Here are my predictions for the other playoff match ups. I will break down the Rangers-Caps series some time tomorrow.

(1) Bruins VS (8) Canadiens
Category	Edge	Comments
Offense		The Bruins scored the second most goals in the entire National Hockey League, behind the offensive juggernaut Red Wings. They have a multi pronged attack and play the trap to a perfection to generate their chances. With that said, their game relies a lot the opposition making mistakes. If you don’t make mistakes, you can keep them off the scoreboard. The Habs also have a very high powered offensive attack, but they generate a lot of their offense from their power play and from the blue line. The loss of Markov for the rest of the season really hurts the Habs attack.
Defense		The only thing better than the Bruins offense is the Bruins defense. Led by Norris candidate Zdeno Chara the Bruins are superb at clogging lanes, clearing the crease, and not giving up any quality scoring chances. Montreals defensive game is pretty much non existant, they try to pressure the puck, and head up the ice with it, their blueline is severly depleted with an injured Schneider, and Markov who will miss the rest of the season.
Goaltending		Tim Thomas probably will win the Vezina, but he is a vastly overrated goalie. He gives up the juciest of rebounds into the worst places, however his team is so superb at clearing those rebounds they never seem to burn him. Thomas’ unorthodox playing style might earn him some time on TSN’s top plays, but it also leaves huge gaping holes to go through. If you get the puck to the net, with people in front, those rebounds will be there for you to put in…getting there is the trouble. Carey Price is hot and cold. You’re either getting the reincarnation of Patrick Roy, or the reincarnation of Jason Labarbera. It can depend on game to game. Personally I think this matchup is a lot closer than the numbers play out. Talent wise, I would give the edge to Price, by a large margin. Results wise, you have to give the nod to Thomas…for now.
Coaching		No contest here, the Habs are being coached, reluctantly by their GM, the Bruins have a Jack Adams quality coach behind the bench. No if ands or buts, Julien gets the nod over Gainey.
So, you have Bruins getting the edge in every statisitcal category, and I clearly am a statistical nut. So, you’re probably guessing a Bruins sweep here. Well, not so fast. I actually am going to go with the upset here, and pick the Canadiens in 6, for a few reasons. First, it’s impossible to discount just how difficult it is to play in Montreal. That stadium goes nuts in the playoffs, and the team seems to feed off of it. Second, the Bruins are young, untested, and overachievers, they seem to have a lot of overconfidence going on with their fan base, and my guess is it will translate to the players as well. Finally, you have Tim Thomas VS Carey Price. Don’t ask me why, but I think Price is going to stand on his head, and Thomas will come falling back to earth. This is all gut feeling here, but that’s what I am going for. It’s my epic upset of the playoffs. Pick: Canadiens in 6

 

(3) Devils VS (6) Hurricanes
Category	Edge	Comments
Offense		Technically speaking the Devils have the edge here, because they did score more raw goals than the Hurricanes. However I am going by the latest trends, which has the Devils trending downwards in terms of goals scored, and the Hurricanes trending way upwards. Both teams have a lot of offensive weapons, with the Canes probably having a few more.
Defense		New Jersey technically has the big edge here, however I would argue the better players are on the Carolina side of things, but the Devils system seems to protect them a lot more than the Canes system. Give and take I suppose.
Goaltending	Even	Uncle Daddy gets the even more on name than anything. Really Cam Ward should be running away in this category, but Uncle Daddy still gets some bonus points for being what he is, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Ward outplays him…badly.
Coaching		Brent Sutter. This one isn’t even close. There isn’t a coach in the National Hockey League who I would say has the edge over Sutter, not even my beloved Tortorella. Sutter is a coaching genius, we can only hope Lou Lams does something stupid and fires this guy. It’s just amazing how much Sutter has gotten out of such an old, and flawed team, especially when you look at their defensive corps.
The hot team is going to win here. Even though the Canes lost 2 in a row to close out the season, they were the hottest team in the NHL for the last 2 months or so. Nobody could touch them, and their play at home is just mind boggling. Nobody is scared of coming into Newark to play there, hell they don’t even sell out the place during the playoffs. The Devils probably would have advanced against just about every other team (who doesn’t have Sean Avery)…but against this one, it’s just too much to ask. Pick: Hurricanes in 5

 

(4) Penguins VS (5) Flyers
Category	Edge	Comments
Offense	Even	The Flyers have a frightening array of top 9 forwards. With Danny Briere playing on their 3rd line. They have weapons up and down their lineup, and are just downright frightening to play against. However the Penguins have 2 of the 3 best players in the National Hockey League playing on their team. Malkin and Crosby are as talented as you can get, both make the players around them better, and both are capable of carrying a team on their back. Quantity VS Quality here, and I think they end up evening out. No edge here.
Defense	Even	Both teams have 2 very good defenseman (Timmonen, Coburn VS Gonchar, Orpik), and not a lot after that. Letang is OK, but really none of their guys really are that great. These are 2 teams that rely on having control of the puck, and keeping the puck out of their zone for as much as possible. No edge here either.
Goaltending	Even	Fleury and Biron both backstopped their teams to the Eastern Conference Finals last year (against each other, obviously) and Fleury came out on top, but really it was having that extra weapon that the Pens had in Hossa which seemed to make the difference. These are 2 fairly evenly matched goalies. No edge here either.
Coaching	Even	I don’t know enough about either of these coaches to say much. Stevens seemed to luck out into a job where he was given a supremely talented team, and the Pens seemed to take off just because they finally got rid of Therien. I can’t really give an edge to either coach here as well.
This is the ultimate coin flip. 2 evenly matches teams, who are in the same state, who hate each others guts…that is what playoff hockey is all about. I don’t think home ice will matter all that much here, I just think it’s going to come down to an injury, or a lucky bounce or what have you. I’ll go with the Flyers….no real reason here, just another gut feeling. Pick: Flyers in 7

 

 

Rangers Review | Comments Off

In a wonderfully played, extremely entertaining game today, the Rangers didn’t gain anything tangible for me to really comment about. While they may have gained an extra 2 points, their playoff fates were already sealed thanks to a colossal choke job by the Habs who went from a powerhouse, to an afterthought (in most peoples minds) seemingly overnight. Regardless, the Rangers had nothing to gain in this one today. They could have easily laid a dud and nobody would have thought anything of it, afterall it was a meaningless game.

However, you have to give a ton of credit to John Tortorella. Instead of sitting back, he pushed his team hard forward, and I think it is going to pay some serious dividends come Wednesday against the Caps. The Rangers needed to prove to themselves they could beat a very hungry team, in their own building…and they did so. The Rangers needed to prove to themselves they could have a good 3rd period…and they did so. The Rangers needed to prove to themselves they could score on the power play…and they did so. The Rangers needed to prove to themselves that they can go toe to toe with any team in the East with this new roster, new coaching staff and new mentality…and they did so.

If you really look at the Rangers last few games, there is a lot to like. They played the best team in the East to a 0-0 tie if not for a horrendous goal given up by Henrik Lundqvist. They played a must win game against the Montreal Canadiens, and played a start to finish gem. They had a chance to clinch a playoff spot in their own building, and had Henrik Lundqvist absolutely steal them a game (something he will have to do in the playoffs, often, for them to make any noise at all). And today in a game that meant so little, the Rangers played a start to finish strong effort in a hotly contested game, and came away with a very well deserved victory.

These are the kinds of games a team strings together in preparation for making some serious noise in the playoffs, and some serious noise is exactly what I expect from them.

I will do predictions for the other match ups tomorrow, and predictions for our series day after tomorrow.

Keep the faith folks, believe in the Rangers. I do.

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We did not play a good game tonight. We really didn’t. The score sheet may show a decent amount of shots, we may have outscored them, but we did not play a good game, not at all. What we did do though, is minimize the damage. We played pretty decent containment defense, and funneled a lot of the traffic to the outside, minimizing the chances in front and in the slot. The problem is, we lost most of the board battles today which is why the puck was in our zone, seemingly the entire game. In fact I bet you if they actually kept track of zone coverage, I’d say the puck was beyond our red line for at least 70% of the game, that’s how dominating the Flyers were. But we won, and granted we won on an exceptionally questionable goal (I for one thought it shouldn’t have been awarded a goal, simply because the puck sure as heck appeared to be covered to me), but a win is a win is a win, and playing in the playoffs, no matter what the seed is, is unquestionably where you want to be.

With the Habs losing in OT, we are at a statistical tie with them, but ahead based on wins, we could secure 7th place with a Habs loss in their final game, or a Rangers win in our final game. While I guaranteed victories for both of our last 2 games, I can make no such bold prediction for Sunday evening. Winning against a Flyers team, who will be none too happy about this loss, in their barn…it’s going to be one helluva feat to accomplish. I hope we can do it, but I am not betting on it. With that said, I probably would rather us not win. I don’t feel comfortable, at all, seeing the Rangers play a 7 game series against Alexander Ovechkin and Mike Green. Those 2 absolutely owned us in the regular season, I shudder to think what they would play like in a 7 game series against us in the playoffs. It could be all over before the puck even drops. Whereas we play the Bruins pretty tough. The scores are always extremely close, and we have a battle tested goalie, whereas they do not. I’d like our chances against them a smidge more than the Caps. Either way it should be fun. Expect post season prediction prior on Monday…ish.

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This site is surprisingly addictive

Rangers Review | Comments Off

It’s really incredible, it really is. This New York Rangers team just plays so much better at home than they do on that road. And it’s not like were talking about 1 or 2 aspects of their game, like their PP or PK, it’s….everything. Even though the PP didn’t score, it generated a ton of chances. Even though we only scored 3, we generated a ton of chances. Even though we didn’t outscore them in the 3rd we….you guessed it, generated a ton of chances.

Literally everything about our game seems to increase at home. You know what that says to me? This club gets amped to play in front of their crowd. This also says to me, my NYRangersCast prediction of the Rangers making it to the Eastern Conference Finals might not be that off.

Why?

Because in the playoffs what you really are looking for is to earn a split on the road in your first 2 games, and win out at home. Frankly, I can see the Rangers doing that against almost every single team in the Eastern Conference. (There is 1 team that I think we just can’t beat, but I will go over that during my playoff preview). The playoffs, to me, is all about holding serve at home, and breaking serve on the road. It’s not won or lost in 4 straight games all the time, more often, it’s won or lost by losing serve at home. Right now, there isn’t a hotter team at home, or a hotter goalie at home than Henrik Lundqvist…and while it would be better to have home ice advantage throughout the playoffs, that clearly isn’t a possibility, and hasn’t been for many months now.

With the Rangers win their magic number is now down to 2 with the exception being if we tie 2 games and the Panthers win 2 games, then they would have the tiebreaker and finish ahead of us. Any Panthers loss, and we’re in. Any Rangers win, and we’re in. But more importantly, we have a very good chance at finishing in 7th if we can win both of these games, and for the record, I actually think we will win both of these games. Philly, while being a superb team, just doesn’t frighten me the way some teams do. It has less to do with how good they are, and more to do with how we seem to rise to the occasion against them (for the most part).

Finally, I wanted everyone to know that Wolfpack announcer Bob Crawford has agreed to do an interview with me, and answer some of your questions about the Rangers prospects down in Hartford, about the team itself, and about some of our former prospects. Simply go to either of the message boards (links on the right, ECSF and HFBoards) find the appropriate thread, and post your question there. I’ll try to get to as many of them as I can, depending on how much time Bob has to spend with me.

Thanks to everyone for your participation!

With regards to the Evgeny Grachev interview, I am still waiting for it to get back to me. These things take time, especially with the Batallion in a tough 2nd round match up in the playoffs.

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I guarantee it.

Rangers Review | Comments Off

Unfortunately, I can’t get the NHL.com’s replay to work for me, so no nifty embedded video today.

I had all day to sort of stew in my own negative thoughts. I had an email discussion with Steven Gelbs of the NYRangersCast regarding this game, and I silently read the forums without inputting much.

Here is where I stand on this game, this team, and where we stand.

Today, I felt the Rangers played a damn near perfect road game. They were disciplined, they didn’t allow odd man rushes, they took what little the Bruins gave them (who played a damn near perfect home game), and definitely earned a point that they never got. They didn’t get the point because Henrik Lundqvist gave up an incredibly soft goal. I know it was slightly tipped, which caused it to dip a little, but form that distance, Henrik has to stop it. It would be one thing if it were tipped like 3 or 4 feet in front of Henrik, but this one was tipped about 20+ feet in front of him, he should have had ample time to read, react, and make that save. He’s the highest paid goalie in the league, in essentially a do or die game…and THAT is the goal you give up which may eliminate your team from the playoff race?! Are you frikkin kidding me?!

This game is solely on King Henriks shoulders, he had to make that save, and he didn’t. And while the offense did absolutely nothing out there, I truly felt it was more of a function of what Boston did out there, rather than what we neglected to do out there. I hope most of you can see the difference there. It’s far more easy to be angry when your team does something inept, or doesnt play the right way, or is lazy, or what have you, but personally, I felt Boston just played an amazingly suffocating defensive game. We didn’t have much to work with, so we minimized the chances against. Hence why they REALLY scored zero goals against us. But when your goalie gives up that kind of a goal, it really hurts…and this one did.

However, with all of that said, I still stand by my convictions. And that is that the team as assembled today, the team as coached today (assuming Nik Antropov is OK), is good enough to reach the Eastern Conference Finals. Our predicament is a mere function of, in my opinion, a confluence of things going totally against us. We were firmly entrenched in a playoff spot, then the Rangers started to lose like crazy, then they made a coaching change. However when they did that, Carolina and Pittsburgh both went from out of the playoffs, to contending for home ice advantage in a mere short weeks following those events. When you have 2 teams beneath you skyrocket up the standings, it will push you down, as it has pushed us. Couple that with the hardest schedule in the NHL, by far and away, post All-Star break, and you have a Rangers team that, well, kinda is getting screwed here. The trick was to bank points early and to ride it out, but we let so many of those games slip away that its costing us now.

I still feel we will make the playoffs, and I still feel we are going deep, but it can change, in an instant, unless the Rangers find a way to gut out victories in 2 of the next 3 games. If they don’t, we may not make it at all.

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I know everyone wants to blame yet another abysmal 3rd period on tonights loss, but to me, this one was lost early in the first. After we did a nice 0-fer, on seemingly a thousand straight power plays, I knew we would lose this game. Yeah, I know we had the same PP% as them after all was said and done, and yeah, I know we had it tied with 8 minutes and change to go in the 3rd, but when you have a chance to put an early stranglehold on a game, you do it. I think that is why we lost. We allowed the Hurricanes to get away with some really stupid play on their part. When you have a team that’s able to do retarded crap, and not have to pay a price for it, it sometimes can lift their spirits. Especially when you have a hurt goaltender on the other side of the rink.

I know Henrik won’t say it, but he looked hurt to me all game. Never looked comfortable in net, never looked like he was making a clean save. He just looked…..wrong. While I know some people are going to kill him for not making the “big save”….because he didn’t…..it’s tough to kill the guy on 2 deflection goals, 1 screened goal, and 1 2nd chance goal.

I’m not in full fledged panic mode just yet, regarding our playoff chances, but I am very concerned. The Panthers have almost as difficult a remaining schedule as us, but the bottom line is, if we win out, we are in. We still control our own destiny, and that’s all that matters.

Oh, and for the people who want to kill Torts…we are 9-6-1 under him, thats on pace for a 97 point season, while having to coach the most difficult schedule (winning % wise) in the NHL. I’d call that a damn good job. What has killed us, was the 5-8-3 in the 16 games before Torts got here…that’s 67 point hockey that Renney had us playing, which is in the bottom of the league in terms of actual standings.

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