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By Zach Schiff  January 2, 2010, at 9:53 am  The US Olympic team should re-name themselves Team Ryan: Ryan Suter, Ryan Miller, Ryan Callahan, Ryan Kessler, Ryan Malone, and Bobby Ryan.
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Why the big deal over Doug Weight, Bill Guerin, and Keith Tkachuk not making the 2010 US Olympic team? The US wants to win, right?
Weight had no goals in 11 games before being injured… again. His first game back was the night before the Olympic selections were announced. Guerin is actually scoring around the same pace he was in 2002 when the team won the Silver Medal, but he’s 39 and the chances that he’ll have anything left for 8 games in 11 days is very slim. Tkachuk hasn’t been a force on any team since before the lockout, and he would just be taking space for a young power forward – say, Ryan Callahan (or Ryan Malone).
Scott Gomez was an interesting name left off. He just turned 30 last week and he played well in the 2006 Olympics in Italy, but those of us who watched him the past 2 years (and anyone following him in Montreal this year) know that he just isn’t as good in another system as he was with the Devils.
I would also venture to guess that it came down to Gomez and Chris Drury fighting for a spot, and with John Tortorella as an assistant coach, Drury got the nod.
I like Callahan and Drury being on the team. I’m very excited for Callahan and I think the experience can only help him. As for Drury, he won’t play 20 minutes a night for them so he won’t come back burnt out. Plus, being there could inspire him to play better – he said so himself after being selected to the team.
As for Henrik Lundqvist and Marian Gaborik? Awful.
Remember how good the Rangers were playing in 2005-06 before the Olympic break? They were 20 games over .500, then ended the season 9-11-4 after the break. Lundqvist came back grinding his teeth and with migraines and was utterly awful in the playoffs against New Jersey (he’ll admit it). Jaromir Jagr came back hurt from a Jarrko Ruutu check; on top of that, a nagging hip injury was made worse by the lack of off-days in the compressed Olympic schedule.
Without Jagr and Lundqvist, that team was just a bunch of role players who played great together and had a dream season.
Without Gaborik and Lundqvist, this team is a bunch of young players who haven’t really meshed yet (and a few overpriced veterans who are just waiting for their careers to end).
What happens if Lundqvist gets hurt? The season is officially over. What if Gaborik gets hurt? So far, he hasn’t injured anything that was hurt in previous seasons, but you shouldn’t press the matter. An injury to him in Vancouver could have negative effects on him – and this team – for the next 4 years.
Plus, Hank could use the rest for 3 weeks before the stretch-drive.
Four reasons I am very against NHL players playing in the Olympics…
1) It should be an amateur competition.
2) You’re stopping an exciting NHL season for 3 weeks and expecting people to pick off where it left off 21 days later.
3) The chance for injury is too great. (Ask the Ottawa Senators how the rest of their season was when Dominik Hasek was injured in the Czech Republic’s first game in ‘06.)
4) It can be a career-maker for a young kid. Paul Kariya and Peter Forsberg in the 1992 Olympics in the shootout was an instant classic. I’d much rather have that than see Chris Pronger snuff out Evgeni Malkin in the bronze medal game because they’re division rivals.
By Zach Schiff December 31, 2009, at 1:29 am Yes, the Rangers got crushed today.
It was a 6-0 loss; first time they were shutout this season; Sean Avery was the only one who really showed up; a division rival got 2 points on home ice; Chad Johnson let up his first goal on his first shot ever.
But it’s funny how quickly people turn on the team. They go 4-0 and all of a sudden Marian Gaborik is the greatest player in the world, Henrik Lundqvist is the best goalie in the NHL, and this team is on the right track.
Then, they get shutout at home, and we need to fire John Tortorella, trade Brandon Dubinsky, and go with a youth movement.
Aren’t teams allowed to win and lose games?
Yes, no one played particularly well. Chad Johnson – he who wasn’t scheduled to start and was thrown in during an intermission – played decent. Avery played very well tonight. Dubinsky and Ryan Callahan played well, but as always, couldn’t find the back of the net.
This is a team where 34% of the Salary Cap is occupied by 3 players who shouldn’t be making a total of $3.4M. What did you expect?
A team with Michal Rozsival, Wade Redden, and Chris Drury will NEVER win a Stanley Cup, unless they are all making under $1M per year and the rest of the roster is filled with named like Kovalchuk, Gaborik, Lundqvist, Boyle, Heatley, and Niedermeyer.
This Rangers team isn’t built for a Cup run. Yes, they have a few parts (Gaborik, Hank, Ryan Callahan, and 3 of 6 defensemen), but they’ll get shutout 6-0 from time to time. Sometimes, they’ll score 7 goals. Some games, they’ll put up a fight in a 2-1 loss.
Get used to it.
But don’t expect too much.
And don’t complain when they don’t show up for a game. After all, what did you expect out of Redden when he was signed? Passion? Commitment? Offensive skill?
By Zach Schiff December 24, 2009, at 1:13 am The average ice time for a forward in a 60-minute hockey game is 15 minutes.
The average ice time for a defenseman in a 60-minute hockey game is 20 minutes.
Explain to me how, in an “Era of Accountability” (my phrase), Michal Rozsival skates 3 more minutes than the average defender (23:18 against Florida).
The original intention of the writing was to praise Enver Lisin, yet wonder about how he skated 2 minutes less than average tonight (13:05).
To be honest, Lisin skating 13 minutes is 4 or 5 minutes more than he normally skates (and he only skated 4 minutes last Monday in the shootout loss to Atlanta). And on a night where Vinny Prospal, Sean Avery, Marian Gaborik, and even Chris Drury were playing good, I guess there wasn’t a ton of ice time to go around. So I’m happy with 13 minutes for Lisin.
But Rozsival rocking 23 minutes? He had over 9 in the first period! The reason Lisin didn’t play much was allegedly because he was atrocious defensively.
So is Rozsival! Or was the Panthers’ lone goal too early in the game for everyone to remember how awful he looked on that first goal. He played pretty poor the remaining 22 minutes he was on the ice as well, including his 1:59 on the power play. (To be fair to him, his penalty killing isn’t atrocious, but he refuses to look at anyone except the puck carrier, and it almost bit him in the behind twice tonight on the same Florida power play).
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My pregame prediction of a hat trick by Prospal was officially killed when Gaborik scored a shorthanded goal. I figured up 3-1, Tomas Vokoun would head to the bench, Gaborik would have an open empty net, pass to Prospal, and he’d have his 3rd of the evening.
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Ales Kotalik looked so disappointed after missing that breakaway on Vokoun in the 2nd period. He’s trying hard and he wants to score, it just isn’t happening today. It was good seeing him on the point on the power play, though, tonight.
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I’m not all negative, you know. Lisin had a really good game. He looked like Wayne Gretzky on that first goal where he out-hustled the opponent, kept with the puck, and passed it perfectly to Chris Drury, who pounded it home. Drury got credit for the goal and Avery got the biggest applause when it was announced, but Lisin did the legwork on that one.
Drury was huge on the 4th goal though; the pass from his knees to Gaborik was money. How Gaborik put that home is still a mystery to me, but that’s okay.
I’m just happy they scored today. The Garden was rocking for the first time in two months tonight.
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About those “Asshole” chants you heard towards the end of the 3rd period.
Two guys in Islander jerseys, one with a jacket, one without, were leaving the Garden. Instead of going out the gate closest to them, they – v e r y s l o w l y – walked halfway around the Garden and went out a different exit. Every section they passed yelled at them.
It was priceless.
And very ballsy by those guys. Some people were getting pissed. I found it hilarious.
By Zach Schiff December 9, 2009, at 9:43 am I’m not normally the guy who sees a losing streak and says “Fire the coach! Trade Lundqvist! Gaborik was a fluke in October and November! Fire the coach!”
However, I can see that this isn’t a “losing streak” – this is a team saddled by bad contracts and players who aren’t playing.
Marian Gaborik isn’t Superman. Sure, he’s an incredible talent and arguably the best player in the league this year, but he can’t do it all alone. There will be games he can’t score. And then what?
Henrik Lundqvist is an excellent goalie, but there will be times he lets up a bad goal. And with this team, he can’t afford to, because every game is tight. In a 1-1 game such as the game against Detroit, the bad goal crushed them because nobody could score.
The Rangers should have backup scoring. Ryan Callahan (5 goals) should be able to score. Chris Drury (2 goals) is embarrassing. At one point you have to stop being paid to be a defensive forward and actually put the puck in the net. Chris Higgins (3 goals) is cheap and shoots a lot, but he needs to be counted on the score. Brandon Dubinsky was a holdout. Normally, players who hold out score more than once every 6 games (3 goals in 18 games). The list goes on and on and on… Enver Lisin (3 goals), Aaron Voros (0 goals, 1 assist in 19 games after his huge October last year), Donald “More Offense and Money Than Colton Orr” Brashear (0 goals, 1 assist, 19 games), Michal Rozsival (1 goal), our $6.5M man Wade Redden (1 goal), former 1st round pick Brian Boyle (3 goals), Sean Avery (4 goals). Yes, Avery has been getting better and better each game, but he has also only scored in 2 games this year, both times potting home two goals.
What am I getting at here? I’m not solely blaming John Tortorella – though he does need to take some of the blame and stop placing it all on the players – and in no way am I saying Tortorella needs to be fired.
I’m saying… look above. Look who rewarded a lot of these players. How can someone reasonably give Wade Redden $39M over 6 years, or Michal Rozsival $20M over 4 years. Chris Drury getting $7.5M per year was ridiculous, but he just happened to be one of the best players during that free agency period (Scott Gomez and Daniel Briere were the other 2).
It’s time for GM Glen Sather to take the leave. He hasn’t done much in his tenure. Yes, he drafted Petr Prucha and Henrik Lundqvist… in late rounds. He took Mike del Zotto, Marc Staal, Alexei Cherepanov, and Artem Anisimov as well. But he also drafted Hugh Jessiman, Al Montoya, Bruce Graham, Darin Oliver, and Lauri Korpikoski in years he could have taken Zach Parise, Ryan Getzlaf, Wojtek Wolski, Mike Green, Dave Bolland, and David Booth.
If James Dolan watches hockey and keeps track of the Rangers – and, to be honest, there’s a chance he has no clue what’s going on with this team – he needs to make a change. And that change is at the very top.
By Zach Schiff December 5, 2009, at 2:34 pm Four years ago, you could have said the Rangers would get 2 points in this weekend’s back-to-back games, one in Buffalo and then home against Detroit. They could’ve beaten the Sabres but would have been mauled by the Red Wings.
Three years ago, you could’ve written this weekend off as a total loss. The Sabres were flying on the wings of Danny Briere and Chris “More Than 2 Goals in 22 Games” Drury, and the Red Wings again would have mauled them.
This year, it could be interesting.
The Sabres are flying high at 16-7-2 and are on a 4-game winning streak. They are also 9-3-2 at home, while the Rangers are 6-7-1 on the road. However, the Rangers are well-rested and have arguably the best player in the league playing for them. If Marian Gaborik scores another 2 goals tonight and Henrik Lundqvist shows up with a good performance, they can steal 2 big points from a conference rival.
The Red Wings, however, are just 3 games over .500 and are breaking even on the road. Old incarnations of the Wings have mauled the Rangers every game. There was a cold January game in 2006 where Brendan Shanahan buried them for 2 goals (the Rangers lost 4-3, but there was a late 3rd period goal to make it seem closer); there was a game when Shanahan was a Ranger where the Rangers were winning 3-1 and then stopped playing and lost 4-3 (that was the night Sean Avery was traded to the Rangers); and then there was last year, where Aaron Voros scored 2 goals and the Rangers still lost, in overtime (Aaron Voros… two goals? What?).
Though the Red Wings are struggling, so are the Rangers, and the Rangers do have to travel back from Buffalo in order to play this game. Detroit has a game in New Jersey tonight; traveling from Jersey to New York, however time-consuming the traffic may be, is not as bad as a flight home from Buffalo.
This weekend is really a crapshoot. If I was guessing, I would say they win in Buffalo and get mauled by Detroit. However, knowing my betting record, they’re going to beat Detroit but lose tonight to Buffalo.
Hey, maybe back being in Buffalo will wake Chris Drury and Ales Kotalik up.
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In answer to reader Eric the Lev, who inquired if I thought John Tortorella would get fired like John Stevens – no, I don’t. It’s way too soon to tell if he will last. The team is suffering injuries and are still treading water. However, I think the tide will have to sway in his favor soon to save some more jobs.
In my opinion, the GM should be gone. One coach (Tom Renney) didn’t work. Another one is having problems. Time to point the finger at the man who signed Wade Redden, Michal Rozsival, and Chris Drury to a total of $19M per season, isn’t it?
I also don’t know why Stevens was fired from Philadelphia. The team is doing decent and most of the team is performing well. They don’t have good goaltending yet are staying competitive in games.
I think he was fired because of pre-season expectations. Everyone predicted the Flyers to be great and go deep into the playoffs, yet they have a weak blueline (including overrated Chris Pronger) and poor goaltending (although Ray Emery and Brian Boucher have been playing better than I thought, they still aren’t a top-notch tag team). So they fire the coach, bring in Peter Laviolette, and hope for the best. Bad move.
By Zach Schiff November 16, 2009, at 11:57 pm Coming Tomorrow on The Rivalry!
* * Alex Ovechkin’s return is imminent, and what better way to do it than against the Rangers! (See: Kovalchuk; Atlanta; 11/12/09)
* * Bryan thinks the Islanders might be “for real” this year. His prediction is 85 points, putting them exactly where I predicted in September: 10th place.
* * Matt Moulson is to 2009 fantasy hockey as Steve Slaton was to 2008 fantasy football: Best Waiver Wire Pickup of the Year.
* * Chris Drury and Brandon Dubinsky still not playing for the Rangers. Don’t worry, even if they were, they wouldn’t score.
* * Wade Redden returns to glory on the power play. (Webster’s Dictionary defines glory as: “non-scoring, non-shooting, can’t keep the puck in the zone, overpaid, and got Tom Renney fired.” Weird.)
* * John Tortorella says Redden is “playing decent.” Glen Sather agrees. Sather then states that “All decent players should received $6.5M for 6 years.”
* * Blair Betts makes $600,000. Does more than Drury. Sather preemptively refuses to offer him a deal next year, saying “I will make mistakes, but I will never admit them.” (See: Betts; Moore; Drury; Redden; Rozsival; Orr; Brashear)
* * The guy behind me at the Ranger games is constantly a dick to everyone. Will he yell at the large people I sold my tickets for tomorrow’s game to? Will he live to tell about it? Why does he put a belt around his sweatpants and still think he’s a tough guy?
Stay Tuned!
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