1. Last night, as you may have noticed because Jason "Is that seriously what you're putting on your mask?" LaBarbera was in net for the Coyotes, Ilya Bryzgalov was ill. That's not interesting yet. But apparently he got sick too close to game time to fly someone out to New York from San Antonio (or from their EHCL team, the greatest hockey team ever, the Las Vegas Wranglers). As you know, an NHL roster generally contains exactly 2 goalies, and Phoenix sure didn't have a third with them on this trip (why would they?). As it turns out, Bryzgalov was too sick to even sit on the bench as a backup. So, they needed a backup. So, they called some guy who hasn't played hockey since he was the goalie for American International College a year and a half ago, and they signed him so he could sit as the backup. That's pretty sweet.
2. As you no doubt know, one of the weird ways in which the NHL is trying to be the NFL is that the division winners now get the top three spots in each conference for the playoffs (unlike the NFL, we don't actually play our division rivals enough more than we play everyone else for that to make sense). It's been true for a number of seasons now, and it's not interesting by itself anymore. But because of this, you can sometimes end up with teams in 4th, or even 5th or lower, that have earned more points on the season than a team in 3rd or 2nd. Combine that with the crazy disparity between, well, our division and the rest of the NHL, and you end up with the Rangers currently being ranked 5th in the Eastern Conference, but 4th in the whole of the NHL. Here's how it works: Flyers - 47, Penguins - 44, Red Wings - 43, Rangers - 41, Canadiens - 40, Capitals - 40. So, in the East, Montréal and the Caps get bumped up above the Pens, leaving the Rangers down in 5th.
Also of note: if the Rangers were to gain 2 more points on the Wings, the top 3 teams in the Atlantic would be the top 3 in the league, and the bottom 2 in the Atlantic would be the bottom 2 in the league. Not likely, due to the large game disparity we're looking at right now (Detroit has four games-in-hand over us), but it's still kinda neat.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Monday, December 13, 2010
Where things stand
The Atlantic Division, truly, is a division divided. At its top, the Penguins and the Flyers own 44 and 43 points, respectively. That's good enough for the best two spots in the whole league, with the closest runner-up, Detroit, at 41. The Pens, who we have to play here in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, are riding a 12-yes-that-says-twelve-game winning streak. In fact, the last time they lost was the last time we played here in Pittsburgh, a month ago. Sidney Crosby, mistakenly called the greatest hockey player on the planet since he turned 17, actually seems to be the greatest hockey player on the planet right now. In that 12-game stretch, Crosby has scored 14 goals and has 9 assists, for 23 points. He has a +13 rating in that stretch alone, while averaging 21:24 a game. That's just stupidly good.
Did I mention that we have to play them, here in Pittsburgh, on Wednesday?
So that's the top of the division: top two spots in the league, 2 points ahead of the best non-Atlantic Division team. What about the bottom of the division? You guessed it: the bottom two spots in the league. The Devils and the Islanders, with 18 and 15 points, respectively, find themselves ranked 29th and 30th in the NHL, with the Devils' 18 a full 8 points behind the 28th-place Maple Leafs.
I always feel bad talking about the Islanders, because they've been shitty for the entire time I've had a memory. So, I'll keep it brief. But, for you older Ranger fans out there that might still feel good about this, the Islanders started the season 4-2-1. They are currently 5-17-5. Mean Mr. Subtraction says that means they have won one game in their last 20. That dates back to October 23. Oof.
You know who I never feel bad talking about? The Devils! You guessed it; it's time for another edition of Kovalwatch!!!! Checking back in with our fair protagonists, we see that they have lost 5 in a row. The Devils have won one game in regulation time in their last 15 (although they've won one in OT and 2 in shootouts since then as well), putting them at 8-19-2, on track for 51 points at the end of the season. When we last checked in with them, they were finishing with 61. 51 would make them the worst team in hockey since the 1999-2000 Atlanta Thrashers, in their debut season.
And Ilya himself? 5 goals and 9 assists, for 14 points. On pace with Manny Malhotra ($7.5m/3yr), Mike Green ($21m/4yr), and Tomas Fleischmann ($2.6m/1yr). And incidentally, the same number of points as Sean Avery (1-13-14). More remarkable, those other players all have positive +/- ratings: Malhotra and Fleischmann are each +3, and Green is +7 (Avery, for completion's sake is +4). Kovalchuk's +/- has steadily declined since our last report, bringing him down to a comical -18. You read that right, -18. Kovalchuk, for all his money and his mediocre production, is ranked 743rd in the league in +/-, ahead of only Andy Greene (another Devil) and John Tavares and James Wisniewski (two Islanders).
Wanna play the math game? 18 in 29 games...we've done this math before, when we were calculating the Devils' point trajectory. It puts him on pace to be -51. Slightly worse than when we last calculated it, still the worst in all of nhl.com's databases, still worse than Rico Fata. Just...wow.
And I guess that brings us to the remaining team in the Atlantic...us. We're 6 points behind the second-place Flyers. We're 19 points ahead of the 29th-place Devils. We're technically ranked 6th in the league right now, and if the playoffs started today, we'd be in 5th and play the Flyers in the first round. We've won 4 of our last 6, 8 of our last 12, etc. We consistently beat the bad teams and sometimes squeak past the good ones. We're a hot streak from being mentioned in conversations with the Penguins and the Flyers, but we're a losing streak from the only positive thing about us being that we're not the Islanders or the Devils. We're definitely better than we were last season.
Oh, and hey, check this out! Drury's coming back! That's certainly not gonna hurt. Sorry, Todd White or Erik Christensen. It's just that you don't matter very much.
Did I mention that we have to play them, here in Pittsburgh, on Wednesday?
So that's the top of the division: top two spots in the league, 2 points ahead of the best non-Atlantic Division team. What about the bottom of the division? You guessed it: the bottom two spots in the league. The Devils and the Islanders, with 18 and 15 points, respectively, find themselves ranked 29th and 30th in the NHL, with the Devils' 18 a full 8 points behind the 28th-place Maple Leafs.
I always feel bad talking about the Islanders, because they've been shitty for the entire time I've had a memory. So, I'll keep it brief. But, for you older Ranger fans out there that might still feel good about this, the Islanders started the season 4-2-1. They are currently 5-17-5. Mean Mr. Subtraction says that means they have won one game in their last 20. That dates back to October 23. Oof.
You know who I never feel bad talking about? The Devils! You guessed it; it's time for another edition of Kovalwatch!!!! Checking back in with our fair protagonists, we see that they have lost 5 in a row. The Devils have won one game in regulation time in their last 15 (although they've won one in OT and 2 in shootouts since then as well), putting them at 8-19-2, on track for 51 points at the end of the season. When we last checked in with them, they were finishing with 61. 51 would make them the worst team in hockey since the 1999-2000 Atlanta Thrashers, in their debut season.
And Ilya himself? 5 goals and 9 assists, for 14 points. On pace with Manny Malhotra ($7.5m/3yr), Mike Green ($21m/4yr), and Tomas Fleischmann ($2.6m/1yr). And incidentally, the same number of points as Sean Avery (1-13-14). More remarkable, those other players all have positive +/- ratings: Malhotra and Fleischmann are each +3, and Green is +7 (Avery, for completion's sake is +4). Kovalchuk's +/- has steadily declined since our last report, bringing him down to a comical -18. You read that right, -18. Kovalchuk, for all his money and his mediocre production, is ranked 743rd in the league in +/-, ahead of only Andy Greene (another Devil) and John Tavares and James Wisniewski (two Islanders).
Wanna play the math game? 18 in 29 games...we've done this math before, when we were calculating the Devils' point trajectory. It puts him on pace to be -51. Slightly worse than when we last calculated it, still the worst in all of nhl.com's databases, still worse than Rico Fata. Just...wow.
And I guess that brings us to the remaining team in the Atlantic...us. We're 6 points behind the second-place Flyers. We're 19 points ahead of the 29th-place Devils. We're technically ranked 6th in the league right now, and if the playoffs started today, we'd be in 5th and play the Flyers in the first round. We've won 4 of our last 6, 8 of our last 12, etc. We consistently beat the bad teams and sometimes squeak past the good ones. We're a hot streak from being mentioned in conversations with the Penguins and the Flyers, but we're a losing streak from the only positive thing about us being that we're not the Islanders or the Devils. We're definitely better than we were last season.
Oh, and hey, check this out! Drury's coming back! That's certainly not gonna hurt. Sorry, Todd White or Erik Christensen. It's just that you don't matter very much.
Role reversals
Well, that was a weird weekend of hockey. Mostly, everyone did what everyone else was supposed to do.
On Saturday night, we played the Blue Jackets in Columbus. The game went back and forth pretty well, resulting in a 1-1 tie on traded power play goals after 2. That was when the Rangers skaters and King Henrik switched roles. It was the skaters who stepped up their game in the third and kept the Rangers in it. Granted, they didn't so much score any goals, but the majority of play was in the Jackets' zone, and I was actually pretty optimistic about the outcome, despite the 1-1 tie lasting late.
And it was Lundqvist, who usually spends these tied third periods standing on his head to bail out a squad that does nothing to earn it (either offensively or defensively), who himself made the awful play that gave the Blue Jackets the tiebreaker and eventual game-winner with 5 minutes left.
Now, I'd love to give Rick Nash (who scored this goal and the not-quite-empty-netter at the end, after assisting on Columbus's first goal) all the credit in the world for breaking this tie late in the third - it's the kind of thing he does, and he's the kind of guy I love giving credit to. But this was about as soft a goal as I've seen (excepting this one). "Bad-angle shot" doesn't really depict just how bad an angle it was: Nash basically shoveled it toward the left post, from the goal line at the boards, with absolutely no one else anywhere near either him or the crease.
After the game, Lundqvist unsurprisingly took full responsibility for the loss, and really, what else is there to say? Things like this happen sometimes, he's still one of the best goalies in the league, and if Hank could be our biggest liability in every game, I think we'd be doing just fine, thank you very much. For the first time I can remember, Hank making a mistake doesn't make me go back to Brooks's quote, "neither blameless nor to blame." This time, he actually was to blame. Which, all things considered, may be more a reflection of the skaters around him getting better than of anything else. Or maybe I'm a little too optimistic.
Anyway, continuing with weeeeeird hockey, last night, the Caps came to the Garden. And in another role reversal, it was the Rangers whose powerhouse offense came through for 7 goals from 6 different players (8 different Rangers had assists), while the Caps were shut out and dumbfounded. The game was almost scoreless through one until Prust opened the floodgates with 3 minutes left in the first, and then the flood itself followed in the second. The offense never stopped, and the Capitals never got started.
It was awesome!!
I don't really know what else to say about this game. Lundqvist earned himself a league lead-tying 5th shutout, mostly on hard work in the third, after the Rangers had already given him plenty of room to work with. Dubinsky had a Gordie Howe hat trick (I love that we keep earning these), fighting Ovechkin a few minutes after scoring, then assisting on Cally's first in the third. Yes, Dubinsky fought Ovechkin. It was awesome. After the game, it's worth noting Dubinsky's comments went something like "it was totally respectful, he's great at hockey, etc." cf. Crosby.
The game's final 5 minutes devolved into brawl time (in which penalties were assigned to basically everyone, except Brian Fahey, who got away with no minutes based on the NHL's "it's cool, you did it to Avery" clause), which was also fun to watch. Basically, this game was candy for my life, and everything is great.
On Saturday night, we played the Blue Jackets in Columbus. The game went back and forth pretty well, resulting in a 1-1 tie on traded power play goals after 2. That was when the Rangers skaters and King Henrik switched roles. It was the skaters who stepped up their game in the third and kept the Rangers in it. Granted, they didn't so much score any goals, but the majority of play was in the Jackets' zone, and I was actually pretty optimistic about the outcome, despite the 1-1 tie lasting late.
And it was Lundqvist, who usually spends these tied third periods standing on his head to bail out a squad that does nothing to earn it (either offensively or defensively), who himself made the awful play that gave the Blue Jackets the tiebreaker and eventual game-winner with 5 minutes left.
Now, I'd love to give Rick Nash (who scored this goal and the not-quite-empty-netter at the end, after assisting on Columbus's first goal) all the credit in the world for breaking this tie late in the third - it's the kind of thing he does, and he's the kind of guy I love giving credit to. But this was about as soft a goal as I've seen (excepting this one). "Bad-angle shot" doesn't really depict just how bad an angle it was: Nash basically shoveled it toward the left post, from the goal line at the boards, with absolutely no one else anywhere near either him or the crease.
After the game, Lundqvist unsurprisingly took full responsibility for the loss, and really, what else is there to say? Things like this happen sometimes, he's still one of the best goalies in the league, and if Hank could be our biggest liability in every game, I think we'd be doing just fine, thank you very much. For the first time I can remember, Hank making a mistake doesn't make me go back to Brooks's quote, "neither blameless nor to blame." This time, he actually was to blame. Which, all things considered, may be more a reflection of the skaters around him getting better than of anything else. Or maybe I'm a little too optimistic.
Anyway, continuing with weeeeeird hockey, last night, the Caps came to the Garden. And in another role reversal, it was the Rangers whose powerhouse offense came through for 7 goals from 6 different players (8 different Rangers had assists), while the Caps were shut out and dumbfounded. The game was almost scoreless through one until Prust opened the floodgates with 3 minutes left in the first, and then the flood itself followed in the second. The offense never stopped, and the Capitals never got started.
It was awesome!!
I don't really know what else to say about this game. Lundqvist earned himself a league lead-tying 5th shutout, mostly on hard work in the third, after the Rangers had already given him plenty of room to work with. Dubinsky had a Gordie Howe hat trick (I love that we keep earning these), fighting Ovechkin a few minutes after scoring, then assisting on Cally's first in the third. Yes, Dubinsky fought Ovechkin. It was awesome. After the game, it's worth noting Dubinsky's comments went something like "it was totally respectful, he's great at hockey, etc." cf. Crosby.
The game's final 5 minutes devolved into brawl time (in which penalties were assigned to basically everyone, except Brian Fahey, who got away with no minutes based on the NHL's "it's cool, you did it to Avery" clause), which was also fun to watch. Basically, this game was candy for my life, and everything is great.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Two Mediocre Teams Split Home-and-Home
...and no one was surprised. With this season's disappointment in Frolov, and the total lack of Drury and Prospal, it's no surprise that this team is just okay. The Rangers are looking at a king's ransom of second- and third- liners: Christensen, Avery, Dubinsky, Callahan, Anisimov, Boyle, Prust, and Fedotenko. If we call Gaborik a definite first-liner and Boogaard a definite fourth-liner, that leaves us with Frolov, Stepan, and Todd Freakin' White to fill in the gaps. This is not the world's most elite collection of parts. So, no one should be surprised that we're a middle-of-the-pack team.
Last night was once again the kind of win which people call "sloppy," "unlikely," "grinding," and "far from perfect." No surprises. We responded very quickly each time Ottawa took the lead (1:46 the first time, 1:09 the second time) until entering the third period down 3-2 and scoring 3 goals in the final period to win 5-3. The Rangers once again battled back and grinded out a win. This is all starting to sound familiar.
Which is not really a reason to despair. We have these parts, and we're using them to pretty good effect. Make no mistake: this season's middle-of-the-pack squad is a lot more fun to watch and a lot easier to have faith in than last season's. I don't know why, but I feel like, when we lose, it's not usually because we should have won and got lazy. So, things are looking up? Plus, at least we're not the Devils or the Islanders.
With that said, I am having some trouble wrapping my head around Coach Tortorella's "Lines? Lines?!? We don't need no stinkin' lines!!" policy. I'm all for a policy of line rotation, but having a bunch of second- and third-liners is no excuse to just assemble them differently every 3 days. There's a balance to be struck between giving everyone a shot to perform and giving lines a chance to gel and find some chemistry. I sometimes wonder if Torts believes in the latter at all.
A few nights ago, when preparing to play the Ottawa Senators, Erik Christensen and Sean Avery were the best forwards available to sit on the top line with superstar Marian Gaborik. Meanwhile, Artem Anisimov was punished onto the fourth line with a slumping Alex Frolov, and Derek Stepan took his place keying Dubi and Cally, leaving Ruslan Fedotenko to play with Boyle and Prust.
Last night, zero injuries or forward substitutions later, when preparing to play the Ottawa Senators, Erik Christensen and Sean Avery were the bottom-ranked forwards available, placed on the 4th line with big punchin'-guy Derek Boogaard. Meanwhile, Stepan and Fedotenko were the best forwards available to sit on the top line with superstar Marian Gaborik, which left room for Anisimov to come back from his punishment and key Dubi and Cally, leaving a slumping Frolov to play with Boyle and Prust.
That, to me, is not a little bit of rotation to shake things up. That, to me, is some epic shifting. Though this be madness, I've been trying to find some method in't. One theory I've come up with is that because Torts has absolutely no idea what he is supposed to do with this Boogaard fellow (whose shoulder, not his broken nose, kept him out after last night's fight with blood-flicker Matt Carkner), so he tends to use Boogaard's fourth-line wing spot as a place to double-shift Gaborik. Did you notice that the left-handed Boogaard, who played left wing his entire pre-Ranger career, is now suddenly a right wing? Yeah, well this would explain that. It would also explain why the same pair of linemates that belonged on the first line against the Senators Sunday belong on the fourth line against the Senators Thursday. I seriously think this explains some things, strange/sad as it is.
That said, it doesn't explain everything. There's still a crazy amount of line-shifting going on, including (by the stopped-clock principle) the line I've been begging to see for a while now, Avery-Boyle-Prust at practice on Tuesday morning. I just wonder if, now that it's December, it might make sense to just stick some lines together and let them gel for a bit? It seems like Torts would rather just keep developing individuals and not line units, and I wonder if that's not gonna hurt us in the long run.
Nutting up (with the alternative, shutting up, being undesirable to me), what would I do? Assuming we can't have Drury or Prospal back any time soon, I would probably use last night's lines, with a slight modification, and see what sticks. I'd like to see Dubinsky-Anisimov-Callahan and Avery-Boyle-Prust as the two core lines. Most of the time, I'd like to see them together. I'd also give Stepan a meaningful chance to pivot Gaborik - they've both got talent, but neither has found long-term chemistry with anyone, which at least Gaborik has mentioned. If we keep calling Stepan the team's "most creative playmaking center," which we do, let's let these two guys stay together.
That leaves Fedotenko, Christensen, Frolov, and White dangling (assuming Boogaard belongs on the fourth line). I'd alternate Fedotenko and Frolov as first line/fourth line winger, which gives them each incentive to outplay the other. Fedotenko's been good but not great no matter where we put him, and I'd like to see what he can do consistently with Stepan and Gaborik. That first line left wing spot has been Frolov's to lose, and he's done a good job of losing it so far. This is his opportunity to earn it back, and if he doesn't, he's done here anyway. Maybe Fedo picks up his game a lot. And if neither works out, what a good place for Prospal to return. Christensen clearly deserves a roster spot more than White right now, but maybe let them battle each other a little, too. Again, if neither works out, Drury comes back.
So, there. That's what I would do. But they never ask me. And, to be honest, it's hard to totally argue with what appears to be modest success. Yeah, we haven't played amazing teams lately, and all our wins seem to be chippy and hang by a thread, and we're only two points into the playoffs. But let's be honest: with two of our better forwards out (all season so far, no less) - with the cast of second- and third-liners listed above - we've won 3 of our last 4, 5 of our last 7, 7 of our last 10, and 10 of our last 15, dating back a month. Also that's a really nice pattern of triangular numbers.
So, we may not have a Sidney Crosby scoring 80 bagrillion goals a week, but we're not doing so badly for ourselves, either. And, as I said earlier, at least we're not the Devils or the Islanders. This weekend, we're in Columbus Saturday night, then back home against the Capitals Sunday night. This season, in games played the night after we played another game, we're 7-0. Think that streak can continue against Ovechkin and friends?
Last night was once again the kind of win which people call "sloppy," "unlikely," "grinding," and "far from perfect." No surprises. We responded very quickly each time Ottawa took the lead (1:46 the first time, 1:09 the second time) until entering the third period down 3-2 and scoring 3 goals in the final period to win 5-3. The Rangers once again battled back and grinded out a win. This is all starting to sound familiar.
Which is not really a reason to despair. We have these parts, and we're using them to pretty good effect. Make no mistake: this season's middle-of-the-pack squad is a lot more fun to watch and a lot easier to have faith in than last season's. I don't know why, but I feel like, when we lose, it's not usually because we should have won and got lazy. So, things are looking up? Plus, at least we're not the Devils or the Islanders.
With that said, I am having some trouble wrapping my head around Coach Tortorella's "Lines? Lines?!? We don't need no stinkin' lines!!" policy. I'm all for a policy of line rotation, but having a bunch of second- and third-liners is no excuse to just assemble them differently every 3 days. There's a balance to be struck between giving everyone a shot to perform and giving lines a chance to gel and find some chemistry. I sometimes wonder if Torts believes in the latter at all.
A few nights ago, when preparing to play the Ottawa Senators, Erik Christensen and Sean Avery were the best forwards available to sit on the top line with superstar Marian Gaborik. Meanwhile, Artem Anisimov was punished onto the fourth line with a slumping Alex Frolov, and Derek Stepan took his place keying Dubi and Cally, leaving Ruslan Fedotenko to play with Boyle and Prust.
Last night, zero injuries or forward substitutions later, when preparing to play the Ottawa Senators, Erik Christensen and Sean Avery were the bottom-ranked forwards available, placed on the 4th line with big punchin'-guy Derek Boogaard. Meanwhile, Stepan and Fedotenko were the best forwards available to sit on the top line with superstar Marian Gaborik, which left room for Anisimov to come back from his punishment and key Dubi and Cally, leaving a slumping Frolov to play with Boyle and Prust.
That, to me, is not a little bit of rotation to shake things up. That, to me, is some epic shifting. Though this be madness, I've been trying to find some method in't. One theory I've come up with is that because Torts has absolutely no idea what he is supposed to do with this Boogaard fellow (whose shoulder, not his broken nose, kept him out after last night's fight with blood-flicker Matt Carkner), so he tends to use Boogaard's fourth-line wing spot as a place to double-shift Gaborik. Did you notice that the left-handed Boogaard, who played left wing his entire pre-Ranger career, is now suddenly a right wing? Yeah, well this would explain that. It would also explain why the same pair of linemates that belonged on the first line against the Senators Sunday belong on the fourth line against the Senators Thursday. I seriously think this explains some things, strange/sad as it is.
That said, it doesn't explain everything. There's still a crazy amount of line-shifting going on, including (by the stopped-clock principle) the line I've been begging to see for a while now, Avery-Boyle-Prust at practice on Tuesday morning. I just wonder if, now that it's December, it might make sense to just stick some lines together and let them gel for a bit? It seems like Torts would rather just keep developing individuals and not line units, and I wonder if that's not gonna hurt us in the long run.
Nutting up (with the alternative, shutting up, being undesirable to me), what would I do? Assuming we can't have Drury or Prospal back any time soon, I would probably use last night's lines, with a slight modification, and see what sticks. I'd like to see Dubinsky-Anisimov-Callahan and Avery-Boyle-Prust as the two core lines. Most of the time, I'd like to see them together. I'd also give Stepan a meaningful chance to pivot Gaborik - they've both got talent, but neither has found long-term chemistry with anyone, which at least Gaborik has mentioned. If we keep calling Stepan the team's "most creative playmaking center," which we do, let's let these two guys stay together.
That leaves Fedotenko, Christensen, Frolov, and White dangling (assuming Boogaard belongs on the fourth line). I'd alternate Fedotenko and Frolov as first line/fourth line winger, which gives them each incentive to outplay the other. Fedotenko's been good but not great no matter where we put him, and I'd like to see what he can do consistently with Stepan and Gaborik. That first line left wing spot has been Frolov's to lose, and he's done a good job of losing it so far. This is his opportunity to earn it back, and if he doesn't, he's done here anyway. Maybe Fedo picks up his game a lot. And if neither works out, what a good place for Prospal to return. Christensen clearly deserves a roster spot more than White right now, but maybe let them battle each other a little, too. Again, if neither works out, Drury comes back.
So, there. That's what I would do. But they never ask me. And, to be honest, it's hard to totally argue with what appears to be modest success. Yeah, we haven't played amazing teams lately, and all our wins seem to be chippy and hang by a thread, and we're only two points into the playoffs. But let's be honest: with two of our better forwards out (all season so far, no less) - with the cast of second- and third-liners listed above - we've won 3 of our last 4, 5 of our last 7, 7 of our last 10, and 10 of our last 15, dating back a month. Also that's a really nice pattern of triangular numbers.
So, we may not have a Sidney Crosby scoring 80 bagrillion goals a week, but we're not doing so badly for ourselves, either. And, as I said earlier, at least we're not the Devils or the Islanders. This weekend, we're in Columbus Saturday night, then back home against the Capitals Sunday night. This season, in games played the night after we played another game, we're 7-0. Think that streak can continue against Ovechkin and friends?
Monday, December 6, 2010
Nothing to write home about
I have a whole block of free time at work right now, and there is somehow nothing to say. I haven't gotten back to my big scary spreadsheet, so my big number thing isn't ready yet, and there's nothing I want to say about last night's game. I can't even post another Kovalwatch yet, because my last post was about him! It's so hard to be me.
There's nothing I want to say about last night's game because I don't want to put forward more effort than the Rangers did. Talk about sleeping through half a game. If we're honest, we didn't see a ton more effort than that in the home-and-home against the Islanders, but we won anyway, because it was just the Islanders. It took Prust's shorthanded goal to wake the Rangers up, and we proceeded to play an okay second half of a game, just not good enough to actually score any more goals.
It's technically true that we lost the game in the last 2:30, within which Ottawa finally took the lead and then sealed it with an empty netter, but we truly lost it in the first 30:00, during which we played flat hockey. The Frankenline of Avery, Christensen, and Gaborik just can't produce, due to it not making any sense. Gaborik is a good goal-scorer who can shoot the puck fast and hard, Christensen can make clever stick moves now and then, and Avery can chip the puck in deep, maintain possession, and win one-on-one battles. Individually, those are each useful, but no one on this line seems to ever know what anyone else on it is doing.
Dubinsky and Callahan have definitely taken a step back basically since Gaborik returned. Some of this is possibly mental: the pressure is no longer on them to step up and lead (only, it is, because Gaborik isn't actually going to win games by himself). I also wonder if some of it is due to the center rotation: there was some chemistry with Anisimov (though I don't necessarily disagree with the switch to Stepan). However, I'm sad to say a good deal of it is likely regression to the mean. I love Brandon Dubinsky, but he was never going to stay on the pace of 10 goals in 13 games.
Anyway, it's only one loss right now, and we shouldn't be running to the hills or anything, but it's time we started to see some real top-line production. Drury and Prospal can't come back soon enough. On them, word is that Drury has been skating in full equipment, passing but not yet shooting. There's some hope that he could return in 7-10 days. Prospal is also skating, but not yet in equipment (of course, there is still no timetable for him). It would really be nice to have these guys back, huh?
There's nothing I want to say about last night's game because I don't want to put forward more effort than the Rangers did. Talk about sleeping through half a game. If we're honest, we didn't see a ton more effort than that in the home-and-home against the Islanders, but we won anyway, because it was just the Islanders. It took Prust's shorthanded goal to wake the Rangers up, and we proceeded to play an okay second half of a game, just not good enough to actually score any more goals.
It's technically true that we lost the game in the last 2:30, within which Ottawa finally took the lead and then sealed it with an empty netter, but we truly lost it in the first 30:00, during which we played flat hockey. The Frankenline of Avery, Christensen, and Gaborik just can't produce, due to it not making any sense. Gaborik is a good goal-scorer who can shoot the puck fast and hard, Christensen can make clever stick moves now and then, and Avery can chip the puck in deep, maintain possession, and win one-on-one battles. Individually, those are each useful, but no one on this line seems to ever know what anyone else on it is doing.
Dubinsky and Callahan have definitely taken a step back basically since Gaborik returned. Some of this is possibly mental: the pressure is no longer on them to step up and lead (only, it is, because Gaborik isn't actually going to win games by himself). I also wonder if some of it is due to the center rotation: there was some chemistry with Anisimov (though I don't necessarily disagree with the switch to Stepan). However, I'm sad to say a good deal of it is likely regression to the mean. I love Brandon Dubinsky, but he was never going to stay on the pace of 10 goals in 13 games.
Anyway, it's only one loss right now, and we shouldn't be running to the hills or anything, but it's time we started to see some real top-line production. Drury and Prospal can't come back soon enough. On them, word is that Drury has been skating in full equipment, passing but not yet shooting. There's some hope that he could return in 7-10 days. Prospal is also skating, but not yet in equipment (of course, there is still no timetable for him). It would really be nice to have these guys back, huh?
Monday, November 29, 2010
Avery I named my dog after you
So, first of all, you should know that something big is in the works here, involving lots of numbers. Maybe not so big in terms of importance, but it's involving lots of arithmetic on my part. So stay tuned for that. But for now:
I'm putting a kibosh on complaining about lines, on account of we don't so much use lines anymore. Also, Avery's getting the ice time he deserves (13:57 tonight), and I like that. Some good games over break, tonight was not so good. But props go to Avery, who has been playing good hockey. I didn't name my dog after him (I don't own a dog), but this girl did:
Kevin DeLury of New York Rangers Blog is running a big campaign to write him in as an All-Star, which I strongly suggest you participating in. Go vote here or text "Sean Avery" to 81812. Anyway, I only bring it up because of Avery's response to it: "That's great. I will hopefully make the team, and I'll be the first player ever to get an instigator penalty at an NHL All-Star game. That'll be amazing, right?" I love this guy.
Credit also goes out to Brandon Dubinsky, who played a good game tonight, and to Michal Rozsival, who I think has looked in his couple of games back as good as he's looked in two seasons. I'm really glad to have him back.
That's all for Ranger talk tonight, so I wanna make a quick joke about how every time they say Preds goalie Pekka Rinne's full name, it sounds like something Vinnie Barbarino would call a classmate, and then it's time for another edition of Kovalwatch!!!! How have things been since we checked in with the most anticipated off-season athlete signing since 2010's LeBron James? Well, first of all, the Devils still find themselves just above the Oilers and Islanders, not quite at the bottom of the league (although if Edmonton and Long Island win their games-in-hand, Jersey finds themselves back in that #30 spot). At 8-14-2, the Devils are on pace to finish the season with 61.5 points, good enough for the bottom 3 spots in the league every season since the lockout. Hell, 61.5 would put the Devils in the 24th spot back in 1998-'99, the final season that games couldn't be worth 3 points, and there were only 27 teams.
Meanwhile, Ilya himself, whose contract, for those of you who are missing the point, is still 15 years for $100 million, is looking at 4-6-10, putting him on pace to finish the season with 18.2 goals and 27.3 assists. Other players with 4 goals and 6 assists? Blackhawks Jake Dowell ($1.05m/2yr) and Bryan Bickell ($1.625m/3yr), Tampa Bay's Sean Bergenheim ($0.7m/1yr), and Penguin Tyler Kennedy ($1.45m/2yr), among others. The only one whose contract comes anywhere near Kovalchuk's on the list is Zdeno Chara, who is tied for 7th in the league with a +12 rating. Ilya's rating? An abysmal -11.
Minus goddamn eleven. On pace to be worse than -50 for the season. This would be the worst +/- in the NHL since at least 1997-'98. The worst since then has been Rico Fata's -46 in 2003-'04, but NHL.com does not have this data prior to '97-'98. So, quite possibly the worst in a good deal longer than that. Just a total detriment to his team. On pace for 45.6 points and -50.1. At $6.67 million. And this is his prime, no less.
See, guys? Even when you lose to the Penguins, there's always the Devils to look at. Things could be worse.
I'm putting a kibosh on complaining about lines, on account of we don't so much use lines anymore. Also, Avery's getting the ice time he deserves (13:57 tonight), and I like that. Some good games over break, tonight was not so good. But props go to Avery, who has been playing good hockey. I didn't name my dog after him (I don't own a dog), but this girl did:
Kevin DeLury of New York Rangers Blog is running a big campaign to write him in as an All-Star, which I strongly suggest you participating in. Go vote here or text "Sean Avery" to 81812. Anyway, I only bring it up because of Avery's response to it: "That's great. I will hopefully make the team, and I'll be the first player ever to get an instigator penalty at an NHL All-Star game. That'll be amazing, right?" I love this guy.
Credit also goes out to Brandon Dubinsky, who played a good game tonight, and to Michal Rozsival, who I think has looked in his couple of games back as good as he's looked in two seasons. I'm really glad to have him back.
That's all for Ranger talk tonight, so I wanna make a quick joke about how every time they say Preds goalie Pekka Rinne's full name, it sounds like something Vinnie Barbarino would call a classmate, and then it's time for another edition of Kovalwatch!!!! How have things been since we checked in with the most anticipated off-season athlete signing since 2010's LeBron James? Well, first of all, the Devils still find themselves just above the Oilers and Islanders, not quite at the bottom of the league (although if Edmonton and Long Island win their games-in-hand, Jersey finds themselves back in that #30 spot). At 8-14-2, the Devils are on pace to finish the season with 61.5 points, good enough for the bottom 3 spots in the league every season since the lockout. Hell, 61.5 would put the Devils in the 24th spot back in 1998-'99, the final season that games couldn't be worth 3 points, and there were only 27 teams.
Meanwhile, Ilya himself, whose contract, for those of you who are missing the point, is still 15 years for $100 million, is looking at 4-6-10, putting him on pace to finish the season with 18.2 goals and 27.3 assists. Other players with 4 goals and 6 assists? Blackhawks Jake Dowell ($1.05m/2yr) and Bryan Bickell ($1.625m/3yr), Tampa Bay's Sean Bergenheim ($0.7m/1yr), and Penguin Tyler Kennedy ($1.45m/2yr), among others. The only one whose contract comes anywhere near Kovalchuk's on the list is Zdeno Chara, who is tied for 7th in the league with a +12 rating. Ilya's rating? An abysmal -11.
Minus goddamn eleven. On pace to be worse than -50 for the season. This would be the worst +/- in the NHL since at least 1997-'98. The worst since then has been Rico Fata's -46 in 2003-'04, but NHL.com does not have this data prior to '97-'98. So, quite possibly the worst in a good deal longer than that. Just a total detriment to his team. On pace for 45.6 points and -50.1. At $6.67 million. And this is his prime, no less.
See, guys? Even when you lose to the Penguins, there's always the Devils to look at. Things could be worse.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Worse than the Philly loss?
Man, oh man, does "Lightning 5, Rangers 3" not begin to do this game justice. It wasn't just the lack of goals, shots, or offense at all - we didn't even have any puck possession through two periods of this game. I apologize for ever, in the past, using phrases like "the opponents beat us to every puck and won every battle." Because it's always been something of an exaggeration - there has surely been some puck the Rangers found their way to. In two periods last night, the Rangers could not retain the puck. If it weren't so painful, part of me would want to watch these two periods over and over again, just because it's such a spectacular schooling. It's rare to see such complete denial of even puck possession for so long.
With that said, I again have to wonder about the penalty calling. Let's be clear: completely independently of the officiating, the Rangers still blow this game in a very big way. But I have to wonder if referees Rob Martell and Dean Morton didn't hear Lundqvist's complaints after the Pittsburgh game and maybe want to stick it to him a little bit. Lundqvist got run over all game, and the only time they bothered to call goalie interference, they also called a thoroughly disoriented diving penalty on Hank to cancel it out. I can justify the other bad calls last night by the usual NHL bullshit: if you only have one hand on your stick, and you make contact with any other player, it's "hooking," and so on. But there was no good goddamn reason for that diving call.
But, of course, the worst part was not the officiating, it was the Rangers not coming up big in front of the King. Lundqvist gave up 5 goals on 25 shots across two periods during which Mike Smith, across the ice, was perfect by making 7 saves. Hank needed a big game back, after resting a while as Biron looked good, especially given that Biron might be back in one of the next two. Instead, Lundqvist was protected neither by penalty-calls nor by offensive play from his team, who hung him out to dry for 40 minutes before finally skating around with the puck a little bit in the third.
Torts reacted appropriately, chewing out various Rangers during the game for letting Bolts make residence in the King's crease, and calling out Gaborik after the game, saying, "He's supposed to be our best player. I looked at their best players, and they were pretty good tonight. I didn't see our best players." Also, props to Torts for not pulling Lundqvist, even though he almost did. The right thing to do was to let Hank battle on - it's not like any of the goals were his fault.
But, of course, I have some questions for John Tortorella also. Mostly, they center around Sean Avery. For a guy with a reputation for changing lines around all the time, Torts reacted to last night's disaster by swapping Callahan for Gaborik on the first and second lines, and double-shifting Gaborik in place of Boogaard on the fourth line (before, of course, benching Anisimov for some reason). Besides Anisimov and Boogaard, Avery was the Ranger with the least ice time.
But you know how I hate to make a big deal of outliers. Let's go back and look at some more numbers. Monday's tight 2-1 victory over the Flames: Boogaard 7:15; Avery 8:34; Next Ranger (Christensen) 10:13. Saturday's big 5-2 win over the Wild: Boogaard 5:28; Avery 8:12; Next Ranger (Anisimov) 12:29. The previous night's 5-1 loss to the Avs was much more balanced, but it featured Todd White (Boogaard being absent with a punching-too-much injury). Interesting.
Over the 4 games previous to these (before which we didn't really use the lineup we've had lately), 2 featured White instead of Boogaard, and the other two look the same as above. To sum up the numbers, over the last 8 games, the 5 that had Boogaard in them totaled some disappointing numbers: Boogaard with 29:38 of ice time, Avery with 43:13, and the next sparsest Ranger (who spanned across 4 different Rangers in these 5 games) with 52:21.
So, clearly, Boogaard gets the least ice time, Avery gets the next least, and then everyone else gets a mix. Can someone explain that to me? Win or lose, Avery consistently makes things happen on every shift. It's one thing when we're winning - "don't change a recipe for success" or whatever. But for it to not even occur to Torts to give Avery a little more time in last night's debacle concerns me. That shows me there's no confidence there. And the way Avery still plays night after night, even on a line with Christensen and Boogaard, that's just not right.
Anyway, last night sucked. The third period served only to make it look like a game: in final score, shots on goal, and penalty calls. It was never actually a game, and the third period didn't really change that. The only interesting thing to happen was when Avery went after Mattias Ohlund for a big hit on Erik Christensen. I turned to my father and asked if he thought Christensen would also consider that move a "cheap shot" (it looked remarkably similar to the Ladislav Smid incident). Ah, well. Good for Avery, and fuck Christensen. Let's shake last night off; Happy Thanksgiving; see you Friday.
With that said, I again have to wonder about the penalty calling. Let's be clear: completely independently of the officiating, the Rangers still blow this game in a very big way. But I have to wonder if referees Rob Martell and Dean Morton didn't hear Lundqvist's complaints after the Pittsburgh game and maybe want to stick it to him a little bit. Lundqvist got run over all game, and the only time they bothered to call goalie interference, they also called a thoroughly disoriented diving penalty on Hank to cancel it out. I can justify the other bad calls last night by the usual NHL bullshit: if you only have one hand on your stick, and you make contact with any other player, it's "hooking," and so on. But there was no good goddamn reason for that diving call.
But, of course, the worst part was not the officiating, it was the Rangers not coming up big in front of the King. Lundqvist gave up 5 goals on 25 shots across two periods during which Mike Smith, across the ice, was perfect by making 7 saves. Hank needed a big game back, after resting a while as Biron looked good, especially given that Biron might be back in one of the next two. Instead, Lundqvist was protected neither by penalty-calls nor by offensive play from his team, who hung him out to dry for 40 minutes before finally skating around with the puck a little bit in the third.
Torts reacted appropriately, chewing out various Rangers during the game for letting Bolts make residence in the King's crease, and calling out Gaborik after the game, saying, "He's supposed to be our best player. I looked at their best players, and they were pretty good tonight. I didn't see our best players." Also, props to Torts for not pulling Lundqvist, even though he almost did. The right thing to do was to let Hank battle on - it's not like any of the goals were his fault.
But, of course, I have some questions for John Tortorella also. Mostly, they center around Sean Avery. For a guy with a reputation for changing lines around all the time, Torts reacted to last night's disaster by swapping Callahan for Gaborik on the first and second lines, and double-shifting Gaborik in place of Boogaard on the fourth line (before, of course, benching Anisimov for some reason). Besides Anisimov and Boogaard, Avery was the Ranger with the least ice time.
But you know how I hate to make a big deal of outliers. Let's go back and look at some more numbers. Monday's tight 2-1 victory over the Flames: Boogaard 7:15; Avery 8:34; Next Ranger (Christensen) 10:13. Saturday's big 5-2 win over the Wild: Boogaard 5:28; Avery 8:12; Next Ranger (Anisimov) 12:29. The previous night's 5-1 loss to the Avs was much more balanced, but it featured Todd White (Boogaard being absent with a punching-too-much injury). Interesting.
Over the 4 games previous to these (before which we didn't really use the lineup we've had lately), 2 featured White instead of Boogaard, and the other two look the same as above. To sum up the numbers, over the last 8 games, the 5 that had Boogaard in them totaled some disappointing numbers: Boogaard with 29:38 of ice time, Avery with 43:13, and the next sparsest Ranger (who spanned across 4 different Rangers in these 5 games) with 52:21.
So, clearly, Boogaard gets the least ice time, Avery gets the next least, and then everyone else gets a mix. Can someone explain that to me? Win or lose, Avery consistently makes things happen on every shift. It's one thing when we're winning - "don't change a recipe for success" or whatever. But for it to not even occur to Torts to give Avery a little more time in last night's debacle concerns me. That shows me there's no confidence there. And the way Avery still plays night after night, even on a line with Christensen and Boogaard, that's just not right.
Anyway, last night sucked. The third period served only to make it look like a game: in final score, shots on goal, and penalty calls. It was never actually a game, and the third period didn't really change that. The only interesting thing to happen was when Avery went after Mattias Ohlund for a big hit on Erik Christensen. I turned to my father and asked if he thought Christensen would also consider that move a "cheap shot" (it looked remarkably similar to the Ladislav Smid incident). Ah, well. Good for Avery, and fuck Christensen. Let's shake last night off; Happy Thanksgiving; see you Friday.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Two losses later
So, we actually played what I thought was a pretty solid game against the B's. Lost 3-2 in what was a reasonably solid battle, good hockey from both sides, and we were the ones that came up short. I don't hate losing a game like this (unless it's to, like, the Devils), even though it's a loss.
As for the Avs last night, that was awful. Just awful. Looking forward to a quick chance to come back tonight against the Wild. Also, welcome back to Gaborik and Boogaard - we'll see how that goes.
Right now, I wanna talk some about personnel. In net, I wanna give a compliment to Marty Biron, who, without looking spectacular, has shouldered a whole lot of burden lately, and it's nice to have a backup who can be relied on like that. Woot. As for Hank, I think pulling him last night was more a move to give him reprieve so he can play fresh tonight than it was an indictment of his play. People were quick to get on him for his mediocre play, but he didn't really have a clear, easy shot on any of the three goals against him last night. He wasn't regal, but he wasn't awful. I tend to think in a European way about goaltender changes anyway: if a guy isn't feeling it, pull him out - no big deal.
On defense, gold stars go to Matt Gilroy and Mike Sauer, who have really stepped up and acted as a reasonably solid third pair since Michal Rozsival's been injured. Eminger is not the defenseman Rozsival has been this season, but he's played fairly well in some key minutes. What he lacks in talent, he's been making up by hitting people, which is a recipe I support.
On the other hand, Michael Del Zotto (why is half of our defense named Michael?) has been the defensive let-down I expected. Not that any Rangers played particularly well through the first half of last night's game, but all the glaring errors go to him. This is, in fact, the sophomore slump I anticipated, and I wouldn't blame Torts if Eminger's the one who stays on the second pair when Rozsival returns.
Up front, I recommend a change for tonight: switch Avery and Fedotenko. I like the switch of Christensen and Stepan (one step closer to Hartford, Erik. I love to say I told you so, so: I told you so). Now, I'm not suggesting that Fedo, who has played good hockey for us, deserves a demotion to the fourth line. But right now, of Prust, Avery, and Fedo, one of them needs to go down (unless we teach one of them to play center). I've liked the Avery - Boyle - Prust line the few times we've seen it this season, and I still maintain that Avery deserves more ice time than he's getting right now. He looks solid almost every shift he's out there, and I think he makes things happen if he gets more time out there, especially if it's more time that he's opposite Prust (or Fedo) instead of White or Boogaard. Then see what Fedotenko, Christensen, and Boogaard can do. Can't hurt, right?
Stop writing, Aaron. You've said all you had to say, and you're just gonna reiterate it. Your 3 readers get it. Shut up and click "Publish."
As for the Avs last night, that was awful. Just awful. Looking forward to a quick chance to come back tonight against the Wild. Also, welcome back to Gaborik and Boogaard - we'll see how that goes.
Right now, I wanna talk some about personnel. In net, I wanna give a compliment to Marty Biron, who, without looking spectacular, has shouldered a whole lot of burden lately, and it's nice to have a backup who can be relied on like that. Woot. As for Hank, I think pulling him last night was more a move to give him reprieve so he can play fresh tonight than it was an indictment of his play. People were quick to get on him for his mediocre play, but he didn't really have a clear, easy shot on any of the three goals against him last night. He wasn't regal, but he wasn't awful. I tend to think in a European way about goaltender changes anyway: if a guy isn't feeling it, pull him out - no big deal.
On defense, gold stars go to Matt Gilroy and Mike Sauer, who have really stepped up and acted as a reasonably solid third pair since Michal Rozsival's been injured. Eminger is not the defenseman Rozsival has been this season, but he's played fairly well in some key minutes. What he lacks in talent, he's been making up by hitting people, which is a recipe I support.
On the other hand, Michael Del Zotto (why is half of our defense named Michael?) has been the defensive let-down I expected. Not that any Rangers played particularly well through the first half of last night's game, but all the glaring errors go to him. This is, in fact, the sophomore slump I anticipated, and I wouldn't blame Torts if Eminger's the one who stays on the second pair when Rozsival returns.
Up front, I recommend a change for tonight: switch Avery and Fedotenko. I like the switch of Christensen and Stepan (one step closer to Hartford, Erik. I love to say I told you so, so: I told you so). Now, I'm not suggesting that Fedo, who has played good hockey for us, deserves a demotion to the fourth line. But right now, of Prust, Avery, and Fedo, one of them needs to go down (unless we teach one of them to play center). I've liked the Avery - Boyle - Prust line the few times we've seen it this season, and I still maintain that Avery deserves more ice time than he's getting right now. He looks solid almost every shift he's out there, and I think he makes things happen if he gets more time out there, especially if it's more time that he's opposite Prust (or Fedo) instead of White or Boogaard. Then see what Fedotenko, Christensen, and Boogaard can do. Can't hurt, right?
Stop writing, Aaron. You've said all you had to say, and you're just gonna reiterate it. Your 3 readers get it. Shut up and click "Publish."
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
I need an editor
That last post was unreasonably long. This one contains a few small notes:
1) Tortorella's response to the ridiculous officiating last night was to tell everyone, twice, not to ask him about the officiating. He went on to talk about how proud he was of the team for coming together and battling back last night.
2) Lundqvist apparently admits that he threw his stick near the end of the game to express to the officials just how bad he thought they were. He expected the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that he got from it. Is it OK if that makes me like him more?
3) Check this out. It's 3-1, Sharks over Kings. The Kings score, but the goal judge doesn't call it, the puck bounces out, and the play continues. They will review it at the next stoppage. Before play stops, the Sharks (maybe) score, but the puck bounces out, and play continues. They will review that, if necessary, at the next stoppage. The next stoppage comes...because the Sharks score! This one stays in the net and play stops. 4-1 Sharks. Only they go back and review, and the first Kings goal counted. So...3-2 Sharks. Awesome.
4) KOVALWATCH! It's November 16. The 5-11-2 Devils are not currently a league worst, having pulled a point ahead of both the Oilers and the Islanders, though they've also played more games than either of those teams. However, none of those 5 wins have come at the Rock, making the Devils the only NHL team to somehow still not have won at home yet this season! Alternate Captain Kovalchuk ($100m/15yr) has 4 goals and 5 assists in that time, putting him exactly on par with Erik Cole ($5.8m/2yr), Mark Letestu ($1m/2yr), Valtteri Filppula ($15m/5yr), and Nikolai Kulemin ($4.7m/2yr). The Devils have three more chances to win at home this month, versus the Capitals, the Flames, and the Flyers. So, let's go those three guys!
1) Tortorella's response to the ridiculous officiating last night was to tell everyone, twice, not to ask him about the officiating. He went on to talk about how proud he was of the team for coming together and battling back last night.
2) Lundqvist apparently admits that he threw his stick near the end of the game to express to the officials just how bad he thought they were. He expected the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that he got from it. Is it OK if that makes me like him more?
3) Check this out. It's 3-1, Sharks over Kings. The Kings score, but the goal judge doesn't call it, the puck bounces out, and the play continues. They will review it at the next stoppage. Before play stops, the Sharks (maybe) score, but the puck bounces out, and play continues. They will review that, if necessary, at the next stoppage. The next stoppage comes...because the Sharks score! This one stays in the net and play stops. 4-1 Sharks. Only they go back and review, and the first Kings goal counted. So...3-2 Sharks. Awesome.
4) KOVALWATCH! It's November 16. The 5-11-2 Devils are not currently a league worst, having pulled a point ahead of both the Oilers and the Islanders, though they've also played more games than either of those teams. However, none of those 5 wins have come at the Rock, making the Devils the only NHL team to somehow still not have won at home yet this season! Alternate Captain Kovalchuk ($100m/15yr) has 4 goals and 5 assists in that time, putting him exactly on par with Erik Cole ($5.8m/2yr), Mark Letestu ($1m/2yr), Valtteri Filppula ($15m/5yr), and Nikolai Kulemin ($4.7m/2yr). The Devils have three more chances to win at home this month, versus the Capitals, the Flames, and the Flyers. So, let's go those three guys!
That was the best!
I think I like the new arena.
There are so many places I could start. Let's talk about the abysmal first period, in which the return of the King was clearly all that kept us in it. We were outshot 12-5 over the course of that period, and with all due respect to Biron, I'm not sure we would have had a scoreless game after one with him in net. It wasn't so much a spectacular save here and there (those came in the third) as it was a solid effort that came out of us spending almost the entire period in front of him. As Torts put it, "No disrespect to Edmonton, but [the Pens] are a much better team than Edmonton, and we looked like we were playing Edmonton in the first period. We couldn't play that way."
Other than Callahan fighting Mike Comrie (awesome), there wasn't a ton of excitement generated by the Blueshirts in the first. On top of the coincidental majors that obviously came from that fight, there were 4 other penalties called in the first: a pair of coincidental roughings to Del Zotto and Evgeni Malkin early on, and a pair of coincidental unsportsmanlikes to Avery and Matt Cooke (which I think should have gone to Del Zotto and Arron Asham, who were actually the instigators on the play in question, but the officials saw Avery and Cooke on the ice, so they assumed it must have been them).
In the second period, we spend a good deal more time in the Pens' end. I still felt like we were outplayed for a lot of it, but we battled back and got our chances, one of which found its way to the back of the net, off the stick of Erik Christensen (whom I proudly gave the evil eye pregame after learning about his comments yesterday). Hooray! 1-0 Rangers!
Oops. It wasn't supposed to happen like that. The Pens were supposed to be winning. What can we do about this?
That...was the floating voice of the NHL. I heard it on the wind, after Christensen scored. And so, in came the officiating brigade. A handful of really weak calls against the Rangers closed out this game, coupled with really embarrassing non-calls for the Penguins, including two really inexcusable misses: Crosby skating through Lundqvist's crease and taking his legs out from under him (the play was up at the blue line, going in the other direction); and - well, what do you know, Crosby again - slashing Girardi while on the power play. I know, I know: you come here for the numbers, not the words. OK, here you go:
Christensen scored almost exactly halfway through the game, at 10:16 of the second. In the 30:16 of hockey preceding the goal, the Rangers were shorthanded for 2:00, and the teams were at even strength for the remaining 28:16. Following the goal, in 33:22, the Rangers were shorthanded for 10:00, and at even strength for the remaining 23:22. For the first time in over 3 seasons, the Rangers did not find one second of power play time. And yes, that includes a double minor for high-sticking against Staal, and an unsportsmanlike for Hank breaking his stick. But it also includes some really soft calls, like a hook on Gaborik and a hold on Callahan. As usual, as the game got closer and closer to its end, with the Rangers holding onto their narrow lead, the calls got worse and worse: the Rangers were shorthanded for 5:53 of the final ten minutes of the third period (that's 59%).
But the rankness of the calls was really compounded by the non-calls in the other direction: taken alone, the calls were just kinda bad news, but when looking at the things the Penguins weren't called for, one has no choice but to cry shenanigans. As Lundqvist put it after the game, "I'd like to see the penalty record the last five years in Pittsburgh. We're shorthanded so many times in Pittsburgh, and it's definitely not our fault." I make take Hank up on that, if I get the chance later.
Brooks, in the article I liked to above, says "The Rangers don't want to get a reputation as whiners, but last night was a joke, both on calls made against the team as well as those not made against the Penguins." I, too, don't want to sound like a whiner, and I tend to refrain from blaming officials for games, knowing we have to battle back as a team even when calls are awful. So why go on and on about the refs last night? Because it didn't fucking matter. Because we did battle back as a team. We killed every Penguin power play, including the one late in the 3rd wherein Callahan was in the box and Girardi was off with what looked to me like some kind of minor arm problem.
After the second period, I said "We can't win this game 1-0." As the bad calls kept pouring in, I started muttering to myself, in my seat at not-the-Igloo, like some kind of crazy person, "I've seen this movie before. I know exactly how it goes. Don't let this happen. This movie sucks. Show me a different movie." et cetera. And then on the heels of killing off Callahan's phantom-hold, there it was: a 1-1 game, with Pens fans screaming all around me. And 27 seconds later, 2-1. Everyone screaming. Me, pouting: "I've seen it too many times. This movie fucking sucks." And after Lundqvist stood on his head all night, making a handful of saves I still don't understand, all of CONSOL is taunting him, chanting his name. "Luuuuund-qviiiiist. Luuuuuund-qviiiiiist." I fucking hate this movie.
You know, there's not a ton of difference between this year's officials and last year's officials. Or between this year's Crosby brigade and last. You know what's new this year? We don't stop battling. And so, 27 seconds into Lundqvist's deserved unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for breaking his stick in frustration (and for sending the shaft down the ice toward an official, which was equally deserved), Dubinsky made a really pretty move around Alex Goligoski and fed Staal in front. And the next thing I knew, I was up on my feet, surrounded by an abyss of angry silence, screaming, "Fluuuuuuuu-eryyyyyyyyy! Fluuuuuuu-eryyyyyyyy!" And it was a tie game again.
Well, we all know what happened next. With a minute and a half left in overtime, Dubinsky and Callahan came down the ice and...well, just watch it. The whole video. Twice, at least.
Yes. Yes to life, and yes to hockey, and yes to everything. It's worth noting that Callahan is the one who netted that last one. That's worth noting because, along with his assist on Staal's tying goal, and his fight with Comrie in the first, Callahan earned himself a Gordie Howe Hat Trick last night. And that's awesome. This game was just the best. The Pens' offensive onslaught, the officiating disaster, and none of it mattered. We kept fighting, and 2 teams' 4 goals in 6:09 later, we came out on top. Yes, yes, and fuck yes.
Before I go, I hope you'll indulge me for a Special Rant, on the topic of Penguin fans.
---------------
SPECIAL RANT:
As an obsessive Ranger fan outside of New York, I tend to travel to a lot of away games to see my boys. Yes, I'll catch a game or two at the Garden each season, but I'll also see three in Pittsburgh, as well as the occasional trip to Jersey, or DC, or Toronto, and so on. I've seen NHL games in 12 different arenas, most of them Ranger games. So I'm in an uncommon position, in that I am regularly a big fan of the visiting team, wherever I go. As such, I'm never looking to start a fight. I always come in respectful, cheer for opposing players that I like, and so on. I don't mean to be talking about how I'm great, but as a regular visiting fan, I am always careful to be appropriate wherever I go. I will cheer loud and long for the Rangers, but I'm not one of these guys who calls out other fans around me: they're there to enjoy the game, just like me.
Which is why I have all this pent-up aggression that I need to get out here on the blog: these fans are terrible! Maybe last night was a specifically bad set of circumstances, but by God with this fan base's knowledge of hockey you couldn't run a skate rental shop. First of all, even when they're getting every officiating break in the book, they want more. We were lucky enough to bring a friend, who is just now learning the sport (this was his second game ever), and at one point, some Pen fan screamed out "Why wasn't that interference?" at such an incorrect play that even our near-hockey-virgin friend was able to answer (under his breath, of course) "Oh, I know this one! Because the puck was right there!"
This lack of awareness is extended beyond just a silly penalty call bias. My favorite moment was after Lundqvist's unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, which was being served by Avery, when everyone around me started getting on Sean Avery's case, because they saw him in the box. It reminded me of a moment in Atlanta a few years back, when the Thrashers scored on a soft shot from the point, and the entire arena started chanting "Luuuuuund-qviiiiiist," despite Stephen Valiquette being in goal. Everyone was getting on Avery because they read somewhere that they were supposed to, even though the call was on Lundqvist. Just a total lack of awareness of the game.
And, finally, I'm bitter, because I am nothing but nice to these people, and I smile and nod when they say incredibly stupid things about the game, and then I get called an asshole anyway, just because my team won. On my way out of the seats: "Go back to New York, you asshole!" Really? So, that I replied to: "Actually, I've lived in Pittsburgh for a decade, I just can't stand your hockey team. But thanks for being so friendly - you're doing a great job of representing our city. It was nice to meet you."
Look, I really do love the city of Pittsburgh. And I am friends with a number of Penguin fans, some of whom even know what the hell they're talking about when it comes to hockey. But a lot of these Penguin fans need to get a fucking clue. The exemplar, for me, was when some guy behind me yelled just before the phantom-hook on Gaborik, "Come on, that'd be holding in the NFL!" Not only did he get even the phantom-call wrong, but I've always said this about Penguin fans: they really know their football.
---------------
Thanks for the indulgence. Anyway, I love to see what I saw last night, and I'd love to see us bring it back home to play the Bruins tomorrow. This has the workings of a pretty good hockey team, and it's been a while since I've been able to honestly say I'm just excited about the team. Let's go Rangers.
There are so many places I could start. Let's talk about the abysmal first period, in which the return of the King was clearly all that kept us in it. We were outshot 12-5 over the course of that period, and with all due respect to Biron, I'm not sure we would have had a scoreless game after one with him in net. It wasn't so much a spectacular save here and there (those came in the third) as it was a solid effort that came out of us spending almost the entire period in front of him. As Torts put it, "No disrespect to Edmonton, but [the Pens] are a much better team than Edmonton, and we looked like we were playing Edmonton in the first period. We couldn't play that way."
Other than Callahan fighting Mike Comrie (awesome), there wasn't a ton of excitement generated by the Blueshirts in the first. On top of the coincidental majors that obviously came from that fight, there were 4 other penalties called in the first: a pair of coincidental roughings to Del Zotto and Evgeni Malkin early on, and a pair of coincidental unsportsmanlikes to Avery and Matt Cooke (which I think should have gone to Del Zotto and Arron Asham, who were actually the instigators on the play in question, but the officials saw Avery and Cooke on the ice, so they assumed it must have been them).
In the second period, we spend a good deal more time in the Pens' end. I still felt like we were outplayed for a lot of it, but we battled back and got our chances, one of which found its way to the back of the net, off the stick of Erik Christensen (whom I proudly gave the evil eye pregame after learning about his comments yesterday). Hooray! 1-0 Rangers!
Oops. It wasn't supposed to happen like that. The Pens were supposed to be winning. What can we do about this?
That...was the floating voice of the NHL. I heard it on the wind, after Christensen scored. And so, in came the officiating brigade. A handful of really weak calls against the Rangers closed out this game, coupled with really embarrassing non-calls for the Penguins, including two really inexcusable misses: Crosby skating through Lundqvist's crease and taking his legs out from under him (the play was up at the blue line, going in the other direction); and - well, what do you know, Crosby again - slashing Girardi while on the power play. I know, I know: you come here for the numbers, not the words. OK, here you go:
Christensen scored almost exactly halfway through the game, at 10:16 of the second. In the 30:16 of hockey preceding the goal, the Rangers were shorthanded for 2:00, and the teams were at even strength for the remaining 28:16. Following the goal, in 33:22, the Rangers were shorthanded for 10:00, and at even strength for the remaining 23:22. For the first time in over 3 seasons, the Rangers did not find one second of power play time. And yes, that includes a double minor for high-sticking against Staal, and an unsportsmanlike for Hank breaking his stick. But it also includes some really soft calls, like a hook on Gaborik and a hold on Callahan. As usual, as the game got closer and closer to its end, with the Rangers holding onto their narrow lead, the calls got worse and worse: the Rangers were shorthanded for 5:53 of the final ten minutes of the third period (that's 59%).
But the rankness of the calls was really compounded by the non-calls in the other direction: taken alone, the calls were just kinda bad news, but when looking at the things the Penguins weren't called for, one has no choice but to cry shenanigans. As Lundqvist put it after the game, "I'd like to see the penalty record the last five years in Pittsburgh. We're shorthanded so many times in Pittsburgh, and it's definitely not our fault." I make take Hank up on that, if I get the chance later.
Brooks, in the article I liked to above, says "The Rangers don't want to get a reputation as whiners, but last night was a joke, both on calls made against the team as well as those not made against the Penguins." I, too, don't want to sound like a whiner, and I tend to refrain from blaming officials for games, knowing we have to battle back as a team even when calls are awful. So why go on and on about the refs last night? Because it didn't fucking matter. Because we did battle back as a team. We killed every Penguin power play, including the one late in the 3rd wherein Callahan was in the box and Girardi was off with what looked to me like some kind of minor arm problem.
After the second period, I said "We can't win this game 1-0." As the bad calls kept pouring in, I started muttering to myself, in my seat at not-the-Igloo, like some kind of crazy person, "I've seen this movie before. I know exactly how it goes. Don't let this happen. This movie sucks. Show me a different movie." et cetera. And then on the heels of killing off Callahan's phantom-hold, there it was: a 1-1 game, with Pens fans screaming all around me. And 27 seconds later, 2-1. Everyone screaming. Me, pouting: "I've seen it too many times. This movie fucking sucks." And after Lundqvist stood on his head all night, making a handful of saves I still don't understand, all of CONSOL is taunting him, chanting his name. "Luuuuund-qviiiiist. Luuuuuund-qviiiiiist." I fucking hate this movie.
You know, there's not a ton of difference between this year's officials and last year's officials. Or between this year's Crosby brigade and last. You know what's new this year? We don't stop battling. And so, 27 seconds into Lundqvist's deserved unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for breaking his stick in frustration (and for sending the shaft down the ice toward an official, which was equally deserved), Dubinsky made a really pretty move around Alex Goligoski and fed Staal in front. And the next thing I knew, I was up on my feet, surrounded by an abyss of angry silence, screaming, "Fluuuuuuuu-eryyyyyyyyy! Fluuuuuuu-eryyyyyyyy!" And it was a tie game again.
Well, we all know what happened next. With a minute and a half left in overtime, Dubinsky and Callahan came down the ice and...well, just watch it. The whole video. Twice, at least.
Yes. Yes to life, and yes to hockey, and yes to everything. It's worth noting that Callahan is the one who netted that last one. That's worth noting because, along with his assist on Staal's tying goal, and his fight with Comrie in the first, Callahan earned himself a Gordie Howe Hat Trick last night. And that's awesome. This game was just the best. The Pens' offensive onslaught, the officiating disaster, and none of it mattered. We kept fighting, and 2 teams' 4 goals in 6:09 later, we came out on top. Yes, yes, and fuck yes.
Before I go, I hope you'll indulge me for a Special Rant, on the topic of Penguin fans.
---------------
SPECIAL RANT:
As an obsessive Ranger fan outside of New York, I tend to travel to a lot of away games to see my boys. Yes, I'll catch a game or two at the Garden each season, but I'll also see three in Pittsburgh, as well as the occasional trip to Jersey, or DC, or Toronto, and so on. I've seen NHL games in 12 different arenas, most of them Ranger games. So I'm in an uncommon position, in that I am regularly a big fan of the visiting team, wherever I go. As such, I'm never looking to start a fight. I always come in respectful, cheer for opposing players that I like, and so on. I don't mean to be talking about how I'm great, but as a regular visiting fan, I am always careful to be appropriate wherever I go. I will cheer loud and long for the Rangers, but I'm not one of these guys who calls out other fans around me: they're there to enjoy the game, just like me.
Which is why I have all this pent-up aggression that I need to get out here on the blog: these fans are terrible! Maybe last night was a specifically bad set of circumstances, but by God with this fan base's knowledge of hockey you couldn't run a skate rental shop. First of all, even when they're getting every officiating break in the book, they want more. We were lucky enough to bring a friend, who is just now learning the sport (this was his second game ever), and at one point, some Pen fan screamed out "Why wasn't that interference?" at such an incorrect play that even our near-hockey-virgin friend was able to answer (under his breath, of course) "Oh, I know this one! Because the puck was right there!"
This lack of awareness is extended beyond just a silly penalty call bias. My favorite moment was after Lundqvist's unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, which was being served by Avery, when everyone around me started getting on Sean Avery's case, because they saw him in the box. It reminded me of a moment in Atlanta a few years back, when the Thrashers scored on a soft shot from the point, and the entire arena started chanting "Luuuuuund-qviiiiiist," despite Stephen Valiquette being in goal. Everyone was getting on Avery because they read somewhere that they were supposed to, even though the call was on Lundqvist. Just a total lack of awareness of the game.
And, finally, I'm bitter, because I am nothing but nice to these people, and I smile and nod when they say incredibly stupid things about the game, and then I get called an asshole anyway, just because my team won. On my way out of the seats: "Go back to New York, you asshole!" Really? So, that I replied to: "Actually, I've lived in Pittsburgh for a decade, I just can't stand your hockey team. But thanks for being so friendly - you're doing a great job of representing our city. It was nice to meet you."
Look, I really do love the city of Pittsburgh. And I am friends with a number of Penguin fans, some of whom even know what the hell they're talking about when it comes to hockey. But a lot of these Penguin fans need to get a fucking clue. The exemplar, for me, was when some guy behind me yelled just before the phantom-hook on Gaborik, "Come on, that'd be holding in the NFL!" Not only did he get even the phantom-call wrong, but I've always said this about Penguin fans: they really know their football.
---------------
Thanks for the indulgence. Anyway, I love to see what I saw last night, and I'd love to see us bring it back home to play the Bruins tomorrow. This has the workings of a pretty good hockey team, and it's been a while since I've been able to honestly say I'm just excited about the team. Let's go Rangers.
Monday, November 15, 2010
So much to talk about
FIRST! The usual apology for gaps in posting: some crazy changes are going on at work right now. Everything is great, but it's been a bit busy for me to post as regularly as I used to. I'm hoping that I'll be able to continue this blog once this transition period is over (even though I've lost one of my two regular readers to law school), but I may have to move on to only posting in the evenings or something. We'll see.
WITH THAT OUT OF THE WAY! Yesterday afternoon might have been the most fun I've had watching a hockey game in a long time. Yes, as my insecure Pens fan friend reminds me, it was only the Oilers. And yet: 8-2? After coming close in but ultimately dropping 3 of 4 (to admittedly good hockey teams) and then taking until overtime to beat the lowly Sabres in overtime (despite an obvious regulation game-winner being inexcusably waved off), we needed a game like Saturday afternoon, where everything went right. Gaborik used his second game back to administer a clinic that ended in a hat trick, and even Frolov found himself making a couple of good plays (and, unrelatedly, netting a pair for himself). Up until recently, he was #1 on my list of Blueshirt liabilities, with absolutely no offensive production to make up for his defensive vacancy.
Boogaard is starting to earn his keep (notwithstanding that game-tying shot from the point against the Caps last week), by banging bodies around in addition to fighting. He's not the reason the Rangers are finally being seen as a tough team, but he helps. Speaking of being a tough team, remember that time old-time hockey came back to the Garden yesterday afternoon? How about 84 minutes plus 4 game misconducts handed out at 11:18 of the third. Man, that was fun. For those of you who missed it, here's a great way to spend 7 and a half minutes:
Oh, and let's put this whole "Avery sucker-punch" thing to bed, shall we? Perhaps Avery didn't follow "The Code," because he dropped his gloves and went right in for a punch. But Smid faced off against him, wanted to fight, and dropped his gloves, too. Avery just got his punch in faster. It may not be how the league's classiest pugilists conduct business, but it's a far cry from hitting a guy in the back of the head, or blind-siding someone who's body is limp, or sucker-punching someone in the nuts when a teammate already has him in a headlock, or any of the other actual cheap shots we see all the time.
This is classic "Avery Outrage," wherein Sean Avery is involved in something, so everyone tells the story of why he's the dirtbag. Where, I wonder, is the identical outrage over Theo Peckham reaching off ice into the hallway to punch Avery after the latter was already on his way to the locker room? That's not a cheap shot, but Avery is a dirtbag for not giving Smid, who instigated the fight initially and was facing Avery at the time, a few seconds to get his gloves off cleanly? Sorry, you don't get to start a fight and then cry foul just because the other guy is #16.
Oh, and I'm talking to you, Erik Christensen. You told reporters you thought it was a sucker-punch? Fucking really? Do you think you're playing good enough hockey to throw a teammate under the bus? Even if that teammate weren't one of the most consistent Ranger forwards since the lockout (which is more than can be said for you), that is fucking unacceptable! Even if your appraisal of the situation were at all accurate, I'd be hard-pressed to accept that kind of intra-team callout from anyone not named Ryan, Brandon, Marian, or Henrik. Seriously, fuck you, Erik Christensen. Remember that the Rangers are succeeding right now because of coming together as a team and defending each other. You think shit like this is gonna endear you to anyone? Think this'll urge Prust or Boogaard to come to your aid next time Dan Carcillo or Matt Cooke sends an actual sucker-punch toward your skull? Also remember: when Prospal and Drury come back, they're gonna have to replace someone. Your 7 points on the season aren't compelling enough on their own. Don't be a dickhead.
Anyway, all said and done, that brawl ended up incurring the following penalties: Avery got 2 for roughing in the first place. Avery and Smid each got 5 for fighting and a 10-minute "we don't want to deal with you anymore today" misconduct. Prust and Zack Stortini each got 5 for fighting and a game misconduct for fighting once a fight had already started (thus making it a brawl). Boyle and Theo Peckham, like Prust and Stortini, each got 5 for fighting and a game misconduct for fighting once a fight had already started. Peckham also got an additional 2 for roughing and an additional 10, presumably for going after Avery after he'd left the ice. Dubinsky and Colin Fraser each got a 10-minute misconduct for their little "over-the-bench" thing. Generally, I think that was pretty well-called - actually, the whole game was pretty well-called. Despite a momentous pile of penalty minutes (skewed by a momentous pile of fights), the refs generally let them all play the game. So that's nice.
MOVING ON! After that very exciting rout yesterday afternoon, the Rangers are coming to visit me in Pittsburgh tonight. After missing two games with the flu, Lundqvist will be back in net tonight, despite still not feeling 100%. I'm happy about it. In Biron's two wins over the last two games, he came up big occasionally, but also looked soft now and then, and I'm happy to see Hank return to his throne for tonight's match against these goddamn Pittsburgh Forwards. Plus, I'd feel silly wearing a Lundqvist jersey to the Arena with Biron in net.
In other lineup news, after yesterday's battle, Derek Boogaard is hilariously out with a hand injury (presumably from all of the punching his hand was tasked with yesterday). Todd White, who once again cleared waivers recently and then stayed with the team, will be taking his place.
OH AND ALSO! Everyone go check out the new New York Rangers Blog, now part of the Bloguin network (congratulations to Kevin DeLury). Same great timely info, new set of sponsors. Sweet!
AND FINALLY! Colon Campbell would be in a lot of trouble right now, if he were ever held accountable for anything he did! So, basically, nothing has changed. Puck Daddy, as usual, has a pretty good summary of what went down, but basically: former NHL official Dean Warren brought a case against the NHL, claiming wrongful termination of employment. As part of the suit, some emails were released, some of which cast Campbell in a very negative light. Campbell talks about trying to get some officials who penalized his son (whom, you'll recall, is an NHL center) fired, and frequently refers to a strong distaste for Marc Savard - generally, things the neutral head disciplinarian shouldn't be saying.
The outrage goes on and on, but the question is: does this matter? I tend to agree with Puck Daddy here: we are always talking about the disciplinary problems with the league, and how no one is accountable to anyone else in their Good Ole Boys' Club, so nothing changes. Is this actually different? Yes, it's hard evidence of specific bias, but hard video evidence of a pattern completely unacceptable calls has existed for some time, and it never actually matters - there is no punishment for this stuff because Campbell and Bettman are held accountable to nobody. So, will anything actually come of this? In all likelihood, this will be a set of obviously damning evidence that Colon Campbell is clearly biased, childish, and unfit to lead so much as a hockey-themed community parade, and then he will continue to serve as the NHL's Director of Hockey Operations. Because, honestly, why wouldn't he?
THAT'S ALL I'VE GOT FOR NOW! In less than two hours, I'll be heading over to the ironically-sponsored CONSOL Energy Center, the NHL's first ever LEED-certified arena. I'm excited to take some of yesterday afternoon's energy into tonight, and show the Penguins that our Mellon Arena woes died with the building. LET'S GO RANGERS!
WITH THAT OUT OF THE WAY! Yesterday afternoon might have been the most fun I've had watching a hockey game in a long time. Yes, as my insecure Pens fan friend reminds me, it was only the Oilers. And yet: 8-2? After coming close in but ultimately dropping 3 of 4 (to admittedly good hockey teams) and then taking until overtime to beat the lowly Sabres in overtime (despite an obvious regulation game-winner being inexcusably waved off), we needed a game like Saturday afternoon, where everything went right. Gaborik used his second game back to administer a clinic that ended in a hat trick, and even Frolov found himself making a couple of good plays (and, unrelatedly, netting a pair for himself). Up until recently, he was #1 on my list of Blueshirt liabilities, with absolutely no offensive production to make up for his defensive vacancy.
Boogaard is starting to earn his keep (notwithstanding that game-tying shot from the point against the Caps last week), by banging bodies around in addition to fighting. He's not the reason the Rangers are finally being seen as a tough team, but he helps. Speaking of being a tough team, remember that time old-time hockey came back to the Garden yesterday afternoon? How about 84 minutes plus 4 game misconducts handed out at 11:18 of the third. Man, that was fun. For those of you who missed it, here's a great way to spend 7 and a half minutes:
Oh, and let's put this whole "Avery sucker-punch" thing to bed, shall we? Perhaps Avery didn't follow "The Code," because he dropped his gloves and went right in for a punch. But Smid faced off against him, wanted to fight, and dropped his gloves, too. Avery just got his punch in faster. It may not be how the league's classiest pugilists conduct business, but it's a far cry from hitting a guy in the back of the head, or blind-siding someone who's body is limp, or sucker-punching someone in the nuts when a teammate already has him in a headlock, or any of the other actual cheap shots we see all the time.
This is classic "Avery Outrage," wherein Sean Avery is involved in something, so everyone tells the story of why he's the dirtbag. Where, I wonder, is the identical outrage over Theo Peckham reaching off ice into the hallway to punch Avery after the latter was already on his way to the locker room? That's not a cheap shot, but Avery is a dirtbag for not giving Smid, who instigated the fight initially and was facing Avery at the time, a few seconds to get his gloves off cleanly? Sorry, you don't get to start a fight and then cry foul just because the other guy is #16.
Oh, and I'm talking to you, Erik Christensen. You told reporters you thought it was a sucker-punch? Fucking really? Do you think you're playing good enough hockey to throw a teammate under the bus? Even if that teammate weren't one of the most consistent Ranger forwards since the lockout (which is more than can be said for you), that is fucking unacceptable! Even if your appraisal of the situation were at all accurate, I'd be hard-pressed to accept that kind of intra-team callout from anyone not named Ryan, Brandon, Marian, or Henrik. Seriously, fuck you, Erik Christensen. Remember that the Rangers are succeeding right now because of coming together as a team and defending each other. You think shit like this is gonna endear you to anyone? Think this'll urge Prust or Boogaard to come to your aid next time Dan Carcillo or Matt Cooke sends an actual sucker-punch toward your skull? Also remember: when Prospal and Drury come back, they're gonna have to replace someone. Your 7 points on the season aren't compelling enough on their own. Don't be a dickhead.
Anyway, all said and done, that brawl ended up incurring the following penalties: Avery got 2 for roughing in the first place. Avery and Smid each got 5 for fighting and a 10-minute "we don't want to deal with you anymore today" misconduct. Prust and Zack Stortini each got 5 for fighting and a game misconduct for fighting once a fight had already started (thus making it a brawl). Boyle and Theo Peckham, like Prust and Stortini, each got 5 for fighting and a game misconduct for fighting once a fight had already started. Peckham also got an additional 2 for roughing and an additional 10, presumably for going after Avery after he'd left the ice. Dubinsky and Colin Fraser each got a 10-minute misconduct for their little "over-the-bench" thing. Generally, I think that was pretty well-called - actually, the whole game was pretty well-called. Despite a momentous pile of penalty minutes (skewed by a momentous pile of fights), the refs generally let them all play the game. So that's nice.
MOVING ON! After that very exciting rout yesterday afternoon, the Rangers are coming to visit me in Pittsburgh tonight. After missing two games with the flu, Lundqvist will be back in net tonight, despite still not feeling 100%. I'm happy about it. In Biron's two wins over the last two games, he came up big occasionally, but also looked soft now and then, and I'm happy to see Hank return to his throne for tonight's match against these goddamn Pittsburgh Forwards. Plus, I'd feel silly wearing a Lundqvist jersey to the Arena with Biron in net.
In other lineup news, after yesterday's battle, Derek Boogaard is hilariously out with a hand injury (presumably from all of the punching his hand was tasked with yesterday). Todd White, who once again cleared waivers recently and then stayed with the team, will be taking his place.
OH AND ALSO! Everyone go check out the new New York Rangers Blog, now part of the Bloguin network (congratulations to Kevin DeLury). Same great timely info, new set of sponsors. Sweet!
AND FINALLY! Colon Campbell would be in a lot of trouble right now, if he were ever held accountable for anything he did! So, basically, nothing has changed. Puck Daddy, as usual, has a pretty good summary of what went down, but basically: former NHL official Dean Warren brought a case against the NHL, claiming wrongful termination of employment. As part of the suit, some emails were released, some of which cast Campbell in a very negative light. Campbell talks about trying to get some officials who penalized his son (whom, you'll recall, is an NHL center) fired, and frequently refers to a strong distaste for Marc Savard - generally, things the neutral head disciplinarian shouldn't be saying.
The outrage goes on and on, but the question is: does this matter? I tend to agree with Puck Daddy here: we are always talking about the disciplinary problems with the league, and how no one is accountable to anyone else in their Good Ole Boys' Club, so nothing changes. Is this actually different? Yes, it's hard evidence of specific bias, but hard video evidence of a pattern completely unacceptable calls has existed for some time, and it never actually matters - there is no punishment for this stuff because Campbell and Bettman are held accountable to nobody. So, will anything actually come of this? In all likelihood, this will be a set of obviously damning evidence that Colon Campbell is clearly biased, childish, and unfit to lead so much as a hockey-themed community parade, and then he will continue to serve as the NHL's Director of Hockey Operations. Because, honestly, why wouldn't he?
THAT'S ALL I'VE GOT FOR NOW! In less than two hours, I'll be heading over to the ironically-sponsored CONSOL Energy Center, the NHL's first ever LEED-certified arena. I'm excited to take some of yesterday afternoon's energy into tonight, and show the Penguins that our Mellon Arena woes died with the building. LET'S GO RANGERS!
Friday, November 5, 2010
That was the worst!
Nothing good happened last night.
The Rangers, as the hype reminded us, traveled into the belly of the beast last night, America's worst civilized city, where everyone is mean. The city where Santa Claus is booed, babies drink Miller Lite, and projectile vomit is used as a form of assault. And, like so many visitors to Philly, we got our asses handed to us.
We actually started off playing a pretty solid offensive game, getting outshot badly (8-2 in the first) but spending a great deal of time in the Flyers' end. Unfortunately, the "not actually getting scoring chances" thing continued throughout, and the "time spent in the Philly zone" thing didn't. After Dubinsky made it 1-0 early in the second, the Flyers started scoring and didn't stop.
The four consecutive Flyer goals that were the only other goal lights we'd see were actually a nice sample platter of everything that went wrong last night. Like the four sons of Passover fame, each of these four goals represents some aspect of the whole abomination that was last night's game. Their first goal came off a gorgeous pass from Claude Giroux, through like 400 Rangers, right onto the tape of Mike Richards's stick, 2 feet in front of Lundqvist. The Rangers were somewhat at fault for crowding Giroux and leaving Richards alone, but you also have to be impressed by that pass. The Flyers, when they weren't committing felonies, played a solid hockey game.
The second goal came entirely at the fault of the officials, Marc Joannette and Justin St. Pierre, who failed to call a blatant hook on the newly bald Scott Hartnell behind the Ranger net. Hartnell pulled Michael Del Zotto off the puck, which trickled right onto the stick of Blair Betts (remember him?), who put it home. These officials...wow. I could write a paper or two about this game. It would probably cite this article at least once. But here's the list off the top of my head:
--Halfway through the first period, Staal comes in for a perfectly clean hit on Zherdev (I think it was Zherdev). At the last minute, Zherdev turns his head so he's facing the boards on impact. So it magically becomes "boarding." Flyers announcers proceed to explain what a smart play Zherdev made by turning his head, knowing it was too late for Staal to change what he was doing. So how is that a penalty?
--The aforementioned non-call on the hook that led directly to the Flyers' second goal.
--Halfway through the second, Jody Shelley (remember him, too?) elbows Boogaard. No call. As Boogard is turning around, his stick touches Shelley's side. Really, that's all it was. Go find a video of it. 2 minutes on Boogaard for "hooking." Not even fucking close. While waiting for the delayed penalty to be called, Shelley punched Boogaard in the back of the head. No call. Net result: Flyers PP.
--The one everyone is talking about: Carcillo's completely uncalled, completely uncalled-for headshot on Ruslan Fedotenko. Fedo's got his head down, Carcillo leaves his feet and elbows him in the head, sending him down to the ice. Textbook headshot. Not only was there no misconduct, there was no penalty whatsoever! When Fedotenko asked about it, Joannette helpfully replied "don't duck." Go read the whole Puck Daddy article I just linked you to - Wyshynski will give you the unbiased account.
And many more. Those are the highlights. Go watch this game for exactly what is wrong with the NHL. Fuck the NHL for not caring enough to fix this - when there's no accountability, shit like this will keep happening. This time, Fedotenko didn't get injured. So, now what - Carcillo gets a 1-game suspension, which doesn't affect the outcome of the actual game he was in (where in he got NO PENALTIES for the incident), and then he comes back and does it again. This is on Colon Campbell to fix. Full stop.
The third Flyer goal came on the third problem of the night for the Rangers: it was a soft goal let in by the King. Nikolai Zherdev (remember him, too, too?) just kinda shoved a bad angle shot at Lundqvist, who stopped it with his body before it kept traveling up, over his shoulder, and into the net. Hank just cold didn't have a great game last night. To co-opt and mangle a phrase I am pretty sure I read in some Larry Brooks column last season: Lundqvist was not blameless but not to be blamed. On a night where nothing else was going right, he could certainly have looked sharper and kept us in it longer. But it probably wouldn't have mattered.
Which brings us to the icing on last night's shit-cake: the Rangers kinda sucked. Pronger's slapshot in the third period, the only goal for either team that didn't occur in the second, went through a screen of a couple of Flyers who notably did not find their asses knocked to the ice before it made its way to the twine. Yes, there were awful, awful calls. And yes, the Rangers did sometime stand up for each other physically. Of note, after Carcillo's Headshotenko, Boogaard went after him. Carcillo (who, it is very important to remember, is a fucking pussy) skated the hell away from the 6'7", 265-lb. punching machine, like a fucking pussy. So, Prust said "OK, I'll do it" and proceeded to destroy Carcillo in the most one-sided fight on ice since Sidney Crosby vs. Boris Valabik's nutsack. So that was fun.
But as gratifying as that was (extremely), it wasn't the full physical response we needed. It was like the Rangers just couldn't finish their jobs last night. When we were in front of Bobbaryshnikov's net, we got cleared all the way to the ice. When they were in the King's court, they got shoved aside and stayed standing. Even when we spent a long time in their zone, or had extended PP time, we couldn't figure out how to put the puck on net. We just looked shitty. We should have followed the old "if you're gonna do the time, you might as well do the crime" philosophy and started running people over in the middle of the second, when the game was close and it was clear that Joannette and St. Pierre were planning on casting lots for the night. The message we sent physically was "Carcillo's a fucking pussy, but you guys can get away with this shit anyway," when it could have been "you cannot do this."
And so, at the end of the day, while neither the King's day in peasant clothing nor the confused couple of awful officials did us any favors, 'twas once again the Rangers who killed themselves. Ugh. Here's to forgetting last night ever happened.
In that vein, the good news is that we get right back on the horse tonight, with an opportunity to kick the Devils while they're down! Notably absent from tonight's matchup with minor injuries: Ryan Callahan and Martin Brodeur, both of whom are somewhat banged up but should return to their respective lineups shortly. I'm very disappointed about both of those things, but they don't make me too much less thirsty for blood tonight. Fuck the Devils; Let's Go Rangers!
The Rangers, as the hype reminded us, traveled into the belly of the beast last night, America's worst civilized city, where everyone is mean. The city where Santa Claus is booed, babies drink Miller Lite, and projectile vomit is used as a form of assault. And, like so many visitors to Philly, we got our asses handed to us.
We actually started off playing a pretty solid offensive game, getting outshot badly (8-2 in the first) but spending a great deal of time in the Flyers' end. Unfortunately, the "not actually getting scoring chances" thing continued throughout, and the "time spent in the Philly zone" thing didn't. After Dubinsky made it 1-0 early in the second, the Flyers started scoring and didn't stop.
The four consecutive Flyer goals that were the only other goal lights we'd see were actually a nice sample platter of everything that went wrong last night. Like the four sons of Passover fame, each of these four goals represents some aspect of the whole abomination that was last night's game. Their first goal came off a gorgeous pass from Claude Giroux, through like 400 Rangers, right onto the tape of Mike Richards's stick, 2 feet in front of Lundqvist. The Rangers were somewhat at fault for crowding Giroux and leaving Richards alone, but you also have to be impressed by that pass. The Flyers, when they weren't committing felonies, played a solid hockey game.
The second goal came entirely at the fault of the officials, Marc Joannette and Justin St. Pierre, who failed to call a blatant hook on the newly bald Scott Hartnell behind the Ranger net. Hartnell pulled Michael Del Zotto off the puck, which trickled right onto the stick of Blair Betts (remember him?), who put it home. These officials...wow. I could write a paper or two about this game. It would probably cite this article at least once. But here's the list off the top of my head:
--Halfway through the first period, Staal comes in for a perfectly clean hit on Zherdev (I think it was Zherdev). At the last minute, Zherdev turns his head so he's facing the boards on impact. So it magically becomes "boarding." Flyers announcers proceed to explain what a smart play Zherdev made by turning his head, knowing it was too late for Staal to change what he was doing. So how is that a penalty?
--The aforementioned non-call on the hook that led directly to the Flyers' second goal.
--Halfway through the second, Jody Shelley (remember him, too?) elbows Boogaard. No call. As Boogard is turning around, his stick touches Shelley's side. Really, that's all it was. Go find a video of it. 2 minutes on Boogaard for "hooking." Not even fucking close. While waiting for the delayed penalty to be called, Shelley punched Boogaard in the back of the head. No call. Net result: Flyers PP.
--The one everyone is talking about: Carcillo's completely uncalled, completely uncalled-for headshot on Ruslan Fedotenko. Fedo's got his head down, Carcillo leaves his feet and elbows him in the head, sending him down to the ice. Textbook headshot. Not only was there no misconduct, there was no penalty whatsoever! When Fedotenko asked about it, Joannette helpfully replied "don't duck." Go read the whole Puck Daddy article I just linked you to - Wyshynski will give you the unbiased account.
And many more. Those are the highlights. Go watch this game for exactly what is wrong with the NHL. Fuck the NHL for not caring enough to fix this - when there's no accountability, shit like this will keep happening. This time, Fedotenko didn't get injured. So, now what - Carcillo gets a 1-game suspension, which doesn't affect the outcome of the actual game he was in (where in he got NO PENALTIES for the incident), and then he comes back and does it again. This is on Colon Campbell to fix. Full stop.
The third Flyer goal came on the third problem of the night for the Rangers: it was a soft goal let in by the King. Nikolai Zherdev (remember him, too, too?) just kinda shoved a bad angle shot at Lundqvist, who stopped it with his body before it kept traveling up, over his shoulder, and into the net. Hank just cold didn't have a great game last night. To co-opt and mangle a phrase I am pretty sure I read in some Larry Brooks column last season: Lundqvist was not blameless but not to be blamed. On a night where nothing else was going right, he could certainly have looked sharper and kept us in it longer. But it probably wouldn't have mattered.
Which brings us to the icing on last night's shit-cake: the Rangers kinda sucked. Pronger's slapshot in the third period, the only goal for either team that didn't occur in the second, went through a screen of a couple of Flyers who notably did not find their asses knocked to the ice before it made its way to the twine. Yes, there were awful, awful calls. And yes, the Rangers did sometime stand up for each other physically. Of note, after Carcillo's Headshotenko, Boogaard went after him. Carcillo (who, it is very important to remember, is a fucking pussy) skated the hell away from the 6'7", 265-lb. punching machine, like a fucking pussy. So, Prust said "OK, I'll do it" and proceeded to destroy Carcillo in the most one-sided fight on ice since Sidney Crosby vs. Boris Valabik's nutsack. So that was fun.
But as gratifying as that was (extremely), it wasn't the full physical response we needed. It was like the Rangers just couldn't finish their jobs last night. When we were in front of Bobbaryshnikov's net, we got cleared all the way to the ice. When they were in the King's court, they got shoved aside and stayed standing. Even when we spent a long time in their zone, or had extended PP time, we couldn't figure out how to put the puck on net. We just looked shitty. We should have followed the old "if you're gonna do the time, you might as well do the crime" philosophy and started running people over in the middle of the second, when the game was close and it was clear that Joannette and St. Pierre were planning on casting lots for the night. The message we sent physically was "Carcillo's a fucking pussy, but you guys can get away with this shit anyway," when it could have been "you cannot do this."
And so, at the end of the day, while neither the King's day in peasant clothing nor the confused couple of awful officials did us any favors, 'twas once again the Rangers who killed themselves. Ugh. Here's to forgetting last night ever happened.
In that vein, the good news is that we get right back on the horse tonight, with an opportunity to kick the Devils while they're down! Notably absent from tonight's matchup with minor injuries: Ryan Callahan and Martin Brodeur, both of whom are somewhat banged up but should return to their respective lineups shortly. I'm very disappointed about both of those things, but they don't make me too much less thirsty for blood tonight. Fuck the Devils; Let's Go Rangers!
Monday, November 1, 2010
Quick fun: I hate the Devils
Most bloggers say "Sorry I haven't posted in a while." I say "I have this job that sometimes asks me to do lots of stuff but also pays me; I'll post more regularly when you start paying me." I still have lots to do at work, but I wanted to post a quick one here, not about the Rangers so much as the Devils. In the Sporting News's otherwise vanilla (yet somewhat gratifying) report on the Devils' 3-1 loss to the Kings Saturday night, we learn the following from the 100-million-dollar man himself, Ilya "$325,000/goal*" Kovalchuk:
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The Kings are one of the teams that tried to sign me, and the [recruiting] trip was more for my wife, because she'd never been in L.A., and she wanted to go see it. So we went. But there's no point in talking about it anymore because I'm proud to be with the New Jersey Devils.
---------------
As the Internet says, "Wait, what?" Kovalchuk had all those contract discussions with the Kings...because his wife wanted to visit LA? Look, I'll admit: when I was fresh out of college, I got flown out to Seattle to interview Microsoft, and while I took the interview seriously (despite not being all that sure I actually wanted to work for them), I took a little advantage: I spent the night touring the city, and since they were reimbursing my dinner, I got myself a steak. I'm not gonna knock taking a little advantage of a potential employer like that.
But Kovalchuk was already a multi-million dollar athelete, you see. Let's not forget that he made $32 million over his last 5-year contract, before signing the now-famous 15-year deal. He made $7.5 million last season. Do you think that if his wife wanted to see L.A. in the off-season, he maybe could have taken less than the entire goddamn off-season to sign a contract, by talking only to the team he was serious about, and then used some of his massive-and-poised-to-become-moreso bank account to just fly them out for a goddamn vacation?
Fuck these guys. Wanna feel better about it? Here is a brief set of instructions designed to help you do so. I won't even give you a link; I want you to experience the joy of going through the motions here.
1. Go to www.nhl.com.
2. Click the "Standings" tab in the navigation bar.
3. Click the "League" tab just above the standings.
4. Scroll allllll the way down to the bottom, to team number 30.
See, wasn't that fun? The Devils (who are probably somewhat less quick these days to accuse the Rangers of overpaying for star power, undermining the actual quality of their team) are 3-8-1, for 7 points in 12 games. This league-worst record is also the worst start in franchise history, and makes the Devils one of only two teams (Sabres) winless at home so far this season.
Their goal differential is an impressively low -19, worst in the league by 6 goals. That means they are outscored by an average 1.58 goals per game. That is atrocious. If you don't understand how atrocious that is, for reference, last season's Edmonton Oilers finished with a league-worst goal differential of -70, or -0.854 goals per game. The season before that, the Islanders finished with -78, -0.95 goals per game. I know it's a relatively small sample size (14.6% of the season), but the Devils are on track to end the season with a goal differential of -129.83, the worst NHL goal differential since the 1999-2000 Atlanta Thrashers, who ended up being outscored by 143 goals in going 14-57-11 on the season (the Devils themselves are on track to finish this season with 47.8 points).
And no. I don't feel bad rubbing that in. This is fun as hell. Yes, I have defended them in the past, and I think the NHL went way too far in fining them and taking away picks. But goddamn does that ever not stop it from being fun as hell to watch them keep losing. Congratulations, guys: you won Kovalchukapalooza. Keep the dream alive.
Fuck the Devils.
*$325,000/goal rate is approximate, and based on math. Kovalchuk has lit the lamp 3 times so far this season, across 12 Devils games (he only played in 11, being benched for one because his $100 million contract couldn't inspire his ass to get to practice on time). So, that means he's good for a goal every 4 games, or 20.5 goals per season. This puts him on track to score 307.5 goals throughout his 15-year deal with the Devils, a rate of $305,203.25 per goal, assuming he stays healthy, never gets injured, and plays full seasons through his 43rd birthday.
---------------
The Kings are one of the teams that tried to sign me, and the [recruiting] trip was more for my wife, because she'd never been in L.A., and she wanted to go see it. So we went. But there's no point in talking about it anymore because I'm proud to be with the New Jersey Devils.
---------------
As the Internet says, "Wait, what?" Kovalchuk had all those contract discussions with the Kings...because his wife wanted to visit LA? Look, I'll admit: when I was fresh out of college, I got flown out to Seattle to interview Microsoft, and while I took the interview seriously (despite not being all that sure I actually wanted to work for them), I took a little advantage: I spent the night touring the city, and since they were reimbursing my dinner, I got myself a steak. I'm not gonna knock taking a little advantage of a potential employer like that.
But Kovalchuk was already a multi-million dollar athelete, you see. Let's not forget that he made $32 million over his last 5-year contract, before signing the now-famous 15-year deal. He made $7.5 million last season. Do you think that if his wife wanted to see L.A. in the off-season, he maybe could have taken less than the entire goddamn off-season to sign a contract, by talking only to the team he was serious about, and then used some of his massive-and-poised-to-become-moreso bank account to just fly them out for a goddamn vacation?
Fuck these guys. Wanna feel better about it? Here is a brief set of instructions designed to help you do so. I won't even give you a link; I want you to experience the joy of going through the motions here.
1. Go to www.nhl.com.
2. Click the "Standings" tab in the navigation bar.
3. Click the "League" tab just above the standings.
4. Scroll allllll the way down to the bottom, to team number 30.
See, wasn't that fun? The Devils (who are probably somewhat less quick these days to accuse the Rangers of overpaying for star power, undermining the actual quality of their team) are 3-8-1, for 7 points in 12 games. This league-worst record is also the worst start in franchise history, and makes the Devils one of only two teams (Sabres) winless at home so far this season.
Their goal differential is an impressively low -19, worst in the league by 6 goals. That means they are outscored by an average 1.58 goals per game. That is atrocious. If you don't understand how atrocious that is, for reference, last season's Edmonton Oilers finished with a league-worst goal differential of -70, or -0.854 goals per game. The season before that, the Islanders finished with -78, -0.95 goals per game. I know it's a relatively small sample size (14.6% of the season), but the Devils are on track to end the season with a goal differential of -129.83, the worst NHL goal differential since the 1999-2000 Atlanta Thrashers, who ended up being outscored by 143 goals in going 14-57-11 on the season (the Devils themselves are on track to finish this season with 47.8 points).
And no. I don't feel bad rubbing that in. This is fun as hell. Yes, I have defended them in the past, and I think the NHL went way too far in fining them and taking away picks. But goddamn does that ever not stop it from being fun as hell to watch them keep losing. Congratulations, guys: you won Kovalchukapalooza. Keep the dream alive.
Fuck the Devils.
*$325,000/goal rate is approximate, and based on math. Kovalchuk has lit the lamp 3 times so far this season, across 12 Devils games (he only played in 11, being benched for one because his $100 million contract couldn't inspire his ass to get to practice on time). So, that means he's good for a goal every 4 games, or 20.5 goals per season. This puts him on track to score 307.5 goals throughout his 15-year deal with the Devils, a rate of $305,203.25 per goal, assuming he stays healthy, never gets injured, and plays full seasons through his 43rd birthday.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
I love Ranger fans
It's so easy to stay a Ranger fan, even when the team sucks, because the fans are always so good. Contrast being here in Pittsburgh, where no one knows anything about hockey, but the team is very good. Anyway, yesterday Kevin DeLury (of NY Rangers Blog) had a live chat, in which he asked the honest question, "Who would you guys like to see the Rangers obtain in trade?" Here, in order, are the answers people gave:
-Alex Ovechkin
-Sheldon Souray
-Colby Armstrong
-Steven Crasby [sic]
-Brian Leetch
-Jonathan Bernier
-Lou Lamoriello
-"Killer" Carlson
-Lance Armstrong
-Dave Semenko
-Dion Phaneuf
-A team of skating instructors
-Ales Kotalik
-Christopher Higgins
I fucking love Ranger fans.
-Alex Ovechkin
-Sheldon Souray
-Colby Armstrong
-Steven Crasby [sic]
-Brian Leetch
-Jonathan Bernier
-Lou Lamoriello
-"Killer" Carlson
-Lance Armstrong
-Dave Semenko
-Dion Phaneuf
-A team of skating instructors
-Ales Kotalik
-Christopher Higgins
I fucking love Ranger fans.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Two quick things
1. If you want a good summary of the home opener (which I hardly provided), go read Scotty Hockey's.
2. The "Frolov on Stepan's line" experiment, as we all saw the other night, didn't go so hot. So, that line seems to be back to Avery-Stepan-Fedotenko, which is good. Other lines seem to be Dubinsky-Anisimov-Callahan staying together, plus a promotion for Prust (Frolov-Christensen-Prust), leaving Boogaard-Boyle-White. Interesting!
2. The "Frolov on Stepan's line" experiment, as we all saw the other night, didn't go so hot. So, that line seems to be back to Avery-Stepan-Fedotenko, which is good. Other lines seem to be Dubinsky-Anisimov-Callahan staying together, plus a promotion for Prust (Frolov-Christensen-Prust), leaving Boogaard-Boyle-White. Interesting!
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Two home games, one point
...and the Rangers fall to 1-2-1. Not the greatest start to the season. But hey - in our last two seasons, we started 7-1-0 and 10-2-1, and we combined to see a total of 1 playoff round, losing it. So maybe getting off to a mediocre start isn't such a bad thing?
In full disclosure, I didn't see Friday night's home opener. I had to be away for the weekend (family emergency, but the really really good kind), and I recorded the game, but didn't get the chance to watch it until last night, when I was already recording last night's game. Also I had heard the results. So I watched the opening ceremony, all the goals, Prust's fight, Gaborik's injury, and overtime. Then I actually watched last night's game.
First of all, Armstrong's hit on Gabby. It was definitely boarding, it got called right, and it sucks that Gaborik got injured on it. It was easily an illegal hit, with an appropriate call, and I have no reason to believe it was really dirty - it didn't look to me like Armstrong was trying to hurt Gaborik. That said, fuck him and his goddamn Maple Leafs, and I love that some people really did go after him afterwards. After the game, Brian Boyle referred to a 5-on-3 situation the Rangers found themselves in when Fedotenko and Avery went after Armstrong and Komisarek in the third:
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We had two of our guys go down, and one on a play we are simply not going to stand for. It was a matter of pride for us. It was a mindset going into the third. You know what? We killed it. We will stand up for each other, and then we will kill off those penalties when we get them. It's not going to be like last year.
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(Credit to the Post for the quote)
So there are good takeaways there: we lost Gaborik and Drury, battled back physically, and stole a point by forcing OT after being down 3-1 going into the third. (Also, the interference call on Staal 3 minutes into OT, which led to the game-winner, was really soft.)
On to the game I actually watched: without Drury or Gaborik, we made some line changes. We left Dubinsky-Anisimov-Callahan alone as the first line, and dropped Frolov down to skate with Stepan and Fedotenko as the second line. Boyle and Prust earned promotions to the third line with Avery, and Christensen and White filled in with Boogaard on the fourth. If it were late in the season, and Avery-Stepan-Fedotenko were already some kind of powerhouse line, I'd disagree with the move, but I'm all about trying things right now. As it happens, Frolov-Stepan-Fedotenko (which doesn't sound like a bad idea on paper at all) didn't exactly spark (though who did), and some think this will change up again for Thursday night's game.
Once again, there were good things to take away from last night, and they again look like our willingness to battle physically. After being outpaced to an unbelievable degree, outshot 15-4 in thirteen and a half minutes of hockey, the Rangers settled down and fought back. My favorite moment? When TJ Galiardi took Girardi down from behind, and Del Zotto jumped him. The Rangers would have had a man advantage on the appropriately-called boarding penalty, but instead skated 4-on-4 because Del Zotto went after Galiardi. And I love that. Stand up for your guys, and like Boyle said, deal with the penalties that come with that.
That said, we need to work on the second part of that some. The Rangers were 0-for-5 with the man advantage, while the Avs were 2-for-2. You're not gonna win too many games with those numbers. Forget not having anyone to finish plays at even strength: we can't spend that much time up a man without some more quality chances. And our plan to stand up for ourselves even if we take penalties doesn't actually work if we can't kill them off.
The point is, all things considered, there are reasons to be happy right now. And OK, fine - let's talk about those "all things" we need to consider; let's talk about the three injured elephants in the room. Yes, three - remember Vinny Prospal?
There's actually good news on the Prospal front - relatively speaking. Yesterday's exploratory knee surgery did not return with the news "you will never play hockey again." In fact, Prospal is expected to be able to return in 6-8 weeks. You never know how that could change, or how he'll play when he comes back, but that's certainly good news.
As for Gabby and Drury - well, let's try to get comfortable with Christensen in the lineup for a while, shall we? Gaborik separated his shoulder on the hit by Armstrong Friday night, and will be out 3-4 weeks with that. Drury, on a weird collision against the boards with Rozsival that same night, rebroke the same finger that was broken during the preseason, but in a new place (come on, really?!?). He's expected to be out 4-8 weeks while that heals.
So, Prospal out 6-8 for a knee, Gaborik 3-4 for a shoulder, and Drury 4-8 for a finger. That's...not good news for us. Inspired by a graphic I saw on the Versus broadcast last night, I did a little research. Last season, Prospal, Gaborik, and Drury combined for 76 goals and 100 assists. The Rangers, in total, scored 217 goals, with 380 assist. So these three guys were responsible for 29.5% of the Rangers' points last season, including over 35% of our goals. So yeah, it's a problem. But hey, at least we have enough other forwards to play 12 without going over the cap, right Lou?
With regard to these injuries, before I let you go, I want to show you something. You know that "Questions Will Become Answers" campaign the NHL is running right now? This one. It's cute: ask a bunch of questions that bored hockey people were asking in the offseason because we didn't have any hockey to watch, and then say "Questions Will Become Answers." I like it.
Anyway, I went to the Rangers' site this morning, and one of the Flash ads they're running is a team-specific version of that. No sound, just list some off-season questions and then say "Questions Will Become Answers." So, what are the questions the Rangers-specific ad asks? I promise you this is completely undoctored - the ad that is running there is just the following four frames, in succession. There are no other frames in the ad, and I did not make any of these up. It's just these four images, one after the other.
Too soon! I mean, I get it - it was made in the offseason, those were the big questions, and so on. I know. But maybe someone ought to notice and take it down, for now? Oof. Anyway, let's see if there are any lineup changes before Thursday, when I'm excited to go into Toronto and attempt to bring the hurt to the Leafs that they brought to us in our house on Friday. It may be a long couple of months, but as they say, every challenge is an opportunity, or something?
In full disclosure, I didn't see Friday night's home opener. I had to be away for the weekend (family emergency, but the really really good kind), and I recorded the game, but didn't get the chance to watch it until last night, when I was already recording last night's game. Also I had heard the results. So I watched the opening ceremony, all the goals, Prust's fight, Gaborik's injury, and overtime. Then I actually watched last night's game.
First of all, Armstrong's hit on Gabby. It was definitely boarding, it got called right, and it sucks that Gaborik got injured on it. It was easily an illegal hit, with an appropriate call, and I have no reason to believe it was really dirty - it didn't look to me like Armstrong was trying to hurt Gaborik. That said, fuck him and his goddamn Maple Leafs, and I love that some people really did go after him afterwards. After the game, Brian Boyle referred to a 5-on-3 situation the Rangers found themselves in when Fedotenko and Avery went after Armstrong and Komisarek in the third:
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We had two of our guys go down, and one on a play we are simply not going to stand for. It was a matter of pride for us. It was a mindset going into the third. You know what? We killed it. We will stand up for each other, and then we will kill off those penalties when we get them. It's not going to be like last year.
---------------
(Credit to the Post for the quote)
So there are good takeaways there: we lost Gaborik and Drury, battled back physically, and stole a point by forcing OT after being down 3-1 going into the third. (Also, the interference call on Staal 3 minutes into OT, which led to the game-winner, was really soft.)
On to the game I actually watched: without Drury or Gaborik, we made some line changes. We left Dubinsky-Anisimov-Callahan alone as the first line, and dropped Frolov down to skate with Stepan and Fedotenko as the second line. Boyle and Prust earned promotions to the third line with Avery, and Christensen and White filled in with Boogaard on the fourth. If it were late in the season, and Avery-Stepan-Fedotenko were already some kind of powerhouse line, I'd disagree with the move, but I'm all about trying things right now. As it happens, Frolov-Stepan-Fedotenko (which doesn't sound like a bad idea on paper at all) didn't exactly spark (though who did), and some think this will change up again for Thursday night's game.
Once again, there were good things to take away from last night, and they again look like our willingness to battle physically. After being outpaced to an unbelievable degree, outshot 15-4 in thirteen and a half minutes of hockey, the Rangers settled down and fought back. My favorite moment? When TJ Galiardi took Girardi down from behind, and Del Zotto jumped him. The Rangers would have had a man advantage on the appropriately-called boarding penalty, but instead skated 4-on-4 because Del Zotto went after Galiardi. And I love that. Stand up for your guys, and like Boyle said, deal with the penalties that come with that.
That said, we need to work on the second part of that some. The Rangers were 0-for-5 with the man advantage, while the Avs were 2-for-2. You're not gonna win too many games with those numbers. Forget not having anyone to finish plays at even strength: we can't spend that much time up a man without some more quality chances. And our plan to stand up for ourselves even if we take penalties doesn't actually work if we can't kill them off.
The point is, all things considered, there are reasons to be happy right now. And OK, fine - let's talk about those "all things" we need to consider; let's talk about the three injured elephants in the room. Yes, three - remember Vinny Prospal?
There's actually good news on the Prospal front - relatively speaking. Yesterday's exploratory knee surgery did not return with the news "you will never play hockey again." In fact, Prospal is expected to be able to return in 6-8 weeks. You never know how that could change, or how he'll play when he comes back, but that's certainly good news.
As for Gabby and Drury - well, let's try to get comfortable with Christensen in the lineup for a while, shall we? Gaborik separated his shoulder on the hit by Armstrong Friday night, and will be out 3-4 weeks with that. Drury, on a weird collision against the boards with Rozsival that same night, rebroke the same finger that was broken during the preseason, but in a new place (come on, really?!?). He's expected to be out 4-8 weeks while that heals.
So, Prospal out 6-8 for a knee, Gaborik 3-4 for a shoulder, and Drury 4-8 for a finger. That's...not good news for us. Inspired by a graphic I saw on the Versus broadcast last night, I did a little research. Last season, Prospal, Gaborik, and Drury combined for 76 goals and 100 assists. The Rangers, in total, scored 217 goals, with 380 assist. So these three guys were responsible for 29.5% of the Rangers' points last season, including over 35% of our goals. So yeah, it's a problem. But hey, at least we have enough other forwards to play 12 without going over the cap, right Lou?
With regard to these injuries, before I let you go, I want to show you something. You know that "Questions Will Become Answers" campaign the NHL is running right now? This one. It's cute: ask a bunch of questions that bored hockey people were asking in the offseason because we didn't have any hockey to watch, and then say "Questions Will Become Answers." I like it.
Anyway, I went to the Rangers' site this morning, and one of the Flash ads they're running is a team-specific version of that. No sound, just list some off-season questions and then say "Questions Will Become Answers." So, what are the questions the Rangers-specific ad asks? I promise you this is completely undoctored - the ad that is running there is just the following four frames, in succession. There are no other frames in the ad, and I did not make any of these up. It's just these four images, one after the other.
Too soon! I mean, I get it - it was made in the offseason, those were the big questions, and so on. I know. But maybe someone ought to notice and take it down, for now? Oof. Anyway, let's see if there are any lineup changes before Thursday, when I'm excited to go into Toronto and attempt to bring the hurt to the Leafs that they brought to us in our house on Friday. It may be a long couple of months, but as they say, every challenge is an opportunity, or something?
Thursday, October 14, 2010
White v. Kennedy
OK, so to make room for Drury on the roster, we demoted Tim Kennedy and not Todd White. It was widely accepted that Kennedy looked better in camp than White did, not to mention their salary disparity (Kennedy's cap hit is $550,000, compared to White's $2.375 million). It's worth remembering that to call Kennedy back up, we would have to first put him on re-entry waivers, off of which any NHL team below us in the standings could recall him at half his salary, leaving us on the hook for the other half.
It's a weird move, made all the weirder by Torts's explanation: "He's a kid that has to play...I think he had a good camp. It tailed a little bit, but it's not going to help him sitting around here...He understands, and he's a great kid. We'll see where we go as we move on here." So, it seems to be the usual "give him a chance to develop" explanation. But why do we care about Kennedy's development, when we're not really convinced he'll stay in the Rangers' system? It's weird.
One possible explanation is that we don't: we've got enough second- and third-liners right now, and so why keep a roster spot filled with a guy we aren't gonna use at all now that Drury is back? That makes sense, and I think the move is only really confusing in the face of leaving Todd White up - surely if we have no use for Kennedy, we have no use for White, right?
This morning at practice, White apparently skated on a fourth defensive pair, with Mike Sauer. Maybe we're keeping him around for the possibility of another defenseman to rotate in. I can't actually argue with this: Michal Rozsival is the third-best defenseman on the team right now, hands down. If White can play a solid defensive game (I have no reason to believe that he can or that he can't right now), he's worth giving a shot - it's not like he's going to be significantly less responsible than Del Zotto, Eminger, and Staal have been.
Is this actually why White is being kept around? I have no idea. But it's an interesting thought, for a club that is already so clearly deficient on defense. As for tonight, the third pair will retain Eminger while giving Gilroy his first chance of the season, scratching Sauer. I guess that's fine? Sauer definitely played better hockey than Eminger in these first two games, but not by enough for me to care right now. Let's keep giving everyone a chance until we find some sort of pair that isn't awful. And I have no problem with that pair including Todd white, I guess.
As for the forward lines, White (whom I guess I'll leave in this part of the discussion for now) is of course scratched, though Torts has not yet committed to a lineup or to scratching Christensen, who skated at practice today. Christensen played with the Avery-Stepan-Fedotenko line, while White played with the Boogaard-Boyle-Prust line (while not on defense with Sauer). I still think the smart thing to do is give Drury a shot at top pivot and let Christensen sit, but they never ask me.
In other news, after years of paying no attention to him whatsoever, despite the fact that he's such a solid, unsung player, it's nice to see the NHL finally turn the spotlight toward this Crosby kid here in Pittsburgh. Going to nhl.com and seeing his face staring back at me was a welcome change from their usual coverage of teams like the Coyotes and the Kings, players like Rick Nash and Dustin Byfuglien, and especially all those Europeans. And the article, which lists all the different muscle groups Crosby likes to exercise and features the phrase "divine providence," was just so insightful - it really helped me learn more about the game of hockey! So, thanks for that, nhl.com.
It's a weird move, made all the weirder by Torts's explanation: "He's a kid that has to play...I think he had a good camp. It tailed a little bit, but it's not going to help him sitting around here...He understands, and he's a great kid. We'll see where we go as we move on here." So, it seems to be the usual "give him a chance to develop" explanation. But why do we care about Kennedy's development, when we're not really convinced he'll stay in the Rangers' system? It's weird.
One possible explanation is that we don't: we've got enough second- and third-liners right now, and so why keep a roster spot filled with a guy we aren't gonna use at all now that Drury is back? That makes sense, and I think the move is only really confusing in the face of leaving Todd White up - surely if we have no use for Kennedy, we have no use for White, right?
This morning at practice, White apparently skated on a fourth defensive pair, with Mike Sauer. Maybe we're keeping him around for the possibility of another defenseman to rotate in. I can't actually argue with this: Michal Rozsival is the third-best defenseman on the team right now, hands down. If White can play a solid defensive game (I have no reason to believe that he can or that he can't right now), he's worth giving a shot - it's not like he's going to be significantly less responsible than Del Zotto, Eminger, and Staal have been.
Is this actually why White is being kept around? I have no idea. But it's an interesting thought, for a club that is already so clearly deficient on defense. As for tonight, the third pair will retain Eminger while giving Gilroy his first chance of the season, scratching Sauer. I guess that's fine? Sauer definitely played better hockey than Eminger in these first two games, but not by enough for me to care right now. Let's keep giving everyone a chance until we find some sort of pair that isn't awful. And I have no problem with that pair including Todd white, I guess.
As for the forward lines, White (whom I guess I'll leave in this part of the discussion for now) is of course scratched, though Torts has not yet committed to a lineup or to scratching Christensen, who skated at practice today. Christensen played with the Avery-Stepan-Fedotenko line, while White played with the Boogaard-Boyle-Prust line (while not on defense with Sauer). I still think the smart thing to do is give Drury a shot at top pivot and let Christensen sit, but they never ask me.
In other news, after years of paying no attention to him whatsoever, despite the fact that he's such a solid, unsung player, it's nice to see the NHL finally turn the spotlight toward this Crosby kid here in Pittsburgh. Going to nhl.com and seeing his face staring back at me was a welcome change from their usual coverage of teams like the Coyotes and the Kings, players like Rick Nash and Dustin Byfuglien, and especially all those Europeans. And the article, which lists all the different muscle groups Crosby likes to exercise and features the phrase "divine providence," was just so insightful - it really helped me learn more about the game of hockey! So, thanks for that, nhl.com.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Drury v. Christensen
This will certainly become clearer through practice today, but we are very likely to see some lineup changes for Friday's home opener against the Leafs. There's a good chance Drury, who has been skating at practice again, will be back in the lineup. This doesn't complicate the roster situation very much: clearly either White or Kennedy (both of whom have cleared waivers already, you'll recall) will simply be sent down to Hartford (my money's still on White). Since neither Drury nor Prospal is on LTIR, they're both already counted against the cap, so this won't hurt our cap situation any (it will help a little).
As for the lineup, the question, of course, is whom he replaces. We likely get a free answer there, as Christensen seems to have suffered some sort of minor injury on Monday, when he skated to the locker room after what looked to me like a pretty innocuous (though uncalled) hook. At last report, it was some sort of leg injury, the extent of which is unknown.
This kinda works out, since Christensen would be my vote for removal anyway. The Frolov-Christensen-Gaborik line has not really clicked in the way that the second and third lines have, albeit throughout a small sample size of two games, and that's the line I'd want to change up right now. Taking Christensen out of the middle and giving Drury a chance there seems smart; I'd be just as happy putting Prospal there if he were the one returning, to see what happens.
So what it comes down to is this: there are basically two schools of thought here. One is right and one is wrong. Some people say that, because the Avery-Stepan-Fedotenko line has been so effective, and Stepan looks so fantastic there, he should be promoted to the first line to replace Christensen, leaving space for Drury between Fedo and Avery. This is the "the better you do, the higher up in the lines you go" theory, and it is wrong. It sounds like wisdom when you say "Stepan played really well, so he should be moved up." But what you're actually saying is "Avery, Stepan, and Fedotenko performed so well that I'm going to break them up immediately." Do not do this, this is wrong.
The other school of thought, the reasonable one, says that Avery-Stepan-Fedotenko and Dubinsky-Anisimov-Callahan both look fantastic, so they should be left alone looking fantastic. Meanwhile, Frolov-Christensen-Gaborik hasn't worked out just yet, and Christensen is injured, and Drury is back in, so maybe we should try Drury at that pivot. People from the dumb school will counter by saying "but Drury isn't very good, look how much we pay him." Those people are wrong - just like I wouldn't stick Drury on the first line just because of the name on his back, neither would I deny him that spot just because of it. We need to find chemistry there, and we need to leave alone the lines that are working. This is not hard.
Anyway, we'll see which one of those two things Torts actually does - it's very likely that Friday's lineup will contain Drury and not Christensen, so here's hoping he does the smart thing and leaves the second and third lines alone.
As for the lineup, the question, of course, is whom he replaces. We likely get a free answer there, as Christensen seems to have suffered some sort of minor injury on Monday, when he skated to the locker room after what looked to me like a pretty innocuous (though uncalled) hook. At last report, it was some sort of leg injury, the extent of which is unknown.
This kinda works out, since Christensen would be my vote for removal anyway. The Frolov-Christensen-Gaborik line has not really clicked in the way that the second and third lines have, albeit throughout a small sample size of two games, and that's the line I'd want to change up right now. Taking Christensen out of the middle and giving Drury a chance there seems smart; I'd be just as happy putting Prospal there if he were the one returning, to see what happens.
So what it comes down to is this: there are basically two schools of thought here. One is right and one is wrong. Some people say that, because the Avery-Stepan-Fedotenko line has been so effective, and Stepan looks so fantastic there, he should be promoted to the first line to replace Christensen, leaving space for Drury between Fedo and Avery. This is the "the better you do, the higher up in the lines you go" theory, and it is wrong. It sounds like wisdom when you say "Stepan played really well, so he should be moved up." But what you're actually saying is "Avery, Stepan, and Fedotenko performed so well that I'm going to break them up immediately." Do not do this, this is wrong.
The other school of thought, the reasonable one, says that Avery-Stepan-Fedotenko and Dubinsky-Anisimov-Callahan both look fantastic, so they should be left alone looking fantastic. Meanwhile, Frolov-Christensen-Gaborik hasn't worked out just yet, and Christensen is injured, and Drury is back in, so maybe we should try Drury at that pivot. People from the dumb school will counter by saying "but Drury isn't very good, look how much we pay him." Those people are wrong - just like I wouldn't stick Drury on the first line just because of the name on his back, neither would I deny him that spot just because of it. We need to find chemistry there, and we need to leave alone the lines that are working. This is not hard.
Anyway, we'll see which one of those two things Torts actually does - it's very likely that Friday's lineup will contain Drury and not Christensen, so here's hoping he does the smart thing and leaves the second and third lines alone.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
I'm not smart
I apologize to the Internet (by which I mean the 2.5 people who read this) for yelling and screaming about something I was very wrong about. I'm an idiot. Yesterday, there were NHL games all afternoon. I bitched about how having all those games on Columbus Day is ridiculous, because Columbus Day is ridiculous, and no one gets off for it, and why should Canada care anyway?
Yesterday was also Thanksgiving Day in Canada. I'm an asshole, and I'm sorry. Carry on.
Yesterday was also Thanksgiving Day in Canada. I'm an asshole, and I'm sorry. Carry on.
Friday, October 8, 2010
It's Eminger
This morning, the third pair is Eminger / Gilroy, with Sauer sitting. That seems to mean this will be the case for tomorrow night's opener (!!!) in Buffalo. I'm reasonably okay with that, assuming Torts will continue to rotate. If Sauer's gonna be out for extended stretches, better that he sit in Hartford where he can get more ice time. But lest I complain about a perceived potential problem that hasn't actually happened yet before our season even starts, let's just say this sounds reasonable, and I can't wait to actually see these guys play. I've posted it all here before, as recently as two days ago, but I feel like consolidating it (and also I'm more than a little excited), so here's what opening night looks like!
Frolov - Christensen - Gaborik
Dubinsky - Anisimov - Callahan
Avery - Stepan - Fedotenko
Boogaard - Boyle - Prust
Staal - Girardi
Del Zotto - Rozsival
Eminger - Gilroy
Lundqvist
Biron
Healthy Scratches: Kennedy, Sauer, White
Injured Reserve: Drury, Prospal
Frolov - Christensen - Gaborik
Dubinsky - Anisimov - Callahan
Avery - Stepan - Fedotenko
Boogaard - Boyle - Prust
Staal - Girardi
Del Zotto - Rozsival
Eminger - Gilroy
Lundqvist
Biron
Healthy Scratches: Kennedy, Sauer, White
Injured Reserve: Drury, Prospal
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Aaaaand there's your answer
Chris Drury and Vinny Prospal have officially been placed on Injured Reserve. This brings the roster down to 23, including Todd White and Tim Kennedy, both of whom have cleared waivers and remain quite happily as the Rangers' 13th and 14th forwards, for now. As for Drury and Prospal, they won't be permitted to play for 7 full days. Fortunately, that period is retroactive back to the original injury, which for Drury was September 20th and for Prospal was the 24th, so they're both already eligible to return according to NHL rule (though they won't, of course, until they're healthy).
In bad news, Torts seems to expect Prospal out for a significant chunk of time, saying today "I don't expect him for a little bit here... he's an important guy for us, but we can't depend on that. We need to move on. Not to disrespect Vinny but we need to understand that we need to be playing without him right now." He also said he would likely be appointing another Alternate Captain, given both Prospal's and Drury's absences. Ouch.
And now, please pardon this interruption for a Special Rant about the second game of our regular season, on Monday.
----------------
SPECIAL RANT:
Fucking Columbus Day?!? Why the fuck do we have a hockey game at 1:00 on a fucking Monday?? No one gets off for Columbus Day; it's fucking Columbus Day! I have to miss the second goddamn game of the season, and a game against the fucking Islanders, no less? Because someone thought it was a good idea to schedule three NHL games, two of which are division rivalries, in the middle of the afternoon on fucking Columbus Day?? What the fucking fuck?!? I can't take a fucking day off to watch hockey on a shitty TV feed because NHL Center Ice can't be bothered to use my $180 a year to broadcast me a goddamn HD feed more than twice a year! How am I supposed to watch this?!? Fuck you so much, NHL! You're supposed to be from CANADA!! What the ever-living bed-shitting smallpox-blanketed fuck are you doing assuming people are celebrating goddammit COLUMBUS DAY?!? FUCK YOU!
---------------
Ahem. So, the Rangers opening night 23-man roster has been officially decided, and here it is:
Forwards: Anisimov, Avery, Boogaard, Boyle, Callahan, Christensen, Dubinsky, Fedotenko, Frolov, Gaborik, Kennedy, Prust, Stepan, White
Defensemen: Del Zotto, Eminger, Gilroy, Girardi, Rozsival, Sauer, Staal
Goalies: Biron, Lundqvist
As for the starting lineup, obviously nothing is set in stone, but it seems overwhelmingly likely that the cuts of White and Kennedy, and the lines we've been using in practice the last few days, will stay, and with Staal back at practice today, it seems like we know what most of the lineup is going to be. The forward lines for opening night should be:
Frolov - Christensen - Gaborik
Dubinsky - Anisimov - Callahan
Avery - Stepan - Fedotenko
Boogaard - Boyle - Prust
As for the defensive pairs, we should have Staal/Girardi and Del Zotto/Rozsival, leaving Eminger, Gilroy, and Sauer for the final pair. We may see these three rotated into the final two spots a lot throughout the season, which I would not be opposed to, but it's anyone's guess what our opening night third pair will be. Most people expect it to contain Matt Gilroy, and people are divided as to whether they think his partner will be Eminger or Sauer.
Oh, and, um, Lundqvist will be starting in net, with Biron as his backup.
Let's go Rangers!
In bad news, Torts seems to expect Prospal out for a significant chunk of time, saying today "I don't expect him for a little bit here... he's an important guy for us, but we can't depend on that. We need to move on. Not to disrespect Vinny but we need to understand that we need to be playing without him right now." He also said he would likely be appointing another Alternate Captain, given both Prospal's and Drury's absences. Ouch.
And now, please pardon this interruption for a Special Rant about the second game of our regular season, on Monday.
----------------
SPECIAL RANT:
Fucking Columbus Day?!? Why the fuck do we have a hockey game at 1:00 on a fucking Monday?? No one gets off for Columbus Day; it's fucking Columbus Day! I have to miss the second goddamn game of the season, and a game against the fucking Islanders, no less? Because someone thought it was a good idea to schedule three NHL games, two of which are division rivalries, in the middle of the afternoon on fucking Columbus Day?? What the fucking fuck?!? I can't take a fucking day off to watch hockey on a shitty TV feed because NHL Center Ice can't be bothered to use my $180 a year to broadcast me a goddamn HD feed more than twice a year! How am I supposed to watch this?!? Fuck you so much, NHL! You're supposed to be from CANADA!! What the ever-living bed-shitting smallpox-blanketed fuck are you doing assuming people are celebrating goddammit COLUMBUS DAY?!? FUCK YOU!
---------------
Ahem. So, the Rangers opening night 23-man roster has been officially decided, and here it is:
Forwards: Anisimov, Avery, Boogaard, Boyle, Callahan, Christensen, Dubinsky, Fedotenko, Frolov, Gaborik, Kennedy, Prust, Stepan, White
Defensemen: Del Zotto, Eminger, Gilroy, Girardi, Rozsival, Sauer, Staal
Goalies: Biron, Lundqvist
As for the starting lineup, obviously nothing is set in stone, but it seems overwhelmingly likely that the cuts of White and Kennedy, and the lines we've been using in practice the last few days, will stay, and with Staal back at practice today, it seems like we know what most of the lineup is going to be. The forward lines for opening night should be:
Frolov - Christensen - Gaborik
Dubinsky - Anisimov - Callahan
Avery - Stepan - Fedotenko
Boogaard - Boyle - Prust
As for the defensive pairs, we should have Staal/Girardi and Del Zotto/Rozsival, leaving Eminger, Gilroy, and Sauer for the final pair. We may see these three rotated into the final two spots a lot throughout the season, which I would not be opposed to, but it's anyone's guess what our opening night third pair will be. Most people expect it to contain Matt Gilroy, and people are divided as to whether they think his partner will be Eminger or Sauer.
Oh, and, um, Lundqvist will be starting in net, with Biron as his backup.
Let's go Rangers!
Waiver wire
So today at 3:00 is the deadline for finishing up your team: by 3:00 today, your roster must contain no more than 23 people, and your cap hit must be legal (up until now, the teams are afforded a summer cap allowance of 10%, giving them $65.34 million to work with). So, naturally, yesterday, a lot of teams placed players on waivers, in order to get down to those numbers.
The Rangers (though, as I've explained here, they had perfectly legal recourse in simply placing Drury and Prospal on IR) chose to make such a move, waiving both Todd White and Tim Kennedy. This brings the Rangers roster to 23, at $57,201,667 (the cap, you'll recall, is $59.4 million). So, we're extremely safe.
But we were fine before. Why did we do this? Basically, because it gives us room just in case. Because of today's 3:00 deadline, lots of teams will be putting people on waivers over yesterday and today. Maybe we'd want one? This gives us some room to try to grab somebody and not have to worry about being over roster or cap.
Meanwhile, it does add the risk of White or Kennedy being picked up by some other team (well, realistically, probably only Kennedy suffers that risk). However, both players just now officially cleared. I'm a little surprised no one picked up Kennedy at $550,000, but so it goes. Now, they remain New York Rangers property - that means we can assign them to Hartford, or we can just keep them on the roster. A player clearing waivers does not require his team to send that player to the minors - he can stay on the roster. If a player remains on an NHL roster (or, if he is sent to the minors and then recalled, probably having to clear re-entry waivers as well) for 30 days or 10 NHL games, his roster clearance will expire, and he will have to clear again if he is to be sent down.
Now, here's what I don't get: why Kennedy? Of the $2.925 million the Rangers would free up by demoting White and Kennedy, $2.375 of it comes from White. Why risk putting Kennedy on the block to get stolen by some other team, just to clear up $550,000 "in case"? Unless Sather wanted to clear up the additional roster spot, this doesn't make a ton of sense to me. Regardless, we dodged that minor bullet, and Kennedy cleared and remains Rangers property.
So, White and Kennedy were just waived in case the Rangers want to pick someone up before 3:00 today - both are, in fact, skating with the Rangers this morning. I'm still unclear as to whether or not we're making such a move - the rumor mill is pretty silent about the Rangers actually doing anything, and I'm not sure what we'd do if we did make a move. Also, if we don't do anything by then, I don't know if we submit our official opening night roster minus White and Kennedy, or with Prospal and Drury on IR.
I guess we'll find out pretty soon? The point is, for now, White and Kennedy have cleared waivers, and we're 2 and a half hours away from the opening night roster deadline. Anyone know what the Devils are doing about that problem?
The Rangers (though, as I've explained here, they had perfectly legal recourse in simply placing Drury and Prospal on IR) chose to make such a move, waiving both Todd White and Tim Kennedy. This brings the Rangers roster to 23, at $57,201,667 (the cap, you'll recall, is $59.4 million). So, we're extremely safe.
But we were fine before. Why did we do this? Basically, because it gives us room just in case. Because of today's 3:00 deadline, lots of teams will be putting people on waivers over yesterday and today. Maybe we'd want one? This gives us some room to try to grab somebody and not have to worry about being over roster or cap.
Meanwhile, it does add the risk of White or Kennedy being picked up by some other team (well, realistically, probably only Kennedy suffers that risk). However, both players just now officially cleared. I'm a little surprised no one picked up Kennedy at $550,000, but so it goes. Now, they remain New York Rangers property - that means we can assign them to Hartford, or we can just keep them on the roster. A player clearing waivers does not require his team to send that player to the minors - he can stay on the roster. If a player remains on an NHL roster (or, if he is sent to the minors and then recalled, probably having to clear re-entry waivers as well) for 30 days or 10 NHL games, his roster clearance will expire, and he will have to clear again if he is to be sent down.
Now, here's what I don't get: why Kennedy? Of the $2.925 million the Rangers would free up by demoting White and Kennedy, $2.375 of it comes from White. Why risk putting Kennedy on the block to get stolen by some other team, just to clear up $550,000 "in case"? Unless Sather wanted to clear up the additional roster spot, this doesn't make a ton of sense to me. Regardless, we dodged that minor bullet, and Kennedy cleared and remains Rangers property.
So, White and Kennedy were just waived in case the Rangers want to pick someone up before 3:00 today - both are, in fact, skating with the Rangers this morning. I'm still unclear as to whether or not we're making such a move - the rumor mill is pretty silent about the Rangers actually doing anything, and I'm not sure what we'd do if we did make a move. Also, if we don't do anything by then, I don't know if we submit our official opening night roster minus White and Kennedy, or with Prospal and Drury on IR.
I guess we'll find out pretty soon? The point is, for now, White and Kennedy have cleared waivers, and we're 2 and a half hours away from the opening night roster deadline. Anyone know what the Devils are doing about that problem?
Monday, October 4, 2010
Fedo-contract
Hey, guess what - we actually signed Fedotenko! It's a pretty reasonable deal - 1 year at $1 million. Hooray! No goddamn surprises!
In honor of actually having a full roster, here's the full breakdown of the Rangers' salary cap right now. As I said last night, without Fedotenko, we were $273,333 under the cap. With Fedotenko's (pleasantly reasonable) $1 million deal, we are therefore $726,667 over the cap with these 25 players - but the contracts include $1.775 million in performance-based bonuses, so the bonus cushion places us well within our legal limit for starting the season, even without placing anyone on LTIR. As I mentioned, depending on Drury and Prospal returning, it would be best to come down that additional $726,667 at some point, so as not to risk dipping into next year's cap - but I guess that only matters when Drury and Prospal (if Prospal?) come back, at which point we'd need to cut down anyway to hit the maximum NHL roster size.
Anyway, the point is, there's a $59.4 million cap, which means I just told you we have a total salary of $60,126,667 spread across 25 men, of which $1.775 million is in conditional bonuses. This is a very good place to be, but I want to show you how we got here.
16 Forwards ($35,614,167, incl. $1,562,500 in bonuses)
Marian Gaborik - $7.5 m
Chris Drury - $7.05 m
Alexander Frolov - $3 m
Vinny Prospal - $2.48 m (incl. $1.4 m in bonuses)
Todd White - $2,375,000
Ryan Callahan - $2.3 m
Sean Avery - $1,937,500
Brandon Dubinsky - $1.85 m
Derek Boogaard - $1,625,000
Ruslan Fedotenko - $1 m
Erik Christensen - $925,000
Derek Stepan - $875,000 (incl. $162,500 in bonuses)
Artem Anisimov - $821,667
Brandon Prust - $800,000
Tim Kennedy - $550,000
Brian Boyle - $525,000
7 Defensemen ($16,762,500, incl. $212,500 in bonuses)
Michal Rozsival - $5 m
Marc Staal - $3,975,000
Daniel Girardi - $3,325,000
Matt Gilroy - $1.75 m
Steve Eminger - $1,125,000
Michael Del Zotto - $1,087,500 (incl. $212,500 in bonuses)
Mike Sauer - $500,000
2 Goalies ($7.75 m)
Henrik Lundqvist - $6,875,000
Martin Biron - $875,000
And so there you are - $60,126,667 in 25 player salaries, including $1,775,000 in bonuses. Technically within the $59.4 million cap, thanks to the $4,455,000 bonus cushion, and only $726,667 from not having to use the cushion at all, despite being 2 men over the maximum roster size. In other words, the Rangers are actually in good shape with respect to the cap.
Have I mentioned how nice it is to visit CapGeek and see the Rangers in the middle of the back, with the Devils $3 million in the negative? It's really, really, nice.
In honor of actually having a full roster, here's the full breakdown of the Rangers' salary cap right now. As I said last night, without Fedotenko, we were $273,333 under the cap. With Fedotenko's (pleasantly reasonable) $1 million deal, we are therefore $726,667 over the cap with these 25 players - but the contracts include $1.775 million in performance-based bonuses, so the bonus cushion places us well within our legal limit for starting the season, even without placing anyone on LTIR. As I mentioned, depending on Drury and Prospal returning, it would be best to come down that additional $726,667 at some point, so as not to risk dipping into next year's cap - but I guess that only matters when Drury and Prospal (if Prospal?) come back, at which point we'd need to cut down anyway to hit the maximum NHL roster size.
Anyway, the point is, there's a $59.4 million cap, which means I just told you we have a total salary of $60,126,667 spread across 25 men, of which $1.775 million is in conditional bonuses. This is a very good place to be, but I want to show you how we got here.
16 Forwards ($35,614,167, incl. $1,562,500 in bonuses)
Marian Gaborik - $7.5 m
Chris Drury - $7.05 m
Alexander Frolov - $3 m
Vinny Prospal - $2.48 m (incl. $1.4 m in bonuses)
Todd White - $2,375,000
Ryan Callahan - $2.3 m
Sean Avery - $1,937,500
Brandon Dubinsky - $1.85 m
Derek Boogaard - $1,625,000
Ruslan Fedotenko - $1 m
Erik Christensen - $925,000
Derek Stepan - $875,000 (incl. $162,500 in bonuses)
Artem Anisimov - $821,667
Brandon Prust - $800,000
Tim Kennedy - $550,000
Brian Boyle - $525,000
7 Defensemen ($16,762,500, incl. $212,500 in bonuses)
Michal Rozsival - $5 m
Marc Staal - $3,975,000
Daniel Girardi - $3,325,000
Matt Gilroy - $1.75 m
Steve Eminger - $1,125,000
Michael Del Zotto - $1,087,500 (incl. $212,500 in bonuses)
Mike Sauer - $500,000
2 Goalies ($7.75 m)
Henrik Lundqvist - $6,875,000
Martin Biron - $875,000
And so there you are - $60,126,667 in 25 player salaries, including $1,775,000 in bonuses. Technically within the $59.4 million cap, thanks to the $4,455,000 bonus cushion, and only $726,667 from not having to use the cushion at all, despite being 2 men over the maximum roster size. In other words, the Rangers are actually in good shape with respect to the cap.
Have I mentioned how nice it is to visit CapGeek and see the Rangers in the middle of the back, with the Devils $3 million in the negative? It's really, really, nice.
Chris, Marc, and Derek -- Also Vinny
Marc Staal scored the game-tying goal to send it to OT and ultimately a shootout the Rangers would win, Friday night against Ottawa. On his way to the net, Chris Neil (who, somewhat unrelatedly, is a total fuck) checked him and sent him toward the boards, which he hit at a funny angle. Staal did something unknown to his hip and is not skating at practice today. So, let's hope that's nothing serious.
In hilarious news, though, the next night, Derek Boogaard totally sack-tapped Neil with his stick. Check it out:
Awesome!
In significantly more serious news, Larry Brooks mentioned in the Post today that Prospal's knee injury may be worse than just the two-week "stay off it" that we thought it was. Brooks mentions that it might even involve a "surgery that would likely end his season, if not his career." You hate to see that - Prospal was great for us for the majority of last season, and I would have loved to see him return to form this year. However, as we also saw last season, he's not worth keeping around when his knee renders him ineffective. Here's hoping this injury is less serious than Brooks is implying here.
This also certainly changes the situation I mentioned last night, with respect to Drury and Prospal going on IR. If Prospal is really going to be out long-term, then that would take off his $2.48 million cap hit - sort of. Really, the way it works is that the cap hit still counts, but the team is afforded dispensation to bring up other players, so long as their total salaries (not cap hits) do not exceed the injured player's salary (not cap hit). These "replacement players" then do not count against the cap. So, basically, if Prospal were to spend the entire season on LTIR, his $1.4 million in conditional bonuses would not end up getting paid out, so there would be no harm in exceeding the cap by that amount into the bonus cushion, and his $1.08 million salary could be made up by players who would then not count against the cap (so, for example, we could call Erik Christensen his "replacement," and then Christensen's $925,000 would no longer count against the cap).
TL;DR for all that nonsense: if Prospal ends up on LTIR, we basically don't have to worry about his cap hit. This would mean we have the space to sign Fedotenko and still stay under the cap with the full roster we have now (assuming Drury is on regular IR to get our roster size down to 23). So, I guess while we wait to see what's happening with Prospal's knee, it makes sense to keep these guys around.
Today's forward lines at practice were exactly the ones I'd like to start with on Saturday night (assuming Drury and Prospal are still out):
Gaborik - Christensen - Frolov
Dubinsky - Anisimov - Callahan
Avery - Stepan - Fedotenko
Boogaard - Boyle - Prust
I can get behind that starting lineup. Let's go Rangers!
In hilarious news, though, the next night, Derek Boogaard totally sack-tapped Neil with his stick. Check it out:
Awesome!
In significantly more serious news, Larry Brooks mentioned in the Post today that Prospal's knee injury may be worse than just the two-week "stay off it" that we thought it was. Brooks mentions that it might even involve a "surgery that would likely end his season, if not his career." You hate to see that - Prospal was great for us for the majority of last season, and I would have loved to see him return to form this year. However, as we also saw last season, he's not worth keeping around when his knee renders him ineffective. Here's hoping this injury is less serious than Brooks is implying here.
This also certainly changes the situation I mentioned last night, with respect to Drury and Prospal going on IR. If Prospal is really going to be out long-term, then that would take off his $2.48 million cap hit - sort of. Really, the way it works is that the cap hit still counts, but the team is afforded dispensation to bring up other players, so long as their total salaries (not cap hits) do not exceed the injured player's salary (not cap hit). These "replacement players" then do not count against the cap. So, basically, if Prospal were to spend the entire season on LTIR, his $1.4 million in conditional bonuses would not end up getting paid out, so there would be no harm in exceeding the cap by that amount into the bonus cushion, and his $1.08 million salary could be made up by players who would then not count against the cap (so, for example, we could call Erik Christensen his "replacement," and then Christensen's $925,000 would no longer count against the cap).
TL;DR for all that nonsense: if Prospal ends up on LTIR, we basically don't have to worry about his cap hit. This would mean we have the space to sign Fedotenko and still stay under the cap with the full roster we have now (assuming Drury is on regular IR to get our roster size down to 23). So, I guess while we wait to see what's happening with Prospal's knee, it makes sense to keep these guys around.
Today's forward lines at practice were exactly the ones I'd like to start with on Saturday night (assuming Drury and Prospal are still out):
Gaborik - Christensen - Frolov
Dubinsky - Anisimov - Callahan
Avery - Stepan - Fedotenko
Boogaard - Boyle - Prust
I can get behind that starting lineup. Let's go Rangers!
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Defense clear; forwards, not so much
And so, the morning after our final preseason game (in which we got routed by Ottawa 8-5, but really kinda played our B-squad - Avery, Callahan, Gaborik, Frolov, Staal, and Girardi all sat out, and we temporarily recalled Weise and Zuccarello), some cuts are made, and the defensive picture shapes up. At the end of the day, Michael Sauer seems to have outplayed Pavel Valentenko and Ryan McDonagh, who were both cut this morning. It looks like Sauer (who incidentally would have had to clear waivers to be sent back down, while McDonagh and Valentenko did not) earns the #6-spot (behind Staal, Girardi, Del Zotto, Rozsival, and Gilroy), while Eminger lives at #7 (possibly splitting time not only with kids who need to be sat every so often, like Gilroy, Sauer, and Del Zotto, but also with veterans who might not still have a full 82+playoffs in them, like Rozsival). It wouldn't make sense to have a kid in the #7 spot, when you could instead give that kid full playing time in Hartford.
I have to admit I'm personally a little sad it's Sauer over Valentenko - I liked the latter a lot when I saw him - but that's based on only one game I saw him play in, and Kevin DeLury (whose opinion is usually pretty well aligned with mine, and I am right about everything) claims that Sauer outplayed both Valentenko and McDonagh throughout the preseason games (of which he, unlike myself, saw all 6). So, good for Michael Sauer. Get to know his face.
This trims the roster down to 25: the two goalies with which we will start the season, the seven defensemen with which it seems like we will start the season...and 16 goddamn forwards. The forward situation got no clearer today, with no cuts being made. I wonder if Torts is just waiting to see what happens with our injury situation (Drury still out with a broken finger, Prospal out for at least 2 weeks with a sore knee), or if he wants to see something more.
Larry Brooks tweeted the idea of starting the season with this full roster, relegating Prospal and Drury both to Injured Reserve to get down to the maximum roster size of 23, but because players on IR still count against the cap, that would push us over the salary cap - the current Rangers roster salary, including 2 goalies, 7 defensemen, and all 15 forwards (remember Fedotenko is unsigned) adds up to $59,126,667 - only $273,333 under the $59.4 million cap, and Fedotenko (who made $1.8 million last season) without a contract.
Brooks is right that, assuming a comparable salary this season for Fedotenko, this would technically be a legal move because of the bonus cushion: if some of your cap hit is made up of conditional bonuses (that may or may not get paid out), you may exceed the cap by those bonuses, up to 7.5% of the total cap ($4.455 million this season). We do have conditional bonuses in there: $1.4 million to Prospal, $212,500 to Del Zotto, and $162,500 to Stepan, which combine with the remaining space under the cap to give us $2,048,333 with which to sign Fedotenko. However, if these bonuses do end up getting paid out, any amount that we've gone over the cap will count against next year's cap. To me, that doesn't sound worth it in order to keep 16 goddamn forwards on the roster, when so many are mediocre. Especially when Todd White is making $2.375 million, so cutting his salary alone would get us under the cap even with 24 players.
Another option would be to place Prospal or Drury on Long-Term Injured Reserve, in which case their salaries would not count against the cap. But on LTIR, a player must miss at least 24 days and at least 10 games, whereas on regular IR he only has to miss 7 days. With both Prospal and Drury having the possibility of coming back within the first week of the season, it's totally asinine to suggest LTIR (and I think it would be silly to put them on IR at all).
The smartest thing to do is probably cut a forward or two (12 play each night, what the shitballs are we doing with 16?) and move forward with a 23-man (normal NHL-maximum-size) roster. Even if we were to cut our cheapest two forwards (Boyle and Kennedy), we'd end up with $1,348,333 to sign Fedotenko before touching the bonus cushion. It goes up from there quickly: if we were to cut our next two cheapest (Prust and Anisimov), we'd have $1.895 million free, more than Fedotenko made last season. So, really, it would be best to cut down to within the NHL maximum roster size without bothering with IR (which only delays the decision-making process by a week or two anyway), and thus to not have any cap problems upon signing Fedotenko.
Speaking of Fedotenko-has-no-contractenko, word is that he and the Rangers are talking. That's good - at this point, he's made a solid case for his inclusion on this squad, and I'd like to see us sign him for something reasonable. Bear in mind that he made $1.8 million last season.
So, expect some number of moves to be made between now and Saturday night's opener in Buffalo. We'll likely sign Fedotenko to a contract, and we'll drop (or place on IR) at least two forwards. My votes are for Todd White and anyone else. I guess that could be the other thing Torts is waiting for: it may not make sense to make cuts before a contract with Fedotenko is in place.
Did I mention that real, official NHL hockey starts in four fucking days, and the Rangers start in six? No? Let me try now: fucking hockey is coming holy shit yes!
I have to admit I'm personally a little sad it's Sauer over Valentenko - I liked the latter a lot when I saw him - but that's based on only one game I saw him play in, and Kevin DeLury (whose opinion is usually pretty well aligned with mine, and I am right about everything) claims that Sauer outplayed both Valentenko and McDonagh throughout the preseason games (of which he, unlike myself, saw all 6). So, good for Michael Sauer. Get to know his face.
This trims the roster down to 25: the two goalies with which we will start the season, the seven defensemen with which it seems like we will start the season...and 16 goddamn forwards. The forward situation got no clearer today, with no cuts being made. I wonder if Torts is just waiting to see what happens with our injury situation (Drury still out with a broken finger, Prospal out for at least 2 weeks with a sore knee), or if he wants to see something more.
Larry Brooks tweeted the idea of starting the season with this full roster, relegating Prospal and Drury both to Injured Reserve to get down to the maximum roster size of 23, but because players on IR still count against the cap, that would push us over the salary cap - the current Rangers roster salary, including 2 goalies, 7 defensemen, and all 15 forwards (remember Fedotenko is unsigned) adds up to $59,126,667 - only $273,333 under the $59.4 million cap, and Fedotenko (who made $1.8 million last season) without a contract.
Brooks is right that, assuming a comparable salary this season for Fedotenko, this would technically be a legal move because of the bonus cushion: if some of your cap hit is made up of conditional bonuses (that may or may not get paid out), you may exceed the cap by those bonuses, up to 7.5% of the total cap ($4.455 million this season). We do have conditional bonuses in there: $1.4 million to Prospal, $212,500 to Del Zotto, and $162,500 to Stepan, which combine with the remaining space under the cap to give us $2,048,333 with which to sign Fedotenko. However, if these bonuses do end up getting paid out, any amount that we've gone over the cap will count against next year's cap. To me, that doesn't sound worth it in order to keep 16 goddamn forwards on the roster, when so many are mediocre. Especially when Todd White is making $2.375 million, so cutting his salary alone would get us under the cap even with 24 players.
Another option would be to place Prospal or Drury on Long-Term Injured Reserve, in which case their salaries would not count against the cap. But on LTIR, a player must miss at least 24 days and at least 10 games, whereas on regular IR he only has to miss 7 days. With both Prospal and Drury having the possibility of coming back within the first week of the season, it's totally asinine to suggest LTIR (and I think it would be silly to put them on IR at all).
The smartest thing to do is probably cut a forward or two (12 play each night, what the shitballs are we doing with 16?) and move forward with a 23-man (normal NHL-maximum-size) roster. Even if we were to cut our cheapest two forwards (Boyle and Kennedy), we'd end up with $1,348,333 to sign Fedotenko before touching the bonus cushion. It goes up from there quickly: if we were to cut our next two cheapest (Prust and Anisimov), we'd have $1.895 million free, more than Fedotenko made last season. So, really, it would be best to cut down to within the NHL maximum roster size without bothering with IR (which only delays the decision-making process by a week or two anyway), and thus to not have any cap problems upon signing Fedotenko.
Speaking of Fedotenko-has-no-contractenko, word is that he and the Rangers are talking. That's good - at this point, he's made a solid case for his inclusion on this squad, and I'd like to see us sign him for something reasonable. Bear in mind that he made $1.8 million last season.
So, expect some number of moves to be made between now and Saturday night's opener in Buffalo. We'll likely sign Fedotenko to a contract, and we'll drop (or place on IR) at least two forwards. My votes are for Todd White and anyone else. I guess that could be the other thing Torts is waiting for: it may not make sense to make cuts before a contract with Fedotenko is in place.
Did I mention that real, official NHL hockey starts in four fucking days, and the Rangers start in six? No? Let me try now: fucking hockey is coming holy shit yes!
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