Rangers Report Blog

From the Rangers:

NEW YORK RANGERS POST-GAME NOTES

March 31, 2011 – New York Rangers 2, New York Islanders 6 (Game No. 78, Away No. 40)

*       The Rangers were defeated by the New York Islanders, 6-2, tonight at Nassau Coliseum, and are now 41-32-5 overall with a 23-16-1 mark on the road.  New York is now 8-3-1 in their last 12 contests, and are 6-3-0 in their last nine road games.

*       Vinny Prospal opened the game’s scoring with a goal at 14:25 of the first period and logged a season-high, 20:00 of ice time.  He has tallied 15 points (four goals, 11 assists) in the last 17 games, and ranks second on the team in scoring with 18 points (six goals, 12 assists) in 25 games since returning from injury on Feb. 3.

*       Marian Gaborik tallied an assist on Prospal’s first period goal and logged 17:40 of ice time.  He has now registered 26 points (14 goals, 12 assists) in 21 career regular season contests vs. the Islanders, including 10 points (six goals, four assists) in six games this season.

*       Brandon Prust notched a goal with 14 seconds remaining in regulation, and has now registered five points (three goals, two assists) in the last nine games.  Prust improved his career-high season totals to 13 goals and 28 points.

*       Brian Boyle recorded an assist on Prust’s third period goal, led the team with four shots on goal and won a team-high, nine faceoffs in 16 attempts (56%).  He has registered 11 points (six goals, five assists) in 22 games vs. Atlantic Division opponents this season.

*       Henrik Lundqvist (18 saves) and Chad Johnson (nine saves) combined to make 27 saves.  Lundqvist established a career-high by making his 22nd consecutive appearance (dating back to Feb. 11).  Johnson made his season debut, entering the contest at the start of the third period, after dressing as Lundqvist’s backup in the last 12 games.

*       Please note the Blueshirts do not have practice scheduled for tomorrow, April 1.

*       The Rangers will return to action when they face-off against the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday, April 3, at Wells Fargo Center (12:30 a.m.), in the first game of a back-to-back set.  The game will be televised live on NBC.

Ryan Callahan:

“We need to battle this team and we didn’t do it.”

“I thought we had to capitalize on our power play, which we didn’t do. We got out worked. We got out-executed, and it’s just an unacceptable game at this time of year. It’s an unacceptable game at any point in the year. We didn’t do what we need to do, and I take full responsibility for that. We weren’t good enough, my line, in the defensive zone, and we consider ourselves as one of the top lines on this team and we have to be better at this time of the year.”

On the goal drought:

“It has a lot to do with the way you work. I think you create your own bounces and your own breaks. I’m a believer in that. And we’re not working hard enough to get the bounces.”

“Tonight we didn’t have that good defensive mindset, and when you do that and you’re only scoring one or two games, you’re going to lose the game.”

“You have to move on. You have to have a short memory in this game, and with the fight we’re in right now for the playoffs, we can’t do anything but move on. If we dwell on it we’re going to find ourselves in some trouble. This team’s been good bouncing back after a couple of hard games throughout the year and if we continue to do that, it comes down to a four-game season. So we’ve got to be ready.”

Dan Girardi:

“We know how they play. When we were successful against them we were getting pucks in deep, taking care of our ice down low, and there was not much of that going on today. We had, I thought, some decent chances, and Montoya played pretty good for them, but that’s a real tough game for us, I think, going forward.”

“It’s a lot of stuff not going right. (The power play) is part of it. We had a bunch of power plays there, and if we get one there, maybe one or two, it’s a different game. But that’s the way things happen. They took the game over.”

How does this happen after the Buffalo game?

“I don’t have an answer right now.”

Brian Boyle:

On whether the Rangers were unhappy with the way the Islanders used their tough guys at the end of the game:

“I’ve got no control over that. I’ve got no comment.”

On what needs to be said:

“Nothing has to be said. You can see what happened over the last two games (if) we don’t play the way we have to play. The preparation’s there. We know the importance of these games, it’s a matter of doing it and doing it every shift, and just taking responsibility, each guy, and doing whatever you can to help the team win.

“We started off alright … it’s not a lot of time left and we’re not guaranteed anything, obviously. We haven’t clinched anything by any means. So, it’s tough. You wonder what happened. I’m sure we’ll find out. The coaches will let us know.”

Does the preceeding 8-1-1 stretch help get them through this?

“Not really. Losing sucks. We know we can play well. We already knew that. We’ve had some success and we’ve had some downs n the season, too. You want to be a playoff team, and you want to be successful in the playoffs like we think we can be, it’s a bad time of the year to go through a bad couple of games like this.”

Henrik Lundqvist:

On being pulled:

“It’s Torts’ decision. You’ll just have to ask him.”

“Sometimes it’s easy to move on when it’s really bad. You just have to forget about it. We’re probably going to sit down and talk about it, learn from it, and be better.”

Brandon Prust:

On Tortorella being upset with the Islanders coaches for the rough stuff at the end:

“I don’t know too much. I wasn’t really paying attention to that. They seemed to be coming after us a little bit. You’ve got to be ready for that. We’ve got tough guys on this team. We should be able to take that.”

“It’s disappointing to say the least. It definitely wasn’t what we were looking for. Every game’s huge and this is the biggest game of the year for us and we were a no-show.”

“They took it to us at the start. We got some power plays and got some momentum and we didn’t capitalize on our power plays. It seemed they got some momentum after that and then we couldn’t get it back.”

“We need to put this past us, learn from our mistakes. We can’t afford to lose any more here in the stretch.”

We’ll start with the coach, because as you all know by now, his presser was the shortest. Though it did appear he was angry at the Islanders coaches, probably for the way they deployed their muscle late in the game. You know what? Too bad.

John Tortorella:

One of those games you want to burn the tape?

“Yup.”

Can you explain what happened?

“No. No. Listen guys, you’re not getting much out of me tonight. That’s between me and the team. I know you have to do your work, but I have to do my work. That’s staying in-house.”

Could you address the power play?

“Nope. I’m not addressing anything.”

Was there a carryover from Buffalo?

“I’m not going to address anything. … It’s one of those, eh, Brooksie (to Larry Brooks). Remember that one (infamous on YouTube). Let’s break it up. End it here. Sorry guys. OK.”

Could be interesting tonight. I forgot that Village People Gillies is back from his perpetual suspension. Maybe he goes back out after his meeting with NHL HQ tomorrow. But Haley, the mini-brawler, is in the lineup, and Avery already had pleasantries with Konopka during warmups. Then there’s Matt Martin, who’s had a couple of tussles with Mike Sauer.

Anway, Lundqvist starts his 22nd in a row, Wolski and Gilroy are prucha’d, Zuccarello is back in. No Grabner for the Islanders, as he awaits the birth of his child.
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I’m going to be a guest on the radio during the first intermission. So give it a listen … if you’re out of range of the radio signal, you can listen via the game info box on the Rangers web site.

You got the news already, but to repeat: Henrik Lundqvist will play tonight, his 22nd straight start, despite a bruise around his right knee. Goalie Cam Talbot had been recalled from Connecticut as a precautionary measure. Wojtek Wolski will be prucha’d and Mats Zuccarello goes back into the lineup. Everything else remains the same.
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John Tortorella:

“Same D, and Zucc will go in and Wooly will be out.”

“Looking for some offense. Don’t think I’ve gotten a bunch of it out of Wooly. Again, it’s the same thing. There’s a couple of guys we’re kind of alternating in and out of there. Wools didn’t get a bunch of ice time last night but we’re going to try Zucc tonight and see where we go.”

Disappointed that Wolski is scratched just a few weeks after being scratched previously?

“I don’t want to use ‘disappointing.’ I’m hoping there’s a realization that there’s going to be a process here one way or another. And again, he hasn’t been awful. But we think he’s a very talented player; it’s just being more involved along with his talent.”

Talbot?

“Precautionary.”

On whether he reminds the team that it’s 8-2-1 in its last 11:

“We’ve had a morning meeting, we will have a meeting tonight. You learn and you move by, because we’ve played some good hockey. As (it was a) bit of a struggle energy wise through two periods, we still had a chance to at least get a point. I thought we played a better third period, but you move by it and you get ready for the next game, and that’s what we’ve done.”

On what he tells his team about the Islanders:

“We’re not going to talk too much about them. We’re going to talk about ourselves. (The Rangers) know that they’d love to beat us and put is in more of a hole, or try to jam us up a little bit, as all teams do at this time of year playing a spoiler role. But we’re just trying to concentrate on our game. We’ve played them enough. We know what they are. They know who we are. Now we’re going to play.”

On the tape of last night’s game:

“We defended fairly well. The thing that was disturbing to me was we just didn’t have any territory. I think the shots misconstrue a little bit. I think they were shooting from all over the place, which is something we want to do. But I thought, they gave themselves an opportunity to keep pressure on us by taking shots from all over the place. Having said that, I thought we did a pretty good job of defending. We just did not have the puck, and were too far away in our forechecking to have some territorial play, especially in the first two periods. That’s a big part of our game, is keeping pucks and territorial play. We need to get back to that.”

On the whether the Rangers need to chip it in and grind it our more:

“It’s not so much trying to dump it in. It’s making the right plays in the neutral zone. We feel we have some players that can create offense, so it’s not always about throwing it in. It’s just being smart coming through the neutral zone. I think the team we’re playing against is going to be … they just throw caution to the wind. (If) we turn pucks over and this team does have some talented players … it’s going to make it an easier game for them. Tavares’ line, we want them to play in their end zone, and test them there, and not turn it over at the blue line where they can get going pretty quickly. So, it’s not always about dumping it in. It’s about making the right decisions coming across the neutral zone.”

On the missed shots:

“At least for last night’s game that was a big problem. I think we had 22 missed shots, and when I break down the tapes, six or seven of those pucks that were shot wide turned into a scoring chance for Buffalo, or at least offensive-zone pressure for them. Artie had a couple in the first period. They score their goal, we have a 3-on-1 and we don’t move the puck quickly enough to get that D moving and it ends up in the back of our net. So that’s the way it went. I think we still have defended well. We defended pretty well last night. But we didn’t get away with any points. The last few games we haven’t scored, defended well, but we found a way to get points. We didn’t last night. So hopefully we’ll continue to defend properly and have the puck more offensively, and control territorially.”

According to the NHL transaction wire, the Rangers have recalled goalie Cam Talbot from Connecticut.

Which probably means that Henrik Lundqvist might not be able to play tonight after, apparently, being hit around the kneecap by a shot last night.

Presumably, Talbot would back up Chad Johnson if Lundqvist can’t play, or at least back up Johnson.

On the other hand, this could all be stupid speculation, and perhaps Talbot was called up so Lundqvist doesn’t have to practice during this stretch of four games in six days.

We should know relatively soon, after John Tortorella addresses the media around 5. I will tweet anything that comes out of that presser, then update here asap.

No other teams in the race playing today.

As you know, the Rangers are 4-1 vs. the Isles this season. How they got there is a different story. When the Rangers have matched the Isles’ intensity and played their grinding game, they have handled the Islanders. When they have allowed the game to open up and traded chances with the Isles, they gave gotten into trouble within games, and in the only loss.

Here are the pre-game notes, courtesy of the Rangers:

NEW YORK RANGERS at NEW YORK ISLANDERS
Thursday, Mar. 31, 7:00 p.m.
Nassau Coliseum • Uniondale, NY
Rangers: 41-31-5 (87 pts)
Islanders: 29-36-12 (70 pts)

• All information through NHL games on Mar. 30
  
  TONIGHT’S GAME:
  The Rangers will face-off against the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum (7:00 p.m.), to close out their back-to-back set. The Blueshirts currently rank third in the Atlantic Division standings, and eighth in the Eastern Conference, with a record of 41-31-5 (87 pts). The Rangers enter the contest having been defeated by the Buffalo Sabres, 1-0, last night at HSBC Arena to end their season-high point streak at seven games (6-0-1 over the span), and are now 8-2-1 in their last 11 contests. The Islanders enter the contest with a 29-36-12 (70 pts) record to rank 14th in the Eastern Conference, and have lost their last three games. Following the contest, the Rangers will face-off against the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday, Apr. 3, at Wells Fargo Center (12:30 p.m.), in the first game of a back-to-back set.
  BROADCAST INFORMATION:

  *       TV: MSG Network
  6:30 p.m. – Rangers Pre-Game Show with Bill Pidto and Ron Duguay
  7:00 p.m. – Rangers at Islanders
  Broadcasters: Sam Rosen (Play-By-Play), Joe Micheletti (Analyst), Al Trautwig and John Giannone (In-Game Reporters)

  *       Radio: 1050 ESPN Radio and newyorkrangers.com
  6:30 p.m. – Rangers Pre-Game Show
  7:00 p.m. – Rangers at Islanders
  Broadcasters: Kenny Albert (Play-By-Play), Dave Maloney (Analyst) (more…)

John Tortorella was not happy after this one, and who could blame him?

Because while the effort wasn’t good enough, as he put it, for Game 77, neither was the concentration.

I mean, there’s a kid goalie thrown in under emergency circumstances, and yet the Rangers insisted on passing up chances to shoot, waiting to shoot, failing to shoot, or passing instead of shooting. Or missing the net? Again and again. And again. Not that they had that many chances. I thought Brandon Dubinsky had the two best, and one hit the post, the other the shaft of a Buffalo D-man’s stick.

Thoughts:

1) A lot of you want to run Marian Gaborik out of town, and I know that he needs bottom line: goals, rather than chances. But he did create chances. Lots of them. I thought he was pretty darn good in this game.

2) The Rangers, right down the line—as I said in the third paragraph—weren’t good with the puck and while it’s always hard to criticize this one guy, Ryan Callahan really struggled with the puck all night. Really. And two other normally reliables—Brandon Prust and Ruslan Fedotenko—had a tough night, too.

3) I thought Prust got hurt on the PK when he lost his stick just before the Brian Boyle turnover and the Dan Girardi deflection turned into the Connolly PPG and the only goal of the game. He missed a bunch of shifts. But it’s just pain.

4) I don’t want to blame Dan Girardi for the goal. And I’m not. But when you put your stick out like that—straight out at the shooter—and the puck hits it, it’s going to go up most of the time. And with a goalie who plays on his knees as much as Henrik Lundqvist does, that’s a dangerous proposition. It’s not something you can think about in that situation, but sometimes you’d probably be better off having the goalie stop the shot cleanly. Great shot by Connolly made better by the deflection.

(*Correction: After the game, Lundqvist said the shot did not deflect, and called it “a bomb.”)

5) The officials made the correct call on the disallowed goal by Artem Anisimov. Sorry.

6) Imagine if that puck Lundqvist took off the kneecap really had done damage? Then what?

7) The Rangers’ effort was questionable, certainly not their best of the season, not their worst, either, but not good enough. And the hitting they did do, I thought, wasn’t as hard or ferocious as usual. Maybe that has to do with Callahan being so dinged up, and Prust being ready for a body cast. Maybe.

8) MSG kept updating us on Knicks-Nets and Islanders-Devils, and not Carolina-Montreal. I don’t get that. People who care about Knicks-Nets were watching that. People who care about Islanders-Devils were watching that. And people who care about both were switching over to the other game between periods when we were getting the highlights. But a huge majority of people watching Rangers-Baby Buffaloes care most, or only, about Carolina-Montreal.

9) Today is baseball season, and I find it terribly disappointing, and shockingly telling about the state of the game, that hockey didn’t spend even five seconds of baseball’s off-season in the spotlight. Well, except maybe for the Winter Classic. Used to be that hockey would get back pages in the city during the time between the Super Bowl and Opening Day. Not this year. Not anymore.

10) Probably the best news for the Rangers as they crank it up again tonight against the Islanders, in a game worth two points as valuable as the two they lost last night, is that most of the time this season when they played less than stellar, they rebounded very strongly the next time out. See Anaheim-San Jose. See Ottawa-Boston.

11) Did Christensen or Wolski contribute even one single positive thing to this game? So I think Sean Avery stays in—and deserves it. And, paging Mats Zuccarello.
———————-

AP photo of an unknown goalie who shut out your boys, above.
————————
I’m trekking out to Nassau Mausoleum this afternoon. God help me.

From the Rangers:

NEW YORK RANGERS POST-GAME NOTES
March 30, 2011 – New York Rangers 0, Buffalo Sabres 1 (Game No. 77, Away No. 39)

*       The Rangers were defeated by the Buffalo Sabres, 1-0, tonight at HSBC Arena, and are now 41-31-5 overall with a 23-15-1 mark on the road.  New York is now 8-2-1 in their last 11 contests, and are 6-2-0 in their last eight road games.

*       Three of the Rangers last four games finished with a 1-0 score (2-1-0 in those contests), and each of their last four contests have been decided by one goal.

*       Henrik Lundqvist stopped 34 shots, and is now 33-25-5 overall with a 19-12-1 mark on the road.  He has made 30 or more saves in 25 of his 63 appearances this season, posting a record of 15-8-2 with a 1.91 goals against average, a .947 save percentage and six shutouts in those contests.  In the last 10 games, Lundqvist is 8-1-1 with a 1.67 goals against average, a .942 save percentage and three shutouts over the span.

*       New York won 33 of 55 faceoffs (60%), led by Brandon Dubinsky’s game-high, 12 faceoff wins in 18 attempts (67%).  Dubinsky leads the team with a 51.8% faceoff winning percentage (411-794) on the season.

*       Dan Girardi and Sean Avery tied for the team-high with four hits apiece.  Girardi also led the team with two blocked shots and logged 25:15 of ice time.

*       The Rangers will return to action when they face-off against the New York Islanders tomorrow, Mar. 31, at Nassau Coliseum (7:00 p.m.), to close out their back-to-back set.  The game will be televised live on MSG Network and can be heard on 1050 ESPN Radio and newyorkrangers.com.  Prior to tomorrow’s contest, the Blueshirts’ optional morning skate is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. at Nassau Coliseum.

For those just joining the party, Ryan Miller is injured and will not play for the Baby Buffaloes tonight. Jhonas Enroth gets the assignment.

Here’s the Rangers’ projected lineup, per Zip:

Dubinsky-Anisimov-Callahan
Prospal-Stepan-Gaborik
Prust-Boyle-Fedotenko
Wolski-Christensen-Avery
Staal-Girardi
McDonagh-Sauer
McCabe-Eminger

Lundqvist starts his career-high 21st in a row, rested after three non-game days off the shutout in Boston.