Rangers Report Blog

The Rangers had their Thanksgiving dinner in Tampa. Tonight some of them go for a little revenge for desert. I’m not sure there’s really any motivation for coaches and players returning to play their old teams. But in this case, John Tortorella was fired by the Lightning after winning a Stanley Cup there, I don’t know the situation surrounding Mike Sullivan, but I do know the minute his contract expired he joined Tortorella here, and Vinny Prospal was bought out with three years left on a four-year contract. Told to get out, basically.

Here’s Andrew Gross’s story on their return. Tortorella, as expected, gave the “it’s not about me” answer to most questions.

Bobby Sanguinetti goes into the lineup in place of Wade Redden, who is expected to be out 5-7 days with what appeared to be a shoulder injury. Ales Kotalik could return.
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In case you missed it, the NHL celebrated its actual 92nd birthday yesterday.
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Here are tonight’s pregame notes.

I’m driving up to Syracuse for three state championship football games this weekend. Hope to get up there in time to A) give you all a clean slate for the game tonight and B) watch the game. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do either. Maybe the Blogmama will jump in this evening. Behave.

It’s been a tough year on a lot of people, but still most of us should count our blessings. I know I’m thankful for something completely out of the blue. My friend Sam Weinman left for greener pastures in January, and I “temporarily” took over this blog. It was a lot of additional work and hours, and some aggravation.

But I never thought, back then, that I’d be thankful that I did it. I am. I feel as if I have a whole new flock of friends … crazies, fanatics, Boneheads … people who insult each other in a hilarious way, people who know how to laugh, people who take ownership in this little piece of cyber real estate. You guys rock. Or, as Sally once said, “You are the awesomest.”

So I am thankful for this, and for all of you (well, most of you). To you and your families, I wish a Happy Thanksgiving and great holidays to follow (including Festivus). Thank you. I mean it.

Some lesser things for which you might be thankful, out of Sunrise, Fla., last night:

1) Matt Gilroy. Good teams are team-tough. Good teams stick up for one another. Good teams have guys willing to sacrifice their facial features to come to the aid of a teammate. Good job, Matt. No. Great job.

2) Somebody said it best, in the earlier thread: He or she wanted a Wade Redden injury update because he was concerned. That’s how far No. 6 had come this year. The Rangers need him. Boy, I could have drawn some laughs with that line last year.

3) Chris Drury made his comeback and had maybe his best game of the season.

4) Dan Girardi had his best game of the season. Christopher Higgins had maybe his best game of the season. Henrik Lundqvist was stellar during the 65 minutes of hockey and the skills competition. Sean Avery keeps getting better. Ryan Callahan was strong. Marc Staal is getting better and better lately. Michal Rozsival (there, I said it) was solid.

5) This game proved what Tortorella says. A good forecheck and good defensive play go hand-in-hand. I think he says that.

6) That guy who ran over Redden and Prospal with legal hits is a monster!

7) The Knicks played, so no postgame. How does that work?

8) This is why I hate the skills competition. Yes, your Rangers got two points out of it. But that would have been a good  road tie, with all they endured. If they’d lost the skills competition they’d have felt they lost the game and a point. That would have been lousy after those 65 minutes.

Happy Thanksgiving.
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LATE MORNING UPDATE, 10:34 a.m.: The AHL lists Bobby Sanguinetti as a callup by the Rangers today.
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Here’s the official word:
NEW YORK RANGERS TRANSACTION UPDATE
New York, November 26, 2009 – New York Rangers President and General Manager Glen Sather announced today that defenseman Bobby Sanguinetti has been recalled from the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League (AHL).
Sanguinetti, 21, has registered six goals and 16 assists for 22 points, along with 10 penalty minutes in 21 games with Hartford this season.  Following a two assist performance last night at Lowell, Sanguinetti leads all AHL defensemen in scoring and ranks fourth in the league overall with 22 points.  He has registered six multi-point efforts on the season, including an AHL career-high four-point performance on October 31 against Providence (two goals and two assists).  Last season, Sanguinetti led Wolf Pack defensemen in points (42) and assists (36), and set a Hartford single-season rookie record for assists by a blueliner.  He also led all Wolf Pack skaters with five points (one goal and four assists) in six AHL playoff contests.
The Trenton, New Jersey native was originally the Rangers first round selection, 21st overall, in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft.

from the NYR:

NEW YORK RANGERS POST-GAME NOTES
November 25, 2009 – New York Rangers 2, Florida Panthers 1 (SO) (Game #24, Road #12)
* The Blueshirts defeated the Florida Panthers, 2-1, in the shootout tonight at BankAtlantic Center; it was the Rangers second straight shootout victory on the road.

• The Rangers improved to 13-10-1 overall, including a 6-5-1 mark on the road; New York are now 1-1-0 against Florida this season.
• New York finished with 33 faceoff wins in 58 attempts for a 57% success rate, led by Vinny Prospal’s 17 faceoff wins.
• After a scoreless first period, Marian Gaborik tallied the game’s opening goal with 25 seconds remaining in the second to give the Rangers the lead heading into the final frame; Gaborik’s goal was a power play tally, giving him eight goals with the man advantage on the season; he also registered a game-high six shots in 27:21 of icetime.
• Gaborik currently leads the league with 19 goals on the campaign, and has tallied 29 goals in his last 32 games dating back to last season; he is also tied for the league lead in scoring with 33 points.
• Henrik Lundqvist made 25 saves through regulation/overtime and turned aside all three shots faced in the shootout to record his second straight win and improve to 2-0 in the shootout this season.
• Rangers Captain Chris Drury recorded one assist, won 12 of 16 (75%) faceoffs and logged 22:20 of icetime in his return to the lineup after missing the previous five games to injury.
• Sean Avery also collected an assist on Gaborik’s power play goal, and has now registered four points (two goals and two assists) in the last four games.
• P.A. Parenteau notched the only goal in the shootout and finished with four shots in the contest; he is now two-for-two (100%) in shootouts this season, including two game-deciding goals.
• Marc Staal led the team with a Rangers season-high 30:24 of icetime; Ryan Callahan led all skaters with six hits.
• The Blueshirts practice schedule for tomorrow, November 26, is 12:30 p.m. at St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa Bay.

• The Rangers return to action on Friday, November 27, when they will face-off against the Tampa Bay Lightning at St. Pete Times Forum (7:30 p.m.), in the first game of a back-to-back road set; the game will be televised live on MSG Plus and can be heard on 970 WABC.

  Here are the official game summary and event summary.

OK, so here’s the news, for those who get their boxers in a bunch when I do anything that isn’t news:

Capt. Drury is in the lineup tonight. Kotalik, who got banged up Monday, is out. Lundqvist is in goal.

Here are tonight’s pregame notes.

Not enough? Tough. Go read Steve Zipay’s blog (he’s on vacation, by the way, so Arthur Staple’s filling in) or Andrew Gross’s blog (the poor S.O.B. had a nightmare flight into Fort Lauderdale). You’ll be back. Just kidding, obviously.
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To answer a few questions from the previous thread. I shot an 84, also. For 15 holes. A little more than that for 18. Don’t know if you guys who live around here have played Centennial in Carmel, but it’s a great track (27 holes). The sloping greens ate my lunch today. Still beats work.

To whomever asked if I hold a grudge against old Muck … yeah, I do. Why? Because I thought he was a dreadful coach, but I didn’t dislike him until he got very, very personal with me. He hates me. Said some extremely crude things about me, repeatedly, to the Ottawa guys. I don’t really care. He also called some of his young players nice things like “garbage” and so I have very little respect for him.  Whatever. I still can’t believe Neil Smith hired him, and ultimately the GM who won the Stanley Cup lost his job on that transaction.

And I love it when some peabrain complains he doesn’t like this blog and you Boneheads come to my defense. You are the best.

Enjoy the game.

Does anybody else think about the “Leetch-wing lock” employed once upon a time by coach Muckler, when the Rangers play in Sunrise? I do. That is always my first thought when the Rangers play there (I have different memories of when the Panthers played at Miami Arena, in one of the scariest neighborhoods in America).

Imagine if John Tortorella told Marian Gaborik and Vinny Prospal that their only responsibility tonight is to stop one single player on the Panthers, and that they would have Michael Del Zotto on their wing, but Del Zotto would barely ever cross the offensive blue line, and that those guys would only go on the ice when that one Panther was on, and they would come right off whenever he came off, even though they don’t have the final player change as the visiting team, and they wouldn’t even practice this before trying it? Would you say there was a good chance the Rangers would get shut out in that game? Then imagine that Tortorella, after the shutout loss, gave the strategy a glowing thumbs-up, and yet when the teams meet again at MSG, he wouldn’t try the same thing, even with the last change and time to practice it?

Geez.
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Sounds like the captain is back tonight. Chris Drury missed only five games, and that’s pretty quick from a concussion that wasn’t his first. I don’t like it one bit, a guy coming back that soon because, as I’ve said, concussion history tells us: That there is a cumulative effect with concussions, that each ensuing concussion is more serious, that further concussions are likely to be caused by lesser collisions. I’d be very careful here.

That said, if Drury is healthy, he helps. I know a lot of you think he’s a detriment, and it’s true that he has been a zero for a lot of this season. But he’s a better player than whomever comes out of the lineup for him. And that might be Ales Kotalik, who was banged up Monday against the Blue Jackets.
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Me, I’ve got another major meeting with Mr. Titleist, and each one now could be the last until 2010. So don’t bother me for, oh, about four hours or so. I’ll stop in later, pregame.

You all know not to get too excited over those seven straight goals, right? You know that in the course of an 82-game season every team will have a couple of games like that, even your Rangers, right? You understand that the BJs goalies stunk, that everything went in. That this was a fluke, not the norm? That the next time it’s 1-1 late in the game, those guys who were Guy Lafleur last night will go back to being Blair Betts?

I don’t want to rain all over the parade, though. Some good things happened, for sure. Some thoughts:

1) John Tortorella should call timeout right after the national anthem from now on.

2) Staal and Girardi still chase pucks behind the net or off to the side of the net, and leave the front wide open. Why? No idea.

3) I know, there’s a lot of anger toward Chris Drury, but this team misses him, and is better when he gets back, which could be pretty soon.

4) Brashear and Voros can’t do what Columbus’ fourth-line guys did in the first period, create chances and convert. On the other hand, the Rangers did a pretty good job on the first, second and third lines of the BJs. Also, why is Voros retalliating for the hit that banged up Staal, while Brashear is on the ice counting his $1.4M?

4) Marian Gaborik is 18-14-32 in 21 games. Last year the Rangers’ leading scorers (Scott Gomez and Nik Zherdev) had 58 points. Last year their top goal scorer was Markus Naslund with 24.

5) You had to like the way Redden and Staal reacted to guys hitting their goalie.

6) Brian  Leetch  was fabulous in studio. As a player he was always a great analyst of the game, and always great talking about anything but himself. Don’t know if he wants to make a career out of this, but he’s already as good or better than a lot of analysts of the three area teams on the various MSG payrolls.

7) Four goals allowed was still too many.

From the NYR:

NEW YORK RANGERS POST-GAME NOTES AND QUOTES
Nov. 23, 2009 – New York Rangers 7, Columbus Blue Jackets 4 (Game #23, Home #12)
Click here for the official game summary and event summary.
The Rangers defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets, 7-4, in front of a sold-out crowd (18,200) at Madison Square Garden; New York had five players register multiple points in the contest (M. Gaborik, A. Anisimov, S. Avery, C. Higgins, and P. Parenteau).
After allowing the game’s first two goals, New York tallied seven straight from 11:29 of the first period to 12:47 of the second, marking the first time the Rangers tallied seven unanswered goals since a 7-0 victory against Boston on Mar. 7, 2009; the Blueshirts tallied three goals in a 71-second span in the second period.
New York have sold out 168 consecutive regular season games, dating back to Nov. 5, 2005 against New Jersey; the last regular season non-sellout was Oct. 31, 2005 vs. Montreal (17,697); including the playoffs, the Rangers sellout streak is now at 182 games.
The Rangers are now 12-10-1 (25 pts.) on the season and 7-5-0 at home; in their last 21 regular season games at MSG, New York are 15-6-0, and have out-scored their opponents, 74-47, during the stretch; the Blueshirts also improved to a league-best 10-0-0 when leading after the second period.
Marian Gaborik led all skaters with four points (two goals and two assists) to extend his point streak to seven games (seven goals and 13 points); he also tied for the game-high with a plus-three rating.
Sean Avery notched two goals in 51 seconds, including one power play tally and the game-winning goal; it was his second multi-goal effort on the season and 10th of his career.
Rookie Artem Anisimov notched one goal, added two assists, and finished with a plus-three rating; his three points and plus-three rating were both career-highs.
Rangers defensemen Michael Del Zotto and Matt Gilroy recorded one goal apiece, giving the New York defense corps a combined 15 goals on the season.
Christopher Higgins and P.A. Parenteau each collected two assists in the contest; Parenteau’s two assists marks his first NHL multi-point game.
Henrik Lundqvist made 26 saves to record his 10th win of the season; Enver Lisin skated in his 100th NHL game.
The Rangers practice schedule for tomorrow, Nov. 24, is 11:00 a.m. at the MSG Training Center.
The Rangers return to action on Wednesday, Nov. 25, when they will face-off against the Florida Panthers at BankAtlantic Center (7:30 p.m.), to begin a three-game road trip; the game will be televised live on MSG Network and can be heard on 1050 ESPN Radio.
POST-GAME QUOTES
John Tortorella on the timeout…“I just told them to take a deep breath because we weren’t playing that badly.  We just made a couple of mistakes and it ends up in the net.  I just told them to take a deep breath (because) there is a lot of hockey left.  They deserve a little bit of the credit of staying within themselves.”
Marian Gaborik on the team’s play… “We had a good forecheck and we kept playing in their zone which was important. Our defensive side of the game was good. We’re talking about having the third guy coming back and being responsible defensively and I think we did that.  It has to carry over on the road. We haven’t had a long trip in a while so we have to build on this and just go from here.”
Henrik Lundqvist on Coach Tortorella’s early timeout… “It was good to have a break, that is for sure.  I think the first goal was huge.  To get that in the first period and not go in here trailing 3-0.  We needed some positive energy and we got that from #10 (Marian Gaborik).  After that, you could see how we got confidence.”
Sean Avery on tonight’s game… “The biggest thing was coming back from a two goal deficit. I think regardless of what the score was, coming back and winning a game after you’re losing 2-0 is big for a team that has been struggling. I hope it puts everybody around here in a good mood and the guys can go to Florida just feeling good and be able to not clench the stick as hard and just make some plays.”

Or night.

Here’s your game thread.
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Though we are sometimes critical (sometimes?) of the on-ice work the Rangers do, we are never disappointed with what they do off the ice. Here’s another example of the organization’s good-heartedness. There was just a feature on it during the pregame show on MSG, but for those who didn’t see it:

NEW YORK RANGERS HOST GARDEN OF DREAMS NIGHT
Garden Of Dreams Foundation Promotes Awareness and Hosts Tri-State Area Children In Need
New York, November 23, 2009 – The New York Rangers will host a special “Garden of Dreams Night” to raise awareness for the Garden of Dreams Foundation. Garden of Dreams is a non-profit organization that works closely with all areas of Madison Square Garden, including the Knicks, Rangers, Liberty, MSG Media, MSG Entertainment, and Fuse, to “make dreams come true for kids in crisis.”
On Monday, November 23rd, children from the Garden of Dreams Foundation will participate in a series of once-in-a-lifetime experiences with the New York Rangers when they host the Columbus Blue Jackets at Madison Square Garden. To kick off the evening, a child from Make-A-Wish Hudson Valley will perform a ceremonial puck drop. As the Rangers enter the ice prior to the game, 10 children from Children’s Village will have the opportunity to participate in a high-five line with the players. The Rangers will host three suites for children and representatives from various Garden of Dreams partner organizations to enjoy the game and receive visits from Rangers alumni. Two children from Children’s Aid Society have been selected to serve as honorary MSG reporter and photographer to capture the activities of the evening.

So the Blue Jackets come to town, in what should be one of the softer games in this stretch of five in eight nights, six in 10.

Should be.

But Columbus is 6-1-3 in its last 10, which looks good on paper. The one loss was 9-1 to Detroit. Five of those games have gone to a skills competition. Still, do you think the Rangers would sign for one loss and 15 points in 10 games? You bet they would.

Here are the pregame notes.

I still hope to make it do MSG tonight. I’ll see youse all later.
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According to Steve Zipay, Callahan goes to center tonight, between Lisin and Kotalik, and Higgins moves up to the first line with Prospal and Gaborik. Zipay says, according to Tortorella, that Gaborik leads the team with 28 even-strength scoring chances (this is a coaching staff’s unofficial stat) and Higgins is second with 24. Somewhat surprising. Drury skated this morning and gets closer to returning, but won’t play tonight.

Hi everybody. Sleep well? I did. Just got up, after getting home from Kingston at 2 a.m. and being all coffee-d up on the ride home. I know none of you ever go to bed after midnight, so you don’t know what I’m talking about.

So I saw some of Rangers in 60, heard a bit of the game on the radio, watched MSG’s Hockey Night—have you guys seen that Niedermayer clip where he gives the stick to the fans and starts a brawl?—and heard some of Tortorella’s post-game. I have an idea how the game went, but didn’t see the whole thing, so I’m not going in-depth with my analysis.

I will say this, and this caused some reaction when I said it last winter. A team like the Florida Panthers has more speed and skill, overall, on its roster than do the Rangers. I’m saying it again. They don’t have a Gaborik, or the name-brand stars, but the Panthers have a better roster top to bottom.  The Panthers—on the road for a third game in four nights—put it to the Rangers pressure-wise and the rested Rangers did not respond well. Again, they didn’t play horribly. But they didn’t play well enough to win.

Also, what I gathered:

1) On the third goal, I think it was, what the heck were Staal and Girardi thinking? That’s just plain awareness, or lack thereof. Girardi skates by the net when all he really needs to do is stop, and Staal goes to the front and doesn’t pick up an open man. It’s been that way all season.

2) It seemed as if Sean Avery had another Avery game—please tell me if I’m wrong. That’s got to be a little bit of a silver lining, if he’s coming around.

3) The elite goalie needs to make a big stop when the team struggles like this.

I don’t have much else to add. The plan is for me to go to the game at MSG tomorrow. See youse later.

Here’s a little goal celebration to cheer you up.