Rangers Report Blog

There’s a reason it hasn’t been announced, and probably won’t be announced tonight;  a reason (probably) that Higgins was on the ice at the end of the game, and a reason the MSG voices aren’t saying anything about the TSN reports of Kotalik and Higgins for Jokinen and Prust.

And that reason, I’ve been told, is that the complications that arose last night are still not yet resolved.

The complications have to do with Kotalik’s NMC. (UPDATE: It’s a limited no-trade, not a full no-move; there are three teams to which Kotalik cannot be traded without his permission, one of those is Calgary).

Kotalik refuses to go to Calgary—though ultimately he will, for $6+ million reasons.

As far as I know, Jokinen does not have an NMC.

To review, Higgins was going to be an RFA this summer, and probably not re-signed. The Rangers shed the last two years, at $3M per, of Kotalik’s contract.

Jokinen earns $5.5M this year and is a UFA this summer … and perhaps a trade chip/rental at the deadline. Prust is yet another third/fourth-liner, but much, much tougher than anybody the Rangers have right now (98 PIMs).

More as it becomes available.
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LATE NIGHT UPDATE, 12:30 A.M.: Sportsnet.ca is confirming what I reported earlier … that the holdup is Kotalik’s limited NTC, which lists three teams—one being Calgary—to which he cannot be traded without his permission.
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From the Rangers:

NEW YORK RANGERS POST-GAME NOTES
January 31, 2010 – New York Rangers 3, Colorado Avalanche 1 (Game #56, Road #27)
• The Blueshirts defeated the Colorado Avalanche, 3-1, tonight at the Pepsi Center, marking the first Rangers win at Colorado since a 6-3 victory on Dec. 31, 1998.
• Marian Gaborik tallied all three Rangers goals to record his first hat trick as a Blueshirt, and the 10th hat trick of his career; it is the first hat trick by a Ranger since Chris Drury notched three goals vs. Tampa Bay on Nov. 6, 2008.
• With his first goal at 13:53 of the first period, Gaborik registered his 500th career NHL point; he finished the contest with six shots and a plus-three rating, and has recorded 11 points (five goals and six assists) in the last eight games.
• The Rangers improved their record to 25-24-7 (57 pts.) overall, including a 13-11-3 (29 pts.) mark on the road.
• New York held Colorado scoreless in six power play opportunities (9:56), and are now 13-for-13 in shorthanded situations in their last two games.
• Goaltender Chad Johnson registered his first career NHL win, stopping 34 of 35 shots, while starting in back-to-back games for the first time in his career.
• Defenseman Marc Staal tallied a career-high two assists, and finished with a plus-two rating in a game-high 27:12 of icetime; Staal has recorded six points (one goal and five assists) in the last eight games.
• Rangers Alternate Captain Vinny Prospal tallied his 10th multi-point effort of the season with two assists, and registered five shots and a plus-two rating; Prospal has recorded seven points (one goal and six assists) and a plus-six rating in the last eight games.
• Sean Avery recorded the primary assist on Gaborik’s first period goal, and has now registered a point in each of the last two games (one goal and one assist); Avery also finished with a plus-one rating, and has now posted a plus or even rating in 27 of the last 38 games.
• Rookie forward Artem Anisimov collected one assist, and has now registered three points (two goals and one assist) in the last four games.
• The Rangers will conclude their three-game Western Conference road trip on Tuesday, Feb. 2, when they will face-off against the Los Angeles Kings at Staples Center (10:30 p.m.), in their fourth game in three days; the game will be televised live on MSG Network.

According to TSN, the trade of Kotalik to Calgary will bring back Olli Jokinen, but it will include either Christopher Higgins or Matt Gilroy.

I think that’s a huge difference, don’t you ?

I mean, Higgins has done zilch offensively and is probably not going to be re-signed. Gilroy still could turn out to be a diamond in the rough. I know if I had my choice, I would much rather deal Higgins.

Plus, if Jokinen is coming, well, duh, he’s a forward. The Rangers only have six defensemen, and one of them (Redden) has been close to doghouse-ville lately.

We’ll see.

Sorry for the unusual new post during the game.
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THE LATEST: IT’S HIGGINS! Probably going to be announced after the game … they better put Higgins on the bench so he doesn’t get hurt!

IT GETS BETTER: THE RANGERS ARE GETTING THIS TOUGH CENTER, PRUST. MORE OF THE SAME TYPE OF PLAYER THEY HAVE, BUT TOUGHER.

The Rangers had a trade in place. There have been complications involving that deal. So Kotalik was sent back to New York.

EVENING UPDATE, 7:40 P.M.: Larry Brooks is reporting from Denver that Ales Kotalik has left the team after being told he was going to be traded. No word on what the deal is. Kotalik apparently is done as a Ranger.
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So it’s not bad enough the Rangers are playing so poorly. Now they have to play a second game in two nights on the road, in that altitude, against a pretty good team, and without their goalie.

Nice. Good luck with that.

I am astonished, first of all, that the Rangers didn’t have another goalie flown in to Denver last night. If Ocho gets hurt tonight, it’s going to be the dog-and-pony show to end all shows. What could it cost to get somebody in town just in case? The cost of a flight? Now Lundqvist can’t play tonight, no matter what. Can you even imagine what will happen if Ocho goes down?

Maybe that’s what the big team meeting was about: Tortorella asking around the room if anybody else could play goalie. Maybe Brashear or Kotalik? You know what would happen. Lundqvist would have to suit up, sick as a dog. Perfect.

In terms of trade rumors, well, we know something’s up with Calgary, and we know that Calgary shuffled a lot of players in and out with their trade with Toronto today. So perhaps a trade is coming down. Why is it that we doubt it will be a good one?

You know why.
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SECOND EVENING UPDATE, 7:48 p.m.: Just found out from the Rangers that Lundqvist isn’t so bad that he couldn’t play in an emergency. Tortorella apparently misunderstood the question. Lundqvist will not play if Johnson is struggling, was what he meant to say. If Johnson is hurt, Lundqvist could play.

Heave ho, five in a row. All in regulation. Zero of a possible 10 points ripped right off the schedule. Your New York Rangers, right now out of a playoff position.

That’s all it takes, just as it will only take a three-game winning streak for them to be right back in it, and for everybody to snap ankles jumping back on the bandwagon.

Thoughts:

1) You know what? You can cry all you want about the first-period effort and the offense that showed up too late. Really that first period and the 3-0 deficit—insurmountable for this team—was all on Michael Del Zotto. And if you’re going to be honest with yourselves, you can’t be angry about that. We knew there would be nights like this, and here it was. It’s part of the process of throwing a teenager into the big leagues, on defense no less. No matter how great this kid’s potential, how high his ceiling, there will be nights like this. And since he’s a risk-taker in a ridiculously risky system, it’s actually surprising that there haven’t been more. You all wanted MDZ here, and rightly so. So live with it. I think that’s why John Tortorella wasn’t ripping mad last night. He knew it was on the kid, and didn’t want to pile on. And he knew that the first period wasn’t as bad as it seemed, but seemed horrible because it was 3-0 on three awful mistakes.

2) Given that, for decades and decades, the rule for a defenseman on a 2-on-1 against was to not allow the pass. “Let the goalie have the shooter, don’t allow the pass.” So why is it that the Rangers’ defensemen always allow the pass? Sometimes they slide on their bellies, and once in a while they get a piece of the pass (to cries of “Great play by Girardi; great play by Staal” on TV). But more often than not, they don’t take away the pass, they don’t take the man and let the goalie have the shooter.

3) Speaking of 2-on-1s, was it just me or did it really seem that Sean Avery, on his 2-on-1, looked over, saw it was Christopher Higgins coming down his left side and figured, “I’d better shoot this because Higgy will never get it on goal”? In truth, as bad as Avery has been, he is one of the few guys on the team that really understands “pucks and bodies to the net.” He’ll throw it to the paint from anywhere, and that’s what everybody ought to be doing by now.

4) The Coyotes messed up their own little 2-on-1 against when the defenseman slid past Gaborik. Everybody praised Christensen for his return pass, and it was pretty, but, geez, it was 2-on-0 by then.

5) Don’t you wish you had Don Maloney back and sitting in the big chair?

6) Tortorella and MSG made a big deal out of Prucha’s reaction to the high stick. Well, Rozsival’s stick caught him in the face. What do you think the studio voices or the coach, or anybody, would do if hit in the face with a stick? Right, you recoil. Whether it’s a sharp piece of wood or a shot from a water pistol, you recoil when you get hit in the face unexpectedly. It was a penalty. Correctly called.

7) Wade Redden. Ugh.

From the Rangers:

NEW YORK RANGERS POST-GAME NOTES
January 30, 2010 – New York Rangers 2, Phoenix Coyotes 3 (Game #55, Road #26)
• The Blueshirts were defeated by the Phoenix Coyotes, 3-2, tonight at Jobing.com Arena, the Rangers’ first loss at Phoenix since Dec. 31, 2001 (5-0).
• Marian Gaborik notched his 30th goal of the season, the sixth time in his nine NHL seasons he has reached the mark; the goal came at 9:42 of the third period, and he finished the contest with three shots and three hits in 20:17 of icetime; Gaborik has now registered eight points (two goals and six assists) in the last seven games.
• The Rangers dropped their record to 24-24-7 (55 pts.) overall, including a 12-11-3 (27 pts.) mark on the road.
• New York held Phoenix scoreless in seven power play opportunities (12:16), and are now 13-for-13 in shorthanded situations in their last three meetings with the Coyotes.
• Sean Avery recorded one goal and three shots; the goal was his first away from MSG this season.
• Goaltender Chad Johnson stopped 21 of 24 shots, including each of his last 17 shots faced, and is now 0-2-1 in four career NHL appearances.
• Forward Brandon Dubinsky recorded an assist on Avery’s third period goal, and won a game-high 10 faceoffs in 13 attempts (77%); he has now registered six points (three goals and three assists) in the last seven games.
• Erik Christensen tallied an assist on Gaborik’s third period goal in his return to the lineup, after not dressing in each of the last two games; he has now recorded nine points (three goals and six assists) in his last 14 games.
• Rangers Alternate Captain Ryan Callahan led all skaters and tied his season-high with nine hits, his most in a game since Oct. 11 vs. Anaheim.
• The Rangers continue their three-game Western Conference road trip tomorrow, Jan. 31, when they will face-off against the Colorado Avalanche at the Pepsi Center (8:00 p.m.), in the second game of a back-to-back set; the game will be televised live on MSG Plus and can be heard on 970 The Apple.

In the desert, no less. Those of you who always pined to see Petr Prucha play might actually see him play tonight.

I’ve been up to my eyeballs in basketballs, and incommunicado all day. But I did just hear something that you probably all know already: That Henrik Lundqvist is sick, and so Ocho Cinco (aka Dos Nueve; aka Chad Johnson) starts in goal tonight.

Otherwise, we expect that Erik Christensen gets de-prucha’d—and actually promoted to one of the top lines—while Donald Brashear remains prucha’d and Ales Kotalik is re-prucha’d. Fun with words.

I don’t have much else, but you guys deserve a blank slate, since you’ve all behaved so nicely lately. Maybe I’ll give you all lollipops, too.

See youse during the game.

Mine means three basketball games, then speeding home to catch the 8 p.m. faceoff tonight.

Yours means being here all day, and counting the minutes to the 8 p.m. faceoff in Glendale.

By the way, today is my actual anniversary. Sam left last Jan. 29 (We both posted that day) and I took over Jan. 30. I would never have believed I’d have so much fun while working for free, or that I’d actually read the comments, much less get to know the individual commentors (Boneheads, as they soon would be called).

In case you missed it, Glen Sather spoke to reporters yesterday, which is about as rare as Oz speaking to Tinmen. I read it on Steve Zipay’s blog. Basically, Slats said the Rangers are still in the hunt, because so many teams are (he didn’t say it’s because so many teams are so lousy). And he said that making a trade nowadays is really difficult.

So there you have it. Apparently Christensen goes back in tonight, with Kotalik and Brashear again the likely pruchas … wonder if Prucha will be prucha’d. I’ll try to stop in later, or at least by gametime. See youse.

Back in the late 1990s, the argument that polarized the Rangers’ management more than any other was Manny Malhotra. John Muckler disliked him, Neil Smith loved him. Muckler thought he was a dime-a-dozen player, Smith thought he was a first-line, next-Adam Graves. And I think most of my problems with Muckler arose out of  the way he mis-handled Malhotra, who, even if he was a dime-a-dozen player, was a great asset. In other words, if they didn’t want him, they should at least talk him up and treat him like a gem to build up his trade value.

Whatever.

The point is—and I’ve lost bets on this kid—he turned out to be exactly what most NHL people thought he would be: A really solid, dependable third-line NHLer for a long time.

I’m getting to a point here. Malhotra, still only 29, plays on the second or third lines for the San Jose Sharks, a team far, far, far better than the Rangers. He plays 16-17 minutes a night. He has 9-13-22, +14 numbers (three game-winners, two PPGs). He’s big. He can skate. He’s got some toughness. He will stick up for teammates. He is, in short, a great teammate … a lot like Graves without the offensive numbers. And he makes $700,000 this year!

Now, my point is this. I say the Rangers are made up of one star and a whole basket of third- and fourth-line forwards. It’s actually worse than that. And if you don’t agree, then ask yourself this question:

Would you rather have Manny than … Marian Gaborik? No.
Would you rather have Manny than … Brandon Dubinsky, Ryan Callahan or Artem Anisimov? At this point, probably not. They have better upside and are younger. But Manny’s as good as any of them right now.
Would you rather have Manny than … Chris Drury? I won’t even bother with that one, but you could have 10 Malhotras for Drury’s salary.
Would you rather have Manny than … Ales Kotalik, Sean Avery, Vinny Prospal, Christopher Higgins, Brian Boyle, Erik Christensen, Aaron Voros, Enver Lisin, Donald Brashear? NO DOUBT!

Now bear in mind that several of those guys play on the first and second lines here.

How much of an indictment of your 2009-10 New York Rangers roster is that?

Enough is enough with the entitlement and keeping on giving people ice time. And so the room has to handle it and then the room becomes better, I think. If it doesn’t, then we have the wrong lockerroom.

-John Tortorella, Dec. 18, 2009, after a 2-1 loss to the Islanders

After that game, Wade Redden saw bench, as he did last night. After that game, Henrik Lundqvist and Sean Avery held a team meeting; last night Glen Sather gave a pep talk.

So there are similarities, even though last night’s game wasn’t as atrocious, in terms of effort, as that Islanders game. It was pretty bad. Granted, there were two deflected goals, and Lundqvist gave up a terrible goal. But the Rangers didn’t create much at all. And sure made loads of mistakes.

That said:

1) So where do they go with Redden now? Is it time to send him to Hartford and eat the salary? I don’t see why not. Same with Brashear.

2) I can’t imagine what the Rangers have cooking with Calgary, but obviously it is something.

3) That shots on goal total last night was hard to believe. Just like the 51-45 total in the Devils game a few weeks ago. It sure didn’t seem like the Rangers were pummeling shots at Cam Ward, did it?

4) The Rangers must shop Christopher Higgins, Ales Kotalik and Michal Rozsival at the deadline.

5) What’s all this about Drury/Tortorella saying there’s stuff swirling around the team? Do they mean the negative press, the booing in the arena, or what? And do they expect anything different in New York City? For a team that has won two playoff series since 1997?

6) I am still not ready to completely blame the effort (I think a majority of players really are trying and care) or the coach simply because there is such a dearth of skill, and those with skill are having such woeful years production-wise.

7) Lundqvist might come back from the Olympics in a wheelchair.

8) I still fully expect that there will be more ups and downs, more winning streaks and losing streaks, and for this team to be in the race for spots 8-13 in the final weeks of the season. In fact, I will not be surprised if they return from the Western trip with two wins.

9) Going back to the top quote: When, exactly, does the entitlement run out for people not named Redden and Kotalik?