Rangers Report Blog

Actually, not a lot to analyze here.

1) The Rangers, overall, were better as a group on the defensive side of the puck. That was especially so for Staal and Girardi, I thought.

2) Who is that guy in the Redden jersey and what did they do with Wade?

3) Everybody tells me what a great kid this Lisin is. He sure was happy … and who wouldn’t be, playing with Gaborik? Lisin didn’t look out of place there.

4) I’m sure thousands of hearts stopped when Gaborik limped off—and we hope to have an update today—with an apparent knee injury. Be glad it’s not his hip or groin, as long as it’s not a serious knee injury. I know NHL teams like to fudge info on injuries, but I think the Rangers really, really need to be straight with their fans on this one.

5) Tortorella says there will likely be more benchings. Wow! Higgins and Dubinsky, the last victims, were much better vs. Phoenix. So who could Tortorella be targeting? Dare we say the Captain (who, I thought, was marginally better, too)?

6) How does MSG Network use only three of the questions to Tortorella on the post-game show? That press conference is by far the best part of the show, the part the fans most want to see. I understand time constraints, but you have to be able to cut out some of the studio conversation to fit in Tortorella at the mic. Worse, on Saturday, MSG has that whole big hockey show after the game, and gives us only a sliver of Tortorella after the loss in Montreal. Hello? MSG did do a fabulous job with the Big Whistle memories.

From the Rangers:
NEW YORK RANGERS POST-GAME NOTES AND QUOTES
October 26, 2009 – New York Rangers 5, Phoenix Coyotes 2 (Game #12, Home #7)

• The Rangers defeated the Phoenix Coyotes, 5-2, in front of a sold-out crowd (18,200) at Madison Square Garden.


• New York have sold out 163 consecutive regular season games, dating back to November 5, 2005 against New Jersey; the last regular season non-sellout was October 31, 2005 vs. Montreal (17,697); including the playoffs, the Rangers sellout streak is now at 177 games.


• The Blueshirts improved to 8-3-1 overall, including a 5-2-0 mark at home; the Rangers are 13-3-0 in their last 16 regular season games at MSG, and have out-scored their opponents, 59-32, during the stretch.


• The Rangers converted two of five power play opportunities and have now tallied a goal in nine of their last 10 games, clicking at a 35.0% (14-40) success rate over the span; New York have extended their power play goal streak at MSG to six games, converting 40.0% (10-25) of their attempts during the stretch.


• Marian Gaborik led all skaters with two goals and added an assist to earn First Star honors; he is currently tied for the league lead in goals (10) and ranks second in the NHL in points (18).


• Vinny Prospal tallied the game-winning goal and finished with three points and a plus-two rating; Prospal now ranks second in the NHL in assists (12) and is tied for fifth in the league in points (16).


• Donald Brashear registered his first point as a Ranger with an assist on Artem Anisimov’s opening goal at 2:31 of the first period.


• Enver Lisin recorded his first multi-point effort of the season with one goal and an assist on Prospal’s game-winning goal.


• Defenseman Michael Del Zotto tallied two assists, including one on the power play, and is now tied for the league lead in defensemen points (12).


• The Rangers practice schedule for tomorrow, October 27, is 12:00 p.m. at the MSG Training Center.


• The Rangers return to action on Wednesday, October 28, when they will face-off against the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum (7:00 p.m.), in an Atlantic Division matchup; the game will be televised live on MSG 2.

Post-game quotes
John Tortorella on neutral zone play… “We were better at it.  I think we gave up 11 or 12 scoring chances but we were much better away from the puck.  The second goal was the one we got caught changing and a couple of people leaving the zone…we were sloppy there but for the most part we were pretty good as far as those types of situations.”
Henrik Lundqvist on tonight’s game… “I think tonight we were off to a really good start.  They are a fast team.  They skate a lot and move the puck a lot.  We did a good job.  It changed a little bit when they scored a couple of goals and got some energy.  I like the way we responded in the third.  Personally, I knew it was going to be a good intense third period.  It felt good with the help of the defense.”
Chris Drury on Enver Lisin… “Enver brings a lot to that line (first).  He seems to be working well with those guys and he does a lot with the scoring chances.”
Sean Avery on Phoenix’s two quick goals in the second period… “That is something that is not a pattern at this point.  If it is, it is probably because we got away from our foundation which is our forecheck and our system.  We have a certain style we are supposed to play every night and when we stray from that, things don’t go well.  I think when we play into our system and into our foundation we find success.”
Here are the official game summary and event summary.
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Here’s an update on Marian Gaborik, who was injured tonight; the update from Andrew Gross’s blog.

My friend Zip (who is still free, as in no charge, until Wednesday) is reporting that Brashear is back in, which means Voros gets prucha’d.

Also, that Anisimov centers the fourth line between Brashear and Boyle; Callahan is joined by the doghouse boys, Dubinsky and Higgins, Lisin (the former ‘Yote) plays on the big line with Gaborik and Prospal, and Kotalik stays with Drury and Avery, which I’m interested to watch. The D pairs, for some reason, remain the same.

I like that there’s no baseball tonight, love that it’s NOT  a Versus game, that it’s a weeknight. Should all add up to a big crowd here. We’ll be taking attendance, so be here. Bring a snack and your favorite beverage.  If you’re a few minutes late, that’s OK. If you’re at the game, you are excused until after the game. If you just don’t show up at all, you better have a note tomorrow.

Wonder if Dave Maloney’s radio guest between periods will be the Phoenix GM. They must know each other.

Here are tonight’s pregame notes.

Have fun. But be careful.

Three straight losses has the Rangers reeling. It’s early, and way too early to panic. But it obviously is weighing on the Rangers, who had won seven in a row—the last three of those just sloppy enough to morph into this downslide.

And now John Tortorella is delivering the accountability he promised when he was hired. He benched Christopher Higgins, and had him in a fifth-line jersey at practice Sunday. He benched Brandon Dubinsky. They both committed ridiculous turnovers in Saturday’s 5-4 OT loss in Montreal.

Accountability is one thing. Kicking people when they’re down is another. And I’m not saying Tortorella is doing that, or that he’s wrong or unjust. Not at all. In fact, I think he’s absolutely right in both cases.

I’m just saying he’s treading dangerous territory with Higgins. Pats on the back didn’t work. Will a kick in the butt help? Or will it deepen his funk and further erode his confidence? We will see.

I think Dubinsky can handle it, though I’m sure that soon some players will begin to wonder why Chris Drury doesn’t get a seat when he’s struggling as mightily as anybody else.
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As you probably know, Phoenix is playing some pretty good hockey in the early stages of the post-Gretzky era. GM Don Maloney’s young team won four in a row before losing to the Kings on Saturday, including a win over Boston and an OT victory over Detroit. They were also the only team to beat Pittsburgh in the Penguins’ first 10 games.

So it isn’t just Lauri Korpikoski and Petr Healthy Scratch. 

After tonight, the Rangers’ schedule toughens, with five of six on the road. That includes a semi-home game at Nassau Coliseum, then a trip to Minnesota, a home game against Boston, and then a Western Canada trip including the dreaded Alberta double-dip, once upon a time the toughest two games on every team’s schedule.
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So my recent history has gone like this: I was at the Rangers’ loss to the Devils, then the Yankees’ Game 6 rainout, and the Giants’ loss to the Cardinals. Yipee! Fortunately for you guys, I have no plans to go to the Garden tonight because I’m sure I will be on World Series duty starting with the workouts Tuesday.

More later on. See youse.

This is an edited version of a story written by John Halligan, the author and long-time Rangers executive, who passed it along to us:

Bill (The Big Whistle) Chadwick, a native New Yorker and the first United States-born official in the National Hockey League and later a popular broadcaster for the New York Rangers, died Saturday, October 24, in Cutchogue, NY. He was 94.

For 16 seasons, from 1939 to 1955, and despite being blind in one eye, Chadwick was one of the best officials the NHL has ever known. He invented and perfected the system of hand signals to signify penalties, and the system is now used by hockey officials throughout the world.

William Leroy Chadwick was born in Manhattan on October 10, 1915. He became an amateur hockey player of some note while attending Jamaica High School, where one of his teammates was John Mitchell, the future United States Attorney General under Richard Nixon. He also excelled at baseball, winning the city championship with Jamaica in 1933 and playing at various times against future Major Leaguers Phil Rizzuto and Sid Gordon.

But hockey was Chadwick’s sport of choice, and he honed his skills on racing skates at Baisley Park and Goose Pond in Queens and at the Brooklyn Ice Palace.
Following high school, Chadwick played under an assumed name at Fordham University. A center, he also starred with the Jamaica Hawks and the New York Stock Exchange Brokers in the Metropolitan Amateur Hockey League.

In 1935, playing for a Met League All-Star Team at Madison Square Garden, Chadwick was struck in the right eye by an errant puck as he stepped onto the ice to face a team from Boston. He spent a week at Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital, but doctors were unable to restore the vision in the eye.

Despite the injury, and over the fierce objections of his parents, Chadwick continued to play hockey with the New York Rovers of the Eastern Hockey League. Then, early in the 1936-37 season, he was hit in his left eye by an opposing player’s stick. The injury wasn’t nearly as serious as the earlier one, but Chadwick knew his hockey-playing days were finished.

“Nobody loved the game more than I did, but I couldn’t take the chance of losing the other eye as well,” Chadwick recalled in his autobiography, The Big Whistle (with author Hal Bock, Hawthorn Books, 1974).

In March of 1937, Chadwick was a spectator at the Garden, watching the Rovers in pre-game warm-ups. He was paged over the public address system and asked to report to the penalty timekeeper’s bench. The scheduled referee that afternoon, Ray Levia, was stuck in a snowstorm, and Tommy Lockhart, the Garden’s amateur hockey boss, asked Bill to referee the game. “Where’s the whistle?” Chadwick said.

Lockhart was impressed with Chadwick’s work and soon offered him a full-time officiating position. “My salary was $55 a week,” Chadwick recalled, “which wasn’t bad, but you had to cover all of your own expenses. I worked the northern circuit of the league, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Atlantic City, and River Vale, NJ.”

Chadwick soon caught the attention of Frank Calder, the president of the National Hockey League, and late in 1939, Calder asked Chadwick to join the NHL as a linesman. He accepted and became the NHL’s first United States-born official, working his first game at the Garden, the Montreal Canadiens versus the New York Americans. A year later, he was promoted to referee.

“There were some prejudices against me being an American and all,” Chadwick remembered, “but I had the full support of Calder and his successor, Clarence Campbell. Lester Patrick, the Rangers’ general manager, was also a great booster of mine.”

As for his vision handicap, Chadwick often said: Psychologically, I think it even made me a better official because it was always on my mind, so I tried even harder not to make a mistake. I skated harder than the other guys.”

As for the hand signals, Chadwick doesn’t recall exactly when he started using them. “Somewhere around 1943 or 1944 would be fairly accurate,” he told Halligan in a 2004 interview.

“I know it was during the Stanley Cup Finals. There was so much noise that I had difficulty communicating with the penalty timekeeper. So I began using a kind of sign language, touching my leg for tripping, my elbow for elbowing, and so on. That’s how it started.” Chadwick’s signals were not made official by the league until 1956, the year after he retired.

In 1965, at the urging of Emile Francis, the Rangers’ long-time general manager and coach, Chadwick embarked on a remarkable, 14-year broadcasting career, working first on radio with play by play man Marv Albert, and most notably, on television with Jim Gordon for nine seasons.

He called Ranger games with great flourish and more than a few trademark phrases until 1981. “Shoot the puck, Barry, shoot the puck!” he often exhorted defenseman Barry Beck. Others included: “That guy handles the puck like a cow handles a gun” and “He couldn’t put the puck in the ocean if he was standing on the end of the dock.”

“Bill was a natural for broadcasting even though he wasn’t formally trained in it,” said Francis. “He and Jim Gordon got more mail than some of our players. For a native New Yorker to do what he did in hockey at that time was really unbelievable.”

Arthur Friedman, the Rangers’ long-time statistician, dubbed Chadwick “The Big Whistle” in 1969, and the nickname stuck, thanks to considerable usage by Gordon, Albert and Sal Messina. “That nickname made me a celebrity,” Chadwick recalled. “If it weren’t for Artie Friedman, my book wouldn’t have had a title.”

As a referee, Chadwick worked more than 900 regular-season games, plus a record 42 Stanley Cup finals games, including 13 games in which the Cup was decided.

In 1964, Chadwick was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, only the fifth official, and the first American-born official, to be so honored. In 1974, he was inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame, and in 1975 he won the Lester Patrick Award for outstanding service to hockey in the United States.

Chadwick retired in 1988 to Cutchogue, New York, on Long Island’s north shore, about 100 miles east of New York City. “You know how far out on Long Island, I am?” he joked. “When I turn to my left, I see Portugal.”

From the Rangers:

NEW YORK RANGERS POST-GAME NOTES
October 24, 2009 – New York Rangers 4, Montreal Canadiens 5 OT (Game #11, Road #5)

• The Blueshirts were defeated by the Montreal Canadiens, 5-4, in overtime tonight at Bell Centre to fall to 7-3-1 overall, including a 3-1-1 mark on the road.
• The Rangers defense corp registered one goal and four points in the contest; Matt Gilroy notched his second goal of the season, and Michael Del Zotto, Michal Rozsival and Dan Girardi each collected an assist; entering tonight’s action, New York led the league in defensemen goals and ranked third in the NHL in defensemen points.
• Rangers rookie Artem Anisimov responded to an early Montreal goal with an even strength tally at 9:22 of the first period to get New York on the board; the goal was his second of the season.
• Ales Kotalik and Matt Gilroy gave the Rangers a 3-1 lead to close out the first period; Kotalik’s goal extended his point streak to three games (two goals and four points), and Gilroy finished with a game-high five shots.
• Marian Gaborik led the Rangers with two points (one goal and one assist) in the contest to improve his season totals to eight goals and 15 points.
• Sean Avery, Vinny Prospal, Aaron Voros, and Enver Lisin recorded one assist apiece for the Rangers; Prospal entered the contest tied for second in the NHL in assists and eighth in points.
• Rangers Alternate Captain Ryan Callahan registered a game-high six hits in 18:14 of icetime; Callahan currently leads the NHL with 48 hits.
• The Rangers recorded 24 blocked shots in the game, led by Michael Del Zotto (five), Dan Girardi (four) and Wade Redden (four).
• Vinny Prospal registered a game-high 15 faceoff wins (15-30, 50%) and led the Rangers with 24:51 of icetime.
• The Blueshirts practice schedule for tomorrow, October 25, is 12:00 p.m. at the MSG Training Center.
• The Rangers return to action on Monday, October 26, when they will face-off against the Phoenix Coyotes at Madison Square Garden (7:00 p.m.); the game will be televised live on MSG Network and can be heard on 1050 ESPN Radio.
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  Here are the official game summary and event summary.
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  More on The Big Whistle tomorrow.

The Rangers will go with the same lineup tonight, which means Brashear is scratched due to soreness, not Prucha’d (healthy scratch).

Expect mucho line-juggling after the two straight losses, and the struggles of the second-liners, Drury, Callahan and Higgins (although the captain somehow escapes being singled out by the coach).

I think Drury-Kotalik, which apparently will be one of the starting groups with Avery, is interesting. And Callahan and Dubinsky together could cause problems.

I also expect Gomez to show up big-time tonight. Like he did against the Devils. Especially since he was salary-dumped.

Nothing new at Yankee Stadium. It’s raining. They’re waiting to decide on the game. I’m sitting here.

Enjoy.

The Rangers go to Montreal for a game they absolutely need to have. Well, maybe not. But they sure could use it after two straight home losses.

I remember in the pre-Messier days, which also happened to be the Montreal Forum days, when this was as automatic a loss as there was in sports. The Rangers never, ever won in the Forum, and always, always, came away shaking their heads at how the referee (in the one-ref days) would make every call for the Canadiens because it was Hockey Night in Canada. Never mind that the Habs would skate circles around the Rangers.

Anyway, it’s a chance for you guys to see one of your favorite former Rangers, Paul (the Beard Contest) Mara. And one of your least favorite, Scott (or Scotty as he’s known around MSG) (Salary Dump) Gomez.

Staal Wart stole my thunder by posting this. Here’s everybody’s pal, Gomer, denying that he fought Sergei Kostitsyn after a preseason game, and also making his usual bad jokes—which somehow used to crack up everybody over at MSG.
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Me, I get to endure another long, wet, cold day at Yankee Stadium, to write an early sidebar nobody will read, and attempt to make impossible deadlines with an updated sidebar in the middle of the night. Not that I’m complaining. But I will also have to miss another Rangers game, so I’m bringing the radio, and I will count on my Bonehead friends to keep me up to date.
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The Rangers, by the way, are insisting that Donald Brashear’s soreness is not an injury from his fight with Colton Orr. But we still don’t know what it is.
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Just a reminder for those who missed the “rules” the other day, and most of that was in jest, but this one is for real: I don’t want to see cursing on here, and that includes where you use a curse word but use asterisks for a couple of letters. Just for an example: f**k is not going to be tolerated anymore. I’m not putting out a list. I’m just telling you you will be deleted the first time, and banned after that. So don’t do it. Not kidding.
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Here are the pre- game notes for tonight.

I thought the game against the Devils was much, much better than the one against the Sharks, and if you really look with an unbiased eye (I know that’s probably not happening here) it might have been, as an overall effort, better than some of the sloppy wins.

Here’s my column from The Journal News and LoHud.com today.

Some thoughts:

1) Ales Kotalik earned it, and so now John Tortorella is looking to get him more ice time. Kotalik with Drury is what we were expecting, the old Buffalo connection, and that’s what we were looking at in the third period. Tortorella also called out Ryan Callahan to be better, to not get caught from behind as he did by a diving Colin White (who made a fabulous play to thwart his breakaway), and Christopher Higgins, whose next goal will be his first.

2) So much for that tired, stale notion that fights change momentum. Or maybe this one changed momentum for the visitors, because one of their non-pugilists showed the guts to say “enough” to Sean Avery. I don’t know what Mike Mottau was thinking, or what he must have been thinking (“Uh, oh?”) after dropping his gloves with Avery, but right after the fight the Devils went up 1-0, and then 2-0.

3) Marc Staal and Dan Girardi. Wow. You almost have to try to be that bad. Tortorella, asked to sum up Girardi’s play this seaosn, had just two words: “Very average.” Staal made two dreadful plays on the second goal.

4) Marian Gaborik just makes things happen, like that flurry created when he poked the puck off Martin Brodeur’s stick behind the net.

5) Speaking of Brodeur, this always gets me. He knocked the net off its moorings last night, and play continued, and when the puck went up ice, Brodeur replaced the net. Why do goalies do that? It’s a freebie. If the opponent comes back down and scores, it’s no goal, the net was off. There can’t be an opposition goal until after the next whistle, when the officials put the net back. So why put it back while play is live? Do you think baseball players or football or basketball players would do that?

6) I’m sure you read by now that Tortorella used the word Bonehead. I’m talking to our copyright lawyers as we speak.

7) Does anybody else suspect that Donald Brashear hurt himself in that fight with Colton Orr? He’s missed two games with soreness now, and he was worse than awful against San Jose.

Hah! Did you see or hear that Tortorella gave you guys a shout-out!??

Here’s the good stuff from the Rangers:

NEW YORK RANGERS POST-GAME NOTES AND QUOTES
October 22, 2009 – New York Rangers 2, New Jersey Devils 4 (Game #10, Home #6)

Click Here For The Official Game Summary 
And here’s the event summary

• The Rangers were defeated by the New Jersey Devils, 4-2, in front of a sold-out crowd (18,200) at Madison Square Garden.


• New York have sold out 162 consecutive regular season games, dating back to November 5, 2005 against New Jersey; the last regular season non-sellout was October 31, 2005 vs. Montreal (17,697); including the playoffs, the Rangers sellout streak is now at 176 games.


• The Blueshirts dropped to 7-3-0 overall, including a 4-2-0 mark at home; the Rangers are 12-3-0 in their last 15 regular season games at MSG.


• The Rangers converted one of three power play opportunities to extend their streak to eight games (12-33, 36.4%) with at least one goal on the man advantage, their longest since they tallied a power play goal in 10 straight during the 2005-06 season (Mar. 12 – Mar. 29).


• Marian Gaborik put the Rangers on the board with a power play tally at 1:47 of the second period; he finished the contest with four shots in a game-high, 24:29 of icetime, and is now tied for third in the league in goals (seven) and points (13), ranks second in the NHL in shots (43) and sixth among all forwards in average icetime (21:47).


• Ales Kotalik led the team with two points (one goal and one assist) in 16:41 of icetime; he recorded an assist on Gaborik’s power play goal, and is now tied for the league lead in power play points (eight) and ranks second in the NHL in power play assists (six).


• Vinny Prospal tallied a power play assist and won seven faceoffs (7-12, 58%) in 24:09 of icetime; he is now tied for second in the NHL in assists (nine) and sixth in points (12).


• Rangers defenseman Dan Girardi collected one assist in the contest, and now ranks 14^th among NHL defensemen in points (six).


• Brandon Dubinsky delivered a season-high, 10 hits, and Ryan Callahan registered a team-high, six shots in the contest.
   


• POSTGAME QUOTES:

John Tortorella on facing adversity… “I thought we stood up pretty good here tonight, being down 2-0.  Third period, I thought we were playing well. A kind of funny goal goes in on us and we are just not able to score the next one.  This is when you start finding out about your club, when you go through situations like this.  It is a long year, but these are the type of situations where you play your next game…how some guys react.  I am not disappointed in the team as far as how they played.  I thought they made some good plays.  We made some bonehead plays that cost us but I like the way we battled back.  The guys stayed together so we will see what happens when we play Montreal.”

Henrik Lundqvist on tonight’s game… “It hurts to lose the game.  We came back after the first couple of periods.  They came out pretty strong.  When you lose the puck at the wrong time of the game, it is going to really hurt you.  We came back and played really well in the second half of the game.  It is a tough way to lose a game.”

Chris Drury on the third period…  “Other than the bounce (on the Devils third goal) tonight I thought our third (period) was pretty good. I thought we had good chances. Sometimes you don’t get the bounces you need in the third and you lose the game.”