Amid the slew of negativity flowing around Ranger land, let me just add this. We are continuing to get points, and keep games very close against teams WAY ahead of us in the standings. That’s about as much as you can ask for. Rangers weren’t going to come into this stretch and dominate, but they needed to pick up points, and with tonights point, they are still right in the thick of it.

Problem with tonights game was the lack of quality chances, Rangers had maybe 5 or 6. That’s not near enough, you want to hit double digits every night, but these days the Rangers are happy with 7 or 8.

The goalies were both outstanding, as you would expect considering who was in net, so it’s tough to put the puck in the net, but you need to at least put yourself in the position to do so, and while I think I have made my undying support for Torts perfectly clear, I still think he is majorly screwing the pooch with his incessant line changing. Enough Torts. You’ve had the same lineup more or less, for the entire season. There hasn’t been a rash of injuries, not a huge amount of turnover…you should know what you have by now. You should know who plays well with whom. You should do what pairs work, and what pairs don’t. I’m all for riding the hot hand, but you don’t mix and match lines from the drop of the puck till the final buzzer, all you do is hinder chemistry and possible scoring chances. I love Torts, but right now he is not giving his team a good chance to win with these stupid line changes of his.

It should also be pointed out that Brandon Dubinsky scored his goal crashing the net as the team has now adopted an Umbrella style power play. Personally, this has always been my favorite way to run a power play, it spreads the defense out, and it give you a lot of places to create movement for, while attacking the front of the net. The basic principal is to keep 2 men near the net, and have them converge on the net as the shot is taken, no matter where it is taken. The other 3 skaters skate around and try to find a lane to shoot at. It is simple, it is basic, and it gets the job done, particularly when you don’t have a set person to take the shot on the Power Play.

Finally, it seems the Fire Sather march went on rather well. Somewhere around 200 people showed up, a little low, but about what I was expecting. Great to hear they did their duty and showed up. Would have been nice if the number was closer to 500-1000 though. Hopefully Dolan was made aware of it.

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Tomorrow (Sunday, March 7th) is the Fire Sather march. It begins at 5:00pm across the street from MSG on the east side of 7th avenue between 31st and 32nd streets. I would attend, but it’s a pretty long drive from here in Atlanta. I will post video of it when I get that passed on to me. This is a worthwhile thing to do, so I suggest people give it a shot.

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That the game was so close was very unexpected, but the result was pretty much a given. The Rangers just don’t match up against the Caps. They are better than us in most facets of the game, and their speedy forwards give our defense fits (hell, which team don’t they give fits). If it were up to me, I would have given Gaborik the night off as well, giving him 1 extra day to rest up before the Sabres game should be the way to go, especially with such a winnable stretch run after this Sabres game. They are playing some very beatable teams coming up, so there is no need whatsoever to rush him back. The Rangers have done better than expected here, with 3 points out of the last 3 games, all against the top end teams in the East, so it’s really hard to kill the team for yet another shutout against.

With that said though, I do have 1 bone to pick with Torts. Why oh why do you keep changing up the lines every god damn period? I love ya Torts, you know you’re my choice to be the coach of the Rangers, but that madness has to stop. You don’t get any chemistry going whatsoever by continually changing the lines around. As a hockey player myself, I can tell you I hate having to play with new linemates all the time, and I think teams are best served by having set lines, and riding them for games, not periods.

It has been fairly disappointing to watch Jokinen play these past few games. I know he’s put up some points here and there, but I don’t think hes playing good hockey. Frankly I don’t really see him as a center, in much the same way Dubinsky isn’t really a center. Jokinen just does not make the players around him better, in which case he’s probably better off playing the wing on the top line with Prospal in the middle and Gaborik on the right side. I know a lot of people want him back, but don’t count me in among that group. To me he’s a decent 2nd line player who is probably going to command middle of the row top line money. That is something we can not afford.

Tomorrows game is huge, Rangers need to pick up at least a point and keep close to the bottom end of the playoff picture. If we can do that, then the stretch after this Sabres game gives us an opportunity to make up some ground, and even potentially put some distance between us and some of the teams we are competing against.

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No post game wrap…I sorta watched the game, but it was so damn choppy (internet feed) that I really didn’t get an idea of what was going on there, other than the Rangers getting dominated and Henrik stealing us a point….and Crosby being his usual whiny bitch self.

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Rangers did nothing today, which is probably why my source had nothing to share with me. My thoughts? It’s better to make no moves than the wrong moves. Would have been nice if the Rangers could have dumped Redden or Drury, but it was highly unlikely. The fact of the matter is, the Rangers are in the position to make the playoffs, and things dont all have to fall perfectly into place for it to happen. Once you are in, anything can happen, especially with a world class goalie, and a world class sniper (assuming hes healthy). There was pretty much nothing of value traded sans Torres or Wolski that I would have wanted on this team. The Rangers made their big splash when they got Jokinen and Prust, that was their deal. If that deal happened today instead of a few weeks ago, people would have been jumping for joy at what a frikkin steal we made and how we were definitely one of the deadline winners. Instead everyone is moaning and crying that we did nothing. Wise up people, we most definitely have a legit shot at being in the playoffs. We improved our team unquestionably more than the teams we are directly competing against for those spots with the Jokinen trade, and we did not give up a single asset in the process that one would be even remotely unhappy with giving up. We got better, we have a chance to make the playoffs, and we didn’t give up any assets, thats a big ole win in my book.

EDIT:

Here are some posts I wrote on the HFBoards that I thought were worth sharing here…

He’s (Gaborik) been more or less the picture of health with us till he got hurt in a freak accident, which caused him to alter his skating stride which caused him to hurt his groin, and everyone expects him back in the next game or 2.

The Rangers have also gone the entire season with just about everyone underachieving at the same time.

Drury, a guy you can usually count on for 20-25 goals, had something like 3 or 4 goals at the midway point in the season. Callahan was ice cold, Dubinsky was out, and not playing all that well. Kotalik and Higgins were absolute BOMBS in terms of what they did here. Rozsival wasn’t putting up points to save his life, etc.

Is it beyond the realm of possibility that a few of these guys, in conjunction with Jokinen, might get hot, or at least start performing like they should?

It’s just the law of averages…it’s the same thing with Boston last year, they had almost EVERYTHING go right for them for the bulk of the season, then they lost their mojo in the playoffs and lost to the #6 seeded Hurricanes, and this season they have been coming back down to where they should be.

There are always outliers in every season, right now our performance is definitely a negative outlier, way too many players are or were performing well below their career averages, if a market correction occurs, and they start to produce back at the levels they should, then we have basically
Marian Gabork, Henrik Lundqvist, and.
1 25+ goal scorer in Jokinen
3 20+ goal scorers in Drury, Callahan and Prospal

and what should be several 15+ goal scorers in Anisimov, Avery, Dubinsky, etc

Everyone went ice cold at the same time and it absolutely murdered us, i’m sorry, but as a guy who believe in statistics, over the long run, some of the guys are going to heat up, i’m banking on that happening now.

This team has beaten Ottawa, Pittsburgh, New Jersey, Colorado, and Tampa in their last 9 games…the other 4 games were all 1 goal losses to Washington, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Nashville.

We’re only 4 bad or lucky bounces away from being on a 9 game winning streak against some of the best teams in the NHL.

I think Sather did an excellent job of having his cake, and eating it too. He’s gotten us to the point where we have a damn good shot of making the playoffs, potentially enough talent to make something happen, especially with bringing in Jokinen, and even if things dont go right, we still have all our prospects and young kids in hand, and have some contracts coming off the books next year.

I’m happy.

As far as I know, the Rangers have gotten younger pretty much every year for the past several years since the lockout, they have also maintained a fairly high ranking in terms of prospects (though most of our best ones right now are still a few years away), and have made the playoffs every year during that time. They also will likely go after Ilya Kovalchuk this offseason with everything they can, and if they get him, will have 3 superstars to build around, and some very damn good young talent to put around them…and with contracts like Drury and Rozsival expiring in 2 years, they will also have the funds to retain their own players.

Things are heading in the right direction, granted a lot of it depends on
1)Signing Kovalchuk
and
2)Getting rid of Wade Redden.

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If there were any thoughts, any whatsoever, of becoming a seller this trade deadline, I think they were squashed when the Rangers won tonight. They may move out some pieces that are superflous or are ridiculous contracts, but they won’t be a barn burner in New York come 3pm tomorrow. Expect the Rangers to be buyers, and probably aggressive ones at that. The Rangers played an outstanding team game, limiting the opponents chances against us, while playing a strong “north american” type game. Honestly it looked a lot like the way Team USA played during the olympics, with the exception that we don’t have guys like Parise, Malone, Backes, Kane, Stastny, Kesler, Brown, etc, etc, etc. The Rangers though had their Olympian heart and soul player Ryan Callahan play an outstanding game to lead the Rangers to victory. It was an outstanding display by the Rangers winger. He showed skill, he showed grit, determination, his patented solid defensive play, and willingness to do anything to block a puck. It was a joy to watch the Rangers tonight. The question becomes, will they be a joy to watch after tomorrow. I suppose that depends on what happens. If I hear anything I will pass it on, otherwise I will be like all of you, clicking the refresh button like a mad man to see what all happens tomorrow.

Getting back to the game though, it was kind of awkward to see Enver Lisin play such a good game, despite being on waivers and him knowing there is a very good shot he will be on another team in less than 24 hours, or he will be in Hartford. Strange for him, but it was good to see him try to make a showing that other teams should take a flyer on the kid. I’ve been harsh on him because I think he lacks the hockey IQ to make it at this level, but you want to wish the kid well. He has never been a slacker, and as a Ranger fan, I consider that to be a huge bonus.

That’s all for now, let’s see what tomorrow brings.

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Not sure how this would work cap wise, but it is an interesting thought…

The Rangers are discussing bring back not only Jarmoir Jagr on a two year deal but soon to be UFA Michael Nylander as well.

As for costs, the Rangers know they are going to probably have to offer Jagr 2 years (12-15 million) after what happened last time around.

As for Nylander they are going to try and sign him cheap (think Prospal)

I don’t like to speculate lines but I am hearing a forward corp for next season consisting of:

Gaborik
Kovalchuk
Jagr
Nylander
Drury
Prospal
Callahan
Dubinsky
Christensen

One of my sources is citing that the Rangers don’t want to waste Lundqvist’s prime and really give him an offense to work with.

team wise here is what I would want to see.

First Line: Kovalchuk - Nylander - Jagr
Second Line: Prospal - Christensen - Gaborik
Third Line: Drury - Dubinsky - Callahan
Fourth Line: Avery - Anisimov - Byers/Prust
Reserve: Boyle

Defense 1: Staal - Girardi
Defense 2: MDZ - Sauer/McDonagh
Defense 3: Gilroy - Sanguinetti
No Reserve Defenseman

I guess you can make the math work, but it’s not really realistic though. You’d have to make Rozsival, Redden, and Brashear just magically disappear off the roster AND expect a defense with 2 rookies, 2 kids with 1 year of experience, and 2 kids with less than 4 years of experience, to lead you to a championship…because thats what this team is supposed to be, a championship caliber team.

I don’t know…it would sure as hell be interesting though.

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Thoughts on this game…

Ryan Kesler was the best player on the ice for either team…what an amazing display.

Our goalie VASTLY outplayed theirs. Uncle Daddy was horrendous, and Miller was absolutely superb.

Where the f**k has this Chris Drury been? He’s been absolutely outstanding this entire Olympic tournament.

and finally….

USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

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Henrik Lundqvist has pretty much said, just get me 3, and I will get you the win. So, ever wonder how that would work out? Let’s assume, for a second, that the Rangers were to score exactly 3 goals a game, never more, never less. And that shootouts/OT would end in a 50/50 split, with us getting the extra point half the time. How many points would we have if that were the case? 86.

86! If all we did was score 3 goals a game we would have the 4th best record in the entire NHL. Henrik is right, just get him those 3 goals. And today the Rangers did, and then some. In a do or die, fight for your life, playoff type game that likely will set the course for the trade deadline, the Rangers rallied from a 2-0 deficit to score 5 unanswered goals. The Rangers were really the better team for most of the game, Henrik gave up 2 very questionable, borderline soft goals, but made up for them by making a number of superb saves to go with them. The Rangers also rallied around their injured players by playing a very strong team oriented game that didn’t just revolve around getting Gaborik the puck and then getting the hell out of the way.

With the Olympics around the corner the Rangers have brought themselves back to a stones throw from the playoff picture, which is exactly where they needed to be. I don’t like the thought of tanking, and playoff hockey is where it is at, so the Rangers have done well for themselves in this short time span. With that said though, they need to get into the 6th or 7th spot to face the very beatable Devils or Sabres teams that will likely end up there. If they can do that, they have a damn good shot of making it to the 2nd round, and that’s where anything can happen.

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You know what I love about hockey? The fact that you can suffer a Hari-Kari esque wound, and only be listed as “questionable” for your next game. What a great sport.

The Rangers, playing in their other house of horrors arena, the other being the Bell Centre, played a very strong, very gritty type game against the defending Stanley Cup Champs in their own barn. They were without Gaborik and MDZ 4 minutes into the game, and they were without Rozsival for half the 2nd period. Somehow they still managed to take this game into O/T before Jokinen won it for them on a nice no look shot. There are a few things we could discuss here, but to me the thing that stood out here was the way Chris Drury, FINALLY, led the team to victory. Nobody bashes on Captain Cardboard more than me, but I can appreciate a well played game, and, more importantly a well led game. Drury only picked up an assist, which was a beauty, but he was all over the place, playing his customary 4th line checking defense, but, more importantly, leading the way in the offensive zone as well, showing a tenacious forecheck that has been, up until now, nowhere to be found for Drurys entire tenure as a Ranger. Now that is back to back games where Drury has been coming alive, maybe he is finally waking up out of his unbelievably horrible stupor that he has been in this year, or maybe its just one of the few blips of life on his otherwise flatlined season. I guess the next 20 odd games will really tell the story. If the Rangers are to make the playoffs, and really, we all want them to make the playoffs, Drury is going to have to LEAD this team to it. He is going to have to score goals, set up goals, crash the net, make the crease his territory, deflect pucks, and yes, have fights. He’s going to need to earn that ridiculous contract he has by giving us every single ounce of blood sweat and tears that he has in his body. For at least one night (well, to be fair, now 2 nights) he has done just that.

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