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By Zach Schiff  February 1, 2010, at 12:32 am  You know who was good? Olli Jokinen from 2005 through 2007.
You know who isn’t that good anymore? Olli Jokinen.
Of course, if the rumors are true, and Olli Jokinen is about to be a Ranger (along with Brandon Prust for Chris Higgins and Ales Kotalik), then he becomes the 3rd highest-scoring Ranger, behind Marian Gaborik and Vaclav Prospal.
And yes, he is a 1st-line center who can play with Prospal at left wing and Gaborik at right wing.
But the big thing is that Kotalik is making $3M for not only this year but the next 2 seasons as well. Jokinen’s cap hit is $5.25M, and he is an unrestricted free agent this summer. So the Rangers effectively clear $3M off the books for the next two seasons.
(Higgins is making $2.25M this year, but that’s unrelated because he’d be a UFA after this season, and the Rangers probably weren’t inviting him back for another campaign. The only thing that his salary has to do with this is that it’s an even exchange, just over $5M for just over $5M. Prust is making $500,000 only.)
Maybe Jokinen isn’t as good as his two seasons when he averaged over a point per game, but to add more offense this year while clearing $3M for the next two years is a good move.
Keep in mind that this doesn’t address the real problems of the Rangers cap issues – that would involve moving any combination of Wade Redden, Chris Drury, and Michal Rozsival. But the moves are going to have to be made before the Olympic break because there is only 1 game before the March 3 trade deadline.
By Zach Schiff January 4, 2010, at 11:46 pm :: My lead off today was going to be “Chris Higgins couldn’t score at a bar near Arizona State University” until about 90 seconds remained in the Rangers/Bruins game tonight.
Still, I guess even the fat mathlete can find the drunk sorority girl every now and then.
:: To the people who said the following regarding my Steve Rucchin jersey…
- “Isn’t Prospal number 20?”
- “It must be his own last name.”
… is this your first season watching the Rangers? Do you know know who the best – and only competent – second-line center on the Rangers since the lockout is? By the way, both Jason Krog and Freddy Sjostrom wore #20 between The Rucch and our favorite player named Vaclav.
I understand it’s an obscure jersey, but when you go to a lot of games, it’s nice to dig deep into the closet once in a while.
But to the guy in the Scott Gomez jersey… please… retire it.
:: Best jerseys of the night…
- Marco Sturm #19 German Olympic jersey
- Marc Savard # 33 Rangers jersey
:: Fun game tonight, and it was a relief from the 1-0 Bruin/Ranger games we’re used to, but it definitely got a little hazy in the 3rd period. My head still hurts from when I involuntarily hit it after Blake Wheeler scored to tie it 2-2.
:: Paging Sean Avery: Eventually, you’re going to have to score. You have still only scored in 2 games this year. I appreciate that in both games you scored 2 goals, but a 5th goal in forthcoming, no?
:: I know it’s a little premature, but I’d like to keep Erik Christensen with Brandon Dubinsky and Marian Gaborik when Prospal returns. Christensen has found his niche – playing with superstars like Gaborik, Sidney Crosby, and Ilya Kovalchuk – and it’s relieving to see him fitting in. When Prospal returns, have him center Ales Kotalik and Ryan Callahan. Have Avery play with Chris Drury and Artem Anisimov, and then have a 4th line that doesn’t do anything. I’m never one to speculate on line combinations, but that sounds good, no?
By Zach Schiff November 6, 2009, at 12:02 am I try not to be one of “those fans” – you know, the type who sulks and glooms and says the team is horrible after a loss, but they’re the first one to chant “We Want the Cup” after a convincing win.
However, tonight was a good game. The difference between Edmonton and Vancouver, between 1,160 kilometers or 721 miles (thank you, Google Maps), was the offense. It was firing tonight. They took advantage of power plays. (The 0% on the power play was misleading in Vancouver, by the way. Chris Higgins scored a second after one expired.) They swarmed the net. They passed well. But more importantly, they took shots. Take a shot, you never know what will happen.
They had 23 shots in Vancouver – 14 in the second period and then 9 combined in periods 1 and 3. Tonight, they had 39. Phil Esposito always says – and I’m sure Alex Ovechkin will concur – you can’t score if you don’t shoot. Dan Girardi had a great pass/shot today that Sean Avery deflected. It didn’t go in, but it was close. Get the puck to the net. If they don’t get the puck to the net, Marian Gaborik doesn’t one-hand that last goal home.
The effort was definitely there tonight…
Aaron Voros - Horrible 1st period, but he did play better in the 2nd and 3rd… saving his job for another day. Granted, he probably only had another 3 minutes all game, but they were better than his first minute, where he took 2 penalties. When he swung his stick at an Oilers’ knees (can’t remember which Oiler) and took a two-minute minor, did you see how *shocked* he was? How could he be surprised! It looked like he was cutting down a tree!
(By the way, I’ve never used the two asterisks on a word before in my life.)
Brian Boyle – Good ol’ T-Bone. How many open nets can a man miss in one period? The answer, it seems, is two… twice. But he had a few good shots, a couple of good hits, and played like a 4th line player should: Good enough for the coach not to be nervous to put you out on the ice.
Chris Higgins - I won’t profess him a great pickup yet, although we’re all happy he is here instead of Scott Gomez. However, isn’t it amazing how much better he is playing since he scored one goal? He has another goal already and played inspired, tough hockey tonight. If only he would do a move on a breakaway. Every time he gets one, he just shoots, and so far, it hasn’t worked.
Ryan Callahan – “Gritty.” Good word to describe his play tonight, as far as most nights.
Brandon Dubinsky – Was he even out there tonight? I noticed his play as much as I noticed Healthy Scratch Donald Brashear.
Wade Redden & Michal Rozsival – Weak games as well. Redden reminds me of myself, when I was 9. Any time I got the puck, I would get scared and pass it to the nearest teammate. That’s what he does. Don’t believe the hype in his “great pass to spring Higgins on a breakaway.” It was lucky, he was just clearing it. And Rozsival? For a defender, he sure doesn’t defend. I wouldn’t want him on my team during an autumnal game of capture the flag, let alone near my crease in an NHL game.
Steve Valiquette – The team played good in front of him – especially Girardi and Marc Staal. It was huge for him to win this game, especially after the Sharks game where he got shellacked. Now, like Boyle, John Tortorella should feel safe putting him into a game.
Now, let’s not be overly optimistic. Edmonton is a mediocre team. They were .500 going into tonight, and they were on a slide. Sheldon Souray is hurt, significantly impacting their power play. Mike Comrie was sick. A lot of other players got hit with the flu bug also the past 10 days.
So, what did the Rangers really do? They beat up on a weak team. And sometimes, that’s just what you need to get back on track. Now, let’s see if they can keep up the pace against the 9-4-1 Flames, who suddenly are an offensive team.
(By the way, I love these 9:30 games. I leave work at 8:20, clean up, eat, and I’m ready for pre-game and the opening faceoff.)
By Zach Schiff October 8, 2009, at 10:31 pm - There is this really cool place called Black-Eyed Sally’s in Hartford that has decent food and always have awesome rock/soul/blues musicians. You can get a table, drink, and eat cajun food all night long while listening to sick guitarists and singers. I should email Aaron Voros and tell him. What’s his email address? Oh, there it is. AVoros34@hartfordwolfpack.com.
- No, seriously. Who will come out of the lineup when Sean Avery returns? Enver Lisin, who plays hard, is fast as hell, and hits people twice his size on every shift? Brian Boyle, who had a rocky first game but then picked it up tenfold and now even kills penalties? Donald Brashear? What happens when you take the enforcer out of the lineup? Well, just ask Donald Brashear, who took liberties with the Rangers in the playoffs when Colton Orr sat out. It’s got to be Voros, who took an awful penalty with a 2-2 game (of course, Brashear took a horrible penalty of his own late in the game, but Brashear serves a purpose while all Voros brings is a pretty cool beard).
- Artem Anisimov seemed to have a breakout game. The assist aside, he played well offensively. He finally seemed comfortable out there, especially on the shift where he had the assist. He was controlling the play and if Ales Kotalik didn’t score, Anisimov was waiting for the puck with an open net.
- I was ready to berate Chris Higgins for a very selfish play when he stole the puck in the Capitals’ zone then shot instead of passing to Drury. But on replays (both MSG’s and my TiVo’s), you can see that Jose Theodore was showing a lot of 5-hole, then snatched it away as soon as Higgins shot. So, no, not a bad play by Higgins at all, but I think Theodore trapped him into shooting when he knew he would close the hole immediately.
- It’s not that the Rangers of 2008-09 would’ve quit when the Capitals went up 3-2 with about 12 minutes left because they wouldn’t have. However, they probably wouldn’t have tied it up because they were missing a player like Marian Gaborik. There were a few games where Markus Naslund or Nikolai Zherdev tied it with under a minute left, but they were missing that certain something – call it a sniper, a game-breaker, a superstar, whatever you want to. They had the drive last year, most of the time, but not always the skills.
- Re: Marian Gaborik’s 2nd goal of the game that gave the Rangers a 4-3 lead. That, Bruce Boudreau, is why you don’t play Tom Poti on the penalty kill.
- The refereeing definitely wasn’t as bad as a Penguins game, but it’s obvious the refs let some calls against the Capitals slide. For instance, there was on play where the Rangers were pressing in the zone, close to scoring. Two different Capital players committed two different penalties right in front of the refs. No call on either, both Rangers go down to the ice, puck is cleared, play continues. There was one play where a Ranger beat out an icing, and I actually thought the ref was going to blow the whistle and send the faceoff down the other end, regardless.
- I used to formerly say that I would like to have Wade Redden on my team at $1.5M-$2M/year. I thought he was a decent 3rd-4th defender who was making top-5-in-the-NHL-money. So I thought he was okay on the team just eating valuable cap space.
Not true this season. He has simply become a bad player, and the emergence of Mike Del Zotto and Matt Gilroy only highlights his flaws. He coughs up the puck, he bobbles it when trying to clear the zone, he gets beat in footraces, he lets skaters blow by him, he doesn’t finish checks, and for that matter, he doesn’t start checks either. If, for some ungodly reason, a team would like to have him and would like to give the Rangers a 5th or 6th round draft choice, Glen Sather should accept that trade.
- You’ll read about Henrik Lundqvist giving up that goal everywhere (who cares, they won, he’s never done it before and he won’t do it again). You’ll also read about Ryan Callahan’s play (spirited and gritty, but I’ve been saying that since we first started this website in February of 2008).
- Kotalik for Zherdev. Vinny Prospal for Naslund. A better Brandon Dubinsky. Chris Drury in a less-prominent role where he isn’t relied on for goals. A young D who actually try. Two players from Long Island. And a Petr Prucha-lookalike in Lisin. I’ll take it. It’s not scary this year if the Rangers go down a goal or two like it was last year. Plus, if Lundqvist gives up a bad goal, it’s not the end of the world because the forwards – and D – can put one home.
- Seriously, it’s October. Why isn’t Voros scoring? This is his month!
By Zach Schiff July 9, 2009, at 3:38 pm Well, he’s no Alex Tanguay, but Ales Kotalik is now a New York Ranger. He comes fresh off a 43-point season (in 75 games), but he scored 11 in 19 after being sent to Edmonton from Buffalo. In fact, he’s had 2 43-point seasons in a row and has only cracked 60 once, in 2005-06, where he had 25 goals. That was the only season of his career where he’s had a full docket of 82 games also.
So another injured player for the Rangers, another 3rd liner for John Tortorella’s “system,” but I do like him. It’s an upgrade over Aaron Voros, Donald Brashear, and Mark Bell.
The term is suspect though – 3 years, $9M. Are 43 points really worth $3M per year? (His Cap hit was $2.333M last season.) I hope this doesn’t screw the team at the trade deadine, when they’ll need to get a scorer on the market to make a push for the playoffs. I’m afraid they won’t have any cap room to get a player they need, because they also need to make atleast one more medium-sized signing this offseason (a center or a defenseman, I would guess). To be honest, I was hoping for a 2 year, $4M contract (or maybe $5M for a Cap hit of $2.5M per).
He is 30, will be 31 in December, but he’s a fast player and he’s big. He’s 6′1″, 230 pounds. He also plays the power play – of his 43 points last year, 23 were on the power play. (For comparison, Scott Gomez had 17 of his 58 on the power play, and he played nearly every power play.)
I’m not upset about this at all. Nik Zherdev will be gone, a right winger who can pot 20-25 can be a positive move. Hey, there were worse options out there, right? And while he had a -5 on the 2006-07 Sabres, his +/- was better in 05-06 than Chris Drury’s on the same team.
But now, the real rivalry begins. Who will wear #21, Kotalik or Chris Higgins?
By Zach Schiff July 1, 2009, at 11:43 pm Well, I’m a lot happier today than on July 1, 2008, when the Rangers signed Wade Redden and I started ripping apart my girlfriend’s house in anger. By the way, she was mad.
Let’s put it this way. If I had told you 3 days ago that the Rangers were going to trade Scott Gomez and his $7.357M Cap hit over the next 5 years for Marian Gaborik and his $7.5M Cap hit over 5 years, would you? And as an added bonus, Long Island-native Chris Higgins would be on board, adding grit, passion, energy, and a few goals. Sounds like a good deal, right?
Indeed it is. Glen Sather got it right – get Gaborik and his frail body for just money, and ignore Dany Heatley and his mind games when it would have cost money AND a few players.
Donald Brashear… whatever. It’s going to be very hard to root for him, but he’ll protect Gaborik, Ryan Callahan, Chris Drury, and whatever Russian named Nik ends up on the team.
I would like to wish a fond farewell to Freddy Sjostrom, though, who is off to Calgary, where he will no doubt be beneficial to their defense-first movement and can also play first-line winger with Jarome Iginla, if need be. Better him than Jamie Lundmark with Iginla, no?
And while I’m upset that Mike Cammellari signed in Montreal, he did get a very high deal from them. $6M for him is too much I think. If he signed in New York for $5M, okay, but not that much.
I also think Gomez and Cammellari, if teamed up, should do very well. If nothing else, a power play with Gomez dishing to Cammellari and his old buddy Brian Gionta will be spectacular. With Andrei Markov and possibly Alexei Kovalev on the ice then also, that could be killer.
Oh, and about the Hossa deal. It’s not 12 years. It’s 8 years. Well, it’s 12 years, but it’s a fake 4 years at the end. He’ll be making the league-minimum for a player over 35 then, and he might not even play. Either him or Chicago probably said, “Ok, 8 years for 7 million each year.” “No, better idea, higher amount, 4 longer years, $5.2 million Cap hit. Detroit did it, why can’t we!”
* * *
So this is how the Rangers roster shapes up, as of now. Don’t pay any attention to lines or positions, and keep in mind trades can still happen. Last year, if you remember, Ryan Hollweg was traded to Toronto on like July 14th.
Avery – Dubinsky – Gaborik
Higgins – Drury – Callahan
Voros – Anisimov – Boyle
Korpikoski – Brashear – Zherdev
That’s 12 forwards, but we don’t know about Zherdev. Brashear and Voros won’t be everyday players, and who knows about Boyle. We also don’t know about Hartford and who might make the team (P.A. Parenteau? Mark Bell? Jordan Owens? Dale Weise?) So we have 8 forwards to play everyday, possibly 10, but there still is a need.
Expect atleast one or two more forwards, hopefully a puck-carrying, first-line center, if there are any available. Not everything happens on July 1, remember. Markus Naslund was signed July 3 last year. Uh, so was Dmitri Kalinin.
On D…
Redden – Rozsival
Staal – Girardi
Potter – Gilroy – Sanguenetti – Del Zotto
No room for a big D really, especially since the money should be spent on offense instead. Mike Komisarek would’ve been excellent, but maybe Rob Scuderi can be signed on the cheap.
* * *
Should make for an interesting Day 2. I would definitely expect 2 forwards to be signed, and maybe a veteran 7th D so that there aren’t too many rookies on the backline. Hey, maybe Paul Mara will take another discount to play here.
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