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So, as you know by now, the Rangers sent Michal Rozsival to Phoenix for Wojtek Wolski. Wolski is a pretty big kid with a lot of talent that’s been playing on an anemic Phoenix team (no players with more than 12 goals) but he’s been known to float and not get involved a lot in the offensive play. Basically, he’s Nikolai Zherdev. To me, that’s the kind of player we could use, assuming he is producing. It is up to Torts to make sure we get all we can out of him, but the talent is undeniable.

Wolski is a bit of a reclamation project, and Rozsival is a guy who can eat up big minutes while being rock solid in all 3 zones, so in reality the Coyotes probably win this trade right this minute. However Wolski has outstanding upside, and this could end up being a steal. It could also end up being a loss, but we do clear up a little bit of space next year (about 1.2 mil) and have opened up a spot for one of our kids while also taking on a guy with legit 2nd line upside.

I’ll take that risk every time.

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Back to back, against 2 of the toughest teams in the NHL, and the Rangers take 4 very huge points. Incredible. You can’t help but be thrilled at their ability to gut out wins against some truly superb competition. The Blues and the Stars are only adding to the list of top echelon teams that the Rangers have beaten or have stayed close with. Really outside of the Flyers the Rangers haven’t looked all that outmatched against anyone out there.

Tonight was a game though where you see the Rangers long term strategy pay off. They are building their team from the net out. Their backup goaltender was absolutely spectacular as Biron made several game saving saves, and the defense in front of him was outstanding as well, sporting 6 guys whose average age are 24 years old and yet they have given up a combined 3 goals over the past 2 games. Unbelievable. Add to that a line of Dubinsky – Stepan – Zuccarello-Aasen who have an average age of 22 and somehow play outstanding hockey in all 3 zones and you have a lot to be happy about.

Look, this team won’t win the Stanley Cup, we all know it. But what they are doing is setting up a picture perfect transition year. A year when the kids all grow. Where Artem Anisimov blossoms into a legitimate 2-way dominant 2nd line center. A year where Dan Girardi and Marc Staal turn into possibly the best shutdown pair in the NHL. A year where Brandon Dubinsky changes roles from being the guy to run shotgun with superstars, to being the star who has players ride shotgun with him. Dubinsky is on pace to score almost 70 points this year, a huge jump from his previous career high attained last year with 44 points, and yet somehow I think we all feel that this is just the start of what should be a brilliant career. Dubinsky seems to have the entire package you want in a forward. Mean, nasty, physical, big, fast, smart, engaged, vision, shot, nose for the net, leadership, defensive play. He has it all, the only thing this kid needed before this year was consistency. Well consistency has been attained with Dubinsky as it seems every game he is one of the 3 best Rangers on the ice, regardless of his offensive output.

Am I the only person who feels this team will really take off once we can get Chris Drury off this team and hand the keys to the kingdom over to Callahan, Dubinsky, Staal and Stepan? Somehow, I don’t think I am.

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worth sharing:

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Those are 2 giant points the Rangers picked up tonight, make no mistake about it. They were playing an elite team in their building and played a superb game from start to finish. They were a little scrambly at times during the first period, but they still played a solid game. It’s worth mentioning the outstanding play of Marc Staal and Dan Girardi. They played together, they played apart, and they were dominant. Rangers may have one of if not the best shut down pair in the entire NHL.

I thought Sean Avery played a surprisingly quiet game. It’s games like that Avery tends to come alive and dominate, instead Sean really didn’t do much of all as his line was probably the worst out of all 4. Give Chris Drury some credit, probably for the first time all year I actually noticed he had a pulse by playing some good hockey. Drury has been a pretty big drag on this club since the moment he came back. His presence, in my opinion, hasn’t done anything to spur this team on, and his play on the ice has been putrid by and large. When one of your big guys plays like crap, it brings the entire team down. Drury playing at a higher level could be huge to this team….but I won’t hold my breath.

That’s it for now.

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Cam Ward was absolutely brilliant. I’m not sure that’s even doing justice for just how well the former Conn Smythe winner played. Sure, Henrik was superb as well, but he couldn’t touch the performance that Ward had. But somehow the Rangers won. When was the last time you could say that? The opposing goalie puts on an absolute show, but the Rangers manage to pull out a win. It probably hasn’t happened more than a handful of times in the past 2-3 years.

Tonight we had excellent performances by Marian Gaborik, Sean Avery and Brandon Dubinksy. Only 1 of whom has been consistent throughout this year. Dubinsky has been the Rangers best player from the drop of the puck on day 1 all the way till the halfway point of the season. He only needs 10 more points to match his career high, a truly amazing performance for a kid that has taken extremely large steps this year. Sean Avery on the other hand has had a pretty mediocre season, he hasn’t scored a goal since October, and has rightfully seen his playing time steadily deteriorate as a result. It’s good to see Sean playing well, as it’s something we haven’t seen very often this season. Gabby too looked great, and although he is having a statistically good season (22 points in 27 games), he should be able to give us so much more. If he plays more like he did tonight, he would go a long way towards giving us that.

I’ll take these 2 points and run like a maniac. Great win by the boys in blue. Just like I said they needed to be given a punishing skate, and were. Looks like Torts and I are on the same wavelength here, he read what I was reading and nipped it in the bud right away. They played the way they must in order to be successful, generating a plethora of high quality scoring chances, however Cam Ward was absolutely brilliant in negating all these efforts. On most normal night the Rangers would have potted 4 or 5. That’s all for now. Night all.

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Sorry for not posting after the Canada/USA & Sweden/Russia games, frankly I was so disgusted with Team USA’s performance I didn’t feel up to blogging. So instead let’s just do a wrap encompassing the entire tournament.

Roman Horak: I saw Horak play only a few games, the fewest of all the prospects, however he did look to be the best Czech player on the ice, but that wasn’t saying much as the Czech team looked vastly inferior to the big 4 (Canada, USA, Russia and Sweden). Horak looks to have some good speed and offensive instincts, but looked poor when trying to pass the puck or receive passes, this could have just been due to the level of competition he was facing with very poor players to work with. All in all a pretty “meh” tournament for a player on a pretty underwhelming team.

Jesper Fasth: I think he was without a doubt one of the 5 best Swedish players for this tournament. He has explosive speed and a motor that never stops along with superb work ethic and fearlessness that you need for a guy that doesn’t have the biggest frames. I like what Ive seen from him in this tournament, and he looks to be a legitimate late round steal for the Rangers. He scored as many goals as any Ranger prospect in this tournament and quickly climbed up the depth chart on an outstanding Swedish team.

Ryan Bourque: I question if Bourque will ever become anything more than a 4th line energy player, however the drive to succeed is something you just never want to doubt. Bourque is the kind of kid that will never give up on a play. He gives you everything he’s got on every single shift, and leaves everything out there on the ice. However his goal scoring ability and playmaking ability isn’t what I expected for a guy touted as being an elite offensive prospect with poor size. Instead Bourque has turned into a tenacious forechecker who is supremely responsible in the defensive zone and almost never makes a bad play out there. If he can get his offensive game up to par with his defensive game he could turn into a legitimate 2nd line player in the NHL, as it stands now, I’m thinking Freddy Sjostrom for Bourque, but without the size.

Chris Kreider: He was team USA’s best skater in the final game, and for the entire tournament. The thing with Kreider though is that, to me anyway, it seemed like the game was just too slow for him. That nobody could keep up with him, and that he wanted so desperately to make the right play to keep his teammates involved in the play. He finished the tournament with the most goals on Team USA, the most points on Team USA, and easily set up the most scoring chances on Team USA by a wide margin. You get the feeling that Kreider is the kind of player that will get better with more competition and better teammates to play with. He’s already got an upper echelon NHL shot, elite speed with him possibly being the fastest player in North America, and as we have seen all tournament long, a defensive mind to help out in the play. This kid is going to be something very special out there. I have a hard time comparing him to any player in the NHL right now, that’s how unique he is.

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I never caught the full Tampa game, but given the forums I can guess what happened. It’s just more of the same for the slumping Rangers who have gotten points in games they really didn’t deserve to get anything out of. Once again tonight the Rangers were outworked by an opposing team, and for the vast majority of the year this simply was not the case. Why has this happened? I think there are a few reasons. First, there are peaks and valleys to a season, and the Rangers are in a valley right now. Second, the loss of Ryan Callahan has been far more profound than simply his stats. Unlike Captain Cardboard, Callahan makes you see him on the ice at all times. You know he is there, even if he isn’t scoring, Drury on the other hand could have been a ghost floating around out there and have been more noticeable than he actually was tonight. Finally I think that the Rangers have established themselves as one of the above average teams. A team that has a shot at the playoffs, and as such, all the teams around them are gunning for them. They have a very tenuous hold on a playoff spot that could easily fall apart at any given moment, and there are tons of teams waiting to wrestle it away from us.

The Rangers had their chances tonight, that’s for sure. Despite being outplayed for such a huge amount of time, they got many scoring chances, however Vokoun was superb. Not that Biron wasn’t, but Vokoun was that much better. Give credit to him, he earned his team a victory. However the fact remains that the team has come out flat for several games in a row, including tonight, and that is absolutely unacceptable. If I were Torts, I think it would be time for a punishing skate a-la Herb Brooks, because, like the movie, I think this team feels like it can get by on talent alone at this point, and, again like the movie, they don’t have enough talent to get by on talent alone.

OK, long day, going to get some rest. By the way I did watch both WJC games today that were aired, but as neither had Rangers prospects in them I won’t bother really saying much except that the Russia-Finland game was awesome, and that Benjamin Conz should get a look see from an NHL team, the kid has been spectacular for 2 straight WJC’s.

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My TiVo said it was Rangers VS Lightning. The Guide said it was Rangers VS Lightning. In my list its listed as Rangers VS Lightning. What gets recorded? NHL on the fly.

FML.

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Jesper Fasth: You don’t beat a team like Canada without solid efforts throughout your lineup. Fasth was no exception. He had a tremendous game for the victorious Swedes. As usual playing his high energy puck pursuit game to perfection. Fasth didn’t pick up any points and was held off the scoreboard, but he was noticeable on nearly every shift, for positive reasons. Gotta be very happy with his performance.

Ryan Bourque: Bourque was named the player of the game for Team USA, but I don’t agree with the selection one bit. More on that in a minute. Bourque did have an outstanding game though. He was all over the ice, playing his usual up tempo annoying game and getting involved in all facets of the game. He generated scoring chances, and was superb in all 3 zones.

Chris Kreider: The reason Bourque didn’t deserve the player of the game was quite simple. Chris Kreider was the best skater for either team by a HUGE margin. I’m positive Kreider was being double shifted for the majority of this game, playing regular shifts with both Coyle/Palmieri as well as Shore/Callahan. During one stretch of the 3rd period he was also being triple shifted being thrown out there with Bourqe and Bjugstad as well. Kreider scored a goal, hit a post, had a breakaway that he SHOULD have received a penalty shot on for because he was slashed, set up at least 2 glorious scoring chances, and was outstanding defensively as well. He was an absolute monster. Everything he should be given his ridiculous skill set. Kreider may have been reading the message boards or the blogosphere out there which criticized his game against the Germans (and rightfully so!) because he played like a man possessed. Keep it up Chris, this is what I expect of a kid as talented as you!

OK, 4am, hope you all had a great New Year. Night all!

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