-26T23:05:00.003-05:00

The Islanders just kept coming... well not really but Henrik Lundqvist didn't have enough. The Rangers lost to the Islanders for the second time in 10 days at the Garden, 3-2. The Isles were very good defensively in one of the most boring "rivalry" games I've ever seen. Brandon Dubinsky led the way for the Rangers with 2 goals including the game-tying goal with :47 left. But Kyle Okposo was just better than him on this night.

The MSG crew couldn't stop talking about Okposo's 18-game goal-less streak. They completed their objective of waking him up as he won it in overtime on a weak wrist shot from just inside the blue line. It was a shot that simply has to be stopped by The King. Okposo had a goal and 2 assists and was by far the best player on the ice.

The Rangers showed some good fight being 2-0 and seemingly out of this game. In the end they came up short but stole a point. It's hard to be positive about a loss especially when Christopher Higgins missed a wide open net in overtime. Wide open... unchecked... doesn't even get a shot off.

Notes:
Michal Rozsival had another 2 assists... Vinny Prospal made a huge play batting the clearing attempt out of mid-air at the blue line prior to the tying goal... Donald Brashear continues to be absolutely useless... Ales Kotalik embarrassed himself on Blake Comeau's short-handed goal taking himself out of position to throw a hit... that never landed. Somehow he was still on the power play unit later in the game... Rangers don't play again until Wednesday in Philadelphia.

Streaks...

2009-12-24T10:32:00.004-05:00

The Rangers are on a good streak going and continue to end bad ones. They won their fourth in a row last night beating the Florida Panthers 4-1 last night. Henrik Lundqvist was the focal point again making two sparkling glove saves on Nathan Horthon in the first and Michael Frolik in the third, among others. The King has simply been on fire for the last 10 games or so. He was beaten early ona rebound he had no chance on but stopped the next 33 shots.

As for the streaks ending... Vinny Prospal snapped a 14-game goal-less streak with a power play goal in the second and one in the third. The Blueshirts broke a 5-game losing streak at home and 7 out of 8 with a complete effort last night. Chris Drury scored his third goal in four games and was fantastic all around. Enver Lisin made great hustle play to negate an icing before feeding the Captain in the slot to tie the game just 2:13 after Victor Oreskovich opened the scoring for Florida. Drury also added an assist after stealing the puck short-handed in the neutral zone. Drury was taken down but rewarded for his effort when Marian Gaborik came flying off the bench to beat Tomas Vokoun on a bad angle back-hander. Gaborik who leads the league with 26 goals.

Ryan Callahan is scoring again and had a beautiful assist on Prospal's first goal. His stick was tied up in front so he kicked it to Prospal. Callahan has 4 goals and 5 assists in his last 7 games. Hey... Wade Redden even tried to hit a player. He got laid out by Mike Duco but oh well... at least he tried. Redden did make a great play earlier in the first sliding to take away a 2-on-1 opportunity. Michal Rozsival has been much better since Redden was sat down and played well again despite not being able to clear the rebound on Florida's only goal. He played 23:18, second only to Staal's 24:50.

Marc Staal and Dan Girardi were reunited for the first time since the Detroit game and absolutely shut down the red hot Michael Frolik-Stephen Weiss-Nathan Horton line. The bottom line is when this team gets a complete effort, they look like a team that can make some noise. Can they keep the effort going? We'll see on Saturday when the Islanders return to the Garden. That last 2-1 loss the to the Isles and meeting after seems like the wakeup call this team needed.

Notes:
For the second straight game the Rangers responded to a goal against quickly. Marian Gaborik scored in Raleigh :28 after the Hurricanes had taken the lead... Brandon Dubinsky looks to be getting his legs back with 3 points in the last 2.

Gilroy back...

2009-12-20T18:35:00.004-05:00

The Rangers have a 2-game winning streak and that's due mostly to the play of Henrik Lundqvist. Chris Drury and Artem Anisimov both scored again on Saturday against the Philadelphia Flyers in a 2-1 win. Drury has handled his demotion to the fourth line with class, shutting his mouth and scoring in consecutive games. But the King continues to be the story as he was simply incredible stopping 36 shots.

Coach John Tortorella had some harsh words before the game. "There's going to be no entitlement around here and I think that's what kind of stinks of that around here." He added, "We'll go through some bumps in the road with kids, but not with underachieving veterans." It's about time.

Michal Rozsival must be listening as he had the best effort he's had in a while... no one better than him at being an 'underachieving veteran'. Marc Staal played over half the game (30:45) basically because Bobby Sanguinetti and Ilkka Heikkinen barely played. They were both sent down after the game while Matt Gilroy was called back up. That obviously means Wade Redden will be back in the lineup tomrrow night in Raleigh against the Hurricanes. It'll be interesting to see how Redden, who's been a baby so far, will respond.

The Return...

2009-12-18T02:30:00.003-05:00

The word in New York yesterday was that if the Rangers had lost the second of their home-and-home with the Islanders, Glen Sather's job could be in jeopardy. Hard not to root for a loss with that news but the Rangers won 5-2.

John Tortorella flipping out may have had something to do with that. He sat Wade Redden and Ales Kotalik in an attempt to wake these guys up. Chris Drury did wake up with his first goal since October 19th. Ryan Callahan continued his hot play with 2 goals and 2 assists (5 goals in last 7). Marian Gaborik assisted on both of Callahan's power play goals and added one of his own. Vinny Prospal fed Gaborik for a one-time canon on a 5-on3. Whenever Tortorella employs the 5 forward look, Prospal and Gaborik always line up on the off point, unable to shoot the puck off the pass. Thankfully for once they switched and the puck was in the net :03 later.

Michal Rozsival led the team with 26:37 of ice time and had 2 assists. Artem Anismov added a beauty in the third going wide and powering his way in front to slam it past Dwayne Roloson. But it was Henrik Lundqvist who set the tone again. The Rangers took two early penalties and were out shot 14-4 in the first. He made the saves he had to and gave the Blueshirts a chance to ease into this one.

So for one day talk of Glen Sather being fired will die down... but hopefully only for a day.

Notes:
Donald Brashear took another stupid penalty and played only 4:36. Another Sather special at $1.4 a year... Bobby Sanguinetti was shaky playing just 8:46 and did take a penalty... Rangers face the Flyers in Philadelphia Saturday afternoon.

Another one...

2009-12-17T12:06:00.003-05:00

The Rangers fell again at the Garden 2-1 to the Islanders last night and now have lost 8 of 9 in the World's Most Famous Arena. The good thing for them is they only had to play 2 periods. They didn't show up for the irst at all getting out shot 10-3. They were outworked all night. Strange effort from a team that is now rocking a 5-game losing streak going to the Coliseum tonight.

John Tortorella threatened that change are coming. "There has to be something done and we'll see along the way here before [tonight's] game what we go with." Not sure what there is he could do but one thing I can think of is sitting down Sean Avery. Avery lazily tried to handle a Henrik Lundqvist rebound of a Matt Moulson shot. Problem is Blake Comeau was next to him and literally shot the puck from Avery's stick into the top corner for what became the game winner.

Of course the Rangers got a goal late as you knew they would to get it close. Enver Lisin, who only played 9:14 got the goal.But this team just doesn't have enough. That's thanks to their General Manager Glen Sather, who is responsible for the 5 worst contracts in the history of the sport. Somehow it's never even talked about that he should lose his job.

Freefall...

2009-12-16T12:00:00.004-05:00

Despite pumping a season high 48 shots on net against the Atlanta Thrashers, the Rangers only scored 2 goals... again. Marian Gaborik still is the only scorer on the team until you put him in a shootout (1 for 16 in career). The Rangers are now 7-17 after opening 7-1. Yeah I know technically they're 7-14-3 but who cares? Overtime/shootout losses are still losses.

Now enter the Islanders who are supposed to be horrible but have 31 points... just like the Rangers but with a ton cheaper payroll. They're rebuilding but competitive. The Blueshirts are competing sometimes but are not scoring or winning... nice combo. We shall see if the Islanders can bring something out of this team. Rivalries are pretty much dead in this game anyway and even if they weren't, there's no good fighters on either of these teams.

There is some good news in Rangerland in that Brandon Dubinsky is back and Ryan Callahan may be heating up. But a 4-game losing streak can very easily become 6 by tomorrow night if the Rangers can't find a way to score more than 2 a game.

Notes:
The record is 7-8-1 at home and 7-7-2 on the road.... They've lost 7 of 8 at the Garden and haven't won since Marian Gaborik beat Columbus 7-4 with 4 points... Henrik Lundqvist will start... Bobby Sanguinetti has been called back up.

Frustration...

2009-12-14T02:31:00.003-05:00

It's frustrating to watch this team and it was again the other night in a 3-2 loss at the Garden to the Buffalo Sabres. The Sabres got 2 goals from fourth liner Patrick Kaleta (never had 2 before in a game), including the game winner on a short-handed breakaway. Henrik Tallinder's clearing attempt skipped past Ales Kotalik, who had an awful night against his former team. He took two penalties and failed to take a third that would have prevented Kaleta from walking in alone... much rather have him take a penalty shot.

It's frustrating because the power play was starting to work again... or Marian Gaborik was starting to work again. He assisted on Ryan Callahan's tying goal in the first and scored his league-leading 22nd shortly thereafter. But there's just not enough on this team. They can't score more than 2 goals. Sound familiar?

Sean Avery, Christopher Higgins, and Marc Staal have all been noticeably better... but they're not scoring. You just can't win if you don't score... period. And with the contractual problems you have on this team, you can't go out and get scoring. Brandon Dubinsky appears close to a return but guess what? He doesn't score either. It'll be interesting to see what happens with this team because right now the season appears over.

Money Talks...

2009-12-11T11:50:00.004-05:00

GM Glen Sather has done it again. Instead of sending down Michal Rozsival, who has been utterly useless, he has sent Matt Gilroy to Hartford. The move clears some cap room to get a better look at Ilkka Heikkinen. The bottom line is when you make $5 million a year it doesn't matter how bad you are... Sather will just knock one of the kids down.

Gilroy has not been great as of late. He opened the preseason flying, opened the season cautious, and lately has been unnoticeable. He is a 25-year-old rookie that has been only been playing defense for 4 years though. There must be no time for him to grow with powerhouses like Rozsival and Wade Redden dominating like they do. A mop laying in the defensive zone all game might be better than ol' Rosy. Moving Gilroy comes on the heels of him getting beaten and outworked on both Chicago goals the other night.

Accountability was supposed to be the staple of this team with John Tortorella in town. Is he not able to see what a disaster Rozsival is every night? He made more mistakes than Gilroy the other night that very easily could have led to goals. You know where Rozsival would be if they did? Right on the ice against the Sabres on Saturday night. Even Wade Redden, who has been better this year, still sucks. His deal goes down as one of the worst signings in the history of the league. The team will go nowhere with these two clowns making $11.5 million and that's 4 more years in Redden's case... awesome!

If I was Wade Redden, Michal Rozsival or even Chris Drury I'd be embarrassed that the team can't be good BECAUSE OF ME. Drury is supposed to be a captain and leader. He must know that he is making about $4 million too much right? Imagine if Rozsival was making $2 million (I wouldn't have given him anything), Redden $2 million and Drury $3 max. That's $11.5 million that could be used to get someone good on this team besides Gaborik. But this is pro sports... you take the big money from the Rangers like every other over-the-hill free agent has in the past and accept the boos. Who cares? The people booing don't get to live like you do.

Rangers-Hawks Thread...

2009-12-09T21:03:00.011-05:00

FIRST PERIOD

Game opens with Michal Rozsival giving the puck away twice for quality scoring chances. Pretty bad turnover by Ales Kotalik leading to Andrew Ladd blowing by Rozsival but Henrik Lundqvist looks sharp.

Vinny Prospal at the end of a shift tried to clear the puck and it took a Ranger bounce to Marian Gaborik. He fed Rozsival who dropped it back to Gaborik and what a pass to Christopher Higgins who buried his second goal in 3 games. Rangers being outshot 16-5.

Rangers lead 1-0...

SECOND PERIOD

All Henrik Lundqvist in the second period and little else. Rangers being outshot 14-10 and 30-15 for the game.

Rangers still lead 1-0...

THIRD PERIOD

2 huge penalty kills with outstanding work from Chris Drury, Ryan Callahan and Brian Boyle. Then a ridiculous call on Dan Girardi ultimately doomed the Rangers... for the second time in the game Patrick Kane looks like the most unbalanced skater in the league and falls over. Penalty of course and I wrote this before Chicago just popped it in as you knew they would. Jonathan Toews got it as Brian Boyle just stood there in a goal mouth scramble not picking anyone up.

1-1 as the refs tie it... Just a matter of time before the Hawks win this one... Rangers had no business in this one anyway...

Yep... they lost. Dustin Bfyuglien, a third liner, beats Gaborik and Matt Gilroy up the ice and embarrasses The King. The Rangers did not match Lundqvist's effort and he was pissed, slamming his stick against the glass. He was the only one who played tonight. The funny thing is Gaborik could've caught Byfuglien in his sleep but didn't start skating until the red line. They just find ways to lose and have no one to score... EVER.

Rangers had one shot in the third lose 2-1, as predicted during the game right here... They were outshot 41-18 for the game. What an embarrassment.

Questions...

2009-12-09T13:01:00.001-05:00

The Rangers are in Chicago tonight to take on the Black Hawks who are best in the NHL at home at 11-3-1. A lot of question marks going into tonight and the foreseeable future for this team. Will Wade Redden play? Donald Brashear? Will we get another look at Erik Christensen?

The answer is who cares? None of these players will make any difference and that's exactly the problem with this team. There are no difference makers on it except for Marian Gaborik and Henrik Lundqvist. And now with the King faltering and letting in the most ridiculous goals I've ever seen late in games, you're down to one guy.

John Tortorella may want to play up-tempo but he doesn't have the players to do it. Now they just play boring, almost unwatchable hockey and win a few games 2-1 or so. I thought it was Tom Renney's fault but it's Glen Sather's. He built a team with (yes I know this is recurring) 4 marginal players at best taking up $26 million in Scott Gomez, Chris Drury, Michal Rozsival and Wade Redden. He somehow moved Gomez but there is no hope for this team when you are unable to get secondary scoring with no money. Not to mention the millions he threw away on guys like Patrick Rissmiller (3 years at $3 million), Tyler Arnason ($700,000), Aaron Voros (3 years at $3 million) Donald Brashear (2 at $1.4) and now Erik Christensen.

Somehow it's never even mentioned that Sather should be fired. Think about it... $3.4 MILLION on 3 guys that don't play (Brashear, Voros, Rissmiller). At least Voros and Brashear are with the club but they're invisible when and if they play except for always taking dumb offensive zone penalties. I'd love to say the future looks bright but boy... what a disaster.

King Without a Crown..

2009-12-07T11:57:00.004-05:00

Maybe he was just tired playing the second night of back-to-backs... maybe he slipped... or maybe he just sucks. Henrik Lundqvist has been staying on his feet more lately and not surprisingly, has been better. The King saved the worst for the last 2:03 when he let up maybe the softest goal I've ever seen from him.

The Rangers lost 3-1 to a Red Wing team decimated by injuries and sits last place on the road in penalty killing. The deciding goal came on a cross ice pass from Henrik Zetterberg to Daniel Cleary, whose shot from about the goal line somehow got through Lundqvist. Kris Draper added an empty netter.

The Blueshirts didn't really go out and try to win this game. They seemed to be waiting to lose. Ryan Callahan missed a penalty shot and Christopher Higgins missed a breakaway. Other than that the power play was dreadful against the league's worst. 3 power plays in the third produced nothing but a few shots and very little set up time. The first unit, which had been so cohesive before John Tortorella started messing with Ales Kotalik, was terrible. The second unit generated a 2-on-1 down low in the third. Higgins fed Sean Avery for a wide open net but he didn't even get a shot off.

Marian Gaborik needs to be able to shoot but had no shots in the game for the first time this season. Niklas Lidstrom and Brian Raflaski had something to do with that but if he doesn't score a point, they have no chance.

Brian Boyle opened the scoring tipping in a Higgins feed after a nice rush. But Jimmy Howard was made to look like Patrick Roy the rest of the way. A little over a quarter of the way through the season, this team appears to be headed nowhere. They are an average team who can't make much noise in the playoffs... if they get there at all.

Back on the horse...

2009-12-06T12:41:00.003-05:00

The Rangers and Henrik Lundqvist made a first period goal stand up til :59 left. Fortunately Ryan Callahan had added another one in the third banging in a Sean Avery rebound in a 2-1 win against the Buffalo Sabres last night. The Sabres had been on a four game winning streak.

The first period was extremely boring but ended with Marian Gaborik feeding Christopher Higgins for his 3rd of the season. Gaborik and Artem Anisimov made good defensive plays on Tyler Myers to get the play started. Gaborik has scored points now in 23 of 26 as a Ranger.

The King played the best he's played in a long time aside from the Jason Pominville goal. It was simply a puck that has to be stopped from a terrible angle. Thankfully the Blueshirts still had a goal to play with as they continue to miss open nets. I've never seen a team struggle so mightily to score in an empty net. Brian Boyle and Callahan both missed good chances.

Chris Drury was very good on both sides of the ice and won 13 of his 21 faceoffs. He still has a tendency to make dumb decisions with the puck though as he did on a second period power play. The Buffalo penalty killers were completely out of gas as Drury controlled the puck in the neutral zone. Instead of walking the puck back in he sent it over to his bench where his team was changing. Eventually he got what he was after when the Rangers were whistled for too many men. This could've been a huge turning point but thankfully wasn't.

Notes:
Ilkka Heikkinen made his debut and played well in 9:27. On his first shift he put a solid shot into Patrick Kaleta in the corner... Erik Christensen made his debut also and was a non-factor... Rangers get right back at it tonight against the Detroit Red Wings at the Garden.

Blockbuster!!! Yeah right...

2009-12-02T15:15:00.002-05:00

The Rangers today waived Steve Valiquette and signed Eric Christensen according to Steve Zipay of Newsday. Chad Johnson, who is probably not ready to be up here, was called up to replace Valiquette. So much for Lundqvist not playing as much this year.

No Donald Brashear or Wade Redden at practice today. In Redden's case it's odd because Bobby Sanguinetti was already sent back to Hartford.

As for Christensen, he's another guy like Aaron Voros, Tyler Arnason or Patrick Rissmiller who were signed for no reason other than to waste money. He should contribute nothing and I'm looking forward to that.

Just Not Good Enough...

2009-12-01T02:23:00.005-05:00

After winning back-to-back games for the first time since October the Rangers have dropped the next 3. The Penguins got a hat trick from Mike Rupp and 2 more from Sidney Crosby winning 5-2 at the Garden. The only guy playing for the Rangers offensively... AGAIN... was Marian Gaborik. His 2 goals gave him 21 to lead the league and tied him with Joe Thornton for the league lead in points with 37. Imagine if he had some other people on this team...

The officiating was downright embarrassing as it always is with a Sid The Kid game. That is not what doomed the Blueshirts though. What doomed them was Henrik Lundqvist who was awful at a key time again. If you just shoot high on him and hit the net... it's going in 80% of the time. He needs to be good enough to steal some games and he is not able to do that right now. Mike Rupp's go ahead goal in the third simply cannot happen and neither can Crosby's in the first period :11 after Gaborik gave the Rangers the lead.

The Rangers responded, battled and still came up way short as they will continue to do against most decent teams. They're just not built correctly. Brian Boyle made his way back in the lineup and Enver Lisin was out. Ales Kotalik is also in the doghouse. He was not used on the power play and played only 3:14. Donald Brashear was on the third line tonight... are you kidding me?

Somehow I don't think 'ol Glen Sather is going to be able to fix it with a deadline deal. Even if they make the playoffs, this is not the kind of team that can go deep. Right now they're boring to watch... they can't score... and they just suck. Their coach would tell you that too.

Notes:
The team doesn't play again til Saturday and will have tomorrow off. I'd like to say they need it but they certainly don't deserve it... Bobby Sanguinetti was returned to Hartford meaning Wade Redden should be back against Buffalo on Saturday.

Wow..

2009-11-29T20:40:00.005-05:00

Last time the Rangers were in Pittsburgh, they were in it til the end. This time they were done in the first. As predicted here on the Beat yesterday, The Rangers did in fact get obliterated by the Penguins with a final of 8-3. Sidney Crosby led the way with a hat trick and 2 assists.

Steve Valiquette got the start and was awful. Not sure why he started being that Henrik Lundqvist got the early hook the night before but he gave up several goals a good men's league goalie could've stopped.

Matt Cooke took Artem Anisimov's defenseless head off in the third period and got 2 minutes. Donald Brashear tried to go after him but was prevented by the refs and Cooke's fear. They gave him 4 minutes. I just don't get how you're allowed to injure someone, get only 2 minutes and then be suspended 2 games. This league is an absolute embarrassment as is Matt Cooke. Later Ryan Callahan was able to drop the gloves with this pussy but you'd rather someone who can fight go after him. Now Cooke gets protected by the league and will not be in the lineup tomorrow in the rematch at the Garden.

John Tortorella adressed it angrily after the game, "To me it's pretty simple, change the rule book. Some of these guys that go about doing that and have no fear at all as far as maybe a little retribution, it'll continue and that's why our game is more violent now because I think guys hide behind that rule book." He also referenced Brashear's effort to get to Cooke, "The linesman jumps in when someone is trying to take care of business that should have been left alone. This is where our game is screwed up as far as I'm concerned, there's just no respect, no respect in these types of situations and I think the rule book has a little bit to play with that." You can watch it all here:

http://rangers.nhl.tv/team/console.jsp?catid=765&id=52817

The team seems to be trying to stick up for each other more now but they're just not a very good team. Normally I'd be excited to see what kind of response the Rangers would have on Monday night but I'm sure there will be none. That's just what this league is now.

Not good...

2009-11-28T14:15:00.005-05:00

The Rangers were absolutely dominated in a 5-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning last night. Not a great homecoming for Vinny Prospal or John Tortorella, except for a video tribute they did for him.

The team was simply never in this and doesn't appear able to compete with the quicker and more physical teams in the league. That's what happens when you have players like Michal Rozsival, Wade Redden and Chris Drury signed to gigantic and ridiculous contracts. You have no money for secondary scorers and tough defensemen. Good job Glen.

Not many bright spots except Ryan Callahan finally scored and Bobby Sanguinetti was pretty good in his debut. The pivotal play happened in the second with the Rangers down 2-0 though still in a game. Victor Hedman held Artem Anisimov's stick for :03 heading toward a puck in the corner. Anisimov finally yanked his stick free and it clipped Hedman up high. The only call was a high stick that iced the game for sure. Another joke call from the clowns... directly impacting the game, and in this case, deciding it.

Notes:
Henrik Lundqvist was pulled after giving up 4 goals on 22 shots... Marian Gaborik's 8 game point scoring streak came to an end... Rangers will get obliterated tonight by Pittsburgh.

Two in a row... (UPDATED)

2009-11-26T14:46:00.012-05:00

The Rangers won consecutive games for the first time since the 7-game streak at the beginning of the season. They did need the shootout and the King to beat the Florida Panthers 2-1 last night.

Chris Drury returned from his concussion and was solid. I get aggravated with him at times as everyone does. It isn't his fault Glen Sather was dumb enough to pay him Marian Gaborik money. He is the same player he always has been and that is not a scorer. Drury wins faceoffs, kills penalties and has the abiltity to score in big spots.

The Rangers opened the scoring with Drury on the power play point in place of Ales Kotalik, who is nursing an injury. The Captain took a good, low, hard shot Gaborik effortlessly tipped in for his league leading 19th goal of the season. He has now scored in 20 of 22 games as a Ranger.

You knew the refs would have to make their presence felt in this one and they did. Victor Oreskovich had already knocked Wade Redden out of the game with a clean hit in the first. He drilled another Ranger later and when Matt Gilroy, of all people, stepped in and dropped the gloves they gave him 17 hysterical minutes in penalties. That left the Blueshirts with only 4 defensemen for most of the third period and overtime. Of course that never would have happened if Oreskovich had fought Donald Brashear when challenged but he was afraid.

Sean Avery missed a perfect outlet pass just inside his blue line in the third that Dominic Moore turned into the tying goal. Henrik Lundqvist was screened by Dan Girardi on the play and had no chance. He did have a chance in the shootout stopping Nathan Horton, Steven Reinprecht and Stephen Weiss. P.A. Parenteau won it for the Rangers on a beautiful drag move out waiting Tomas Vokoun.

Notes:
Wade Redden is expected to be out a week with an upper body injury. According to Arthur Staple of Newsday Bobby Sanguinetti has been called up and will make his debut tomorrow against the Tampa Bay Lightning... Michal Rozsival will be the only defenseman over 25 in the lineup Friday night... Ales Kotalik will be a game time decision with a rib injury. If he does play, P.A. Parenteau better not be the man sitting.

***Update
Kotalik will play tonight in place of Aaron Voros which is obviously the right choice.

The Captain Returns...

2009-11-25T18:56:00.002-05:00

Chris Drury returns from a five game absence tonight. Hard to tell who the odd man out will be but it could be Ales Kotalik who got drilled the other night. He evidently has some sort of "body" injury... good to know that it is in fact a portion 0f his body that is in pain.

Rangers look to win back to back games for the first time since mid October. Florida is 5-0-2 in their last seven including a 3-2 win last week at the Garden.

2009-11-24T10:25:00.002-05:00

For one night the offense was there... thank goodness there was no one in net for Columbus as the Rangers blew out the Blue Jackets 7-4. It was much of the same with the Blueshirts playing a couple of good stretches of hockey through the game.

The game started with two defensive breakdowns leading to two goals from Columbus' fourth line. Coach Tortorella called a timeout after the second one and the Rangers woke up led by... all together now... Marian Gaborik. He did have help from Steve Mason who was awful for the Jackets. Mason had no chance on Artem Anisimov's 5th on a deflection. Michael Del Zotto made a nice rush right after and a simple wrist shot eluded the net minder letting the Rangers walk out of the first with a 3-2 lead.

The Rangers scored 7 straight including 3 in 1:11 (2 by Sean Avery and another by Gaborik). Gaborik finished with 2 goals and 2 assists and is now tied for the league lead in goals with Dany Heatley. Of course Gaborik doesn't have Joe Thornton passing him the puck but he still has scored a point in 19 of 21 games as a Ranger. Christopher Higgins was the new winger with Gaborik and Vinny Prospal on the first line and had one of his best games of the year. He had 2 assists and hit the post, of course.

Matt Gilroy capped off the scoring off a beautiful no look cross ice feed from P.A. Parenteau. Gilroy abused backup goalie Mathieu Garon going forehand-backhand-forehand. Parenteau has played very well and when the time comes he should be playing over Enver Lisin. The scoring was there... at least for one night.

Notes:
Artem Anisimov was great getting a goal and 2 assists and the third star of the game... Aaron Voros did well for a second fight in a row with Jared Boll who ealier went hard at Marc Staal... Rangers with a concerted effort to get in the face of anyone who went near Henrik Lundqvist but he eneded up getting run over by Rick Nash anyway. Someone should have punched him in the face but instead the Rangers were happy to take a power play... which is ridiculous.

Fading Fast...

2009-11-22T23:46:00.004-05:00

The 7-1 start for the Rangers is long gone... as are the hopes most of us had at that time. They dropped their third straight to Florida Saturday night by again playing the only second half of the game. Apparently they don't realize the games start at 7.

This team is a disaster and that starts with GM Glen Sather. The coach hasn't been much better though. I've always liked John Tortorella from afar. He seemed like the kind of coach who would hold people accountable. But what has he done? They played a more aggressive style toward the end of last year and in the beginning of this one. Now they appear not good enough or scared to play it. If Tortorella was the guy I thought he was, Rozsival would have been sent down or released already.

Sather seems to be doing just fine though. No talk of him being released. Let's see, he signs a second and a third line center for $7 million + a year. Gomez scored over 80 points once while Drury has never scored 70. Then he signs Wade Redden for 6 years and $39 million and Michal Rozsival coming off hip surgery for 4 years at $20 million. 4 horrible players taking up half the salary cap. Somehow he moved Scott Gomez and got something in return other than a bag of pucks. He also went after Donald Brashear (2 years and $2.8 million) who has been awful. He can't fight, skate, or hit anymore. But hey that's how you spend $20 million on 4 useless players. Ok maybe Drury isn't useless... but Blair Betts could do all the things he does... for a lot less. And why not give Patrick Rissmiller a million to play in Hartford?

They have absolutely no offense except for Marian Gaborik (points in 18 of 20 games) and Vinny Prospal. Don't expect that to change anytime soon. It's nice that Sather signed 2 good players but they don't have one that plays with an edge. Sean Avery is just not who he was. They don't stick up for one another to the point it's embarrassing. Paul Mara would stand up but of course they let him walk. Marc Staal and Dan Girardi seem to be regressing. No one on defense can clear the front of the net or prevent their franchise goalie from being run over regularly. This is a horribly constructed team built by a guy who should've been fired a long time ago. Somehow it's never even talked about though.

I guess I'll continue watching the least physical team in the league get pummeled every night. Even if they somehow made the playoffs they would have no chance against bigger teams like Philadelphia and Washington (See 6'7" Brian Boyle who falls over if the AC kicks on in the building). I picked a good year to start a blog... even when they play a game there's nothing to write about.

Same Old Song...

2009-11-18T12:31:00.005-05:00

After starting 7-1, the Rangers are now 11-9-1. Not very good. It's the same problems that the team seems to have every year. They take penalties and they can't score. Every game they say they have to be aware of penalties and every game there's at least 2 lazy ones. You could also argue that John Tortorella's usage of players like Marian Gaborik and Vinny Prospal tires them out.

You look at the power play which started off blazing but has now cooled except for Gaborik. Yet Ryan Callahan continues to trot out there with the first unit. He has 6 out of his 7 points with the man advantage but he doesn't seem to fit with Gaborik and Vinny Prospal. He has 7 points in 21 games... anyone expect that? Nice to see P.A. Parenteau get a shot on it last night and he produced an assist on a good drive to the net.

The first line has had Enver Lisin on it for weeks and though he has some upside, he's done nothing. He has no points in the last 8 playing alongside Prospal and Gaborik... That's almost impossible. I know he hurt his foot but c'mon. Coach Tortorella ended up trying Ales Kotalik with them in the third last night.

Another reason for the lack of scoring could be the loss of Brandon Dubinsky and Chris Drury but let's be honest, they had 16 points between them before going down. Tortorella has said he has the players here to get it done but they haven't.

Why not take a look at Corey Locke (9-15-24 with 7 PPG in 17 games for Hartford this year)? He'd allow you to put Prospal back on the wing. Gaborik-Anisimov-Prospal sounds pretty good for a first unit. If Anisimov is offensive, put him with offensive players. Parenteau-Locke-Callahan as your second and Higgins-Avery-Kotalik/Lisin as the third. Putting Avery at center may wake him up from the invisibility cloak he's been wearing aside from the last 2 games.

On the defensive side, there's not one unit that appears cohesive. Not one pair that you say 'Oh we can't break these guys up'. I'd like to see Ilkka Heikkinen (4-8-12 in 17 GP) or Bobby Sanguinetti (6-13-19) brought up. If the coach really holds people accountable then he will realize that no matter what Michal Rozsival makes, he is just not the same player he was before surgery.

The bottom line is scoring. It has to come from somewhere and it's not coming from the guys on the ice every night.

Rangers-Caps Thread...

2009-11-17T20:46:00.007-05:00

Boy talk about boredom. The Rangers came out solid with a goal by who else? Marian Gaborik scored his 14th of the year. Then from 4:35 into the first the Rangers didn't get a shot again til 3:51 into the second. They did let Henrik Lundqvist get run into again, this time by Jay Beagle (real tough guy) with no response and no call.

Alex Ovechkin responded with his 15th on the power play in the first. He also helped set Brooks Laich's PPG in the second. A period in which I don't remember seeing one good chance other than a quick shot by Ales Kotalik. John Erskine gave a lesson to the Rangers when Sean Avery went near Semyon Varlamov. He was immediately drilled and put down Erskine. I wish the Rangers had one tough guy who would protect his goalie.

And in a great end... Aaron Voros won the first fight of his life leaving Matt Bradley bloodied. Bradley came back and won the game with 4:51 to go.

The Blueshirts had 5 shots in the first and exploded for 6 in the second. They're getting blown out 21-11 in shots and dominated in the game.

2-1 Washington through 2...

Gaborik ties it on the second of back-to-back power plays in the third. Great play by P.A. Parenteau to drive the puck to the net with Gaborik pumping in the rebound from a near impossible angle. Funny moment as right after this a scrum ensued which reulted in Niklas Backstrom punching Ryan Callahan in the face and him not doing anything. I sat here and guaranteed matching minors and got them. You knew the clowns couldn't feel comfortable calling 3 in a row in the third on Ovechkin's Caps... especially on a nationally televised game on a hunting channel.

Aaron Voros won his first fight of his life in this one leaving Matt Bradley a bloodied mess. But Voros still can't win as Bradley came back to score the game winner with 4:51 left in the third. Beagle added insult to injury adding an assist on it. The Rangers are still seemingly unable to see their franchise goalie getting run over.

Parenteau's Patience...

2009-11-15T13:06:00.006-05:00

The Rangers beat the Ottawa Senators 2-1 in a shootout yesterday. P.A. Parenteau, despite missing an open net in the closing minutes of regulation, won it it in the seventh round of the shootout.

The usual suspects showed up again as Marian Gaborik fed Vinny Prospal for the first short-handed goal of his career, 894 games. Prospal, Ales Kotalik and Parenteau beat Brian Elliot who was solid. And hey... even Sean Avery decided to show up for this one.

Parenteau said before the game, "I'm planning on making a point here [Saturday] afternoon and sticking here as long as I can." He made his point in the shootout going backhand forehand top shelf on Brian Elliott for the win. Nice moment for him as his family was looking on. He's been good and noticeable with the ice time he's received this year.

Notes:
Thw Washington Capitals come to the Garden on Tuesday night. Last game in the Garden, Ilya Kovalchuk returned to the lineup for the Thrashers and basically won by himself. Now Alex Ovechkin will return from a 6 game absence with an upper body injury... awesome...

No Defense...

2009-11-13T10:13:00.005-05:00

The Rangers lost another one last night 5-3 to the Atlanta Thrashers. The first line of Ilya Kovachuk (goal, 2 assists) with Nik Antropov and Maxim Afinogenov skated circles around them. Marian Gaborik (goal, assist) kept them in it for a little while and a late goal by Brian Boyle made it close until Afinogenov sealed it with an empty netter.

The Thrashers struck :19 in when Evander Kane made Michal Rozsival look like an old man. I know the kid is fast but it looked like old Rozy was out of gas :19 in. Is there any upside to this $5 million dollar defenseman? Kane fed Colby Armstrong who had beaten Michael Del Zotto for a tap in.

No one was in the stands to see how exciting Atlanta can be. Or how bad Henrik Lundqvist can be when he handles the puck. He put the game away when he played the puck away from everyone on his team. They were all next to him when he fired it around the boards to Rich Peverley who fed Kane wide open in front to put the Thrashers up 4-2.

With no Chris Drury or Brandon Dubinsky, Coach Tortorella rode Vinny Prospal (27:52) and Marian Gaborik (26:02) all night. Not sure how long that can last. What's Evgeny Grachev doing? He free? Something must change as the Rangers are now 3-7-1 in their last 11.

The roster and score sheet continue to have Sean Avery on it but I have yet to see him this year. He has become the most invisible player on the team. Aaron Voros has even been better than him this year. If Avery is not agitating and doing what he does best he is useless to this team. He has golden opportunities to lay people out each game with the fans just yearning to explode... but he just shies away. I'd sit him down and put Dane Byers in his place. At least you know you'll have some effort.

Notes:
Donald Brashear returned and fought Eric Boulton's helmet. Brashear didn't land one punch but peppered the helmet to oblivion. The helmet was able to return and said after the game, "I'm fine". They build them stronger than the human hand nowadays which is odd.

Who will step up?

2009-11-12T10:30:00.004-05:00

Chris Drury will not be in the lineup tonight at the Garden against Atlanta after sustaining a concussion in Calgary. Curtis Glencross was of course suspended 3 games though there was no call on the play. There is no timetable for Drury's return but the more important issue for the team is that no one responded. They all claimed they didn't see it. You believe this?

Then there's Henrik Lundqvist who is nursing a lower body injury but may return tonight. That injury was sustained one of the 90 times he's been run over this year. Surely the Rangers must have seen one of these. If you were screaming that Jamal Mayers should have had a penalty then someone should have seen it no? And you're telling me NO ONE saw the Glencross cheap shot on Chris Drury? No one took a look at it between periods?

I don't care if it's a men's league game, a college game, or an NHL playoff game, you do not allow your teammates to be abused. You shouldn't have to be told this either. It's instinctual. I remember one game in college where someone took a run at one of our players. He wasn't our best player but it was a cheap shot. My brother, who was on the ice and didn't even like the guy on our team, attacked the guy that ran him. He wasn't told... that's what you do.

Here's what Lundqvist said, "I don't think it's been as bad the last little while, but I know it's been a lot more than last year, and if it continues, of course we have to stand up and respond." The King continued, "As long as we get calls, I don't mind getting hit if we get power plays, but if we don't get the calls, then we have to respond to it."

You see him get run over when you know he's your best player and something should snap in your head. It should just happen and thoughts of taking a penalty or ruining a potential power play should be the last thing in your mind. Especially when it's happened to the King over 10 times now.

So far no one on this team has even acknowledged what has been happening to them. They blame "not seeing it", the threat of penalties and suspension, or the instigator rule as Sean Avery did after the Calgary game. They lean on all these excuses to disguise the fact that they are cowards.

I blame John Tortorella as well. If he felt the hit on Drury should have been called a major... well then he must have seen it. Instead he fell back on the excuse that it was a "close game". What a joke. Hopefully it won't take losing Henrik Lundqvist or Marian Gaborik for the year for this team and this coach to realize you have to protect your teammates.

Embarrassment..

2009-11-07T23:46:00.008-05:00

The Rangers lost in every fashion tonight. First they lost their Captain :49 in when Curtis Glencross threw his body into Chris Drury's head. The great part about this play was the puck was nowhere near Drury, he was not looking, completely defenseless, and the Refs didn't call a penalty. Even funnier is this guy will be suspended and nothing was called. "I'm a guy old school believes you have to still have a battleship in the ocean when they don't have Donald Brashear out there somebody's gotta answer the bell. That is their Captain and it was a dirty hit," said Ken Daneyko in between periods. No one answered the bell and I am embarrassed to be a Ranger fan.

Sean Avery was asked about it and said, "You can't... you can't. If the game had been more lopsided something would've been done." That's ridiculous. This was your Captain. Avery has done nothing to help the team all year and doing anything would've gone a long way. The Rangers and Coach John Tortorella ought to be embarrassed because they did nothing. I mean no one even had words with or hit Curtis Glencross. Are you kidding me? How do you think Chris Drury feels that there was no response because his team was scared of penalties? The more I think about it the more it blows my mind and it is unacceptable.

The MSG crew continued in the second intermission and who better to sum it up than Mike Keenan who was asked by Dave Maloney if there should have been a response to Glencross. "The accountability has gotten out of the game and I don't know if we have to go back and take the instigator rule out of the rulebook and I know that the people running the league don't want that to happen". He continued, "You have to review what has happened in the past and what has worked and we did not have serious injuries like we have now that go unchallenged. The teams that I coached, most teams would have responded to that. Now teams are fearful to respond because they think they're gonna get the book thrown at them. The jurisdiction on the ice is taken away right now." This man knows how this game should be played.

Even though the four idiots on the ice somehow missed this blatant call, they picked up on an Ales Kotalik high stick call in the second period. Funny but they caught it after the Rangers controlled play for :14 and play was whistled down for a Calgary penalty. And woudn't you know a Ranger power play turned into a Calgary one as they called a double-minor on Kotalik. It resulted in Jarome Iginla's game winner... you just can't make this stuff up.

The Blueshirts also lost Brandon Dubinsky who blocked a slap shot with his wrist or forearm. The Rangers finished the game without Drury and Dubinsky who it looks like they'll be without for a while. Daymond Langkow and Dan Girardi traded first period goals. The Rangers had a chance to tie on a 2 on 1 late in the third but Kotalik missed Christopher Higgins' feed for a wide open net. Shortly after that Marc Staal turned the puck over in Calgary's zone resulting in a 3 on 1 Rene Bourque goal to seal it.

Notes:
Rangers lost in one more way... they got to watch Nigel Dawes assist on all 3 of Calgary's goals. Also Derek Morris, who was traded for Dawes and played a whopping 25 games for the Blueshirts, added an assist in Boston's win tonight.

Oilers Wrap...

2009-11-05T23:56:00.010-05:00

The Rangers had their most complete effort in weeks in a 4-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers. Steve Valiquette gave up a couple of soft goals to Lubomir Visnovski and Mike Comrie but otherwise was solid in his third start of the year.

Chris Higgins got it started on a pretty give-and-go with Matt Gilroy for his second in as many games. Higgins was all over the ice tonight. The Rangers had 14 shots in the first and second. They wound up with a season high 39 shots to Edmonton's 28.

The power play returned tonight and was nasty. Michael Del Zotto hit Ryan Callahan cruising through the middle on the rush for the first of 3 power play goals. Later in the second Marian Gaborik threaded a beauty from the right corner to Ales Kotalik on the left point for a one-time canon through the legs of Nikolai Khabibulin. "The Bulin Wall" was incredible keeping his team in the game.

In the third, Kotalik (1 goal, 2 assists) unleashed another power play rocket that got through Khabibulin and was tapped in by Gaborik who now has 12 goals and 9 assists. The Rangers needed a solid effort and played their most complete game in weeks against a depleted Edmonton team that was without Sheldon Souray and Shawn Horcoff. Tom Renney had said he wanted to beat the Rangers but was left with a sour taste in his mouth. Who cares? We don't miss ya Tom... but we'd probably grab a beer with you though.

Notes:
Dan Girardi was all over the defensive zone blocking shots... Donald Brashear was scratched again... Aaron Voros played 1:00 in the first and took two idiotic offensive zone penalties.... AGAIN. He sat for a while and saw only 2:39 the rest of the way... Higgins played his best game as a Ranger.

Joke is on the NHL...

2009-11-05T20:58:00.007-05:00

I've said all along that this league is now a joke. The jokes continued Wednesday for Dane Byers and Coach John Tortorella with Byers being suspended for a game and the Coach being fined $10,000.

Byers was deemed to have "instigated" a fight with Trevor Glass with 1:10 to go in Vancouver Tuesday night. Darren Dreger of TSN reported that going into Tuesdays action, the instigator has been called in 8 of 117 fights this year. Funny that the refs called it in this case, when a mandatory fine and suspension would kick in. Byers, who grew up in Saskatchewan, had about 8 family members attending tonight's game against Tom Renney in Edmonton. Of course now they won't see him... and you'll all continue to see less and less fighting in this ridiculously boring, European soccer game on ice.

I think Gary Bettman should take the player's driver's licenses away for a month for fighting also... maybe give a penalty APR on their credit cards for a year. That oughtta help deter this violence (that leaves fans screaming louder than they do for goals)...

Notes:
The Vinny Prospal-Brandon Dubinsky-Marian Gaborik line will be reunited tonight... Enver Lisin returns to the lineup tonight after missing a game with a bruised foot. He will play with Chris Drury and Ryan Callahan... Look for Artem Anisimov to center Ales Kotalik and Chis Higgins... Steve Valiquette will start his third game of the season.

Raycroft the Great...

2009-11-04T00:23:00.007-05:00

It finally looked liked we'd have some old time hockey in the third... then I realized there was no fighters on either team. What resulted was 10 players wrestling around during a line change. No big deal but the refs saw fit to hand out 10 minute misconducts to 5 players. The only guy that deserved one was Canuck defenseman Shane O'Brien who speared Sean Avery from his own bench while the clowns were trying to sort out the penalties. Not sure how he didn't get an extra 2 and a game misconduct.

Hysterical call on Rozsival in the third as Henrik Sedin grabbed his stick, wouldn't let it go and fell over. The refs are that dumb that they'll call it every time and that's what this league is now. Mikael Samuelsson cashed in with his second of the game on the gift power play to put the game away. Earlier in the third, Rozsival got roasted on the game winner after Christopher Higgins had tied it with his first goal as a Ranger. Rozsival tried mightily to take an interference on Ryan Kesler instead of turning to get the puck... which he was beaten to. Kesler skated around the net and fed Rick Rypien back door.

Coach Tortorella was pissed and probably wants a new defenseman. "There are some areas and some people that we continue to need more of an effort in certain situations and making big mistakes... big mistakes at a key time." He also mentioned "losing a battle initially" on that Rypien goal. Can't help but think he's referring to Rozsival. Of course as of now, he has no one to replace Rozsival with if he wanted to sit him... which he does.

The Rangers continue to look like a one man team. Marian Gaborik was shut down by Willie Mitchell. He got some help in the third from Kevin Bieksa, who interfered with Gaborik 2 times on one shift and didn't get called.

Despite Vancouver being decimated with with 7 injured players, the Rangers were never in this. It's hard to win when you score 5 goals in 4 games. Nice to see that someone was frustrated with the effort as Dane Byers dropped the gloves with Tanner Glass with a little over a minute to go. They're playing Tom Renney hockey just in time to go see him on Thursday.

Notes:
Vinny Prospal was named the second assistant captain after Chris Drury recommended him to Coach Tortorella. He wore the A last night for the first time.

2009-11-03T14:27:00.005-05:00

The Rangers snapped their skid the other day against Boston winning 1-0 on the strength of Henrik Lundqvist and Marian Gaborik's return and 11th goal of the season. They will have to be better tonight in Vancouver but get a break with Andrew Raycroft starting in place of Roberto Luongo.

Sean Avery and Christopher Higgins also returned to a lineup that looks to have lost Enver Lisin, at least for tonight. Lisin blocked a shot the other day with his left foot on Sunday. X-rays were negative but he couldn't put a skate on yesterday. Someone else needs to get it going other than Gaborik and Lundqvist. Maybe some of the Prospal-Gaborik magic can rub off on Higgins who will get a shot with the top unit tonight.

Michael Del Zotto won rookie of the month. He has been amazing with 12 points in 14 games. I had no idea this kid was going to be this good and he's getting better and more comfortable each game. Everyone who was screaming for Sather to acquire a power play quarterback... and he had one the whole time.

Notes:
I'm getting really annoyed watching Rangers take hits from behind that leave them bleeding and injured with no call. Every time this happens without fail, someone gets touched by a Ranger stick and looks like they were shot with a canon... the refs are dumb enough that they call that.

Losers...

2009-10-31T10:50:00.007-04:00

The Rangers lost to one of the worst teams in the league again last night falling 3-2 to the Minnesota Wild. The Wild was the second straight team to get their first regulation win of the season against the hapless Blueshirts who were never in this one. It is alarming how much this team gets outworked almost every night now as they lost their 5th in the last 6.

Donald Brasheer, who has been utterly old and useless, got it going early turning the puck over in the defensive zone with no one pressuring him. He very easily could have carried it out but instead made a moronic pass to... well no one other than a Wild player. That was quickly turned into Petr Sykora's 2nd of the year and a 1-0 lead. Henrik Lundqvist did what he could but was left on his own again. Eric Belanger and Antti Miettinen were also able to beat him while Marc Staal added a useless third period goal.

The Rangers were without Christopher Higgins (who cares), Sean Avery (invisible man) and Marian Gaborik (whole team). The guys skating continued to be horrible including Chris Drury (who they say is embracing the new role of not scoring when the team needs goals), Ryan Callahan and Brandon Dubinsky. I wouldn't have paid him more than $1.3 a year and stated that on this blog. Certainly not the $1.7 he was able to hold out for. But that's Glen Sather who doesn't seem to understand contracts... see Donald Brasheer's $2.8 for two years (or Redden or Michal Rozsival).

The lone bright spot came from Wade Redden and Dane Byers, who got to the facility late due to weather. Redden stepped up in the first to block a clearing attempt and fired it on net. Byers was there for the rebound and his first NHL goal. Other than that... this team is a mess without Gaborik.

Rangers lose 3-2.

M.I.A.

2009-10-30T19:15:00.003-04:00

The Rangers are in Minnesota tonight to face a 3-9 Wild team. They'll be doing battle without Marian Gaborik and now you can add Sean Avery and Christopher Higgins to the walking wounded. Higgins injured himself, literally, twisting his ankle trying to clear a puck the other night and Avery was limping on the same knee he injured earlier in the year. Maybe that's why he's been invisible. Can't say the same for Higgins who was good his first few games but since has disappeared.

The Rangers have called up Dane Byers and P.A. Parenteau is already here. Parenteau is coming off his first NHL goal and the only goal against the Islanders the other night. Byers has 2 goals and 3 assists with the Wolf Pack this year with four points coming in the last 3. The Blueshirts weant Evgeny Grachev to continue to get plenty of ice time and decided to leave him with the Pack.

The Rangers habe lost 4 of their last 5 (one in OT) while the Wild have the fewest goals in the NHL with 26. Should be a barn burner....

No Show...

2009-10-29T16:30:00.005-04:00

The Rangers didn't show up last night for their "rivalry" game with the Islanders. I didn't feel like showing up on the blog either. This was one of the most boring hockey games I've ever seen. But hey... there were some exciting shoving matches.

Highlights... Ryan Callahan missed what must have been his sixth open net tap in goal of the year and that's including the one he missed against Toronto that Luke Schenn put it in for him. The guy works hard and hits everything but continues to skate himself passed the net on the rush so that he's not in a position to shoot. Where is he going? There's nothing behind the net...

The Rangers have lost 4 out of the last 5 and were a completely punchless team without Marian Gaborik. The Marc Staal-Daniel Girardi pairing continues to struggle... and Chris Drury continues to get $7.5 a year to block some shots, kill some penalties and be invisible. Better hope that banged up lower body of Gaborik gets itself right soon...

What Happened to this Game?????

2009-10-28T15:19:00.009-04:00

Gearing up for the Rangers-Islanders rivalry tonight when I realized... there is no rivalry. There are no rivalries in this league anymore. The reason for that is no one cares. Most people don't even know hockey is being played right now. The reason no one watches is a guy named Gary Bettman.

Long gone are the days when the Islanders, getting blown out, iced the puck with :02 left. One of the greatest coaches of all time, Al Arbour, dispatched Mick Vukota and Ken Baumgartner to beat down Jeff Bloemberg and others. That was the way this game was played... messages were sent if not for that game than the next. This happened in a playoff game in response to Chris Nilan laying out Pat LaFontaine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8SrvGjcWFg

If this fight happened today... well it wouldn't happen today because there are no fighters in the league anymore. If it did, however, the fines and suspensions would be astronomical. Take a look at what hockey was and enjoy it... you'll never see it again. Notice how quiet the crowd is when Scott Stevens and Dave Manson head to center during the St. Patrick's Day Massacre:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY4q4S0_AlE

There are no messages sent anymore... it costs teams and coaches too much. Take a look at this joke which is the fighting rules on nhl.com:

www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=26336

This is what happens when a man takes over a professional sports league, without ever having seen a hockey game AT ANY LEVEL. Commissioner Gary Bettman worked for the NBA and David Stern... Stern sent him over to the NHL... now the sports is less watched than the NBA though it's play resembles it. Bettman incredibly is making $7.1 million a year on his crusade to ruin the sport and the league.

Another good advantage in a fight was to pull your opponents jersey over his head. You certainly can't do that anymore. If your jersey is not tied down you get an unsportsmanlike minor and a game misconduct. Are you kidding me? God forbid you put your fighter, if you have one, out there at the same time as your opponents fighter (Yeah right... 2 fighters in one game) and they drop the gloves before the faceoff. The ref can then call misconducts and give out fines if he feels it was planned.

Commissioner Gary Bettman has done everything he can to make this sport unwatchable. From idiotically expanding the league, to changing all the rules to "speed up" the game, to instilling a shootout. A shootout is a complete gimmick and an individual skills competition which has nothing to do with the flow of a hockey game. Again... this is an idiot who had never seen a hockey game of any kind before taking the position. He also "placed" Sidney Crosby in Pittsburgh to save a dying franchise. The Rangers would've had the number 1 pick in the draft that year but a "new" draft lottery was instilled just in time for the game's most promising prospect. Wow... what are the odds of a bankrupt franchise getting the first pick and the team with the worst record in the league (Rangers) ending up with the 16th pick? Not good.

The penalties Bettman and the refs have instilled are ridiculous and it's just a matter of time before we're calling them "fouls". The first thing I was taught while learning hockey was to hold on to your stick. If you don't someone could knock it out of your hands. This was a great play and a "penalty" to the player that wasn't paying attention as he would be out of the play. Now they actually call a penalty for this. Can you imagine? Grown men who are professional athletes rewarded for not gripping their stick tight enough. Stick checking and solid defense are not allowed as the players use composite sticks that can break while receiving a pass. You hit a guy's stick and it breaks... you guessed it... penalty.

It's not just those penalties either. If your stick comes up on a guy and touches his hands or above his waist you're automatically in the box. Think of how many great players made their careers slowing people up. Kevin Lowe, Cam Neely, Adam Graves, Esa Tikkanen, Jeff Beukeboom... Or even fighters like Vukota, Baumgartner, Willie Plett, Bob Probert, Tie Domi, George McPhee... most of these players wouldn't even make teams today. they've been replaced with "skill" guys who have no heart or passion for the game.

Everything Gary Bettman has done for this league... has been wrong. People used to love this sport. You'll never hear an arena louder than when there is a fight at center ice. You'll never feel the anticipation of knowing your tough guy is out to send a message in the closing minutes of the game. Those days over. Rivalries are over. And this league, which is making no money thanks to this clown, is almost over.

Parenteau called up...

2009-10-27T18:04:00.003-04:00

Wolf Pack leading scorer P.A. Parenteau has been called up. Expect him to be in the lineup against the Islanders Wednesday in place of Marian Gaborik. The sniper injured his right knee Monday night in a collision with Petr Prucha of all people. Though the injury is not thought to be serious, he didn't practice today and there's no reason to rush him back. You know he's going to want to face his former team in Minnesota Friday night though.

Meanwhile Parenteau leads the AHL with 8 goals and has 14 points. He played decently in camp and it's getting to the point that we need to see if the 26-year-old can play at this level. Obviously if he can, he would have some trade value as there's just no room on the Rangers right now.

No Need To Panic...

2009-10-26T23:39:00.006-04:00

The difference between this year's Rangers and last is clear... this team has scorers. How many times last year did they dominate in shots and put up 1 goal... maybe 2? They didn't dominate in shots tonight, but did on the scoreboard beating the Phoenix Coyotes 5-2 at the Garden. The Yote's came in as one of the hottest teams with a 6-3 start.

Marian Gaborik continued his assault on the score sheet with 2 goals and and an assist. He is second in the NHL in scoring. Gaborik (10-8-18) has scored in every game as a Ranger but one. He did give us cause for panic though when he left the ice flexing his right leg in the third and headed to the locker room. Thankfully, Steve Zipay of Newsday is reporting that it is not thought to be serious. Gaborik said "It's nothing related to my groin or hip or torso." He continued, "We'll see how everything is in the morning. I collided with one of their players, but it's nothing major. It happened with about five minutes left and the game was pretty much over." Hey maybe there is a God.

The Fourth line got the scoring going again for the second straight game with Artem Anisimov converting a give-and-go with Brian Boyle with a nasty spin around wrister past Ilya Bryzgalov just 2:31 in. They deserved it after good defensive work and another good all around effort.

Marian Gaborik sandwiched setting up Vinny Prospal for his 4th of the season between 2 beautiful power play goals. Coach Dave Tippett removed Bryzgalov with the score 4-0 in favor of former Ranger Jason LaBarbera. His team responded. Ed Jovanovski scored followed by Vernon Fiddler getting the first short-handed goal against the Rangers this year.

Phoenix carried much of the play and out shot the Rangers 32-24. They couldn't break Henrik Lundqvist in the third though. The only goal of the frame came when Enver Lisin flew down the left side and ripped a slap shot past LaBarbera. Lisin (1 G, 1 A) had his best game as a Ranger and also had the satisfaction of scoring against his former team.

Notes:
Vinny Prospal has scored in all but 2 games as a Ranger. He had a goal and 2 assists tonight giving him 4 goals and 12 assists on the year... Michael Del Zotto (4-8-12) was great again adding two assists and you can see this kid getting better every game... Aaron Voros good hard work was rewarded with a seat on the bench as Donald Brashear returned... Is Sean Avery on this team? I was wondering when he'll be coming back and doing ANYTHING. If someone can tell me that'd be great.

The Hab Nots...

2009-10-25T00:25:00.008-04:00

The Rangers just have a thing for Montreal... They like to just go there and figure out ways to lose. My favorite was obviously 2 seasons ago when they had a 5-0 lead and lost 6-5. They outdid themselves tonight and it was one of their stars that is to blame.

The Canadiens came out flying and took the lead on a Michael Cammalleri goal, the first of his 3, 4:16 in. Of course Scott Gomez (2A) picked up an assist on it. The Rangers didn't even show up until a hard working shift from the fourth line produced an impossible angle rebound goal from Artem Anisimov, his 2nd of the year. The Blueshirts then dominated the rest of the first with goals from Ales Kotalik and Matt Gilroy.

Midway through the second and the Rangers in full control, Brandon Dubinsky turned the puck over in the neutral zone leading to Matt D'Agostini's goal. That made it 3-2 and left Henrik Lundqvist laid out on the collison. He appeared to have seriously injured his right ankle but somehow was able to skate it off and remain in the game. Brandon Dubinsky did not receive another shift from that point forward.

It was time for some brilliance. Michael Del Zotto fed Enver Lisin who quickly head-manned to Marian Gaborik. The Slovak tipped the puck from behind his back to himself (somehow staying onside), calmly went in and embarrassed Jaroslav Halak going forehand-backhand-forehand through the legs. It was 4-2 Rangers... but they figured out a way to let it all slip away... with penalties swinging the momentum... again.

Vinny Prospal took a silly elbowing penalty but while killing it Guillaume Latendresse literally skated into Chris Higgins' stick... from behind him... and they called Higgins. This was by far one of the funniest calls I've seen in years. A 5-on-3 for 1:35 yielded a Marc-Andre Bergeron goal and a brand new game. Cammalleri then tied it with 1:02 left in the second. Chris Higgins forgot to backcheck on this one... and he was not seen in the third either... some homecoming.

In overtime, Cammalleri scored the easiest goal of his life. With Gaborik back-checking lightly, and I mean lightly, he calmly skated from his own end. He entered the Ranger's zone with Matt Gilroy in front of him and Marian Gaborik gliding behind him. They both softly stick-checked Cammalleri as he cut in and roofed the winner on Lundqvist. You can blame either Gilroy or Gaborik but if this battle takes place in the offensive zone, Gaborik wins it and that's unacceptable. The Rangers got a point but blew two 2 goal leads in the loss.

Then a special treat as "Hockey Night Live" came on. I figured to get a chance to hear some reaction from Gaborik and Coach Tortorella... but no. We spent the first ten minutes of the show watching and talking about Ron Duguay and Ken Daneyko in "Battle of the Blades". Guys... there's a reason the show isn't on in this country... NO ONE CARES. They have been wasting time showing this for weeks now and when the Rangers lose... fans don't want to watch old men who used to play hockey figure skating. This has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the Rangers or the 3 games played by local teams. "Hockey Night Live" with NO hockey... WHAT A JOKE.

Oh Scotty...

2009-10-24T10:31:00.002-04:00

The Rangers are in Montreal tonight and they have to be careful not to let 2 losses in a row turn into 3. They face Scott Gomez and his tiny little new team. Gomez so far has respectable numbers with 2 goals and 3 assists. Not bad for a guy making $91,463 per game. Contrast that to the guy you replaced him with (monetarily) in Marian Gaborik with 7 goals and 6 assists and you see why I told you no one would miss Gomez... he's garbage. Christopher Higgins is in the worst slump of his career and only is 3 points behind ol' Scotty.

Marc Staal and Dan Girardi look to bounce back collectively from their worst effort of the year. They were on the ice for all 3 Devils goals and missed assignments. The worst coming when Staal let Niklas Bergfors break past him for an easy tip it goal that Henrik Lundqvist had no chance on.

The Canadiens have won back to back games and the Rangers haven't lost 3 in a row in regulation since 2007. The King will start for the Blueshirts while the Habs should be starting Jaroslav Halak (2 GA in last 2) if Coach Jacques Martin has a functioning brain in his head. He hasn't committed to a starter yet though.

Ranger-Devils

2009-10-22T20:30:00.000-04:00

FIRST PERIOD
The Rangers came out sloppy again and lost 17 of 21 faceoffs. The Devils jumped out to a 2-0 lead on goals by Zach Parise and Niklas Bergfors. The first line was intact but new lines featuring Lisin-Anisimov-Higgins and Callahan-Drury-Avery. No Donald Brasheer in this game either... I guess there is a God.

Rangers very easily could have been down 4 or 5 nothing. Henrik Lundqvist made some big saves to keep them in it. I'm pretty sure Coach Tortorella was not pleased with the effort to say the least.

2-0 after 1.

SECOND PERIOD
Definite difference in battle level and it was evident from the start. They were helped out by an early high-sticking call to Mike Mottau. Vinny Prospal won the draw with help from Marian Gaborik. Ales Kotalik took the puck at the point and returned it to Gaborik who snapped right in through a screen

Later Marc Staal (shaky tonight) turned the puck over in his own zone resulting in a great save by Lundqvist on Dainius Zubrus. Dan Girardi gathered the rebound and sprung Kotalik on a breakaway that he buried low glove side on Marty Brodeur. Rangers won 12 out of 16 faceoffs in the second. They were helped out by Prospal (won 5 of 7) who was switched to center.

Second period lines:
Lisin-Prospal-Gaborik
Kotalik-Drury-Avery
Callahan-Dubinsky-Higgins
Voros-Anisimov-Boyle

2-2 after 2.

THIRD PERIOD
Lundqvist gave up a terrible goal as Zach Parise flung it on goal and apparently Dainius Zubrus got a little piece of it. Dan Girardi was standing nearby doing nothing, as he and Marc Staal have all night. Best chance was Ryan Callahan's breakaway with a couple of minutes left. As he went to tee up the shot though Colin White made a fantastic poke check. Parise adds an empty netter after a missed interference call on the Devils against Prospal.

Rangers lose 4-2.

A Dandi?

2009-10-21T15:41:00.000-04:00

Steve Zipay of Newsday has confirmed that 33-year-old defenseman Mathieu Dandenault is with the Hartford Wolf Pack on a tryout basis. He was released by the San Jose Sharks when Dany Heatley was acquired. He's been in the league with Detroit and Montreal for 13 year. Dandenault's best year was in 2002-2003 with the Red Wings when he had 19 points and was a plus 25. He was a plus 7 last year with the Canadiens in only 41 games.

Also, Ryan Callahan and Marian Gaborik were sent home before practice today with what John Tortorella called "colds or something". He wanted to keep them away from the team and get them some rest. Hopefully they're ok for the Devils at the Garden tonight...

Problems...

2009-10-20T15:08:00.001-04:00

I don't want to go too crazy over one game but there were some things in this one that made your head shake. The Rangers got beat 7-3 by the San Jose Sharks last night at the Garden. I didn't expect them to go 82 and 1 but it's the way they lost that is the problem. They lost every single battle last night.

First off, I have a problem with John Tortorella starting Steve Valiquette. The Rangers have been playing well and so has Henrik Lundqvist. Why not have started Valiquette in Toronto? He could have given The King a break and then had him for Monday against one of the best teams in the Western Conference. Next game is Thursday so another couple of days of rest. I don't get it.

I have an even bigger problem with Tortorella going to Lundqvist in the third. That defeated the whole purpose of him not playing in the first place. I know it is an Olympic year and they don't want him playing 70 games but gimme a break.

I hope it's just one game but Donald Brashear appears done. He is not a good fighter, doesn't hit as much and is outworked all over the ice. He looked very old last night. Could be another "Sather special" as we have him for 2 years at $1.4 per. Not even 10 games in and the guy needed to sit out already from soreness. Worst of all... no one is scared of him anymore as evidenced by the Leafs repeatedly running Henrik Lundqvist over... IN THE GARDEN... with no response.

The team is taking too many penalties in the offensive zone and just too many in general. I wrote last night that if they continued into the box, the game was over and it was. It needs to be corrected.

There was a positive though... Michael Del Zotto has continued to be awesome... scoring his 4th on the power play.

San Jose...

2009-10-19T19:48:00.000-04:00

FIRST PERIOD
Promising start as Chris Drury beautifully deflected Marc Staal's wrist shot for a 1-0 lead 7:17 in. The Rangers went on the power play and Michael Del Zotto got his 4th on the power play banging in the rebound of an Ales Kotalik bomb just 1:17 later. It went downhill from there.

What was the problem? All together now... PENALTIES. After killing off a Chrostopher Higgins holding penalty, Tortorella sent out Vinny Prospal with Donald Brasheer and Ales Kotalik, probably because of players resting from killing the power play. Brad Staubitz stripped a lazy Donald Brasheer in center and buried it past Steve Valiquette's glove. A high sticking call to Wade Redden, who otherwise has had another solid start, and Dany Heatley ties it on the power play. If the Rangers continue to take penalties, even though they've only taken 2... they're done in this one... San Jose is just too good.

SECOND PERIOD
Rangers took 3 more penalties including two moronic ones by Sean Avery. I love how he never knows why he's called... one a blatant trip the other a blatant hold. At 4-2 though the Ryan Callahan was all alone in fron with a chance to get the Blueshirts back in it and somehow missed the net. Steve Valiquette has been awful tonight but it's Tortorella's fault he's in there against one of the league's best offenses. With no game until Thursday it is mind-boggling that Henrik Lundqvist is not playing.

Though all I've heard is how this guy is a better hockey player than Colton Orr, I have seen no evidence of that in Donald Brasheer. He's not a better fighter or hitter and tonight he just looks like an old man. He was beaten by Staubitz in the first and outworked by Patrick Marleau of all people for Devin Setoguchi's second goal of the period. He's certainly not winning anyone over here... still waiting.

5-2 and game over after two.

Surprise?

2009-10-19T12:08:00.000-04:00

Nah... no surprise here at all. Michael Del Zotto will not be going anywhere. Tonight against the San Jose Sharks marks the 9th and last game Del Zotto would've been eligible to play in if he was to be sent back to juniors, which he most definitely is not.

Del Zotto leads all rookies in scoring and has been the power play quarterback on the first unit. He's been fantastic and just haven't given one reason why he shouldn't be here. Not to mention what the hell would you do if he left?

As it is now the Rangers are relatively small on defense and could use a veteran. Chris Chelios could be that guy. He wouldn't need to play a lot and wouldn't be asking that much. His leadership for these young guys would be priceless. You think a guy like Chelios would stand for Henrik Lundqvist being constantly run over?

Cranking Away...

2009-10-17T21:42:00.000-04:00

It's 7 in a row for theRangers after beating the Toronto Maple Leafs again last night, this time 4-1. They were outshot 14-8 in the sloppily played first but walked out of it with a 1-0 lead thanks to Brandon Dubinsky's 3-on-1 rocket off the short side post on Joey MacDonald. The Rangers played the best second period they have in a while and completely shut the Leafs down in the third dealing them their 6th loss in a row.

Unfortunately and maybe not coincidentally, Jamal Mayers was scratched in this one. Henrik Lundqvist was excellent again despite Leafs continuing to barrel into him led by human rat Jason Blake. Brian Boyle went after and warned Blake after he slashed Lundqvist. Blake was penalized but came right out of the box and skated into the King again. Lesson obviously not learned as Lee Stempniak followed right behind and bashed into Lundqvist (all comically not called).

John Tortorella addressed the issue saying . "I asked the refs, 'What do you want us to do?'". He continued, "Some of the hits that are coming on him right now, it's ridiculous. Something has to be done, or we have to do it our way." Not sure what you're waiting for there John. It has been 3 straight games where he's getting mauled and twice by the same team. NHL isn't helping you bud.

Blake may have gotten the message in the third though when he was absolutely drilled and laid out by Marc Staal. It was as hard as I've seen Staal hit anyone and it's the kind of leadership you love to see. Blake was shaken up, returned for a few shifts but didn't go anywhere near Lundqvist again. The pairing of Staal and Dan Girardi has been incredible and gets better each game. The Rangers defense now leads the league with 9 goals after Staal got his first and Michael Del Zotto added his 3rd on the power play in the second period.

Marian Gaborik assisted on both second period goals giving him the team lead with 12 points and at least 1 point in every game as a Ranger. Right behind him is Vinny Prospal who's scored (3-8-11) in every game but the first one and had an assist tonight.

Notes:
The things that happen to Sean Avery (Stempniak running him when he didn't have the puck) and don't get called are hysterical... Enver Lisin got his first of the season skating with the fourth line on the rebound of Wade Redden's partially blocked shot... Colton Orr tried several times for a rematch with Donald Brasheer but there was no point with the Leafs and their fans out of the game early... Michal Rozsival was solid but still took a lazy and moronic hooking penalty in the third period.

And The Response Is?

2009-10-17T14:36:00.001-04:00

The Rangers meet up for the second time this season with the hapless Toronto Maple Leafs tonight at the Air Canada Centre. The Rangers kicked the shit out of them at MSG last week 7-2 without playing the second period... but the story was the running Henrik Lundqvist.

Donald Brashear will be back in the lineup tonight but having him last time didn't deter Jamal Mayers from blatantly running Lundqvist. Amazingly the two morons posing as referees somehow missed this call. If Sean Avery did this to a goalie he's be suspended 50 games.

Coach Tortorella responded saying, "I don't believe we should go as far in protecting goaltenders as the NFL does in protecting quarterbacks, but if it's blatant, the way it was Monday with Jamal Mayers, that needs to be called,". Let's just hope that Tortorella is saying the right things... but will also do the right thing. The coach holds his players accountable but will he hold the opposition's?

My answer... there must be a response tonight either against Mayers or whatever goalie the Leafs start. The message needs to go out loud and clear that "The King" is untouchable. I don't need to see Brashear fight Colton Orr... go get Mayers. If the Rangers win and nothing is done about this... it will go down as a loss in my book.

Mr. Softie

2009-10-16T12:19:00.001-04:00

When the Rangers signed Ales Kotalik for 3 years at $3 million per, I was skeptical. The word out of Buffalo was that he was soft... takes nights off... he won't go in the corners. He's basically the older poor man's Nikolai Zherdev (talk about a guy that takes nights off), without the "upside". When Vinny Prospal joined the team and Brandon Dubinsky signed the glut at forward was obvious.

Coach John Tortorella won't allow Kotalik to take nights off here. Players will be held accountable and they will sit if they do (see $5 mil a year Michal Rozsival). In an earlier post on The Beat (Rangers Trying to Ground A.O.) I guessed that Enver Lisin would be the odd man out when Sean Avery came back. I didn't think Tortorella would put a player making $3 million on the fourth line... he surprised me again. Although no one else covering the Rangers seems to be aware that Lisin and Kotalik have rotated on the fourth in every game since Avery returned.

Kotalik has responded by doing the opposite of what I heard of him. He's working hard every shift... He's throwing hits... he's going in the corners, winning battles and when you put him on the power play he's scoring. He's helped change the dynamic of the power play and that's what he was brought here to do.

He has 3 goals and 4 assists in 7 games as a Ranger. Asked to play on the fourth line he has put his head down and done what has been asked. You don't hear any complaints from him and you won't. People can say Kotalik is making too much but he's doing exactly what he was brought here to do so far... with a lot less ice time than he's used to.

Sometimes It Takes One...

2009-10-14T23:40:00.000-04:00

Coach John Tortorella's style of play leaves teams out of gas in the third period... that's when the Rangers turn on the after burners. They have outscored the opposition 12-4 in the third coming into tonight's game against the Los Angeles Kings. But tonight, the afterburners didn't fire. The Blueshirts managed 1 shot on goal in the third... but boy was it an incredible shot.

The Rangers were outplayed tonight by a young and hungry King team. They looked like a tired team in playing their third game in four nights. "You just find a way to win when you're not on-and we were not on. We were behind in every facet of the game but we still found a way to win". Coach Tortorella added, "That's a good sign". Especially against one of the hottest teams in the league that also hadn't lost since opening night.

The problem for the Kings was that they were facing "The King". Henrik Lundqvist again was fabulous but again was run over 2 or 3 times. Would've been nice to have Donald Brasheer go after someone but he was a late scratch with an undisclosed injury. Make no mistake, Lundqvist stole this game for the Rangers and was named the first star. He made several beautiful saves highlighted by robbing Teddy Purcell point blank on a rebound with a seemingly wide open net in the first.

Vinny Prospal got the night started with a power play deflection of Michael Del Zotto's shot for his 200th NHL goal. Ryan Smyth came back with a deflection of his own just 1:10 later. A two man advantage and a brilliant Prospal feed left Ryan Callahan with a wide open net but the pass surprised him. He had a couple of whacks at it before Prospal slid around back of the net and popped it in off Kings goalie Erik Ersberg. But other than the power play (odd to have the PP be a strength) the Rangers could get little going in this one.

Brian Boyle opened the second period scoring against his former team off a nice feed from Michal Rozsival, who was otherwise disastrous. Boyle rang his first as a Ranger off the post, then Ersberg and in. Aaron Voros immediately dropped the gloves at the side of the net with Sean O'Donnell and had one of his patented throw 4 punches and fall over fights... it was a good one. The Kings answered again as Michal Handzus deflected Jack Johnson's wrist shot in for a power play goal and the score was 3-2 heading into the third.

Now the 1 third period shot I was talking about... yeah that was taken by Marian Gaborik so it wasn't really so much of a shot but a canon. Gaborik made a play in the defensive zone to get the puck around to Dan Girardi, then flew the zone. Vinny Prospal blindly threw the puck toward Gaborik who calmly gathered the puck with one hand as the pass was behind him... strolled down the left side to the hash... and unleashed one of the sickest snap shots I've ever seen. Top right corner in the blink of an eye. You pretty much felt bad for Erik Ersberg as no one could've stopped this thing. One big shot and one huge goal. The Rangers held on despite being outshot 10-1 in the third to win their 6th in a row, beating the Kings 4-2.

Notes:
Marian Gaborik made sure to pick up the puck on Prospal's 200th. Later while shorthanded on an empty net elected to be unselfish and slide the puck to Prospal for his hat trick but Jack Johnson swatted it out of mid air. Marian Gaborik is looking to be your other assistant captain and should be... Would've been nice if Brian Boyle had gotten a star in this game being that he scored against his old team and it was the game winner... Ales Kotalik had two assists and hit the post again... Michael Del Zotto leads all rookies in points with 2 goals and 5 assists... Gaborik leads the team with 6 goals, all scored in the third.

Rolling...

2009-10-13T22:15:00.001-04:00

The Rangers won their 5th in a row last night beating a win less team in blowout fashion. They pummeled the Toronto Maple Leafs 7-2. The last time the Rangers scored 7 goals was on April 1st, 2007 against the Leafs with the identical score (been a while since we've seen goals... it's nice). Sean Avery had two goals in that one... he went to work in this one too. The Rangers scored them all while taking the second period off and being bailed out by the fantastic goaltending of Henrik Lundqvist.

"We were dominant from the start and came out strong in the second but then we stopped playing, so Torts wasn't very happy," said Vinny Prospal. Whatever Tortorella said in the locker room... and I'm sure he said a bunch... worked because the Blueshirts came out and just buried the Leafs with four goals in the third. Two by Sean Avery giving him 3 points two games since returning from a sprained knee.

Wade Redden continued his resurgence with a goal and two assists. He's been very good this year so far... not $6.5 million good... but good. Dan Girardi is the playing the best he has in a while and scored 2 more giving him 3 in his last 2 games. Marian Gaborik continued his torrid pace with another goal and assist giving him 9 points in his first 6 games.

The L.A. Kings are coming in tomorrow and it will be a much bigger challenge for the Rangers. I will be there in the blue seats in section 403.... gettin' after it. Expect the Blueshirts to maintain their focus in this one...

Notes:

Colton Orr returned and went at it with Donald Brashear 10 minutes into the first. It was a good scrap with the edge going to Brashear.... Christopher Higgins continues to play well but can't score but I expect a breakout from him soon.

Domintation...

2009-10-11T19:45:00.000-04:00

The Rangers absolutely demolished the Anaheim Ducks tonight at the Garden. The final was 3-0 but the score was not reflective of the play. The Blueshirts hit 3 or 4 posts and the Ducks were never allowed in this game.

What can you say? Every player did their job tonight including backup goalie Steve Valiquette, who got his first start of the season. His biggest test came after a Marc Staal (first bad play this year) turnover in the second left Todd Marchant walking in alone. Valiquette calmly turned it aside in route to the shutout.

The third period began scoreless though the Rangers had outshot the Ducks 24-12. Marian Gaborik continued his point streak carrying the puck on the power play from the right corner to the point. He made a sick move and pass to Michael Del Zotto who slid it down to Ales Kotalik in the bottom left circle for a one timer. Though he didn't get all of it and Scott Niedermeyer deflected it, it had enough to get through J.S. Giguere for a 1-0 Ranger lead.

Sean Avery also made his season debut and was solid. He played on the third line with Enver Lisin and Ales Kotalik taking turns with the fourth line in Aaron Voros' place. Avery saw some power play time in the third and made a play to Vinny Prospal from behind the net. Prospal fed Artem Anismov on a bang-bang play for his first NHL goal.

Dan Girardi and Marc Staal (except for the turnover) were just dominant in their own zone. Girardi added a short-handed empty netter from the corner of his own ice. He deserved it. Wade Redden played solidly again in what could be a statement year for him.

It's so refreshing to watch a team that is coached the right way. The Rangers just never stopped coming. Even with a 2-0, they turned up the heat. Anaheim did not have one quality scoring chance in the third. The Rangers are really starting to look like a team and one thing is for sure... they will not be outworked.

Notes:

Gaborik has scored a point in every game as a Ranger (4 goals, 3 Assists)... Brian Boyle continues to impress and be a good penalty killer... Henrik Lundqvist will be back in net against Toronto at the Garden tomorrow... Michal Rozsival responded from his benching with a strong effort... Refs believe it or not called a good game... amazing.

You Get What You Pay For...

2009-10-08T19:44:00.000-04:00

What an effort by Rangers at the Verizon Center against Alexander Ovechkin and company. The Blueshirts dominated at even strength... but unfortunately this is the NHL so there was no even strength play. I'm amazed they still can call this mess hockey. If someone skates by a stick and falls... penalty. And they wonder why no one watches their "big time" coverage, which takes place on a hunting channel that no one has ever heard of.

Embarrassingly bad calls to Brandon Dubinsky and Daniel Girardi (creating a 5 on 3) in the first provided some good laughs. Then an equally embarrassing non-call in the second when Brooks Laich water-skied off Michal Rozsival with a hook that was somehow deemed a clean play. It directly resulted in a quality scoring chance for the Caps. Rozsival's turnover in the first led to Alexander Semin's goal. He took a holding penalty 6:45 into the second... and didn't play another second. That's accountability.

Without Rozsival, the 5 man defense was incredible. Dan Girardi (24:04) and Marc Staal (23:57) were lights out holding Alex Ovechkin scoreless for the first time this season. He had been averaging 3 points a game coming in. Matt Gilroy was fantastic logging the most ice he has so far with 21:33. Wade Redden continues to be solid and logged 20:46. You just can's say enough about the poise and skill of Michael Del Zotto at 19 years old.

Ryan Callahan had an upper body injury earlier in the day and was questionable but played... and boy did he play. He was killing yet another power play in the second and was exhausted. With no gas in the tank he took the puck away from Alex Ovechkin and beat him and Semin down ice for a beautiful backhand goal through the legs of Jose Theodore. The penalty had just expired so it was not a short-handed goal.

The third line apparently has heard Sean Avery is coming back. With limited ice tonight, they were solid. They had great down low work in the second that resulted in a close quarters tic-tac-toe goal from Enver Lisin to Artem Anisimov to Ales Kotalik, who went back hand top-shelf. It was Anisimov's first NHL point. No one wants to sit on Sunday.

900 penalties in the game (2o minutes in minors through 2 or one period gone)... At one point Joe Micheletti couldn't even locate the Christopher Higgins penalty on replay. The Rangers were pressuring early in the second when Tom Poti stuck his stick through the legs of Dubinsky and blatantly took him down.. no call.

The Rangers handled adversity not only from the refs but from their goalie. Nicklas Backstrom got his first goal of the season with a harmless dump in that Henrik Lundqvist flat out missed. Backstrom later scored on... you guessed it... Washington's 90th power play of the night to put the Caps up 3-2.

Perfect excuse for the Rangers to collapse no? No... It's not a problem when you have Marian Gaborik. He responded :18 seconds later with a slap shot through the legs of Theodore. Gaborik scored again and essentially ended it 2:33 later on the power play after Del Zotto fed him perfectly through center. A wicked wrist shot through Theodore's legs again and the Blueshirts win 4-3. It ends up being as huge a win as you can have in October as this team continues to be resilient and build character.

Notes:
John Tortorella went with two forwards and one defenseman on 5 on 3 disadvantages... Donald Brasheer and Aaron Voros both took dumb penalties in the third... Chris Drury was amazing in this game doing all the things a leader should do (even though he's making $86,585 per game)... Christopher Higgins is getting stronger and more comfortable each game he plays... Vinny Prospal doing all the little things.

Rangers Trying to Ground A.O.

2009-10-08T15:55:00.000-04:00

The Rangers are in D.C. tonight to try to stop the unstoppable Alexander Ovechkin. He has 9 points through 3 games this season while Niklas Backstrom has 8 assists. Oh yeah, and Alexander Semin has 4 goals and 3 assists. It'll be a nice welcome to the NHL for Michael Del Zotto and Matt Gilroy.

Steve Zipay of Newsday is reporting that Ryan Callahan may be questionable for tonight with an upper body injury and the Rangers have called 19-year-old Evgeny Grachev back up. He should've made the team out of camp anyway but there's just no room. Now with Sean Avery unable to go and possibly Callahan... there is. Avery is targeting a return Sunday vs. Anaheim.

The question remains who will sit when Avery comes back? Enver Lisin had an impressive preseason but has been quiet since the season started. Then again, Artem Anisimov hasn't exactly been stellar centering the third line other then preseason. It will definitely be one of those two and neither of them should be on the fourth line, which is operating very well with Brian Boyle, Aaron Voros and Donald Brasheer. They had some important third period minutes against the Devils the other night and dominated the puck down low.

My guess is Lisin will be the guy. But if Grachev comes in here tonight and plays well... well then we have a whole other list of questions....

The One That Got Away...

2009-10-06T11:44:00.000-04:00

At the end of last season, the Devils went after Hobey Baker Award winning defenseman Matt Gilroy with essentially the same package the Rangers offered. The 25-year-old was enthralled with John Tortorella's attacking style of play and that the coach would challenge him every day. He opted for Broadway and stuck it to the Devils last night (again) scoring his first NHL goal, the game winner, with 2:10 left in the second period.

The turning point in this game happened 1:24 in though. The Devils came out flying with Jay Pandolfo outworking Marc Staal in the corner. He fed Rob Niedermeyer who went top shelf on Henrik Lundqvist for a 1-0 lead 1:10 in. The Blueshirts were sloppy on the next shift that ended with Dainius Zubrus losing an edge and crashing into Lundqvist. That was all for John Tortorella. He called a timeout and laced into his team with some choice words... they listened.

The Rangers got their first power play goal of the season shortly thereafter from Michael Del Zotto, who scored in his second straight game. He later added an assist on Ales Kotalik's (first as a Ranger) one time slap shot power play bullet to tie it at 2 after Travis Zajac had given the Devils a 2-1 lead. David Clarkson made a pretty no look pass to Zajac giving Lundqvist no chance. It was 2-2 after the first.

The Rangers settled into their game from then on in this penalty filled game. Due to the 36 minutes in minors in a 60 minute game, there wasn't much flow in this one. 36 minutes is a joke with not one fighting major. Speaking of fighting though, Donald Brasheer and his fourth line of Brian Boyle and Aaron Voros were fantastic again with Boyle also getting important penalty kill minutes.

Late in second, Gilroy skated into the Devils zone and the Rangers went to work. Vinny ProspalGilroy but before it got there Marian Gaborik made a terrific play lifting Nicklas Bergfors' stick allowing the puck through. Gilroy creeped in, took his time and let go a low slap shot that went under Martin Brodeur's left pad.

The Rangers played a solid third period led by Wade Redden and Michal Rozsival who continueRenaissances this year. Gilroy played regularly in the third though Tortorealla curbed Michael Del Zotto a little. Del Zotto ended up with the least amount of ice among defenseman with 11:42 but has 2 goals and an assist in his last 2 games. got the puck on the left hash and attempted a cross ice pass to Matt their

Rangers at "the Rock"

2009-10-05T16:48:00.000-04:00

According to Steve Zipay of Newsday, the lines will remain the same tonight. We'll see if John Tortorella shortens his bench on defense as he did against Ottawa the other night. There's only so long you can go with four defensemen. He's made no secret he thinks the Rangers need another experienced defenseman. "I'm not gonna lie to you, sure it is. It is a concern, I'm sure something will give sooner or later. We need to do our due diligence." He went on to say, "Obviously, we'd like to try to get some sort of veteran who can help out."

The Devils are coming off a 5-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers in Martin Brodeur's 1000th career game. The Blueshirts will be looking to keep the momentum from their own 5-2 win against Ottawa in the home opener. Brandon Dubinsky has looked very good between Vinny Prospal and Marian Gaborik and they will be the line to watch.

How's That For Openers?

2009-10-03T22:21:00.000-04:00

The faithful got a glimpse of what John Tortorella's Blueshirts can be tonight at Madison Square Garden. The Rangers defeated the Ottawa Senators 5-2 in their home opener. Up and down the lineup, almost every player did their job and did it well.

Michal Rozsival played his best game in over a year. Wade Redden looked good for a second straight game (forget what he makes... we're taking baby steps here). 19-year-old Michael Del Zotto scored his first NHL goal. Matt Gilroy has not been as agressive as he was in preseason. Gilroy (3:09) and Del Zotto (1:33) didn't see much ice in the third. Dan Girardi continued his strong start after facing questions in the preseason.

The first line combination of Brandon Dubinsky centering Marian Gaborik and Vinny Prospal was electric creating chances almost every time on the ice. Prospal and Dubinsky opening the scoring in the second with two top-shelf rockets. Prospal's goal was his 600th career NHL point. A bad Ranger change left Matt Gilroy on his own against Jason Spezza and Daniel Alfredsson with the former feeding the latter alone in front cutting the Ranger lead to 2-1.

Enter Ryan Callahan whose relentless work ethic is on display every night. In the last minute of the second period, he dumped the puck in and took two Senators out of the play allowing Christopher Higgins to feed Michael Del Zotto. His wrist shot through a screen with under a minute in the second was a huge goal for the team, as well as himself. His parents and brother were there to watch the moment, with his Mom moved to tears. And oh by the way, it was Ryan Callahan who after setting up the play from the corner battled his way in front to screen Pascal Leclaire.

A neutral zone turnover in the third allowed Enver Lisin to spring Dubinsky on a breakaway. He rang a laser off the crossbar but Marian Gaborik followed the play and pounded in the rebound. Gaborik has 2 goals and an assist in 2 games while Dubinsky has 2 gols and 2 assists. He added a short-handed empty netter outworking Alexei Kovalev.

Though he didn't score, Chris Drury played much better tonight then he did last, as did linemate Ales Kotalik. Promising effort from the fourth line particularly from Brian Boyle, who was fantastic on the penalty kill. Donald Brasheer and Aaron Voros both had fights though Voros

A good bet that last years weakness will not be this years. The power play did everything but score... and they will. They're generating chances, clanging posts and it's just a matter of time.

The Rangers were outshot 20-13 in the second period but outscored Ottawa 3-1. They tightened up defensively allowing only 5 in the third. Peter Regin scored for Ottawa with :06 left. Mike Fisher bodied Del Zotto off the puck feeding Regin in one of the only instances a Ranger was outworked tonight.

With all the new faces on this team it's easy to take Henrik Lundqvist for granted. Whenever there was an odd man rush "The King" was there. He was fantastic again particularly in the second period when he stopped 19 opf 20 shots. He closed the door on a breakaway by Milan Michalek :15 in and Ryan Shannon on one later. Lundqvist was named the game's second star.

Tonight, the Rangers took chances but the balance not to take reckless ones. Tonight, they did not get outworked, they supported each other. Tonight... this team gave you some hope.

Un-Glooed...

2009-10-03T10:37:00.000-04:00

Opening night for the Rangers started with waiting for one of the most corny banner raising ceremony in the history of the sport. They were not on the bench for the pregame ceremonies as Coach John Tortorella had said they would be. "I didn't realize it was going to be so long and I don't think Pittsburgh wanted us out there anyway," Tortorella said. The Blueshirts came out flat in the first period of the game they eventually lost 3-2.

Pittsburgh opened the scoring with a power play goal from Evgeny Malkin, a beautiful deflection that Henrik Lundqvist had no chance on. The call, against Chris Drury, was a joke but surprisingly the officiating was pretty good and didn't become the central focus of the game.

Drury tied the game at 1 toward the end of the period off a good feed from Christopher Higgins. Drury was largely invisible for most of the game as he has been through the preseason.

The turning point happened in the second when Vinny Prospal was robbed on a two on one by Marc-Andre Fleury. The Pens responded shortly thereafter with goals 1:08 apart from Sidney Crosby and Tyler Kennedy (deflection). The Rangers battled harder in the third but gave up way too many odd man rushes in the game. Tortorella admitted it will take some time for his system to become instinct for these players and it looked that way.

Marian Gaborik was as advertised... explosive. He could have easily had 3 goals but settled for one (as first predicted on this blog). This man can change the game at any time. As more Rangers understand his speed he will have more and more chances. Michael Del Zotto already seems to get him springing him several times during the preseason and on a first period breakaway last night. Gaborik went through the legs but Fleury got enough to force it just wide.

Michal Rozsival continued his dreadful play since hip surgery and signing his $5 million-a-year salary but Wade Redden was ok. Matt Gilroy was solid while Del Zotto was a little shaky. They are going to make mistakes but Ranger fans can deal with them from kids... not Redden and Rozsival.

The Rangers hung in there with a championship team with several new faces in their lineup and a new system they're still trying to learn. It'll be interesting to see how they respond in the home opener against the Ottawa Senators at MSG tonight. Henrik Lundqvist, who had no chance on any of Pittsburgh's goals, is expected to start.

Callahan the Man

2009-10-02T12:22:00.000-04:00

Ryan Callahan was named the sole Assistant Captain today and there's no one more deserving of one than him. He's consistently the hardest working player on the ice and it's been that way since he joined the team. Coach John Tortorella is waiting for another to emerge. Speculation was that Marian Gaborik could get the other one.

The snag that Alexei Semenov hit is apparently the kind that you have and you hold. Though Semenov and his agent agreed with the Rangers on a one year $600,000 deal, his wife said no. It looks like he will settle for playing in Russia where his wife lives.

NHL on Versus...

2009-10-01T21:13:00.000-04:00

The season is underway with the Boston-Washington game on Versus. Alexander Ovechkin of course has dominated the game with 2 goals and an assist but I can barely hear the broadcasters. Same thing last year on Versus but they like to seemingly put a mic on every stick and skate blade on the ice. I guess this is supposed to get non-hockey fans to get "excited" about hockey. If you like the sound of sticks and skates though... this broadcast is for you. Luckily in the second game no one will be skating when they retire Joe Sakic's jersey to the rafters in Colorodo... so you may be able to hear it.

Semenov Issue? Avery?

2009-10-01T14:11:00.000-04:00

The Rangers reportedly agreed on a one year $600,000 contract with Alexei Semenov last night. He had been in camp on a tryout basis but apparently some sort of issue has arisen according to Steve Zipay of Newsday (who's also reporting Michael Del Zotto will wear #4). Semenov is making the trip but may not be available tomorrow night if it's not resolved.

Sean Avery won't either. He will make the trip with the team but will not suit up against the Penguins. As of now he hasn't been ruled out of the home opener against the Ottawa Senators Saturday night.

Here's what I think the lines should be:
Prospal-Dubinsky-Gaborik
Higgins-Drury-Callahan
Lisin-Anisimov-Kotalik
Voros-Boyle-Brasheer

Staal-Gilroy
Girardi-Rozsival
Del Zotto-Redden

Actually I think Redden and Rozsival should be waived but that can't really happen now can it? Oh wait I forgot they're pacing themselves until opening night to unleash their improved games....

Still There Are Questions...

2009-09-29T18:36:00.000-04:00

The Rangers lost their pre-season finale 4-3 but did show some fight with 3 in the third. One of those was scored by Evgeny Grachev who admitted the first period was his worst ever. Despite a solid preseason there is just no room for the 19-year-old. There is for the other one though.

Michael Del Zotto has made the team. He's been solid and is only going to get better certainly with some growing pains. Expect to see a lot of him on the power play and possibly running it. Del Zotto is the first defenseman since Brian Leetch to play as a teen and the second youngest ever to play for the Rangers behind Dave Maloney.

Artem Anisimov capped his preseason with a third period goal against the Caps giving him the team lead of 4 goals and 2 assists. He also made the team but here's some questions:

1. Where will Anisimov play?
If Vinny Prospal is playing center than Anisimov will be on the fourth line where it's almost useless to have him. There is a better chance of him playing on the third line with Prospal sliding over to wing.

2. What are the lines? Here's a sample....
Prospal-Dubinsky-Gaborik
Higgins-Drury-Callahan
Lisin-Anisimov-Kotalik
Voros-Boyle-Brasheer

3. What happens when Sean Avery comes back?
The odd man out would seem to be Lisin. He's certainly not a fourth liner and you can't expect Tortorella to ask someone as invisible as Kotalik to go down there. Lisin has good speed, has played hungry and 3 preseason goals... he has much more of an upside than Kotalik but there is nowhere to put him.

4. What to do with Redden and Rozsival?
Let's hope they're pacing themselves until the opener... because hope is all there is with these guys.

5. Am I missing something with Prospal?
Everyone has been raving about Prospal's play so far and what a play maker he's been but I've seen no evidence of this. He's a pretty good player and he will contribute but is he more noticeable than Grachev? I didn't think so.

6. Sign Alexei Semenov?
He started strong but the more you see of him the slower he looks. Could give you options when/if Del Zotto heads back to Juniors and could be used now as a 6 or 7. Being that there has been no offer yet and his tryout expires tomorrow it seems the Sather may be waiting for a better option.

We'll see what transpires Friday night against Sid "The Winer"... it'll be great to see 8 minors in the first period.

Jones'in...

2009-09-26T13:02:00.001-04:00

Rumors are flying around about Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Randy Jones. The word is he will be placed on waivers sometime this weekend and that the Blueshirts have interest. He is a solid 28-year-old defenseman who does have some offensive upside (31 points in 2007-08) but is another player coming off hip surgery. Early reports on him out of Flyer camp are not good, especially from him. “There is still a little bit of discomfort [there] but it’s not remotely close to last year,” Jones said. With Michal Rozsival and Marian Gaborik the Rangers have enough hip pains.

Jones is scheduled to make $2.75 million this year but if the Rangers claim him on re-entry they'd split that fee with the Flyers. If you can move Rozsival, you take a chance on Jones. If you can't... you don't.

Explosive...

2009-09-25T10:44:00.000-04:00

Marian Gaborik is a scorer... he's a sniper.... he's a game-breaker. The Rangers have not had this type of player in their prime in a long time if ever. Jaromir Jagr was up there but played a completely different style of game. Jagr liked to control and dominate the puck, slowing the game down to his speed to make plays whereas Gaborik takes the puck and simply explodes.

Two games into his Ranger career he has 2 goals and 2 assists factoring into each goal in the Rangers 3-2 win against the Washington Capitals last night. The release of his short-handed breakaway goal in the second period rendered Jose Theodore almost motionless as the puck blasted through his legs. He added a top shelf rebound goal later in the period on a delayed penalty against the Caps.

Brandon Dubinsky played in his first game and looked solid. After swapping with Vaclav Prospal to center Gaborik and Christopher Higgins, he made the pivotal play in the third . Dubinsky took a Gaborik feed through center taking Matt Bradley wide before cutting to the net. Milan Jurcina hammered Dubinsky but not before he slid the puck to Higgins who popped it in for the winner with 1:10 to go.

Enver Lisin and Evgeny Grachev continued to play well but where do you put them when Avery comes back? Matt Gilroy and Michael Del Zotto look the part. At least with Del Zotto the Rangers have 9 regular season games to decide whether he's the real deal or should head back to juniors. Aaron Voros looks great where he belongs which is the fourth line. However the fourth line is not where Artem Anisimov belongs and it's a waste to have him there.

Bobby Sanguinetti, who has been "a step behind" according to John Tortorella, was sent down to Hartford before the game.

The refs continued to embarrass themselves as Brandon Sugden dropped his gloves to fight Donald Brasheer for the second time in the third. Brasheer didn't see this guy skating after him with no gloves on for about :05 seconds. Brasheer eventually obliged but somehow Sugden didn't get an instigator penalty... hysterical.

Comedy of Errors..

2009-09-23T13:03:00.000-04:00

Watching Sportscenter this morning I couldn't help but notice the number 2 play was a Tyler Bozak play to the net that resulted in a Toronto goal. On the play Bozak drove and barreled over Pittsburgh goalie John Curry. The rebound was put in but I couldn't help laughing... remembering Avery's beautiful rebound goal that was WAVED OFF because he brushed against the goalie. But we must get used to it, particularly with Avery, as this is the worst officiated league in professional sports. Glad the refs got new uniforms this year though... expect plenty more laughs as a Ranger fan this season.

Hooks and Gabs...

2009-09-22T11:59:00.000-04:00

Marion Gaborik made his much anticipated debut at MSG last night in a 4-2 Ranger win against Detroit. He came as advertised showing flashes explosiveness the Blueshirts haven't had in their line-up in a long, long time. On a first period power play, Gaborik took Brad Stuart on a tour all the way around the net and halfway up to the left point before feeding Enver Lisin in the slot to put the Rangers up 2-0 on the power play. He also got drilled by Johan Franzen :24 in which he said "woke me up a little bit". Gaborik admitted it'll take time to shake the rust off but the sore groin didn't appear to hinder him. Later Michael Del Zotto fed Gaborik beautifully through center and he would've been gone if not for losing the puck in his skates.

Lisin's first period PP goal added to his strong start. He and Artem Anisimov each have 3 goals in the preseason as Anisimov sealed the game with an empty netter. After a dismal opener Anisimov has all but locked up a roster spot since. Evgeny Grachev continues making himself tough to cut. He took Jakub Lindl into the boards, stealing the puck and setting up Ryan Callahan for a sick little backhand-forehand goal. Can't help but be excited about the Rangers youth on the back line as Del Zotto, Matt Gilroy and Bobby Sanguinetti all played well. Alexei Semenov is also looking more and more like he'll stick.

Sean Avery ran into Ryan Callahan in practice and is out indefinitely with a sprained knee. Aaron Voros subbed for him and was noticeable though I don't know where he'll fit in. He started last year strong before dropping off to near invisible level. With $3 million being wasted on him, Tyler Arnason, and Patrick Rissmiller,not sure how Glen Sather would justify having all of them in Hartford.

The Waiting is Over...

2009-09-19T17:13:00.001-04:00

Brandon Dubinsky has ended his holdout. Steve Zipay of Newsday is reporting he's signed for 2 years at $3.7 million. He'll get $1.7 this year and 2 next. Dubinsky has shown nothing but grit and determination in his stay as a Blueshirt and will get better. He'll get the chance to center Marian Gaborik allowing Vinny Prospal to move back to the wing, instantly making the Rangers deeper up front.

Dubinsky was the first Ranger to miss camp since Mark Messier in 1994. Quite frankly he deserved more than the $522,500 the Rangers qualified him at being that he made $635,000 last season.

This is a huge move to solidify the Rangers forwards. Not sure what you do with Wade Redden or Michal Rozsival but moving one or both would be a dream come true... maybe trade them for a couple of pucks and maybe a stick.

Nothing But Questions...

2009-09-18T21:58:00.000-04:00

The Rangers lost their third straight preseason game to the Red Wings tonight 4-3 in Detroit. Through 3 pre-season games nothing but questions surround this team. Has Glen Sather done enough? When will Brandon Dubinsky be back or will he? Is Marian Gaborik going to be seen soon? Can Wade Redden and Michal Rozsival rebound from horrendous years?

Good news... Redden had an assist on the Ranger's first goal tonight. That goal was scored by Artem Anisimov who needed to show something after a less than stellar first game against the Bruins. Enver Lisin continued his strong play with a goal. Henrik Lundqvist had another solid period and a half turning away 14 of 14 shots. And Marian Gaborik made the trip with the team and may suit up tomorrow in Boston.

Bad news... Redden still led the team with Rozsival at -2 despite being on the ice for the first Ranger goal. These two are supposed to be the elder statesmen of the Rangers defensive core and so far through 2 games they don't even deserve to make the team. Obviously neither are going anywhere which could make for a very long... very frustrating season for a Ranger fan. Anyone would rather see Michael del Zotto in Redden's role and deal with whatever mistakes he makes. At least he's young and has an upside... Redden is neither.

According to Larry Brooks of the NY Post, Brandon Dubinsky and his agent have lowered their demands and are now looking for $1.1 a year. That means he should be in camp right now, he's more than earned that amount. It also means Glen Sather hasn't and isn't doing enough. He's already wasted $3 million per on Tyler Arnason, Aaron Voros, and Patrick Rissmiller, 3 players who have no right making this team. Not signing Dubinsky for that amount would be completely incompetent.

Rangers-Devils Game Updates...

2009-09-16T19:40:00.000-04:00

Struggling trying to get through the human computer "Doc" Emrick. Not sure what the allure of this guy is or what he's a doctor of. Played hockey all my life and never heard of anything in the game being "spiked" or "squibbed". He was super excited on the Devil's first goal but caught himself when he realized it's mid September.

Funny moment happened in a largely uneventful first. Sean Avery scored a beautiful rebound goal off an Enver Lisin shot. Lisin was the bright spot of the period shooting from everywhere. Avery made contact with Yann Danis though so the refs comically waved off the goal and called Avery for a double-minor. Dribing to the net and awarded with a goal, everything you're taught to do since birth. You can't do that in this league though. Good thing Adam Graves didn't play in this time in THIS league. Also on the play Mike Mottau took a tomahawk swing into the side of Avery's head... no call. Officiating absolutely in mid-season form....

Aaron Voros had a fight and a couple of nice passes including one to Matt Gilroy who continued his stellar play with a beautiful third period breakaway move to the backhand. Gilroy also was the only Blueshirt to score in the shootout going five-hole.

Broadcasting needs work over there at "The Rock". Stan Fischler was borderline ready to fight Steve Cangialosi during the break and they just kept going at each other with "The Maven" eventually telling him to "get off my back!". Finally, Chico Resch referred to Marian Gaborik as "middle-aged" at the age of 27.

Definitions of squibbed from dictionary.com:
–verb (used with object)

to assail in squibs or lampoons.

to toss, shoot, or utilize as a squib.

---Makes sense "Doc"... thanks!!!

Rangers-Devils...

2009-09-16T14:47:00.000-04:00

Here's tonight's roster:
Sean Avery-Vinny Prospal-P.A. Parenteau
Aaron Voros-Tyler Arnason-Enver Lisin
Evgeny Grachev-Brian Boyle-Ales Kotalik
Patrick Rissmiller-Matt Maccarone-Dan LaCouture

Wade Redden-Matt Gilroy
Michael Del Zotto-Michal Rozsival
Brent Henley-Corey Potter

Henrik Lundqvist/Chad Johnson

Looking forward to seeing Grachev and Lisin again. Would've like to see Ilkka Heikkinen but he played for Hartford this afternoon. Henrik Lundqvist should play half th game and Sean Avery is reported to be in great shape. His training regimen was rigorous even prior to Tortorella's demands. Take a look here at what he was doing before he left the Rangers last year:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8MwTA4bSZU

Brandon Dubinsky remains unsigned and the longer this goes the less of a chance he has to be a Ranger. He should take the $700,000 and prove himself this year... he'd get his money if he did that and it's silly to be holding out with no leverage.

Game Updates

2009-09-15T19:05:00.000-04:00

Standouts tonight in the Rangers 2-1 loss to the Bruins were Gilroy, Grachev and del Zotto... Christopher Higgins parked in front of the net scored the lone goal on a rebound. We'll see who plays tomorrow but the Rangers clearly were the better conditioned team as they dominated the third.

A low light of the night was the fans booing Donald Brasheer the first time he touched the puck. People obviously are still angry with him about the late hit on Blair Betts last year in the playoffs that cracked Betts' orbital bone. Like it or not Brasheer is a Ranger and that hit arguably turned the series around for his team. He does whatever he needs to to win.

Boy I did so miss these refs who are in mid-season form. Rangers short-handed 4 times though none of the penalties were detectable in the first. Hard to say how they look as they were short-handed the whole period. Staal and Gilroy look good together and Michael del Zotto looked solid throwing a few good hits...

All Russian line of Artem Anismov centering Evgeny Grachev and Enver Lisin could be emplosive and they startes the game. Grachev drawing rave reviews in camp so far with a good chance to make the team....

Defensive pairs are:
Gilroy-Staal
Girardi-del Zotto
Semenov-Sauer

Boston Line-up....

2009-09-15T18:22:00.000-04:00

Here are the players scheduled to suit up tonight:
Chris Higgins
Chris Drury
Ales Kotalik
Enver Lisin
Artem Anisimov
Ryan Callahan
P.A. Parenteau
Evgeny Grachev
Donald Brasheer
Dane Byers
Brian Boyle
Matt Maccarone

On defense:
Marc Staal-Dan Girardi
Matt Gilroy-Michael Sauer
Michael del Zotto-Alexei Semenov

We'll see who plays with who but I'm excited to see Anisimov, Grachev, Gilroy, and del Zotto... updates throughout the game...

Torts' Trials...

2009-09-14T11:32:00.001-04:00

Camp Torts opened this weekend with some grueling aerobic tests but it's the Rangers fans who are trying to catch their breath.

First, there's unsigned restricted free agent Brandon Dubinsky. He's been with the team for weeks training and skating. Kurt Overhardt, Dubinsky's agent, flew in from Colorado last week in hopes of getting a deal done with Glen Sather. He's since left with no deal and Dubinsky has become the first Ranger to hold out of camp since Mark Messier in 1994. You know I'm not sure he's at that level just yet. Dubinsky said it's killing him not to be in camp but nonetheless, he's not. It seems John Tortorella is less than pleased about it. "It's stupid. He's a young man who needs to be in camp with his teammates and understand the process of becoming a pro. I'm hoping he realizes that." Torts also went on to call Dubinsky's agent "stupid". First camp of a coach who doesn't believe in excuses... yeah it might just be. The Rangers have offered Dubinsky $700,000 for this year and it's believed he wants twice that.

Next is Marian Gaborik. The explosive Slovakian winger who deemed himself fully healthy in the off-season after hip surgery and various groin problems over the years. He's apparently been skating hard at the Rangers training complex the last few weeks... which has left him sore... in the groin. He was held out of the first two days of camp. Everyone is saying it's precautionary but if you're a Ranger fan... you can't feel too great about it. If you're Glen Sather... even moreso. Sather took a chance and big dough on this guy being healthy. More as this progresses. The Rangers are supposed to have two scrimmages today and we'll see if Marian Gaborik is in them. The first pre-season game is tomorrow against Boston at MSG.

Get Ready For Hell... Dubinsky Burning?

2009-09-11T19:14:00.000-04:00

Any hopes of this camp being fild with fireside stories and marshmallows will be smoked out first thing in the morning. Coach John Tortorella has been waiting for this camp to open since he took over for Tom Renney in late February last year. Camp opens with the emphasis squarely on conditioning... the players won't even touch a puck until the third day. The Rangers noticebly attacked more and dominated stretches of games under Tortorella but couldn't sustain it.

Vinny Prospal is the only one who's been through this camp calling it "the worst camp ever", as reported by Steve Zipay of Newsday. Prospal also addressed the clash he had with Tortorella that led to Prospal saying "in a way I hope to shove it up somebody's butt" in a post -game interview. He was angry after being benched and came back to score two goals in a come-from-behind win for the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2008. Prospal still thinks Tortorella always pushed the right buttons and got the best out of him.

Steve Zipay also is reporting that talks with Brandon Dubinsky's agent Kurt Overhardt and the Rangers over the last 2 days are going nowhere. Overhardt went on to say "expectations are not great" of the situation being resolved before camp opens on Saturday. If Dubinsky doesn't show up to the first Camp Torts... two words... not good. Two more more words... Phil Kessel. He's a name that was talked about on "The Beat" and could be the answer for the Rangers.

Power Surge...

2009-09-06T13:58:00.001-04:00

It's no secret the Rangers power play was an unmitigated disaster the last couple of years. GM Glen Sather tried to address it last year by bringing in Wade Redden to quarterback it... Redden helped spearhead the team to almost dead last with the man advantage. Only the Columbus Blue Jackets were worse. Most fans would be pleased to never see Redden again. It's not all his fault but he will have to be better than his 2 PP goals and 6 PP assists last year. Due to his ridiculous contract, Redden is like a Snickers... he's not going anywhere for a while.

Sather is trying to address the situation again this year. He's picked up Ales Kotalik (9 PPG and 12 PPA) and Vinny Prospal (7 PPG and 8 PPA). Chris Drury led the Rangers last year with only 10 PPG and 10 PPA. Christopher Higgins will make a difference as well. He put up 25 power play points the year before last. Not to mention Marian Gaborik who when healthy can easily put up over 20 with the man advantage.

The Rangers scored 48 power play goals in 346 attempts while the Detroit Red Wings led the league with 90 in 353 opportunities. They had nothing but perimeter players who would not go to the net or put shots there. Will the new players make a difference? Is Glen Sather done tinkering with the roster? Ales Kotalik has admitted Coach John Tortorella has already discussed the him manning the point on the power play with his rocket of a shot so changes are coming... and change is good.

The Rangers power play was their Achilles' heal and this game is about momentum. Not scoring and giving up a league leading 14 short handed goals against did nothing but sap whatever momentum the team had going. It got to the point you were almost hoping they wouldn't call penalties. The power play lost the series against the Washington Capitals. Sather has addressed one of the main weaknesses of the team bringing in some snipers who will shoot and put up numbers. Has he done enough? If the stats don't lie, the Rangers will advance beyond the first round of the playoffs this year... and the puck will get to the net.

The Marian Factor

2009-09-02T17:30:00.000-04:00

Glen Sather is no stranger to giving monstrous contracts to players who just can't live up to them. Scott Gomez and Chris Drury were two of the worst ever... until old Wade Redden got to town. Somehow Sather convinced Montreal to take Gomez and moved one of the most un-moveable contracts ever. Gomez (5 years left at $7.5 per) was immediately replaced "potential" superstar Marian Gaborik for the same terms. But why would we expect this signing to pan out being that Sather hasn't had one in 8 years as the GM?

Back, hip and groin problems have caused the 27-year-old Gaborik to miss chunks of time through his first 8 seasons including missing all but 17 (he did have 23 points) last year. The Slovak has declared himself fully healthy for this season. Make no mistake, he is an explosive player with a wicked shot who can take over a game and carry his team. He is a leader who put up big numbers playing for a defensive club. He's everything you'd want and more... if he stays in the lineup.

The potential of seeing this missile playing John Tortorella's up-tempo style is what has Ranger fans salivating. Gaborik is arguably the most gifted athlete to skate for the Rangers in the last 25 years and should put up 80-100 points... again... if he's healthy.

Gaborik needs to make a statement this year and you can sense he wants to. Will he explode to put up the best numbers of his career under the bright lights of Broadway? Can he blossom into the superstar everyone thinks he can be and emerge as the young leader of the New York Rangers? Can he play 82 games for the first time in his career?

He can... he will.... he must.

Kessel A' Comin'...

2009-08-29T17:19:00.001-04:00

Though Dany Heatley has been one of the "rumored Rangers" much of this offseason, there's only one guy that Glen Sather should be looking at... Boston's Phil Kessel. He is a young, dynamic, goal scoring right wing who can also play center. The 21-year-old led the Bruins last year with 36 goals in only 70 games. He's a restricted free agent but Boston is completely capped out and unlikely to make room for him before October 1st, when all teams must be under $56.8 million. Kessel would fit perfectly into John Tortorella's system with his speed and defensive responsibility finishing +23 last year.

Kessel will command $5 mil a year though he's coming back from shoulder surgery and won't play til November. Can Sather create the space? The answer is... he has to. Phil Kessel is the player the Rangers are missing. Put him on a line with Marian Gaborik and you could have a monkey center them... it wouldn't matter. The two would combine to be one of the more lethal 1-2 punches in the league... and the Rangers instantly become Stanley Cup contenders.

Move Michal Rozsival... move Brandon Dubinsky... Move whoever you have to to get Phil Kessel in a Rangers uniform.

Seidenberg Shopping?

2009-08-25T00:39:00.001-04:00

Steve Zipay of Newsday is reporting that Dennis Seidenberg's agent is talking seriously with the Rangers and Florida. Seidenberg blocked 160 shots last year and was second on the Carolina Hurricanes defense with 146 hits. He made $1.2 million last year and is looking for a 3 year deal. Sather has done just a fantastic job with judging free agent defenseman and the correct amount to pay them (see Redden, Rozsival-- RIDICULOUS). Here's a thought... you could... theoretically... allow the stable full of young prospects the chance in camp to make the team before looking elsewhere. Oh and you might want to locate a Number 1 Center at some point.

Dubinsky's Worth...

2009-08-24T14:50:00.001-04:00

Still quiet on the Brandon Dubinsky contract front and you can't help but wonder... what is the hold up? Though the Rangers only have a few million left under the cap, they should be able to get a deal done unless Dubinsky is asking for more than he deserves. After an impressive rookie season of 40 points he followed up with 41 last season. Ryan Callahan, recently rewarded with $2.3 million, only had 40 . Perhaps Dubinsky feels he should get the same type of deal... I'm going to tell you why he shouldn't.

Don't get me wrong, I love Dubinsky. He's a gritty player who plays with his heart on every shift. He's exactly the type of player the Rangers, their fans, and John Tortorella want as part of the core of this team. But how big is his upside? Are we expecting that he'll be a 100 point Center? I don't see it. Here's some comparable players to Brandon Dubinsky and what they're making:

RW Colby Armstrong, Atlanta-
22 G, 18 A, 40 PTS---- $1.2 a year (just signed)
C Steve Ott, Dallas-
19 G, 27 A, 46 PTS---- $1.4 a year
C Curtis Glencross, Calgary-
13 G, 27 A, 41 PTS---- $1.2 a year
C Eric Belanger, Minnesota-
13 G, 23 A, 36 PTS---- $1.75 a year

These players are of all of the same age group and potential of Dubinsky. The Rangers shouldn't offer more than a couple of years at no more than $1.3. He should take it as an opportunity to prove he's worth more. Otherwise he can play this year for $698,500. At this point it's also possible the Blueshirts are waiting til the season starts to work on a long term deal that won't effect this year's cap... which is probably the best play.

Scotty Don't!!! We'll Miss you???

2009-08-19T15:49:00.000-04:00

Much was expected when Scott Gomez signed his gigantic contract with the Rangers in 2007. He was viewed as a young leader who could explode given the freedom to play HIS style of game. A style many believed he was prevented from playing in New Jersey. Dominant on the puck with impressive speed, stick-handling ability and vision on the ice... the power play quarterback the Rangers had sought since the departure of Brian Leetch. Now with the opportunity to play with one of the best wingers in NHL history in Jaromir Jagr, the sky was the limit. No doubt the Rangers had found their number 1 Center for the foreseeable future...

Yeah... about that...

In Gomez' two seasons with the Blueshirts he did show flashes of all those things but could never put it all together. Nor did he click with Jagr, who quickly turned into everyone's reason why the Rangers were unsuccessful. Turning the team over to new leaders Chris Drury and Gomez was the answer right? Well that happened too... and the result? Not good. Gomez did lead the team with 58 points last year including 3 goals and 14 assists on the power play. Certainly not numbers worthy of his status as a number 1 or his $7+ million a year contract. Yes he could transport the puck but had an uncanny ability to make his teammates wait for him, eventually dragging them offsides with ill advised moves at the blue line. The most difficult and least likely to succeed pass on the ice would be the first one he would attempt. His turnovers just inside the opposition's blue line constantly hung his teammates out to dry.

Quite frankly, it's a mystery how GM Glen Sather was able to move him for more than a bag of pucks and maybe a stick or two. Sather has been under constant scrutiny more for his contracts than his trades but if you asked me if I'd move Scott Gomez for Marian Gaborik and Christopher Higgins, both with something to prove and I'd do that deal everyday and 9 times on Sunday. Throw in defensive prospects Ryan McDonagh and Pavel Valentenko and you've gotta be kidding me... 38 times on Sunday.

The potential of Scott Gomez was that of a go to guy. His desire and work ethic limited him to be a decent number 2 or 3 center man, only one time eclipsing the 80 point mark in 9 seasons. That's what Scott Gomez is... what he has been... and what he will be. The Rangers and their fans will miss him dearly until Marian Gaborik pumps in his first goal against the Penguins on October 2nd.

The Captain Returns... Prospal Arrives... Dubinsky moving?

2009-08-16T19:41:00.000-04:00

Mark Messier is returning to the Rangers as a special assistant to Glen Sather. Messier has been pretty open about his desire to work for the Blueshirts and this could be the perfect situation for him. Obviously he will not be under the pressure to perform as he would if he landed a head coaching job. He is without question one of the greatest leaders in sports and it will be great to have him back in the organization. Though it's unclear what his day-to-day duties will be he has said he'll be attending the prospects tournament in Michigan before arriving at camp. Messier now gets a chance to learn from the first man to coach him in the NHL.

Larry Brooks of the New York Post is reporting that the Rangers have signed Vaclav Prospal to a one year $1.1 million dollar contract. He adds some depth and scoring at a steal of a price. Prospal had 19 goals and 26 assists last year. He's definitely a "Tortorella guy" having his best year under him with 25 goals and 55 assists in 2005-2006. Prospal could be an option at center for Marian Gaborik if Brandon Dubinsky isn't up to the challenge... or even playing here.

Speaking of which, Brooks also reported that talks with Dubinsky on a long-term deal have cooled. Unless he gets an offer sheet elsewhere he'll be playing for the $698,500 qualifier this year. Might not be a bad move for cap purposes and they can always sign him during the season to a multi-year deal. But don't be surprised if he's included in a deal for Dany Heatley.