I know everyone first instinct tonight is to blame the refs. Yes, they made some truly awful calls, however they also missed a few calls on the Rangers that were obvious, including a high stick by McDonagh and a high stick by (I believe) Stepan on St. Louis. Yes, the refs called a terrible game, but the Rangers lost this one. They lost it when they didn’t muster anything on their power play. They lost it when they came out to start the game without playing a physical game instead they tried to play a cerebral game. They were solid positionally, but this team needs to finish their checks, that’s what gets em going.

You also have to give a ton of credit to the Lightning, their defensive zone coverage was outstanding, and they worked just as hard as the Rangers which is why they took the 2 points. When the Rangers can’t outwork the opposition, they don’t have the talent to win. I’ve said it a bunch of times before, and I will keep saying it until this team gets some more hard working talented players on their roster.

Rangers also had some bad luck on their side, hitting a post, and somehow having St. Louis sneaking a weird angle shot in. Henrik usually stops that, and the Dubi shot should have gone in. But, them’s the breaks as they say.

Sorry for the quick wrap, got a hockey game of my own shortly, wish me luck!

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I’m sure you’ve heard by now. Hell, I’m probably the last one to hear after spending the day with the GF, but the Rangers traded Kennedy and a 3rd for McCabe. It’s a good deal for the Rangers as they get a legitimate canon from the point on the power play, but it really doesn’t solve their biggest problem. Lack of scoring up front. To me the Rangers need to use this as a prelude to acquiring Stastny or Richards. Preferably Stastny. If it’s true that he is available, I would be more than willing to trade Michael Del Zotto, Artem Anisimov, Evgeny Grachev and a first for him. He’s a 70-80 point offensive machine that isn’t even in his prime yet. Is that a lot to give up? Damn straight it is, but imagine this lineup going forward:

Dubinsky – Stastny – Gaborik
MZA – Stepan – Wolski
Christensen- Prospal – Callahan
Fedotenko – Boyle – Prust

That is a significant upgrade to what we have today. Granted, this is depending on Gaborik getting over whatever the hell has him out of the lineup, and the Rangers somehow making the dollars work (not sure you can).

Do your magic Glen, go get me Stastny.

Getting back to the actual trade. The real reason I think it’s a win? Because it makes our chances of making the playoffs higher. McCabe is an upgrade over Del Zotto (for now), and if that’s the case then we have upgraded this team for this season. Why is that important? Why is making the playoffs so important? Because the Rangers kids need to see a payoff. They need to see that them playing Torts’ style, the scratch and claw for every inch of ice style of hockey, wins, and it gets you the result you want, the stanley cup playoffs. Will this team as currently constructed do anything in the playoffs? Probably not. But that’s not the point. These kids need to be rewarded, to get their foot in the door, to start that trend of being perennial winners even if it’s not a Stanley Cup.

This is a good trade, and the Rangers should try to do more to get us into the playoffs. But, I wouldn’t give up any of my kids for a rental or a guy I can just pick up via free agency. No, I’m only willing to give up these kids if it gets me something we don’t have in the system, a bona fide #1 center in the prime of his career.

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The Rangers have won the season series against the Capitals 3 games to 1. What the hell? In the 3 Ranger wins we have outscored the Caps 15-1. What? How? Where? Does this make sense to anyone out there? It sure as hell doesn’t make sense to me. The Rangers have never played well against the Caps unless Henrik Lundqvist is standing on his head. Henrik hasn’t really had to do much in 2 of the 3 wins as the Rangers out and out dominated a team that, well, they just don’t seem to match up well against on paper.

I guess there is something to be said about playing a team at just the right time. Rangers played the Caps once when they were mired in a ridiculous slump, and tonight the faced the Caps at home after a long road trip, and as Ranger fans we know how those usually turn out for the home team. But that really doesn’t explain why the Rangers have out and out dominated the Caps for much of this season. Perhaps the Caps just look at the Ranger blue (or white as the case may be) and expect to win just by showing up? It seemed to work for them in years past anyway.

Whatever the reasoning, the Rangers picked up 2 huge points, especially when all the teams around them seemed to have picked up at least 1 point. Don’t look now but the Rangers are only a stones throw away from catching Montreal and not far off from the Caps either. The Rangers really need to get away from the 7th or 8th spots as I hate our chances in a 7 game series against both the Flyers and the Lightning. Give me the Penguins any day of the week (who woulda thought any of us would be saying that aye?)

Trade deadline is just around the corner. Going to write a piece on it if I can find the time sometime this weekend.

Night all!

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The Rangers needed this one. I mean, they REALLY needed this one. If they didn’t pull out 2 points tonight you could almost feel deep down that their season might just be over. Thankfully Wojtek Wolski was in beast mode and took over the game tonight. He was without a doubt the best Ranger skater on the ice, creating numerous scoring chances for his line, and playing a rock solid 2-way game that Phoenix and Colorado fans seemed to think was not there. To me Wolski looks like a kid who could really blossom under Tortorella. He seems to need that kick in the ass that Torts isn’t afraid of giving, and it keeps him going and motivated. Wolski is a very dangerous player because of his combination of skill, size, and speed.

Tonight, he was every bit the player we were hoping to get when we pulled the trigger on the Rozsival deal, and he led us to victory. Not only scoring the late game tying goal, but also the winning shootout goal on an absolute snipe of a shot when Christensen and Zuccarello weren’t able to beat Cam Ward. With Gaborik out for an unknown length of time Wolski is really going to have to step up and provide some much needed offense to a very offensively challenged team (even with Gaborik in the lineup). For the past few games, he’s certainly showed hes capable, now he just needs to sustain it.

I’ve given Henrik a lot of crap the past few weeks, especially about the soft goals he’s given up. Luckily tonight I won’t have to do that. Henrik was on tonight. He was outstanding, and even though he gave up 3 goals, they were all legit goals, and he made numerous game saving saves throughout the night, particularly when the Rangers were down a goal in the 3rd and the Canes were getting numerous odd man chances. Cam Ward was spectacular as well, though it really shouldn’t be surprising, both goalies are Vezina caliber, and Cam Ward is ridiculously underrated in my eyes.

That’s all for now, night everyone!

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Is it possible for a player to be the best player on the ice, and yet be responsible for your team losing? It’s rare, but I guess it does happen. Henrik Lundqvist was absolutely brilliant tonight, but the game winning goal that he gave up was simply putrid. Carcillo put in a backhand that made me want to punch puppies it was so bad. I could have stopped that puck, so why the hell didn’t Henrik?

Blech, what a terrible way to lose a game, especially when the Rangers played their ass off all night long. The Rangers really deserved to win this one, even though they didn’t. They were the better team tonight, but a fair amount. The Flyers never really dominated play for any stretch, but the Rangers did numerous times throughout the game. Still, when the Flyers had their chances, Henrik was there, but somehow he gives up an inexplicably bad goal.

I just don’t get it.

Regarding Marian Gaboriks concussion. I’m not sure what to say about that, other than it really would explain his play for the past few months. Gabby has looked off more nights than on, and it would not surprise me one iota if this concussion shut him down for the rest of the season. If every there was a reason NOT to be buyers, this is it. No Gabby = No Chance. Rangers shouldn’t try to force the issue. Next year is going to be when they should make huge strides forward, don’t do anything rash. This has been more or less a lost season anyway due to injury, don’t compound it by trading away assets that will help this team in the future.

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The Devils are back doing what made them such a great team back in the late 90′s and early 2000′s. They are trapping, and are doing so to nearly flawless precision. The Rangers saw first hand what this kind of a game can do to a team. In essence they force you to take risks that you shouldn’t take, and they make your goalie be your best player on the ice.

Tonight Henrik Lundqvist was easily the best player for either team, and single handedly kept the Rangers in a game they really shouldn’t have been, as they were badly out-chanced all night long.

You couldn’t help but watch this game tonight and have that “what could have been” moment. As you all know I badly wanted the Rangers to sign Kovalchuk, and for good reason. His contract is a cap bargain, and the guy is flat out a monster of a player. He was the best forward on the ice hands down, scoring a goal, hitting a post, and dominating the game on almost every one of his shifts. Kovalchuk is that damn good. 45 or so bad games doesn’t change a career of dominance. He sure would look good bombing away from the point on the power play wouldn’t he? Or riding on Gaboriks other wing giving the Rangers a frighteningly fast and talented top line. But, there’s no point in crying over spilled milk…or rather unbought milk. The Rangers have what they have, and until they get some more elite offensive talent, they are going to be a lower end playoff type team that may or may not sneak in only to get creamed once the playoffs start. The Rangers should take a long hard look at getting Brad Richards in here.

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I love watching Torts’ post game press conferences. Really I record the Rangers post game show only for that. He’s always full of insight and humor even when he’s being totally dead on serious. Tonight the word that Torts stuck to was ballsy, and I agree.

It was a night where the Rangers didn’t get their best goaltending performance. Where their power play let em down. Where they took stupid needless penalties. And yet, despite all this, they managed to pull out 2 huge points. Once again though, they did not play the same type of game we were seeing earlier in the season, but they did manage to win against a red hot team (thanks in large part to the gimmicky shootout and the Kings playing their backup goalie).

On Henrik, tonight it wasn’t about the saves he made. Because he did have quite a few spectacular saves, most notably absolutely robbing Kopitar on a tap in goal. It was about the goals he let in. Let’s for a second forget about the goal that Brown banked in off of his back because he wasn’t hugging the post. The goal he gave up to Brown earlier in the game was a shot that NEVER beats Henrik when he is on his game. And the long shot from the point? Henrik stops those all day long. No, Henrik again had some mental lapses and it cost the team a regulation win. If you’ve read this blog for any stretch of time you know I think Henrik Lundqvist is one of, if not the best goalie in the league, but you gotta call a spade a spade, Henrik needs to be better. He needs to be a lock down brick wall back there if the Rangers are to do anything come playoff time (which I doubt they will).

Best player on the ice for either team, in my opinion, was Rangers All-Star Marc Staal. Wow what a game for number 18. He just did everything flawlessly, and despite the ugly looking plus minus, I feel he’s one of the biggest reasons the Rangers were able to steal 2 points tonight.

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Read this. Enough said.

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The Rangers were not very good today. No, they played one of their worse games during this horrific stretch that they’ve played. However, they were lucky. The Penguins were a complete mess icing a roster where over half the players sported names I didn’t even recognize. This is the only reason the Rangers walked out of Madison Square Garden with 2 points.

Sure, the power play clicked, but how many opportunities did they give the Penguins? Would the Rangers have escaped this game with a win if the likes of Crosby, Malkin, Kunitz, etc? I highly doubt it. No, this was a very lucky game, this was a game where Henrik Lundqvist was awful, where Marian Gaborik continued to play like a man who doesn’t believe he will ever score another goal, and where Marc Staal looked tired (despite playing well). The Rangers got some lucky bounces, some lucky tips, and they walked out of MSG against the Penguins minor league team with only a 2 goal win. This was not a turning point game. This is simply a continuation of what we’ve seen for a while, and until this team starts playing with the fearlessness, and (for lack of a better word) jam that they had earlier in the season, they will continue to lose games.

I hate to be so negative when the Rangers just picked up some much needed ground against the Thrashers, a game where the Rangers beat a much hated division rival, a game where the Rangers stopped a prolonged losing streak, but I stand by my philosophy. It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game. Over the course of 82 games, if you play well, you will be rewarded with a playoff spot. The Rangers are not playing well right now, and I am very fearful that this may be the start of a plunge out of the playoff picture.

We will see.

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