Glen Sather magically and miraculously got rid of Scott Gomez this summer and signed Marian Gaborik. But, much like going into last season, this year’s Rangers are ruled by “ifs” and question marks. Sather overhauled the team yet again – does he ever have a plan? (“This isn’t plans one through eight in outer space, this is plan nine! This is the one that worked!”) Maybe this is the team John Tortorella wants, though, with his faster, attacking style of play. Last season Sather tried to replace the offense of Jaromir Jagr, Brendan Shanahan and Martin Straka with Nikolai Zherdev, Markus Naslund and other assorted characters, and it didn’t quite work out. The 2009-10 Rangers are thin on defense and have a number of unproven forwards – the only constant is the goaltending, with Henrik Lundqvist and Steve Valiquette back again.
Gone But Not Forgotten: Gomez, Zherdev, Naslund, Lauri Korpikoski, Nik Antropov, Fredrik Sjostrom, Blair Betts, Colton Orr, Paul Mara, Derek Morris and Erik Reitz.
This …
Ranger great Brian Leetch was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame today (along with other first-time-eligible players Steve Yzerman, Brett Hull and Luc Robitaille). And it couldn’t have happened to a nicer, classier guy. Leetch played parts of 17 seasons for the Blueshirts, serving as captain from 1997-2000, and finished his career with Toronto and Boston (we don’t need to get into that now). He was one of the best American-born hockey players ever to play the game, and was also one of the greatest defensemen ever to lace up the skates in the NHL.
His list of awards and accomplishments is long: Of course he’s a Stanley Cup winner, Conn Smythe Trophy winner (first and still only American to win that award), two-time Norris Trophy winner (’92 & ‘97), Calder Trophy winner (’89), two-time First Team NHL All-Star (’92 & ‘97), three-time Second Team NHL All-Star and he played in nine All-Star games. He is one of only five defensemen in NHL history to record over 100 points …
This wasn’t your everyday seven-game series. We saw biting, suspensions, water-bottle-throwing, unruly fans, cheap shots left and right (by both teams), close games and blowouts – well, maybe that is a typical seven-game series in the NHL. But when it was over, the better team won. The question isn’t: How did the Rangers blow a 3-1 lead, but: How did the Capitals not sweep? Washington has so much more talent than the Rangers that the series shouldn’t have been this close. But at the same time, what happened to the Rangers in games five and six? No Sean Avery in game five, no John Tortorella in game six, no big effort and no defense in either. If the Blueshirts would have played like they did in game seven in those games, they probably would have come out with a series win.
The Rangers’ fast start to the season raised expectations for them, and the same thing happened in this series. They surprised everyone by leading the Eastern Conference the …
This week’s games came in a variety pack. New York saw a 22-4 game along with two 1-0 ones all on the same day, a walk-off infield single, a walk-off 14th-inning home run, a loss with 00.2 seconds left on the clock and two goaltending performances for the ages. The Yankees recovered from their embarrassing loss and ended up 4-1 since last Friday. The Rangers took a surprising 3-1 lead in their series, the Devils are up 3-2 and the Mets are teetering on the edge of despair.
Winner
Henrik Lundqvist: All hail the King. “He’s awesome. We love him. He’s the king,” gushed Paul Mara (who apparently stole Joaquin Phoenix’s beard). Lundqvist shut out Washington on Saturday, and after letting in four goals on Monday because his defensemen accidentally showed up at the old Madison Square Garden, played the game of his life in Wednesday’s victory. He made a playoff career-high 38 saves while standing on his head, his toes, his elbows and anything else he could stand on to save the Rangers. He’s …
I’m not sure what’s going on here. I’m a little confused. Are these the same New York Rangers I’ve watched all year? Is that really Wade Redden, the poster boy for nightmarish free agent contracts, and Michal Rozsival looking like a top-notch #1 defensive pair, stopping the high-powered Capitals offense? Is that really Markus Naslund playing with passion and purpose (though committing too many penalties)? Is that the whole team clogging the shooting lanes, blocking shots and playing sound defense? Was that the same feeble power play from the regular season scoring twice in the first game? Is that Scott Gomez stepping up and playing like the playoff veteran he is? Is that Alex Ovechkin being shutout in the first two games? I guess my eyes don’t deceive me.
What’s not surprising is the play of Henrik Lundqvist. He’s been the best player in the series so far, and if the Rangers are going to win he’s going to have to keep it up. He’s the Rangers’ big advantage. The …
The Rangers made the playoffs. Barely. That’s four years in a row, though. After 81 games, the one thing we’ve learned about them is that they’re inconsistent. With the season on the line, they can play like they did in Boston or like they did vs. Montreal and Philadelphia. It’s anyone’s guess which team shows up for the post-season. The only consistency they’ve had all season is on their special teams play – consistently good on the penalty kill and consistently bad on the power play. With the regular season just about wrapped up, here are some awards for the year:
The Nick Fotiu Award (for overachieving): Ryan Callahan
The Bill Fairburn Award (for knowing his role and doing his job better than anybody else): Blair Betts
The Esa Tikkanen Award (for annoying the crap out of the opposition): Sean Avery
The Marcel Dionne Award (for winding up a hall-of-fame career with the Rangers and having a decent, nothing-special season): Markus Naslund
The Marek Malik Award (for being the worst defenseman on the …
The Knicks and Nets are officially dead so baseball season has arrived just in time. The Mets’ and Yankees’ starting rotations got off to rocky starts, but there are 159 games left. No need to panic, right? Right? On the ice, the Devils and Rangers have both clinched playoff spots. They’re the only two Eastern Conference teams to qualify for the post-season in each of the last four seasons. It looks like they won’t be facing each other in the first round, though, so we won’t have Martin Brodeur/Sean Avery redux. At least not yet. The prize for this week’s Hot Stove Player of the Week is a trip to the playoffs.
Winner
Henrik Lundqvist: The Rangers’ goalie only allowed one goal in each of his team’s games this week. He made one mistake in Boston, which was one too many, but led the team to two crucial wins after that. And he stopped 37 shots last night against the Flyers and saved the game with a handful of outstanding …
The Rangers spent the week fighting for their playoff lives. And they didn’t do a very good job of it. They played one great game and two pretty good ones, but pretty good isn’t good enough when you need points. Who cares how you do it - when you’re tied in the third period, you need to come out of the game with at least a point.
On Saturday against Pittsburgh, the Rangers fell behind 2-0, but rallied with two late first period goals. Fell behind again, and tied it again. Then lost it on a third-period goal by Sidney (insert crybaby joke here) Crosby. The game was an odd-man-rush-fest, with too-much pinching by the defensemen leaving the center of the ice wide open for the Pens. “It’s an in-your-face system that’s constantly evolving,” said Chris Drury.
On Tuesday, the matchup everybody’s been waiting for took place – Fatso vs. Sean Avery. The Rangers plugged the hole in the odd-man-rush dam and played their best game of the year. The Blueshirts …
This past week has proven that the Rangers have a multiple personality problem. Are they:
a) The John Tortorella-inspired team, playing with aggressiveness and gumption, which we saw vs. Buffalo?
b) The lifeless zombies we saw against Ottawa?
c) The tough, shutdown, but low-scoring team we saw against Minnesota?
d) The sloppy disaster we saw last night against Atlanta?
One night they play with passion and do the little things right, the next, they’re reverting to their old ways, not doing anything right and completely falling apart, letting a sure victory slide right out of their hands. Even Tortorella’s a mixed bag – going from inspiritional genious one game, pushing all the right buttons, to questionable moves last night (his choice of shootout players, ice time, etc.). The power play mainly has one personality, and that one is bad. The Rnagers somehow scored three power play goals against Atlanta (in eight chances), but still couldn’t score when they needed it most – in crunch time. They can’t put teams away. Of course, they don’t have …
“Sean gets the puck and five guys on the other team want to kill him.” – Scott Gomez
It’s good to finally have a player on the Rangers you can say that about. Sean Avery’s playing the role of villain on the ice and is quiet as a mouse off it. I was lukewarm on his return to the Rangers, worried that the circus he brings with him would evershadow everything else, but he’s saving his agitation for the games, which is where it belongs. Every player on the opposing team is going out of his way to pummel him, but he’s keeping his head and drawing penalties. Of course, only about one in three are called against him, but that’s life for Avery. He can get elbowed in the face in Montreal right in front of a referee without a whistle blowing, but the officials have no choice but to call some of the punishment he takes. And he’s scoring – four goals, one assist in seven games since …
Here is the third installment of our Superteams Smackdown series (for the first two, click here and here). The Islanders won their first Stanley Cup in only their eighth season. The Rangers won their first in their second season, but nobody remembers that one. Their 1994 Cup win was the Blueshirts’ first in 54 years, so it felt like the first time. If the team that started the Islanders dynasty faced the Rangers Cup-winning team that “will last a lifetime,” who would win? And would somebody from Def Leppard be there to place the Cup upside down?
After winning the President’s Trophy the year before, but being upset by the surprising Rangers, the 1979-80 Islanders finished in second place in the Patrick Division (91 points), but went all the way this time, to win the first of four straight Stanley Cups. They were coached by the great Al Arbour, and the architect of the team was Bill Torrey. Bryan Trottier (42 goals, 62 assists) and Mike Bossy (51 goals) led the offense. Three-time Norris …
“We kind of wet our pants a little there and had that look,” said John Tortorella poetically after the game on Sunday against the Bruins. And Henrik Lundqvist has been suffering from the stomach flu, and threw up between periods last Sunday. So the Rangers are peeing in their pants and throwing up, but isn’t that what playoff-style hockey is all about? The standings change every day, and the Blueshirts are still hanging in there for the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference. Or is it the seventh spot? Or sixth? How about fifth? Anything but ninth.
Apparently Tortorella ripped the team a new one between the first and second periods of last night’s game in Nashville. And it paid immediate dividends, as they scored twice and then went on to win, 4-2. It’s now Tortorella’s way or the highway. Just ask Nikolai Zherdev. He was benched for the last two periods in Nashville. Or Markus Naslund, who’s playing time has diminished. Or consult Ryan Callahan and Sean Avery, who …
