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By Zach Schiff  January 13, 2010, at 12:28 am  Can’t be any disappointed hockey fans out in the NY-NJ area tonight, from the 17,000 Ranger fans at MSG, to the 1,000 Devil fans at MSG, to the 4,000 Islander fans who routinely sell out the lower bowl on the Nassau Coliseum, to the 17,000 fans that the New Jersey Devils have accumulated since Aaron Broten first led them on the ice in 1982.
Yes, Bryan, the Rangers-Devils game was excellent, except for one thing – it underscored how bad the Rangers are at mustering offense. Henrik Lundqvist was great in stopping 45 shots – downright incredible on a few.
And I won’t bash Marty Brodeur as I normally would. Any time you stop 51 shots, you played great. Of course, the Rangers made it very easy for about 40 of those shots. He did make a few excellent saves, and while he didn’t do much on Marian Gaborik’s overtime-near-score, that save on Michal Rozsival with time running out in the extra period was good.
Shots from the boards, shots with no traffic in front, shots to Brodeur’s glove. C’mon! Do you really think a wrister from the left circle is going past Brodeur’s glove? You can tell me all you want about how many shots they had, and I will tell you until I’m blue in the face that it doesn’t matter if they’re 90% crappy shots.
And I guess that old hockey adage “If you shoot enough, one is bound to go in” was proven wrong tonight.
Remember March of 2007 when Rick DiPietro made, what, 56 saves in a shootout loss to the Rangers? The Rangers made him look like Jesus Christ that night – albeit he was clean-shaven, and Christ would wear #33 not #39. But they had so many awful, easy-to-save shots that it looked like nothing would get by him, and rarely anything did except for a goal in regulation and a Matt Cullen goal in the shootout.
Anyway, fast-paced, end-to-end action with good defense play that wasn’t boring. It was a very good game to watch and would’ve been sweeter with a Rangers’ win, but now the Rangers web site can say they are 9-1-3 in the last 13 games.
And I can’t even get mad at the shootout result. It would’ve been nce to have had a Ranger score, but they couldn’t, and Patrick Elias’ wrister that beat Lundqvist was awesome.
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Telling stat of the night brought to us by Versus and Jack Daniels Old No. 7: Marian Gaborik was 2-for-17 in shootouts going into tonight. Now, he is 2-for-18, around 11%. By comparison, Erik Christensen, Zach Parise, and Ales Kotalik are near (or over) 50%.
Why does John Tortorella keep putting Gaborik in? I know he’s a superstar, I know he’d the “stud” on the team, and I know he scored in the shootout in Atlanta, but he isn’t a breakaway artist.
Jaromir Jagr wasn’t. Gaborik isn’t either. Stick to Kotalik, Christensen, Vinny Prospal, Artem Anisimov, and maybe even Ryan Callahan. But keep Gaborik out of it until at least the 6th round.
Enver Lisin would’ve been nice to have seen pull some moves out of his bag. But alas, Donald Brashear needed to have his customary 8 shifts and 5:53 of ice time.
Hey, didn’t Lisin score in Atlanta?
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 Bryan Berg December 17, 2009, at 12:51 pm Christmas – and Zach’s birthday, for that matter – isn’t until next week. But this news will surely make Zach feel like it’s Christmas morning. Rangers coach John Tortorella is putting Wade Redden, the $39 million man, in what might be his natural position – in the press box as a healthy scratch.
Is it the right move? Hard to say. But you cannot possibly argue that it’s the wrong one. The Rangers allowed Islanders fans to take over the Coliseum last night. Usually, it’s the other way around; tonight, it may very well be the other way around. But it’s clear that the Rangers need to shake things up, and this is one way to achieve that goal. Besides, maybe they’ll actually play better without an ineffective Redden taking up valuable ice time.
No matter what you think of the Rangers or this move, it’s clear that this has been a long time coming. Hell, it probably should have occurred twelve months ago. You’d think the Rangers would dump a guy like Redden before dumping Tortorella, but Glen Sather isn’t exactly forthright about admitting his mistakes. The Rangers have a golden opportunity to right the ship in a game against their hated rivals, just 24 hours after being embarrassed on home ice by those same Islanders. If they can’t get up for this one, maybe it’s time to replace Redden AND Tortorella.
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 4, 2009, at 11:39 am Ah, the dreaded Western Canadian Road Trip. Remember last time, in January of 2008 when they got 1 points in 3 games?
They ran into a red-hot Calgary team featuring Kristian Huselius, who had 4 points in the 4-3 game, including a goal from behind the goal-line that somehow sneaked past Henrik Lundqvist.
Steve Valiquette had no offense in a 3-0 loss to Vancouver.
And if not for Chris Drury scoring with 7 seconds left to force overtime, they would’ve left with 0 points instead of 1 (Edmonton was monstrous in the shootout in ‘07-’08, partially because then-rookie Sam Gagner was unstoppable in the tiebreaker).
Last night against Vancouver felt like that trip all over again. The Rangers applied little pressure, even in the 2nd period when the shot-counter went in their favor. Sure, they fired 14 shots in that frame, but how many were legitimate scoring chances? Two? Maybe just one?
They ought to have pounced on Vancouver, especially in the 3rd. They had, what, 4 power plays in a row, including a double-minor to end the 2nd period? And they couldn’t do anything with it. Vancouver was shorthanded for 8 minutes, had good players in the penalty box, had Henrik Sedin and Willie Mitchell playing at 40% because of injuries, and still, no good opportunities. Other than Chris Higgins, who worked hard for Goal #1, there were a handful of Rangers who actually showed up. Matt Gilroy was one of them; he looked fantastic. Mike Del Zotto wasn’t a standout but played good. Ryan Callahan played hard, again, and couldn’t score, again. And Brandon Dubinsky… is on the trading block?
You would have thought that the big brawl would have fired them up, but it really just jazzed up the Canucks as it seemed the Rangers were content bringing the game to overtime and settling for a point – or a shootout.
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I love that Dane Byers is in the lineup. As opposed to Evgeny Grachev or Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau, Byers is never going to light it up in the NHL, so he doesn’t need to “dominate the minors before becoming an NHLer,” and the old “it’s better to play 20 minutes a night in the AHL than 7 minutes in the NHL” adage doesn’t apply to him.
I would rather have Byers in the lineup over Donald Brashear any night. Maybe Brashear of 2003 or 2006, but not the 2009 version, where he is slow, shows the same hockey sense as Colton Orr, and doesn’t fight – and when he does, he loses. Byers showed fire last night. Sure, he didn’t win the fight, but he was out there battling, starting stuff, and showing that he belongs in the NHL. Even John Tortorella gave him a “good game” en route to the locker room – although Tortorella’s good game pat fell in an awkward spot.
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