Rangers Report Blog

I was reading Larry Brooks’ piece on Sunday about the decade in hockey (which was excellent, by the way). For the second week in a row he mentioned that worst draft day ever, when the Islanders traded Roberto Luongo and Olli Jokenen to Florida for two stiffs, Mark Parrish and Oleg Kvasha, then drafted Rick DiPietro instead of Marian Gaborik and Dany Heatley, among others. And just last week I was thinking the Isles also had Zdeno Chara and the draft pick that became Jason Spezza (both dealt for Alexei Yashin).

Got me thinking about the what-ifs around the Rangers. Obviously they could have drafted better through the years, especially Neil Smith’s final years and the great Hugh Jessiman mistake by Glen Sather.

But what if they could have just undone some bad trades and not made some bad signings.

They could right now have a first line of Mike Knuble, Marc Savard and Marian Gaborik. They could have Marek Zidlicky on defense and Ian Laperriere on their third line, and maybe Sergei Zubov would still be playing, but if not he’d be a Rangers immortal by now. And if they weren’t handcuffed by the Drury and Redden signings, they’d have had some cap room to compliment Gaborik’s signing this past summer.

Oh, well.

But that also got me thinking about this past summer. If you could go back and do the Gomez deal and the Gaborik signing all over again, then undo the other stuff … would you rather, right now, have Zherdev and Antropov and Orr and Sjostrom and Korpikoski on your forward lines than, say, Higgins and Boyle and Lisin and Kotalik and Brashear?

I would.

Just got this from the Rangers:

2010 IIHF WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP RANGERS PROSPECTS UPDATE
New York, December 27, 2009 –All four Rangers prospects participating in the 2010 IIHF World Junior Championships recorded points in their respective games tonight.
In the United States’ 3-0 victory over Switzerland, Chris Kreider scored the game-winning power play goal and was named Team USA’s Player of the Game.  Team Captain Derek Stepan and Ryan Bourque both notched assists in the game.  Through two games, Stepan has recorded four points (1-3-4) and Kreider has recorded two points (1-1-2).
Roman Horak also tallied a goal for the Czech Republic in their 4-3 loss to Finland.
The United States next plays Latvia and the Czech Repbulic next plays Austria, both games being held on Tuesday, December 29th.

I am not going to be too analytical today because, 1) it’s late in the day already; 2) I didn’t see the game live, only caught Rangers in 60 and the Marty Lovefest on the Hockey Night show; and 3) there’s not much that really needs to be analyzed.

This is what you get. This is what this team is. It is an on-the-bubble team that some nights will beat very good teams, some nights will beat bad teams, some nights will get annihilated by very good teams and some nights will be beaten by very bad teams. I know that’s simple, but what else can you say? It’s a team that is right in the pile of slop that resides between sixth and 13th place in the Leastern Conference. To say they played down to the Islanders might be accurate, but it’s not like the Islanders are that much worse. They may turn out to be better.

And when you look at the four-game winning streak that preceded the OT loss last night, which ones were convincing? The one against Florida. They could have lost the other three. Just as they could have won the two games they lost before the streak. This is what they are.

In terms of analysis, the Islanders goalie was better than the Rangers goalie on this night; the Islanders jumped on some pucks better than the Rangers did (until that tying goal, at least); and the Rangers made more mistakes.

I will say this about Ales Kotalik. If you’re going to have a forward play the point, then you, the coaches, have to drill him on being a defensemen, or having to defend, against odd-man rushes. The forward on the point isn’t going to face short-handed defensive-zone play. He’s going to face odd-man rushes only. So  if I’m the coach, I have him practice those over and over and over again. What’s the harm in that? You have him somewhat prepared to handle a 2-on-1, or even a 1-on-1. You school him on what happens when a teammate goes for the puck along the wall and doesn’t get it. On what to do when the opponent comes across the offensive zone to the middle of the ice. What would it take, an extra hour of practice every week, just him and an assistant coach? Can’t fit in an extra hour for $3 mill a year? And if he can’t handle those, then he can’t play the point. (and we all know, if he can’t play the point, then he can’t play).

But I am definitely not dumping the blame for this game on Kotalik, who surely will be prucha’d next game.

From the Rangers:

NEW YORK RANGERS POST-GAME NOTES
December 26, 2009 – New York Rangers 2, New York Islanders 3 OT (Game #38, Home #19)
The Rangers were defeated by the New York Islanders, 3-2, in overtime, ending their winning streak at four games; the four-game streak was the Blueshirts longest since winning seven consecutive games from Oct. 3 vs. Ottawa to Oct. 17 at Toronto.
The Blueshirts are now 18-16-4 (40 pts.) on the season, including an 8-9-2 mark at home.
The Rangers have recorded points in each of their last five games (4-0-1).
Brandon Dubinsky tallied two goals, including the game-tying goal with 47 seconds remaining in regulation time and won a game-high 12 faceoffs in 16 attempts for a 75% success rate; he now has three-game point-scoring streak (three goals and two assists).
Chris Drury notched one assist and recorded a plus-one rating in 17:48 of icetime; he has now recorded five points (three goals and two assists) in the last four games.
Michal Rozsival recorded two assists in 19:56 of icetime; he now has tallied five assists in the last five games.
Ryan Callahan notched one assist and delivered four hits in 20:02 of icetime; he has tallied seven points (two goals and five assists) in the last five games.
Henrik Lundqvist made 19 saves on 22 shots in his 12^th consecutive start; he has stopped 155 of 163 (.950%) shots over the last five games.
Rookie defenseman Michael Del Zotto delivered a team-high five hits in 23:39 of icetime; entering tonight’s contest, Del Zotto ranked third among all first-year players with 82 hits.
Marian Gaborik logged a team-high 25:04 of icetime and tied for the game-high with five shots
Two Rangers prospects tallied points for Team USA in tonight’s 7-3 victory over Slovakia in their opening game of the 2010 IIHF World Junior Championships; Captain Derek Stepan recorded one goal and two assists for three points and Chris Kreider notched a power play assist on the game-winning goal. Team USA next plays on Sunday, Dec. 27 vs. Switzerland.
The Rangers practice schedule for tomorrow, Dec. 27, is 12:00 p.m. at the MSG Training Center.
The Rangers return to action on Dec. 30, when they will face-off against the Philadelphia Flyers at Madison Square Garden (7:00 p.m.), in their first game of three in four nights; the Blueshirts defeated the Flyers, 2-1, in their first meeting of the season on Dec. 19. The game will be televised live on MSG Network and can be heard on 1050 ESPN Radio.
POST-GAME QUOTES
John Tortorella on tonight’s game… “I thought we played hard.  I thought we developed a lot of scoring chances, we couldn’t score but we stayed with it.  We will take the point and try to find some good stuff out of it.  I thought we played really hard to get back into it in the third period.”
Brandon Dubinsky on the tying goal… “I was just trying to be there, ready. Time is winding down there, we know things are going to go to the net to try and get some traffic and some sticks there and I think Cally (Ryan Callahan) made a great play. I feel like he shot for my stick and I was standing there ready for it and I made the play.”
Henrik Lundqvist on tonight’s game… “They got a goal on our power play – that is always tough.  The PK (penalty kill) was really good.  I think if we tied the game a little earlier, I think we would have had them.  They played pretty solid in their own end, kept us on the outside.  We at least tied the game and got a point out of it.”

So you want some basketball scores? I didn’t think so.

Not much to report on your New York Rangers. Same lineup as the 4-1 win over Florida, although Andrew Gross wrote that Tortorella may break up Staal and Girardi, or at least he had them separated in the morning skate. Lundqvist starts his 12th straight in goal.

Hard to believe in this season that a fifth straight win wouldn’t be a team high … that seven-game streak in October seems so long ago, though. 

Here are tonight’s pregame notes.

Behave yourselves. Josh, 26, says Hi.

There have been plenty of years when the Rangers played a Boxing Day game (boxing up holiday gifts is supposed to be a holiday) when we have noted the irony and the other meaning of the word boxing. In other words, that day’s game was loaded with fisticuffs. Throwing hands.

I don’t know if that will be the case tonight. But remember that the Rangers and Islanders just played a home-and-home last week, each winning in the other’s building, each pretty unhappy with the home loss (especially the Rangers, whose coach explosed, whose goalie led a players-only grievances meeting; and who went out and won four in a row thereafter).

Does that familiarity breed contempt?

Perhaps.

But Boxing Day is also a tough game to play, after two days off the ice, some of it spent gorging on holiday foods and desserts. It usually is a ragged game at the start.

I’m headed to a basketball tournament, all afternoon and night. So I will have to rely on radio and Rangers in 60 and you guys to be my eyes and ears tonight. I’ll try to put up a new thread pregame, as usual.

See youse.

Good morning and Merry, Merry, Merry to everyone. Hope you all got what you wanted under your tree (sorry, Orr. I know you didn’t). More importantly, I hope you all are happy and in good health and able to spend today with family or friends.

No hockey today as the NHL does what the NBA and the NFL can’t do: The right thing. Players and fans should not be taken away from loved ones on this day.

But … I know you still crave hockey, and MSG Network is taking care of some of that craving with five special episodes of Rangers in 60 tonight starting at 5:30.

Now here comes the skeptical Carp (even on Christmas). They are selling this programming as Brian Leetch’s favorites. Well, I love Leetch as much as anybody, as a person and a player, but I’m not buying for one second that these are his five favorite moments or games or anything else … certainly not the last two. I mean, if Leetch could have actually picked his top five, they would all have come from his playing career, and probably all from the ‘93-94 season. But even if he went outside that season, they wouldn’t include a 2-1 first-round playoff victory in a series the Rangers lost last spring, and they absolutely would not include a regular-season game this year, against Columbus for Byfuglien’s sake.

And how about one of those episodes being about him: Maybe his Game 7 against the Devils, with that unbelievable first goal? Or the game in Vancouver when he set up the winner (and pulled down Pavel Bure for the penalty shot)? Or something from his rookie year or anything from one of his Norris years, or his Conn Smythe Trophy? Or one of his postseason hat tricks? How about Gretzky’s last game?

Be that as it may, I know Brian wasn’t involved in the choosing of the episodes, but he will help narrate them, so that should be interesting. Here’s the schedule.

5:30 p.m.: Rangers at Edmonton—Graves Scores #50 and #51 (3/23/94).
6:30 p.m.: ’94 Eastern Conference Finals Game 6 Rangers at Devils—Messier’s “Guarantee” (5/25/94).
7:30 p.m.: Toronto at Rangers  —Richter passes Giacomin for all-time Rangers wins (1/18/01).
8:30 p.m.: 2009 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals Game 4—Rangers at Washington: Lundqvist 2-1 victory (4/22/09).
9:30 p.m.: Columbus at Rangers –  Gaborik 4-point game (11/23/09).

Have a great, great holiday.

So it’s four in a row now, but this last one was different. In each of the previous three—and in pretty much every win this season, since the middle of that seven-game winning streak in October—you and I have been able to say, “Yeah, but …”

Last night there were no “Yeah, buts” unless you are a total nit-picker. You could go right down the checklist of players and plays, in all three zones, at even strength, on the power play, on the penalty kill, in goal, and player-by-player, and it would be almost impossible to be negative about any of it. Seriously, even our usual targets, like Michal Rozsival and Donald Brashear, played well.

Henrik Lundqvist was terrific again, but he didn’t steal this one. And the Panthers are a pretty good team, even though they made some plays they sure would have liked to have back.

1) The moment of the whole year, if the Rangers can maintain any of this, will have been the players-only meeting called by Lundqvist and Sean Avery, at which the King pretty much aired his Festivus grievances.

2) Avery looked rather Avery-ish in this game, again.

3) When we repeated last year’s mantra—that this team just doesn’t have any skill—well, that was when guys like Drury, Callahan and Dubinsky were doing nothing. Well, this is how it looks when three other guys start finding the net, to help the big guy, Marian Gaborik.

4) Say what you want about Sather (and I know you will, and so will I), but the Gaborik signing was a grand slam, maybe the best free agent signing since Adam Graves.

5) In the first three games of this streak, Drury scored twice, but I didn’t think he’d exactly been a force. In Game 4, he absolutely was. So was Dubinsky. I must admit, I’d written off the captain, and his inexplicable, sudden loss of game. He’d been doing nothing, and I couldn’t imagine how or why that happened. Like him or not, he’s a key cog. If he goes, this team has a chance. If not, it doesn’t.

6) That all said, I still expect a bumpy ride the rest of the way.

7) It’s going to be really hard to give Chad Johnson a game here, but it’s a necessity. Maybe in Carolina New Year’s Eve, since the two games before that are spread out.

8) Last night was the second-best Festivus ever (including rap and poetry). The best, of course, was attended by the Costanzas, Kramer, Jerry, Elaine, Kruger, Charley (“I’m a man”) and the other guy from OTB, and briefly by Gwen the two-face. Plus nobody pinned me, so this Festivus is not over.

Here are last night’s official game summary and event summary.

Enjoy your Christmas Eve.

From the Rangers:

NEW YORK RANGERS POST-GAME NOTES
December 23, 2009 – New York Rangers 4, Florida Panthers 1 (Game #37, Home #18)
The Rangers defeated the Florida Panthers, 4-1, to extend their winning streak to four games; this is the longest winning-streak for the Blueshirts since their seven-game winning-streak from Oct. 3 vs. Ottawa to Oct. 17 at Toronto.
The Blueshirts are now 18-16-3 (39 pts.) on the season, including an 8-9-1 mark at home; this marks the Rangers first victory at MSG since Nov. 23.
The Rangers killed off all four Florida power play opportunities and have now killed off 20 out of the last 21 penalties for a 95.2% success rate over the last five games.
Vinny Prospal tallied two goals, including the game-winner on the power play, for his sixth multi-point performance on the season; he now has three points (two goals and one assist) in the last two games.
Chris Drury notched one goal and one short-handed assist in 19:15 of icetime; he has recorded four points (three goals and one assist) in the last four games.
Marian Gaborik recorded a shorthanded goal and one assist along with a game-high seven shots; Gaborik’s tally is the fourth shorthanded goal of the season for the Blueshirts.
Henrik Lundqvist stopped 33 of 34 shots, including 15 in the second period; he has now held opponents to two or fewer goals in nine of his last 10 games.
Ryan Callahan notched one assist and delivered a game-high five hits in 17:36 of icetime; he has tallied six points (two goals and four assists) in the last four games.
Marc Staal recorded one assist and skated a team-high 24:50 of icetime; he has now recorded two points (one goal and one assist) in back-to-back games.
Brandon Dubinsky tallied one assist in 17:47 of icetime; he has notched three points (one goal and two assists) in two consecutive games.
Sean Avery and Enver Lisin recorded one assist apiece.
The Rangers return to action on Dec. 26, when they will face-off against the New York Islanders at Madison Square Garden (7:00 p.m.), in the second game of a three-game homestand; the game will be televised live on MSG Network and can be heard on 1050 ESPN Radio.
Prior to Saturday’s game, the Rangers pre-game skate is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. at the MSG Training Center.
POST-GAME QUOTES
John Tortorella on tonight’s game… “We are again trying to find a way to win at home.  I thought everybody contributed.  Hank (Henrik Lundqvist) contributed when he had to.  Our fourth line contributed.  These games, before you break, you don’t want them to think it is Christmas too early.  I thought we played well and we deserved to win the hockey game.”
Vinny Prospal on tonight’s game… “Hopefully it is starting to turn around for us.  We have been able to put together the second longest winning streak since the beginning of the season.  It doesn’t matter that the Christmas break comes now, we want to prolong this thing.”
Ryan Callahan on tonight’s game… “We are coming into this with confidence obviously with three big wins on the road.  We weren’t happy what we showed last time we were here.  We came in wanting to prove something and with the confidence from three road wins.”

Not much news: Boyle is in for Christensen, who joins Voros on the prucha list. Lundqvist in goal again.

I forgot to mention … Adam Rotter at the SNY Rangers blog kick-started my old memory the other day, but it didn’t stick to my burned-out cells and gray matter …

But tonight is not only Festivus, it is also the 30th anniversary of the Boston Bruins visiting the Rangers’ fans in the stands, good old Mad Mike Milbury taking a shoe to one guy, and clowns Terry O’Reilly and Peter McNab leading the charge over the glass. I was there that night, and scared like heck that it would turn into a riot that might never end. I’m still pretty amazed that there weren’t more serious fights and injuries, if not deaths, under those circumstances.

Anyway, the Times did a memory-lane piece on that night which, if you ever watch the video on Raucous Rangers or YouTube or anywhere else, began with Phil Esposito on a breakaway. Espo was hit in the ass with a tennis ball thrown from the blue seats on his way in against Gerry Cheevers. Then JD took exception to a few things, I think, that John Wensink did late in the game, and it was his yapping that escalated into some pushing and shoving and eventually the fan taking O’Reilly’s stick, and the parade into the seats while the Rangers stood, mouths agape, watching.
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You probably saw earlier today that Rangers prospects Chris Kreider, Ryan Bourque and Derek Stepan were all chosen to play for Team USA in the World Junior Championship in Saskatchewan Dec. 26-Jan. 5.

Here are tonight’s pregame notes.

The Festivus pole requires no decorating. I find tinsel distracting.

Enjoy.