Good God that was a pretty damn boring game. I’ll take the win, for sure, but what you saw tonight was what the New Jersey Devils did to win themselves a cup. Play the game in the neutral zone, give up nothing, and win close games.

It’s frikkin boring to watch though, I’ll tell you that. You can’t say either team played bad or played lazy. It was just 2 teams daring each other to make a mistake for 60 minutes. The Devils made 1, the Rangers made none. Really it wasn’t even that the Rangers won this game, it’s that they were able to finally get past the trade deadline circus and move on with the season.

With regards to the Nash hoopla, I will say this. I think Howson is an idiot, and most likely will not be there to make a Nash trade when and if it does happen. You can’t throw your star player under the bus the way he did tonight. That’s career suicide. What exactly did he accomplish? All he did was alienate Nash further from the team while giving Nash NO reason whatsoever to help the Blue Jackets out and increase the amount of teams he would accept a trade to. Literally all he did was sign his own pink slip. Let’s not even get into the trade that he turned down. Apparently the Rangers offered Dubinsky, Erixon, JT Miller, Christian Thomas and a first rounder. Essentially, 3 first round picks/players, 1 50 point player, and 1 very good prospect. That’s a boat load to give up for a guy making almost 8 million bucks a year on the cap. That’s on the high end of what I would have done if I were Sather, and for Howson to turn that down, is just sheer stupidity. What does it get the Blue Jackets? You think all that many more teams will be looking to add Nash? Think about it. This offseason the cap will either be going down, or staying the same (most likely staying the same). How many teams can add on that kind of a cap hit during the offseason when Nash’s cap counts for the entire season? How many teams can ALSO give up the assets that Howson clearly wants? Then, how many of those teams would Nash actually be willing to accept a trade to? Oh, and did we mention that Zach Parise will be a free agent? If I’m a GM, would you rather give Parise 7-8 mil a season and give up 0 assets, or would you rather give up 2 dumptrucks worth of assets AND take on an 8 mil a year contract? Did we mention that Suter will be available too? Hell even P.A. Parenteau would look a little more attractive than Nash in some teams eyes.

Howson just made a HUGE mistake. I can’t blame Sather 1 iota for not giving up the supposed required pricetag of Stepan, Mcdonagh or MDZ, and Kreider. That is an absurd thing to even ask.

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The Rangers recipe for success. Ready? Put Henrik Lundqvist in net. Score 3 or more goals. Enjoy win.

There ya go, wasn’t that easy?!

Seriously though, it’s amazing how often that’s all the Rangers need. Score 3 (sometimes 2…or 1) goals, watch the big guy between the pipes do his thing (he wasn’t really God-like tonight like he usually is, but he was still a rock) and enjoy victory. Granted, tonight it was a lot more difficult thanks to the other guy between the pipes. Ryan Miller was spectacular. Sure, he gave up 1 terribad goal to Hagelin, but he stopped countless high quality chances that you have to give him a pass on that. I’m actually a little surprised he wasn’t one of the 3 stars considering how badly the Rangers outplayed the Sabres for the vast majority of this game.

Anyways, on to the real news of the day. The trade between the Rangers and the Panthers for a 3rd rounder in exchanged for Wolski. My thoughts? Wolski was a good soldier. You got the feeling the guy was well liked in the lockerroom, did whatever the coach asked of him, never said jack about his inability to crack a lineup that has seen a defenseman play as a forward, and always seemed to practice extremely hard. Even when he left his tweet on twitter was all class. I never really knew Wolski as a player before he came here, but I gotta say, this is a kid I’d really root for. Is he kind of a floater? Yep. But, still, seems like a guy you would want to do well…just as long as it isn’t against us.

Now, go get me Rick Nash Slats (as long as we don’t have to trade McDonagh, MDZ, Stepan or Kreider…and even Kreider I’m not 100% sold on being a sticking point).

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Caught this beauty over on the HF Boards:

Biron was so upset about losing this game that he went out and stood in front of a train. However the train went right through his legs…

Yep. Yeah. Right. I’ve been saying this for how long now? Biron’s 5-hole has become larger and larger as his inability to move side to side becomes a bigger problem. The guy can’t move laterally so he’s spreading his legs farther apart. That makes him VERY susceptible to shots between the legs. He needs to either work on closing that 5-hole a hell of a lot quicker, or needs to start playing farther out of the net, standing up a little and daring the teams to take him side to side. Whatever he does, he needs to do it soon, because the Rangers can’t afford to piss away points with the Eastern Conference title on the line. Make no mistake boys and girls, if Henrik is in net tonight, we win this, in regulation.

This is not to totally put the blame on Birons shoulders. He was not good in this one, but he wasn’t the sole reason we lost. Torts was right, the Rangers were VERY sloppy. How many odd man rushes or flat out partial breakaways did you see? Too many for my liking. For a team that prides itself on defensive zone coverage, the Rangers were woefully inept at times in some of the most basic coverages. Matt Moulson in front of the net, 2 guys on him, not a single one of them takes his stick. Terrible. PA Parenteau left all alone to blast a shot past Biron, where did the defenseman go on that one?

This was a terribly played game, but the Rangers have gotten used to winning games like this. They play a mediocre game, and they pull out 2 points thanks to the man between the pipes. Unfortunately, that guy between the pipes was Biron, and you can’t get away with games like that with him there, he’s just flat out not good enough. If I’m not mistaken this is now game number 7 out of his last 8 where his save percentage has been under .900. You can’t win with goaltending that bad…not without a hell of a lot more talent than we have.

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If you can’t get pumped up after watching this, you have some problems…

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I couldn’t seem to get the video to embed right today, so I’ll just have to let you go to the NHL.com site and load it from there…sorry ’bout that.

The Rangers didn’t lose tonight because they don’t have Rick Nash. He probably would have helped, but his absence wasn’t why we lost. We lost because we let the Penguins dictate how this game was going to be played. And why did that happen? The Rangers were excruciatingly slow on the forecheck. They usually get in quick, hard, and hit the crap out of the defenseman there with the puck. Tonight, the defenseman had all day to find the outlet pass, to make the pass, and to easily sidestep the hit. The Rangers weren’t lethargic, instead it looked like they got a little intimidated by the Pens transition game. The Pens don’t play a trap, they play a system that forces you to make passes you don’t want to, and they transition quickly. They also do a phenomenal job at the points, where they are open all day since the Rangers opt to collapse down into “the house” rather than man those points.

With those points open all day, the Pens were able to regroup on sustained pressure opportunities at will. Cycle, drop the puck to the open points, and reset. It happened all….night….long. Rick Nash wouldn’t have made a difference.

The Rangers need to play Rangers hockey. We aren’t good enough to play the way the other team wants to play. We aren’t talented enough, we aren’t skilled enough. While Rick Nash would certainly help in both of those aspects, he isn’t enough. The Rangers need to have all their players all on the same page, all playing the same style. I don’t know what the hell happened today, but it looked like they were off.

I’d wager the trade deadline is wearing on some of our players. They’ve all heard the names being thrown around, and you have to think they are just a tad bit worried that they will be the person going from the first place Rangers to the last place Blue Jackets in exchange for Rick Nash.

While I still maintain the Rangers should go hard after Nash, they should only do so at THEIR price, not at Columbus’s. Dubinsky, Sauer, Mcilrath, Thomas or St. Croix, first in 2012…hell throw in a first in 2013 if that puts us over the top.

More later…

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Can I just say, I think “Blue Jackets” is just the stupidest name for a hockey….or really any team, ever. I get the whole Civil War stuff and what not, but for a hockey team, Blue Jacket? Really? I dunno, maybe it’s just me, but even the “Wild” is better than stupid old Blue Jackets.

*Shrugs*

This game was pretty misleading if you look at just the score. I really thought the Rangers badly outplayed the Jackets. They outchanced them, out everythinged them, but Columbus converted on 2 of really only 3 or 4 good chances, and the Rangers converted on 3 of maybe 10 or 15 good chances. They just couldn’t finish tonight. Pretty much underscoring their need to get someone like Rick Nash in here to help their mediocre offense.

With that said, I think it would be a mistake of epic proportions if the Rangers trade Michael Del Zotto for Nash. You all know I’m all for Nash, but if you trade MDZ, I’ll guarantee it here and now, the Rangers offensive production will go DOWN, not up. MDZ is by far and away our best outlet passer on the team. His offensive instincts are second to none, and he’s picking his spots to join the rush so damn well, and how he sees some of the passes he sees, I will never know. Kid just has unreal vision.

I would, however, be real interested in the Rangers picking up an elite faceoff man. The team just seems to get burned on key faceoffs far too often. Someone like Brindamour for the Canes during their cup run would be awesome. Someone who you can put out there for key faceoffs, have them win it, and then change. Rangers Faceoffs, while not terrible, are not all that great either. Faceoffs can be really big in the playoffs, where puck possession is so key, and losing puck possession off of faceoffs can be the difference between a series win, and a series loss. See the Rangers loss to the Sabres several years ago, when they couldn’t win a key faceoff to save their lives.

That’s all for now, I need to get to bed, been running on fumes for a few months now, the chance to get 7 hours of sleep is too tempting to pass up.

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Who were those guys? I didn’t recognize that team, did you? I’m used to seeing a Rangers team that works hard shift in and shift out, not one that looked like they had ciderblocks tied to their backs. I’m used to seeing a Rangers team that gets in hard on the forecheck, and pounds the ever loving crap out of the opposition with good clean hard hits, forcing turnovers and rushed decision making. I’m used to seeing a team that prides itself on defensive coverage, and being on the right side of the puck, not a team that gives breakaway after breakaway to the other team. No, tonight we didn’t see the New York Rangers. We saw some weird Fringe-style alternate universe team.

And it started with John Tortorellas horrendous coaching.

Yep. That’s right. I just called out the coach. The coach I’ve supported all year, and much before. The same coach I will continue to support beyond today. But, Tortorella was an idiot today. I’m guessing nobody from the Rangers read this post I wrote a little while back, that’s not surprising. But you know a team with that kind of payroll has access to statistics. They should KNOW that Martin Biron has been PUTRID as of late. They should know that he’s been trending downwards, and hasn’t given the Rangers many quality starts at all in the past few months. They should know that a team with the firepower of Toews, Kane, Hossa, Sharp, Keith, Seabrook, etc would come out roaring considering their recent slide. Hell, I said as much over on the HFBoards, and I’m not paid millions of dollars to coach this club. Torts is. Anyone with half a brain would know that Biron would suck, and the Hawks would run roughshod through this team. That’s exactly what they did.

Now, it’s not all on Biron, a lot of it was the Rangers not coming to play tonight. But you have to believe Henrik Lundqvist’s 5-hole wouldn’t let the Goodyear Blimp through it the way Birons was. Lundqvist would have stopped at least 2 of those goals, if not more. Biron didn’t and that put the Rangers in a tough spot to start this game. You can talk all you want about him staying with it and fighting through it and BLAH BLAH BLAH, but that’s all just sugarcoating what we all have seen and the numbers prove out. Martin Biron has sucked of late, and John Tortorella should have started him against a team that is one of the worst offensive teams in hockey, The Blue Jackets, rather than the BlackHawks who have extreme firepower up front. Poor coaching. Couple that with calling his timeout far too late, and you have the recipe for disaster. Rangers gave away 2 points tonight before the puck ever dropped. We all saw it coming.

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Yes, that is me having a twitter war with Boomer Esiason. Yes, I think he is insane for calling Chris Kreider untouchable. Do I love Kreider? Yes. I actually have spoken directly with him several times. GREAT kid, great talent. But, Chris will likely turn out to be a 30/30 guy in the future. Rick Nash is that TODAY. I don’t want to trade Kreider, but I would have to think long and hard about Rick Nash. It’s not a no starter for me, though id rather give up more D prospects since we are deep there, but if it takes Kreider, Dubi, and a First…I’d have to think long and hard about it. Rangers have had how many cup runs in our lifetime? IMHO Nash could very well put them over the top.

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9 clear points in front of Boston. 10 clear points in front of Philly, with a game in hand. 1 point behind Detroit with 3 games in hand for the President’s trophy. Ladies and Gents….your New York Rangers. This is despite the hellacious scheduling to start the season with all those road games and all the international travel. Just a spectacular display by the boys in blue on a night in and night out basis. The truly remarkable thing here is that the Rangers are doing this in such a consistent manner. They never stop playing defense. Tonight was such a perfect example. Clearly the Rangers were not having a good night in the offensive zone. They scored 1 goal thanks to a fluky bounce off of Chara, another on the power play which was definitely beautiful, and another on an oddman rush with a perfect shot. However they really only had maybe 2 or 3 quality chances outside of that. The Bruins though had full offensive zone control of this game, throwing up 42 shots on Henrik, and another 22 that the Rangers skaters were able to get in front of (Rangers had 20+7). However, the Rangers did a phenomenal job forcing the vast majority of those shots from low quality angles, and did an outstanding job “protecting the house” (the low slot). Henrik, still, had to make several game saving spectacular saves, but you’d still have to say that it was a relatively easy 42 save performance compared to some of the games Henrik has had.

As Torts said, the Rangers did a superb job defending. They have mastered that end of the ice. However, they still are lacking in the offensive zone, they put up a few goals here in the last few games, but outside of the game against Philly you’d have to say most of them were either very lucky, or very opportunistic. That’s not a bad thing, but you can’t always count on being lucky. Sometimes, you DO have to be good.

This is where Rick Nash comes in. We’re all hearing the rumors. It’s all over the place, and I think I need to revisit what I said yesterday. On one hand, I really don’t like Rick Nash’s contract. It’s pretty close to being an albatross. However, I think, if you can pry Rick Nash out from Columbus and not have to give up Stepan, McDonagh, Hagelin, or Kreider…Yes, I said Kreider. Then, and only then would I do it. Why? Because quite simply, the Rangers will need Kreider going forward to absorb some of Nash’s salary. Meaning cheap, effective talent to get us through these years coming up. My proposal for Rick Nash. Brandon Dubinsky, Wojtek Wolski, Michael Sauer, Dylan McIlrath, Christian Thomas or Michael St. Croix, and our First this year for Rick Nash. Then, I say sit back and watch the domination.

You’re effectively only removing 1 regular from this years lineup in exchange for a guy with 40/40 type offensive skill.

Anisimov – Stepan – Gaborik
Nash – Richards – Callahan
Hagelin – Boyle – Mitchell
Fedotenko – Rupp – Prust

McD – Girardi
MDZ – Stralman
Staal – Eminger

That’s a damn good team guys.

Again though, that’s probably a lot less than what Columbus is looking for. I think Kreider could make this a dealbreaker only because of Nash’s salary and the need for the Rangers to be able to supplement their roster with inexpensive and effective talent.

Get Nash for our price, not for Columbus’. If they want more. We can go to war with what we have.

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I’ve started removing some of the bloggers listed on my site. There were quite a few that weren’t updated in several months. There are currently 4 or 5 that haven’t been updated since January that used to be really good blogs. Im cleaning house on who I link to so if you still want your link from my site, start posting!

Furthermore, it’s too much of a pain to go out and find all the worthwhile blogs to link to. If you have a Rangers blog and want me to link to you, just go here and send me a message. I will check out your blog and as long as you have been around for a while (at least a year) and have good content, I’ll give ya a link.

There’s a fairly good chance that you may have been linking to my site for a while without me linking back. This isn’t because I’m a tool or whatever. It’s because…well, I’ve been super lazy in keeping my blogroll up to date. Sorry about that, I’m working on it!

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