Told ya. This game was exactly what I expected … except that it really wasn’t very nasty. Come to think of it, other than the fights in the stands, it wasn’t nasty at all; and as I recall, last year the Rangers played better and played tougher in games that… Read More →
Forwards The look all changed when Brad Richards signed for $60 million over nine, years. Throw a legit No. 1 center onto any roster and it trickles down mightily. Now the Rangers have an elite playmaking center to play with Marian Gaborik, who had a terrible second season (22 goals,... Read More →
John Tortorella: On the post-practice event in which members of the FDNY and NYPD hockey teams were interspersed with Rangers players for a scrimmage game and a shootout. Tortorella, by the way, was the happiest guy on the ice when some of the firemen and cops scored on Henrik Lundqvist…. Read More →
Before I drive headlong into rush-hour traffic … The Rangers will announce their roster for tomorrow’s game in Albany later on. I’ll put it up as soon as I get it. Chad Kolarik tweaked a knee today and is going to be checked out. Michael Sauer did his fitness (torture… Read More →
A conference call is scheduled for 4 p.m. We will live blog the call with Brad Richards, John Tortorella and Glen Sather. I imagine Richards will go back to No. 19, though he might have to pay off his former Tampa Bay teammate Ruslan Fedotenko to get it. That leaves… Read More →
John Tortorella (continued): I said that on breakup day he mentioned the need to upgrade the skill level, and that July 1 is an opportunity to do that without altering the plan of staying with the youth, and asked how crucial tomorrow is. “It’s an important day for us because… Read More →
Here’s the bad news. Teams trailing 3-1 have won 23 of 240 series in history (9.6 percent). Here’s the good news: Twenty-one of those have happened since 1987, including twice last year. And the Capitals did it to the Rangers in 2009, and had it done to them by Montreal… Read More →
Here is my column about Bruce Boudreau’s whining, etc., from The Journal News and LoHud.com today. John Tortorella: I asked him about what Fedotenko means to the team, for the column I’m writing: “He is a guy that, he’s been good. He’s been good in the series. He does all… Read More →
Belated Happy Passover. First, Brian Boyle wants and deserves credit for setting the playoff moustache trend. He started his because his beard wouldn’t come in. Brandon Dubinsky followed. “I have to get more guys on board,” Boyle said. Asked if he was going for a look, Boyle said, “We’re doing… Read More →
John Tortorella: What was better about the power play, other than that it scored? “What was better? Not much. We score a goal. That’s what’s better.” On Dan Girardi’s growth: “When I first came here, I was calling him Joe Girardi, no lie, for a whole meeting. … but he… Read More →
I just wonder what we’d all be saying today if the Rangers hadn’t gotten two fluky goals. I’m just saying, sometimes we judge a game and how it’s played only by the score. More to the point, I’m not taking anything away from the way the Rangers played yesterday. I… Read More →
Brandon Dubinsky: “We just battled in the corner there and we converged there and I just was able to get the puck to myself. I was trying to bring it hard to the net and I saw Danny coming in the back door. I just thought if I jammed, he’d… Read More →
Two-nothing and two-nothing. Nothing being the important word. Are the Rangers done? No. Not yet. In the playoffs, what happened yesterday doesn’t matter one lick today, and we saw evidence of that in the first period of Game 2, after the Rangers lost in OT in Game 1. They were,... Read More →
Wow. Pretty good Game 1. I’m sure you weren’t thrilled with the outcome, and sure you weren’t thrilled with the play that decided it. Thoughts: 1) I thought Marc Staal and Dan Girardi had some strong game, with loads of minutes, taking and doling out lots of punishment. Alex Ovechkin… Read More →
AFTERNOON UPDATE, 1:57 P.M.: Here’s the info on playoff tickets, from the Rangers: RANGERS INDIVIDUAL PLAYOFF TICKETS GO ON-SALE Monday, April 11th – 12 PM (Editor’s note: That means noon.) New York, April 10, 2011 – The New York Rangers announced today that tickets for the first two rounds of… Read More →
Looking forward before looking back: Do you know the last time all three metropolitan New York teams missed the playoffs in the same year? How about never? Do you remember 1988? That was the year the Rangers shut out Quebec at the Garden (John Vanbiesbrouck doing the honors) on the… Read More →
John Tortorella: (He was in a good mood, wanted to know if he finished in the top three in the voting for the Halligan Good Guy award for cooperation with the media, which was won by Callahan. Then he joked that he wanted to get nowhere near that (byfuglien) award).... Read More →
First the news, followed by quotes in a little bit: Same lineup, unless one of the dinged-up guys (presumably Fedotenko, but not definitely) can’t play. As of now, John Tortorella expects everybody to play, and Newbury was brought up for “precautionary” reasons. Another item, which has been mis-reported (and then… Read More →
Has there been a game this season that better defined these Rangers, the It’s Just Paingers? In a game, let’s face it, they pretty much had to win, they played with all those characteristics we’ve seen most of the year: The shot blocking, the body checks, the PK, the struggle… Read 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… Read More →
