Rangers Report Blog

It is a bittersweet chance that some of us get to guest blog for a couple weeks. While it is great for us to be featured on the blog, it is only a result of newspapers cutting costs and giving their employees more vacation time. For my appearance, I don’t have any fresh opinion on the Rangers that hasn’t already been discussed here, so I’m going to take an overall look at the National Hockey League.

The 2004–05 lockout was devastating at the time, but the prevailing opinion was that the league could come back stronger than before. Why they couldn’t do this without canceling a season, we may never know. The biggest issue for Commissioner Bettman and the league was that they needed “cost certainty,” which was their code for a salary cap. Fans of the Rangers and other teams with high attendance probably did not see any problem with the 2004 NHL, but the less heralded teams were struggling, especially in places that gained expansion teams under Bettman’s regime.

In 2009, Bettman would like to have you think that everything is rosy with record-setting attendance numbers every season since the lockout. However, are we really in a much better position now? Revenue sharing was good common sense and should have been in place for a longer time before teams were absolutely hemorrhaging money. Despite what the NHL says, we can still see arenas with a lot of empty seats, especially the new Prudential Center (when the Rangers are not playing there), and the Phoenix Coyotes did not get any better financially, being forced to file for bankruptcy. Many of the seats are filled only due to ticket deals and freebies.

Before the lockout, the NHL did not have great television ratings in the United States and therefore had a contract that generated low revenue. Since starting play again, the contract has only worsened, moving the games on cable to a channel that players can’t find in hotel rooms and only having one game per week for ten weeks in the second half of the season on a broadcast network that focuses on only a few big-market teams. In addition, NASCAR is probably ahead of the NHL in popularity, but the NBA is falling back a bit. With four seasons passed since the new CBA was ratified, teams are now finding innovative ways to play with the salary cap so that the stars still get paid and the role players have to fight for every dollar or leave to play in the KHL.

At this point, the best thing that could happen for the NHL would be to bring in fresh ideas in the form of a new commissioner. Without any ties to Bettman, the new person in charge could make changes where Bettman held strong to defend his position. This could include moving one or two teams back to Canada and finding a better way to market the league and its star players, such as putting the two latest No. 1 draft picks on national television more than twice each (only one of these is in a Versus-exclusive window).

All of these problems that still exist will lead to more heavy negotiating in the next couple of years leading up to the next Collective Bargaining Agreement, especially as the salary cap will likely see its first drop after this upcoming season. —Brandon Franz

One intriguing subplot of this year’s Rangers training camp is who John Tortorella will choose to serve as the team’s alternate captains to Chris Drury.  Now, this may seem like a trivial matter, but I do think it’s worth discussing who will comprise the all-important “leadership group” on the Rangers this year.  We all know that in hockey, strong leadership, among other things, can take you a long way (see: Messier, 1994).
   With a bevy of new players joining the roster, it is imperative that the Rangers form a strong core quickly.  This starts with Tortorella distinguishing two players from the rest of the squad and deeming them worthy of an “A” on the left shoulder of their sweaters.
   That said, I’m going to nominate a player for the alternate captaincy that will surely stir some debate among our loyal and knowledgeable contingent of Boneheads: Sean Avery.
   Those of you who post here often know that I’m an ardent Avery supporter.  But I also know that this is a player who’s not without his shortcomings.  Last year, John Tortorella benched Avery in the playoffs for taking two inexcusable penalties in the third period of Game 4 vs. the Washington Capitals.  I didn’t think it was the right thing to do, but I saw Tortorella’s reasons for doing it.  Avery has a penchant for crossing that invisible line that superpests like him must constantly walk.  Sometimes he gets selfish and it costs his team.
   Sounds like a pretty silly choice to be a leader of your hockey club, right?  But let’s not forget some of John Tortorella’s criticisms of this hockey team when he took over in late February last year.  He said that his players were not well-conditioned.  He said they were soft.  He said they lacked identity.  Sean Avery serves as a response to all of these criticisms.  
   When Avery came to the MSG Training Center a few weeks back to run some youth clinics, I was excited to watch the interview that he gave; I always look forward to Sean’s interviews for their entertainment value, but this one caught me off guard.  I saw a focused and energetic Avery speak candidly and critically about his team’s upcoming season.  I thought to myself: “He sounds like a leader.”
   There is no doubt that Tortorella would be taking a huge risk by giving Avery an “A”  to start the season.  If he acts up,  stripping him of it would cause a great controversy and provide the type of distraction that can derail a team.  But Tortorella has repeatedly stated his desire for the Rangers to have a discernible identity.  They were about as vanilla as an NHL team can be last year (reflective of their standard-bearers: Drury, Scott Gomez and Markus Naslund).  If Avery can focus, as he did for 95% of his Rangers stint last year, I think he could play an important leadership role on a team with a plethora of new faces and help shape the identity of the 2009-10 New York Rangers.

Lundqvist: The New Richter?

Since the offseason began, it seems that New York Rangers pundits and fans alike have focused on the following topics and questions: line combinations; prospects; who is going to be the club’s No.1 center?; how will Marian Gaborik play in his first season on Broadway?; what will head coach John Tortorella be like for a full season?
   While these topics are great fodder around the water cooler and for countless numbers of Ranger blogs, I would like to go in a different direction and may be spark a debate with the following question: Is Henrik Lundqvist the new Mike Richter?
    It’s a question that has probably been going through Blueshirt fans’ minds ever since the “King” burst onto the scene in 2005-06 and had one heck of a rookie season in posting 30 wins, 2 shutouts, a 2.24 goals against average and a .922 save percentage, good enough to place him among the finalists for the Vezina Trophy Trophy as the league’s top goaltender, something he would also do in 2007 and 2008.
   The following seasons, Lundqvist consistently put up good numbers, got his club into the playoffs, won a few playoff rounds and won the hearts of Ranger fans, bringing his chant to tri-state area locales such as the Nassau Veterans Coliseum (a.k.a. the Mausoleum) and the Prudential Center (a.k.a. MSG 2). And not only has he won the hearts of the fans due to his on-ice play, but he’s won it due to his contributions off the ice with his charitable work for organizations such as the Garden of Dreams.
   Doesn’t this come close to sounding like another star Broadway athlete that played between the pipes on Broadway for many years, one that put up solid numbers on more than a few sub-par clubs, won a Stanley Cup with a nearly perfect team, did a ton of charity work and was an all-around good guy? In my eyes, and may be yours, right now at least, Henrik Lundqvist is almost equivalent to the all-time winningest goaltender in Rangers’ history that starred for the Blueshirts for 14 seasons.
   So, you might ask, what’s the debate here? Well, for one thing, there is on-ice play. In his 14 years in the National Hockey League, Richter put up pretty solid numbers, especially considering the fact that he played on several non-playoff teams (1998-2003):

Regular Season
-     301 wins
-     24 shutouts
-     2.89 goals against average
-     .904 save percentage

Playoffs
-     Stanley Cup in 1994
-     41 wins
-     9 shutouts
-     2.68 goals against average
-     .909 save percentage

Other
-     Played in the 1992 All-Star Game in Philadelphia
-     1994 All-Star Game MVP at Madison Square Garden
-     1996 World Cup Champion and MVP
-     Played in the 2000 All-Star Game in Toronto
-     2002 Winter Olympics Silver Medal
-     Member of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame
-     Has number up in the rafters at Madison Square Garden

Obviously, pretty impressive numbers over a career that may end up in the Hockey Hall of Fame one day. On the other side, you look at Lundqvist and see that he has posted stellar numbers in his first four seasons in the NHL:
Regular Season
-     142 wins
-     21 shutouts
-     2.31 goals against average
-     .917 save percentage

Playoffs
-     14 wins
-     16 losses
-     2.66 goals against average
-     .907 save percentage

Other
-     Won the 2002 Gold Medal as the goaltender for Sweden in the Inline Hockey World Championships (Interesting, right?)
-     2006 Olympic Gold Medal with Sweden
-     Named to the NHL All-Rookie Team in 2006
-     Finalist for the Vezina Trophy as the league’s top goaltender in 2006, 2007 and 2008
-     Played in 2009 All-Star Game in Montreal

   As you can tell, Lundqvist has done a lot in his first four seasons between the pipes for the Blueshirts and chances are is that he will continue to have success. However, will he be as successful as Mike Richter and lead them to a Stanley Cup like Richter did back in 1994?
   More importantly, is Henrik Lundqvist the new Mike Richter on Broadway?
   I’d like to say a big thank you to Rick Carpiniello for allowing me to post here and hope that I will get another chance to do it during the season. You can also visit my blog over at Kukla’s Korner.

Good morning gang!
I’m gonna start with a story and see where we end up…
         It was June 1994, I was a senior about to graduate from Boonton High School.  The Rangers had just defeated the Nucks, and my ribs were still sore from the celebratory dive I had taken into the stick shift of my buddies Jeep two days before after game 7… summer was a few days away, I was about to graduate, all I had to do was take one more final exam and…and freedom!!!  Things were looking great! 
        Only problem was there was a “conflict of interest”, the Rangers Stanley Cup parade was scheduled for Thursday morning June 16th and so was my last, final exam.  It was a written gym test!!  I figured I could afford to get a zero and still pass the stupid class… or I could just take the makeup right?  I was convinced high school was a long drawn out form of torture;  just a place I had to visit daily to stay out of trouble… but it wasn’t going to interfere with “priorities” that morning!
        Anyway, a sleepless night led to a sunny Thursday morning, I’d barely slept.  I rolled out of bed, donned my glowing LEETCH jersey and I was out the door… (I swear I was floating that morning).   My buddies and I  were skipping finals and proud of it… This was the Rangers!!! This was THE CUP!!!  This was history, and I was not about to miss it…
        So…we met early and headed to NYC… We parked illegally in Hoboken, since a  parking ticket was less than parking in a lot… and hopped the PATH which was full of Ranger fans..    
         We stepped onto the platform to a sea of blue.  It was Ranger chaos!  The entire city was buzzing, literally…haha!     The parade was crazy, we were standing probably 20 deep, like being smushed into the stage at a concert.   We were all Broadway Blueshirts that morning… the “LETS GO RANGERS!!” chant reverberated up the Canyon of Heroes, pressing against the buildings as the Cup made its way up Broadway.  “LETS GO RANGERS!!” bum, bum, bumbumbum “LETS GO RANGERS!” Still gives me the chills… There was so much energy… it was sweet!  
        We hung out for a bit and hit the train again… back to Hoboken, I was seriously on a  magic carpet ride that day, a ride that crashed and burned as I pulled into my driveway that afternoon…
Both of my parents knew I was going, however the principle, Mr. Hino had called our parents and wanted to know why I was not in school… well I was sick of course, and funny thing was, Sean was sick, and so were Bill and Frank… all my best friends were sick… all on the same day… duh!… My mother came around the corner and her first words were…”I told you not to go!  They are not going to let you guys graduate!”…Mr. Hino was no dummy, and he carried a big stick.  
        Friday morning homeroom the last day of school, the voice of the nice lady was gone, replaced instead by Mr. Hino’s. His voice ripped through the loudspeaker system to every classroom in the building, “Would Drew, Sean, Frank and Bill please report immediately to the front office”.  I couldn’t help the small smile in the corners of my mouth as I got up and headed out the door.  All four of us paraded down the hall past the tall red lockers…our own, much smaller “Canyon”, to the front office.
        Mr. Hino was a character right out of a Charles Dickens novel.  His fat face turned sweaty and red, and his huge belly rolled as he pounded the desk with his fist, demanding a confession… the seams of his suit were fighting to hang on and avoid a blowout.  Wow was he pissed!  He ‘interrogated’ us, trying to get one of us to admit we were all at the parade…he knew we were all die hard hockey fans… we played dumb…but he knew…
So Mr. Hino, if you’re reading… you finally got your confession.————————————
       Anyway I was thinking about our beloved Rangers and I figured I could maybe steer a conversation on this summer’s player additions.  I don’t want to get into salary so much, just whether or not the trades/signings made sense and improved the team.  I got the sense last summer that Sather was unprepared for the loss of Jagr, Straka, Nylander (summer before) etc. and Sather was just trying to fill holes with bodies.  A lot of the signings seemed more like panic moves… not well thought out, almost knee-jerk.  Sather added, Naslund, Zherdev, Fritsche, Voros, and Rissmiller on offense and Redden and Kalinin on defense (is that all of them?)
        But this summer he seems different…(unless of course he makes a boneheaded trade right after this is posted, or doesn’t sign #17).   He signed Gaborik, Higgins, Prospal, Brashear, Boyle, Arnason, Lisin, and  Kotalik…to replace Betts, Orr, Sjo, Gomez, Mara, Andropov and Zherdev…are there more?  
I think the BEST moves were, trading Gomez and landing Gaborik, Higgins and Prospal.  We finally have an elite goal scorer if he stays healthy, and a nice amount of grit and scoring in Higgins and Prospal.  
My biggest issue is the 4th line which under Torts isn’t used much.  Why not keep Betts, Orr, or Sjo?  They were a bargain, and with Hank our PK was fantastic.  Under Renney they played too many minutes but  I think they’d be a great line to throw out 1 or 2 times a period in Torts’ system.
Are the players who will replace these guys better?   Why sign Brashear?  Loosing Orr and signing Brashear in my mind was the worst signing this summer.  No matter which way I look at it, I still can’t wrap my head around that decision.
        I like what I see for the most part, and we’ve kept our youth and added more great prospects…The future seems brighter with Grachez, DZ, Anisimov, McDonagh…
Only time will tell if in the near future, I can once again roll out of bed, don my glowing Leetch jersey and head to the Canyon of Heroes.

Carp, thanks for the privilege, this was fun.
Drew/Staal Wart
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EDITOR’S NOTE: Hey, it’s Carp. Great job, Staal Wart. Just wanted to let you know that the Rangers’ Fan Fest scheduled for today has been postponed until tomorrow, in case you were among the subscribers who planned to attend. Check the Rangers’ web site for details.

CORRECTION: Had it wrong, sorry. The Fan Fest was scheduled for this weekend. It’s now scheduled for Sept. 5. That’s what you get for posting after midnight, all blurry-eyed, after Seinfeld of course. Check the Rangers site for details.

With training camp just slightly more than 2 weeks away, I figured it would be appropriate to list the five key things I, The Esteemed Doodie Machetto, will be watching for both in camp and throughout the preseason.
   1) Third defensive pair- with the departures of Paul Mara (Montreal) and Derek Morris (Boston), there are two clear vacancies on our blueline. Now, I don’t think Torts will pair two inexperienced defensemen together, but for the sake of convenience, I will just call them the third pair. The candidates, as I see them, are Matt Gilroy, Corey Potter, Michael Del Zotto, Bobby Sanguinetti, and Mike Sauer. The X-factor candidates are Ilkka Heikkinen and Ryan McDonagh. There are also persistent Denis Seidenberg rumors, but I don’t think he will be signed.
   To start, I don’t think Sauer will be one. They gave him a shot last season and he floundered. With the stiff competition for the two spots, barring an OUTSTANDING camp and preseason, I think he’s out. Gilroy has a one-way contract for $3.5 million over two years. I don’t know if they want to bury that in Hartford. Plus he is a puck moving defenseman. Based on those two factors, I think the first spot is his to lose. Potter is a known quantity and they like him, but not enough to keep them from giving Sauer a shot last season. So right there, I think he is guaranteed nothing. I think he makes the team only if everyone else fails to impress. McDonagh will likely stay at Wisconsin and graduate, so he won’t be on the team for the next two years. Heikkinen will probably left in Hartford for a year to get used to North American play.
   The real battle, as I see it, is between Del Zotto and Sanguinetti. There were rumblings a while back that Del Zotto was moving ahead of Sanguinetti on the prospect depth chart. But Ranger Director, Player Personnel, Gordie Clark recently stated that Sanguinetti was the best defenseman for Hartford during the playoffs. However, his defensive woes are well-documented. I’ve been outspoken about Sanguinetti being a bust in the comments before but I think Torts might give him a shot because of the “safe is dead” up-tempo mentality he has. Del Zotto might end up back in the OHL because other Rangers defensive prospects have spent played out their entire junior careers (Staal, Sanguinetti), but those were under Tom Renney. That could change with Torts at the helm.
   Bottom line: The competition will be stiff, and the team will add at least one puck moving defenseman, if not two.
   2) Special teams- speaking of puck moving defensemen, the team will need to address the anemic powerplay if it expects to be competitive next season. I expect there to be a lot of experimentation on the powerplay to come up with a unit that can produce at a decent clip. I also expect there to be a CLEAR top unit that will see the majority of PP time. I think that’s how Torts rolls.
The penalty killing unit will have to be addressed also. One of the league’s top units last year, a lot of the players who were featured last season (notably Blair Betts and Fred Sjostrom) are now gone. I think Torts will actually put more offensively capable players on the PK and make it more of a threat short-handed. Indeed, he is on record saying that he plans to use superstar Marion Gaborik in all situations, including the penalty kill. But whether the penalty kill can approach the success of last season remains to be seen.
   3) Artem Anisimov- a stud in the AHL last season. Gordie Clark was recently quoted on Anisimov “I would say that he’s got a position on the team that’s his to lose…He’s not coming in to try out … we have our top three centers—(Chris) Drury, (Brandon) Dubinsky, and Anisimov.” The question is, which position? Logic dictates he will be the third line center behind Dubinsky and Drury, but with the recent Vaclav Prospal signing, it seems that the team could be hedging its bets in the event that Anisimov struggles. It’s hard to imagine him as the fourth line center due to how sparingly Torts uses his fourth line. Would he be transitioned into a winger? Could he be so impressive that they make him the second line center and Drury the third? Where Anisimov ends up could dictate the look of a large portion of the roster.
   4) John Tortorella- It’s the first training camp for Torts and it’ll be interesting to watch how he handles the team now that it is entirely his as opposed to a group inherited from a completely different coach. He has preached accountability and that no roster spot is safe, other than Lundqvist. Well, I’m interested to see if that is truly the case. In other words, if 3 or even 4 of the above named defensemen are REALLY impressive, does he dress those guys and scratch Rozsival or Redden? I doubt it, but hopefully he will hold accountability during the season through the amount of ice time given. He has also preached conditioning, so it will be interesting to see if they really are better conditioned. Tom Renney said last year that the team was extremely well-conditioned, only for Torts to come in and bash them for having a poor level of conditioning. The multiple games where the team faded down the stretch only served to illustrate Tortorella’s point.
   5) Glen Sather- Tortorella is on record saying he wants a #1 center. Brandon Dubinsky isn’t signed. The Rangers seem to be tied to every free agent rumor on the market. There are persistent rumors of Brad Richards and Denis Seidenberg. Dany Heatley still wants out of Ottawa. I expect less out of Sather now that the rain has stopped because he will be able to get out of the office and onto the golf course. Why talk Dubinsky and Richards when you can talk Kohiba and Titleist? But I would not be surprised if the players that are under the umbrella of the New York Rangers organization today are not the same as the players under that umbrella by opening night. Who gets added or subtracted is anyone’s guess when it comes to Sather, the man without a plan.
   Honorable mentions: Evgeny Grachev- I think the Prospal signing leaves him in Hartford next season, at least for the start of the year. P.A. Parenteau- Time to crap or get off the pot. I think he solidifies his position as the Rangers’ Jason Krog and is sent off to the Pack again. Donald Brashear- will he be welcomed by his teammates and the fans? Wade Redden and Michael Rozsival- will we see the tolerable pair that we saw in the playoffs, or the pair we suffered through all season?

My thanks to Carp for maintaining this blog and for providing me with this opportunity to write as a guest. My thanks to all of you boneheads for actually making it through this post. And to the future guest bloggers, Mike G was right, thinking of something to write about is by far the hardest part.

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Editor’s note: This is Carp. I am still waiting for Spiderpig and Pavel to confirm that they will do the posts scheduled. No problem if you guys don’t want to do it, but please let me know. We have plenty of guests who want to do this. Please email me at rcarpini@LoHud.com.

So word got out last week that I am going to be leaving the paper, and Carp was generous enough to let me say goodbye to you guys, so here goes.

Sam took me to my first practice and said if I could just blog about line changes, many of you would be happy. That’s when I thought about what it meant to be part of this blog. Sam had played hockey in utero, I never did, and roller derby is played on a totally different kind of skate — one with wheels.

I had a lot to learn.

I remember when Aaron Voros was waived and a few days later he was in the locker room. I was a little puzzled, since in the NFL if they waive you, 10 minutes earlier you’d been hustled out a back door by armed guards.

I asked him and he explained to me that it was different in the NHL, why he thought the Rangers did it, and that he expected to stay on the roster.

Darn human of him. And that’s what it was like for the most part, people wanting to talk about a sport they really love.

This blog is such a terrific community. I love the way you guys stick around and talk hockey, bust on Josh and make progressively obscure Seinfeld references.

And reading your comments helped me in the job as well. If I knew you guys were looking for an answer on something, I’d try to find out and throw some audio in there so you’d get a sense of how it was said. I consider myself the straight man to Carp, with his 79 years on the beat. (Sorry, Carp…)

I certainly expect to be back covering sports, and I hope that means more playoff hockey at Madison Square Garden. In the meantime, please follow me on Twitter.com/janesports and I’ll still be following Tortorella and his antics, and probably starting a roller derby blog. (See above pic, that’s the sneer I’ve been working on!) It’s been fun reading you guys there as well, like Sally, Nasty and @LadyBlueICU.

And now I must return to my first job, as an architect (OSR).

Hey all, until Jane pops in, just thought I’d give you a new thread for your vastly intelligent musings. Mike G. blew the roof off yesterday, following a most excellent Nasty. It’s too early even for me to find a new photo of a shirtless Aves, so say your good mornings and let’s begin a new day.

P.S. I have a new idea for a kids’ book..”Where’s Dubi?”
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Now it’s Carp here. Just wanted to say the first couple of days of guest blogging have been fabulous. And wanted to get a jump on next week.

I have been going mostly with regular Boneheads, and will continue to do so. I also have a few outsiders and some once-in-a-while commentors who have volunteered to join the fray. I am off all of next week, and there will be another week in September when we need guest blogs. So I just wanted to ask once again if any of you regulars want to do this. If so, please e-mail me at rcarpini@LoHud.com.

In the meantime, here’s the schedule through the middle of next week. I need you guys/gals to e-mail me to confirm that you will, indeed, write on those days. Then I will need your post the night before it is scheduled to appear. And I think Sally is going to do some of her VanGoughQvist art one day.

Here’s the upcoming schedule:

Today—Jane.
Thursday—Doodie Machetto.
Friday—Staal Wart.
Saturday—Patrick Hoffman.
Sunday—Rob C.
Monday  (8/31)—Spiderpig.
Tuesday (9/1)—CCCP.
Wednesday (9/2)—Pavel.
Thursday (9/3)—Mike (Grabachev) from IA.

What will our Rangers roster look like come opening day?

Glen Sather was a very busy GM this off-season and the Rangers will start the 2009-2010 season with a drastically different look than they had finishing off the 2008-2009 campaign.  The revolving door to the Rangers locker room is still spinning thanks to the never ending slew of additions and subtractions we saw go down this off-season. Let’s go through a quick recap of the complete overhaul the Rangers roster went through since the regular season ended.

Subtractions (in no particular order): Zherdev, Gomez, Naslund, Mara, Dawes, Korpikoski, Sjostrom, Betts, Orr, Antropov, Kalinin, Prucha, Morris, Fritsche. For those keeping score at home, that totals 14 players lost from last season’s roster to trades/free agency/retirement.

Additions: Gaborik, Higgins, Arnason, Boyle, Brashear, Kotalik, Lisin, Gilroy, McDonagh. That totals 9 new players that could end up on this year’s opening day roster. Simple math, and a very honest John Tortorella tell us that aside from the new guys like Gaborik, Higgins, Brashear and Kotalik, this year’s training camp will be a dog fight amongst the other Ranger hopefuls (especially the young guns) in donning the Rangers’ blue come opening night. Spots will be earned and lost in training camp.

Given all the action we saw this summer off the ice, let’s take a look at what The Rangers’ opening day roster might look like on the ice. Keep in mind two things when reading what I think the roster might be come October: 1) I am assuming Brandon Dubinsky will sign a new contract 2) I have been wrong before.
Line 1-Higgins-Dubinsky-Gaborik: Dubinsky is going to be given the chance to run the show as the #1 Center. Prospal was signed this off-season as a winger for the most part, and a center in case Dubinsky fails to produce as the #1 center. Higgins seems to be a good fit for the top line based on his aggressive style and his hard work in the corners. He could create a lot of room out there for Gaborik to work his magic.

Line 2-Prospal-Drury-Callahan: Callahan and Drury have complementing styles that could prove to be a powerful combo; throw Prospal on the opposite wing (hoping he has an up year) and this line could produce a good amount of points. Should this line fail to produce, it’s very possible we could see Drury and Kotalik reunited on the same line like the old times in Buffalo.

Line 3-Avery-Anisimov-Kotalik: Tortorella has made it very clear that the young guys in the organization have just as good a shot to make the team as the veterans. That being said, I think Anisimov will be the guy to shine in training camp and get the nod for the start of the season. Avery and Kotalik are both aggressive wingers that could create a lot of scoring opportunities when they are out there; having a skilled center man in between them would be a good way to get them going offensively.

Line 4-Brashear-Boyle-Lisin:  The Rangers as a team, got pushed around a lot last year (Remember Torts recently called them soft, I don’t think he was only talking conditioning). Colton Orr was really the only heavy weight on last year’s team that could go out there to protect and serve. Now that The Rangers have replaced Orr with Brashear, I think using Boyle at center for the fourth line (6’7 244 Lbs.) gives the Rangers some added toughness out there when it is needed. Tortorella really enjoyed having Sjostrom’s speed out there with the tough guys, giving the fourth line a more versatile look than other fourth lines around the league. I think Lisin could prove to be a nice replacement for Sjostrom in that regard.

D1-Staal-Girardi: This pairing is the clear number one for the Rangers this year and for years to come. I am very excited to see how they fair this year.

D2-Redden-Rozsival: Tortorella will stick with this pairing as he did for much of last season. When talking about the pairing during the playoffs, Torts had this to say, “Reds and Rozie really stabilized it [game 1 after a bad penalty call at the start of the game].” This pair was really solid in the playoffs and I think we see Torts go back to it come the start of the season.  

D3-Del Zotto-Gilroy: If the Rangers have showed one consistent organizational trait over the last few years, it’s a dependency on their young, up and coming stars (especially at the blue line). Like they leaned on Girardi and Staal (look how that turned out) I think we see Torts lean on Del Zotto and Gilroy to showcase their talents and get some NHL experience to grow on. 

Honorable mentions: Grachev and Voros. Both could be options down the line if they come out strong in camp but I feel as if Torts will go with other options before giving these two the nod. Grachev could benefit from some time in the AHL and Voros has not really proved himself to be anything more than a punching bag for opponents.

And that concludes my thoughts on what our New York Rangers will look like come opening day. Let’s discuss like only us “Boneheads” can. Carp, thanks so much for giving me this honor and opportunity to fill in for you today, I really enjoyed writing this for everyone to read and discuss.

“Hey, Mean Joe”

   Hello all,
   I hope you all have had a great summer, and are as excited as I am for the upcoming season.  All I know is that even the Little Rangers would be good enough for me right now.  It has gotten so bad, that I have even been watching memorable games from last season that the MSG Network has been airing of the Devils and Islanders.  Yup, it’s that bad.  Anyway, I have to say I am excited for the opportunity to be a guest blogger and help out Carp and the blog in any way that I can. 

   I must say though, that sitting here and trying to think about something to write has not been easy. I was laughing to my wife earlier because I usually think nothing of making a post during the season, and many times they end up going on and on, but now that I have the opportunity to sit here and and start off the Monday blog, I have a severe case of writers block.  I was playing hockey with my daughter Sunday morning in the driveway, and she asked me if I was going to take her to another Ranger game this year, and it got me to thinking, so here it goes.

   When I was in 5th grade I went to Ranger games all the time with a guy who was my stepfather, though he only was my stepfather for a few years.  I will also add, that the only good memories, or good that came from his relationship with my family, was his love of Rangers hockey.  Other than that, the only other memories I have of the time period of when he was a part of my family, would be filled with words that Carp would not appreciate, so I will just stop right there.  Anyway, he asked me early one morning before school, to ask one of my best friends if they would like to go to a Ranger game with me that night.  I was so excited, and for one of the few times of my elementary school years, I could not wait to go to school.  I asked my friend Joe, who of course said yes, and the two of us just watched the clock for the rest of the day.

    We came home, played a few games of running bases in the back yard, a few games of “Blades of Steel” on the old Nintendo, had a snack, and got in the car.  Now, it is my brother, my buddy Joe, Stepdork, and me driving to to the city to see my favorite hockey team.  I was a bit disappointed though, because my favorite player at the time, who’s jersey I was wearing, would not be in the lineup.  That player, Pierre “Lucky” Larouche.  Still excited to be going to the game, we arrived at the parking garage, parked the car, remembered where were parked after the game, (Seinfeld reference), put our jerseys on, and walked to MSG. 

   When I was a kid, and we would go to the games, we would ALWAYS go to warm ups.  Something about being a kid at warm ups, and having the chance to catch a puck, was one of the coolest things in the world.  Back then, you could even go right up to the glass, and stick your hand in the camera hole, to be handed a puck by a player. We got on the escalator to head up to warm ups, and I started to get that excited feeling to watch all of the players skate, with their helmets off, so I could get a really good look and they would seem more human.  We were on the second escalator on our way to ice level, when I heard a voice yell to me, “Hey kid, hey little Larouche.” At this point I was half way up the escalator, and I looked to an open door, and standing there in a suit, and on crutches, was none other than Pierre Larouche.  I could not even believe it.  I immediately jumped from half way up the escalator, down to the bottom and right over to him.  He was the nicest guy in the world.  We stood there and talked with him for the whole warm up.  He took pictures with us, signed my jersey, and completely made my year.  It was my, “Hey, Mean Joe” moment of my life.  The Rangers won that night, but it wouldn’t have mattered if they had been blown out of the building. Come to think of it, I probably could have left right after that, and been perfectly fine with it.

   Nasty 1, why did you tell us this story?  Well, I guess because I can already tell that my daughter is going to be a HUGE Ranger fan, and I wonder when she will have her, “Hey kid, hey little Lundqvist” moment.  Hank is her favorite player.  So, to all of you, or maybe even your kids, what is your, “Hey, Mean Joe” moment?  I guess it doesn’t even have to be Ranger related.  It could be any sport, or any hero, but I am sure that many, if not all of you have one.

   Thank you to Carp for this opportunity, and I hope you all enjoyed this, and that I started off the Guest Blogger Week on the right foot.

Regards,
Nasty 1

A lot of you are probably too young to even know that song.

Anyway, after today I’m on vacation for two weeks. Got a lot to do around Blog Headquarters, and some meetings with Mr. Titleist planned, but I will pretty much be around and stopping in at Rangers Report. But the posting, as you know, will be done by Boneheads and Jane (her sad farewell) and Laurel.

So I’ll just be in the background unless something major happens.

I want to leave you with two thoughts. One has nothing to do with hockey: Jim Rice is a jackass. He was a nasty piece-of-you-know-what when he was a player, and he has proven that he is an uninformed idiot as a Hall of Famer.

The other thought: 20 days until training camp.

See yas.