Scotty Hockey

32-12-5: Points Are Points

2012-02-02T05:30:00.004-05:00

The Rangers edged out the Sabres in the fifth round of a shootout on Wednesday night for a 1-0 win in Buffalo. It was the second straight shootout for the Blueshirts and their second straight disappointing effort.

The biggest difference between the game against the Devils and the one against the Sabres was the goaltending. Instead of having sieves on either side of the ice, there was one former and one future Vezina winner. Ryan Miller and Henrik Lundqvist held their ground unlike the two Martys and both skated away with shutouts.

The first place team in the East faced the 14th and the first place side needed a breakaway contest to earn the W. It would really be sad if it was not foreseeable. This Ranger team has worked their way to the top of the conference with tough, lunch-pail hockey. But when the opposition has brought their hard hats to the job site, well all bets are off. In games like those the top end talent needs to shine and just one of the New York stars came through - Lundqvist. The rest of the high priced city socialites need to do some soulsearching soon because it is only getting tougher from here.

Late Hits:

*The Ranger specialty teams are so good they kill their own penalties and those of the other team too. They took care of seven in all on this night, five of their own and two of Buffalo's. The Blueshirts have to be more disciplined and they absolutely have to learn to score when up a man - this is getting ridiculous.

*Brad Richard$ saw as much ice time as Brian Boyle ... I don't think I need to point out what travesty that that is. Sure plenty of it had to do with all of the penalty killing time but still, the former Conn Smythe winner has to earn more minutes than the biggest waste of size since Willie Huber.

*Boyle did have one good moment: when he shoved Patrick Kaleta. Kaleta embodies the NHL's need to eliminate the instigator penalty. A weasel like that who tries to injure other players should be put in his place, instead of being allowed to keep his gloves on and jaw away. At least Avery would throw down on occasion ...

*Del Zastrous. A step behind in his own end. Pinched too much. Panicked and threw the puck over the glass. Somehow missed the net on a breakaway with a shot five feet from the cage. Simply Del Zastrous.

*And yet he won't taste the lash that continually bites poor Stu Bickel. Bickel is constantly been abused by the coach, a favoured whipping boy now that Avery has been banished. Sean at least deserved it at times, Bickel was playing in the ECHL not too long ago and hustles his ass off every one of his all-too-rare shifts. Torts has to either learn to live with the gaffes or bench him because status quo right now is a waste. Of course the kid will make mistakes, he jumps on the ice cold and knows his continued employment hinges on his every action.

*Had no idea that Arty even dressed for this game, much less played 16 minutes. Ever since the sniper incident he has been awful, perhaps a trip to Hartford could be enough to re-ignite his game.

*The Sabres Zack Kassian is going to be a beast in this league if Buffalo doesn't ruin him. Size, power and decent hands? Nice combo right there.

*Seven games without a point for Brandon Dubinsky, in case you were wondering.

*Had hoped that the All Star break would help Marc Staal further his recovery but two games back and he still looks like an entirely different player than the one that ended last season. No way they shut him back down but there is definitely something still wrong.

*There is more worth ranting about but it is late and, frankly, the Rangers still escaped the back-to-back with three out of four points. The guys need to get their acts together if they are to compete come April but for now, points are points - no matter how hideously they are earned.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Ryan Callahan - shootout winning goal.
2-Ryan Miller - 29 saves.
1-Henrik Lundqvist - 34 saves.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Cally - Of course the Captain is going to play well with his grandma around ...
2-Miller - After a performance such as this it is hard to imagine the many Buffalo fans who were calling for him to be traded not too long ago.
1-Hank - Your goaltender is your best penalty killer and the King stood tall while his teammates were forced to sit down time and time again.

Ice Hockey In Harlem

2012-02-01T12:29:00.000-05:00

Interested? Click here to buy tickets.

31-12-5: Terrible Return To Action

2012-02-01T03:49:00.000-05:00

The Rangers played their first game after the All Star break and it was an utter failure. Ok, not an utter failure - they did escape with a point - but it was a pathetic display against a rival that does not bode well for the near future.

It was back-and-forth, entertaining hockey - which would be great except when you consider it was the supposed first place team against a shell of a hockey club without their top two centers and with a has-been goaltender. The Blueshirts blew three leads on their way to a 4-3 shootout loss to the Devils. How a team could fail so spectacularly after taking a few days off is astonishing and utterly disappointing. That being said, the Rangers need to shake this one off because if this is a sign of things to come they will be the pathetic ones clinging to a playoff positing instead of rightfully challenging for home ice.

Have to keep this short so right on to the Late Hits:

*John Tortorella put the Rangers behind the eight ball at the outset by starting his former Flyer goaltender against a team that his starter has truly starred against in recent years. There is a reason why Hank played every game against the Devils since 2006 but Torts thought he knew best and he blew it. The Blueshirts backup might have put together a decent performance against the 14th place Sabres - another of his former teams - but against the Devils he was made to look the fool. All three goals in regulation were immensely savable, with Biron getting clear looks at the shooters. And yet he blew it again and again and again. The Kovalchuk shootout goal is the only that is hard to blame him on, if only because Kovy has been world class in the skill competition and Biron once played for the Islanders. But there are no excuses for giving up a goal short side and two open shots from the slot. Atrocious.

*On the other side of the ice it was blatantly apparent that Mmmmmaaarrrtttyyyyy is done. Not that he was particularly good in his prime - I attribute all of those inflated numbers to systems and star defensemen - but the sister-in-law lover can hardly play. And the Rangers beat him just three times. He didn't make a single good save all night and his pathetic whale-rolling-around-in-the-surf display on the Brian Boyle goal was positively comical. Not to mention the fact that he gave up an open shot to Del Zaster of all people. Blissfully terrible.

*But as bad as he was Brad Richard$ still couldn't score against him. My guess is that Richard$ spent the time off listening to old Cure records and crying about Olivia leaving him. Because he surely didn't move on and get his head right - he was all but invisible. He lost faceoffs, he was a step slow and he had no impact in the power play.

*Of course, no one else did either. Three power plays for the Rangers expertly killed by the Rangers. Typical.

*Two assists. Bork bork bork. And yet Hagelin didn't get a single second of power play time.

*Two assists for the Slovak Sniper too. Marian made two nice passes to set up Ranger goals, clearly showing he didn't lose his game in the casino in Gatineau.

*The Devils didn't dress Cam Janssen and used Eric Boulton sparingly. And yet Mike Rupp didn't use his size and physicality to help his team at all. So what is the point of playing him?

*In the Puck Central round table I floated the idea that the Rangers should deal Arty but his recent performances has led me to believe that there won't be many/any teams willing to take him. Since his infamous shooting celebration against Tampa Anisimov has been atrocious.

*Facing a team with just two offensive players with any kind of ability, Dan Girardi played 33 minutes and McDonagh played 29. Welcome back to the grind boys.

*David Clarkson scored to tie the game at three in the last minute and Chico said it was one of the biggest goals of his career. That pretty much says it all for just how embarrassing a night it was for the Rangers.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Michael Del Zotto - one goal.
2-Zach Parise - one goal.
1-David Clarkson - one goal.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Adam Larsson - The young Swede is exceptionally talented. It is a real shame he is a Devil.
2-Gabby - The Slovak's low, hard shot created the rebound that Stralman scored on and that beautiful cross to Del Zaster helped the kid snap a 11 game goal drought.
1-Kovalchuk - Loath him as we may, Kovy is so very skilled. Remember the days when Sean Avery used to throw him off his game? They seem so very long ago.

Photo Of The Day

2012-01-28T10:15:00.003-05:00

Courtesy of the Whale, a certain favourite of the blog scoring last night (moments before getting 14 min in PIM and getting benched for the rest of the game):

31-12-4: Boring But Effective

2012-01-25T03:26:00.004-05:00

On Tuesday night the Rangers defeated the Jets 3-0 in the last game before the All Star break.

Yawn.

It was a boring affair before a quiet crowd that - as someone said to me - seemed like it was watching the Rangers being blown out rather than winning. The only non-goal moment to spur any kind of reaction was the showing of the idiot kicker on a New Jersey-based NFL team on the big screen. Several times the crowd actually had to be shamed into chanting "Let's Go Rangers" by a small group of Winnipeg fans filling the silence with "Go, Jets, Go!"

But in everyone's defense, it is hard to get excited watching the grinding game that was presented to them. It was a lot like many of the other wins so far this season where the team stacks its own zone to keep the other team from scoring and hopes and prays for a mistake or a good bounce to get them a lead they can cling to. There is no killer instinct, just basic survival. Get the two points and get out. And that sucks to watch but is fine, for now. As the idiom goes (and has been repeated to me many a time), you have to first get to the playoffs before you can fight for the Cup. That being said, if the Blueshirts are cowering in front of a 10th place Winnipeg side without three of their top four offensive talents in January, what will happen in the second season against actual teams?

Late Hits:

*The Rangers have to grind because their talent is far too unreliable. Marian Gaborik has three goals in his last 13 games - quieting that talk that he would reach 50 this season. Brad Richard$ snapped a seven game goal drought with his third period goal but it was just a simple shot thanks to the stellar set up by Cally. Stepan and Arty are both snakebitten. Hagelin is experiencing the ups and downs that go with being a rookie. Dubi is ... whatever. And, frankly, the power play sucks.

*The unit went 0-4 in this one without getting a sniff of a goal. As my buddy Matt pointed out, it simply kills all momentum. It is stagnant, predictable and inept. Winnipeg's guys were at least willing to shoot the puck into traffic while the Rangers kept trying to make a perfect pass. With an opposing player in the penalty box the Blueshirts should increase their pressure and instead they let their foot off the gas. Cycling is great when you are a telepathic, redheaded Swedish twin but not for the Rangers. Each guy seems to consider his options for an extra second, allowing the defenders to get over and set up in front of him. The few one-timers are telegraphed something fierce and are easily blocked away. No one kills Ranger power plays like the Rangers.

*Despite getting massive minutes with the man advantage Del Zaster is pointless in the last 13 and has just eight assists (six of which were secondary) and zero goals this season. Richard$ has one power play goal in his last 27 and Step sees second unit time and he doesn't have a single power play goal in his last 34.

*With all of them slacking off, at least the captain came through. Cally scored by lurking around the crease and then he pulled a Datsyuk with an amazing steal and dangle to set up Richard$. That. Was. AWESOME!

*Hopefully John Mitchell's goal ensured that Erik Christensen won't be seeing the Ranger lineup for the rest of his time under contract. Mitchell has been quite the revelation, to be sure, and he cost the team just a seventh round draft pick. Interesting note: do you know who Toronto picked in the seventh round of the 2005 draft? Anton Stralman.

*Used the word 'momentum' before, which brings me to Mike F-ing Rupp. What is going through his thick skull? For the second straight game he opened the door for the opposition by accepting an invitation to dance with a fellow neanderthal soon after the Rangers scored. And, as if the first tilt wasn't enough, Rupp went after Thorburn again for another pointless bout. Yu would think a veteran would have an understanding of when to fight and when not to but I guess getting punched in the head a lot takes its toll. But some of it is on Torts, who shouldn't put him out on the ice in the first place.

*It's an empty net guys, the puck should go inside it.

*Credit to Hank for playing on an expected day off but it wasn't like he was particularly challenged on his way to the shutout. Winnipeg hit the iron once and had one, maybe two other real scoring chances but that was it. Still nice to see the clean sheet.

*Because of the Knicks, Rangers in 60 just came on (at 3am). And Micheletti, paraphrasing what Marian Gaborik explained to him about Zdeno Chara said, "Even though we are country mates he pounds me every chance he gets." Somehow I doubt Gabby said that word for word. Ya never know, but I doubt it.

*It is remarkable how glaring the errors are that Dan Girardi and Ryan McDonagh make but it is likely a symptom of their success the rest of the time. So many thankless minutes in the trenches but when that one bad pass is made, wow do we see it.

*Marc Staal played just 12:06 - his lowest total since his return. Wonder if it was because of the match ups or because of some regression with his head or what. Having a full week off should be really good for him.

*PHW Three Stars
3-John Mitchell - one goal.
2-Ryan Callahan - one goal and one assist.
1-Henrik Lundqvist - 22 saves.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Hank - Easy shutout by the King against a bunch of guys who barely belong in the NHL.
2-Richard$ - B-Rich dominated on faceoffs and finally snapped out of his post-Munn funk.
1-Cally - Cap' may not be playing on Sunday but Callahan has been an All Star for us to be sure.

30-12-4: Hey, look - a PPG!

2012-01-22T04:32:00.002-05:00

Of all things, who would have thought that a power play would save the day for the Rangers? Certainly not I but it was indeed the case on Saturday afternoon as Marian Gaborik capitalized in overtime to defeat the Big Bad Bruins 3-2.

The way the Rangers won was just as surprising as the actual fact that they ended up victorious. The Blueshirts spent much of the afternoon crushed in their own zone while the Bruins dominated play. When they finally went on attack, it was one-and-done as the Bs quickly recovered to come back the other way - they are the reigning Stanley Cup champions for a reason. And, like the Rangers, they didn't play close to their best game. That is the remarkable part and it should make the remaining three meetings really special.

Late Hits:

*Truly hope Ryan McDonagh is alright.

*That being said, I still don't think Andrew Ference deserved a five minute major for the hit. McDonagh saw him coming, skated straight at the boards and presented his back at the on-coming Bruin. For some reason he decided to try to hit the breaks instead of cruising straight around the net and it cost him. Ference barely made contact but McD went flying. There was no intent to injure there. If anything, it should have been a two minute call but the refs saw McD on the ice and upped the punishment. Lucky for the Rangers, who needed the extra time to come though after wasting the first two minutes of the man advantage.

*Dan Girardi played more than Zdeno Chara. Let that one sink in. Dan-o was out there for 33:31 while the ginormous Slovak skated 'just' 32:19. Girardi didn't come close to murdering a few of his foes with his slap shot but still - that's crazy.

*How much had that shot hurt to send Brandon "It's Only Pain" Prust down the runway? And he returned to the game, what a warrior. And that diving call on him later on was total rubbish - one of the worst calls made on the Rangers this season.

*Speaking of the worst, Mike F-ing Rupp. How stupid do you have to be to accept an invitation to dance seconds after your team takes the lead on the road? Rupp could have skated away, and maybe even drawn a penalty to really put the Bruins on their heels. Instead he entertained Shawn Thornton and re-energized the entire Bruin team while bringing the building back into the game. He won the fight but lost the battle. Stupid.

*Ryan Callahan really is the right choice to be captain of the Rangers. Remember the debates we all had over the summer, whether it would/should go to him, Dubi, Staal or Richard$? They just seems so silly now because he has more than lived up to the letter. He gives his utter best every shift, no matter the cost on his body. That was one helluva shot to open the scoring and he was far and away the best Ranger not named Lundqvist.

*Carl Hagelin came close. The Sveedish Wolverine put in a lot of tough minutes and did not look the least bit out of place. While I still believe he should be reunited with John Mitchell, one thing is for certain: this kid will have himself one heck of a career. Bork bork bork!

*Brian Boyle really tried to play well, that was clear. It just didn't work out. In addition to his usual shortcomings Boyle was too late on his forecheck to stop the rush that resulted in the first Boston goal and he tipped the second past his own goaltender.

*Really had hoped Dubi would have been better against the Bs. He took an unfortunate penalty, was on the ice for both goals against and didn't get a single shot on goal. He has the body and aptitude to play a Boston-style game but he just didn't seem into it.

*Also lackadaisical was Richard$ - to the point where he reminded me of the other over-priced No. 19 who used to wear blue. He spent too much time out on the periphery and only got his assist on the game-winner because the rebound of his half-hearted backhand ended up on Gabby's stick. I imagine him listening to the Cure before the game, insisting that Boys Don't Cry.

*Del Zaster showed why he has no place playing big minutes against good teams. He couldn't create any offense, he couldn't handle the stronger forwards, he turned over the puck in his own end ... DZ seems to think that throwing his body across the ice is a good go-to move to break up plays while it should be nothing but a desperation move. On the first Boston goal he simply stood there while Krejci took his time and set up Ference.

*Arty should realize that with the trade deadline approaching he is rapidly becoming nothing more than trade bait. Anisimov barely saw action and for good reason - he couldn't match up in intensity or ability.

*The music played in TD Garden put the MSG selection to shame. Great songs and a well-played, beautiful old organ helped amp the intensity even further. Hearing Maxine Nightingale's "Right Back Where We Started From" - one of the signature songs from Slap Shot - played on the organ was incredible. Perfect hockey music.

*Nice to see Marc Savard again, too bad it was under the unfortunate circumstances. Liked him as a Ranger waaaay back when and will forever remember the classy tap on the pads after he was stopped by Lundqvist (I was at that game in Boston and utterly lost my mind when Hank made the grab).

*Thought Rich Peverley had a really, really good game for Boston. To think that Nashville gave up on this guy years ago is astounding.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Ryan Callahan - one goal and one assist.
2-Andrew Ference - one goal and one assist and one major penalty - proof the PHW puts these stars in too early.
1-Marian Gaborik - two goals.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Gabby - Two lucky bounces got him the puck and two lightning-fast releases got him goals.
2-Hank - The King made a lot of point-blank saves and kept the Rangers in it despite the Bruins pressure.
1-Cally - If only the captain could get all of his teammates to play with his intensity and dedication ...

29-12-4: Hit Him!

2012-01-20T04:54:00.004-05:00

Amid all of the celebrations over the last few months, this space warned that things would not be the same once the Blueshirts faced better competition. On Thursday night the Rangers faced a higher level of opponent and were found lacking. The Crosby-less Penguins were better coached and worked harder in what would be a 4-1 victory over the Rangers. The Pens fought for pucks, won the little battles and had their star center show up as they broke the deadlock and pulled away in the third period.

As Mr. X from the Blue Seats astutely observed, Pittsburgh imposed their will right at the opening faceoff of that final frame and they did not relent. John Tortorella did not change his tactics and did not find any combination of forwards to spark his team. Pretty sure he didn't even bother to use his timeout at all either, even though Bylsma's boys scored twice in less than five minutes.

Just looked at that opening line again and it reads like a big fat 'told you so,' which was honestly not the intention. But even first place teams have flaws and - especially after those teams rise to the top - the other sides will work harder to exploit those flaws. The Rangers always had to take on the MSG factor, where visitors would want to impress on the best NHL stage in America. Now that the hype machine has gotten going and the owner shot off his big, ignorant mouth rivals will take things to an even higher notch. The Blueshirts have to respond in kind. Hopefully this loss will work as a gut check and the Rangers will reply with their best game of the season in Boston on Saturday. They certainly will need to.

Late Hits:

*The Rangers had two recorded hits on Geno Malkin, and both were in the first period. Two. They made contact with the top player on the opposing team twice. They had 38 hits in all and, for comparison's sake, they hit Deryk Engelland five times. Malkin was given free reign to run around the Ranger end and it ultimately cost them. Crosby at least had to work to escape his coverage, his Russian companion was able to cruise his way to two goals (and he likely would have had the hat had anyone but Lundqvist been in the Ranger net). Malkin was given way too much room to work - I believe it was the second period where he literally skated around the entire Ranger zone without being touched. Unacceptable.

*Bet Hank wants that Richard Park goal back. Park has played 38 games against the Rangers in his career, the most against any team he faced in the NHL. Park also has 18 points in those games, the most against any team in the NHL. Former Islander. Ugh.

*Even with the loss Hank is the best goaltender in the NHL, or at least top three. So why does Torts insist that all five of his skaters collapse in the face of the opposition attack? Couldn't count the number of times the Rangers gave up the blue line and then had five skaters below the top of the circles and between the dots. Hank doesn't suck and he doesn't need his sight line filled with skaters standing around watching the opposition work.

*BTW - Major kudos to Lundqvist for hosting a Q & A with people who bought Crown Collection gear. While he didn't break any real news (some twit from ESPN the Magazine "interviewed" him with the same softball questions we've often heard in the past), he faced the small crowd with a thankful smile despite the loss.

*I'm not a girl and I'm not into the other fellows so I can't judge Brad Richard$ looks but surely his bank account is enough to attract Olivia Munn's replacement. Where the star center of the Penguins stepped his game up, the Rangers' version played like he would rather be somewhere else. While Richard$ absolutely dominated on draws, he was found lacking in all of the other aspects of his game and is now pointless in his last six (over which time he made $731,707.32 - more than what Mitchell, Woywitka and Bickel will make the entire season).

*Marian Gaborik at least made an incredible pass to Carl Hagelin for the lone Ranger goal and he managed to get six shots through to Fleury despite tough checking by the Pens. Not sure Step and Hagelin are the right linemates for him in the long run but it worked in this one.

*Hagelin, called out for going dry in the Nashville postgame blog, snapped his eight game goal drought. Bork, bork, bork!

*While I'm no fan of Mike F-ing Rupp, Tortorella should have let him play more, and in better spots. His size would have been useful to keep the Pens in check but instead we got to see ~~Willie Huber~~ Brian Boyle get beat all over the ice. Rangers are down 3-1 so Torts puts Boyle on the ice - he of one goal in 25 games. And he rewarded the coach's dubious decision by losing the draw, missing a hit on Letang, blocking his own teammate's shot and standing atop the crease, watching the play around him. He seems to be trying hard but whatever magic that he had in the first half of last season is gone. And he has two more seasons left on his deal after this one ...

*In ripping on Del Zaster in the past (which I will do again momentarily), I pointed out the difference between hitting to make contact and hitting to win the puck. Through much of this game the Rangers were sadly just trying to get body on body, and not particularly violently. Brandon Prust's first period hit was one of the few that made the boards rattle and got the crowd going.

*Ah, Del Zaster. The kid just doesn't have a clue how to play in his own end. That flailing fall on Malkin's first goal would have been embarrassing had it not been so entertaining. He just has no idea. And for all of those who went on about how wonderful he was because of his big +/- number, he is -5 over his last five games - getting negative numbers in each of the Ranger losses.

*At least Stuuuuuuuuuu won his fight. Bickel beat up on Eric Tangradi in a battle of two guys bound for the AHL once their NHL teams get healthy. Guess they just were trying to do something, anything to try to sway their GMs' impending decisions.

*Paul Martin is awfully tough while wearing that Cobra Commander faceshield, eh?

*PHW Three Stars
3-Kris Letang - one assist.
2-Marc-Andre Fleury - 30 saves.
1-Evgeni Malkin - two goals.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Letang - Why does everyone have to return from injury just in time to face the Rangers?
2-Chris Kunitz - Kunitz played the gritty, effective kind of game we'd have hoped came from Cally.
1-Malkin - The slew-footing, fight-starting, hit-dodging superstar came though without Crosby yet again.

29-11-4: Saw This Story Before

2012-01-18T03:38:00.000-05:00

It is nice to see other teams have the same trouble with playing a full 60 the way the Rangers do. For the second straight game Nashville played for just one period but this time the result did not go in their favour. The Preds scored three goals in the first period against the Isles Monday and cruised to a 3-1 win. Well, Tuesday they faced a real franchise and found Henrik Lundqvist more than up to the challenge in the first period. Hank held tough and Preds retracted their claws the rest of the way, gifting the Rangers a 3-0 win.

The Blueshirts seem to be in a little cycle - they played terribly against Ottawa and bounced back against a tired and largely uninterested Toronto team. Then they played terrible against Montreal and bounced back against a tired and largely uninterested Nashville team. Where the Rangers amped up their checking to wear down the Leafs early, they just let the Preds punch themselves out before going on to the win.

We just have to hope that they can break the cycle and crush the injury-ravaged Pens on Thursday.

Late Hits:

*Very interesting that the Predators decided to start Rinne against the Isles and Lindback - he of the .893 save percentage - against the Rangers. They put their starter in to get the 'guaranteed' points while playing the backup in the game with more of a dubious outcome. Plenty of teams do that - Carolina did it last year for one - and it showed that the Ranger reputation has grown.

*Most of the Ranger success this season can be attributed to Henrik Lundqvist and yet again the Rangers stood by when their goaltender got ran. Marty Erat hit the King and no one did anything other than offer some (likely) harsh words. Erat was called for goaltender interference. The Blueshirts were up 2-0 and their power play is terrible, so there shouldn't have been any fear of negating the call - which ended up happening thanks to a poor high sticking call for what actually was Predator on Predator violence. Hank got hit a few times in Montreal too, and has taken plenty of contact this season. I thought having a goon on the team was supposed to discourage that kind of thing but so far Mike Rupp has only fought to justify his fellow neanderthals' careers. (Shocked he didn't take on Brian McGrattan, who took a few spins looking for a tussle.)

*Big, big fan of Carl Hagelin - as is well known - but he extended his goal drought to eight games. He got a charity assist on Girardi's fluke goal but he hasn't been able to put the puck in. His speed is tantalizing and he has worked hard to move up the lineup but perhaps it is time to put him back with John Mitchell full time, as the two worked quite well together. In fact, it was Hagelin's forecheck that set up the play that Mitch scored on.

*That defensive play Del Zaster made in the second period? Best play he has made the entire season. Credit definitely due and given. No credit for the other 23 mediocre minutes he played though ...

*For the Swiss out there, Roman Josi was nothing special. Sorry. I watched him and rookie Ryan Ellis closely and came away unimpressed. Both have talent, but neither have tapped it yet and it is hard to say if they will be able to in Nashville's system.

*Oh, Brad Richard$. He has to realize that his ex was one of the most unfunny, uninteresting people to contribute to the Daily Show ever and get over her already. Another sub-par performance by the big-money signing.

*Brian Boyle played a motivated game but still choked when he had a chance to score. Old school Ranger fans, help me out here - is Boyle indeed the biggest waste of size since Willie Huber?

*Dubi made his return and was largely silent. But the two or three times he did get involved (that blocked Weber shot for one) the Garden crowd was quick to recognize his contribution with Duuuuuuubbbbbbbbs. Ruslan Fedotenko did not receive the same recognition.

*Saw the Garden put tweets up from people claiming there was a playoff-like atmosphere and that the place was going crazy. Um, no. Was the building dead? Far from it. Was it electric? Not even close.

*Arty and Stuuuuu were both in the doghouse and for good reason. Poor Stu made a poor play early on that gave Nashville a good scoring chance and Arty was a whole lot of nothing yet again. Guess after playing him up and down the lineup Torts decided a benching might be a better motivator. Not so sure that will work with him but we will find out soon enough.

*There was a guy in my section (329) wearing a yellow Preds jersey with Mike Fisher's #12 and the Underwood nameplate. Ridiculous. I did not get a good picture, sorry, but I did yell "Carrie, sit the hell down" at one point.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Brandon Prust - Um, nothing.
2-Dan Girardi - one goal.
1-Henrik Lundqvist - 27 saves.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Hagelin - Bork, bork, bork.
2-McDonagh - One of Mac's best performances in a month. He probably played a little too much but with Staal slowly rounding into form his minutes will go down and this experience will only help.
1-Hank - The King helped the Rangers survive the early onslaught and avoided allowing any soft goals.

28-11-4: Bleu, Blanc et Blechhh

2012-01-16T06:51:00.000-05:00

Just what is it about Montreal? Is it an overindulgence in the various pleasures of the city? The haunting of 101 years of ghosts? The intimidation of 20,000 french fanatics? Or is it just an basic inability for the Rangers to match up?

On Sunday the Bleu, Blanc et Rouge beat the Blueshirts 4-1 in a game that simply wasn't that close. The Rangers' hearts were never in this one and the biggest laughingstock in the NHL skated away with a laugher of a victory.

The Frenchmen are not flying anymore, they have become the butt end of many a joke. How can one not at least snicker when you consider the recent rioting, the trading for Scott Gomez, the firing of Perry Pearn and the controversy over the lingua franca? Teams like Columbus induce sympathy. Teams like Montreal bring out the hilarity. The most accomplished franchise in the NHL has gloriously ruined their reputation.

And yet the Rangers still can't figure out a way to show up and play a competitive hockey game against them. Stupefying.

Late Hits:

*Peter Budaj is a terrible goaltender, a terrible goaltender with a fantastic mask. Perhaps it was a fear of Ned Flanders that kept the Rangers from testing the Habs backup? The keeper who collected calamitous numbers in Colorado faced 29 shots, few of which made him even move.

*If the Rangers thought that just because he stinks they would score, well that would be Torts' folly for not properly preparing them. Not the first time, won't be the last.

*Five of the so-called top-six forwards didn't come to play. The sixth being John Mitchell. Har har, I'm kidding. Derek Stepan keeps giving it his all and was probably the best of the Ranger bunch. Mitchell got a goal but seeing him out there with Step and Gabby was just disturbing. Torts was just grasping at straws. Rather than place faith in his players to play out of a funk, using the things the coach supposedly has taught the team, Torts just juggles lines at the first sign of distress. Hagelin worked great with Mitchell when they first came up so, of course, they haven't played together in weeks.

*Stu Bickel got screamed at on the bench after being on the ice for two goals. The kid was caught watching the play both times and it cost the team. It was moments like that where you remember Bickel was in the ECHL two seasons ago. Other players have gotten some slack but it wouldn't be far fetched to see Jeff Woywitka make a return to the lineup on Tuesday.

*Speaking about guys who have gotten a lot of slack: Arty was awful yet again and his coverage mistake gave the Canadiens their fourth goal. Eleven games, no points and few signs of hope.

*With Bickel getting the Avery treatment, McD and Girardi both played close to 30 minutes. Against the Canadiens, a soft team without a single 'star' on offense. When Boston comes to town with their four hard nosed lines of ability McD and Girardi may be ground into dust.

*A night after getting an Abuse of Officials game misconduct with the Whale Kris Newbury was up with the Rangers. So much for accountability. He appreciated the promotion so much that he played his worse hockey with the team to date and was on the ice for three of the four Habs goals. Hope he enjoys his ride back to Hartford.

*Can't complain about Typical Montreal reffing. Devorski and Hasenfrantz were the least of the Rangers' problems.

*Man do I still hate the MexiCan't. Gomez got an assist but at least the Rangers weren't the team to give up his first goal of the season.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Erik Cole - three assists.
2-David Desharnais - one goal and two assists.
1-Max Pacioretty - two goals and one assist.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Blunden - The kid grinded all game and ended up with goal from Gomez.
2-Cole - The former Cane usually steps up his game against the Rangers and the Blueshirt blueliners struggled to cope with him.
1-Pacioretty - Carl Hagelin's former teammate at Michigan is maturing into a real player.

28-10-4: Blowing Away The Leafs

2012-01-15T06:40:00.000-05:00

The New York Rangers rebounded from their 3-0 loss to Ottawa on Thursday with a 3-0 win over the other Ontario team - the Toronto Maple Leafs - on Saturday. It was nice to see them shake off the stench of the Sens failure with a victory.

They are in first in the NHL and, according to the AP, are on pace for the best season in franchise history.

That being said, they beat an over-hyped, utterly exhausted team missing their top center. To the Blueshirts credit, they hit everything that moved early and helped grind the rest of the life out of the Leafs, setting up a strong second period. There is still much work to be done, as was blatantly apparent after watching Wings/Hawks earlier in the day.

Late Hits:

*Few goals this season have been as pretty as the first tally of the night by Mike F-ing Rupp. Step, Wolski and Rupp made Cody Franson look stupid, the monkey in the middle as they passed the puck around before beating Gustavsson. What a highlight. Mike F-ing Rupp. Again. Unreal.

*Have to admit loving his work in front of the paint on the power play - doing exactly what Boyle should have been doing for the last few years.

*Called out Rupp on Twitter ahead of the Winter Classic and he scored two goals outdoors. Called out Boyle in this space after last game, and he scored against Toronto. Didn't see much change in Boyle's quality of play but his luck certainly improved - Franson perfectly screened Gustavsson, allowing his hail mary shot from the circle in. But sometimes it takes some help to get out of a slump and Boyle got it. On the other side of the coin, his hit on Kessel in the first period was one of the most awkward things I've seen in the NHL this season.

*It could have been a totally different result if Kessel's redirection hadn't hit the post late in the second period. Instead the American rang one off the iron and Boyle scored two minutes later to go up 2-0. That's the way the puck bounces I guess.

*The Ranger power play remained incompetent.

*Brad Richards remained heartbroken. At least he played like he was. He had three giveaways and he attempted five shots - one missed the net and four were blocked.

*Dan Girardi had his hands full with Kessel and skated a game-high 28:40 - six minutes more than any other Ranger. What happens when the Blueshirts play against a team with more than one line? Will he play all 60? This is getting ridiculous.

*Del Zaster was playing in his hometown but he certainly did not step up his game. He was beaten to the puck, he was caught watching the play and his hits did little to stop the opposing attack (for those demanding examples, watch him with five minutes left in the first period). All of that would be acceptable if he did something on the other end of the ice but he was largely ineffective. Again. Six games with just one assist despite 14 minutes of power play time. Fourteen. Thankfully the Rangers still won five of the six ... Credit is due to the kid for holding the blue line on the power play at the beginning of the second period - it was a really play.

*Anton Stralman had quite a good game. Bet that shocked those Leaf fans that remembered him as a Buds blueliner.

*Saw Biron get bumped more than once. With no retribution. Unacceptable.

*Paging Artem Anisimov ...

*There is surely more but Montreal is looming. Let's hope Henrik doesn't have his typical game at the Bell Centre.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Brandon Prust - one assist.
2-Marty Biron - 20 saves.
1-Derek Stepan - one goal and one assist.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Cally - The captain was all over the ice.
2-Prust - One of his best games in weeks and it didn't require him to fight in the first two minutes.
1-Step - Great game by the Badger.

27-10-4: Nothing Good At The Garden

2012-01-13T05:15:00.000-05:00

It is not that the Rangers lost to the Senators 3-0 on Thursday night, it is the manner in which they did it.

Losses are going to happen - these are not the '76-77 Canadiens. But there are ways to lose and walk away with head held high. This was not one of those ways.

The Blueshirts played largely without a pulse for much of the 60 minutes and made a mediocre goaltender look great. They have done it often over the last few years with a litany of goaltenders - Al Montoya, Joey MacDonald, Rick DiPietro, Dwayne Roloson, Scott Clemmensen, and Craig Anderson (more than once). They shot at the logo on Anderson's chest and let his defense do the rest. They also made stupid mistakes and sloppy plays and they had a DOA power play - all things that have to be fixed for this team to go anywhere.

Late Hits:

*It is games like these that give fodder to Sean Avery supporters like myself. There were no shift disturbers, there was no spark, there was little life in blue out there. Most rushes were one (-shot) and done, no one got in Anderson's grill, Spezza had time and space and no distractions.

*What is stupefying is how the Rangers didn't respond to Brandon Prust. Prust fights a guy he shouldn't have, lands a few punches, rips his hand open and returns to the game. The guy literally bled for the team tonight and what did the rest of the guys do? Not a whole helluvalot, that's what.

*His old buddy Brian Boyle is the worst Ranger right now. That includes Rupp. That includes Del Zaster. Boyle is not just a waste of space, but on this night he was a detriment to the team. All evidence of those much publicized skating lessons is gone. He can't score, he can't shoot, he can't hit, he can't win faceoffs. Somehow the Garden scorekeeper credited him with eight hits, which I'm guessing included his accidentally running into guys while not paying attention or running into guys to stop. He lost 11 of 19 faceoffs, he turned the puck over, he tries to stickhandle like he is Datsyuk or something ... Boyle is back to being the frustrating big bod that Los Angeles smartly gave up on.

*Marc Staal was more involved in this one than in any other previous games since his return. Staal had one of the Blueshirts' best chances on a rebound five and a half minutes into the first period. But his interest in the attack also cost the Rangers as he pinched while shorthanded in the third. Carl Hagelin's pass to him was intercepted and Spezza came back to score the nail-in-the-coffin third Senator goal. Staal is slowly returning to his former stature but it is a process.

*Wolski made his triumphant return to the Garden and looked like he didn't miss a moment - he was just as useless after his injury as he was before it.

*Still haven't seen the Del Zaster save as he slid through the crease. Did he do it intentionally? If so, gotta give credit where due - the fall worked there. It didn't on the two-on-one that made it a 3-0 game. Everyone gets lucky now and then. Everyone defends his defensive shortcomings with his ability on the other side of the ice but DZ played six minutes on the power play and did nothing. Erik Karlsson is awful in his own end but he is an All Star because his passing, instincts and speed are outstanding. Del Zaster doesn't come close.

*DZ didn't get a single shot off despite 20 minutes of ice time. Gabby didn't get a shot on goal either. He didn't have a single shot that was blocked. He didn't have a shot that missed the net. The Slovakian Slacker is supposed to be a sniper. I'm pretty sure snipers are supposed to be able to be invisible and to shoot with pinpoint accuracy. Gabby was just invisible.

*Brad Richards was hardly there as well, but he got dumped by Olivia Munn so we have to let him off the hook for this one. I'm sure there are other hot yet incredibly unfunny women out there for him.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Milan Michalek - one goal.
2-Jason Spezza - two goals.
1-Craig Anderson - 34 saves.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Kyle Turris - Michalek may be an All Star and he did have that nice goal but Turris was more of a consistent threat. It appears that the deal for Rundblad and a second wasn't as lopsided as it seemed.
2-Karlsson - Talked to some of the Senators' staff yesterday and they said silky Swede has simplified his game. While biased, they were right - he doesn't do anything fancy in his own end and still has that ice sight on attack.
1-Spezza - Spezza was the game-breaking talent Brad Richards was supposed to be, but he came in with heart intact and he came to play.

27-9-4: The King Carries On

2012-01-11T03:31:00.003-05:00

The Rangers edged out the Coyotes on Tuesday night in the Garden, winning 2-1 in a shootout. It was remarkable: despite facing a talent-lacking team like the Desert Dogs, the Blueshirts needed to receive heroics from the King time and time again to escape utter embarrassment.

And to escape with two points? A minor miracle. The Rangers are the top team in the NHL but they are far from the best. As mentioned, the King was often relied upon to save the castle as his serfs scrambled to keep up with their less-skilled but harder-working opponents. Hank made 18 saves in regulation and three more in the shootout and most-every one was impressive. How he hasn't entered some Hart Trophy conversations is inexcusable. There has been no single player more valuable to his team in the NHL to date.

Phoenix is in the lower half of the Western Conference and likely would be in the basement if not for the stellar coaching of Dave Tippett. As Mr. X From The Blue Seats observed, the former Hartford Whaler has his team playing like he did - talent-free but forever hustling and intelligent. They grind the way he did and they are defensively responsible the way he was.

The Coyotes choked the life out of the Rangers but the Rangers still won the game. That has been the truth of this season so far: no matter how bad they are for long stretches, no matter how many mistakes they make and no matter how often they've had to rely on majestic netminding, the Rangers still managed to win the game. Remarkable.

Late Hits:

*What, no tribute video for Michal Rozsival?

*A couple of years ago this evening would have ended in regulation after Hank gave up a soft goal. Lundqvist and Benoit Allaire appear to have taken that largely out of the King's game and it is what is keeping the Rangers atop the table.

*The Rangers top two lines were all-but-invisible, negated by their hard-hatted opponents. Phoenix's defensive acumen kept the New York attack away from the many rebounds of Mike Smith and, in the process, making Smith look like Patrick Roy - quite the impressive feat. With Tampa two seasons ago he had a GAA over three and last season he had a save percentage below 90 but this season he actually looks like the player Tampa hoped they were getting when they traded away Brad Richard$.

*Was the penalty shot call in overtime the NHL's way of saying 'our bad' on the penalty shot in the Winter Classic? Gabby simply stopped playing the puck when he was 'hooked' by Adrian Aucoin (looked like a slash to me, if anything). Too bad the Slovakian Slacker took the easy way out after deking Smith on the ensuing penalty shot - had he not half-assed his wrister the game wouldn't have had to go to the shootout. At least he gained some redemption there, eh?

*Ranger fans, STOP THE POTVIN SUCKS WHISTLES!!! I mean, seriously, stop it. I know for many folks these are their first games at the Garden in years and they want to feel like they are still fans but doing the whistle and chant a dozen times in a game against the Phoenix-freaking-Coyotes is not only annoying but just plain stupid.

*Radim Vrbata has some sick hands. Wow. They were so impressive that four Rangers stopped to watch him shoot the game-tying goal.

*I would love to see Carl Hagelin race Oliver Ekman-Larsson. May have mentioned that before but, seriously, what an exhibition of speed that would be. Young Carl powered down the wing several times and OEL showed off his wheels in overtime. The defenseman took two maybe three strides and ended up ahead of all of his linemates (going offsides). They might even be faster than Mike Gartner. Gartner at 52 years old, not Gartner in his prime. No one can be that fast.

*Mike Rupp fighting Biz Nasty was totally pointless. Sam said it might have had some carry-over from the first matchup of the two teams but I don't recall any incidents in the 0.1 game needing resolution, other than the justification of Biz Nasty's presence in the NHL.

*Prust had one of his best games in weeks. The Rangers can definitely use his skill set with the schedule they have ahead.

*Stu Bickel was on for just one shift in the third period - the one the Rangers scored on. Not sure what was wrong with him or with his coach but it was interesting to see Staal back out on the ice with Girardi. Sadly he is still not yet the Staal of old but we're slowly getting there. A full return to form and a Sauer resurrection would really be something ...

*Multiple Del Zastrous moments in the first period but he blissfully became a non-factor the rest of the night.

*While Boyle was not directly screening Smith on the Feds goal, he had just crossed in front of the crease. Boyle may be snakebitten or he may just not be very good but he has to at least use that freakish size of his for something other than filling out his sweater.

*Really would have loved an all-access 24/7 to hear what Dubi was yelling at Langkow. I mean, Daymond Langkow. Really?

*Seemed like an awful lot of broken sticks for the Coyotes, right?

*Interesting: on the day where Torts says he may send Wolski and Christensen to the AHL to get some games in, John Mitchell blows his attempt in the shootout.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Mike Smith - 31 saves.
2-Derek Stepan - Shootout gwg.
1-Henrik Lundqvist - 18 saves.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Fedotenko - Even before he scored Feds was having a great game.
2-Vrbata - Did I mention he has sick hands? Because he does. Game-tying goal and an incredible shootout goal gets him a star.
1-Hank - Just give him the Hart now.

26-9-4: The King Clubs The Penguins

2012-01-07T04:14:00.001-05:00

The Pittsburgh Penguins were without their superstar on Friday night but thankfully the very best of the Blueshirts was in attendance. Henrik Lundqvist made 37 saves to shut down the Crosby-less waddlers in their own building, with only one shot slipping through his diligent guard.

As my friend Interface Eric txted, "No Crosbaby = no tilted ice. Refreshing." After all of those games in Pittsburgh where the team was automatically behind the eight ball, it was nice not to spend the game shorthanded - even if it seemed that way at times. The Rangers were outclassed at the outset and through several stretches of the second and third periods.

And yet, they won. Again.

This one took a stellar effort from the King and one of Tortorella's typical time-out tantrums. After Lovejoy danced into the slot and slid the puck through Hank's legs, Torts asked for his break and went on a rant. It tightened up the team a bit, enough that the game didn't spiral out of control and eventually they were able to tie it up and go on to take the lead. It has been a worry for a while - that the horses will tire of the whip - but it is working now so let's just hope it lasts.

Late Hits:

*Think James Neal is going to have nightmares of Henrik's glove or what?

*Hank was his Vezina self but it certainly also helped that 13 of the 18 skaters recorded blocked shots. Remarkably Prust and Boyle were two of the five that did not get credited with a single block.

*Was that Cally to Dubi shortie sexy or what?

*Many are raving about the Richards signing now but now I, at least not yet. My criteria remains a Cup within the first three seasons of his deal, nothing less. Was he dominant in the faceoff circle? Did he score the all-important game-tying goal? Yes. But a guy of his stature is supposed to have some small successes. It is the big one that I want.

*Kneeing? Really? The refs called Mike F-ing Rupp for kneeing on his collision with Jordan Staal. Let's face it, that was not kneeing. That was an exhibition of Rupp's low level of skating ability.

*Our Staal? Not yet back to being our Staal again. Marc's timing and positioning are still off, as expected. Not sure how much chemistry he has with Stuuuuuuu Bickel too but with Marc saying how Stuuuuuuuu's chatter has been helpful, the pairing will stick for the near future.

*Wasn't happy with Del Zaster - as per usual - and was largely disappointed by McD. The former Badger made a good play getting the puck on net on the Richards goal but he just doesn't seem to be the same player that he was earlier this season. Perhaps Marc's continuing improvement and growing minutes will help McD return to form.

*Step and Arty both had their best games in the last little while. Step struck for his second goal in his last 12 games, getting the gimme goal after Gabby hit the post on Fleury's fan. Arty extended an eight game goal drought but he was still involved and even hit the iron once.

*John Mitchell has quietly been quite the solid citizen. I thought acquiring him was a good deal when it happened but for Hartford's sake, certainly not Broadway's. That being said, saddling him with Prust and Rupp limits his potential impact - we saw how good he could be when he first came up, skating alongside Young Carl.

*Wow the Penguins broadcasters are awful - it was like two Micheletti's in the booth at once. Just awful.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Ben Lovejoy - one goal.
2-Brandon Dubinsky - one goal and one assist.
1-Henrik Lundqvist - 37 saves.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Dubi - He is definitely rounding into form, showing that hard work and determination pays off.
2-Richards - You need to win faceoffs to control the game and he won 18 of 23. He got lucky that McD's shot ricocheted off of Dubi over to him but he was in the right spot at the right time - and it was on a play that he started with a successful draw.
1-Henke - Sabres netminder Jhonas Enroth tweeted it during the Winter Classic - "#givehimthevezinaallready!!!"

25-9-4: Finishing Up With Florida

2012-01-06T05:52:00.001-05:00

The old adage is that it "isn't how you start but how you finish." On Thursday night it held true as the Rangers survived yet another lackluster opening to come back and beat the Florida Panthers 3-2 in overtime.

It was quite nice to collect the team's eighth win in the last nine games but "isn't how you start but how you finish." It was the fourth and final match against Florida, and the Rangers third win. The Blueshirts still have five games against the Penguins, four against the Bruins and two against the Blackhawks left in their schedule and you'd better believe that those teams are on a different level than the piecemeal Panthers. They aren't going to relinquish their leads like the kitty cats did on this day. (Yes, I know Chicago blew two one-goal advantages against Philadelphia tonight but it was Ray Emery returning to Philly, he is 6-1 career vs. the Rangers.)

If the Blueshirts can combine their resolve to never say die with a good jump at the outset, then perhaps in June we won't be reminiscing about the team's good start but celebrating it's Stanley Cup finish.

Just a few Late Hits as the team plays the Pens in a few hours:

*Anyone else get reeeeaal nervous when Carl Hagelin went down? The kid looked like cracked a collar bone or something. And yet he bounced right back. Swedish engineering, bork bork bork.

*Arty did not put together a particularly good game. It was his sixth straight pointless performance and he was all over the ice. A bad stick-check set Florida off on the two-on-one break that resulted in the game-opening goal and things did not get much better.

*Actually liked Mike F-ing Rupp standing atop the crease on the power play. That being said, after scoring the two in Philly, he blew a gimme of a goal in the first. It would have been interesting to see how he fared against Barch.

*Happy to see Anton Stralman collect his first goal as a Ranger but he gave it back by letting Santorelli step right past him five minutes into the third. But at least he tried to get his stick on him to make up for being caught flatfooted, Del Zaster was lost in no man's land - giving the guy room and time to shoot.

*Sure that goal should have been stopped by Biron but it is further evidence that Del Zaster doesn't know how to play his position. Another Panther was sliding behind him and he just got stuck in the middle. Perhaps it was evidence of uncertainty in his own end, a lack of determination in decision making or something. The kid has to learn not to get caught like that.

*It was a bit like what happened to Florida in overtime. Step cut through to disrupt their defense, making room for Gabby to get off his game-winning shot. The Panther defenders were sliding backwards, allowing the Slovakian sniper to move into a good position to beat Clemmensen.

*Marc Staal got caught as the lone man back on the two on one and he looked like a squirrel trying to cross a road. He still has a ways to go to get back his game form.

*The Rangers were credited with 50 hits. They were wonderfully aggressive at times but 50 hits? Really?

*Neither Dubi nor Prust scored but both had quite solid games.

*Sam Rosen said that Boston went ahead of Calgary 9-0. Joe Micheletti replied that the Bruins should go for the extra point. Sam had to tapdance and say that the B's hit a field goal early in the game. Good to see that Joe knows about as much about football as he does hockey.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Scott Clemmensen - 38 saves.
2-Brad Richards - one assist. (Really? He won 10 of 22 faceoffs and his assist was a soft shot that deflected in off of Cally's leg.)
1-Marian Gaborik - one goal.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Fedotenko - It was the Ukranian's forecheck that got Stralman the puck for his first NYR goal. After many a game of uselessness, this one one of Feds' better nights this year.
2-Mikael Samuelsson - The former Ranger was a consistent threat. He is like Radek Dvorak (now on Dallas), a guy who made a career of being a semi-regular contributor while being defensively competent.
1-Cally - As mentioned above, Richards got his assist when the puck went off of Callahan's leg and went in. You know how it did that? The captain was paying the price to stand in the slot; he leads by example.

24-9-4: Classic Classic

2012-01-03T01:15:00.001-05:00

It is getting to the point where it is nearly impossible to ignore the position of the Rangers in the standings. The fact of the matter is that the Blueshirts are in first place. First. Having watched every second of every game that fact is virtually unfathomable. The team is flawed in several major areas, it has been battling crippling injuries and it has yet to play a full 60 minutes this season.

The Winter Classic in Philadelphia was a microcosm of the season to date because all of that was on display under the open sky in Citizens Bank Park. And yet - as they have been doing all season so far - they pulled out a win. And ya know what? It was delightful. Two periods of atrocious, inexcusable drek wiped away by one well-played frame where the guys nearly reached their potential. Simple north-south, hard working, hard hitting, relentless hockey is this team's bread and butter and it is wonderful to watch. To have seen it working after being surrounded by swirling snow, well that was classic.

Late Hits:

*Mike F-ing Rupp. Can you believe it? Two goals from Mike F-ing Rupp. I've been chirping the guy on Twitter of late, saying he was just as irrelevant as Jody Shelley and he scores not once but twice. Just as shocking was that he mocked Jaromir Jagr with a salute after the first goal and instead of giving him a beating, the Flyers let him score again.

*I laughed hysterically when the second one went in before delighting in the moment - who in the world could have guessed Mike F-ing Rupp would score twice in the biggest game of the year? His first goal, however, was even better, because it brought the snow, as seconds later the first flakes drifted down into the stands. After basking in the wonder of the snowstorm in Buffalo and the flurries during Frozen Fenway, it was awesome to experience it again - it definitely adds to the awesomeness.

*Also awesome? Fireworks after a Ranger win in Philadelphia. You have to wonder what the hell was the NHL thinking ...

*Also questionable? Saving Kate Smith/Lauren Hart's rendition of "God Bless America" for an intermission, instead of starting the game with it. The game was in Philly and that is something inherent to Flyer hockey. Why do the anthems? And, if they did insist on saving Kate for the Broad Street Bullies tribute and bring out old Patti LaBelle for the Star-Spangled Banner, why do the Canadian anthem? There were two American teams playing. Was it some kind of pittance for our friends north of the border who won't get to experience an outdoor game thus year?

*And did the league want the Flyers to get a chance to tie things up or what? I can't imagine a first time viewer of hockey not thinking the sport was fixed after watching that - even though the calls were both legitimate penalties.

*Live by the sword, die by the sword. Del Zaster has been picking up points by jumping into the play in the offensive zone. So he tried it in this one and got caught. Claude Giroux came down and scored to make it a 2-0 game. It happens. MDZ was not particularly good in this one but he was not nearly as bad as Ryan McDonagh.

*All of the extra minutes have clearly cost McD as he has not been his sharpest in the last few weeks and he was horrid here, at least until the end. The defenseman made up for all of his earlier mistakes by scooping the puck out of the crease with 20 seconds left in the third period. Sure it brought about Briere's penalty shot but it stopped a sure goal against; I will put the game on Henrik Lundqvist's shoulders any day.

*Hopefully Marc Staal can get his mojo back to take some of the time and pressure away from McD. It was shocking to hear that he was dressed and it was sad to watch him play because "rusty" would be an understatement. Everyone was happy to see him step out onto the ice but it was nerve-racking to watch him go to the wall and take contact. No one wants a Crosby situation to occur with the team's best defender.

*The Roots? Not really hockey music.

*Best line overheard walking out of the ballpark? "At least we won the alumni game."

*Worst line overheard walking out of the ballpark? "Go back to Jew York Ezekiel!" screamed by a drunk Flyer fan at a Ranger fan.

*That idiot aside, the Flyer fans that I saw were largely well behaved, even boring. The pockets of Ranger fans around the stadium started more chants and were largely louder than the home fans. We travel well.

*It is hard enough to follow a hockey puck from the upper deck of a ballpark but to have NBC's cable camera constantly drifting through the line of sight was horribly distracting.

*I paid $85 for a sweatshirt. A sweatshirt. Tees were $40. Yep.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Claude Giroux - one goal.
2-Henrik Lundqvist - 34 saves.
1-Michael Rupp - two goals.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Brayden Schenn - The kid collected his first NHL goal and won a ton of faceoffs. He's still not worth Mike Richards but perhaps he will grow into a real player.
2-Rupp - Mike F-ing Rupp. Seriously. Wow.
1-Hank - If he doesn't make all of those glove saves then Rupp's two goals would have been about three short of tying things up. And to think that high glove side was the King's weakness not too long ago ... great work by Benoit Allaire.

23-9-4: Success In Sunrise

2011-12-31T05:20:00.001-05:00

The Blueshirts closed out their 2011 schedule with a solid 4-1 win over the patchwork Panthers on Friday night. The Florida Island of Misfit Toys has been quite surprising this season in seizing the top spot in the Southleast Division. That being said, they were not particularly good in this game. And that is more than ok for us, as we were able to watch the Rangers do what they had to do to win. The Rangers worked hard enough to get the good bounces, they avoided injuries and thus can skate into Philadelphia on a good note.

And that is all that matters, given all of the hype around the upcoming game. The Winter Classic spectacle has been a major distraction this team doesn't need and the sooner it is over, the better. But before then, some Late Hits on this one:

*You have to wonder if John Tortorella wanted the game to end the way it did - with fists flying. What other reason could there be for him to put his neanderthals on the ice in the final minute, against Florida's top line, up 4-1, with an empty net at the other end? Brian Boyle hasn't scored in forever, why wouldn't Torts give him a shot at scoring? I think it was that Torts wanted to send some kind of message, one that was sent - our guys can cheap shot yours because our tough guys will beat the snot out of you if you retaliate ... at least that was the message I got. Del Zaster inexplicably hit Kopecky with two high crosschecks, got his comeuppance and went down like a ton of bricks. (Who knew he had a glass jaw?) But as he saw stars Rupp and Prust came over to justify their paycheques and Rupp ended up pummeling a Slovakian with two career fights. Bet Rupp felt real tough afterwards. Had DZ fought back it would have been fine - hell, I would have given the kid credit for standing up for himself - but Rupp destroying Kopecky was just ridiculous, the exact nonsense that justifies the NHL's idiotic instigator rule.

Just a quick break for an explanation: personally I love stuff like this: you hit our guy, we don't just hit you - we end you. If I am Kevin Dineen, next Thursday I send Krys Barch to injure Gaborik, Richards or Lundqvist - probably Lundqvist because Barch can't skate well enough to get a mobile target. But eye-for-an-eye isn't reality anymore. As I am reminded constantly, this is the New NHL, the softer NHL where proper justice (and good hard, highlight-reel checking) is outlawed. And thus I feel forced to take this position as these actions don't help the team. If you think they do in the form of camaraderie, then how come Hank was bumped without retribution a few times?

*That being said, the Rangers may have dodged a bullet as Rupp was given a fighting major and a game misconduct but not the instigator he deserved. Had he been tagged with the instigator - one inside the final five minutes of the game - he would receive an automatic suspension. (Only Geno Malkin has been able to get off the hook on a call like that, because he was helping Crosby get a Cup.) Rupp would have had to miss the Winter Classic. Instead he can keep being the kettle calling the pot black by saying Jody Shelley is "fucking irrelevant."

*MSG cleverly cut into the best tight replay just in time for the sucker punch (1:18 of this) - even on the next view, you don't get a clear shot of the point of contact on DZ's hit, making Kopecky's punch look that much more egregious.

*I mentioned Prust having to justify his paycheque by fighting and am very, very sad to have to say it - he is a shadow of the player he was last season. He is getting almost two minutes less ice time per game and his skills have clearly deteriorated - he had a nice little break and missed the net from five feet away. Perhaps the offseason shoulder surgery did not work, perhaps he just re-injured it in his fight against Barch earlier this season. He is not the same threat he was.

*Happier thoughts: bork! bork! bork! Carl Hagelin had a magnificent re-direction of Ryan Callahan's no-look feed for the first goal of the game. It was amazing. And the Swede showed off his speed time and time again throughout the evening. Absolutely love this kid.

*Richards' and Del Zaster's goals were both from lucky bounces. Jeff Woywitka made an absolutely terrible pass right up the middle but Tim Kennedy botched the steal, allowing it to get over to Richards. DZ's shot went off of Matt Bradley's leg. Both goals were still savable but it was not Scott Clemmensen's night. There won't be too many soft goals against the Panthers once Jacob Markstrom is given the starting job.

*But even Markstrom would have had a tough time stopping Dubi. Dubinsky's goal was outstanding; has he gotten his game together or what? Dubi held off Kris Versteeg, skated into the slot and sank a backhand into the back of the Florida net while falling. What a wonderful goal.

*Interesting stat - Gabby saw just 13:45 in icetime, his second lowest this season. The lowest was 13:34, which came against the very same Florida Panthers team. Wonder what Torts sees in the Cats that he feels he needs to hide his Slovakian sniper.

*Jason Garrison's shot is scary good. This guy really came out of nowhere and is a Sheldon Souray in his prime-type threat.

*The decision to waive Sean Avery has nothing to do with on-ice ability. You can't convince me that Ruslan Fedotenko - at this point in his career - is more capable than Avery in anything. Fedotenko is adding close to nothing out there night after night. And I like Feds, he has been a good soldier, but he doesn't add the intangibles that Avery does. Feds rarely helps this team win, he just helps it not lose.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Matt Bradley - one goal.
2-Henrik Lundqvist - 27 saves.
1-Brad Richards - one goal and one assist.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Hank - Ho hum, another solid effort by the King.
2-Hagelin - Red Berenson really did a terrific job molding this kid into a player, taking the natural ability and teaching him how to use his talents to create offense while being defensively responsible.
1-Richards - You'd think he was comfortable playing in south Florida or something ... that was a helluva pass to Del Zaster.

22-9-4: Power-less Play

2011-12-28T23:46:00.000-05:00

As disappointing a team as there is in the NHL this season, the Washington Capitals were led by as disappointing a talent as there is in the NHL this season on Wednesday night. Alex Semin struck for two goals to help the Caps beat the Rangers 4-1. But it was another massive disappointment that doomed the Rangers - their power play.

The man advantage proved to be no advantage at all, as the Ranger power play blew five opportunities. It is mired in a 1-21 slump that it shows no signs of stopping. The guys are being too cute, they are taking too much time with the puck, they are looking for the perfect play. You'd think Perry Pearn was still behind the bench. It is true that they did score once, but it was clearly kicked in by Captain Callahan and thus waved off - it was their best chance too. By comparison, they were shorthanded twice in this game and got two golden opportunities to score shorthanded. Shorthanded the team is forced to make quick decisions, to play the puck off the rush and go to the net before bugging out of the zone. The lesson we all were taught when younger would serve the Ranger power play well - KISS, Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Late Hits:

*Tomas Vokoun hadn't started in six games and the Blueshirts let him off the hook. There were few guys crashing the net, few guys getting in his face, few guys getting to rebounds ... all things the Caps did to Biron.

*Hard to play against Alex Ovechkin and not miss Marc Staal but the Blueshirts were largely able to contain Alex the Great - partially because of their hard work, partially because Ovie is not the same superstar he once was. The tireless relentlessness that made him the best player in the NHL is now sporadic at best. It got his last coach fired and is clearly frustrating his current one.

*The Rangers top offensive talent were just as frustrating. Marian Gaborik allowed himself to be shoved out to the perimeter while Brad Richard$ had one of his worst games to date. Not only did he have the utterly egregious turnover that led to the first Semin goal but Richard$ saw 8:21 of power play time and was utterly ineffective.

*As I tweeted, Ryan Callahan is everything we hoped Chris Drury would be. A true warrior who goes not only to the wall but through it to get the job done. From blocking shot after shot (after shot after shot) to taking on DC's John Erskine, Captain Cally did it all. It was his selflessness that set up the Rangers' lone goal - a good block sent the puck up the ice and Dubi finished with a superb snipe. With four points in his last four games, things are finally getting better for Dubi.

*Neither Brandon Prust nor Mike Rupp made John Erskine pay for roughing up Callahan. However, they did both draw power plays only to watch the so-called skill guys piss them away.

*Always maintained that Arty Anisimov could be a great player if he could ever get his head together and gain some confidence. Much to my surprise, this season he definitely has started doing both. The best part is not his offense but his improvement away from the puck, which he showed several times tonight.

*On the other side of it is Del Zaster. On the first goal against he turned the puck over to Johansson, stepped away from Jeff Halpern to - in theory - stay with his man (Johansson) and then proceeded to stop and watch the puck, which allowed Johansson to skate deep and score on the rebound of Halpern's shot. It is fundamental mistakes like that I find unforgivable. Sure he is only 21 but this was the 162nd game of his NHL career. Almost two full seasons of experience and still he gives up on his coverage to watch the play, and that is why he is a pariah in these pages. He settled down after the goal but still missed several chances to clear the zone when the Rangers were in trouble and lost battles along the boards. DZ has it in him to be a Sergei Zubov but what made Zubi so valuable was as much his passing as his ability in his own end. Still wish we drafted John Carlson instead.

*The assist gave Halpern 20 points in 34 career games against the Rangers, a stat that I found quite surprising. Jeff Halpern? Really?

*Another blown coverage helped Washington score their second goal. Dan Girardi watched Troy Brouwer curl around the net, then McD turned and saw the Capital standing there. Neither one bothered to hit the guy, allowing him to screen Biron and tip John Carlson's shot in to break the 1-all tie. Guess the Rangers really missed Kurt Sauer - couldn't believe Eddie O made that mistake. But he was still far, far, far, far, far, far better than Joe Micheletti.

*While getting on the announcing, is it Step-an, Step-ahn, Step-in or what? Doc seemingly couldn't decide.

*There is no way that Jeff Woywitka could ever, ever beat Alex Semin in a race but it just wasn't happening when the guy is coming off of a bruised foot. His partner Stu Bickel (STUUUUU) had a bad turnover and no physical presence - he has to be better if he is going to keep his job in the big leagues. Anton Stralman looked pretty good though, blowing away all expectations.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Troy Brouwer - one goal and one assist.
2-Alex Ovechkin - two assists.
1-Alex Semin - two goals.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Brooks Laich - Handily kept the Rangers to the outside on the kill.
2-Semin - Amazing how good he can be once in a blue moon.
1-Brouwer - Like a young Mike Knuble out there ...

22-8-4: Two Points

2011-12-27T11:48:00.004-05:00

Monday night's match between the Rangers and the Islanders was largely lifeless and dull. The Blueshirts were outworked most of the night, pinned in their endzone time and time again and terrible with the man advantage. It was not pretty. But it was two points.

The Rangers managed to get just two pucks past Evgeni Nabokov, a guy who left all of his ability in San Jose. They barely challenged him, putting shot after shot after shot into the round logo on his chest. They didn't just play down to the level of their opponents, they played below it. It was not pretty. But it was two points.

Late Hits:

*Henrik Lundqvist made his case for the Vezina and Hart trophies in this one. Hank was left utterly alone as the inept, exhausted players in front of him were steps slow covering the more-active Islanders. Torts inexplicably kept matching the Boyle line to the Tavares unit even though they couldn't keep up and were left standing around their own end. And yet the King came through with a shutout. All hail.

*Wouldn't be shocked to find out that Prust had re-injured his shoulder in that fight against Krys Barch a few weeks back. He has not been the same player he used to be, definitely not the guy who scored five shorties last season. It is hard to take his grit and determination out of the lineup but perhaps he needs a real break to fix his wing.

*No one kills Ranger power plays like the Rangers.

*Anton Stralman is +10 in his last six games, so clearly he is deserving of massive accolades. After all, everyone is heaping praise over that one-way Del Zaster of a defenseman who plays alongside him. DZ is just atrocious in his own end - I mean, at least he isn't passing directly to the opposition anymore but he continues to get beaten in footraces and board battles.

*That being said, as my buddy Eric pointed out, the Rangers were beaten in board battles all night long (all night).

*I do give Del Zaster credit where it is due and it is certainly due for his feed to Hagelin for the second Ranger goal. It was a fantastic give-and-go with Callahan that left the Swede open in the slot for the one-timer. A truly beautiful play. His schoolyard toe-drag earlier was ridiculous but the puck ended up in the net thanks to Cally, who crashed the net to get the rebound off of Nabby's chest.

*Disappointing crowd at the Garden. Multiple times over the night you could hear the players yelling from the upper reaches of the 300s. For a packed house, it was pretty dead in there ... at least until the fan fight down in 113. That Garden roared for that but, from my vantage point, it looked like a bout between Ranger fans - utterly unacceptable when there were so many idiots in orange around.

*The crowd did manage a pair of chants for Sean Avery though. After such a torpid display by the Blueshirts, we were begging for the sparkplug player - even up 2-0.

*Instead of Avery we had Mike Rupp lumbering around like Frankenstein's monster for eight minutes (more than Avery got in 10 of his 15 starts). Seeing Rupp too tired to move in the Ranger end during one Islander push was just pathetic. And he was a real deterrent out there, he really stopped Michael Haley from giving Bickel a black eye.

*Haley is one of the one-dimensional goons who has no place in the NHL. The neanderthal jumped Stu Bickel two minutes into the game, pounding the Ranger defenseman. The only possible cause I can imagine would be the Wallace incident where Bickel beat on him before he could get his visor off - but if that was the case, why didn't Wallace take care of business himself? It is not like he is some kind of skill player who is better served being on the ice than in the box. He is a coward, just like Haley. Guys like Haley just keep giving ammunition to the pacifists and we all will wake up one day with a fighting and checking-free NHL. Terrible. Four seconds of ice time, 17 minutes in penalties.

*I said 'checking-free' because these players are intentionally positioning themselves where if they get hit, there will be a penalty. Frans Neilsen did it several times, once with Ryan Callahan all over him. Neilsen faced the boards and kept his numbers straight back so the second there would be any contact, he could have drawn a boarding call. It is as much a disgrace to this game as Haley's animal antics.

*If that was the quality of the ice after one NBA game, we will be completely screwed for the rest of the season. The puck took several bad hops and there were guys tripping all over the place - although Nabby taking a tumble was chuckle-worthy.

*Hmm, rewatching the game right now and Sam just pointed out that McDonagh hasn't played a full season worth of games yet - a stat I pointed out the other day. That combined with his usage of my Prust stat leads me to believe that someone is ripping me off without giving credit ...

*PHW Three Stars
3-Michael Del Zotto - two assists.
2-Carl Hagelin - two goals.
1-Henrik Lundqvist - 28 saves.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Bork Bork Bork - Hagelin was in the right place at the right time to collect two more goals. Definitely had high hopes when he got called up and he has even surpassed those expectations.
2-Cally - The captain saw just 13 minutes of ice time (interestingly none on the PK) but he made them count. Callahan came to Girardi's aid after the defenseman was jumped when Tavares took that dive, and he collected assists on both Hagelin goals.
1-Hank - The King protected the Kingdom yet again. With the injuries to Staal and Sauer, there truly isn't another player in the entire league who has been more valuable to his team.

I Live For This

2011-12-25T17:18:00.000-05:00

Santa Scotty 2012

2011-12-25T00:49:00.000-05:00

So the NHL took tonight and tomorrow night off for Christmas (even though they didn't take off for Hannukah or Kwanzaa; tsk, tsk, how unpolitically correct). In the giving spirit, Santa Scotty is going to go around and bring presents to the Rangers ...

Forwards

#42 Artem Anisimov: An official Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot Range Model air rifle and a dvd of Enemy at the Gates.

#16 Sean Avery: A better ending to the story of his Ranger career then the one we are heading towards.

#22 Brian Boyle: Boxing lessons and pajamas.

#24 Ryan Callahan: More padding because every time he blocks a puck he risks yet another injury.

#40 Erik Christensen: A bus ticket out of town and a door to hit him on the ass on the way out.

#17 Brandon Dubinsky: A pet weasel named Shelley.

#26 Ruslan Fedotenko: Some ice for that face of his right now.

#10 Marian Gaborik: Rocket Richard Trophy.

#62 Carl Hagelin: A good nickname. With Ryan Bourque coming, the Swedish Chef's 'Bork bork bork' won't hold. Friend of the blog Andrea uses Shaggy Haggy but what if he cuts those blonde locks off?

#34 John Mitchell: I'd say Mitch has already received his gift because he is playing on Broadway.

#8 Brandon Prust: A healed shoulder, because it is clearly not 100%.

#19 Brad Richards: A big mattress to keep all of his money under.

#71 Mike Rupp: Whatever it was he had when he scored that hat trick against us way back when.

#21 Derek Stepan: His college degree. Really appreciate all he has done since leaving Wisconsin after his sophomore season but a degree is good to have.

#86 Wojtek Wolski: A nice cabin with a hot tub he can retire to. Immediately.

#36 Mats Zuccarello: A willingness to shoot the puck so he can get a NHL job again.

Defensemen

#41 Stu Bickel: More of whatever he is on now because whatever it is is working.

#4 Michael Del Zotto: A clue in the defensive end.

#44 Steve Eminger: A copy of the Mask to watch while recuperating. Get it? "It wasn't me! It was the one-armed man!"

#53 Tim Erixon: About 10, 15 more pounds of muscle and two more seasons of experience.

#5 Dan Girardi: A one-timer as good as his son's.

#27 Ryan McDonagh: A luckier sweater. Ok, that is sorta for me because I'm pissed that my Whale McD jersey mushed him the one time I wore it to the Garden.

#38 Michael Sauer: A chin strap on his helmet so it doesn't pop off next time.

#18 Marc Staal: Just a little patience - this talk about coming back for the Classic is ridiculous.

#32 Anton Stralman: A tape of Christian Backman's play so he knows what not to do.

#6 Jeff Woywitka: Another job as his will disappear once Eminger gets back. Especially as Stu is here to stay! (I hope.)

Goaltenders

#43 Marty Biron: Continued dominance over the Islanders, because that was awesome.

#30 Henrik Lundqvist: Seriously, this guy has it all - he can get gifts for everyone else.

And to all of you: Kind wishes during this holiday season for health, happiness and good hockey!!

21-8-4: Happy Holidays

2011-12-24T04:30:00.000-05:00

Wherever he is, Chris Drury can rest assured that the members of his former franchise will have a happy holiday completely unruined by the taint of on-ice disappointment. On Friday the Rangers headed into the Christmas break on a high note by beating the Philadelphia Flyers 4-2 at the Garden.

The win pushed the team into first place of the Atlantic Division, a position unseen since the very start of the 2008-09 season I believe. These are merry times at MSG to be sure but the job is far, far, far away from being finished. It's time to have a happy holiday but that is it, there are still 49 games to go - more than half the season - and an awful lot can happen.

Late Hits:

*Jaromir Jagr. BOOOOOOOOOOOO. It was surprising to hear the entire building boo the former Blueshirt, at least at the outset. And not even a montage during a commercial break to commemorate the former captain's NY career?

*Carl Hagelin has been incredible. Bork bork bork. As we have seen for years the Ranger franchise has had trouble trusting young forwards and yet there Hagelin is, playing in every situation and playing well. He has been making mistakes but his hard work and superhuman skating has allowed him to limit the implications of those errors. A question was posed tonight "who was the last forward to be called up from the minors who had this kind of impact?" Dubi and Cally certainly weren't as valuable as quickly. Doug Weight maybe?

*Del Zaster did every thing he could to get the Flyers back into the game late in the third period but they couldn't uphold their end of the bargain. He lost the puck in his own feet, he turned it over a few times, he blew his coverage and his inability to clear the puck allowed the Flyers to break Hank's hard-fought shutout bid. DZ carries the puck well up ice, to be sure, but in the Ranger end he simply knifes it (as Doc Emeric would say) - jabbing his stick at it like it is a bee hive or something. But he had two more assists (both secondary by the way) and was a +2 so his many defenders will ignore his utter atrocious work in his own end and rave about him some more.

*But, seeing as DZ is in the same breath as Leetch and Orr, then Stu Bickel also must be etching his name into the Norris Trophy as well. Three games, four assists, +4. Lidstrom who? But seriously Bickel has had a heck of a run since getting the call from Hartford, doing everything asked of him - defensive responsibility, smart first passes and physical play. Jeff Woywitka's impending return should very well force Tim Erixon back down to the Whale, because sending down Bickel is unthinkable given his current run. Truly hope he can keep it up and keep his place with the big club.

*And what a deflection by Derek Stepan to score the first goal of the game. Stu's shot was going wide but Stepan went all Little League to get his ~~bat on the ball~~ stick on the puck. It was one heck of a hit.

*Seriously, what is running through the Rangers' heads when they get a two-man advantage? Given how they consistently screw the five-on-threes up, one would have to imagine that it is something like 'oh, yay, more time to be cute!' Cally's incredible goal aside, the power play has got to be better for this team to have sustained success.

*Early in the game the power play was struggling because there were two and at times three players below the goal line with no one in front of the crease. Captain Cally collected his PPG by doing what? Going right to the front of the crease.

*Television stations have assigned times to go to break and they need to fit the commercial inventory into the span of the hockey game but how could MSG hustle to break when Fedotenko's redirection was being reviewed? I saw the orange light go on and was shocked, feeling bad for the people at home. The folks in the Garden were of course kept from the replays until the judgement was made but the guys in the booth let the fans below them know it was indeed a good goal and the crowd began to roar.

*Funny moment in the first period: Rangers are down in shots 6-0 and then hit the crossbar. The puck comes out to center ice and they were given a shot on the scoreboard. The puck goes into their own end and they were awarded two more. So apparently hitting the iron once, which technically doesn't count as a shot on goal, counts as three regular shots. Ok then.

*Brandon Prust tangled with Marc-Andre Bourdon (who beat on Sean Avery earlier this year in the AHL). Prust clearly won the bout with a few late big rights but the highlight was him walking to the locker room high-fiving a kid. Seriously, he just destroyed his hands on Bourdon's helmet and visor but he still high-fived a kid. Awesomeness.

*Brian Boyle can't score, he can hardly pass, he is mediocre in the faceoff circle and he sure as hell can't fight. So what good is he? Aside from getting the ladies turned on by being naked on 24/7 ...

*Hey Mike Rupp, thanks for nothing!

*In the Isles wrap I pointed out that Fedotenko had no points in nine games. And then tonight he tipped in the Rangers' second goal on a good Stuuuuu shot. Hard work pays off kids.

*Nothing like taunting the opposing team with a "First Place!" chant only to have them score. Whoops.

*Have no problem admitting that I was wrong about John Mitchell. The former Leaf has really looked like a solid citizen so far this season.

*More Flyer fans than there were Islander fans the night before. Man are the Fishermen pathetic.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Brandon Dubinsky - one assist.
2-Stu Bickel - two assists.
1-Henrik Lundqvist - 28 saves.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Cally - The Captain came through with a big goal to give the Ranges some breathing room.
2-Stuuuuuu - A half dozen hits and two shots that ended up in the back of the Flyer net. Not bad work for a guy who was in the ECHL not too long ago.
1-McD - Sure he needs to learn when to just shoot the puck and not try for a fancy pass but McDonagh was all over the ice in the this one.

20-8-4: Beating The Isles Is Always Awesome

2011-12-23T12:31:00.000-05:00

You know, defeating the Islanders never gets old. The latest edition of the rivalry saw the Blueshirts beat the Fishermen 4-2 at the Garden Thursday night.

It was not a convincing victory but it was a victory nonetheless. The Rangers beat a rival, they earned two points and they didn't lose anyone to injury. There wasn't the usual battle that the Islanders bring, leaving the team in good shape to play the bumper game of the back-to-back tonight against Philly.

If they are to win that one, they will have to be better. After going up 3-1 against a clearly inferior team Thursday the Blueshirts took their feet off the gas and allowed the Isles to dictate play and get back within a goal. Had Jack Capuano been a good coach and had his team possessed more than one line of offense, the result likely would have been different.

Late Hits:

*Seriously, what was Capuano doing pulling Nabby that early, with the puck not even close to the Blueshirts blueline?

*Ranger-killer Blake Comeau scored for Calgary against Detroit Thursday night. Haha.

*Always give credit where it is due and Del Zaster deserves some. He had a nice save behind Biron and several energetic shifts. DZ still has no idea to hit for puck possession but his positioning was better and he actually battled instead of floating around looking for hits. His goal was - like Dubinsky's - immensely savable by a capable goaltender but Nabby is just not capable anymore. Still, it is always nice to see the Rangers score.

*The Ranger power play went 0-3. They had six full minutes of man advantage time, Del Zaster was on for 5:24 of it and the unit managed three shots on goal. Three. The kid can jump into the attack all he wants during regular strength but he simply has no idea how to QB a power play.

*For all of the hype around the Brad Richard$ signing, could anyone have imagined that he would not be on the Rangers top line? He has been a nice addition to be sure but, man, has the Step-Arty-Gabby unit been good. It will be interesting to see if they can keep the chemistry going.

*Anton Stralman has been surprisingly solid, and the credit should go to Tortorella who has sheltered the Swede from tough assignments. For all of the mistakes Torts makes - and there are many - he has used Girardi's durability as a tool to help his patchwork defense survive so far.

*Stu Bickel appears to be standing at a crossroads. He could work on his skating and become a Beukeboom-type sturdy defenseman or continue to defy the Code and end up like Dale Purinton. His 'double-rough' against that minor league nobody Tim Wallace showed it quite clearly: Wallace came in from behind to jump Dubinsky, who was going at it with Hamonic in a scrum. Bickel pulled Wallace free from Dubi but then when Wallace went to fight honourably and take his visor and helmet off, Bickel just started throwing. I think he has the ability to take and hold Dylan McIlrath's spot until the kid gets here but it is up to him.

*His partner, Tim Erixon, did not look comfortable. There is definitely skill there but he is clearly not yet ready for prime time. I think another 10, 15 pounds of muscle would do him well.

*Tim's dad Jan was in attendance and it was incredibly disappointing how little of a reception he got when shown on the big board. He was such a favourite and such a hard worker for so long that the lukewarm reception only served to highlight how few diehards there were in the building. I know some folks that sold their tickets for this time of year to help pay for the rest of the campaign but Dolan has certainly priced many of the True Blue out of the building.

*There were surprisingly few Islander fans at MSG. I mean, there are few Islander fans in general but those bottom-feeders usually come out in better numbers. I heard that there was one fan fight over near 103 but that is it.

*Ruslan Fedotenko's hard work is appreciated but in the last few weeks, has he really added much? No points in his last nine games and he got just nine shifts for 5:32. Perhaps it would be best to give the soldier a few nights off to rest and recuperate.

*Feds' linemates Mike Rupp and Brandon Prust also saw Sean Avery-level ice time but let's hope that was just to keep them fresh for tonight.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Artem Anisimov - one assist.
2-Marty Biron - 24 saves.
1-Michael Del Zotto - one goal.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Gabby - The Slovak was an offensive threat throughout the game and his willingness to go to the net paid off in a goal. By the way - Arty took just four faceoffs in the game and lost two of them, but one of the wins was in the offensive zone. He pushed it forward, allowing him to get the puck across to Gabby in the slot.
2-Dubi - Thought Brandon played his best game of the season against the Devils and he followed it up with another strong effort all over. Always held the belief that he could be an Arnott-esque force but to do that he has to be physically involved, which he did these last two games.
1-Biron - Marty made several big stops while continuing his domination of the Islanders. Love it. have to admit he has been far better than expected - especially after Zug.

19-8-4: Beating Brodeur

2011-12-21T03:41:00.000-05:00

As a Ranger fan, there have been few things as delightful in recent seasons as the sheer domination of Henrik Lundqvist over Mmmmaaaarrrtttyyy. Hank has been largely lights-out while Fatso has been finding life against the Rangers difficult without the stellar defenders who made his career at the turn of the century.

On Tuesday, after watching his team dominate for 37 minutes, Mmmmaaaarrrtttyyy melted like the marshmallow man he resembles. The Rangers rallied from down 1-0 to defeat the Devils 4-1 in the opening game of the season series between the Hudson rivals. Henrik was outstanding, stopping 30 of 31 shots and standing tall as his team was outworked for two periods. And he did it behind a piecemeal defensive corps, making it that much more remarkable. But we call him the King for a reason and he showed it on this night.

Late Hits:

*There aren't many more ardent supporters of fighting in hockey then me. That being said, Mike Rupp vs. Cam Janssen three seconds into the game was horrifying and unnecessary. There was no reason for it other than to justify the salaries of those cement-headed neanderthals. This was the first meeting of the teams this season, there was no carry over bad blood between the two teams or the two fighters. It was pointless. And it is exactly the kind of ammunition that the doves crave to push their pacifistic agenda. Dubi fighting Clarkson wasn't part of the game either but at least those guys have been immersed in this rivalry for years and have genuine on-ice dislike for each other.

*Given all of the ice time he eats up and the top assignments he has so often taken on, it has been easy to forget that Ryan McDonagh is just a kid. McD has been helped by stalwart work by Dan Girardi, who seemingly wants to play all 60 minutes alongside Hank. So far the pair haven't shown many signs of grinding down but the team has to be wary - this is a loooooong season. But back to McD for a second - this was just his 72nd game in the NHL. Can you believe that? I can't. It is unfathomable to me considering his level of play 95% of the time. But that five percent does remind you on rare occasion like the performance against Tampa and his catch and throw of the puck in the third period tonight. That was comical.

*Also funny? The majority of the Devil fans. All 4,000 of them. They seemingly have embraced their role as second-class citizens, aping other team's chants and celebrations while knowing virtually nothing about the game. There are a few knowledgable, intelligent members of the so-called Devil's Army but most are ignorant cannon fodder.

*Despite being on the bad side of the battle for two periods, the Rangers could easily have had the lead if their three shots off the iron found the back of the net. They were good shots each, but with Mmmmaaaarrrtttyyy's girth there wasn't much to shoot at.

*Del Zastrous performance. Counted four times that he couldn't hold the offensive blue line, two defensive zone turnovers and a few blown coverages.

*The pairing of Tim Erixon and Stu Bickel wasn't bad but it was clear that Torts was trying to shelter them. Bickel looked better than he did in preseason but is still not quick enough for regular NHL action. Erixon didn't look particularly comfortable but his decision making with the puck was good.

*Bork, bork, bork! Young Carl was the only Ranger aside from Hank to play great buzzer to buzzer. And it paid off in his shorthanded goal. As I said to a friend the other day, shorthanded goals are some of my favourite things in hockey and to see Hagelin score one was wonderful. It was also nice to see the guys try to reward his effort by setting him up for an attempt at the empty net time and time again but it didn't work out. Still, a steller effort from the Swedish Chef.

*Brian Boyle really has been bad of late and has not shown any signs of getting better. The third line center has one goal in his last 27 games and just two this season.

*Dubi has been snakebitten as well but he has been improving the last two games. This game against the Devils may have been his best so far this season, even if he didn't get a single shot on goal.

*Do you think Sean Avery would have been able to wake up the Rangers earlier in the evening? I'd like to think so. He certainly would have been better than Rupp was all night long (all night). That being said, there is no way he would have taken the opening faceoff bullet for Prust the way Rupp did ...

*PHW Three Stars
3-Carl Hagelin - one goal.
2-Artem Anisimov - one goal and one assist.
1-Henrik Lundqvist - 30 saves.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Derek Stepan - What a set up to Arty, wow. His second assist on Gabby's go-ahead goal was ridiculous as the Slovak did a give-and-go with Arty but hey, if Del Zaster can inflate his numbers with them so can Step.
2-Gabby - The Slovak absorbed one helluva hit on the play that led to Arty's game-tying goal and went on to pot a pair of his own. Usually little credit would be given for an empty netter but after the Keystone Kops routine that led up to it, we'll take it.
1-Hank - The King kept the Rangers in the game despite some serious scrambling in front of him.

18-8-4: Zero-Point-One

2011-12-18T04:49:00.003-05:00

First thought when the puck hit the back of the net? That beat the clock! WE WON!!!!!!!!!

Second thought when the puck hit the back of the net? Screw you Chris Drury and your 7.7 seconds.

Third thought? Amazing how a great ending can wipe away an all-too-forgettable game. Brad Richard$ beat the clock and sent everyone home happy. The buzzer beater ranks up there with Malik's shootout goal and Marc Staal's overtime-forcing shorthanded goal against Pittsburgh last year as the most memorable tallies since the lockout (at least for me). It truly was an absolutely wonderful moment and one to take forward into the winter.

But would I be me if I got all giddy because of a tenth of a second of success? Hell no.

Entering the game Phoenix had lost five of eight games, there was a small library crowd of fans (most of whom were rooting for the Blueshirts) and Coyotes goaltender Mike Smith had a career 4-6-1 record and .899 save percentage against the Rangers. And with all of that the Rangers still blew a 1-0 lead, wasted power play after power play, gave up two terrible goals and were largely outworked by Don Maloney's desert dogs.

Vince Lombardi said “perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” Excellence is the Stanley Cup - not some singular, inconsistent wins before Christmas. The guys have to enjoy tonight's ending for the moment but realize that they have to be far better going forward - next week the Devils, Isles and Flyers, in April the playoffs.

Late Hits:

*Marty Biron doing his best Mmmmaaaaarrrtttyyyyy Brodeur impression essentially gave Richard$ the goal. Phoenix cleared their zone but Biron charged out of the crease to get to the puck and fire it back down the ice. The move kept the Ranger attack going as the seconds ticked down and, clearly, every second counted.

*Loved Micheletti raving about Biron's play in the second period just seconds before the goaltender couldn't cover the puck, allowing the Coyotes to score the go-ahead goal. Micheletti is a moron. Dubinsky on the backhand! Ugh. No, it was clearly Brad Richards you clown. 'Pardon me Sam but I have to interrupt you all night with my shrill voice and incorrect analysis.'

*Had the game gone to overtime and a shootout then maybe Christensen could have proved his worth but otherwise, he showed that he is not just a waste of a jersey but a detriment to his team. His defensive zone faceoff loss handed the Korpedo a game-tying shorthanded goal. Utterly unacceptable.

*Thought Brandon Dubinsky had one of his better games. Still not saying much but at least he is trying.

*Mike F-ing Rupp is a lumbering neanderthal who doesn't belong in the NHL anymore. Cement skates, cement hands, cement head. His presence was pointless in this one but necessary if he is going to be any factor during next week's divisional games. And he had better be a factor.

*I will admit that Del Zaster wasn't entirely Del Zastrous - he had some awful shifts and some admittedly decent ones. His volleyball save came seconds after he tried to stick check a Coyote, only to see the puck get right past him. The assist that the MSG guys raved about was a clean 30-or-so foot tape-to-tape feed to Marian Gaborik. Was it nice that the kid finally, finally caught a teammate in stride? Yes. Was it worth all of their drooling? No. Plus that lone moment doesn't make up for the other eight minutes of power play time that he utterly wasted.

*Hope Steve Eminger heals well and quickly, if only so we aren't subjected to more 20 minute Anton Stralman performances. But how bad do you feel for Jeff Woywitka? Even with Eminger out, he saw just six minutes of ice time ... like his name was Sean Avery or something!

*I'm pretty sure that in some other language Girardi translates into granite. The dude is a rock. And Ryan McDonagh has clearly demonstrated that his terrible performance against Tampa was just a fluke.

*Hard to tell who was the better skater, Young Carl Hagelin or Oliver Ekman-Larsson. They were both simply outstanding to watch. Something in that frozen Swedish water I guess.

*PHW Three Stars
3-David Schlemko - Hahahaha!!! No, seriously, the guys selecting the stars picked this guy.
2-Marian Gaborik - two goals.
1-Lauri Korpikoski - one goal.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Korpedo - Nice to see the kid has some of the skill that we were sold on when we drafted him at 19 in 2004 - one spot ahead of Travis Zajac (Captain Cally went 127th).
2-Gabby - The Slovak Sniper struck twice on three shots, that's a pretty good percentage I would say.
1-Richard$ - Dude, zero-point-one seconds - no need to say anything else.

17-8-4: Listless in St. Louis

2011-12-16T04:07:00.000-05:00

This season we have seen the Rangers grow an identity of a hard working, forechecking, tough young team. On Thursday night they played a hard working, forechecking, tough young team that worked harder, forchecked more and were grittier then they were. The Blueshirts were found lacking against the Blues to the tune of a 4-1 failure.

St. Louis worked the boards, battled their way into the trenches and made tough for the Rangers. The Rangers ... well, they didn't do any of that. They certainly didn't look like a team motivated to bounce back from another woeful lack of effort against another hard working, forechecking, tough young team in Dallas. Perhaps John Tortorella didn't curse at them enough in the locker room - guess we'll see during the next episode of 24/7.

Late Hits:

*While a power play probably wouldn't have solved their woes, the Rangers simply did not earn a single one. When you swarm, when you press the action and you keep your feet moving you force the other team to play catch up and often that draws penalties. There was just one infraction in the game and it came to a Ranger defenseman who was scrambling around his own zone trying to keep up with the relentless Blues attack.

*Can't hang Hank for the goals against, the King was under siege and he got screwed by that bad hop off Girardi's goal. The King and his fellow Swede Carl Hagelin were the only ones to show up all night. Even Captain Cally looked off at times.

*No timely time out, no motivational fight by Prust, nothing.

*The Blueshirt blueliners were awful from one to six. Girardi was utterly victimized and McDonagh was bounced by Backes while Del Zaster, Stralman, Eminger and Woywitka were all caught waving their sticks at attackers rather than playing the body.

*Credit due to Del Zaster for his goal, it was purty. The kid simply had no desire to actually play defense in this game (why should this be any different then any other game) but his insistence on joining the attack paid off in a goal.

*Given the gritty role that Ruslan Fedotenko plays night in and night out it is hard to harass him but he has had several bad games in a row and this one was his worst of the year. Instead of everyone roaring against Erik Christensen, perhaps Feds should take a seat for a night to recharge and heal up what are surely some bad bruises. Sean Avery has the speed and willingness to grind to fill the Ukrainian's role and you can be assured that he won't give a halfhearted effort.

*Christensen was useless, as expected. No point in adding a shootout specialist if your team can't get to a shootout. Funny seeing him trying to pick a post-whistle fight and hide behind a ref in the third period. I believe that is called 'Pulling a Crosby.' Given the winter doldrums this team is heading into, taking this clown out and inserting Mike Rupp, while making the Feds/Avery swap could inject some life back into the boys. The Rangers have to do something soon, they won't want to ruin their Christmas ...

*Did you notice that the Scottrade Center had a proper organ? There was still some of the eardrum-piercing pop garbage but regularly they just let the organ release its simple, classic tunes. That's hockey.

*While that was pleasant to hear, nothing matched the sheer delight that was John Davidson back on a Ranger broadcast - music to my ears. What an utter delight - what a stark contrast to the caustic, incorrect imbecile who replaced him.

*Nice stat for the night - Derek Stepan won 10 of 14 faceoffs. That has been a major problem area for him so it was nice to see him win some draws.

*The laugh of the night was the empty net sequence with three minutes left in the third - it was just pure comedy and I, for one, was incredibly glad that former Devil Jamie Langenbrunner wasn't the one to finally capitalize.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Brian Elliott - 25 saves.
2-Alex Steen - one goal and one assist.
1-David Backes - no points.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Backes - A hard-working, hard-hitting, responsible captain with a scoring touch who was born in America? That sounds familiar ...
2-T.J. Oshie - No wonder the St. Louis fans love him so, he never stops and he hits everything that moves.
1-Steen - I remember rooting for his dad. I feel old.

17-7-4: Wake Me Up When It's Over

2011-12-14T03:24:00.001-05:00

When the most emotional moment of the night is a bad call by the referee that didn't result in a fight or a goal, you know that it was a boring affair. The Rangers lost 1-0 to the Dallas Stars in a snoozer at the Garden on Tuesday night, a game that had about as much emotion as a cardboard box.

After exploding for six against the Panthers the Blueshirts couldn't even manage a decent shot - much less a goal - against an AHL goaltender. Somehow the official scorer credited Bachman with 34 saves but it is unclear which game he was watching. Having watched the game in person and again on television I still can't recall a single stop that the kid collected. What a dreadfully dull display.

Just a few Late Hits:

*That bad call by Ian Walsh was stupefying. Bachman did his best impression of a NFL kicker to jump into contact to draw a penalty. Walsh's partner was Don Van Massenhoven - you'd expect him to make an inexplicable call of two but this one was all Walsh, who was just feet away when Bachman raced out of his crease to play the puck and initiate contact with one of his own teammates and Young Carl. Thankfully Hank and Prust had little problem killing off the ensuing Dallas power play.

*Del Zaster quarterbacked a Ranger power play that went 0-4 and had nary an actual opportunity to score. Step, Richard$, Cally and Arty are definitely also culpable but it was Del Zaster who led the team with 6:44 of ice time with the man advantage. They collectively had seven shots in eight minutes of power play time. Atrocious.

*Erik Christensens skated for 9:11, went 1-7 in the faceoff circle, had one shot and no pulse. Sean Avery certainly would have added more excitement to the night, that is for sure.

*Can Brian Boyle play a softer game? He plays like someone half his size.

*May be mistaken but Brandon Prust appeared to fight Jake Dowell just to stay awake. It was a staged bout that featured few good punches and was blissfully over quick. Fights like that, for the lack of justification just fuel the pathetic pacifists like THN's Adam Proteau and the various guys at the New York Times who suddenly have it out for hockey.

*Soft goal given up by Hank with five minutes to go but what can you do? As per always the Rangers gifted the opposition the blueline and collapsed all the way down to the goalmouth, allowing Daley to come in and slide the puck through Lundqvist's five hole. Jeff Woywitka was worthless on the play, but that is no surprise.

*Every time I see Trevor Daley I am reminded of John Vanbiesbrouck's stupidity. What the hell was he thinking?

*Walked out of the arena past Bobby Nystrom and managed not to say anything. The former Islander still looked spry enough to kick my ass anyway.

*For as much of a flatline as this game was, Sheldon Souray's shot nearly induced coronaries around the Garden when it hit Hank. Thought for sure that it broke his collarbone or something but luckily the King shook it off and remained in the game.

*Remember when Brandon Dubinsky was relevant? Seems so long ago ...

*What a lifeless Garden crowd. A friend of the blog warned me tonight to expect more of these with the NHL's realignment next season. The only solution we could come up with was variable pricing but could you imagine Dolan doing that? I can't.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Trevor Daley - one goal.
2-Henrik Lundqvist - 27 saves.
1-Richard Bachman - 34 saves.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Bachman - Showed no intimidation playing in MSG. But, as mentioned above, the building was largely asleep and not intimidating in the least. Still, no softies.
2-Hank - Anyone who can stand in front of a Souray slap shot and survive should be recognized.
1-Daley - He scored a goal! No one else did ...

17-6-4: Puttin' Down The Putty Tats

2011-12-12T05:12:00.003-05:00

One year ago the Rangers played a three games in four days and they won two out of three. The third game was a 7-0 demolition of the Washington Capitals that was so memorably included in HBO's 24/7. The cable network let us peek in at an emotional Washington squad that was bottoming out with assistant coach Dean Evason pleading with his charges to "grab your f--king sack and do something about it. Compete!"

This year we will get to see what it is like inside the happier locker room but no matter what was said, the play on the indicated a team that was competing. The Rangers outbattled the Panthers all over the ice and the final result was a 6-1 victory. For all of the seething hatred for the head coach that fills this space on a regular basis, there is a bit of admiration: Tortorella's insistence on conditioning resulted in the Rangers looking far better than the Panthers, who had Saturday off while the Blueshirts were battling Buffalo. Of course, it is extremely possible that Florida may have been out enjoying their Saturday night a bit more than they should but hung over or not, they were outplayed and outskated by the Rangers in all areas. Like the 7-0 smacking of the Capitals last year, it was wonderful to watch.

Of course, had the puck that snapped Hank's buckle on his left leg pad rolled into the net instead of the post early in the first period, the result may have been entirely different. I can already hear the dramatic music on 24/7 ...

Late Hits:

*Erik Christensen was inserted into the lineup for Sean Avery and was given 12:54 in ice time - more than Avery got in any of his 15 games this season. Christensen got to play on the power play, which Avery has not. Christy did collect an assist but it was because he blew an empty net three feet away from him and a lucky bounce got the puck to Arty, who didn't miss.

*Really wanted Arty to either pull a Terrell Owens or to not celebrate at all but he went back to his boring self. Derek Stepan did an archery motion after his first goal but escaped criticism because it was aimed at the sky and apparently imaginary arrows don't hurt as much as imaginary bullets.

*That goal from Step was utterly outstanding. He won the puck in the Ranger end, cruised down the right win, sidestepped past Erik Gudbranson and beat Three-Or-More with a sick shot inside the far post. Three-Or-More handed Step his second goal of the night by kicking the rebound of a Del Zaster shot right back into the slot.

*That may have been the first shot from the wing that Del Zaster was able to get on net this season; usually they jump start the opposing team's attack by missing and going around the boards. The kid was fine in this one - as was the rest of the Ranger defenders - if only because the Panthers were largely clawless. The Blueshirt blueliners had time and space throughout the night. There was little organized offense coming out of the Florida end and, despite all of the time shorthanded, the kitty cats hardly challenged Henrik.

*It was their ineptness that allowed Torts to finally rest Dan Girardi. Dan-O played just 22:40 - his lowest amount of ice time all season long. Granted, one third of it was tough time spent shorthanded as his teammates continued to take stupid penalties. Surely that lack of discipline was Sean Avery's fault.

*Speaking of stupidity, Brandon Prust fought Krys Barch. As the home team the Rangers had the last change and after going up 4-1 Torts decided to put Prust across from Barch, fully knowing what the Panther pugilist was going to do. For Prust to risk his surgically-repaired shoulder and lower himself to fight a guy who can't even spell Chris right is ridiculous. There was absolutely no reason for it and, if anything, it should have given Florida something to build off of because Barch beat the hell out of Prust. Luckily for us the Cats couldn't be bothered but the move easily could have backfired.

*I wasn't at the game but it certainly sounded like a pretty quiet crowd on tv. Of course, it is hard to hear anything other than the continuous babbling of that harpy Micheletti.

*Really quiet game from Ruslan Fedotenko but he gets the free pass that Sean Avery doesn't because he has a history with the head coach.

*Young Carl is really, really fast. But we knew that already. Still impressive though.

*As I tweeted, that was some really impressive sewing. Never thought I would write that about a hockey game but Acacio Marques worked magic getting Hank's strap sewn in just seconds.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Steve Eminger - one goal, +4.
2-Michael Del Zotto - one assist, +4.
1-Derek Stepan - two goals and one assist.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Gabby - Did you see where he scored his goal from? The goal mouth. He battled his way into the crease and was there to jam the loose puck in. The Slovakian Sniper is heading into the tough areas more than ever (and thus has lost the Slovakian Slacker title, for now).
2-Eminger - Clearly not as popular as Del Zaster to get relegated to third star despite playing a stronger all-around game and having his shot actually go in the net.
1-Step - Simply a stellar performance by the Badger. And when you hear him talk about it you have to marvel at his age and the fact that he doesn't have a letter on his sweater.

16-6-4: Bork Bork Bork!

2011-12-11T05:23:00.001-05:00

Young Carl came through for the Rangers on Saturday night with a pair of goals in what would be a 4-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres. The Swede's success helped the Blueshirts get to win number 2,500 in franchise history. It is a milestone that four other teams of the Original Six already reached (only Chicago hasn't now) but the Rangers like to celebrate big round random numbers - 85th anniversary anyone?

But back to the game, which was a nice road win after the two atrocious performances put on back on Broadway (well, Seventh Ave). The Rangers ripped apart an exhausted, poorly coached squad playing the second half of a back-to-back, which was exactly what they were supposed to do. Luckily they won't be able to rest on their laurels (or go out to celebrate the win), as they are back in action in just a few hours against a far better Florida squad.

That being said, this will be quick - Late Hits:

*How soon until Torts dresses Avery and doesn't give him any ice time at all? Didn't that happen to a Ranger a few seasons back, someone dressing but not getting a single second on the ice? Sean saw six shifts, with a total of 40 seconds in the second period and another 40 in the third. Really, what is the point? And what did he do to deserve it? Arty showboated last game and he still got 13 minutes (and would have had more if he didn't get shaken up).

*Dan Girardi was three seconds shy of a half hour. Can't believe Torts couldn't get him those seconds. Also can't believe that Glen Sather is ok with the way that Torts is grinding Dan-O down. Buffalo is also missing their top defenseman and yet none of their blueliners saw more than 24 minutes, not even the overpaid Ehrhoff.

*In looking at clips of Young Carl on Youtube, I saw that the Wolverines band played the Swedish national anthem for him before Senior Day back in February. That is just awesome.

*While we knew Hagelin had some ability, has his runningmate John Mitchell been a revelation or what? He has been playing like every shift could be his last in the NHL and he needs to keep it up.

*Perhaps the most heartening part of the victory was Ryan McDonagh's return to form. After his uncharacteristic failures against Tampa, McD was back to being his solid self against the Sabres. Nearly had a heart attack when he blocked that shot with his hand though ...

*Jhonas Enroth was atrocious and he certainly wasn't helped out by the rest of his team. The Rangers saw how disorganized they were and extended the ice to catch them bunched up and out of position. Even Del Zaster's home run pass worked the third or fourth time he tried it.

*DZ deserves credit for that one but to get a secondary assist for the first Hagelin goal was just ludicrous. He lost the puck in his feet deep in the Ranger end and Eminger fished it out before sending it down the ice to the Speedy Swede. The kid had several horrid shifts, was made to look a fool by Thomas Vanek and somehow ended up completely out of the play when Gabby turned the puck over and Vanek scored the game-tying goal.

*But, alas, Ryan Callahan came through to bail Del Zaster and the rest of the boys out with an outrageous shorthanded goal late in the second period. Sure Enroth opened his five-hole the width of the Lincoln Tunnel but the way Cally turned to use Christian Ehrhoff as a screen was outstanding. With his family at the game in force, that had to be pretty special for him. It was definitely special for us. What a goal - both in form and importance.

*Marty Biron barely had to make any good saves but he did enough to get the guys a win and that is all that matters.

*Dubi seems to slowly but surely be getting his game back together. He never stopped working but he just seems to have more drive of late. Great to see.

*Nice slapper by the Slovakian Slacker. Gabby really can be quite the scorer sometimes.

*PHR Three Stars
3-Ryan Callahan - one goal.
2-Marty Biron - 32 saves.
1-Carl Hagelin - two goals.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Thomas Vanek - The Austrian is so dangerous every time he is on the ice, imagine if he played in a real market...
2-Cally - As I tweeted: lead on captain, lead on.
1-Young Carl - The speedy Swede from Södertälje has been everything we could have hoped for so far.

15-6-4: Horror Show

2011-12-09T02:46:00.000-05:00

There has been many a horror flick written where one of the good guys takes the murder down, turns to say something and then is gutted from behind. The stupid guy had a chance to put a final shot in the corpse but he just didn't finish the job. The Rangers are those good guys. All too often this season they have had opportunities to seal a victory only to allow the other team back in the game. Sometimes they still manage to cling to a win, sometimes they don't. Tonight's shootout loss to the Lightning was the latter.

After going ahead 2-1 the Blueshirts blew three third period power plays and allowed the Bolts to tie things up (shorthanded!!) and send the game to overtime and eventually the talent competition. The worst part is that they had nary an actual scoring chance during any of the three man advantages. The so-called skill players were lifeless, exhausted from going over the boards time and time again. Simply said, Tortorella burned them out. He let the third and fourth lines rot while watching his other guys go limp. At even strength they got pinned in their own end several times and still, Tortorella kept the forechecking of Mitchell and Prust and the speed of Hagelin and Avery collecting splinters. When he used every one in recent weeks, the team won games. When he shortened the bench, the team lost games.

It is clear that John Tortorella has trust issues and if he does not trust these players, he needs to have Sather replace them. You just can't run your top guys into the ground like this. The time where a team could roll two lines and still succeed ended with the lockout - which was right about the last time when Tortorella was successful. Since then his teams have missed the playoffs twice and lost in the first round four times. The way he is burning out the boys now there is no indication that this team will have a better fate.

Late Hits:

*Ok, Arty. The kid scored a sexy goal and he celebrated. Big deal. If Alex Ovechkin can jump around like an idiot or pretend his stick is on fire then Arty can be exuberant for five seconds too. This isn't the No Fun League.

*But you know what? Vinny 04 was well within his right to take exception to the celebration. He is the Tampa captain and he decided he had to stand up for his team's honour. But for him not to get a single second of penalties is ridiculous, he clearly skated over to instigate a fight. And Dubi traded punches with Bergeron but according to the officiating crew that was not a fight but a double rough. And Arty got a double rough for being tossed around like a rag doll by a linesman after being jumped by Steve Downie, who jumped the bench and should have been ejected from the game. What is the point of having four officials when they still miss everything?

*HBO's cameras and microphones were everywhere, and they likely didn't miss anything. And that sound you hear is a producer orgasming, thanks to the kind of material he was given to work with from this game.

*Arty's goal came off of a great feed from Del Zaster. Had Arty not converted, we would have been swearing at DZ for having passed up a scoring opportunity two feet from the goal. But it worked out so credit due and credit given. On the other side of it, DZ tried to pick a fight with Dom Moore twice and was penalized for it both times. And he had nearly eight minutes of power play time (7:55 to be precise) - more than any other Ranger - and it amounted to absolutely nothing.

*Really wonder what it takes to turn the switch on for Gaborik. The Slovakian Slacker was handed chance after chance and he just couldn't finish against a goaltender who was lit up for five by the Islanders. THE ISLANDERS! (Thanks to Interface Eric for reminding me of that, bastard.)

*I apologize to everyone for getting my McDonagh Whale sweater signed prior to the game. I will no longer speak to the guys before the games, because I clearly mushed him. McD had his worst game of the season by far. He took a bad penalty, he had a bad turnover to Buggsy Malone for a goal against and he let Moore walk around him to score the equalizer. Without the rock that is Mike Sauer, McD has to be the same kind of pillar that Girardi is - no blatant mistakes. Girardi, btw, played 32 minutes - seeing as he saw 2:34 of it in the overtime, I think he should get the under on my over/under time of 31 minutes.

*Get well soon Sauer, get well soon Staal. Stralman and Woywitka clearly do not belong in the NHL. Both are too slow of skate and mind to keep up with the pace of the game.

*Moore got the headlines but another former Ranger deserves some recognition: Adam Hall. Hall won seven of nine faceoffs and had six minutes of solid penalty kill time. Hobey Gilroy still stinks, but he would be better than Stralman and/or Woywitka ... I blame Pavel Valentenko for not showing up in shape this season.

*Interesting stat - every Ranger aside from Hank attempted at least one shot. Cally paced the team with 12 but only five made it on net.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Ryan Malone - one goal.
2-Henrik Lundqvist - 29 saves.
1-Dominic Moore - one goal.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Victor Hedman - No McDonagh-sized mistakes in his game.
2-Cally - While 28 minutes is far too much time for the Captain, he did not coast for a single second of it and even scored a goal.
1-Moore - Forget aboot it, he has Hank's number.

15-6-3: Rope-A-Dopes

2011-12-06T02:56:00.001-05:00

The Rangers are playing the Flyers in the Winter Classic so perhaps to get ready for Philadelphia they have steadily taken on the attributes of that city's favourite son - Rocky Balboa. They regularly start poorly, get knocked around a bit and eventually decide to show up. When they are fighting back you wonder where that extra oomph was the rest of the bout. The last few times the Rangers let the other team land the first few blows they survived the deluge and rallied to win. On Monday night they waited until they trailed 3-0 but by then it was just too late to come all of the way back and they ultimately lost to the Leafs 4-2.

This never-say-die attitude really is great to see but the fact that Tortorella can't prepare them to start at the puck drop and he can't get them to play a full, consistent 60 minutes is cause for concern. A loss is a loss, it happens. But when a loss happens like this it is infuriating. The Rangers were worse than terrible for much of the night, and then they were a force in the final minutes. Where was that the rest of the game? There is no shame when you lose when you try your hardest. How many of the Rangers can say that they did on this night?

After Zach Johnson lost to Tiger Woods Sunday he said "I don't think that I lost the tournament, I think he won it." Tonight the Rangers lost the game, the Leafs did not win it. They were capable but the Blueshirts simply did not show up for 50 or so minutes. That is what is so bothersome.

Late Hits:

*Beezer was back! Vanbiesbrouck got a warm ovation from the Garden Faithful when he was put up on the big board during a timeout. My all-time favourite Ranger. (I choose to ignore his tenure with the Isles, Devils and Flyers. Never happened. NEVER HAPPENED!) Loooooooooved Beezer when I was a kid, hell, I wanted to be him. Great to see him again.

*Why is it that the entire league nowadays fights after clean checks and yet the Rangers just skated away from Sloppy Seconds after he sent Sauer into the next time zone? It was a helluva hit - and it was clean - but what the hell? The team loses one of their best defensemen and no one did anything then or after Sauer was out, too worried about trying to come back after slacking off all night. You don't want to instigate a fight, fine - just take a run at one of their best players, eye for an eye. For all of the talk about the team having an identity this isn't a good characteristic to include.

*The three stars will be at the bottom - as per usual - but I had to address them here: how the hell was Arty named one of them? Aside from his goal, he was awful most of the game and he took utterly two inexcusable penalties. One of them resulted in Toronto's third goal and the other helped abort the late push for an equalizer. Times like this justify my decision to name my own top three.

*Anisimov's goal was the result of perhaps the best line change in Tortorella's tenure. He pulled Sean Avery off the ice once the Rangers gained the zone and his cover peeled off and turned back into the play, leaving the man who jumped on - Anisimov - wide open to skate in and score.

*Getting that goal was perhaps the only thing that could have justified Avery getting the hook. Btw Sean saw 7:32 of ice time and he was visible most every second of that. Fedotenko played 15 and he was only noticeable for getting beaten on the Connolly goal and for taking a bad penalty.

*My Brandon Prust stat has survived, as he dropped the gloves against (and got utterly destroyed by) Jay Rosehill at the 2:05 mark. That was not a good showing by our lone tough guy.

*Do you think linesmen Ryan Galloway and Derek Nansen thought we paid $60 a ticket to watch them work? There was what, five, six faceoffs where they tossed someone? And the dramatics when calling offsides, geez. Ridiculous. Stripes are best when invisible.

*No, Dave Steckel is not under my control and is not doing my bidding. First Crosby, then Del Zaster. Hey, I was as relieved as anyone to see the kid moving his leg afterwards, because it meant I could still rail on him. He hits to make the boards rattle, not to win the puck and 99% of the time the other team maintains possession. His passing is predictable and often off the mark. But it must be admitted that he was blameless in any of the three goals against on this night. And he did get yet another second assist ...

*Not often that I find fallacies in Captain Cally's play but how does he hit the top of the net above the glass when he was shooting five feet from the goal? Of anyone on this roster, he should realize he just needs to put the puck on net, especially in the final minutes when the team is trailing.

*Nice to see a kid dropping the ceremonial puck and shaking Cally's hand, instead of dissing him and heading home.

*Random but why the French version of Oh Canada? They don't speak French in Toronto, and the last time I was there they sang the English version before the games I saw.

*Liked seeing the white sweaters being used at the Garden again. The league should mandate that teams wear the coloured sweaters and the whites an equal amount at home - it would even help spur sales, which is all they care about anyway.

*When Derek Stepan scrambles, he skates right into quicksand making mistake after mistake. When he just puts his head down and battles, he is really is quite a revelation.

*Too many Leafs fans in our building.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Phil Kessel - two assists.
2-Artem Anisimov - one goal.
1-Joffrey Lupul - one goal.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Tyler Bozak - Kate Upton was impressed and she is impressive, so he gets some credit. Although, like Arty he took two awful penalties ... but man, Kate is hot ... what was I talking about?
2-Jonas Gustavsson - The Monster was hardly challenged early but he maintained his composure and stopped the Ranger rally late.
1-Lupul - He lurked around the Ranger net all night and he won a lot of faceoffs. And this guy was not good enough for the Anaheim Ducks, who have now lost 18 of 21.

15-5-3: It's Electric

2011-12-04T05:50:00.000-05:00

It is hard to figure out what is going on: are these Rangers so mentally or physically unprepared that they simply stumble out of the gates on a semi-regular basis? It is a dilemma to be sure but not one that is troubling when the results continue to be so good. The Rangers gave up an early goal yet again, but yet again they managed to rally and went on to beat the Lightning 4-2 on Saturday night.

That they are able to take the first strike and bounce back begs another question: are so confident that they know they will come back or are they too young/ignorant to know better? Either way they just keep on working and that is wonderful to see. For all of their faults - and there are several, don't let these wins fool you - lackadaisical play is not among of them. Finally.

Late Hits:

*Pfft, 1-3-1 trap. When the Ranger forecheck worked as relentlessly as it did the vaunted trap was easily broken. And when the guys are willing to pay the price in front of the net, the goals will come. Who was it leading the charge, yet again? Captain Callahan. Love it.

*It is always nice to see a player score against his former team. Well, not so much when that former team is the Rangers - as evidenced by Tommy Pyatt's tally - but when that former team is the Rangers' opposition, hell, that is great. Brad Richard$ to Ruslan Fedotenko, beautiful.

*Sean Avery had better have been hurt because that is the only acceptable excuse for him not touching the ice in the third period. There was just one power play and one penalty kill so the situations didn't keep him off the ice - the coach or the trainer did. Avery has done everything asked of him by the clueless coach so other than grinding an ax, what excuse could Torts have had to bench him?

*Del Zaster played his most motivated game to date. His hustle was impressive, even if it was only for his own desire to not look bad in front of his best buddy Stamkos. Of course, his effort didn't help him as his blown check led the the first goal and he didn't score on either of his wide open point blank scoring chances. But for a second game in a row he didn't pass the puck directly to the opposition so he is finally making some progress. It is about time.

*Anisimov was as good as he has ever been. We have seen Arty play quite well in the past and each time it coincided with him finding chemistry with linemates that make room for him. Shelley and Prust, Cally and Dubi, now Step and Gabby - all guys that demand attention, albeit in different ways. Said it once, said it a thousand times: if Arty can find the confidence in himself he can be a helluva player, until then he is nothing more than complimentary.

*Tis the season so do you think Santa will let the Rangers take Anton Stralman back so they can get someone who can actually play? Because someone has to come in and take some shifts on defense. Eminger and Woywitka are awful and Girardi played more than 28 minutes for the ninth time this season. He has played less than 25 just twice. Have to appreciate his efforts and the results so far but to grind him into dust before Christmas could end up being quite costly when it counts. Just for comparison, Nicklas Lidstrom has yet to top 28 minutes and has played less than 25 16 times; Shea Weber has topped 28 three times and less than 25 six. Mike Sauer was probably the best of the Ranger defensemen and he played less than 20.

*Seen Stamkos? I didn't. It is a tribute to Sauer, Girardi and McDonagh that he and St. Louis and Malone were all but invisible.

*Still no indication that Carl Hagelin will ever need to return to the AHL.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Victor Hedman - no points.
2-Tom Pyatt - one goal.
1-Derek Stepan - one goal and one assist.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Cally - Callahan is living up to the letter, that is for sure.
2-Step - The kid has clearly gotten over his early season struggles and is starting to hit his stride. Fun to watch, eh?
1-Arty - Anisimov went to the net not once but twice in the same game. Remarkable.

14-5-3: More Rolaids In Raleigh

2011-12-02T05:35:00.000-05:00

The current group of cardiac kids that is the Rangers continued to make things as hard as possible on themselves on Thursday night and yet they still managed to escape with a win. They defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 5-3 despite committing two of the worse errors teams can make - they spotted the opposition a lead in the first few seconds and then they gave up goals in the waning minutes of not one but two periods. Utterly remarkable.

Yet again Ryan Callahan led the way. Just over a minute after Jiri Tlusty opened the scoring Cally planted himself in front on the power play. Not down by the goal line but right at the top of the crease. And being there allowed him to score a Phil Esposito-style garbage goal, after Brad Richard$ shot was stopped by Cam Ward. That goal signaled that the team wasn't about to back down and they didn't, later rallying with three straight goals in the second period. It was an accomplishment made even more impressive when you consider the jump Carolina had with new head coach Kirk Muller. But with Muller making them skate an up-tempo style that was unfamiliar to the Paul Maurice disciples, the Canes simply couldn't keep up with the Rangers.

Hey, there were still issues with the Blueshirts' play but the resolution not to relent was certainly heartening.

Late Hits:

*The talk on the broadcast and in the postgame was all about the shot blocking of Derek Stepan and John Mitchell. That is kind of curious considering that this team has been shot blocking like mad for two seasons. Just because someone other than Dan Girardi or Ryan Callahan gave up their body to block the puck shouldn't make news - especially when we've seen Step and Mitchell go all-in to make plays. The more impressive moment for me was in the final minute. It is a two-goal game, Carolina is pressing in the Ranger end just praying to get one back and Marian Gaborik of all people goes sliding across the ice to knock a loose puck over the blue line. That was remarkable to me.

*Sean Avery played a team-low 8:37 and yet still contributes with a goal and several strong shifts. The goal came during a rare moment when he ended up alongside Marian Gaborik, showing the chemistry that the two have with each other - chemistry that they have shown before. And yet I still have a sinking feeling that Wojtek Wolski will get a game in at Avery's expense, the second he is ready and the second that Sean takes a bad penalty.

*Avery's normal center nowadays, Brandon Dubinsky, still isn't scoring. While it is to the point where the guys are looking for him to get an empty netter, Dubi did make a great feed to Ryan McDonagh that the defender converted into the game-tying goal. The highlight of that play to me, however, was Brandon Prust smartly letting the puck go past him while heading to the net to try to get a deflection or rebound. No nonsense, by-the-book hockey.

*In the 'timing is everything' department MSG showed the age-old video of Jeff Skinner as a figure skater, giving Micheletti an opportunity to talk about what a good skater is and how great his balance is. Seconds later Skinner stumbled and was crushed into the boards by Brian Boyle. Can't make it up.

*Boyle had to immediately defend himself as Anthony Stewart jumped in to defend Skinner's honour. After watching that, you really wonder if his team-listed measurements of 6'7, 244 are correct. You would think that someone that big should be able to throw a punch. But no.

*At least Boyle is complimenting Mitchell and Hagelin well. The trio is playing smart, simple, hard working hockey and it has been paying off. Boyle won 10 of 13 faceoffs, Hagelin was simply wonderful yet again while Mitchell continued to battle for his NHL life every shift. Their efforts allowed Mike Sauer's soft shot to sail through traffic and Cam Ward for the game-sealing goal.

*Del Zaster had yet another secondary assist on the power play. Remarkable. Very tough to decide to pass it to the highest-paid player on the rink who was standing wide open five, 10 feet away. Ball breaking aside, Del Zaster managed not to feed the puck directly to any Hurricanes in the Ranger end so it has to be considered as a good game for him.

*When I saw the home-run pass to Arty Anisimov ahead of the Gaborik goal, I was sure it was MDZ. Instead, Jeff Woywitka. Kinda unexpected to say the least. Arty's feed to Gaborik is amusing because at first glace he looked like he was making a great fake when instead he nearly fell flat on his face when his skate caught a rut.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Ryan McDonagh - one goal.
2-Jeff Skinner - one goal.
1-Marian Gaborik - one goal and one assist.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-McDonagh - Marc Staal can take all the time in the world to fully recover. Sure it would be nice to have him back and thus limit the ice time Del Zaster gets and remove Eminger from the lineup, but McD has more than suitably filled in for our injured number one defender.
2-Cally - When you add the characteristics of former captain Vic Hadfield to those of Esposito you get something close to what we are seeing from Callahan. It is hard not to head out into hyperbole when describing him after Chris Drury's recent tenure seeing someone live up to the letter is wonderful.
1-Gaborik - The aforementioned play to knock the puck out of the zone was more as impressive than his feed to Avery or his own goal from Arty. Gabby scored five goals against us that one time, we know he has offensive ability. But when the Slovakian Slacker goes all-out to make an important play like that you know things are going well for us.

13-5-3: Whew

2011-11-30T12:18:00.000-05:00

The Rangers simply can not do anything easy. They just can't. Perhaps there is some deal between the Pepto people and Dolan - I don't know - but year after year the Rangers make things so very difficult on themselves and us.

Down 1-0 the Rangers suddenly had an adrenaline boost and scored four straight goals, then they did the worst possible thing by allowing a late goal and then another early the next period. Then the stomach acids churned all the way until the buzzer - the star sniper couldn't even end our misery by scoring into an empty net. But the Blueshirts were able to hold on until the clock ran out to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3.

It was awful. It was wonderful. It was the Rangers.

Mr. X from the Blue Seats - no stranger to my cynicism - helped put things in perspective after the game. He said, 'no matter their problems Scotty, the fact is that they have now beaten the Canucks, the Sharks, the Caps, the Flyers and the Penguins - that's pretty good.'

Late Hits:

*Does Carl Hagelin remind anyone else of a young Callahan? Well, Cally is just 25 so young-er? Hustle, hands and a helping of grit. The Swede is a touch faster too. To think that his roster spot was previously held by that neanderthal Rupp and Slow Deveaux. Remarkable. But with former Leaf John Mitchell the two have provided the boost that Brian Boyle needed to get his game back and have given the Rangers a solid third line.

*Of course, that leaves Prust, Avery and Dubi on the fourth line - Dubi, who was the first line left wing at one point, is now the fourth line center. Let that sink in for a second. But despite playing less than 11 minutes he still took 16 faceoffs - as many as first liner Brad Richard$ - and won 11 of them. Not too shabby.

*Richard$' goal was sweet. Feds beats two Pens to the puck, spins and finds Richard$ breaking into the zone. Richard$ then used the defenseman as a screen to power the puck past Marc-Andre Fleury. Sexy snipe. It wasn't as pretty of a play as the tic-tac-toe of Richard$ to Cally to Gabby back to Cally power play goal to open the Rangers scoring but it was still a heckuva shot.

*To steal a term from the Pensblog guys, the Rangers were completely jobbed by the refs in the first period. Eventually, surprisingly, karma came back around and the Pens took four straight penalties in the last eight minutes. Unfortunately, of course, the Blueshirts completely and utterly blew the power plays.

*Considering that the team scored a pair of goals with the man advantage earlier in the evening you would think it would be hard to rail on the power play unit but no - blowing nearly two full minutes of 5-on-3 time is inexcusable. Really not sure what the problem is when the solution is so obvious: the players have to drive towards the net. The first ppg came on a rush down the ice after an idiotic icing (icing, during a power play, ugh!) and the second came as four of the five Rangers were pushing towards the Penguins goal.

*I asked Benoit Allaire what he thought about the Vitale vs. Lundqvist incident and the ensuing roughing penalty. The goaltending coach said that it was something Hank had to do so he was fine with it. I mentioned that it seemed like it took Eminger too long to jump in and he disagreed, pointing out that there was still a play going on and that Hank can take care of himself. Eminger finally stepping up was the most useful has has been all season long so better late than never I guess.

*Pittsburgh's defense - aside from Deryk Engelland (of all people) - looked absolutely terrible without Kris Letang, who was out with a broken nose thanks to Max Pacioretty. Seeing that should make us that much more thankful for everything that McDonagh, Girardi and Sauer have done without Staal. And I know some of you are going to mention another guy, which leads me to ...

*Del Zastrous performance. And yet Torts rewarded him with more and more minutes ... stupefying. He was beaten wide twice, he had two outright turnovers and made several poor passes which ended up on Penguins' sticks. Just Del Zastrous. It is worth pointing out that I called his power play assist literally seconds before he set up Gabby for the fourth Ranger goal. As the folks in 330 and 329 can attest (I am a bit loud), hand on heart truth. I knew he would do something to give his advocates ammunition. He was awful the rest of the evening.

*The other whipping boy of this blog, Arty Anisimov, has not been as big of a liability. In fact, he is doing a lot right and getting into good spots - his play just seems to be missing something. Perhaps he is overthinking things at those crucial last seconds? Hard to say but once he gets it together the GAS line will get back to it's GAG ways.

*Sidney Crosby took seven shots and just one made it on net. That is good work by Girardi and McD right there. Of course, it is hard to keep the Kid down so he still came away with two assists but it could have been worse. Not Islanders worse but still worse.

*Jody Shelley can call Dubi a weasel all he likes but he just needs to watch Tyler Kennedy to see what a real weasel looks like. Nice to see Sean put him down after getting jumped off of the opening faceoff. Now if only someone would nail Arron Asham ...

*As I was wrapping this up I turned on MSG to watch the replay of the game and heard Sam Rosen open with 7-0 Prust stat. Without giving credit! Bastard!

*PHW Three Stars
3-Evgeni Malkin - one goal.
2-Brad Richards - one goal and two assists.
1-Marian Gaborik - one goal and one assist.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Crosby - Whining diving crying little #$%^&. Helluva hockey player though.
2-Cally - Callahan has gotten his game together and the Rangers have followed. Leader.
1-Gabby - See what happens when the Slovakian Slacker starts working? He has found some chemistry and confidence to vault back to the level of elite scorer in the NHL.

12-5-3: Afternoon Delight

2011-11-27T13:05:00.003-05:00

Just one day after playing a sloppy game against the Caps, the Rangers played a tight game against the Flyers and ultimately prevailed 2-0 over the evil orange.

Was it exciting? Hell yes. Was it awesome to attend? You'd better believe it. Was it perfect? No.

This team needs to play 60 full minutes, it needs to be more consistent and it needs to be smarter. After playing to the HBO cameras with physical play the first half of the first period, they must have figured that they gave the cable network enough material because they weren't as tough from then on out. And Ryan McDonagh can not take two bad penalties. But things are going in the right direction and we have to hope that Torts can keep it that way with the huge amount of distractions of the next month.

Late Hits:

*For fans of traditional statistics, the AP pointed out that the Rangers improved to 11-1 in games where they scored first. So Brad Richard$ striking the opening blow in this match was a good omen to be sure. However, I will stick with my favourite statistic: the Blueshirts are 7-0 when Prust squares off inside the first two minutes of a game, 3-0 this season.

*That fight was a far better trailer for 24/7 than the actual preview that was on HBO Friday night, where the most vicious thing was Jody Shelley saying Dubi was a weasel and Dubi naming Scott Hartnell as his least favourite Flyer. Oooh, there is palpable hatred there ...

*Brandon Dubinsky was on the ice less than John Mitchell. While Mitchell definitely has been skating well and is far, far, far better than Erik Christensen, Houston, we clearly have a problem.

*Another Steven McDonald game from Captain Callahan. When the man with the C puts in the extra effort, the rest of the guys are forced to follow. As for his 'goal,' if you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'.

*The Rangers keep playing this way then other teams may have to actually use their starting goaltenders.

*That being said, Bob wasn't bad. He was fantastically screened by Cally on Richard$ goal and Boyle ran into him on the Hagelin goal. Utterly delighted that young Carl scored but I'm not sure his goal should've counted - Boyle skated right into the crease behind Bob and made contact with the goaltender as Hagelin was batting home his own rebound.

*But like I said, it was delightful to see the Swedish kid score. It was a fantastic play and for him to get a standing ovation? Amazing!!

*Amazing how ineffective Claude Giroux was without Jaromir Jagr. Some credit should go to the Ranger defenders but Giroux simply was not the same speedy player that he was when Jagr was with him earlier this year. We dodged a bullet to be sure.

*Del Zaster had one of his better games. Yep, I said it. But don't go too crazy, he is still far from good. His positioning is poor, his hitting is flawed, his passing is often atrocious ... but he didn't have many of his usual turnovers so that is a small improvement. He recorded his fourth power play point of the year, and of course it was a secondary assist. Really justifies that 4:11 average power play time, right? But if Joe Micheletti raves about his play, then he must be doing great!

*Sean Avery needs to stop trying to play the refs and start playing his game again or else he can easily find himself out of the lineup. Hagelin keeps playing the way he has these two games then Torts will have to find guys to sub when Deveaux and Wolski come back - and you and I both know who he will look at first.

*The water coming out of the bathroom faucets that I used was scalding hot. Dolan really shouldn't try to physically burn the customers, just metaphorically.

*The Garden fan chanted "Flyers Suck" during a 1-0 game. Really? 1-0. While it is certainly true, we really shouldn't tempt fate much?

*I'm sure there was more worth mentioning but after attending Red Hot Hockey immediately after the Ranger game, some of the meandering minutia that rattles around my head was lost. Apologies.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Brandon Prust - two fights.
2-Brad Richards - one goal.
1-Henrik Lundqvist - 29 saves.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Andrej Meszaros - Without Chris Pronger it seemed like Meszaros was the defender who was always there to break up the big Ranger chances and jump-start the Philly attack.
2-Hank - Another shutout, ho hum.
1-Prust - 7-0.

11-5-3: Wild One In Washington

2011-11-25T21:11:00.000-05:00

The Rangers returned to their winning ways on Friday, following up their two woeful losses with a fast and loose 6-3 win over Washington. There were mistakes galore by both sides but the Blueshirts ended up on top, which is all that matters at the end of the day.

With less than 24 hours until the next match, I will make this quick. Late Hits:

*Ranted after last game that "as the captain and one of the team's top penalty killers, (Callahan) has to be smarter and he has to be a leader." Well, he certainly did that this evening. Cally stayed out of the box, forced two turnovers that handed Ruslan Fedotenko a pair of goals and he had a sneaky-smart feed to Brad Richard$ for a goal. Outstanding effort for the young man man with the C.

*Another nice turnaround from Brian Boyle, who had perhaps his best performance of the season (not that that is saying much). The big man won faceoffs and actually got the nerve to skate towards the front of the net, which paid off in a goal.

*Cally's assist would have been more impressive had it not come in the same game as Stepan's set-up for Marian Gaborik. The two of them are showing better chemistry than Dubi and Jagr did a few years back.

*Considering Dubi played less than three minutes, perhaps it is time to try something wild and reckless to get him going again. Who has a reputation of being wild and reckless (mistaken as it may be)?? Throw Dubi alongside Avery and put young Carl Hagelin in there. Three players with speed, grit and some skill.

*Hagelin had a nice little debut. As with any Red Berenson product, the Swede showed good hockey smarts and a great work ethic. Let's hope it was just the start for him.

*Washington certainly is not the party city that Montreal and Miami are, right?

*The Rangers can't make it easy, can they? Up 3-nil they had to open the door and let Washington start walking through. Unreal.

*Ranger power play? Still terrible, going 1-5. Great shot by Arty for that one though, using a defenseman as a screen before firing the puck in off the post.

*Watching their utterly inept defense, I can imagine Caps fans were thinking: 'if only Tom Poti was healthy!' I'll be honest, I missed Peanut Butta Poti Time.

*Ok, so seriously they were whining about the lack of Mike Green but even the Vespa rider couldn't have made Dennis Wideman and/or Roman Hamrlik not have horrible performances.

*Speaking of horrible defensemen: Del Zaster. Six goals by the team, zero points for the offensive d-man. No shots, over three minutes of power play time. But he was +2! John Carlson, one goal and one assist. Just sayin' ...

*PHW Three Stars
3-John Carlson - one goal and two assists.
2-Dan Girardi - two assists.
1-Ryan Callahan - three assists.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Girardi - Dan-O was on the ice for seven of the nine goals, playing just over 29 minutes. Both of his assists were secondary but he was still there on both ends of the ice. Too bad he and Ryan McDonagh are still human and couldn't take up all of Eminger and Woywitka's minutes.
2-Hank - The King kept the Rangers in this one with several utterly outrageous saves.
1-Cally - Don't remember any Chris Drury performances like this, do you?

A Quick Look At The Alumni Roster

2011-11-25T18:10:00.000-05:00

The rosters for the Winter Classic Alumni Game were announced this afternoon. The bad guys are listed at this link but here is the Ranger roster:

Glenn Anderson
Dan Blackburn
Paul Broten
Ron Duguay
Nick Fotiu
Mike Gartner
Adam Graves
Ron Greschner
Pat Hickey
Darius Kasparaitis
Kris King
Nick Kypreos
Tom Laidlaw
Darren Langdon
Brian Leetch
Dave Maloney
Stephane Matteau
Brian Mullen
Dale Purinton
Mathieu Schneider
Darren Turcotte
John Vanbiesbrouck

Some observations of the old guys:

*Beezer is my all-time favourite Ranger, even if he sullied his legacy by playing for the Flyers, Isles and Devils at the end of his career. It will be nice to see him take the ice in a Blueshirt again.

*Someone should have told whoever picked the teams that the Broad Street Bullies are now filing social security, they didn't need to select so many goons. Nicky, Dale, Maloney, King, Kypreos, Langdon ... were Joey Kocur, Chris Nilan and Rudy Poeschek busy?

*In all seriousness, it would have been great if Sergei Zubov could have made it. That is one great Ranger that the franchise unceremoniously dumped and never replaced.

*How did neither team bring in Sandy McCarthy?

*I would love to see Mike Gartner skate over, take out teammate Glenn Anderson, take his rightful Stanley Cup ring and skate away.

*Will Blackburn be playing with his two blocker set up?

*Saw Brian Leetch play outside last winter in Hartford with the Bruins alumni. Look for him to be every bit as good as recent-retiree Mark Recchi will be for Philly.

*If Paul Broten can make it, why not Jan Erixon?

*HBO has to put a microphone on Philly's goaltender Mark LaForest. I interviewed Trees when he was with the Binghamton Rangers and that guy can talk - lotta swearing but that is the whole point of 24/7, right?

*Terry Carkner and Kjell Samuelsson are both playing for Philly. Not sure why the Flyers didn't put in Ian Laperriere too so us Ranger fans can weep for three draft picks who got away and ended up with the enemy.

10-5-3: From Montreal To Miami

2011-11-24T11:58:00.002-05:00

For everyone who started carving the Cup during the seven game streak, are you carving up your wrists now that the Rangers have come back to Earth? After blowing through seven easy opponents the Blueshirts faced a pair of tough tests and failed both. (It also just happens that each coincided with trips to party towns but I have no hard evidence so I will just leave that accusation hanging in the air. Just want to say that it is a good thing the next game isn't in Vegas ...)

This visit to South Beach saw the Rangers wither in the sun, losing 2-1 to the Panthers. Dale Tallon has done magic remaking the kitty cats into a hard team to play against with some offensive bite. Sadly the most offensive thing on this night was the Rangers' play. You know the team was in trouble when their captain (yet again) took a bad, undisciplined penalty early. Not sure what Callahan's problem is but he has taken penalties each of the last four games. As the captain and one of the team's top penalty killers, he has to be smarter and he has to be a leader.

Late Hits:

*When Callahan was in the box Kris Versteeg was going back and forth in front of the crease, distracting Hank. And Jason Garrison took advantage by blasting a slap shot through the traffic to open the scoring. It is not rocket science.

*The Ranger power play was actually cycling early on but they kept on cycling players out and around the net. No one bothers to set up in front and the goaltender sees every shot. Having a man advantage means there is an extra man to counter the opposing goalie, make his life more difficult. Versteeg did that. The Rangers did not. Instead they used their extra attacker as just another person to pass to - perhaps hoping that having that extra option will eventually get someone an open shot. Except open shots are easily stopped when the goaltender can see them in this day and age. Not rocket science.

*After helping Garrison get his goal, Versteeg scored Florida's second himself. Del Zaster decided to just stand in the slot and watch the play while Tomas Fleischmann embarrassed Arty and fed the open Versteeg. It is getting tiring taking apart Del Zaster night after night as he just seems to find new ways to make mistakes. Said it before, will say it again, the Rangers screwed up his development by taking him away from Dale Hunter one season too early. Instead they allowed him to take advantage of all New York has to offer while everyone inflated his ego. Maybe someday he will have a moment of clarity and come to his senses but that day doesn't seem to be coming anytime soon.

*How is it possible that Anton Stralman is a slower skater than Jeff Woywitka? Stralman's decision making was almost as slow as his feet so he certainly is not the solution to the Rangers' lack of defensive depth. But his presence allowed the Rangers to limit Girardi's ice time so Dan-O only got 27 minutes of ice time instead of 28 or 29 ...

*Also embarrassing was everything surrounding Andre Deveaux's elbow to Fleischmann's head. I was standing at a bar wondering what the hell happened and MSG made the disappointing decision to dump to commercial. Once they came back and showed the replays it did not seem as egregious to me at all - a big guy hitting a little guy who was bent over. Deveaux definitely had his elbow out but it definitely did not appear to be an attempt to injure. If Deveaux really wanted to injure Flash, he would have just ran over the Panther when the guy had his head down with the puck - instead he just stupidly tried to make some contact. Worthy of an elbowing penalty for sure, but not a match. But with Flash playing up how hurt he was, it was inevitable that the big fourth line former AHLer would get the gate. Reputation goes so far with refereeing.

*With Deveaux out for a while, perhaps we will finally get to see Carl Hagelin get a shot. The addition of the speedy Swede will be a boon for Sean Avery as Avery was way too fast to be stuck with the cement skates of Boyle and Deveaux. Boyle has just been bad this season, his much publicized skating lessons haven't seemed to stick and he refuses to use his big build to his advantage. By the way, Sean went shot-less in this one, which shouldn't happen.

*Happy for Step to score in his 100th game, too bad it was the lone highlight of the night.

*When will MSG give up on the horrid 150 seconds of bad, loud drum and bass music? Poor Bill Pidto was drowned out by the terrible tune as he struggled through the highlights - it just is not a good gimmick. Most painful 150 seconds in hockey.

*It is ok for Fedotenko and Prust to be invisible offensively. It is not ok for Richard$ to be MIA. Dubi and Cally as wingers haven't been helping B-Rich of late but trying him with Feds and Prust? Torts grasping at straws.

*Dubinsky played nearly five minutes of power play time and 21 and a half minutes overall. He had one shot and 10 hits; neither statistic helped the Rangers. Hopefully Dubi can get his game back together before his old foe Sidney Crosby comes to town next week.

*The official scorer somehow gave the Rangers 50 hits. Fifty! Wonder what game he was watching.

*Maybe if the Rangers were able to tie things up and force a shootout Erik Christensen could have justified being on the roster. They weren't and he didn't. What a waste of a Ranger jersey.

*While the Blueshirts were definitely embarrassed yet again, at least they didn't do it wearing terrible jerseys. Seriously Islanders, you make it too easy.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Jason Garrison - one goal.
2-Henrik Lundqvist - 36 saves.
1-Tomas Fleischmann - two assists.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Hank - The King came through with his his usual solid effort, too bad he can't score too.
2-Garrison - Solid defense and a great shot.
1-Versteeg - The former Blackhawk got his nose dirty down low and was rewarded for it, twice.

10-4-3: The Hung Over Hollow Men

2011-11-20T03:04:00.001-05:00

This is the way the streak ends
This is the way the streak ends
This is the way the streak ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

The Rangers' seven game run came to an end on Saturday night as they fell down before the mighty mites of Montreal. Le Bleu Blanc et Rouge beat the Blueshirts 4-0 in a game that wasn't nearly that close. Had the Habs had more skill and a coach who was more offensively inclined than Jacques Martin than this one could have been seven, eight, nine to zip.

There was no zip in the Ranger play. Hell, there wasn't much play in the Rangers play. While I have no first- or second-hand accounts of the team enjoying Montreal on Friday night, the squad that took the Bell Centre ice certainly looked like they were battling hangovers - how else can you account for the lack of life? What is it about playing in Quebec that turns a hard-working team into a stumbling, inept mess? Granted, the team that won their previous seven games was flawed (as I have continually pointed out) but it was nowhere near as bad as the one that fell flat on their faces tonight.

Whatever. There is just one more opportunity to be massacred in Montreal, which will be in mid-January - at least it isn't an obstacle in the annual last-ditch run to the playoffs. For now the Blueshirts have three days off before going on a scary three-games-in-four-nights run against tough teams. Let's hope they find better ways to spend the time than whatever they did before taking the ice tonight.

Late Hits:

*It is easier to point out the players who did show up rather than rant about the ones that didn't - and they were all the usual suspects: Callahan, Prust, Avery and Sauer. And even they didn't come out of it clean as Cally had two good scoring chances and two terrible penalties. Prust provided no pressure on Price and got called for a joke of a penalty. Avery had a horrific turnover to the MexiCan't. And Sauer, well, I guess he was the best of the bunch.

*Unless Hank was injured - as his 'maintenance day' Friday may indicate - the decision to start Marty Biron was a mistake. Hank was hot, there would have been time for him to recover before the next game and Biron would have gotten a start anyway during next week's three-in-four run. Unless Torts plans on playing Hank in all three, which would be folly. But tonight Biron was a sieve, three of the four goals were stoppable and that one from the wing by Gionta was atrocious.

*He was not helped by having Michael Del Zaster in front of him, that is for sure. The kid was a colossal failure on this night. He was beaten on the Cole goal, he was out of position on the first Gionta goal and he turned over the puck on the second. Also he had four completely ineffective minutes of power play time - Anton Stralman needs to figure things out soon so he can get on the ice and take ~~some~~ all of that time.

*The Bell Centre, Hockey Night In Canada officiating in the third period was utterly woeful, to put it nicely. Andre Deveaux's boarding and roughing calls were both a joke and the Prust penalty was pulled from thin air. But there is no way Stephane Auger is going to piss off his home province or risk being embarrassed on national tv by allowing the Rangers to get physical. However, to pin the loss on the stripes is folly. The game was all-but-over before the third even started because of how the Rangers were skating.

*Multiple Rangers - including Avery and Stepan and Dubinsky - need to realize that they don't have to score on their open shots. While it would be nice to pick a corner and collect the glory, it is often better to just get the damned puck on net. Too many rushes ended up in the players peeling off and heading back as the shot missed the net, went around the boards and out of the Montreal end.

*It is hard to create anything offensively when the head coach insists you play dump and chase against a team that keeps three and four guys back all the time. The Rangers needed to show off their talent but instead they fell into the trap time and time again. When they got possession deep Montreal quickly double-teamed the puck carrier and forced a turnover. Not to mention that it seemed like the Blueshirts were hacking at the puck like it was a rat in the Florida Panthers locker room.

*The Habs have a defense that is even more inexperienced than the Rangers and yet Martin didn't feel the need to run P.K. Subban or Josh Gorges into the ground. Diaz (19), Emelin (11), St. Denis (2) and Weber (68) had a combined 100 NHL games under their belt starting the night but, still, no Canadien defender played more than 22:26. Dan Girardi played 28:31, Ryan McDonagh played 24:42.

*Why Tortorella refuses to let Deveaux get into any flow is beyond me. The Rangers were completely flat after the deflating Gionta goal slid under Biron in the second, so why not let the guy go out there and inject some energy? A fear of penalties? To point out the boarding call as a reason is ridiculous as it was a clean hit. The big man could have been a big help had he been allowed to play his game but instead he had to rein things in. You can't expect him to be any kind of factor when he has to skate for his job in the two shifts he gets per period.

*Really, why the hell were Micheletti and Rosen rambling throughout the pre-game tribute to the Montreal trainer? And Micheletti insisting that Biron stepped on 'a strap or something' when he simply missed the Gionta shot was just ridiculous.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Carey Price - 17 saves.
2-Erik Cole - one goal and one assist.
1-Brian Gionta - two goals.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Cole - You could see why Eric Staal misses him so much in Carolina - the New York native never stops skating and is willing to get his nose dirty to make a play.
2-Scott Gomez - Do you know how painful it is to put him here? And yet he made two nice feeds that resulted in Gionta's goals.
1-Gionta - Amazing what happens when your hard-working captain has a little help.

More On The MSG Renovations

2011-11-19T17:50:00.001-05:00

The ubiquitous Patrick Hoffman seems to post everywhere around the internet and posted a piece on the MSG renovations over at the Score. Hoffman is a friend of the blog and very graciously asked for my input - I guess he wanted a dissenting opinion, haha. You can click the above link for the well written final product but I thought I would provide the full Q & A here for anyone who is interested:

1) So, the Rangers have now played a handful games at the newly renovated Madison Square Garden. What are some of your general thoughts?

It is only a matter of time before the place is as sterile and lifeless as the Air Canada Center in Toronto.

2) What do you think are some of the positives of the newly renovated MSG so far? Why?

The new West Balcony is a lovely place to watch some hockey. It gives a majestic view over the ice. Of course, according to one rep I spoke to, they are not letting subscribers move up there and will not in the near future - instead they are reserving the seats for group tickets. Supposedly the ice level luxury areas are quite nice. Arena staff are nicer than ever, likely a mandate from above but still nice.

3) What do you think are some of the negatives of the newly renovated MSG so far? Why?

The building is far from finished. There are many signs scattered around the various concourses advising that features are coming in December or coming in 2012 or whatever. There are more obstructed view seats than ever - at least one handicapped section that I know of and the 400s under the West Balcony. There has been an extension chord sticking out of one of the walls into the arena itself near my seat, something they couldn't be bothered to at least cover up or get rid of. They put in a shoddy drop ceiling over the corner sections of the 300s to cover up some wiring - like the arena is someone's sleezy 70s basement. Without climbing over seats, there is no straight way to go from the 300s down to the glass inside the arena. As most of the eateries are not finished left, there are just basic concessions available and the quality of even those has been mediocre.

4) As a fan, how has your viewing experienced been enhanced, if at all, by the renovations?

It has not; my area of the 300s will not be renovated until next summer.

5) As a fan, how has your viewing experience been impacted negatively, if at all, by the renovations?

The building is quieter than it has been in years - either because of the way they have physically changed the place or because they raised prices and lost True Blue subscribers. It is harder to get around and lines are as bad as ever.

6) What do you think can further be done to make MSG better? Why?

Finish the renovation. Lower ticket prices to get more of the real fans back.

7) Any other general thoughts you'd like to share about the newly renovated MSG?

I was vehemently against the renovation when it was announced but now am willing to wait until it is completed before passing final judgement. But I don't like what I see so far, that is for sure.

Peepin' Foes: Montreal Canadiens

2011-11-18T20:23:00.000-05:00

The Rangers will put their seven game streak on the line Saturday night when they head into the Bell Centre for a match against Montreal. The game is at 7 pm and is on HNIC for those lucky enough to get CBC, NHL Net for those in the US outside of NY and MSG for the poor bastards in NY.

Where We Are: Finding ways to win games. As per Brooksie, the Rangers are 9-1-2 against bottom 13 clubs - including a 5-3 win over these very same Canadiens.

Where They Are: The Habs have just 19 points in 19 games so far. They are last in their division and 12th in the East but have just one regulation loss in their five games - 3-1-1. That loss came against the Islanders of all teams though so things are certainly not going too well for the Habs.

Who To Watch For: Tomas Plekanec leads Montreal with 18 points in their 19 games. Hank's old buddy Max Pacioretty is the team leader with nine goals. Carey Price, who is coming off of a shutout against Carolina, has allowed two or less goals in eight of his last nine games (the exception being the four he gave up to the Rangers). No U.S.S. Hal Gill as the lumbering oaf was suffering from "a virus" and just got out of the hospital. Andrei Kostitsyn and Andrei Markov are both out. Scott Gomez has missed time due to injury this season but has gotten in 10 games. The Mexican't is goalless with just two assists. Hahahahahaha. I laugh and yet that likely means he will score against us unless our incredible luck of late holds.

What To Watch For: Not sure if the Rangers went up today or not but if so, see how they start after having Friday night fun in old Montreal. The Ranger forecheck on the many injury fill-ins on the Canadiens' blue line. Old foes Michael Cammalleri, Erik Cole and Brian Gionta to pop up and play hard. Gomez and Plekanec to win faceoff after faceoff. How many minutes Girardi and McDonagh play against Pacioretty.

What We'll (Hopefully) See: The GAS line to snap their two game drought and finally convert on some of their chances. Had Prust not had to step in for Eminger, I would say a fight in the first two minutes but it might not be for the best for him to test his shoulder two games in a row. So perhaps Andre Deveaux getting more than three minutes, considering he is twice the size of Gionta and Desharnais. Cally and Dubi not getting suckered into doing anything stupid by P.K. Subban. Actually, Avery vs. Subban would be quite entertaining. Avery to keep his goal scoring streak going.

Also Check Out: Sadly the fun Four Habs Fans called it quits but there are still a few good blogs out there - All Habs, SBN's Eyes on the Prize and a thorough MSM blog from the Gazette called Habs Inside/Out.

10-3-3: Surviving The Cesspool

2011-11-16T03:25:00.000-05:00

Maybe it is seeing Brad Richards' new girlfriend Olivia Munn as Princess Leia but the best analogy I can make for the Rangers right now is the Millennium Falcon: "She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts."

The Rangers definitely do not look like much - that is for sure - but where it counts is on the scoreboard and the Blueshirts have won seven straight. On Tuesday they just barely beat the Islanders 4-2 in a game that was far too close. The Isles had lost nine of 10 and played quite poorly. The Rangers weren't much better but they still found a way to win, something they have done game after game on this run. It is frankly stupefying but hell, it has been fun. Now, after surviving the decrepit dump the Isles call a hockey arena, the Rangers will really put their luck to test in the House of Horrors that is the Bell Centre on Saturday.

But first things first, Late Hits for this one:

*Hey Richard$, nice looking girlfriend and nice looking goal. Fate certainly is smiling on him right about now, eh?

*For all of the hand wringing over the lines Torts set before the game, they didn't even make it through the first period. So many words typed on so many blogs and message boards for no good reason.

*No matter who he is with, it seems like Ryan Callahan is skating alone out there. It is quite sad to see him go in one on three or four so often.

*Maybe the Rangers should rename the power play unit to the waste two minutes unit or the antagonize our fans unit or something. How do they not score five-on-three? Or even come close? Especially against a kill that is ranked 20th in the NHL ... If the Ranger power play came through on two man advantage - or the ensuing power play just seconds after that ended - then the Blueshirts wouldn't have been a post away from going to overtime against the last place team in the Eastern Conference.

*A part of the power play problem is Del Zaster. The kid is not capable of quarterbacking a NHL power play and yet he eats minutes away. He takes too long to make decisions, he doesn't shoot enough, he can't hold the blue line, his passes do not put his teammates in good positions ... he just has that one back-door move that other teams are clearly aware of now. MDZ completely losing track of a puck that was right behind him was just infuriating. Making things even more maddening is that the kid did have at least two good defensive plays in the game, but they are just outweighed by his many shortcomings.

*Oh Arty, following a two-on-one breakaway with an offensive zone penalty. This kid is just so frustrating.

*AVERY *clap, clap*, AVERY *clap, clap*, AVERY *clap, clap* ... on Long Island. That was awesome. The Hockey News had a poll a few weeks back where 85% of hockey fans said they wouldn't want Avery on their team. The other 15% must have been Ranger fans. Said it before, will say it again: all Avery does is play his ass off for the Blueshirts. And we love him for it. It is pathetic that that he is still getting reputation penalties called against him - the unsportsmanlike at the end of the first was a farce. But that didn't dissuade him from playing his game and earning more than 12 minutes of ice time. For him to come away with his second goal in as many games ... just wow. AVERY *clap, clap*, AVERY!!

*The Mausoleum staff played "Shipping Up To Boston" during the Avery/Mottau fight because, I guess, because Mottau is a Masshole from Quincy. So the Isles have theme songs like pro wrestlers now? How white trash of them. And then they later played the Dancing Larry song ... awful.

*Love that the Isles honoured a serviceman - the one time the entire building cheered together. (The nat'l anthem was fractured as several people *cough, cough, not just me, cough* yelled "Let's Go Rangers!" mid-song.)

*Also deserving of appreciation was the Islanders WAGs as they were selling Love For Lokomotiv bracelets. I already had one but bought another for a friend.

*Brandon Prust should smack Steve Eminger in the back of the head for having to fight his battle for him. Eminger took exception to getting hit, picked a fight and then let Prust step in for him. There was no need for Prust to lower himself to Martin's level and get suckered into a wrestling match with that minor leaguer. Of course, Eminger made up for his act of cowardice by scoring the goal to make it a 2-1 game but still, Prust needs to save his fights for the first two minutes of big games.

*There were at least three fights among the fans, with one being particularly gnarly. A guy got thrown down the stairs of the 300 section only to take a few more punches from security once he reached the bottom. Poor bastard.

*Oh Henry! It really is amazing watching Lundqvist play hockey. He had an utterly incredible sprawling save midway through the second period and made several other top notch stops over the course of the night. But then again, his various wanderings away from the crease were heart attack-inducing and that Frans Nielsen goal against was atrocious. We can't do anything easy, can we?

*Anton Stralman had better finish learning the Ranger system soon because Dan Girardi isn't going to last much longer. By the middle of the third period Dan-O could hardly move. He ended up with almost 28 minutes of ice time while Woywitka and Eminger both played less than 10. If Stralman doesn't figure the system out, get into game shape and earn Tortorella's trust, then Girardi might not even make it to the All Star Game that we are trying to write him into.

*How great is it that the Islanders suck? Seriously. Too bad the NHL will reward them with another top pick. But then again, maybe whoever they draft will end up like Kyle Okposo, who was a healthy scratch. Haha.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Evgeni Nabokov - 26 saves.
2-Henrik Lundqvist - 31 saves.
1-Brad Richards - one goal.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Frans Nielsen - As bad as his goal was for Hank to give up, the Dane was a constant threat for the Isles.
2-Cally - The Captain put forth a complete effort yet again.
1-Hank - Had the King not come through during the second period siege the Rangers would have had their streak snapped by the last place Islanders. Last place Islanders - what a delight to write. Last place Islanders.

Peepin' Foes: New York Islanders

2011-11-15T05:11:00.000-05:00

The Rangers head to MSG East for the second time this young season for a bout against the Isles on Tuesday (7pm, MSG for the many mistakes of Micheletti, MSG-Plus for the far-too-concussed-to-know-where-he-even-is Butch Goring).

Where We Are: I didn't see the first meeting with the Isles but have to imagine that the Rangers are in far better shape than they were during that loss. The Rangers have remarkably won six in a row despite many, many flaws in their game and their roster.

Where They Are: The Isles have just one win in their last 10 games (1-6-3) so they are, of course, more dangerous than ever. Despite an alleged three-headed goaltending monster, they have given up 14 goals over their last three games.

Who To Watch For: The Isles are hoping for another Swiss savior in rookie Nino Niederreiter, who they just called up in time for the game. The other native of the neutral country on their roster, Mark Streit, is the cornerstone of their defense (while Wade Redden, the guy we got instead, is in the AHL). That John Tavares nerd doesn't suck while P.A. Parenteau is still proving the Rangers wrong by showing that he can indeed play in the NHL - he has 12 points in 15 games. Michael Grabner and Matt Moulson have been mediocre at best while Kyle Okposo and Blake Comeau have been positively terrible. The Isles don't have a single player on the positive side of their plus/minus.

What To Watch For: A loud, pro-Ranger crowd. The Rangers' intensity and discipline levels. Comeau - if he plays - to break out; he could be scratched since he is pointless in 12 games this year but he does have 18 in 19 career games against the Rangers. Rickie D to try to step up his play - seeing as Nabby gave up this hilarious atrocity in the Isles' last game, DP is sure to get the call. Or maybe it will be Monty. Whichever one of them ends up starting, the guy has cause to hate the Rangers.

What We'll (Hopefully) See: The Rangers make Jay Pandolfo and Brian Rolston miss their years on the Devils. Dan Girardi playing less than 26 minutes, Sean Avery playing more than 10. Andre Deveaux beating up meathead Matt Martin. The Rangers not giving up any shorthanded goals to Frans Nielsen. The GAS line getting back to their scoring ways. Brian Boyle following his new linemates' (Cally and Dubi) lead by starting to play as hard as he can. Dubi starting a goal-scoring streak now that he broke his donut.

Also Check Out: Schultzy took over Point Blank so head over there to make fun of him.

9-3-3: Friday Fun

2011-11-12T04:52:00.000-05:00

The Rangers kept on rolling on Friday night with their sixth win in a row, a 5-1 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes. Even though this was the fifth straight win on Garden ice, it probably was the most feel-good of them all. Fan favourite Sean Avery scored, Brandon Dubinsky got off the snide and military members were honoured around the arena.

Was it perfect? Absolutely not. The Rangers were good the first 20 minutes, poor the next 30 and terrific the last 10. Tortorella simply can not get his guys to play a full 60 for the life of him. And that back-and-forth effort came against a Carolina squad that was far less fearsome than the hurricane-that-wasn't this summer Irene. The Canes were not a good team. But, that being said, we should be heartened that the Blueshirts didn't play down to their opponents ... in the end.

Late Hits:

*Sean Avery should not take faceoffs. But he should keep doing everything else he did. Having family members in the audience paid off as Avery put together a heck of a game: he scored a goal, drew a pair of penalties and forced Tortorella to play him more than five minutes alongside players with actual skill and ability. Avery's goal was terrific - he read the clearing pass off the boards perfectly before showing his incredible breakaway speed to beat the defender. Once he had the puck there was no pulling up, no dumping and changing - he just went right at Cam Ward and snapped the puck under the crossbar. It was beautiful. And man, did the Garden go wild. It was delightful.

*Brandon Dubinsky delighted in his goal, with a very Vinny Prospal-esque celebration. The goal was just good fortune as Ward kicked the rebound from Ryan Callahan's shot right into the slot. But hey, a gimmie goal is still a goal and hopefully it will be enough to get Dubi going again.

*I've seen Carolina a good number of times in the last few years and I've never seen Cam Ward implode like he did in the third, allowing three goals in three minutes before gifting Richard$ one of the easiest goals of his entire career.

*Probably the best Garden crowd to date this season, not that that is saying much.

*Joe Frazier got a better, longer commercial break obituary than Derek Boogaard did during the home opener. Boogaard only played for the Rangers.

*Really getting tired of watching Del Zaster. The kid is atrocious on the power play and is virtually incapable in his own zone. Late in the second period the Rangers had a power play that actually looked pretty good. And MDZ blew it - not only did he miss his trademark back-door attempt but his passing was poor to everyone except Tim Gleason.

*The GAS Line looked good again, even if the Canes were able to hold them off of the scoreboard. Arty needs to be more physical and use his size better.

*Speaking of a reluctance to be truculent, Brian Boyle is almost back to being the utterly ineffective player who the L.A. Kings gave up on. He picked up a second assist on the Dubi goal but that had little to do with his work on the play. What he learned from his power skating lessons, the seeing eye shots from the circles, the faceoff ability are all gone. But most of all, I miss Brandon Prust.

*How did Hank miss Alexei Ponikarovsky's shot? The King was so good the rest of the night that allowing the former Leaf to slide a low shot past him was really surprising.

*If the fans didn't boo every time he touched the puck, you wouldn't have known that Eric Staal was playing.

*Anyone else have a bad feeling that the Islanders are going to end this nice ride on Tuesday?

*PHW Three Stars
3-Brandon Dubinsky - one goal and one assist.
2-Sean Avery - one goal.
1-Dan Girardi - one goal.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Avery - Sean edges out Dubi for the final spot because he played for just 10 minutes. He didn't get a single second on special teems
2-Hank - Soft goal by the former Leaf Poni aside, Lundqvist's play kept the Rangers in the game.
1-Girardi - That is future All Star Dan Girardi to you.

Peepin' Foes: Carolina Hurricanes

2011-11-11T05:15:00.001-05:00

The Rangers will bring their five game win streak back to the Garden Friday for a game against the ~~Hartford Whalers~~ Carolina Hurricanes. It is a 7pm start and, for those stuck at home, you will be subjected to Micheletti on MSG.

Where We Are: On a roll. The Rangers are finding ways to win despite the many flaws in their game and crippling inconsistencies.

Where They Are: Losers of three straight and seven of their last nine. To brighten their spirits they spent Thursday at Ground Zero.

Who To Watch For: In typical fashion the Rangers will face a scorer coming back from injury - Jussi Jokinen. The shootout specialist missed three games after a bad fall against Tampa and is still in second on his team with nine points in 12 games. First is Jeff Skinner, who is showing no signs of a sophomore slump this season (14 points in 15 games) while Jamie McBain has been slumping his way to the press box. Our pal Tuomo Ruutu hasn't been particularly good this season, which means he should get hot against the Rangers. Tomas Kaberle and Alexei Ponikarovsky have been busts.

What To Watch For: Eric Staal. The elder brother has been atrocious this season with just five points and is an awful -16. It would appear that he is suffering mentally for the physical pain he gave unto his brother. While it would just be ceremonial, watch to see if anyone will go after him. Olympic teammates Ryan Callahan and Tim Gleason going hit for hit. Chad LaRose walking around Del Zaster as he powers to the net.

What We'll (Hopefully) See: The Ranger forecheck making life tough for the Canes quarterback Joni Pitkanen. Hell, hopefully we will just see the Rangers forecheck. It would be too much to ask Boyle to find his scoring touch but his checking line needs to pick up the checking part of their job. Dubi to get off the shnide. The GAS line to keep up their GAG ways. Andre Deveaux to beat up Jay Harrison.

Also Check Out: Red and Black Hockey just called it quits but there is still Canes Country, the Cardiac Cane and Canes Now.

8-3-3: Step & The Slovak

2011-11-10T03:26:00.000-05:00

Last season we saw Derek Stepan find a nice chemistry with Mats Zuccarello. The two complimented each other and clearly made each other comfortable as they worked through their first season on Broadway. The only problem with that pairing was that it became predictable - for all of the hard work and pretty passing, there was no finishing. Teams quickly learned that Zuke would not shoot the puck and adjusted accordingly.

Well, now Zuke is shooting a bit more but he is doing it in the bus league alongside fellow Lilliputian Jonathan Audy-Marchessault. Stepan, meanwhile, is making the most of his time with Marian Gaborik. Tortorella's use of the Tom Renney line generator finally worked out as Step has started clicking with the Slovakian sniper. The two have found the most elusive of Ranger qualities - chemistry. Let's hope it is more the forging of steel rather than the quick explosion of a baking soda volcano.

Late Hits:

*You can dislike Sean Avery all you like but you really should respect the lengths he is going to prove he belongs in the NHL. Avery took on Zenon Konopka in the first period, answering the bell for the Wolski/Alfredsson collision (I still think it wasn't an elbow). Was it a good fight? No. Did Avery win? No. But he stepped up for his teammates against the most prolific fighter in the NHL. Because Torts is Torts Avery ended up with nearly as many minutes in the penalty box as he did on the ice but it doesn't matter. Avery answered the bell. Hope he doesn't get gaffe from the boss for being on the ice when the Sens scored their second goal of the night - if not for the evil cloud of Shanabans looming over the NHL right now, Avery would have hammered Bobby Butler before Butler pitchforked the puck into the Ranger end, setting up the Nick Foligno goal.

*There was one other fight in this one, Andre Deveaux against Jared Cowen. Cowen, the coward, picked the fight off the faceoff and kept his helmet and visor on. An utterly despicable move. Major points to Deveaux for picking his punches instead of firing away at the pathetic joke of a hockey player Cowen. While he is still a bit too slow of foot for my tastes, Deveaux has been a solid addition to the team - one far better than Brashear/Boogey/Rupp ...

*Love the poppies for Remembrance Day.

*Love Paul MacLean's mustache.

*Hate that the Sens are called 'Ottawa" when they play in Kanata, a suburb a half hour away. That is almost as egregious as calling the NFL teams the New York Jets and the New York Giants when they both play in New Jersey.

*Arty: the post? Really? Anderson gave him so much space to shoot at during his first period breakaway but the kid blew it. Admittedly it is just one of the few complaints about his play of late: he has just one goal this season despite a slew of chances.

*And on that note, Brandon Dubinsky. Anyone else think Dubi spent too much time this summer celebrating his new contract?

*Really not sure what caused the correction that brought Brian Boyle back to being a big nothing of a player but it stinks. His hot hand died down in the middle of last season but he was still effective. Now he is dragging Prust and Feds down with him.

*Girardi and McDonagh played around 28 minutes a piece. Against Ottawa. The Ottawa Senators. Not a division rival. Not even one of the top teams in the conference. They admittedly were rock solid against the Sens but Torts is burning these guys out and it isn't even Thanksgiving yet.

*Milan Michalek had one goal in seven games against the Rangers before the start of this campaign. He has three in two this season. Somebody hit that guy.

*Not long after starting this blog I floated the idea of dealing Gomez for Spezza. While Bob Gainey's goof of a trade has certainly paid dividends for the Rangers, seeing Spezza shine always annoyed me an extra bit. Perhaps Brad Richard$ will keep improving into the skillful center the Rangers need but tonight Spezza was better.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Milan Michalek - one goal.
2-Derek Stepan - one goal and two assists.
1-Marian Gaborik - two goals.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Hank - 29 saves and no softies allowed in yet another solid start.
2-Erik Karlsson - While Del Zaster has been improving of late, seeing just how smooth and skilled this Swede is is infuriating. Karlsson eats up minutes and deftly moves the puck.
1-Stepan/Gabby/Arty - The whole line deserves to be honoured after another great game.

7-3-3: Slowly Step-an Up

2011-11-07T04:11:00.001-05:00

MSG Network does a lot of things wrong. Since the heydays of SportsDesk and JD and WWF, the network has slowly become something you only tune in to to catch the game. Programming has been filled with bad music shows promoting MSG's other properties, poorly-put-together clip shows and perhaps the most obnoxious telecast of a radio show ever. There is the rare gem of a new Vault but other than that, it has been Ranger game or nothing. Well, MSG has another hit on their hands with Beginnings and they stuck gold on Sunday by programming the Derek Stepan episode ahead of the Ranger game against the Winnipeg Jets.

Beginnings gives a personal look at the personalities that make up the Rangers and Stepan's show showed a young man with class and character. A humble kid with personality and class beyond his years, the first thought that came to my mind was that he may be a perfect heir to Adam Graves - an example of what a Ranger should be. Step has a long ways to go and a lot of years ahead of him but he is certainly headed in the right direction. After a slow start to his sophomore season, the last few games have seen his play improve exponentially and the 3-0 win over Winnipeg was one of his best performances yet.

The kid looked like a great compliment to Gaborik, the way Dubi was to Jagr a few years back. The chemistry worked to the tune of three goals and another Ranger win. Now we have to see if it was the start to a strong bond or just a flash in the pan.

Late Hits:

*For all of the raving and all of the winning, things still aren't great in Ranger land. The team had trouble pressing the road-weary Jets back into their own zone, where is that damned forecheck?? The power play still had its troubles, wasting serious five-on-three time. Dan Girardi still had to play more than 26 minutes. Dubi's offense is still MIA. The guys are still good for a few stupid penalties. The Garden crowd - at least on tv - sounded quiet and tame.

*I had forgotten how difficult it is to watch games at MSG while not in the building. And not just because Micheletti is unlistenable - which he is, listening to him butcher games is a form of torture akin to waterboarding. But while MSG shows the game as well as any broadcaster out there, you don't really get the feeling that comes with being there. Sure you hear the ubiquitous Potvin Sucks whistles but it is far from the same. This is not to boast or brag about how I get to so many games blah blah, just a personal revelation as to how tied to the games I've become.

*Without being in the building it was hard to concentrate on Del Zaster's play but he didn't look as bad as usual. Of course, the Rangers weren't playing as good of an opponent as usual but hey, I'm trying to give him credit. His assist on the Stepan goal was a fluke as he simply made a bad pass to Gaborik that happened to hop past the Slovak to the streaking Stepan.

*The other Ranger who often gets dogged in this space - Arty Anisimov - had perhaps his best game this year. Between his goal line saves in that one goal-crease scrum and his work with Step and Gabby, Arty played with an energy and confidence that he usually lacks. Pointed it out from Day 1, he relies upon his linemates for strength and he could be a great player if he ever is able to find it in himself.

*Happy to see Biron get the shut out but let's face it, he barely had to earn it. No Tobias Enstrom, no cohesive attack by the Jets.

*Ruslan Fedotenko is the guy who carries cement bags around construction sites. He works his ass off in a thankless but very necessary position.

*Love how the haters are calling out Sean Avery for being ineffective. Avery was given just 5:21 of ice time, skating alongside Slow Deveaux and Mr. Softie Christensen. Talk about putting a player in a position to fail. Not that I am hating on Deveaux - he is actually a decent replacement for Rupp - but his lack of speed and skill set just doesn't compliment Avery's game at all.

*As I tweeted, Mark Messier was honoured during a tv timeout for running the NY marathon - something I guess it an accomplishment that's as important to the Rangers as Boogaard's death. I still can't believe the lack of class in handling the loss of that Blueshirt during the home opener.

*Another game-time tweet, do you think that Boyle is hurt or something? He looks like the pre-Barb Underhill player he was. Big, soft & virtually useless.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Marian Gaborik - two goals and one assist.
2-Marty Biron - 23 saves.
1-Derek Stepan - one goal and one assist.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Biron - When that first shot almost went in under his right pad, I thought for sure this was going to be like Zug. Where his luck went south in Switzerland, it was on his side on this night.
2-Gabby - As great as Step's feed was on his first goal, Gabby still had to finish. And, as empty net goals go, his was purty.
1-Step - Nice timing kid, making the MSG programmer look good.

6-3-3: Back To .500

2011-11-06T03:00:00.000-05:00

Was tonight's 5-3 game the result of the calamity that took place just four minutes into the first period? It is possible. The Rangers inexplicably took exception to a perfectly clean hit, picked a pair of fights and shockingly ended up with a two-man advantage - one they actually scored on. The Garden went wild and the Blueshirts got a burst of energy that they rode to two more goals in the period.

What Dean Morten and Tim Peel were thinking is beyond me. How they decided Sauer got the gate and not Cally, how they decided Mike Blunden's hit was interference when the puck was in Dubi's feet, how they suddenly decided to make tic-tac calls in the middle of the second period ... but hey, it worked out for the best, right?

Late Hits:

*With Sauer out the goalposts picked up their game and blocked several sure-fire goals. The first would have tied the game at one instead of leading to Dan Girardi's goal. Then there were the pair that would have either seen the Rangers completely blow their 3-0 lead but instead Brad Richard$ struck to thankfully put the game out of reach. Not quite the Massacre in Montreal but it would have been close.

*Del Zaster was his usual less than average defensive self but credit must be given to him, his goal was a thing of beauty. He loves to jump in the play and a smart feed from Step found him cutting through the slot. A quick deke and the Rangers were up 3-0. For the first time since the beginning of his rookie season MDZ did something worthy of the 'Leetch' hype. It was a sexy goal, no taking anything away from that. Too bad he still has no clue that hitting is supposed to be a tool to win the puck. And passing the puck into a guy's skates is not a good thing.

*Not sure what was more disgusting, the fans booing the Canadian national anthem or the fact that the singer sang the French version. And the idiot Ranger fans who chanted "USA!" later in the game ... really? The goaltender is Swedish, the star center is Canadian and star sniper is Slovak. Patriotism is a wonderful thing, stupidity is not.

*David Desharnais is short. Like, really short. Too bad Zuke wasn't up here so the two could go back-to-back to see who was taller.

*The Rangers are back in action Sunday night and it is hard to imagine Dan Girardi doing well. He and McDonagh looked completely out of gas by the end of the third period after going over the boards time and time again in this one. They were great but when the Habs upped the pressure in the final minutes it seemed like they could hardly move. And yet Jeff Woywitka saw less than seven minutes. That is not a vote of confidence coming off of his best game as a Ranger, on the day the team announced that they signed Christian Backman II, Anton Stralman.

*Speaking of ice time, I had set the over/under of Sean Avery's ice time at 7:30. Avery came in at 4:46. Really, what is the point of dressing the guy if the coach won't play him? Not that he showed that he deserved much more as he definitely showed some rust.

*Not sure why Torts kept Deveaux sitting so much either. Given how short the Habs were, you would think that a big wrecking ball might have been nice, especially when the Lilliputians started pinning the Rangers in their own end. Nice to see him collect his first NHL point since December 23rd, 2008 with the assist on the Richards goal. He kept battling along the boards to push the puck forward and Richard$ ended up taking a wicked wrister past Price.

*How great was it to see PK Subban - of all the Habs - falling into his own empty net, unable to stop Callahan's game-sealing score?

*Hard to decide which was my favourite taunt of the night, my "You got scored on by Christensen and Del Zotto! Hahahahahaha!" or another guy's "Hey, you guys really miss Scott Gomez." Either way, there were far, far too many Habs fans in the arena. But that is what is going to happen more and more often nowadays I guess.

*Wonder what, if anything, is wrong with Prust but he doesn't look like the player he was last season. Hopefully he isn't nursing another injury like the bum shoulder he dealt with back in the spring.

*I am pretty sure I heard the Garden staff play Lady of Spain on the organ early in the second period. I laugh every time I hear that.

*Dancing Larry was a mush yet again, doing his tired old dance just seconds before Gionta scored to bring Montreal back within one, 4-3.

*Dozen games into the season and the Rangers still are struggling to find consistency across the board. Shift to shift, period to period, game to game. But tonight's victory was their third straight so as long as they are getting points consistently, the rest will follow suit.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Ryan McDonagh - one assist.
2-Dan Girardi - one goal.
1-Artem Anisimov - two assists.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3- Arty - Like Step, Arty is starting to find his stride. Just once it would be nice to see him (and Boyle for that matter) use his size.
2-Step - Heads up play got him helpers on Christensen and Del Zaster's goals. One would have to be doing pretty well to get those two guys on the scoresheet. Hey oh!
1-Dan-O - Over 30 minutes, several blocked shots and a heckuva howitzer goal.

5-3-3: Done With The Ducks

2011-11-04T23:40:00.002-04:00

The Rangers avenged their 2-1 shootout loss to the Ducks in Stockholm with a 2-1 shootout win in the Garden on Thursday.

The two games were quite similar - virtually devoid of intensity and action. Hank, who made 27 saves in each, was beat by Bobby Ryan in the first shootout and stopped him in the second. There were a few minutes of outstanding hockey in both but the rest was drek with the teams more than willing to play for the free point. In Stockholm the Swedish crowd was quietly polite and tame while in MSG the crowd was just plain quiet outside of the awfully incessant Potvin Sucks whistles.

It wasn't particularly entertaining but at least it is out of the way. And it could prove to be important as the Rangers came away with three of four points against their west coast foes. Seeing it will be hard to escape with a lot of points against the Atlantic rivals, these could be the ones that make the difference between eighth and ninth place. You have to look at the big picture when the small one was so hard to watch.

Just a few Late Hits as this is already a day late:

*Nice timing for Jeff Woywitka to have his best performance on a day when the Rangers supposedly signed Anton Stralman - his replacement. Not only did ~~Redden~~ Woywitka score but he played capable defense, something Eminger and Del Zaster seem utterly incapable of doing.

*Del Zaster's failings makes seeing Cam Fowler do so well hurt that much more. MDZ seems to get walked around at least once every game and most of his passes are off by just enough to not help his teammate.

*Woywitka scores and Andre Deveaux immediately gave the Ducks a perfect opportunity to get re-energized by battling George Parros (who definitely didn't look right without the 'stache, even if it is for a good cause). It was impressive to see the minor leaguer absorb a lot of damage and stay upright but there really was no reason for a staged fight seconds after his team landed a punch on the scoreboard. As upsetting as the dance was, Deveaux was actually decent yet again. He does what Boyle doesn't, he uses his size well. But we could hardly see it because Torts strapped him to the bench as he tried (unsuccessfully) to have his team cling to the lead. So much for that whole 'safe is death' nonsense the coach used to spout.

*Really unsure why he would be so reluctant to let his team off the leash given how great Hank can be. The King was outstanding in this one and the one goal against was A-scored through a screen and B-scored on a shot that maybe a dozen NHLers can make.

*Is Ryan exciting to watch or what? Damn New Jersey-ite.

*Is it fate? Avery gets called up and Tortorella loses his one excuse to keep him out of the lineup when Wolski came up lame? Good thing Wojtek has his undeserved $3.8 million to find something to do while his groin heals.

*Derek Stepan seems to be getting into a groove. Slowly but surely he is climbing out of the sophomore-season opening slump and, frankly, is making Brandon Dubinsky look bad. As mentioned before in this space, it seems like Callahan is skating by himself much of the time.

*Erik Christensen finally came through, improving to 1-3 in the shootout this season. I guess we go by baseball where a .333 average is a good thing. Really worthwhile member of the roster.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Marian Gaborik - one assist.
2-Jonas Hiller - 24 saves.
1-Henrik Lundqvist - 27 saves.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Stepan - Gabby did score in the shootout and fired a slew of pucks on goal but Step really seemed like a bigger offensive threat throughout the night. And Gabby got an assist on Woywitka's goal but if Hiller wasn't preoccupied by Stepan skating through the crease the shot might not have gone in.
2-Hiller - Sure four shots got through him (two shootout goals, Woywitka's tally and another that went through his legs), but the Swiss stopper made that great glove save on I forget who.
1-Hank - The King comes through again. Long live the King, as long as he learns to stay in his damned crease.

4-3-3: Chomp On This

2011-11-01T03:59:00.003-04:00

When Brandon Prust took on Ryane Clowe just seven seconds into tonight's game, two things ran through my mind: 1- Prust is fighting out of his weight class and is gonna get beaten pretty badly and 2- my favourite Ranger-related stat was really going to be put to the test. Well, Prust did get yanked around like a rag doll but the Rangers reeled in the road weary Sharks with a 5-2 win, keeping the stat alive. That stat? The Blueshirts are now 6-0 when Prust squares off inside the first two minutes of a game, 2-0 this season.

Staged bouts are usually exhibitions in pointless pugilism to justify the paycheques of the neanderthals taking part but there is something more with Prust. The Rangers clearly get an extra jump when he 'defends the honour of Charlestown' (to steal a line from Slap Shot). It is a wonderful thing to watch but it is too much responsibility to put on the guy's surgically repaired shoulders.

The supposedly great motivator that is John Tortorella needs to do a better job getting the boys going because before long the wear and tear will take down Prust. The Rangers might still have won this one because San Jose was clearly a step slow but, given what happened Saturday, you never know.

Late Hits:

*Ryan Callahan. Wow. Nothing else needs to be said. Just wow. Captain. Captain Wow.

*Wish Brandon Dubinsky was able to get things going like Cally has - still goalless 10 games in.

*Trade Erik Christensen right now. His trade value has never been higher, surely we can get a seventh round pick for him. Both of his assists were sweet, even if they were more motivated by his fear of taking a hit than by a desire to set up a goal. Make the deal Glen!

*Andre Deveaux played the exact game Mike Rupp was supposed to play, just without a heavyweight fight. Strong on the boards, willing to go to the crease and stay there ... If the rumours are true and Rupp gets knee surgery then the Rangers would be well served keeping Deveaux around.

*No Avery banner this game. Hopefully the Garden is filled with them Thursday if he does indeed make it back to Broadway.

*How can people not be angry when Anisimov scores the way he did in the second period? To know that Arty is capable of collecting goals like that shortside backhand is infuriating considering all of his stretches of uselessness. It's like a Bronx Tale, the saddest thing in life is wasted talent.

*On that note it was hilarious seeing Brian Boyle skating backwards away from Colin White trying to throw punches in the first period. He is so soft, and his play is so ugly he might as well be Susan Boyle ... except she has a mind-blowing ability. Boyle's abilities are limited by his reluctance to use his size.

*Colin White was -3. Haha. Devils suck.

*Stop bringing up Del Zaster's team-leading +7. Marek Malik also had a gaudy +/- and he was just as atrocious in his own end. Credit should be given to MDZ for his efforts on the offensive side of the puck in this game for actually holding the blue line once and for a few decent passes but the missed coverages, soft hits and the slew foot wipe the positives off the board. He still stinks. Kinda remarkable how direct the lineage is for awful one-way defenders in this franchise: Lefebvre->Poti->Malik->Rozsival->Redden->Del Zaster.

*There is just no need to rip into Steve Eminger or Jeff Woywitka, If not for Staal's injury, Pavel Valentenko's regression and Mikhail Pashnin's decision to stay in Russia neither one of them would be playing. And what ever happened to Tomas Kundratek?

*Solid work by Biron. Mr. X from the Blue Seats made a case for Marty to start on Thursday but that just isn't likely. Surely he will get a chance to beat Winnipeg for a second time when the teams meet on Sunday.

*The Garden had large swathes of empty seats, which will get attributed to it being Halloween. But what happens when those same seats go empty other nights?

*What will it take to get rid of Dancing Larry and the 25 Potvin Sucks chants at random, inappropriate times against an inappropriate enemy?

*Maybe his goal will help Derek Stepan break his sophomore slump but it isn't likely. But that is ok, growing pains. Can't forget that the kid played an absolute ton of games last year between preseason, regular season, playoffs and the world championships.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Dan Girardi - two assists.
2-Brandon Dubinsky - two assists.
1-Ryan Callahan - two goals and one assist.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Prust - Sure he got hammered but he sent a message that Saturday's disaster wasn't going to happen again.
2-Dan-O - Girardi is playing above his pay grade and is doing fantastic work. But he has played less than 25 minutes just once out of the 10 games so the team has to be weary of wearing him out. It is only ~~October~~ November.
1-Cally - Yep. No brainer. Two fantastic goals and a perfect set-up pass to McD.

3-3-3: The Dreaded Three Goal Lead

2011-10-29T21:39:00.000-04:00

A good friend brought his eight month old son to the game this afternoon. After two periods of the baby boy taking everything in with wide eyed wonder and the Rangers up 2-1, my buddy decided to quit while he was ahead and go home.

When the Rangers fell apart and lost 5-4 in a shootout, I'd imagine many Ranger fans felt fussy and started throwing tantrums. I know I wanted to. Two things kept me from stamping my feet and wailing: the fact that the team still earned a point and the acknowledgement that they are utterly mismanaged.

The Rangers have lost six of their nine games and have been utterly atrocious ... yet they are just two points out of sixth place. While Tortorella has run out of excuses and seems utterly incapable of getting this team to fire on all cylinders, it is just October. Should the team go winless on this six-game homestand (a certain possibility), then it will be time to panic but until that occurs, to steal the cliche, we have to take it game by game.

Late Hits:

*Good effort from Brad Richards and Marian Gaborik. While they are still a bit too fancy, they picked their spots better and managed to bury their opportunities. Good thing Torts broke them up because when they were reunited through staggered line changes Gaborik set up Richards for two goals.

*In his postgame presser Tortorella said that the team needs to learn how to take momentum. Given that the roster that he insisted upon icing had just one rookie in it - one who has now been banished to the bus league - does he really think that these experienced professionals need to learn to how to take momentum?

*That aforementioned rookie was Tim Erixon, who was sent to Connecticut alongside Kris Newbury after the game. Jan's kid clearly needs some time with JJ Daigneault and Newbury simply hasn't had the same spark that he had immediately after his call-up. Expect Woywitka and Rupp to return to the lineup.

*The officiating was inconsistent and awful on both sides. Boyle hits Karlsson on the side and gets called for boarding. Konopka bumps Arty from the side and gets thrown out of the game. Alfredsson skates into Wolski and Wolski gets called for illegal check to the head. Richards was hit from behind in the open ice and nothing was called. Ridiculous.

*Wolski has just been an awful excuse for a hockey player but even with his utter lack of ability he didn't deserved to get called for that penalty. Wolski was looking up ice, Alfredsson was looking at Stepan and didn't see Wolski before colliding with him. And it wasn't even an elbow as Alfredsson's head hit into Wolski's shoulder first. Did Wolski push out his arm after the initial contact? Yes, but if something suddenly shoves you, you shove back.

*As for Anisimov, he started to turn to corral the puck when he was hit by Konopka. Arty lurched forward, hit his head on the glass and collapsed like a cheap suit. Konopka didn't hit him on the numbers, he didn't leave his skates, the point of contact was Anisimov's armpit. It wasn't a dangerous hit, it wasn't a violent hit, it was a hit. And Konopka got a game and the Rangers scored twice on the ensuing power play. A power play that Arty took part in, by the way.

*If Wolski and Christensen aren't going to score in the shootouts, what good are they? And it wasn't even like Anderson had to make amazing saves to stop them either.

*Made my way up to the West Balcony pregame and have to say that it is really nice up there. Nice, clean open view of the arena, concessions that are actually open and well staffed. Really impressive.

*Brandon Dubinsky was given a four year deal this summer so is it any wonder that he has stopped working as hard as he used to? Callahan has kept his fire but he constantly seems to be skating alone.

*All of these minutes played appear to be catching up to Dan Girardi.

*A three goal lead. They gave up a third period three goal lead. And you could feel that it was going to happen too. Especially when that clown Larry started dancing. What a mush.

*The game-tying goal was just pathetic. The Rangers had Boyle, Prust and Richards out there and they decided to sit back and kill a penalty. At even strength. Boyle and Prust are supposed to be the energy line guys and they had no energy. Watching them stand there as the Sens moved the puck around was painful.

*Michael Del Zaster keeps on racking up the points, thanks to a very kind scorekeeper. Del Zaster passed to Richards, Richards passed to Callahan, Callahan returned to Richards. Richards shot the puck, Callahan scored on the rebound. And MDZ was given an assist. Ridiculous. His all-around play is still atrocious but credit should be given because he managed to keep the puck in the offensive zone twice that I noticed - something he couldn't do against the Leafs.

*Erik Karlsson is everything that Del Zaster was supposed to be. David Rundblad, however, was invisible.

*Nick Foligno is just as annoying an opponent as his father was.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Marian Gaborik - one goal and two assists.
2-Brad Richards - two goals and one assist.
1-Jason Spezza - two goals.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Richards - Welcome to Broadway Brad.
2-Filip Kuba - Kuba has battled injuries his entire career but when he gets things going, he is a capable puck moving defender. Three assists this afternoon.
1-Spezza - That dork. Spezza's character was attacked in recent years but he really has gotten things together. With the Sens down by three he led the rally and got them back into the game.

3-3-2: Home, Horrible, Home

2011-10-28T02:30:00.004-04:00

The top highlight of Thursday night's home opener was that it wasn't in Europe. I didn't fly thousands of miles and spend thousands of dollars to watch an utter disgrace. To watch that pathetic display of puck at all was excruciating, but to see it in the home opener was heartbreaking. If the team can't get it together to give it all in their first game in front of their fans, when can they? After one well-played period the Rangers completely fell apart and were embarrassed by the Toronto Maple Leafs, eventually losing 4-2.

Time to start ranting in my Late Hits:

*How do you bury the obit for Boogaard, the lives lost in the Lokomotiv crash and other summer casualties in a bad montage during a tv timeout? People are talking, getting up, walking around ... And then, on the big screen, to wipe away from the cheesy 'we will never forget' frame to a bunch of people waiting to cheer for their Chase-sponsored free tee shirt? Disgusts me. The team smartly skipped the pregame talent - no Blue Man Group, no Ace Frehley - and wonderfully had FDNY and NYPD hockey players as an honour guard during the player introductions but all of the goodwill earned from that was wasted away by the obit. They could have included #94 when individually naming the players and have a moment of silence then. But instead it was shoehorned in while MSG ran some commercials for crap you won't buy. Original Six teams are supposed to be classy.

*Didn't get up to the party decks (which I heard were wonderful) but what I saw of the renovated Garden was not welcoming. Many portions of the concourses closed, lines out of control, no more straight staircases from the ice to the 300s, a lower drop ceiling over the corner seats in the 300s, spray painted construction numbers on exposed concrete floors, an extension chord literally sticking out of a concrete block on my wall. The Rangers aren't playing in a renovated building, they are playing in a building being renovated. It is very far from finished and to have to pay top dollar to watch games in a construction area is ridiculous.

*And the people who paid largely weren't the usual Garden Faithful. It was perhaps the quietest season opener since before the lockout, and that was even before the team fell apart.

*When Jonas Gustavsson made it to the NHL, he listed Henrik Lundqvist as someone he wanted to be like. Well, after Gustavsson allowed an utterly atrocious goal on a wide open shot to open the scoring, it was Lundqvist who emulated the Monster, allowing two. You knew Hank was in trouble when he kept on sliding out of the crease but for him to give up shots from the circles is entirely uncharacteristic. And short side? Geez.

*When Hank plays this poorly he needs his teammates to bail him out and they simply didn't. Still too afraid to make mistakes, they reverted back to the same old dump, chase and change Rangers and were outworked and outhustled by the better-coached Leafs.

*Welcome back Mike Sauer! Sauer saved Hank's bacon by making a diving stop on an empty net after the King vacated his throne.

*Too bad there is only one of him, because Eminger and Del Zaster have to go and Erixon could use some time with JJ Daigneault in Connecticut.

*Speaking of Connecticut, the "We Want Avery!" and "Ave-ry!" clap-clap chants were spectacular. The Ranger forecheck was pathetic, after the Callahan goals were waved off no one went to the crease and the team folded like a cheap suit - all things the Grate One could have helped. Used properly by a competent coach Sean can be a big help. Unfortunately the Ranger bench boss is not willing or capable of doing so, lest he lose his alpha male image.

*How do you have goals disallowed on goaltender interference twice without having a single goaltending interference penalty?

*Michael Del Zaster makes me miss Michal Rozsival.

*How pathetic is it that the kid actually pots a goal to bring the Blueshirts within two with over four minutes left and everyone knew that there was no chance of a complete comeback? And when Torts finally pulls Hank he puts Erik Christensen out there. C'mon man, at least try to win the game.

*They handed out tee shirts as you walked in, which was a nice surprise. Walking out I was told "you got a free shirt, you wanted a win too?"

*Also overheard, "this team makes 1994 feel like 1940."

*Kris Newbury. Seriously. What the hell? Haven't seen an ass kicking like that on the Garden ice in a long time. That had to be up there with Dave Schultz beating up Dale Rolfe back in the 70s, just without all of the blood.

*Wojtek Wolski will score a lot of goals in the Swiss league sometime soon. Putting him with Prust and Boyle just drags them down.

*Marian Gaborik and Brad Richard$ need to realize that they aren't playing in a video game. Fancy-pants moves don't work in real life if your name isn't Datsyuk. They are too easily smothered by the opposing checkers and too prone to bad turnovers.

*Is it time to start wondering what Brandon Dubinsky's trade value is? Steven Ovadia might be right, we certainly may have already seen his best. That being said, the unsportsmanlike penalty he got whistled for was ridiculous.

*What did Felix Potvin ever to do the Rangers? (/sarcasm)

*PHW Three Stars
3-Dan Girardi - one goal.
2-Carl Gunnarsson - one assist.
1-Joffrey Lupul - one goal.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Girardi - Dan wasn't on for any of the goals against and he did the one thing that the forwards wouldn't - he just shot the puck.
2-Dion Phaneuf - Sloppy Seconds stood tall on both sides of the ice playing a ton of minutes.
1-Mike Brown - Brown would have made this purely for the beating he laid on Newbury but he also snuck a puck past Hank.

Peepin' Foes: Toronto Maple Leafs

2011-10-27T02:13:00.001-04:00

For the second straight season the Rangers are opening up their home slate of the schedule with an Original Six matchup. They will tak on the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Garden on Thursday night at 7 p.m. but doors open early (5:30) for the festivities. Last season's game was an overtime loss that left me twitching mad, so let's pray that this one will be better.

Where We Are: The Rangers won three of their seven games to day, which is remarkable given their level of play. This will be the first one at the partially-renovated Garden, which is pretty much meaningless as the last two seasons the Blueshirts have been sub-.500 on home ice. Amazing how that coincides with the hiring of John Tortorella.

Where They Are: In first place of the Northeast Division. No, seriously. The Leafs are 5-2-1, but both regulation losses came on the road. They let Sideshow Bob Scott Hartnell score a pair of goals to propel the Flyers to a 4-2 victory on Monday night (that Jagr guy scored two too).

Who To Watch For: In typical fashion the Rangers opponent will bring back injured stars - dizzy Tim Connolly, Tyler Bozak and James "Optimus" Reimer. While Connolly scored the lone goal in Buffalo's 1-0 win over the Blueshirts back in March, the guy to watch for on the offensive side of the puck is Phil Kessel. Kessel has been nothing short of outstanding with nine goals and six assists in the Leafs' eight games played - and just one of the nine was on a power play. The Rangers have done well to shut him down in the past - three goals and three assists in 17 career meetings - but the guy is utterly on fire. Joffrey Lupul has ridden Kessel's coattails to the tune of four goals and five assists. Back on the Buds blueline our old friend Sloppy Seconds Dion Phaneuf is back to his pre-Elisha production while the offensively-inclined John-Michael Liles is goalless but is pacing the team in blocked pucks with 24.

What To Watch For: Torts using Girardi to shut down Kessel and whether or not the bench boss keeps McD on that top pairing or re-inserts Sauer. Del Zaster attempting his long break-out passes to try to catch the Leaf defense as Philly did twice to spring Jagr for breakaway goals. The Rangers actually going to the net - Toronto has allowed teams to walk right in on both Reimer and Gustavsson and both have absorbed big hits. If he plays, Colton Orr trying to prove something against his old team; Colt has one goal and one fight in just two games played so far this season. David Steckel's ability to win faceoffs.

What We'll (Hopefully) See: A pregame ceremony that doesn't suck. Ushers allowing real fans to watch warmups from the new yuppy seats. Ryan Callahan using his fluke of a goal against Winnipeg to kickstart his production. Brandon Dubinsky to be relevant. Brad Richards to be dominant. West Islip's Mike Komisarek doing something stupid. A Ranger faring better than Dale Weise did in his fight against Luke Schenn last year.

Also Check Out: Toronto Mike and the Bitter Leaf Fan are solid reads but the be all end all is that wacky bunch of masochists at Pension Plan Puppets.

The Great Re-Opening

2011-10-26T14:06:00.001-04:00

Since opening night is a day away, I look forward to getting a few questions of mine answered about the renovated Garden. Some are serious, some are sarcastic, but all are burning (like gonorrhea):

*Will Dolan dislocate his shoulder patting himself on the back?

*Just how many homeless people can you see from the new 'city views'??

*How many 'great new features' will be covered up by poorly painted sheetrock?

*Will ushers allow the real fans to lurk in the new seats to watch warmups? Or will our poorness stain the new fabric?

*Which will be sadder, the pre-game ceremony for Derek Boogaard or the power play?

*Will all Sean Avery shirts and jerseys be on sale? Will Torts be selling them himself, out on Seventh Ave?

*After fighting Orr, will Rupp go back to his usual job at the Museum of Natural History as part of the neanderthal exhibit?

*Given the prices, will they install a automated teller machine where you can take out a second mortgage on your house?

*Which will be higher? The attendance or the number of line combinations Tortorella tries?

*How will they ever top Ace Frehley??

Another Letter ...

2011-10-26T02:38:00.003-04:00

The Rangers called season subscribers this afternoon to alert them that the below e-mail was coming. Essentially it says that things will be great for the people who will spend a lot of money and sit downstairs but for those folks upstairs, life will be very inconvenient.

Welcome back!

Now that the Rangers season is underway and we are close to the home opener at The Garden, we are thrilled to share with you some of the exciting new amenities you will find when you visit this season that are part of the first phase of the Arena's top-to-bottom three year historic Transformation. Before the puck drops on October 27th, I want to make sure that you have all the inside information regarding easy access to your seats and some of the newly transformed parts of the building. We are confident you are going to love what you see!

Throughout the 2011-12 Season you will experience some amazing enhancements to the building including:

*New Lower Bowl seating area with more comfortable seats and great sightlines
*Expanded Madison Concourse (6th floor) with city views
*Enhanced concession stands, more restrooms and additional retail locations (Note: additional features will continue to debut throughout the 2011-12 season)
*New 1879 and Delta Sky360° Club areas offering exclusive dining options and private entry to seat locations
*New food offerings on the 8th and 10th floor concourses (Note: additional features will continue to debut throughout the 2011-12 season)
*New West Balcony seating located above the West End of the Upper Bowl
*Additional details about what’s new and more importantly, how to get to your seats, is listed below. So you have more time to familiarize yourself with the transformed areas of The Garden, doors will open at 5:30pm prior to the home opener on October 27th when your New York Rangers take on the Toronto Maple Leafs. This provides an additional 30 minutes of access to the arena for all of our guests.

What's New?

The Seating Configuration
Even if your seat is located in an area of the building that has not been transformed, it is likely that there is a new way to get there. There will be pockets of the arena that are transformed to the point where on initial glance, you may need assistance or guidance to find your way. Rest assured that there will be plenty of staff on hand to assist you as you explore the new building. Here are some important changes worth noting prior to your arrival:

The Madison Concourse (6th floor) will provide an enhanced experience including city views and new and improved menu offerings but it will also be a space that is quite different as compared to the 6th floor concourse last season.

For this season, the 7th floor will not wrap completely around The Garden meaning that access from the North side of the 7th floor to South side of the 7th floor and vice versa is only available by using the Madison Concourse (6th floor). The 7th floor provides access to 200 Level locations and 300 Level locations that are on the North and South sides of the building.

For this season, the 8th floor will wrap completely around The Garden but will only provide access to the East and West sections of the 300 Level. Access to the 8th floor is available through both Towers A and D.

Listed below is our recommendation on how to access your seats based on your location. In addition to the directions to your seats, we have listed the locations and launch dates for specific food offerings and merchandise locations.

Based on your seats in Section 329, we recommend that you take the following path:

300 Level North and South Seats

All 300 Level seat locations on the North and South ends of the building are accessible from the 7th floor concourse. For this season, the 7th floor will not wrap completely around The Garden meaning that access from the North side of the 7th floor to the South side of the 7th floor (and vice versa) is only available by using the Madison Concourse (6th floor). As a result, for those locations on the North side of the building (Sections 328 - 341), Tower D is the only access point. Should you attempt entry at Tower A, your ticket will not scan and you will be redirected to Tower D. For those locations on the south side of the building (Sections 303 - 316), Tower A is the only access point. Should you attempt entry at Tower D, your ticket will not scan and you will be redirected to Tower A.

Food & Beverage Offerings
In addition to an expanded Madison Concourse, increased restrooms and viewing areas on the 8th and 10th floors, some of the biggest names in New York food will be creating exclusive, world-class culinary options for The World's Most Famous Arena. As part of The MSG Signature Collection, you will see a number of new menu offerings that will become available throughout the season.

In late November, two sensational offerings will be available on the Madison Concourse (6th floor).

*The Sausage Boss, by Chef Andrew Carmellini (available in three locations).
*Daily Burger, by restaurateur Drew Nieporent (available in two locations).
*In mid-December, you will find additional offerings available throughout the arena.
*Simply Chicken, by Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten on the 6th and 8th floors.
*Lobster Shrimp Roll by Aquagrill (chef Jeremy Marshall) on the 6th, 8th and 10th floors.

Other notable offerings that will become available during the early parts of the season are:

*Carnegie Deli
*Hill Country Barbecue
*16 Handles Frozen Yogurt
*Kosher offerings from Carlos & Gabby's
*Additional Garden Markets
*Stand Healthy (allergy free and gluten free offerings)
*Merchandise Locations

In October, you will be able to purchase Rangers gear in the Mall prior to entering the Box Office and in the arena where you will find four locations on the Madison Concourse (6th floor). Additional locations will open throughout the season.

3-2-2: All's Well That Ends Ok?

2011-10-25T05:35:00.001-04:00

Despite playing utterly atrocious hockey the Rangers have earned eight points in seven road games to start this season.

That's it, the simple fact of the matter. The Blueshirts ended their trip on Monday night with a narrow 2-1 win over Winnipeg. The Rangers were a step slow, utterly out of sorts and completely dominated for long stretches of the game. By the Thrashers. That being said, they still managed to win. Imagine what it will be like once Tortorella learns how to coach (or gets replaces by someone who can). We can keep dreaming the impossible dream later but for the moment, let's take a quick look at this one.

Late Hits:

*Even though Brandon Prust's poor attempt to tap dance with the puck in his skates resulted in Borat's goal, he was still the Rangers most effective forward besides Fedotenko. As I tweeted, Prust has fought five times in the first two minutes of games while he as been with the Rangers and the team has won all five. Something to be said with seeing their hardest working guy going to the mat for them that inspires victory I guess.

*Second assists are ridiculous. Del Zaster collects a point by passing two feet over to Dan Girardi, who waited and made a perfect feed to Fedotenko for the Rangers first goal. MDZ had a team-high 6:51 and achieved exactly nothing. Perhaps if they go through with the signing of Anton Stralman and Sauer comes back we can be rid of him. (Not that Stralman is good, but he is a step above MDZ).

*He played 17 minutes but I can't say that Tim Erixon was noticeable at all. That is a good thing.

*Seeing as Mike Rupp is using injury as an excuse, how soon until we hear the same about Boyle? The big Boston boy looked exhausted. He was a step slow all night long and was completely outplayed. Credit should be given for his positioning near the crease on the Fedotenko power play goal but it wasn't like he was pulling a Holmstrom, battling for position - the Thrashers let him float around the high slot.

*Anisimov on the fourth line? Eesh. Rupp and Newbury are no Prust and Shelley, they can't make the room that he needs and clearly couldn't help his confidence.

*When will Gaborik and Richards realize that fancy moves like spin o' rama passes are ridiculous? This is the NHL, not some beer league.

*And Wolski is clearly not the solution. Sure it is hard to judge seeing as he 'just got out of the tub' but I said before that he wasn't the answer and he did nothing in 15 minutes of game. Not even a single shot attempt.

*Stepan actually earned himself a few scoring chances but he didn't have any zip on his shots.

*Dubi is going to break through one of these games. He has to. Right? Since Captain Cally decided to show up, Dubi has to follow at some point soon ...

*Torts just wasted that time out. It is hard to fault the usage on an icing but when the draw is in your own end in the first period - with the short changes - it just shows that you have no faith in your players' ability to win a faceoff and get off the ice.

*Erik Christensen had the same impact in the game that he would have had if he actually dressed - no impact at all.

*That the Rangers took just one minor penalty was a nice change but so often it just looked like they weren't physically involved enough to bother to take penalties and the Thrashers weren't quick enough or working hard enough to draw them.

*Couldn't help but laugh at the Jets fans chanting Mmmmaaaaarrrrttttyyy at Biron in the third period. Sorry guys, you can't compete with us.

*Ok, the MTS staff played Iron Maiden's "Number of the Beast" ... why is it that the Garden rarely plays awesome music? They play garbage, and at nauseating decibels. Sadly can't see that getting a renovation with the rest of the building.

*The Jets sweaters look like those third jerseys the Blue Jackets wore last season. Yawn.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Nik Antropov - one goal.
2-Ruslan Fedotenko - one goal and one assist.
1-Marty Biron - 27 saves.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Chris Mason - just two power play goals against, one was on a redirect that he couldn't see and the other a bad bounce off of Bogosian's skate.
2-Biron - Simple solid play. He was far more composed then he was when he imploded before my eyes in Switzerland.
1-Feds - It wasn't like the Ukrainian gave an more or any less than he usually does, his work just happened to pay off tonight.

Winter Classic Info For Ranger Season Subs

2011-10-24T18:05:00.004-04:00

Just got this e-mail, looks like we may get screwed (I underlined the part I'm nervous about):

October 24, 2011

As you know, your New York Rangers will be participating in the 2012 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic® versus the Philadelphia Flyers which will take place on Monday, January 2nd, 2012 at 1:00pm in Philadelphia, PA. We couldn't be more excited to share this historic experience with you!

As the visiting team and with limited inventory, we have the opportunity for a limited number of Season Subscribers to purchase tickets through the Rangers organization. In addition, there will be a limited number of tickets available to purchase for the Legends game taking place on December 31st, 2011 at 1pm. This game with feature some of the top alumni from Rangers and Flyers teams of the past.

Based on the number of tickets we have available to offer our Season Subscriber family, we will be reaching out to you via email the week of October 24th, 2011. At that time, you will receive detailed information on the seating configuration and a questionnaire that asks you to rank all available price points in order of preference. Please note that as the visiting team, we will be unable to accommodate all Rangers Season Subscribers with an offer to purchase Tickets. As such, we will be contacting you in order of your Subscription tenure with an offer. Those Subscribers that wish to purchase tickets and receive an offer will be assigned a maximum of 2 seats based upon availability. Should you not receive an offer to purchase tickets through the Rangers organization, you will have the opportunity to purchase tickets to the Legends game on Saturday, December 31st at 1:00pm. In addition, Subscribers will receive an opportunity to purchase fan trip experience packages.

We will begin the process of assigning seats and contacting Subscriber accounts on or around the week of October 31st. During that process, you will speak with me, your Dedicated Experience Manager. Please note that all purchases will be based upon available inventory. For more detailed information, visit Newyorkrangers.com.

Should you have any questions prior to that communication ... (call your rep)

We are extremely excited to share in this historic experience with you! Thank you for your continued support of the New York Rangers! We look forward to seeing you at The Garden in the coming weeks.

2-2-2: Coming Up Dry

2011-10-23T19:12:00.000-04:00

The Rangers went to Edmonton for the penultimate game of their massive season-starting road trip and showed that they had absolutely nothing left in the tanks to take them to victory. Or even to make them competitive. But the travelling is not to blame, the players and their leadership are.

The players made bad decision after bad decision. Their shot selection was atrocious, when they deigned to shoot at all. They were outworked so they took penalties. They looked lifeless while going through the motions, like a horse that has been whipped just a few too many times. And that is likely the root of their failure - their head coach all fire and brimstone so where else is there to go? The guys are burned out on the same old message that wasn't working to begin with. We can hope and pray that they will get a boost out of playing in front of us for the first time this week but how long will that last?

One thing is for certain: all of Tortorella's jackass-ery isn't helping. He was an umprofessional dick to the media after the game so he didn't have to be held accountable for his many mistakes. He grimaces, groans and yells on the bench but all of his petulant pouting isn't getting the team anywhere.

Tom Renney didn't work in this town because he was too nice to a lackadaisical superstar and his cronies. But at the same time helped shape the young players that have become the cornerstones of this franchise. They listened to him and they respected him. How can anyone respect John Tortorella? The awe of his one ring only goes so far, especially when the accepted story is that the Tampa team won to spite him. This group of Rangers is simply not talented enough to do that. If things fall into place they can certainly win some games but they can not compete with the top tier of the NHL. Those teams are better built, with bench bosses who know that a season is a drawn-out war, not a nightly nuclear attack.

Late Hits:

*I'll just get this out of the way right away, to satisfy the haters who know that is coming - Sean Avery would have been a big help in this game. The Rangers were lifeless, the Rangers appeared afraid to go to the net and they couldn't keep up with the quick young Oilers. Avery could have helped all three calamities.

*Did Brandon Dubinsky even play? How about Artem Anisimov?

*Ryan McDonagh's success may have gone to his head - he is trying to do too much. Hopefully Sauer's impending return will help him simplify things again.

*A neanderthal like Mike F-ing Rupp shouldn't be skating against a team without a goon. He couldn't keep up and took a bad penalty that resulted in the nail-in-the-coffin power play goal by Corey Potter. If Prust feels that he has to defend himself against that headhunting idiot Andy Sutton, then there really is no reason for Rupp to play.

*Sutton is an expert of the high elbow to the head and shouldn't be allowed to play in the NHL. It is a matter of time until he faces Shanahan's wrath.

*I'll be honest, I was happy for Potter. The kid never was given a good chance by the Rangers despite all of his efforts and he came back to shove it in their faces. Good for him.

*Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle are scary good. When they get more experience under their belt, the Oilers will be one wonderful team to watch. Eberle, by the way, was drafted two spots after Del Zaster in '08.

*Hard to tell who was worse, Del Zaster or Bell. Both should be in the AHL. Del Zaster got more than six minutes of man advantage time and the best scoring chance during that span was for the Oilers. Bell's bad pinch handed Edmonton their opening goal.

*No use ranting more with a game in Winnipeg a day away. Let's all just pray that Torts comes to his senses and starts Biron this time so we won't see Hank limping off again any time soon.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Taylor Hall - one assist.
2-Nikolai Khabibulin - 19 saves.
1-Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - one goal and one assist.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Eberle - No wonder there is no panic over the fact that he hasn't scored yet, he does everything else so well.
2-Potter - Calm, capable defense and a power play goal. The Rangers could have used all of that on this night.
1-RNH - Amazing skill well worthy of his draft position. But Edmonton does face a real question: can the slight kid keep it up for a full season or will he be better off dominating the WHL while adding muscle?

Peepin' Foes: Edmonton Oilers

2011-10-22T04:39:00.001-04:00

The Rangers walk through the west continues Saturday night in Edmonton as they take on Tom Renney's Oilers at 10 pm (MSG).

Where We Are: Shocking shape considering how the team is missing two of their top three defenders and the second line can't score. Wins over Vancouver and Calgary almost wipe away the disgrace that was the loss on the Island. Almost.

Where They Are: Edmonton is 2-2-2 but has just one win in their last five games. They ended up losing on Thursday in a shootout to Minnesota despite leading 1-0 with two seconds left in the third period. Dany Heatley tied it with two seconds left. That's good but that's not 0.5 good (or 0.1 like the Corey Perry on the Ducks).

Who To Watch For: Ole Twitchy Nikolai Khabibulin has a 0.95 GAA in three starts this season. When he gets hot, he gets hot and he was on fire a few years back when he was Tortorella's goalie in Tampa. Nowadays he backstops a young team that is paced by the last two first overall draft picks - Taylor Hall and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (who might not play). Another youngster, Jordan Eberle, leads the team in shots with 19 in six games but is goalless, as is the overhyped Magnus Paajarvi. The kids are being tutored by the big crybaby Ryan Smyth, Capitals cast off Eric Belanger and the injury-prone pair of Shawn Horcoff and Ales Hemsky (but, of course, Hemsky is out until November). Speaking of injuries, Ryan Whitney is still trying to get his timing back after last year's ankle surgery. Former Ranger Corey Potter is finally getting a real chance in the NHL at the expense of tough defenseman Theo Peckham, who is in Renney's doghouse.

What To Watch For: Who starts in net for the Rangers - perhaps Torts will finally come to his senses and put Marty Biron in - no use burning out Hank against Western Conference bottom feeders. Seeing as Sean Avery isn't around, the likelihood of the Oilers looking for revenge for the Ladislav Smid incident last season is slim. The Rangers' discipline level. How the Rangers fare with faceoffs - Edmonton is oddly even at 179-179 on the season.

What We'll (Hopefully) See: Ben Eager get beaten to a pulp for what happened last year when he was on the Sharks. How about someone getting the expert Andy Sutton for his pair of head-hunting hits (1, 2) on Ryan Callahan? Cally getting his own revenge with a goal or three. Dubi to break through for a few. Del Zaster not to do anything too stupid, like overhandle the puck around Hall or RNH. A game that won't go to a shootout because Linus Omark is just sick.

Also Check Out: Oilers Nation, Lowetide, SBN's Copper & Blue and Oil on Whyte.

2-1-2: Zero-Point-Five

2011-10-21T04:05:00.000-04:00

And we thought that Chris Drury's goal against the Rangers with 7.7 seconds left back in '07 was clutch timing. Imagine scoring a game-winning goal with 0.5 left on the clock - well, we don't have to imagine it because Ryan McDonagh did it in Calgary. While tonight's 3-2 win over the Flames certainly lacked the import and emotion of a playoff game, it was a remarkable ending just the same.

The hour is quite advanced so I will leap right into the Late Hits:

*Brandon Prust scored against his old team. And he did it shorthanded. How awesome was that? While we sit back and keep celebrating the acquisition of McD, we need to sit up and rejoice that Calgary tossed Prust in the Jokinen deal. Everything comes back to Bob Gainey - if he didn't send Higgins (and McD and Valentenko) to the Rangers for Gomez then they couldn't have sent Higgins to Calgary for Jokinen (and Prust).

*Tim Erixon deserves some serious credit. The kid, who is already playing above his station, had himself a great game. He didn't make it onto the scoresheet but he played 18 minutes while hearing booing from the Saddledome crowd every time he touched the puck. I truly hope that he can keep it up and the Rangers keep him up on Broadway whenever Sauer and Staal return.

*Ship Michael Del Zaster straight down to Greenville. Skip right over the AHL and send him straight to the E. As Craig Rivet recently explained about ECHLers, "They're missing something, something small. They can skate, they can shoot and they can pass. They're just missing a little bit of the game [mentally] and body positioning." Sounds like MDZ to me.

*Don't look now but the Rangers are sorely missing secondary scoring. We were so used to having secondary and missing primary the last few years that there has yet to be any grumbles about the fact that Richards and Gaborik are the only ones racking up points. Arty, Dubi, Cally, Boyle and Step combined have two goals in 25 games. It not for lack of effort - to be sure - but 64 minutes and 59.5 seconds without a regular strength goal against a inexperienced backup goaltender is slightly disconcerting. It is still early though ...

*Why does it always seem like Cally is skating into the opponent's zone one-on-three?

*Do you think that Erik Christensen was upset that McD scored? The goal robbed Mr. Softie of his lone time to shine.

*Two fights in this one, Kris Newbury standing up for a teammate by taking on Cory Sarich and Mike Rupp trying to justify his paycheque by battling Tim Jackman. One is the kind of fighting that needs to stay in the game and the other is the kind that needs to be weened out. And the fact that Rupp lost makes it even worse. The lone positive is that with Rupp taking the senseless slug outs Prust is freed to be an actual hockey player.

*Steve Eminger quietly had his best game of the season as there were no cringe-worthy moments. I had thought about saying the same about Jeff Woywitka but good ole Redden took a stupid penalty late in the third period.

*Stay in the crease Hank, just stay in the crease.

*PHW Three Stars:
3-Mark Giordano - one goal.
2-Brian Boyle - one assist.
1-Jarome Iginla - one goal and one assist.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Dubi - He did everything but actually score. At some point the pucks will start going in, they have to.
2-Giordano - Strong at both ends of the ice, he showed why he is one of the most underrated defensemen in the NHL.
1-McD - Not only did he score with 0.5 seconds left but he did it after skating 26:24 - the third highest total in the game behind Dan Girardi and Jay Bouwmeester.

Peepin' Foes: Calgary Flames

2011-10-20T12:38:00.001-04:00

The Blueshirts will battle the Flames tonight in Calgary at 9:30 pm (MSG).

Where We Are: The Rangers have earned four points in four games and are coming off of one of the oddest occurrences in recent history - reanimation. After being fitted for a toe tag through two periods against Vancouver they rose like a George Romero zombie to tear apart the unsuspecting Canucks.

Where They Are: A disappointing 2-3 but coming off of a 2-1 win on Tuesday over their Islanders, the Edmonton Oilers.

Who To Watch For: Try not to laugh at this but Olli Jokinen. Jokinen - and don't snort milk through your nose - is ... get this, Jokinen is averaging a point per game with one goal and four assists. Yeah. Seriously! Perhaps it is because he got rid of that awful mustache and is now seeing a shrink regularly. Alex Tanguay has matching numbers, which is good as Jarome Iginla has just one point so far. Curtis Glencross will be lurking about, looking to injure another Ranger. Actually, Glencross has found a scoring touch and is even with Rene Bourque for the team lead with three goals. Roman Horak, the player that the Blueshirts gave up for Tim Erixon, played in the first four matches but was benched against Edmonton and is unlikely to play tonight.

What To Watch For: Team discipline. Despite racking up just 13 hits against Edmonton, Calgary has checkers like Glencross, Tim Jackman, Scott Hannan and Pierre-Luc Leblond (or Tom Kostopoulos) - I would imagine one of them quickly making themselves acquainted with Erixon to help spark the Saddledome crowd. The Blueshirts have to be careful that their kneejerk reaction doesn't lead them back to the penalty box.

What We'll (Hopefully) See: Brad Richards to repeat his Stanley Cup success against Calgary - he had nine points in seven games in the '04 Finals. Brandon Prust bouncing back from his benching to help beat his old team. Marty Biron facing less than 40 shots and coming up with a win like he did last year against them. Jay Bouwmeester, the Flames' Wade Redden, getting forechecked into oblivion by Dubi and Cally.

Also Check Out: Hit The Post, SBN's Matchsticks & Gasoline and the Red Mile Blog (which is sadly missing topless luscious young ladies).

1-1-2: All Hail The King

2011-10-19T01:57:00.000-04:00

If you didn't stay up to watch the Rangers play the Canucks tonight, then you missed one of the top-five performances in Henrik Lundqvist's stellar career. Given the number of times he has been outstanding, that is saying something. The King - relying on his superhuman reflexes, his ability to read plays, his great flexibility, his positioning, his rebound control and (honestly) a little bit of luck - was utterly stellar in what was a 40 save effort. He made stop after stop after stop and finally, blissfully his teammates responded and turned around a disastrous showing into a 4-0 victory over Vancouver.

The A that was added to Hank's sweater in Frolunda should be permanently affixed going forward. Not since Mark Messier in the early-90s have the Rangers responded to one of their teammates the way they did tonight. It takes a certain kind of greatness to motivate the troops the way Lundqvist did. His awesomeness shamed them into picking themselves up and proving that they are not just passengers. This is not just hyperbole, Hank was just that good.

It was the 11th time in his Ranger career that Hank stopped 40 or more shots. He did it three times last season and the Rangers won two (the third was the double OT loss to DC in the playoffs). But few of those games saw him under siege the way he was in this one - just one of them immediately comes to mind: the Philly game that ended the Ranger season two years back that the team eventually lost in the shootout. The ending was far, far better on this night.

Late Hits:

*After last year's 1-0 win over the Canucks the Rangers went on a 3-8-1 run. They need do better than that after this win.

*Hank deserves every one of the accolades I laid upon him above but Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi deserve a bit of credit for stalwart performances. McD racked up a pretty goal and a suh-weet assist but he also collected three hits and three blocked shots. As a friend pointed out to me last season, we should be thankful Scott Gomez agreed to be traded to Montreal and we should be thankful the Habs were dumb enough to take him. Girardi played almost 29 minutes in front of Hank and his play allowed his partners to jump up into the play.

*John Tortorella is often (rightfully) raked along the coals in this space but he gets a small pat on the back for the way he sheltered Tim Erixon tonight. It would have been easy to leave the kid out there to fend for himself but the coach kept him away from the Sedins as much as he could. No reason to expose him to that at his age.

*Really Torts, what is the point of dressing Christensen? He shies away from any and all contact and is thus virtually useless. Is he playing just in case games go to a shootout?

*As I tweeted, "Chances of me yelling at Woywitka 'hey Redden, you SUCK!' multiple times this season? 100%" ... Woywitka's No. 6 sweater doesn't help his cause but his huge number of terrible plays sealed the deal. MSG's cameras caught Hank setting him straight so let's hope that he learned his lesson and the Redden slur won't be heard much in the future.

*Mike F-ing Rupp had been absolutely atrocious coming into this game but his shot to open the scoring was outstanding.

*Brandon Prust - two assists and two bad penalties. He is a great grinder but he has to be smarter.

*Dubinsky should also use his brain a bit more - fighting Kevin Bieksa was not wise. It is one thing to stand up for yourself, it is another to throw your life away when your team is up 3-0 with three minutes to go. And was that really a WWE 'suck it' motion to Bieksa as he skated off? Poor form.

*Michael Del Zaster needs to be sent to Hartford the second Staal and Sauer come back. He clearly has not learned a thing about playing defense. Given that he does have decent wheels, good ice sight on the offensive end and a penchant for hitting, perhaps he should get a shot at the LW slot alongside Richards and Gaborik ...

*Very touching pre-game tribute to Rick Rypien by Vancouver. Damn shame MSG didn't show the whole thing (I watched it streaming on the Canucks website). Hard to say if that was the worst thing on their broadcast tonight as Micheletti was his usual mistaken self and Bill Pidto's intermission highlight breaks were just woeful. BZZZZ!

*Love the Defending The Blue Line commercials but they come with a twinge of sadness as Boogaard was not around to take part in the taping. I hope that they are acknowledged when Boogey is honoured at the Garden next week.

*Kris Newbury did add a bit of the promised "jam" but he also lost a big defensive zone faceoff in the first period that nearly led to a Canuck goal. While there is still some sadness to see Zuke stuck in the bus league, there is simply no way in hell that Torts would have given him good minutes in a game like this (or in any other game, but that is something else).

*Fantasy hockey guru Dobber pointed out that Boyle's goal was his first in 27 games. What are the odds that the tally jump-starts a run like Boyler had at the start of last season?

*PHW Three Stars:
3-Brandon Prust - two assists.
2-Ryan McDonagh - one goal and one assist.
1-Henrik Lundqvist - 40 saves.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Cally - The captain was ferocious on the forecheck and a big part of the penalty kill.
2-McD - A dynamic performance by the defenseman.
1-Hank - All Hail!

0-1-2: Rangers' JT < Islanders' JT

2011-10-17T23:11:00.000-04:00

I did not see the game and won't even pretend to. The box score, the lowlights, the post-game quotes and actions taken by the Rangers paint a grim picture, one that is only amplified by the utter shame that is a loss to the Islanders.

Hatred of our rivals aside, it is time to admit that the Isles are a young, hard working team that has lost enough to accumulate some decent talent. John Tavares is coming into his own and Mark Streit has always been a solid offensive defenseman (one the Rangers should have signed instead of Wade Redden). Once the incapable, glass-jawed Rick DiPietro removed himself from their crowded crease, they were bound to improve.

Meanwhile, the Rangers are a cobbled together collection of semi-capable players led by what has been an incapable coach. The failings of this franchise this season (and the last two) have little to do with the guys wearing the sweaters. Rant about the shortcomings of guys like MDZ, Arty and Gaborik (as I often do), the sum of the parts should be far better than the results they've gotten.

We were sold on a rebuilding team last year and that was fine ... hell, it was wonderful. We finally had the chance to see youth blossom on Broadway. Well, so much for that. I agree with Larry Brooks, Torts had his team picked long before camp opened. Several guys played well enough to make their way onto the club but saw their jobs go to other guys because, as Torts told Brooksie, "there's a bank account." Dale Weise, Sean Avery and Mats Zuccarello have all been banished because they didn't have enough 'banked' with the head coach.

At what point should the bank fire its branch manager for poor decisions that don't pay off?

Since singlehandedly driving the Tom Renney-built team out of the playoffs in 2009, John Tortorella's failing to find chemistry and a capable power play has doomed the Rangers time and time again. He reshaped the team through favoritism and it flopped in the first round in April before stumbling out of the gates this season. Has it been just three games? Yes. Is it time to panic? No. But something should be done sooner rather than later because his account has just about run dry.

Torts didn't want to use Europe as an excuse for this loss to the Isles. He didn't use the injuries to his top defensemen as an excuse either. Instead he claimed it was discipline that did his team in. Well, who is responsible for keeping the team disciplined? Tortorella is placing the blame where it belongs - on himself. While it is nice to see him finally admitting his own mistakes (albeit not in so many words), he needs to do something about them quickly.

Apparently he felt that swapping Zuke for Kris Newbury was the lone personnel step needed to put the team headed in the right direction. When the puck drops in Vancouver we will see if a fourth liner will be able to power the Rangers to victory. Somehow I don't think so but it is early enough to suspend some disbelief.

That being said, this week's trip out west had better see the best from the Blueshirts because if they limp into the Garden at the end of the month then there will be hell to pay. It will be time that the bank will finally foreclose on the coach.