First and foremost, thank you for taking the time to review this section. I guess this can get quite tiresome for those of you who don’t appreciate someone being methodical and taking the time to rate, rank, and review each and every player, but for those of you who like that kind of stuff, this is for you. Right then, let’s start shall we?
| Michal Rozsival | Games | Goals | Assists | Points | +/- |
| Regular Season | 80 | 10 | 30 | 40 | +10 |
| Playoffs | 10 | 3 | 4 | 7 | +6 |
There you have, statistically, and observationally Michal Rozsivals season. However things are not really that cut and dry, as is usually the case. Let’s go back to last year when Michal was a free agent. I was clamoring to sign, then trade the guy as I felt his value would never be higher. Apparently, I was most definitely wrong. Doubling last years goal total, and putting up 5 more assists, Rozsival quickly became the Rangers #1 defenseman this year. He was strong, assertive in his own end, and worked very well in getting Jaromir Jagr the puck. But therein my friends lies the problem. Michal Rozsival is simply too submissive to Jaromirs will on the ice. I know it sounds kind of stupid, but Michal needs to be more of a selfish player out there. The guy has an absolute rocket of a shot that he can actually get on net, and yet he hesitates to unleash it all the time.
You guys all saw the post game interviews following his heroics in game 3 against the Sabres. To a man, his teammates were all commenting on how they urge the guy to shoot more. Well, I agree, he needs to shoot more. His hesitation in shooting not only hurts his own stats, but hurts the team as well. Let me elaborate even further on it. In the playoffs, Michal scored 2 of his 3 goals from the left circle on the powerplay. He got himself into a shooting position there, got Marty Straka to get him the puck, and he unleashed one-timers that Patrick Roy would have had hard times snaring. If Michal were to do that on a consistent basis, it would be like having Brendan Shanahan on BOTH power play units. What I mean by that is that it would stop the teams from collapsing 2 men to Jaromir Jagr on the right side because if they do, then youve got only 2 guys to guard the entire left side of the zone, AND when Petr Prucha is on his game, he can bang home some of those rebounds that would be available if Rozsival shoots more consistently. To be fair though, he always isnt on the left side of the PP, he tends to spend most of his time on the right side, and lets Straka play the left point. This however is a terrible formation for the Rangers since Straka can’t shoot one-timers off those cross ice, or center ice to the left side passes because he is a left handed shot. Rozsival should be on that left point at all times, and should be unleashing that canon he has.
If it were up to me, our formation would look something like this…
As you can see, this is a setup the Rangers do from time to time, but sadly not often enough. With this setup Jaromir Jagr is still clearly the focal point, but it opens up some more options because the positioning of the players actually suits their talents. Jaromir has all the options in his office, Nylander can try the backdoor pass to Prucha, or an outlet to Rozsival, or back up to Jaromir, or even a stuff-in. But most importantly Rozsival has to shoot. If he shoots, it keeps the defense honest, and opens up so much more. However more often than not, he doesnt, at least not with near enough regularity.
Rozsival had a meager 104 shots last year for the Rangers. That is just 4 more than Mara, and 5 more than Rachunek (who missed a large chunk of the year), NEITHER of who play the power play even a fraction as much as Michal.
If Rozsival would just shoot more, we would be a better team, end of story.
Michal is still an underrated defenseman, probably even by me. He is very good along the boards, rarely makes buffoon level turnovers (*coughMALIKcough*), and shows a remarkable poise for a guy I considered to be a #5 or 6 defenseman before the year started. With all of this said, what you have to ask yourself is, what is Michal Rozsival? Is he a true #1? To me, the answer is a big time NO. I consider Rozsival to be a good #2, and a great #3 in this league. It is a testament to him as a player that he played the amount of minutes he did, and against the level of competition he did, and still manages to be an effective player. However I do question how effective Michal would be if the bulk of his playing time didn’t just so happen to coincide with Jaromir Jagr and his extreme puck control line. Its hard to look bad as a defenseman (unless you are Malik) when your forwards control the puck for 75% of the time they are out there.
I think Michal is going to be an important part of the future of this organization. My once deafening shouts for his head, or for him to be traded are no more. I want him here as a Ranger for a long time, HOWEVER I want him to be in a more appropriate 2nd pairing role, and I want the guy to shoot more.
All in all, a very good season for Rozsival, and what I hope is a building block to even better things to come (once he is playing his proper role).
-Inferno
