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No, I’m not scared of having Ilya Kovalchuk on the Devils for the rest of the season, for a few reasons. 1) The Devils aren’t the Rangers’ competition this year. If he was traded to a team close to the Rangers in the conference standings, then yes, I wouldn’t like it much. 2) Sean Avery is a Ranger.  Tags: Fighting, hockey, ilya kovalchuk, National Hockey League, new jersey devils, New York Rangers, Rangers F.C., Sean Avery, sport, Categories: NHL Leave a comment I will update later today about the Rangers game in Montreal. For the record, it’s the 1st time I’ve seen them lose in an opposing building (not including the Nassau Coliseum). I saw them win in Nashville, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Montreal before the 6-0 disaster I witnessed first-hand Saturday night. * * * Do you know the differences in Dan Carcillo and Donald Brashear? Carcillo has 6 goals and 6 assists this year; Brashear had no goals and 1 assist. Carcillo dresses for games while Brashear stays nice and clean in a suit and tie. Carcillo wins fights (his record this year is 7-3-2, including beating Marian Gaborik and losing to Sean Avery last Thursday) while Brashear skates away from confrontation. In fact, the last fight Brashear won was against Jared Boll of Columbus three days before Thanksgiving. Brashear’s record this year stands at 3-4-2. As for Brashear’s claims that he wouldn’t fight Carcillo – “I don’t even fight a guy like Carcillo. I don’t think he’s in my league.” – and then his claims that he isn’t a guy who only goes out and fights staged fights… well, what? Do you fight everyone or will you only fight heavyweights? “If I would have played” Gaborik would not have been fought by Carcillo, Brashear said. Oh yeah? If you’re out there fighting people like Matt Carkner, Eric Boulton, Eric Godard, and Shawn Thornton, is that really a deterrent for people like Carcillo? Will he not get under Gaborik’s skin just because there is a chance that Brashear might lose a fight to Aaron Asham or Ian Laperriere? Did Brashear’s presence in the first half of the season stop any team from running over Henrik Lundqvist? Were they afraid he was going to go after Ilya Kovalchuk or Johan Hedberg, or did they know that, no matter what, he would fight Boulton and leave everyone else alone? Like what Carcillo did or not, he got the Flyers an extra 2 points that night. He got the best player on the team to thrown down his gloves and fight him. He threw an entire team off their game, because they then stopped trying to score and started looking for revenge. The only person nearly capable of getting under a team’s skin like that on the Rangers’ roster is Avery. Not Brashear. Guess what, Donald. Carcillo might not be in your league for long – because he’ll still be in the NHL for the next decade.  Tags: dan carcillo, donald brashear, Fighting, ilya kovalchuk, Marian Gaborik, Montreal Canadiens, philadelphia flyers, Sean Avery, Categories: NHL Leave a comment Next Saturday, I will be venturing into Montreal to see the second game of the Home & Home with the Canadiens. Okay, it’s a home-and-home with 2 other games in between, but still, it stands to be more intriguing than a home game against Tampa Bay and a game in Philadelphia. So, which jersey should I wear? Should I go with the autographed Dan Girardi jersey? I normally like to wear Sean Avery jerseys when I’m in other buildings. I did it in Nashville last year about a month after the Rangers got him back on re-entry waivers, and a few fans yelled “Sloppy Seconds!” at me. To recap, I am not Sean Avery, I just wear the jersey. And the Rangers won that game. I wore it in New Jersey amid death threats from the upper level (directed at me, my friends, and Scott Gomez, playing his first game in Jersey since signing with the Rangers). Those were quieted when the Rangers won the game. I wore it in Philadelphia, where some kid tried to body check my friend. “How could you wear a Sean Avery jersey in Philly?” one cigarette-smoking man asked me. Well, the Rangers won that game. And I wore it in Montreal on Super Bowl Sunday when the Giants beat the Patriots. As I was on the escalator, there was a man in a Mike Komisarek Habs jersey in front of me. We had an awkward silence, then discussed what it would be like to really date Elisha Cuthbert. The Rangers went down 3-0, then won that game 5-3. Should I keep the tradition alive, or change things up?  Tags: dan girardi, jerseys, Marian Gaborik, Montreal Canadiens, new jersey devils, philadelphia flyers, scott gomez, Sean Avery, vinny prospal, Categories: NHL Leave a comment Warren Zevon was an incredible singer-songwriter who died of cancer in 2003. For anyone who has never listened to him, I highly recommend listening to his album The Wind, which was released a month before his death. “Keep Me in Your Heart” is an absolutely amazing goodbye to the world. Anyway, he had a hockey song once upon a time, off of his 2001 album My Ride’s Here, a song the Rangers should take to heart…
Man! Every game, I just want to yell “Hit somebody!” Eric Boulton and Christoph Schubert had their way with the Rangers’ roster tonight – hitting from behind, knocking them to the ice, leaping off the ice for checks. And what did the Rangers do? Nothing. Mike Del Zotto and Eric Staal hit hard tonight, sure, but it wasn’t a deterrent. Donald Brashear makes $1.4M and hasn’t been in a fight since November. Not that fights are the only measure of a man, but it’s not exactly like people are scared of him. This isn’t like 2006 when people aren’t taking runs at Alex Ovechkin because they know that they – or their team’s superstar – will have to face Brashear’s wrath. He is a joke who skates away from confrontation. To be honest, I don’t care if he’s playing hurt or not. If he is playing hurt, he should still contribute. If he’s too hurt to play, take a seat, and someone will play in your absence. You can yap to the opponent all you want when you’re on the bench, but if you don’t follow it up with physical, punishing play, it’s all for waste. (Last year, Colton Orr was that deterrent for the team. And if everyone can now remember what Brashear did to Blair Betts in Game 6 when Orr was a healthy scratch…) When Sean Avery plays his game, he is highly effective, but he’s not a huge hitter. He will throw his body around, but he’s smaller than most guys he hits. They need to start hitting and taking control of the game. Wade Redden, Michal Rozsival, Brashear, Chris Higgins, Matt Gilroy, please wake up and start knocking people around. * * * One other thing they need to start hitting? The net! I’m convinced that Brandon Dubinsky and Staal have an aversion to hitting the net. Combined, they must’ve shot high and/or wide 10 times in the back-to-back games against Dallas and Atlanta. Maybe they think Chris Drury is always there to deflect it on goal. If Higgins ever made an All-Star team, he would go 0-for-everything in the shooting accuracy competition. Ryan Callahan has 10 goals this year. If he knew how to hit the net, he’d have 20. It’s getting to the point where the power play is ridiculous because they shoot every puck wide. Two-on-ones, breakaways, doesn’t matter. The puck rarely gets to the net. * * * And no, I’m not just saying all this because they lost. I would’ve said the same thing even if they won. However, if they were able to smash people or hit the net, perhaps they wouldn’t have lost tonight.  Tags: 4m, alex ovechkin, Alexander Ovechkin, atlanta thrashers, blair betts, brains, brandon dubinsky, brawn, christoph schubert, colton orr, confrontation, del zotto, donald brashear, eric boulton, eric staal, hockey song, Marc Staal, measure of a man, russians, ryan callahan, Sean Avery, singer songwriter, skates, swedes, warren zevon, wrath, Categories: NHL Leave a comment 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?  Tags: chad johnson, chris drury, Henrik Lundqvist, John Tortorella, Marian Gaborik, michal rozsival, New York Rangers, Sean Avery, Stanley Cup, wade redden, Categories: NHL Leave a comment 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). * * * 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. * * * 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. * * * 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. * * * 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.  Tags: chris drury, enver lisin, florida panthers, ice time, Marian Gaborik, michal rozsival, Sean Avery, vinny prospal, Categories: NHL Leave a comment |
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February 6, 2010, at 10:31 am
