Who Knew?

I'll be honest... I gave up on this team, this coach and this General Manager a long time ago. The first two are making me believe again. This team is starting to come together. The fourth line of Brandon Prust, Jody Shelley and Artem Anisimov has been amazing. They've brought excitement back. Coincidence that Sean Avery hasn't been playing for most of this 7-1-1 run?

The game and the team became very boring to me and I was actually rooting for them to lose so they could either get a good draft pick or get Glen Sather fired. I have since realized as Joe Benigno of SNY and WFAN says, Sather will be fired 5 years after he dies.

The Blueshirts battled last night, got the lead, lost the lead, but prevailed. They started down :40 in after a Marc Staal turnover (pretty much the only one I remember him making this year) was converted by Mike Richards. Chris Drury ($2 million per goal this season now) responded on the power play off a beautiful feed from Eric Christensen (Sather makes great moves... just has no concept of contracts). The fourth line then struck again off a faceoff with under 7 minutes left in the first. Brandon Prust battled through a check to feed Jody Shelley who scored his first of the season and first as a Ranger, igniting the Garden.

Marian Gaborik got the second period going with a brilliant rush and feed to Brandon Dubinsky for his 20th of the season and a career high 44 points. But you know it couldn't be easy. Danny Briere and Mike Richards then sucked the life out of the building with goals to tie it. It didn't look good... but then again... the Rangers have Gaborik. 2:13 after Richards tied it, Gaborik stole the puck in center and walked in on a semi-breakaway. His wrist shot deflected off Matt Carle and over Brian Boucher giving the Rangers the lead... the win... and life.

Sunday at 3 in Philadelphia... it's win and in.

Notes:
Marian Gaborik has hit his career high in goals, assists and points in his first year as a Ranger... Brandon Dubinsky also has set new career highs in goals and points...

(Sather Really Knows What He's Doing!)

*** Parenthesis means sarcasm from now on

The Rangers face the Penguins tonight in Pittsburgh. They're coming off a very disappointing 2-1 l0ss to Nashville the other night.

"We need to play hard. I'm not going to get into defining how. That's between the team and I," Coach John Tortorella said yesterday. They haven't seemed to listen to him all year. Let's see if the latest pep talk does anything.

The hits keep coming from GM Glen Sather as he continues to show he doesn't understand the value of players. $1.4 a year Donald Brashear has been placed on waivers. He's been utterly useless and still has another year on his deal, meaning it's not likely anyone picks him up.

*** Update: Brashear clears... (big surprise)

The Olympic roster freeze kicks in at noon today and the Rangers should be sellers. They're going nowhere and I'm not sure what anyone would want from this team other than Brandon Dubinsky, Henrik Lundqvist, Ryan Callahan, Marc Staal or Marian Gaborik and it's not likely any of them move. I would give up Dubinsky to a team provided they take Wade Redden or Chris Drury. They don't even have to give anything back... just take them.

We'll see if Sather can fix more of his mistakes today... but don't hold your breath. Updates throughout...

Notes:
The swelling in Gaborik's leg is down. He will test it in practice to see if he can go tonight. It doesn't seem likely being that he has 21 stitches in his leg... This will be the last regular season appearance for the Rangers at the Igloo.

Let's fight..

Something may be happening with this team. Though we had no reason to think this was coming... the Rangers are scoring goals. They scored 8 goals for the first time since 2002 when they beat the Boston Bruins 8-4. The Tampa Bay Lightning were annihilated 8-2 at the Garden, which came on the heels of a 6-2 demolition of the Montreal Canadiens. And the outburst has nothing to do with Marian Gaborik scoring... well not goals anyway.

Gaborik tied a career high with 4 assists the other night but Brandon Dubinsky, Ryan Callahan, Vinny Prospal and even Chris Drury are all heating up. 8 goals from 8 different scorers the other night. This team needs everyone to be involved and that may be starting to happen. Of course they could come out in Philly tonight and score 1 goal again... but there's always hope and cautious optimism. More goals equals less pressure for Henrik Lundqvist, who continues to be stellar.

Anyone else find it interesting that since they started defending themselves and each other they started playing harder scoring? Anyone surprised Donald Brashear has NOTHING to do with it? I'm not. Aaron Voros dropped the gloves :10 in with Zenon Konopka and although he lost, the building was still electric. Voros, who has been good, was rewarded with some power play time late in the game and converted a beautiful feed from Brian Boyle. Ryan Malone kicked the shit out of him later but that's ok. Brandon Dubinsky also dropped em' with Jeff Halpern with under two minutes to go.

Bottom line and memo to Gary Bettman... Fighting works.

Notes:

The Rangers suffered their most embarrassing loss to the Flyers in the Garden 6-0 last time they faced each other... Gaborik has a goal and 6 assists in the last two... Dubinsky has 3 goals and 3 assists in the last 2.

Hanging Chad...

Only the Rangers could lose to a team that hadn't won in 9 games. Rookie goalie Chad Johnson was spectacular trying to keep his team in it and had a shutout going into the third. Sean Avery returned to Mr. Invisible and Marian Gaborik didn't score so... yeah 1 goal seems about right.

Marc Staal got it started taking the puck from Johnson behind his net and flying up right side of the ice. He pulled up just inside Atlanta's blue line before he whistled a perfect pass to Enver Lisin who tipped in his 5th of the season. That should have been enough right?

A bad line change by Chris Drury left Brian Boyle defenseless to stop Jim Slater who walked in alone and beat Johnson through the legs on a nice backhand move. Drury was otherwise stellar blocking and injuring himself on several shots.

The shootout doomed the Rangers as 3 of the 5 participants (Del Zotto, Kotalik, Callahan) couldn't even muster a shot on goal... amazing. Slava Kozlov and Bryan Little beat Johnson through the legs while Marian Gaborik did the same to Johan Hedberg in the shootout. The Rangers fell 2-1 but still managed to get a loser's point.

Streaks...

The Rangers are on a good streak going and continue to end bad ones. They won their fourth in a row last night beating the Florida Panthers 4-1 last night. Henrik Lundqvist was the focal point again making two sparkling glove saves on Nathan Horthon in the first and Michael Frolik in the third, among others. The King has simply been on fire for the last 10 games or so. He was beaten early ona rebound he had no chance on but stopped the next 33 shots.

As for the streaks ending... Vinny Prospal snapped a 14-game goal-less streak with a power play goal in the second and one in the third. The Blueshirts broke a 5-game losing streak at home and 7 out of 8 with a complete effort last night. Chris Drury scored his third goal in four games and was fantastic all around. Enver Lisin made great hustle play to negate an icing before feeding the Captain in the slot to tie the game just 2:13 after Victor Oreskovich opened the scoring for Florida. Drury also added an assist after stealing the puck short-handed in the neutral zone. Drury was taken down but rewarded for his effort when Marian Gaborik came flying off the bench to beat Tomas Vokoun on a bad angle back-hander. Gaborik who leads the league with 26 goals.

Ryan Callahan is scoring again and had a beautiful assist on Prospal's first goal. His stick was tied up in front so he kicked it to Prospal. Callahan has 4 goals and 5 assists in his last 7 games. Hey... Wade Redden even tried to hit a player. He got laid out by Mike Duco but oh well... at least he tried. Redden did make a great play earlier in the first sliding to take away a 2-on-1 opportunity. Michal Rozsival has been much better since Redden was sat down and played well again despite not being able to clear the rebound on Florida's only goal. He played 23:18, second only to Staal's 24:50.

Marc Staal and Dan Girardi were reunited for the first time since the Detroit game and absolutely shut down the red hot Michael Frolik-Stephen Weiss-Nathan Horton line. The bottom line is when this team gets a complete effort, they look like a team that can make some noise. Can they keep the effort going? We'll see on Saturday when the Islanders return to the Garden. That last 2-1 loss the to the Isles and meeting after seems like the wakeup call this team needed.

Notes:
For the second straight game the Rangers responded to a goal against quickly. Marian Gaborik scored in Raleigh :28 after the Hurricanes had taken the lead... Brandon Dubinsky looks to be getting his legs back with 3 points in the last 2.

Gilroy back...

The Rangers have a 2-game winning streak and that's due mostly to the play of Henrik Lundqvist. Chris Drury and Artem Anisimov both scored again on Saturday against the Philadelphia Flyers in a 2-1 win. Drury has handled his demotion to the fourth line with class, shutting his mouth and scoring in consecutive games. But the King continues to be the story as he was simply incredible stopping 36 shots.

Coach John Tortorella had some harsh words before the game. "There's going to be no entitlement around here and I think that's what kind of stinks of that around here." He added, "We'll go through some bumps in the road with kids, but not with underachieving veterans." It's about time.

Michal Rozsival must be listening as he had the best effort he's had in a while... no one better than him at being an 'underachieving veteran'. Marc Staal played over half the game (30:45) basically because Bobby Sanguinetti and Ilkka Heikkinen barely played. They were both sent down after the game while Matt Gilroy was called back up. That obviously means Wade Redden will be back in the lineup tomrrow night in Raleigh against the Hurricanes. It'll be interesting to see how Redden, who's been a baby so far, will respond.

Money Talks...

GM Glen Sather has done it again. Instead of sending down Michal Rozsival, who has been utterly useless, he has sent Matt Gilroy to Hartford. The move clears some cap room to get a better look at Ilkka Heikkinen. The bottom line is when you make $5 million a year it doesn't matter how bad you are... Sather will just knock one of the kids down.

Gilroy has not been great as of late. He opened the preseason flying, opened the season cautious, and lately has been unnoticeable. He is a 25-year-old rookie that has been only been playing defense for 4 years though. There must be no time for him to grow with powerhouses like Rozsival and Wade Redden dominating like they do. A mop laying in the defensive zone all game might be better than ol' Rosy. Moving Gilroy comes on the heels of him getting beaten and outworked on both Chicago goals the other night.

Accountability was supposed to be the staple of this team with John Tortorella in town. Is he not able to see what a disaster Rozsival is every night? He made more mistakes than Gilroy the other night that very easily could have led to goals. You know where Rozsival would be if they did? Right on the ice against the Sabres on Saturday night. Even Wade Redden, who has been better this year, still sucks. His deal goes down as one of the worst signings in the history of the league. The team will go nowhere with these two clowns making $11.5 million and that's 4 more years in Redden's case... awesome!

If I was Wade Redden, Michal Rozsival or even Chris Drury I'd be embarrassed that the team can't be good BECAUSE OF ME. Drury is supposed to be a captain and leader. He must know that he is making about $4 million too much right? Imagine if Rozsival was making $2 million (I wouldn't have given him anything), Redden $2 million and Drury $3 max. That's $11.5 million that could be used to get someone good on this team besides Gaborik. But this is pro sports... you take the big money from the Rangers like every other over-the-hill free agent has in the past and accept the boos. Who cares? The people booing don't get to live like you do.

Questions...

The Rangers are in Chicago tonight to take on the Black Hawks who are best in the NHL at home at 11-3-1. A lot of question marks going into tonight and the foreseeable future for this team. Will Wade Redden play? Donald Brashear? Will we get another look at Erik Christensen?

The answer is who cares? None of these players will make any difference and that's exactly the problem with this team. There are no difference makers on it except for Marian Gaborik and Henrik Lundqvist. And now with the King faltering and letting in the most ridiculous goals I've ever seen late in games, you're down to one guy.

John Tortorella may want to play up-tempo but he doesn't have the players to do it. Now they just play boring, almost unwatchable hockey and win a few games 2-1 or so. I thought it was Tom Renney's fault but it's Glen Sather's. He built a team with (yes I know this is recurring) 4 marginal players at best taking up $26 million in Scott Gomez, Chris Drury, Michal Rozsival and Wade Redden. He somehow moved Gomez but there is no hope for this team when you are unable to get secondary scoring with no money. Not to mention the millions he threw away on guys like Patrick Rissmiller (3 years at $3 million), Tyler Arnason ($700,000), Aaron Voros (3 years at $3 million) Donald Brashear (2 at $1.4) and now Erik Christensen.

Somehow it's never even mentioned that Sather should be fired. Think about it... $3.4 MILLION on 3 guys that don't play (Brashear, Voros, Rissmiller). At least Voros and Brashear are with the club but they're invisible when and if they play except for always taking dumb offensive zone penalties. I'd love to say the future looks bright but boy... what a disaster.

Two in a row... (UPDATED)

The Rangers won consecutive games for the first time since the 7-game streak at the beginning of the season. They did need the shootout and the King to beat the Florida Panthers 2-1 last night.

Chris Drury returned from his concussion and was solid. I get aggravated with him at times as everyone does. It isn't his fault Glen Sather was dumb enough to pay him Marian Gaborik money. He is the same player he always has been and that is not a scorer. Drury wins faceoffs, kills penalties and has the abiltity to score in big spots.

The Rangers opened the scoring with Drury on the power play point in place of Ales Kotalik, who is nursing an injury. The Captain took a good, low, hard shot Gaborik effortlessly tipped in for his league leading 19th goal of the season. He has now scored in 20 of 22 games as a Ranger.

You knew the refs would have to make their presence felt in this one and they did. Victor Oreskovich had already knocked Wade Redden out of the game with a clean hit in the first. He drilled another Ranger later and when Matt Gilroy, of all people, stepped in and dropped the gloves they gave him 17 hysterical minutes in penalties. That left the Blueshirts with only 4 defensemen for most of the third period and overtime. Of course that never would have happened if Oreskovich had fought Donald Brashear when challenged but he was afraid.

Sean Avery missed a perfect outlet pass just inside his blue line in the third that Dominic Moore turned into the tying goal. Henrik Lundqvist was screened by Dan Girardi on the play and had no chance. He did have a chance in the shootout stopping Nathan Horton, Steven Reinprecht and Stephen Weiss. P.A. Parenteau won it for the Rangers on a beautiful drag move out waiting Tomas Vokoun.

Notes:
Wade Redden is expected to be out a week with an upper body injury. According to Arthur Staple of Newsday Bobby Sanguinetti has been called up and will make his debut tomorrow against the Tampa Bay Lightning... Michal Rozsival will be the only defenseman over 25 in the lineup Friday night... Ales Kotalik will be a game time decision with a rib injury. If he does play, P.A. Parenteau better not be the man sitting.

***Update
Kotalik will play tonight in place of Aaron Voros which is obviously the right choice.

The Captain Returns...

Chris Drury returns from a five game absence tonight. Hard to tell who the odd man out will be but it could be Ales Kotalik who got drilled the other night. He evidently has some sort of "body" injury... good to know that it is in fact a portion 0f his body that is in pain.

Rangers look to win back to back games for the first time since mid October. Florida is 5-0-2 in their last seven including a 3-2 win last week at the Garden.

Same Old Song...

After starting 7-1, the Rangers are now 11-9-1. Not very good. It's the same problems that the team seems to have every year. They take penalties and they can't score. Every game they say they have to be aware of penalties and every game there's at least 2 lazy ones. You could also argue that John Tortorella's usage of players like Marian Gaborik and Vinny Prospal tires them out.

You look at the power play which started off blazing but has now cooled except for Gaborik. Yet Ryan Callahan continues to trot out there with the first unit. He has 6 out of his 7 points with the man advantage but he doesn't seem to fit with Gaborik and Vinny Prospal. He has 7 points in 21 games... anyone expect that? Nice to see P.A. Parenteau get a shot on it last night and he produced an assist on a good drive to the net.

The first line has had Enver Lisin on it for weeks and though he has some upside, he's done nothing. He has no points in the last 8 playing alongside Prospal and Gaborik... That's almost impossible. I know he hurt his foot but c'mon. Coach Tortorella ended up trying Ales Kotalik with them in the third last night.

Another reason for the lack of scoring could be the loss of Brandon Dubinsky and Chris Drury but let's be honest, they had 16 points between them before going down. Tortorella has said he has the players here to get it done but they haven't.

Why not take a look at Corey Locke (9-15-24 with 7 PPG in 17 games for Hartford this year)? He'd allow you to put Prospal back on the wing. Gaborik-Anisimov-Prospal sounds pretty good for a first unit. If Anisimov is offensive, put him with offensive players. Parenteau-Locke-Callahan as your second and Higgins-Avery-Kotalik/Lisin as the third. Putting Avery at center may wake him up from the invisibility cloak he's been wearing aside from the last 2 games.

On the defensive side, there's not one unit that appears cohesive. Not one pair that you say 'Oh we can't break these guys up'. I'd like to see Ilkka Heikkinen (4-8-12 in 17 GP) or Bobby Sanguinetti (6-13-19) brought up. If the coach really holds people accountable then he will realize that no matter what Michal Rozsival makes, he is just not the same player he was before surgery.

The bottom line is scoring. It has to come from somewhere and it's not coming from the guys on the ice every night.

Who will step up?

Chris Drury will not be in the lineup tonight at the Garden against Atlanta after sustaining a concussion in Calgary. Curtis Glencross was of course suspended 3 games though there was no call on the play. There is no timetable for Drury's return but the more important issue for the team is that no one responded. They all claimed they didn't see it. You believe this?

Then there's Henrik Lundqvist who is nursing a lower body injury but may return tonight. That injury was sustained one of the 90 times he's been run over this year. Surely the Rangers must have seen one of these. If you were screaming that Jamal Mayers should have had a penalty then someone should have seen it no? And you're telling me NO ONE saw the Glencross cheap shot on Chris Drury? No one took a look at it between periods?

I don't care if it's a men's league game, a college game, or an NHL playoff game, you do not allow your teammates to be abused. You shouldn't have to be told this either. It's instinctual. I remember one game in college where someone took a run at one of our players. He wasn't our best player but it was a cheap shot. My brother, who was on the ice and didn't even like the guy on our team, attacked the guy that ran him. He wasn't told... that's what you do.

Here's what Lundqvist said, "I don't think it's been as bad the last little while, but I know it's been a lot more than last year, and if it continues, of course we have to stand up and respond." The King continued, "As long as we get calls, I don't mind getting hit if we get power plays, but if we don't get the calls, then we have to respond to it."

You see him get run over when you know he's your best player and something should snap in your head. It should just happen and thoughts of taking a penalty or ruining a potential power play should be the last thing in your mind. Especially when it's happened to the King over 10 times now.

So far no one on this team has even acknowledged what has been happening to them. They blame "not seeing it", the threat of penalties and suspension, or the instigator rule as Sean Avery did after the Calgary game. They lean on all these excuses to disguise the fact that they are cowards.

I blame John Tortorella as well. If he felt the hit on Drury should have been called a major... well then he must have seen it. Instead he fell back on the excuse that it was a "close game". What a joke. Hopefully it won't take losing Henrik Lundqvist or Marian Gaborik for the year for this team and this coach to realize you have to protect your teammates.

Embarrassment..

The Rangers lost in every fashion tonight. First they lost their Captain :49 in when Curtis Glencross threw his body into Chris Drury's head. The great part about this play was the puck was nowhere near Drury, he was not looking, completely defenseless, and the Refs didn't call a penalty. Even funnier is this guy will be suspended and nothing was called. "I'm a guy old school believes you have to still have a battleship in the ocean when they don't have Donald Brashear out there somebody's gotta answer the bell. That is their Captain and it was a dirty hit," said Ken Daneyko in between periods. No one answered the bell and I am embarrassed to be a Ranger fan.

Sean Avery was asked about it and said, "You can't... you can't. If the game had been more lopsided something would've been done." That's ridiculous. This was your Captain. Avery has done nothing to help the team all year and doing anything would've gone a long way. The Rangers and Coach John Tortorella ought to be embarrassed because they did nothing. I mean no one even had words with or hit Curtis Glencross. Are you kidding me? How do you think Chris Drury feels that there was no response because his team was scared of penalties? The more I think about it the more it blows my mind and it is unacceptable.

The MSG crew continued in the second intermission and who better to sum it up than Mike Keenan who was asked by Dave Maloney if there should have been a response to Glencross. "The accountability has gotten out of the game and I don't know if we have to go back and take the instigator rule out of the rulebook and I know that the people running the league don't want that to happen". He continued, "You have to review what has happened in the past and what has worked and we did not have serious injuries like we have now that go unchallenged. The teams that I coached, most teams would have responded to that. Now teams are fearful to respond because they think they're gonna get the book thrown at them. The jurisdiction on the ice is taken away right now." This man knows how this game should be played.

Even though the four idiots on the ice somehow missed this blatant call, they picked up on an Ales Kotalik high stick call in the second period. Funny but they caught it after the Rangers controlled play for :14 and play was whistled down for a Calgary penalty. And woudn't you know a Ranger power play turned into a Calgary one as they called a double-minor on Kotalik. It resulted in Jarome Iginla's game winner... you just can't make this stuff up.

The Blueshirts also lost Brandon Dubinsky who blocked a slap shot with his wrist or forearm. The Rangers finished the game without Drury and Dubinsky who it looks like they'll be without for a while. Daymond Langkow and Dan Girardi traded first period goals. The Rangers had a chance to tie on a 2 on 1 late in the third but Kotalik missed Christopher Higgins' feed for a wide open net. Shortly after that Marc Staal turned the puck over in Calgary's zone resulting in a 3 on 1 Rene Bourque goal to seal it.

Notes:
Rangers lost in one more way... they got to watch Nigel Dawes assist on all 3 of Calgary's goals. Also Derek Morris, who was traded for Dawes and played a whopping 25 games for the Blueshirts, added an assist in Boston's win tonight.

Losers...

The Rangers lost to one of the worst teams in the league again last night falling 3-2 to the Minnesota Wild. The Wild was the second straight team to get their first regulation win of the season against the hapless Blueshirts who were never in this one. It is alarming how much this team gets outworked almost every night now as they lost their 5th in the last 6.


Donald Brasheer, who has been utterly old and useless, got it going early turning the puck over in the defensive zone with no one pressuring him. He very easily could have carried it out but instead made a moronic pass to... well no one other than a Wild player. That was quickly turned into Petr Sykora's 2nd of the year and a 1-0 lead. Henrik Lundqvist did what he could but was left on his own again. Eric Belanger and Antti Miettinen were also able to beat him while Marc Staal added a useless third period goal.


The Rangers were without Christopher Higgins (who cares), Sean Avery (invisible man) and Marian Gaborik (whole team). The guys skating continued to be horrible including Chris Drury (who they say is embracing the new role of not scoring when the team needs goals), Ryan Callahan and Brandon Dubinsky. I wouldn't have paid him more than $1.3 a year and stated that on this blog. Certainly not the $1.7 he was able to hold out for. But that's Glen Sather who doesn't seem to understand contracts... see Donald Brasheer's $2.8 for two years (or Redden or Michal Rozsival).


The lone bright spot came from Wade Redden and Dane Byers, who got to the facility late due to weather. Redden stepped up in the first to block a clearing attempt and fired it on net. Byers was there for the rebound and his first NHL goal. Other than that... this team is a mess without Gaborik.

Rangers lose 3-2.