So, the Caps beat us 4-3 on Sunday. It appears as if, in usual Ranger fashion, we were a completely different team in the third than we were in the first two. In the first two, we allowed 24 shots on goal (4 went in), while only taking 11 (and getting shut out), including 1:35 of 5-on-3. In the third, we took 20 shots on goal, allowing only 4, and scored all 3 of our goals (while, of course, shutting them out) - but, as usual (and as we saw so recently against the Caps), playing very good hockey for some non-100 percentage of a hockey game doesn't really get the job done.
We played:
Higgins - Dubinsky - Gaborik
Lisin - Prospal - Callahan
Grachev - Anisimov - Kotalik
Brashear - Boyle - Voros
Redden - Rozsival
Del Zotto - Semenov
Staal - Girardi
Lundqvist
Valiquette
and pulled Hank after the second. (For those of you paying attention, this leaves Avery out with his knee issue and Drury and Gilroy as the healthy scratches.)
Word on the street is that Anisimov continued to look very good and belongs in the lineup Friday night. Meanwhile, Torts was apparently unhappy with Girardi's play, which is apparently a trend this preseason. That is exceptionally bad news. If Girardi isn't one of our star defensemen (which was always a bit much to ask for him, honestly - I always preferred Tyutin, back in the day), we're going to have some real defensive liability. Look at who's left. Don't be surprised if the '08-'09 Ranger we miss most as of January is Paul Mara. The general feeling from our first two periods, relevantly, seems to be "defensive liabilities" - the Caps reportedly broke through our defense all day, creating turnovers and winning every battle. Any of this sounding familiar?
In other game news, Donald Brashear scored a goal on his former club. Bruce Boudreau called it "a little soft." Also, Grachev was very disappointed with the game he played, despite his goal in the third, saying, "the first period for me was the worst period for me, ever. I didn't think I'd get more ice time. I was way too bad in the first."
Apparently the Rangers didn't disagree entirely, because despite giving him that ice time in the rest of the game, we sent him back down to Hartford yesterday. Don't panic: this isn't entirely bad news. The kid is 19 fucking years old. He's gonna spend some seasons with the Wolfpack, being very good at hockey, and being called up occasionally, and then in a few years, he'll be a Ranger regular. No institutional worries here.
So why bother sending him down at all, given that we were already looking at the 23-man size limit? For that, we have to revisit our old friend, the salary cap. I hadn't mentioned him much, as we seemed to have everything pretty well under control, but the jump in Dubi's estimated salary certainly didn't help things. Let's go back to Salary Cap Land briefly and take a look at where we stand. Remember this season's cap is $56.8 million. As always, all numbers are cap hit, not salary.
Centers: Drury ($7.05 million), Dubinsky ($1.85 million), Prospal ($1.1 million), Anisimov ($821,666), Boyle ($525,000)
That's five centers for $11,346,666.
Right Wings: Gaborik ($7.5 million), Kotalik ($3 million), Callahan ($2.3 million), Lisin ($790,000)
Four right wings for $13.59 million.
Left Wings: Higgins ($2.25 million), Avery ($1.9375 million), Brashear ($1.4 million), Voros ($1 million)
Four left wings for $6.5875 million.
Defensemen: Redden ($6.5 million), Rozsival ($5 million), Gilroy ($1.75 million), Girardi ($1.55 million), Del Zotto ($1.0875 million), Staal ($826,667)
Six defensemen for $16,714,167.
Goalies: Lundqvist ($6.875 million), Valiquette ($725,000)
Two goalies for $7.6 million.
This adds up to $55,838,333, or only $961,667 of space left under the cap. Now, the wilier among you will notice that these numbers are missing two names you expected from our previous 23-man roster: Grachev and Semenov. As you may or may not know, Semenov is at camp on a tryout basis. He has not been resigned by his former team (the Sharks), and he is free to sign with the Rangers (or anyone else), but he has no current contract. Grachev, on the other hand, has an $875,000 contract with the Rangers. We could keep him up in New York, but that would leave only $86,667 under the cap - not nearly enough to sign Semenov. Since we won't play Grachev in the top 12 much anyway, it seems smarter to keep him in Hartford (from where we can call him up easily if we need to later in the season) and leave that $961,667 in the cap, which should be plenty of money to sign Semenov (whom Tortorella has made clear he wants on the club).
Why doesn't the same logic apply to, say, sending Voros or Boyle down? Because Grachev is young enough that he doesn't have to clear waivers. When you send someone to the minors (unless it is specifically on a specific-length-of-time "conditioning assignment"), generally, because you're saying "meh, we don't want him," other clubs are given the chance to pick him up on their roster. You'll recall that this is how we picked up Sean Avery (the second time): the Stars wanted to send him to the minors, but he didn't "clear waivers," because the Rangers picked him up when given the chance. He was then sent to Hartford on a "conditioning assignment," the Stars had to (and continue to) pay half his salary (hence his modest $1.9375 million cap hit), and then brought up as a Ranger.
The idea is that a hockey club is unable to take a good player and keep him around in the minors, not allowing him to play hockey, for the strategic advantage of doing so. It makes sense. However, it can be a huge pain if you're sending down a player you actually want around in your system. To allow teams to keep young players developing, developing players are exempt from waivers, according to their age and how few games they've played in the NHL. At 24, having played over 60 games in the NHL, for example, Brian Boyle is not exempt from waivers. Voros, being 28, is not exempt because he has played any games at all in the big leagues. Evgeny Grachev, however, is only 19, so unless he has played 160 games in the NHL (he hasn't), he can be assigned to Hartford without first clearing waivers.
Artem Anisimov is the only other roster forward who could be assigned to Hartford without clearing waivers (though had Lisin played only 3 fewer games as a Coyote, he would also have this distinction), and if the choice has to be made, it seems smarter to keep Anisimov in New York and send Grachev to Hartford, rather than vice versa.
So, in conclusion, sending Grachev down was the right move: it gives us room to sign Semenov and the ability to recall him.
You know what? I was gonna talk about possible line combinations, with our 13 remaining forwards, but fuck all if I don't talk too much. That'll come in a separate post, this one would already make Dickens green.
He got paid by the word, people.
No comments:
Post a Comment