You know, watching 24/7 has really reinforced a surprising trait of the New York Rangers right now: despite being professional hockey players, they're a pretty attractive group of guys. Really, compare these guys to most hockey teams - even to our early 90s Cup team. Hockey players aren't supposed to look this good!
Well, courtesy of my sister, today we have a Christmas treat. She has ranked, for our reading pleasure, every Ranger on the roster or IR in terms of their overall hotness. (Except John Mitchell, for some reason, so I added him myself at number 27.) All annotations are hers, all I did was add some pictures. What better way to spend the league's Christmas break (besides staring at the Atlantic Division standings)? What, are you gonna watch goddamn basketball or something?
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
I can't believe we have to do this again
Okay, look. I'm getting sick of explaining that Sean Avery is a valuable hockey player. But it seems to be necessary again, in light of his replacement by Erik Christensen over the last two games, including Tuesday night's absolute sleeper against Avery's former team (against whom he generally plays very well). So here we are again, using math where common sense seems to have failed. If anyone has John Tortorella's email address, do me a favor and send him this stuff. I hear he's coaching the Rangers these days, and this information could probably help him out. Also, find out if he's hiring?
Last night's game in 280 characters
"If brevity be the soul of wit, play on," as the great Christopher Marlowe once wrote. And so, last night's game, summarized by two tweets last night: the former by me, the latter by Andrew Gross of The Record.
"Does anyone, including Torts, really believe this sluggish #NYR game wouldn't have gone differently with @imseanavery in for EC's ice time?"
"This game is a very argument against the NHL's new alignment."
"Does anyone, including Torts, really believe this sluggish #NYR game wouldn't have gone differently with @imseanavery in for EC's ice time?"
"This game is a very argument against the NHL's new alignment."
Friday, December 9, 2011
More Realignment Talk
Welcome back to Some Schmuck Whines about Hockey, with your host, Some Schmuck. I posted some on Tuesday about how the geographic realignment isn't so bad and some on Friday about how the loss of rivalries is heartbreaking.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Realignment Part Two: The heartbreaking part
I started to talk about the new realignment here, and it ended pretty positively. That can't be right. Let's take a look at the reasons it sucks, starting with schedule.
On realignment (the part that doesn't suck)
In line with today's announcement that the NHL's Board of Governors has approved a crazy new realignment of the NHL, here begins a 2-part (probably) discussion of why I don't hate it and why I hate it.
In this piece, let's talk about the actual alignment of teams, which is the part I don't hate. Of course, the current alignment suffered some problems recently, as the Jets now find themselves on jets a little too often. As Gary Bettman said, "I had nothing against the existing format, and but for the move to Winnipeg we wouldn't be looking to change it."
In this piece, let's talk about the actual alignment of teams, which is the part I don't hate. Of course, the current alignment suffered some problems recently, as the Jets now find themselves on jets a little too often. As Gary Bettman said, "I had nothing against the existing format, and but for the move to Winnipeg we wouldn't be looking to change it."
Monday, December 5, 2011
That salary thing again
So, as this guy does a terrible job of explaining, there's another thing we have to consider when we look at the return of our injured: cap space. Let's do a quick recap on how injured reserve works.
If a player is placed on regular injured reserve (IR), it is just like he has been suspended. His body doesn't count against the 23-man roster size cap, but his salary still counts fully against the cap. From a cap perspective, it's no different than if he's just inactive, like Erik Christensen currently is and forever should be. Once put on IR, a player must be out for 7 days (regardless of the number of games played in that time).
For longer-term injuries, a player can be placed on long-term injured reserve (LTIR). On LTIR, a player must miss at least 24 days and at least 10 of his club's games. The only other difference between IR and LTIR is that on LTIR, there is a cap consideration. But it's not as simple as the player just not counting against the cap (is it ever simple?). Because Wolski, Rupp, and Staal are all on LTIR, let's take a look at how it works.
If a player is placed on regular injured reserve (IR), it is just like he has been suspended. His body doesn't count against the 23-man roster size cap, but his salary still counts fully against the cap. From a cap perspective, it's no different than if he's just inactive, like Erik Christensen currently is and forever should be. Once put on IR, a player must be out for 7 days (regardless of the number of games played in that time).
For longer-term injuries, a player can be placed on long-term injured reserve (LTIR). On LTIR, a player must miss at least 24 days and at least 10 of his club's games. The only other difference between IR and LTIR is that on LTIR, there is a cap consideration. But it's not as simple as the player just not counting against the cap (is it ever simple?). Because Wolski, Rupp, and Staal are all on LTIR, let's take a look at how it works.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Who goes?
So, things have gone decently well for this club lately, yes? But there are some people waiting in the wings, slowly healing, and I'm not excited about when they do. Clearly, when Marc Staal returns, everything gets better, and he replaces the well-meaning, hard-working, totally-mediocre Jeff Woywitka, who has definitely done his time and earned his #7 spot on this club (now we just need someone to take over for Eminger at #6). But what about forwards?
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
More straightforward than "games-in-hand"?
So, we've looked at the standings from a goal differential standpoint, and it's pretty satisfying. The defending Cup champs, the Boston Brewers, lead the league by a mile with a differential of +28. The Rangers are ranked third in the conference at +14, 3 behind Pittsburgh and 2 in front of Philly (Goddamn Atlantic Division).
But after listening to the Pens post-game radio broadcast last night (to paraphrase: "The Rangers may have flexed their muscles here tonight, but the Penguins are still at the top of the league in the standings"), I got to thinking if maybe there's a simpler way to explain games-in-hand. Of course, the Penguins have 32 points, the most in the league, but they've played 4 more games than the Rangers. Generally, in hockey, we talk about these "games-in-hand" - the Rangers have 4 games in hand over the Penguins. The Rangers could gain up to 8 points in those games, so at worst they're 3 points behind and at best they're 5 points ahead?
Especially with the new ridiculous "games are worth either 2 or 3 points, depending on how long they are" standings system, this is not the easiest way to compare among more than two teams. So here's what I've been calculating in my head: "potential points lost." Rather than calculating total points and adding wins up as if every team wins every game in hand (which they can't all do, of course), I'm ignoring all the other numbers and comparing solely based on "potential points lost." If you lost a game in regulation, you lost 2 potential points. If you lost it in OT or a shootout, you lost 1 potential point (since you could have gained up to 2 points in that game).
Obviously, the lower, the better. Theoretically, there are 164 potential points for one team in a season, and each game you lose, you lose some potential points for the season. Sure, the more games you've played, the more potential points you could have already lost, but it's arguably more telling than "total points gained," which is probably more dependent on total number of games played.
Maybe this is no less affected by games played than total points, but it's a slightly interesting number to look at. Anyway, the Rangers lead the league in "potential points lost," with only 13 on the season (5 losses and 3 OT losses). The closest runners-up are Boston, Detroit, and San Jose, who have each lost 15 potential points this season. Next would be Philly, Minnesota, and Phoenix, who have each lost 17 potential points. At the bottom of the league, the Blue Jackets have lost 33 potential points already this season, the Hurricanes have lost 32, and the Ducks have lost 30.
Is this interesting at all?
But after listening to the Pens post-game radio broadcast last night (to paraphrase: "The Rangers may have flexed their muscles here tonight, but the Penguins are still at the top of the league in the standings"), I got to thinking if maybe there's a simpler way to explain games-in-hand. Of course, the Penguins have 32 points, the most in the league, but they've played 4 more games than the Rangers. Generally, in hockey, we talk about these "games-in-hand" - the Rangers have 4 games in hand over the Penguins. The Rangers could gain up to 8 points in those games, so at worst they're 3 points behind and at best they're 5 points ahead?
Especially with the new ridiculous "games are worth either 2 or 3 points, depending on how long they are" standings system, this is not the easiest way to compare among more than two teams. So here's what I've been calculating in my head: "potential points lost." Rather than calculating total points and adding wins up as if every team wins every game in hand (which they can't all do, of course), I'm ignoring all the other numbers and comparing solely based on "potential points lost." If you lost a game in regulation, you lost 2 potential points. If you lost it in OT or a shootout, you lost 1 potential point (since you could have gained up to 2 points in that game).
Obviously, the lower, the better. Theoretically, there are 164 potential points for one team in a season, and each game you lose, you lose some potential points for the season. Sure, the more games you've played, the more potential points you could have already lost, but it's arguably more telling than "total points gained," which is probably more dependent on total number of games played.
Maybe this is no less affected by games played than total points, but it's a slightly interesting number to look at. Anyway, the Rangers lead the league in "potential points lost," with only 13 on the season (5 losses and 3 OT losses). The closest runners-up are Boston, Detroit, and San Jose, who have each lost 15 potential points this season. Next would be Philly, Minnesota, and Phoenix, who have each lost 17 potential points. At the bottom of the league, the Blue Jackets have lost 33 potential points already this season, the Hurricanes have lost 32, and the Ducks have lost 30.
Is this interesting at all?
Monday, November 28, 2011
...but they won't look like that
As predicted by this guy on Twitter, those jerseys I saw at the Garden turned out to be just knockoffs from some knockoff place. They're fake. Real ones just got revealed online, I took screenshots:
Winter Classic jerseys will be awesome
I know the official unveiling is today at 4:00, but I saw some people wearing what appeared to be the new Winter Classic jerseys at the Garden on Saturday. They're not too far off from what Kevin DeLury posted here, but the logo isn't that super-old-school bendy one he loves. Instead, it appears to be the following years' logo, from '53-'68, shown here. A quick google search reveals a bunch of top hits that match the ones I saw on Saturday, down to the stars around the wrists (which I love). An example is here:
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Good answer
Per Penguins Report, Dan Bylsma was asked for some advice for John Tortorella and Peter Laviolette, about how to deal with the HBO cameras being all over the place for 24/7. The first words out of his mouth: "Winning 12 in a row helps."
Monday, November 21, 2011
A frank dialogue concerning leagues and their faces, between myself and a Penguins fan friend
Me: There are 6 reporters surrounding Crosby's dressing stall blocking his way right now. Darren Dreger called it "Stanley Cup-like."
Me: expound.
Him: man, isn't he just some hockey person?
Him: also: VS. cancels their broadcast of the reigning Stanley Cup champs to show the cable subscribing world a game between a 24 year old and the Islanders.
Him: granted, it's pretty cool when a 24 year old dismantles the Islanders....
Him: but fuck the heck people?
Him: i get it that Pittsburgh would be insane over this.
Him: that's fine.
Him: it should be like christmas morning for us.
Me: http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=602480
Me: that is nhl.com
Him: but why is hockey everywhere shutting down for this?
Me: live-blogging
Me: the penguins' practice.
Him: ALL DAY COVERAGE
Him: ALL FUCKING DAY COVERAGE
Him: look!
Me: this is fucking nonsense
Him:it's not THAT big of a deal.
Him: the coverage should start when he's taking the ice tonight.
Him: and then everyone can go back to doing something else.
Him: do you know what the NFL will do when Peyton Manning comes back from his injury?
Him: maybe cut away from your game to show you his first TD. then they'll show some highlights on ESPN later in the day and the next day.
Him: and that's it.
Him: maybe a headline on nfl.com that'll be like "He's back!"
Me: they won't send a live-blog team to his dressing room for the previous day's practice?
Him: The Zamboni is just finishing it's morning sweep of the ice and now one guy is on the ice with a squeegee. The nets are stationed near the half-walls, waiting to get put in their proper places.
Overall it's still relatively quiet here at Consol Energy Center. It won't be for long.
Him: oh my god, what's the ice temperature?
Him: man, the NHL is so fucking outrageous.
Him: does Steven Stamkos get mentioned by the NHL for doing anything?
Me: of course not! man, the day the lokomotiv plane crashed, nhl.com's top story was "no timetable for crosby's return"
Him: man.
Him: why do you like this league?
Me: it's the only one that gives me hockey on tv 8 months a year.
Him: [insert rant about liking the sport and hating the league]
Me: i didn't even need a rant! i was succinct!
Him: such is the power of your anger.
Him: man, Sid is good
Him: but he just plays some hockey.
Him: and so many other people play hockey.
Me: "Crosby hits the ice at 10:23. He's the fourth Penguin on the ice."
Him: who were the first three?
Me: Hockey Player Who Isn't Crosby, Some Russian Guy, and Maybe I Think He Has A Brother
Him: so fuckbutt, fuckbutt, and fuckbutt.
Me: top 4 headlines on nhl.com right now, in order:
Me: 1) Sid meets the media after skate
2) Crosby set to return to lineup Monday Night
3) Pens-Isles on VS tonight
4) Sid's Back
Him: ohmyjesus, why!?
Me: THIS JUST IN: Dan Rosen tweets that James Neal cannot get to his fucking dressing stall because of a swarm of reporters at Crosby's.
Me: "Stanley Cup-like"!
Me: https://twitter.com/#!/drosennhl (who is now officially the first Twittererer I have ever un-followed)
Him: man, he's just a hockey man!
Him: it would totally be one thing is some shitty pittsburgh news station did this.
Him: you could brush that off as dumb yinzer enthusiasm.
Me: sure!
Me: i'd even support it!
Me: if someone sent some Steigerwald (any of them, really) to practice and then write about how he totally skated in circles and that was exciting, great!
Him: man, i don't know shit about other hockey teams.
Him: and sure, you could say i need to watch more hockey.
Him: but here's the thing
Him: i watch more hockey than i do basketball
Him: and i know a lot more basketball men than i know hockey men.
Me: I think the joy isn't about seeing him play
Me: it's that they no longer have to pretend to pay attention to the other 29 hockey teams like they have for almost a year
Me: it's so much easier to just follow one guy on one team
Me: "Seeing Crosby in the morning is nothing unusual considering he has been practicing with the team, including morning skates, since Oct.13." --NHL.com writer Dan Rosen, in NHL.com's live blog about seeing Crosby in a morning skate.
Him: man, these people are getting paid.
Me: and we're not! we are so good at saying bullshit about bullshit!
Him: it's really all i have.
Him: man, Boston and Montreal is kind of a little bit of a rivalry, and i don't know, also a competitive game.
Him: but fuck that noise: here's a game with the Islanders!
Me: so i went to nhl.com again to tell you how far down the list of a dozen stories the boston-montreal game is
Him: i bet it's not on the list
Me: right, right, of course, it's not there at all.
Him: man, your league is awful.
Me: but i did notice at the top, where you can click on some games to learn more about, and their times and stuff
Me: what you know: the only game listed is pens-isles, 7pm, on vs
Me: what you don't know: the button actually says "CROSBY, 7ET, VERSUS"
Me: at this point, it feels like you are personally fucking with me. like you have somehow edited my hosts file to redirect nhl.com to a website you made
Me: where you just stuck a big red button in the middle of the NHL homepage that just says "CROSBY" on it, just to see how angry it would make me
Him: i am actually capable of a great deal of "mainframe" "hacks", etc.
Him: MOTHERBOARD
Him: FIREWIRE
Me: yes, yes. you're very computer.
Me: expound.
Him: man, isn't he just some hockey person?
Him: also: VS. cancels their broadcast of the reigning Stanley Cup champs to show the cable subscribing world a game between a 24 year old and the Islanders.
Him: granted, it's pretty cool when a 24 year old dismantles the Islanders....
Him: but fuck the heck people?
Him: i get it that Pittsburgh would be insane over this.
Him: that's fine.
Him: it should be like christmas morning for us.
Me: http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=602480
Me: that is nhl.com
Him: but why is hockey everywhere shutting down for this?
Me: live-blogging
Me: the penguins' practice.
Him: ALL DAY COVERAGE
Him: ALL FUCKING DAY COVERAGE
Him: look!
Me: this is fucking nonsense
Him:it's not THAT big of a deal.
Him: the coverage should start when he's taking the ice tonight.
Him: and then everyone can go back to doing something else.
Him: do you know what the NFL will do when Peyton Manning comes back from his injury?
Him: maybe cut away from your game to show you his first TD. then they'll show some highlights on ESPN later in the day and the next day.
Him: and that's it.
Him: maybe a headline on nfl.com that'll be like "He's back!"
Me: they won't send a live-blog team to his dressing room for the previous day's practice?
Him: The Zamboni is just finishing it's morning sweep of the ice and now one guy is on the ice with a squeegee. The nets are stationed near the half-walls, waiting to get put in their proper places.
Overall it's still relatively quiet here at Consol Energy Center. It won't be for long.
Him: oh my god, what's the ice temperature?
Him: man, the NHL is so fucking outrageous.
Him: does Steven Stamkos get mentioned by the NHL for doing anything?
Me: of course not! man, the day the lokomotiv plane crashed, nhl.com's top story was "no timetable for crosby's return"
Him: man.
Him: why do you like this league?
Me: it's the only one that gives me hockey on tv 8 months a year.
Him: [insert rant about liking the sport and hating the league]
Me: i didn't even need a rant! i was succinct!
Him: such is the power of your anger.
Him: man, Sid is good
Him: but he just plays some hockey.
Him: and so many other people play hockey.
Me: "Crosby hits the ice at 10:23. He's the fourth Penguin on the ice."
Him: who were the first three?
Me: Hockey Player Who Isn't Crosby, Some Russian Guy, and Maybe I Think He Has A Brother
Him: so fuckbutt, fuckbutt, and fuckbutt.
Me: top 4 headlines on nhl.com right now, in order:
Me: 1) Sid meets the media after skate
2) Crosby set to return to lineup Monday Night
3) Pens-Isles on VS tonight
4) Sid's Back
Him: ohmyjesus, why!?
Me: THIS JUST IN: Dan Rosen tweets that James Neal cannot get to his fucking dressing stall because of a swarm of reporters at Crosby's.
Me: "Stanley Cup-like"!
Me: https://twitter.com/#!/drosennhl (who is now officially the first Twittererer I have ever un-followed)
Him: man, he's just a hockey man!
Him: it would totally be one thing is some shitty pittsburgh news station did this.
Him: you could brush that off as dumb yinzer enthusiasm.
Me: sure!
Me: i'd even support it!
Me: if someone sent some Steigerwald (any of them, really) to practice and then write about how he totally skated in circles and that was exciting, great!
Him: man, i don't know shit about other hockey teams.
Him: and sure, you could say i need to watch more hockey.
Him: but here's the thing
Him: i watch more hockey than i do basketball
Him: and i know a lot more basketball men than i know hockey men.
Me: I think the joy isn't about seeing him play
Me: it's that they no longer have to pretend to pay attention to the other 29 hockey teams like they have for almost a year
Me: it's so much easier to just follow one guy on one team
Me: "Seeing Crosby in the morning is nothing unusual considering he has been practicing with the team, including morning skates, since Oct.13." --NHL.com writer Dan Rosen, in NHL.com's live blog about seeing Crosby in a morning skate.
Him: man, these people are getting paid.
Me: and we're not! we are so good at saying bullshit about bullshit!
Him: it's really all i have.
Him: man, Boston and Montreal is kind of a little bit of a rivalry, and i don't know, also a competitive game.
Him: but fuck that noise: here's a game with the Islanders!
Me: so i went to nhl.com again to tell you how far down the list of a dozen stories the boston-montreal game is
Him: i bet it's not on the list
Me: right, right, of course, it's not there at all.
Him: man, your league is awful.
Me: but i did notice at the top, where you can click on some games to learn more about, and their times and stuff
Me: what you know: the only game listed is pens-isles, 7pm, on vs
Me: what you don't know: the button actually says "CROSBY, 7ET, VERSUS"
Me: at this point, it feels like you are personally fucking with me. like you have somehow edited my hosts file to redirect nhl.com to a website you made
Me: where you just stuck a big red button in the middle of the NHL homepage that just says "CROSBY" on it, just to see how angry it would make me
Him: i am actually capable of a great deal of "mainframe" "hacks", etc.
Him: MOTHERBOARD
Him: FIREWIRE
Me: yes, yes. you're very computer.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Here are some things that I think about some people
1. Sean Avery: the new GAG guy? Seriously, it's so much fun to watch him be good at hockey. "The Rangers are a better team with him," sportswriters love to say, implying the unasked question "but why?" They then posture for a while, ignoring the simplest explanation: he is kind of good at playing hockey. I loved hearing the 'Canes announcers try to explain it away last Friday ("Well, sometimes conflict is a good thing"?), and I might have had more fun last night when it was against the Islanders.
2. Speaking of Avery, let's talk about this minor penalty at the end of the first period. First of all, if it's Avery who drops his gloves while Mottau leaves them on, Aves gets 5 minutes for fighting while Mottau gets nothing. Because the situation is reversed, they each get 2 for unsportsmanlike. That's the usual bullshit. But then, for some reason, they make Avery sit the final 56 seconds of the period from the locker room, while Mottau sits in the box. No explanation, no difference in penalty, just sent Avery off and left Mottau alone. As Avery said to the media last night, "Obviously, we know why. I don't know, why would they send me off? It's a regular penalty. I'd like you guys to start calling and asking that and give me an explanation."
3. Dan Girardi, on behalf of all Ranger fans, I'm sorry. We're sorry we brought up the idea of you as an All Star: clearly it went to your head and threw off your game. Haven't seen you play a game that weak in a year and a half. Forget the whole thing, go back to the shadows, where you're unrecognized and therefore can remain one of the top shutdown* defensemen in the game.
4. Aaron Voros apparently called Glen Sather and asked for a chance at a Professional Tryout for the club. Sather obliged, and Voros is now skating for the Whale on a tryout basis. Don't count on it, but how much fun would it be if he really excelled and all of a sudden the fourth line was Voros - Newbury - Prust or something?
5. Olivia Munn! Richards is dating Olivia Munn! And apparently they started dating between that game we blew in the 3rd against the Senators and the following game, which kicked off our currently-running 7-game win streak. So, let's all give thanks to Olivia Munn for inspiring this streak, and let's hope Richards and Munn stay together for a while. (Also, that is a very, very attractive couple. And they're into, respectively, my two biggest interests: hockey and video games.)
I can't tell you how hard it was for me to keep it classy and not link to a different fantastically NSFW image of Olivia Munn each time I typed her name.
*Perhaps I should have just said "defenseman" here. When the media calls a guy a good "shutdown defenseman," they mean he's a good defenseman for actually playing defense. As opposed to a good offensive defenseman. So, from my perspective, that just means he's one of the best defensemen in the league.
2. Speaking of Avery, let's talk about this minor penalty at the end of the first period. First of all, if it's Avery who drops his gloves while Mottau leaves them on, Aves gets 5 minutes for fighting while Mottau gets nothing. Because the situation is reversed, they each get 2 for unsportsmanlike. That's the usual bullshit. But then, for some reason, they make Avery sit the final 56 seconds of the period from the locker room, while Mottau sits in the box. No explanation, no difference in penalty, just sent Avery off and left Mottau alone. As Avery said to the media last night, "Obviously, we know why. I don't know, why would they send me off? It's a regular penalty. I'd like you guys to start calling and asking that and give me an explanation."
3. Dan Girardi, on behalf of all Ranger fans, I'm sorry. We're sorry we brought up the idea of you as an All Star: clearly it went to your head and threw off your game. Haven't seen you play a game that weak in a year and a half. Forget the whole thing, go back to the shadows, where you're unrecognized and therefore can remain one of the top shutdown* defensemen in the game.
4. Aaron Voros apparently called Glen Sather and asked for a chance at a Professional Tryout for the club. Sather obliged, and Voros is now skating for the Whale on a tryout basis. Don't count on it, but how much fun would it be if he really excelled and all of a sudden the fourth line was Voros - Newbury - Prust or something?
5. Olivia Munn! Richards is dating Olivia Munn! And apparently they started dating between that game we blew in the 3rd against the Senators and the following game, which kicked off our currently-running 7-game win streak. So, let's all give thanks to Olivia Munn for inspiring this streak, and let's hope Richards and Munn stay together for a while. (Also, that is a very, very attractive couple. And they're into, respectively, my two biggest interests: hockey and video games.)
I can't tell you how hard it was for me to keep it classy and not link to a different fantastically NSFW image of Olivia Munn each time I typed her name.
*Perhaps I should have just said "defenseman" here. When the media calls a guy a good "shutdown defenseman," they mean he's a good defenseman for actually playing defense. As opposed to a good offensive defenseman. So, from my perspective, that just means he's one of the best defensemen in the league.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Lines lines lines
Via New York Rangers Blog, via Katie Strang, Rangers' lines tonight (at least for the first period, until they get all wonky) will be:
Anisimov - Stepan - Gaborik
Dubinsky - Boyle - Callahan
Avery - Richards - Fedotenko
Deveaux - Christensen - Prust
The good news, of course, is Avery's promotion to the third line, where he'll play alongside the team's best center. What a great opportunity to show some spark. The bad news, also of course, is that it's clearly so reactionary that if that line doesn't produce in the first period, it'll likely be broken up by the third.
On the other hand, is taking Richards out from between Dubi and Cally really a good call in the first place? What about swapping Boyle and Richards, and then leaving those lines alone for multiple games in a row? Or is it that Dubi - Boyle - Cally was so promising in the late game on Friday that Torts wants to keep that together?
And on the other other hand, is it at all interesting that tonight Richards will be centering the two Ranger forwards that he's been on a team with before (Avery in Dallas, Fedotenko in Tampa)?
Most likely: Torts liked what he saw from Dubinsky - Boyle - Callahan on Friday, and he likes what he's seen from Anisimov - Stepan - Gaborik for a while. Beyond those two lines, Richards, Fedotenko, and Avery are the three best remaining forwards, so they become the third line, leaving Deveaux, Christensen, and Prust as the fourth. When I say it that way, it sounds so reasonable.
Anisimov - Stepan - Gaborik
Dubinsky - Boyle - Callahan
Avery - Richards - Fedotenko
Deveaux - Christensen - Prust
The good news, of course, is Avery's promotion to the third line, where he'll play alongside the team's best center. What a great opportunity to show some spark. The bad news, also of course, is that it's clearly so reactionary that if that line doesn't produce in the first period, it'll likely be broken up by the third.
On the other hand, is taking Richards out from between Dubi and Cally really a good call in the first place? What about swapping Boyle and Richards, and then leaving those lines alone for multiple games in a row? Or is it that Dubi - Boyle - Cally was so promising in the late game on Friday that Torts wants to keep that together?
And on the other other hand, is it at all interesting that tonight Richards will be centering the two Ranger forwards that he's been on a team with before (Avery in Dallas, Fedotenko in Tampa)?
Most likely: Torts liked what he saw from Dubinsky - Boyle - Callahan on Friday, and he likes what he's seen from Anisimov - Stepan - Gaborik for a while. Beyond those two lines, Richards, Fedotenko, and Avery are the three best remaining forwards, so they become the third line, leaving Deveaux, Christensen, and Prust as the fourth. When I say it that way, it sounds so reasonable.
Monday, November 14, 2011
Hey you guys
Right, so, I'm back from a crazy spiral of work to do and also from Quebec, where I was for a while. Hi! The Rangers sure won a lot of games since last we spoke.
My girlfriend reported to me that she has never, in her life, seen me giddy the way that I was giddy when Avery buried that puck against the 'Canes. In typical Tortorella fashion, the coach gave Avery correspondingly more ice time because he scored a goal, breaking up the lines to do so. Only this time, because it came out better for the good guys, I didn't really mind.
Man, it's fun to win hockey games. Here we go:
Anisimov, as expected, looks really good when he's given very little responsibility on a line with 2 very good hockey players. Stepan, Gaborik, Richards, and Callahan all look great, and Dubinsky is getting there (I hope). Boyle, Prust, and Fedotenko continue to do their jobs, Avery deserves more ice time, Christensen sucks up way too much ice time, and I'm warming up to Deveaux. Del Zotto came back from his Sophomore Slump to become a Third-year Thuperman: I really like how all of a sudden he plays defense. Girardi for President, and thank goodness McDonagh and Sauer didn't have the declines they easily could have. Eminger, Woywitka, this new Stralman guy, whatever. There's not a really solid back 2.
I assume that by tomorrow on Long Island, Torts will have forgotten that Avery's pretty good and relegated him to 5 minutes a game again. I guess I'll take what I can get, but we should hope Avery gets lucky and finds the net again soon: if he can show consistency on the scorecard, maybe that will have the lasting impression on the coach that consistency in actual play clearly doesn't have. And if I didn't make it clear enough before, Christensen remains a bag of shit.
Some real quick musings on what the standings tell us right now:
--- Sure, the Rangers are streaking right now, and they'll have to come down eventually. But this sure is fun while it lasts: if we let every team in the league win every game in hand, up to 18 games played for everyone, the Rangers would be tied with the Caps for league lead. And while small sample size tells us that our goal differential may be lying, our goal differential is saying "this might not be a mirage!"
--- See also: Boston Bruins. Behind the Rangers, they're riding the second-longest win streak in the league right now, but getting off to a slower start means the reigning champs are sitting in 11th in the East. Warning: that's bullshit. Their goal differential of +17 is best in the league by 4, and while, like the Rangers', that's due to very high performance in a very small sample, we should take it as a sign that barring a major shift, Boston won't be below that #8 line for long.
--- What else do goal differentials tell us, like in the West? That at +1 Edmonton might be a real playoff team this year, but probably isn't a home ice contender. That while Dallas's record is for real, everyone in the West is pretty bunched up right now, and it's still kinda a free-for-all.
--- Oh, and the Toronto party might still be bullshit. 10-6-1 with a goal differential of -7? Sorry, having some trouble with that. Yes, yes, it's only a handful of games. Still, I'd be willing to put money down that if after game 34, the Leafs have been outscored by their opponents by a total of 14 goals, they won't be looking at a 20-12-2 record.
Oh, and congratulations to Ed Belfour, Doug Gilmour, Mark Howe, and Joe Nieuwendyk, the 2011 inductee class to the Hockey Hall of Fame!
Next up: a few reasons I actually kinda like the Flyers a little right now?
My girlfriend reported to me that she has never, in her life, seen me giddy the way that I was giddy when Avery buried that puck against the 'Canes. In typical Tortorella fashion, the coach gave Avery correspondingly more ice time because he scored a goal, breaking up the lines to do so. Only this time, because it came out better for the good guys, I didn't really mind.
Man, it's fun to win hockey games. Here we go:
Anisimov, as expected, looks really good when he's given very little responsibility on a line with 2 very good hockey players. Stepan, Gaborik, Richards, and Callahan all look great, and Dubinsky is getting there (I hope). Boyle, Prust, and Fedotenko continue to do their jobs, Avery deserves more ice time, Christensen sucks up way too much ice time, and I'm warming up to Deveaux. Del Zotto came back from his Sophomore Slump to become a Third-year Thuperman: I really like how all of a sudden he plays defense. Girardi for President, and thank goodness McDonagh and Sauer didn't have the declines they easily could have. Eminger, Woywitka, this new Stralman guy, whatever. There's not a really solid back 2.
I assume that by tomorrow on Long Island, Torts will have forgotten that Avery's pretty good and relegated him to 5 minutes a game again. I guess I'll take what I can get, but we should hope Avery gets lucky and finds the net again soon: if he can show consistency on the scorecard, maybe that will have the lasting impression on the coach that consistency in actual play clearly doesn't have. And if I didn't make it clear enough before, Christensen remains a bag of shit.
Some real quick musings on what the standings tell us right now:
--- Sure, the Rangers are streaking right now, and they'll have to come down eventually. But this sure is fun while it lasts: if we let every team in the league win every game in hand, up to 18 games played for everyone, the Rangers would be tied with the Caps for league lead. And while small sample size tells us that our goal differential may be lying, our goal differential is saying "this might not be a mirage!"
--- See also: Boston Bruins. Behind the Rangers, they're riding the second-longest win streak in the league right now, but getting off to a slower start means the reigning champs are sitting in 11th in the East. Warning: that's bullshit. Their goal differential of +17 is best in the league by 4, and while, like the Rangers', that's due to very high performance in a very small sample, we should take it as a sign that barring a major shift, Boston won't be below that #8 line for long.
--- What else do goal differentials tell us, like in the West? That at +1 Edmonton might be a real playoff team this year, but probably isn't a home ice contender. That while Dallas's record is for real, everyone in the West is pretty bunched up right now, and it's still kinda a free-for-all.
--- Oh, and the Toronto party might still be bullshit. 10-6-1 with a goal differential of -7? Sorry, having some trouble with that. Yes, yes, it's only a handful of games. Still, I'd be willing to put money down that if after game 34, the Leafs have been outscored by their opponents by a total of 14 goals, they won't be looking at a 20-12-2 record.
Oh, and congratulations to Ed Belfour, Doug Gilmour, Mark Howe, and Joe Nieuwendyk, the 2011 inductee class to the Hockey Hall of Fame!
Next up: a few reasons I actually kinda like the Flyers a little right now?
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
This is only tangentially related to hockey
but it is definitely the coolest thing you will learn all month. (I'll get back to posting about actual hockey when things get less crazy at my real job).
So, the Ericsson Globe, right? In Stockholm, where the Rangers started their season off. You remember the place. You may even remember Sam or Al or Joe or someone telling you on the broadcast that it's the world's largest hemispherical building.
Here's what you didn't learn on the broadcast: that hemisphere represents the Sun, in the world's largest to-scale model of the solar system. The model is to scale in both size of body and distance. So, for example, there's some little metal sphere around 1.8 miles from the Ericsson Globe representing Mercury, and there's some 8-foot light-up acrylic ball on the other fucking side of the country representing Neptune. The model is 1:20,000,000 scale, and it spans almost all of Sweden. It includes the sun and all the planets, as well as other bodies in orbit such as dwarf planets, comets, and moons.
How fucking sweet is that?!?
So, the Ericsson Globe, right? In Stockholm, where the Rangers started their season off. You remember the place. You may even remember Sam or Al or Joe or someone telling you on the broadcast that it's the world's largest hemispherical building.
Here's what you didn't learn on the broadcast: that hemisphere represents the Sun, in the world's largest to-scale model of the solar system. The model is to scale in both size of body and distance. So, for example, there's some little metal sphere around 1.8 miles from the Ericsson Globe representing Mercury, and there's some 8-foot light-up acrylic ball on the other fucking side of the country representing Neptune. The model is 1:20,000,000 scale, and it spans almost all of Sweden. It includes the sun and all the planets, as well as other bodies in orbit such as dwarf planets, comets, and moons.
How fucking sweet is that?!?
Friday, October 7, 2011
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Making some sense of all these roster moves
So, yes, we all know: Sean Avery cleared waivers and was reassigned to the Connecticut Whale, where he will presumably play for a while. This is tragic, and no, I'm not over it. It occurred to me yesterday, when I put on my Avery shirt to wear in a silent protest no one gave a shit about, that I own 2 numbered player-specific Rangers T-shirts: 25 and 16. Oof.
There's very little I can say about this that hasn't already been said. If I weren't so busy at work this week, I'd put together the Rangers' overall record since 2007 with and without Avery in the lineup, and if I were really free I'd try to correlate that with his ice time. Unfortunately, no one pays me to look up statistics just to prove a point to nobody, and my job does pay me to do something that isn't that. So, if you're not busy, look that up for me. Otherwise, hopefully I'll do it later?
Outside of that, we all know what happened here. Avery's a much better player than a lot of people give him credit for, John Tortorella included. On October 1, Torts said the final cut was down to Avery or Christensen. Since then, in our final 2 preseason games, he played Christensen in both and Avery in neither, claiming he already knew what Avery had to offer and needed to see what Christensen could do. Then Christensen had 2 shitty games and he cut Avery, actually going so far as to say Christensen's a guy who can help us in the shootout.
It was never about preseason, it was about finding a lame excuse to cut Sean Avery, which Tortorella finally did. The 2 final preseason games weren't for evaluation, they were giving Christensen an opportunity to do something decent, so Torts could point at it and say "See? This is why." That didn't pan out, because, as mentioned, Christensen is a piece of shit (and no, as commenter Chris pointed out Monday, it doesn't help any that Christensen ran his mouth off about Avery to the media, in exactly the way a teammate never should). So Torts was left floundering when he had to tell the media yesterday why he cut Avery: Christensen couldn't even play well enough to give Torts the excuse he was so desparately looking for.
It's bullshit. Avery's got a great pass and great puck protection, and he was marginalized by a media-hating coach who took the media's stance on one of his own. For more on this, here's Scotty Hockey's brief but correct farewell post. And tangentially related, last week when Avery was still a Ranger, Kerri at Some Like it Blue posted a Fire-Joe-Morganning of some bullshit at the Fourth Period that's worth a read.
Anyway, the point was supposed to be that I'm not here to talk about Avery, I'm here to talk about the rest of the roster. Here are some other things that have happened in the last couple of days. First of all, Dale Weise was among the Rangers cut from camp last week, as noted here. So, the plan was to reassign him to Connecticut, but first he had to clear waivers. For some reason, he was not exempt from waivers - I've been reading the CBA, and I cannot figure out why. Really, if anyone can explain this to me, please do. My interpretation is he should have been exempt.
Anyway, he was waived, and he didn't clear. He almost cleared, but then the Canucks (who had the second-to-last chance at him, in front of only the Cup-winning Bruins) claimed him. So, Dale Weise is a Canuck now. Sad times.
Then, we waived Brendan Bell and Stu Bickel. "But, wouldn't that leave us with only five defensemen?" you might ask, if you were poised to set me up perfectly for this explanation. Not really. See, when a team waives a player, assuming he clears, the player has no obligation to be reassigned to any particular team. The Rangers can, and in fact did, waive Bell and Bickel and then, once they clear, leave them on the roster. "So why would they bother?" Perceptive question! Well, once a player clears waivers, he is exempt from clearing them for another 30 days. So by waiving Bell and Bickel now, the Rangers avoid having to waive them if the wanna send them down sometime in the next 30 days (after which some teams, having seen injuries or NHL-level play from mediocre players, might be more interested in claiming them).
Then, there was the announcement from Slats himself that Staal is being placed on IR and could miss a good month of the season. Of course, this is no surprise, as a concussion is a totally unpredictable and terrible thing that you should never receive from your brother.
Seriously, you guys, if you are in a jam and you need to give your brother or sister something for a birthday or a Christmas, do not give him or her a concussion. It is the gift that keeps on giving you headaches and dizziness and you cannot get rid of it. Go buy a fucking candle or something. Bake them some banana bread! Who doesn't love banana bread? Come on, you guys. This holiday season: say no to giving your siblings concussions.
On injured reserve, Staal still counts against the cap, but he does not count against the maximum roster size of 23. He must remain on IR for at least 7 days (which means he could theoretically be brought back by the first Ranger game in North America, though he likely won't be). So, that leaves 7 defensemen on the roster, of whom 2 have just cleared waivers. Which means we needed to supplement. Step one was to fly back Tim Erixon, who had only been cut on Saturday morning. That's a lot of time on airplanes for the kid.
Then, today, the Rangers claimed Jeff Woywitka off the waiver wire. He's a 28-year-old left-handed defenseman waived by the Canadiens (who themselves just picked up former Ranger Blair Betts off the wire) yesterday. Woywitka is 6'3", 215-lb, and has been in and out of NHL lineups (more out than in) since being Philly's first-round pick in 2011 (a full 68 picks before Philly was up again, selecting someone named "Patrick Sharp"). I know absolutely nothing else about him. The only friend I have who has ever heard of him before explained, "So you know what VORP is? He's the RP."
This left the Rangers with 9 defensemen on the roster. With their 13 remaining forwards and 3 goalies (remember, the European start to the season allows us an additional goalie over the roster maximum for now), that's one defenseman too many. So, the Rangers today reassigned Bickel to Connecticut. One more plane ride - the NHL really needs to figure out how to handle this whole "European season opener" thing a little better.
So, finally, with all of that said and done, with all of these goddamn plane rides even though the season starts tomorrow, here is the New York Rangers' season-opening roster (assuming no further moves are made in the next 21 hours):
Forwards: Artem Anisimov, Brian Boyle, Ryan Callahan, Erik Christensen, Brandon Dubinsky, Ruslan Fedotenko, Marian Gaborik, Brandon Prust, Brad Richards, Mike Rupp, Derek Stepan, Wojtek Wolski, Mats Zuccarello
Defensemen: Brendan Bell, Michael Del Zotto, Steve Eminger, Tim Erixon, Dan Girardi, Ryan McDonagh, Mike Sauer, Marc Staal (Injured Reserve), Jeff Woywitka
Goalies: Martin Biron, Henrik Lundqvist, Scott Stajcer (Extra Goalie for European Trip)
As for the lineup for tomorrow, it seems obvious that Christensen will be the odd man out until some other forward earns his way off the ice. With the other 12, it is a no-brainer how I would arrange these lines:
Wolski - Richards - Gaborik
Dubinsky - Anisimov - Callahan
Fedotenko - Stepan - Zuccarello
Rupp - Boyle - Prust
However, John Tortorella doesn't believe in lines working together as units. As we've seen time and time again, he believes in 12 individual forwards, and he puts the people he considers the "best" in each position on the top line, and on down the lineup. So, despite Wolski skating with Richards and Gaborik for the majority of the preseason, and despite Dubinsky-Anisimov-Callahan being the Rangers' most solid, consistent line throughout last season, Torts has decided to jumble things around for opening day tomorrow. According to many Rangers reporters' tweets, the game will begin with Dubinsky on the top line, with Feds filling in on Anisimov's left. Based on practice lines today, the lineup to start the game will look like this (assuming Christensen is the scratch):
Dubinsky - Richards - Gaborik
Fedotenko - Anisimov - Callahan
Wolski - Stepan - Zuccarello
Rupp - Boyle - Prust
I'd be more worried about that if I believed Torts would keep any of these lines together for more than a hot minute, but it'd be nice to see him going with actual line combinations, instead of just mix-and-match forwards.
On defense, obviously, Sauer, McDonagh, and Girardi will be playing. Reports seem to be that Del Zotto will be the other man put in the top 2 pairs, and Erixon/Eminger seems to be the most likely third pairing (which, among other things, makes me wonder why we bothered putting Woywitka on a plane out to Sweden and Bickel on a plane back to Hartford). Woywitka and Bell would then be the healthy scratches (along with Mr. Softie).
It's been a long week. But there they are: your 2011-2012 New York Rangers.
There's very little I can say about this that hasn't already been said. If I weren't so busy at work this week, I'd put together the Rangers' overall record since 2007 with and without Avery in the lineup, and if I were really free I'd try to correlate that with his ice time. Unfortunately, no one pays me to look up statistics just to prove a point to nobody, and my job does pay me to do something that isn't that. So, if you're not busy, look that up for me. Otherwise, hopefully I'll do it later?
Outside of that, we all know what happened here. Avery's a much better player than a lot of people give him credit for, John Tortorella included. On October 1, Torts said the final cut was down to Avery or Christensen. Since then, in our final 2 preseason games, he played Christensen in both and Avery in neither, claiming he already knew what Avery had to offer and needed to see what Christensen could do. Then Christensen had 2 shitty games and he cut Avery, actually going so far as to say Christensen's a guy who can help us in the shootout.
It was never about preseason, it was about finding a lame excuse to cut Sean Avery, which Tortorella finally did. The 2 final preseason games weren't for evaluation, they were giving Christensen an opportunity to do something decent, so Torts could point at it and say "See? This is why." That didn't pan out, because, as mentioned, Christensen is a piece of shit (and no, as commenter Chris pointed out Monday, it doesn't help any that Christensen ran his mouth off about Avery to the media, in exactly the way a teammate never should). So Torts was left floundering when he had to tell the media yesterday why he cut Avery: Christensen couldn't even play well enough to give Torts the excuse he was so desparately looking for.
It's bullshit. Avery's got a great pass and great puck protection, and he was marginalized by a media-hating coach who took the media's stance on one of his own. For more on this, here's Scotty Hockey's brief but correct farewell post. And tangentially related, last week when Avery was still a Ranger, Kerri at Some Like it Blue posted a Fire-Joe-Morganning of some bullshit at the Fourth Period that's worth a read.
Anyway, the point was supposed to be that I'm not here to talk about Avery, I'm here to talk about the rest of the roster. Here are some other things that have happened in the last couple of days. First of all, Dale Weise was among the Rangers cut from camp last week, as noted here. So, the plan was to reassign him to Connecticut, but first he had to clear waivers. For some reason, he was not exempt from waivers - I've been reading the CBA, and I cannot figure out why. Really, if anyone can explain this to me, please do. My interpretation is he should have been exempt.
Anyway, he was waived, and he didn't clear. He almost cleared, but then the Canucks (who had the second-to-last chance at him, in front of only the Cup-winning Bruins) claimed him. So, Dale Weise is a Canuck now. Sad times.
Then, we waived Brendan Bell and Stu Bickel. "But, wouldn't that leave us with only five defensemen?" you might ask, if you were poised to set me up perfectly for this explanation. Not really. See, when a team waives a player, assuming he clears, the player has no obligation to be reassigned to any particular team. The Rangers can, and in fact did, waive Bell and Bickel and then, once they clear, leave them on the roster. "So why would they bother?" Perceptive question! Well, once a player clears waivers, he is exempt from clearing them for another 30 days. So by waiving Bell and Bickel now, the Rangers avoid having to waive them if the wanna send them down sometime in the next 30 days (after which some teams, having seen injuries or NHL-level play from mediocre players, might be more interested in claiming them).
Then, there was the announcement from Slats himself that Staal is being placed on IR and could miss a good month of the season. Of course, this is no surprise, as a concussion is a totally unpredictable and terrible thing that you should never receive from your brother.
Seriously, you guys, if you are in a jam and you need to give your brother or sister something for a birthday or a Christmas, do not give him or her a concussion. It is the gift that keeps on giving you headaches and dizziness and you cannot get rid of it. Go buy a fucking candle or something. Bake them some banana bread! Who doesn't love banana bread? Come on, you guys. This holiday season: say no to giving your siblings concussions.
On injured reserve, Staal still counts against the cap, but he does not count against the maximum roster size of 23. He must remain on IR for at least 7 days (which means he could theoretically be brought back by the first Ranger game in North America, though he likely won't be). So, that leaves 7 defensemen on the roster, of whom 2 have just cleared waivers. Which means we needed to supplement. Step one was to fly back Tim Erixon, who had only been cut on Saturday morning. That's a lot of time on airplanes for the kid.
Then, today, the Rangers claimed Jeff Woywitka off the waiver wire. He's a 28-year-old left-handed defenseman waived by the Canadiens (who themselves just picked up former Ranger Blair Betts off the wire) yesterday. Woywitka is 6'3", 215-lb, and has been in and out of NHL lineups (more out than in) since being Philly's first-round pick in 2011 (a full 68 picks before Philly was up again, selecting someone named "Patrick Sharp"). I know absolutely nothing else about him. The only friend I have who has ever heard of him before explained, "So you know what VORP is? He's the RP."
This left the Rangers with 9 defensemen on the roster. With their 13 remaining forwards and 3 goalies (remember, the European start to the season allows us an additional goalie over the roster maximum for now), that's one defenseman too many. So, the Rangers today reassigned Bickel to Connecticut. One more plane ride - the NHL really needs to figure out how to handle this whole "European season opener" thing a little better.
So, finally, with all of that said and done, with all of these goddamn plane rides even though the season starts tomorrow, here is the New York Rangers' season-opening roster (assuming no further moves are made in the next 21 hours):
Forwards: Artem Anisimov, Brian Boyle, Ryan Callahan, Erik Christensen, Brandon Dubinsky, Ruslan Fedotenko, Marian Gaborik, Brandon Prust, Brad Richards, Mike Rupp, Derek Stepan, Wojtek Wolski, Mats Zuccarello
Defensemen: Brendan Bell, Michael Del Zotto, Steve Eminger, Tim Erixon, Dan Girardi, Ryan McDonagh, Mike Sauer, Marc Staal (Injured Reserve), Jeff Woywitka
Goalies: Martin Biron, Henrik Lundqvist, Scott Stajcer (Extra Goalie for European Trip)
As for the lineup for tomorrow, it seems obvious that Christensen will be the odd man out until some other forward earns his way off the ice. With the other 12, it is a no-brainer how I would arrange these lines:
Wolski - Richards - Gaborik
Dubinsky - Anisimov - Callahan
Fedotenko - Stepan - Zuccarello
Rupp - Boyle - Prust
However, John Tortorella doesn't believe in lines working together as units. As we've seen time and time again, he believes in 12 individual forwards, and he puts the people he considers the "best" in each position on the top line, and on down the lineup. So, despite Wolski skating with Richards and Gaborik for the majority of the preseason, and despite Dubinsky-Anisimov-Callahan being the Rangers' most solid, consistent line throughout last season, Torts has decided to jumble things around for opening day tomorrow. According to many Rangers reporters' tweets, the game will begin with Dubinsky on the top line, with Feds filling in on Anisimov's left. Based on practice lines today, the lineup to start the game will look like this (assuming Christensen is the scratch):
Dubinsky - Richards - Gaborik
Fedotenko - Anisimov - Callahan
Wolski - Stepan - Zuccarello
Rupp - Boyle - Prust
I'd be more worried about that if I believed Torts would keep any of these lines together for more than a hot minute, but it'd be nice to see him going with actual line combinations, instead of just mix-and-match forwards.
On defense, obviously, Sauer, McDonagh, and Girardi will be playing. Reports seem to be that Del Zotto will be the other man put in the top 2 pairs, and Erixon/Eminger seems to be the most likely third pairing (which, among other things, makes me wonder why we bothered putting Woywitka on a plane out to Sweden and Bickel on a plane back to Hartford). Woywitka and Bell would then be the healthy scratches (along with Mr. Softie).
It's been a long week. But there they are: your 2011-2012 New York Rangers.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
We kept believing in making the right decision
and this whole time, Torts was stringing us along until he made the wrong one: the Rangers are waiving Sean Avery. This is something Tortorella has wanted from the beginning, he never gave Avery a fair chance on this team, and it's a huge mistake, because he's an incredible asset. The Rangers will regret this decision. And Erik Christensen is still a piece of shit.
Monday, October 3, 2011
The Perils of Europe
We've all heard the complaints about the Rangers starting their season in Europe again (which it seems they will continue to do for a few seasons to come, what with the Garden renovation project): how it disrupts the schedule, makes it harder for the team to get into a rhythm, and so on. We've heard about how against the whole thing Torts is, and how clear he's made that to Slats. And it's true: the interviews with the team are already talking about what a busy schedule they've had the last few days, and how excited they are to get to Stockholm and take a deep breath. Not what you want to hear out of your club in the fucking preseason.
But I'm not here to talk about those issues. I'm here to talk about the other danger of a European preseason: Mats Zuccarello.
Now, let me be clear before you start labeling me a heightist: I like Zuccarello. He can be very creative with the puck when he's got the room, he's a good setup guy, and he has even shown himself to be a little tough for his size. As with all successful short sportsmen, it's easy to call him "scrappy," but there's also some talent there that can't be ignored.
With that said, let's take a quick look at his main on-ice strengths and weaknesses. What he does well: makes clever passes, sets up plays, works well with lots of room. What he doesn't so well (did I say that correctly?): clears bodies out of his way to make that room. Possibly through no fault of his own (yes, the guy is my height, and yes, that does matter), he struggles at the NHL level, as we saw last season, because he doesn't have the room and time to make those clever plays against bigger, tougher opponents. And when he loses those clever passes, he tends to disappear altogether.
Now, let's take a look at some basic characteristics of European hockey. Do you see where I'm going with this? A European hockey rink, like the ones the Rangers have been playing their preseason on, is 13 feet wider than a North American rink. European teams, as compared to NHL teams, also tend to be smaller, less physical teams. All this adds up to a bunch more room and time on the ice to make those good-looking plays.
Have you put two and two together here yet? It makes four, people. Zuccarello has looked really good (at least from what I've seen). So good, in fact, that he has at this point earned himself the twelfth roster spot (more on that later). Which stands to reason - he's very talented at this. But what happens when we get back home, and we have to play NHL-sized teams on NHL-sized ice? If last season is any indication, he disappears again.
The preseason isn't just used to warm up your veterans for the season: it's also used to figure out who will and won't make your team. You hear all about the travel and schedule issues with a European season-start, but you hear a lot less about the fact that you play totally different hockey there. 26 NHL teams have spent the last 2 weeks playing practice NHL games, on real NHL ice, against each other. Meanwhile, the Rangers, along with Buffalo, LA, and Anaheim, have been practicing European hockey, not NHL hockey. They've been playing it on European ice, and they've been playing it against European teams, not even against each other. That makes them less ready to face the NHL when they come home, and it causes them to put their teams together based on this less helpful data.
Which is why Mats Zuccarello will be the 12th Ranger forward when the season opens at the end of the week. The Rangers made a bunch of roster cuts on Saturday morning (which I was too lazy to blog about at the time, because I was playing Assassin's Creed 2 instead). From their most recent roster of 33 (roster of 35 was listed here, then Deveaux and Thuresson were cut as mentioned here), the Rangers made an additional 8 cuts on Saturday: 5 forwards and 3 defensemen. Those cuts:
Forwards: Kris Newbury, Dale Weise, John Mitchell, Ryan Bourque, Carl Hagelin
Defensemen: Tim Erixon, Dylan McIlrath, Blake Parlett
McIlrath was sent back to his junior team, the rest were reassigned to the Whale. 33 - 8 = 25 players left on the roster. Here's who they are:
Forwards (14)
Artem Anisimov, Sean Avery, Brian Boyle, Ryan Callahan, Erik Christensen, Brandon Dubinsky, Ruslan Fedotenko, Marian Gaborik, Brandon Prust, Brad Richards, Mike Rupp, Derek Stepan, Wojtek Wolski, Mats Zuccarello
Defensemen (8)
Brendan Bell, Stu Bickel, Michael Del Zotto, Steve Eminger, Dan Girardi, Ryan McDonagh, Mike Sauer, Marc Staal
Goalies (3)
Martin Biron, Henrik Lundqvist, Scott Stajcer
Now, you may recall that the maximum NHL roster is 23. You see 25 here. However, a special allowance is made for teams who start the season in Europe, that they may carry 1 extra goalie for the start of the season (which is why Stajcer remains on the roster at this point). So, one more cut remains to be made between today's preseason closer, a 2:00 against EV Zug, and Friday's season opener, at 1:00 against the Kings. Torts has made it clear that he intends to start the season with 13 forwards and 8 defensemen (a smart move given the uncertainty surrounding Staal, who remains in the States as of now). It's also recently become clear that Zuccarello's position is cemented, and that the final cut will come down to Avery or Christensen.
Christensen played in yesterday's 4-1 victory over HC Slovan, while Avery was a healthy scratch. According to Kevin DeLury, Christensen himself had a bad game, though (what else is new?). Presumably, Avery will be in this afternoon's lineup and Christensen won't, and then the final decision will be made. Ideally, Avery will play another solid game (as he has all preseason), and then Tortorella will make the right decision and keep Avery on the roster.
This would leave Avery poised to be inserted into the regular lineup in a few weeks, should Mats Zuccarello succumb to the perils of North America.
But I'm not here to talk about those issues. I'm here to talk about the other danger of a European preseason: Mats Zuccarello.
Now, let me be clear before you start labeling me a heightist: I like Zuccarello. He can be very creative with the puck when he's got the room, he's a good setup guy, and he has even shown himself to be a little tough for his size. As with all successful short sportsmen, it's easy to call him "scrappy," but there's also some talent there that can't be ignored.
With that said, let's take a quick look at his main on-ice strengths and weaknesses. What he does well: makes clever passes, sets up plays, works well with lots of room. What he doesn't so well (did I say that correctly?): clears bodies out of his way to make that room. Possibly through no fault of his own (yes, the guy is my height, and yes, that does matter), he struggles at the NHL level, as we saw last season, because he doesn't have the room and time to make those clever plays against bigger, tougher opponents. And when he loses those clever passes, he tends to disappear altogether.
Now, let's take a look at some basic characteristics of European hockey. Do you see where I'm going with this? A European hockey rink, like the ones the Rangers have been playing their preseason on, is 13 feet wider than a North American rink. European teams, as compared to NHL teams, also tend to be smaller, less physical teams. All this adds up to a bunch more room and time on the ice to make those good-looking plays.
Have you put two and two together here yet? It makes four, people. Zuccarello has looked really good (at least from what I've seen). So good, in fact, that he has at this point earned himself the twelfth roster spot (more on that later). Which stands to reason - he's very talented at this. But what happens when we get back home, and we have to play NHL-sized teams on NHL-sized ice? If last season is any indication, he disappears again.
The preseason isn't just used to warm up your veterans for the season: it's also used to figure out who will and won't make your team. You hear all about the travel and schedule issues with a European season-start, but you hear a lot less about the fact that you play totally different hockey there. 26 NHL teams have spent the last 2 weeks playing practice NHL games, on real NHL ice, against each other. Meanwhile, the Rangers, along with Buffalo, LA, and Anaheim, have been practicing European hockey, not NHL hockey. They've been playing it on European ice, and they've been playing it against European teams, not even against each other. That makes them less ready to face the NHL when they come home, and it causes them to put their teams together based on this less helpful data.
Which is why Mats Zuccarello will be the 12th Ranger forward when the season opens at the end of the week. The Rangers made a bunch of roster cuts on Saturday morning (which I was too lazy to blog about at the time, because I was playing Assassin's Creed 2 instead). From their most recent roster of 33 (roster of 35 was listed here, then Deveaux and Thuresson were cut as mentioned here), the Rangers made an additional 8 cuts on Saturday: 5 forwards and 3 defensemen. Those cuts:
Forwards: Kris Newbury, Dale Weise, John Mitchell, Ryan Bourque, Carl Hagelin
Defensemen: Tim Erixon, Dylan McIlrath, Blake Parlett
McIlrath was sent back to his junior team, the rest were reassigned to the Whale. 33 - 8 = 25 players left on the roster. Here's who they are:
Forwards (14)
Artem Anisimov, Sean Avery, Brian Boyle, Ryan Callahan, Erik Christensen, Brandon Dubinsky, Ruslan Fedotenko, Marian Gaborik, Brandon Prust, Brad Richards, Mike Rupp, Derek Stepan, Wojtek Wolski, Mats Zuccarello
Defensemen (8)
Brendan Bell, Stu Bickel, Michael Del Zotto, Steve Eminger, Dan Girardi, Ryan McDonagh, Mike Sauer, Marc Staal
Goalies (3)
Martin Biron, Henrik Lundqvist, Scott Stajcer
Now, you may recall that the maximum NHL roster is 23. You see 25 here. However, a special allowance is made for teams who start the season in Europe, that they may carry 1 extra goalie for the start of the season (which is why Stajcer remains on the roster at this point). So, one more cut remains to be made between today's preseason closer, a 2:00 against EV Zug, and Friday's season opener, at 1:00 against the Kings. Torts has made it clear that he intends to start the season with 13 forwards and 8 defensemen (a smart move given the uncertainty surrounding Staal, who remains in the States as of now). It's also recently become clear that Zuccarello's position is cemented, and that the final cut will come down to Avery or Christensen.
Christensen played in yesterday's 4-1 victory over HC Slovan, while Avery was a healthy scratch. According to Kevin DeLury, Christensen himself had a bad game, though (what else is new?). Presumably, Avery will be in this afternoon's lineup and Christensen won't, and then the final decision will be made. Ideally, Avery will play another solid game (as he has all preseason), and then Tortorella will make the right decision and keep Avery on the roster.
This would leave Avery poised to be inserted into the regular lineup in a few weeks, should Mats Zuccarello succumb to the perils of North America.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Wednesday Fun
Look who's wrong about something again! Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit's fatso!!!!
Why would you even consider complaining about this? How is this a good idea? Who comes down on the side of concussions? Don't suspend offenders because having too many suspensions is bad for the sport. Holy shit, who feels the need to go to the media in the preseason and speak out against suspending headhunters? He likens it to the fucking foot in the crease rule?
Ho
ly
Shit
One of these things is not like the other
One of these things ends people's careers
Can you tell which one is not like the other
Fuck
you
fatty
Why would you even consider complaining about this? How is this a good idea? Who comes down on the side of concussions? Don't suspend offenders because having too many suspensions is bad for the sport. Holy shit, who feels the need to go to the media in the preseason and speak out against suspending headhunters? He likens it to the fucking foot in the crease rule?
Ho
ly
Shit
One of these things is not like the other
One of these things ends people's careers
Can you tell which one is not like the other
Fuck
you
fatty
Colin Campbell is still spineless
This.
Edit: The only thing I'd add, which I believe Brooks pointed out in a previous piece, is that precedent has been set not only by the NHL (we talked yesterday about the Avery suspension for saying "sloppy seconds"). On April 13, 2011, L.A. Laker Kobe Bryant called an NBA official a "fucking faggot." Despite being one of the league's superstars, the next day, Bryant was fined $100,000 by the NBA. A month and a half later, Chicago Bull Joakim Noah yelled "Fuck you, faggot" at a fan - and was fined $50,000 by the league.
Note that, unlike the fines handed out by the NFL to Joey Porter, or by MLB to Ozzie Guillen (both for using the same word), both of these NBA instances were yelled in the heat of the moment, during a game, and were corroborated only by word of mouth and lip-readers. In other words, exactly the same situation the NHL is using to justify their lack of punishment.
When Bill Plaschke yells that all the fighting is why people consider hockey a "fringe sport," it's because he's an idiot. But shit like this? Joke league.
Edit: The only thing I'd add, which I believe Brooks pointed out in a previous piece, is that precedent has been set not only by the NHL (we talked yesterday about the Avery suspension for saying "sloppy seconds"). On April 13, 2011, L.A. Laker Kobe Bryant called an NBA official a "fucking faggot." Despite being one of the league's superstars, the next day, Bryant was fined $100,000 by the NBA. A month and a half later, Chicago Bull Joakim Noah yelled "Fuck you, faggot" at a fan - and was fined $50,000 by the league.
Note that, unlike the fines handed out by the NFL to Joey Porter, or by MLB to Ozzie Guillen (both for using the same word), both of these NBA instances were yelled in the heat of the moment, during a game, and were corroborated only by word of mouth and lip-readers. In other words, exactly the same situation the NHL is using to justify their lack of punishment.
When Bill Plaschke yells that all the fighting is why people consider hockey a "fringe sport," it's because he's an idiot. But shit like this? Joke league.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Yesterday was a crazy day
So much shit went down! Wow! Check it out!
At 1:30, they officially announced the Winter Classic, Rangers-Flyers at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. In addition to the things everybody already knew, that the Winter Classic will be officially happening (on January 2 at 1:00 PM) and that HBO will be doing a 24/7 series about the two teams leading up to the game (starting December 14 at 10:00 PM), we also learned that they will be doing an alumni game again this year. The game will be December 31, and the prospect of seeing old Rangers play hockey again might actually be enough to get me to spend New Years Eve in Goddamn Philadelphia. This isn't exactly Pens-Caps: there are more than like 3 notable alumni total between these two teams.
The other exciting thing about the announcement was Glen Sather's performance. It was pretty heroic. Here, watch it:
Niiiiiice. Oh, and they'll be using this logo.
Then, last night, after NHL Network went back on its original plan to cover the Rangers-Flyers preseason game live at 7, it went ahead and showed us a slightly abbreviated replay at 11. So, I got to watch some hockey! We lost 5-3 including an empty-netter, but it's silly to talk about overall performance in a preseason game with that many penalties. So let's talk specifics.
As I had guessed, almost every forward that can be considered "on the bubble" was in last night: Avery, Christensen, Weise, Zuccarello, Deveaux, Mitchell, Bourque, Hagelin, and Thuresson all played. This leaves out only Kris Newbury, among forwards at camp who are not considered to be in the "locked" 11 forward spots on the opening night roster. At the end of the night, I expected Deveaux and Bourque to be the two final cuts before the European trip. Turns out, it was Deveaux and Thuresson, which surprises me, but not a lot.
Bourque is clearly not ready to play at the NHL level yet. He was mostly a non-factor. Thuresson scored a goal, which was nice, and held his own with the puck a few times. Hagelin was able to make a couple of cute moves here and there, but didn't wow. Still, he probably looked most NHL-ready of the trio. The reports on Weise and Zuccarello are unchanged: Weise did his 6'2" job and punched a guy, while being otherwise competent. Zuccarello made some really nice passes down low, one of which led to a Ranger goal, but is still a little short for a Storm Trooper.
As for the two guys I hadn't seen before, Deveaux was decent, and Mitchell was impressive. Some reports say that Mitchell was likely the 19th forward, the one that "earned his way to Europe," and I'm not surprised. Dude was strong on the puck and spent a good deal of time in front of the net. Based solely on last night's game, if Avery doesn't get the 12th forward spot, I'd give it to Mitchell.
Speaking of Avery, I feel like he won round two of Avery v. Christensen: Roster Battle 2k11. It's almost comical to watch how often an opposing team member skates past Christensen and all of a sudden Mr. Softie doesn't have the puck anymore. He supposedly makes up for his inability to keep the puck by having a great wrist shot, but last night all he did was hit Bryzgalov squarely in the P a few times. Holy possession time, Batman: he is a piece of shit.
Avery, on the other hand, did almost everything right. First of all, the Rangers first (and only even-strength) goal came entirely from his hard work, down in the trenches, keeping the puck away from like 3 different Flyers. Dude does not lose the puck, ever; it is great.
A few minutes later, dirtbag-in-training Tom Sestito hit Mike Sauer into the boards, from behind. No call. Sauer left the game with a shoulder sprain and will be back in a week. The next thing I heard (over Steve Coates's mic between the benches) was a voice yelling at Sestito to slow down and pay attention, or he was gonna injure somebody. Turns out that voice was Sean Avery's. The next shift, Avery is out there starting trouble with Wayne Simmonds.
A few minutes later, sure enough, Sestito once again goes after a Ranger from behind into the boards. This time, it's Deveaux (not his best night ever), and it's way worse. It leads to a brawl, a game misconduct for Sestito, and almost certainly a suspension from Shanahan today. The Flyers' broadcast brilliantly explained to us that "Avery starting with Simmonds" was where the whole thing started, but hey - that's what you get when you watch the Flyers' broadcast.
Avery did take an unfortunate Unsportsmanlike Conduct penalty in the second, which I'd be more apt to judge if I had been able to see it. I saw Simmonds punch Avery in the back of the head, into the glass (no call), and I saw the two of them skate away. I heard the Flyers broadcasters talk a whole bunch about what a drain Avery was on his team, upon the penalty being called a few seconds later. But, because they were too busy talking about it, they didn't bother to ever show us the actual play, so I don't know what happened there.
Avery ended up leaving the game for a reason Torts can't get too upset about: he blocked a shot. Avery went down hard and stayed there for a bit before limping off to the locker room. The good news is apparently his foot is not broken, and he will be fine. It also led to my favorite Flyers broadcast moment of the night, in which they showed Simmonds hitting Avery in the upper body on the previous shift, then immediately showed Avery leaving for the locker room after the blocked shot, and bragged about how Simmonds hit Avery so hard, he had to go to the locker room. My friends, it takes a serious brand of homerism to spin "blocked a shot with his foot and had to limp off to the locker room" into "got hit so hard by our guy 2 shifts ago that he had to leave just now to cry about it," but the Flyers broadcast team is capable of such homerism. And, really, shouldn't we respect those who excel in any field?
On defense, I'm starting to get concerned. While the Staal situation remains as it was (he didn't fly to Europe today, but still could by the end of the week), we had a brief scare with Sauer getting hurt on like his second shift and not returning. Fortunately, he, too, has nothing broken - it's a sprain that will keep him out a week. With him out last night, though, there was a big opportunity for Del Zotto, Erixon, or long-shot Stu Bickel to step up and fill a gap (the other two spots were held admirably by Girardi and McDonagh). And unfortunately, none of them did.
Erixon's ability to make the puck move well on a power play was not tested much last night, with Torts instead opting to test his defensive responsibility at the NHL level (this is smart - I'd hate to bring up yet another young defensemen who's supposed to improve the power play and can't play defense). And, as it turns out, Erixon had some problems. He was caught out of position, he lost the puck a lot, et cetera. Look, I know he's 20. Nothing against the guy. But last night, he didn't look totally ready to play defense in the NHL.
Meanwhile, Del Zotto looked bigger than he did last season, but didn't really look any better on defense. This is a huge disappointment, as he had the opportunity to make a real impact, and he didn't. Oh, and after watching a whole hockey game, I know no more about Stu Bickel than I did yesterday. That doesn't say much for the kid.
One last crazy thing that happened yesterday: Wayne Simmonds called Avery a faggot! Yeah, classy, right? Simmonds, predictably, responded to the media by saying something like "hey, he's Avery, he says shit too sometimes." After some digging, Flyers blogs seem to be pinning it on a clip overheard early in the game. After Sestito threw his (first) uncalled-for intent-to-injure hit-from-behind, Avery yelled at the Flyers bench. It sounded to me like, "You know, I kinda wanna fucking kill Giroux tonight. After -- this guy right here [indicating Sestito]? Get him under control, or we'll fucking kill Giroux."
That right there? That's exactly what he should be saying. This schmuck targeted out guy's head? You keep that punk under control, or we'll go after your guys! I imagine that even most Flyers fans have to see the difference between that quote and Simmonds calling Avery a faggot. Especially less than a week after Simmonds himself, who is black, was targeted by some horribly racist fans in Ontario, who threw a banana on the ice when Simmonds was making a shootout attempt.
And, for perspective's sake, let me once again remind you that when Sean Avery was asked, by a reporter, in a locker room, about being in Calgary (home of Dion Phaneuf, who had started dating Avery's ex-girlfriend, the unassailably attractive Elisha Cuthbert), Avery responded "I just want to comment on how it's become like a common thing in the NHL for guys to fall in love with my sloppy seconds. I don't know what that's about, but enjoy the game tonight." As a result, that very same night, Avery was suspended indefinitely for "conduct detrimental to the league or the game of hockey." The suspension ended up being 6 games, plus a mandatory anger management evaluation, and his team (the Dallas Stars) refused to ever play him again.
In conclusion: the Rangers are in Prague now, fuck the Flyers, the regular season starts in 10 days, Avery's great, and I'm spending New Years in Philly.
At 1:30, they officially announced the Winter Classic, Rangers-Flyers at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. In addition to the things everybody already knew, that the Winter Classic will be officially happening (on January 2 at 1:00 PM) and that HBO will be doing a 24/7 series about the two teams leading up to the game (starting December 14 at 10:00 PM), we also learned that they will be doing an alumni game again this year. The game will be December 31, and the prospect of seeing old Rangers play hockey again might actually be enough to get me to spend New Years Eve in Goddamn Philadelphia. This isn't exactly Pens-Caps: there are more than like 3 notable alumni total between these two teams.
The other exciting thing about the announcement was Glen Sather's performance. It was pretty heroic. Here, watch it:
Niiiiiice. Oh, and they'll be using this logo.
Then, last night, after NHL Network went back on its original plan to cover the Rangers-Flyers preseason game live at 7, it went ahead and showed us a slightly abbreviated replay at 11. So, I got to watch some hockey! We lost 5-3 including an empty-netter, but it's silly to talk about overall performance in a preseason game with that many penalties. So let's talk specifics.
As I had guessed, almost every forward that can be considered "on the bubble" was in last night: Avery, Christensen, Weise, Zuccarello, Deveaux, Mitchell, Bourque, Hagelin, and Thuresson all played. This leaves out only Kris Newbury, among forwards at camp who are not considered to be in the "locked" 11 forward spots on the opening night roster. At the end of the night, I expected Deveaux and Bourque to be the two final cuts before the European trip. Turns out, it was Deveaux and Thuresson, which surprises me, but not a lot.
Bourque is clearly not ready to play at the NHL level yet. He was mostly a non-factor. Thuresson scored a goal, which was nice, and held his own with the puck a few times. Hagelin was able to make a couple of cute moves here and there, but didn't wow. Still, he probably looked most NHL-ready of the trio. The reports on Weise and Zuccarello are unchanged: Weise did his 6'2" job and punched a guy, while being otherwise competent. Zuccarello made some really nice passes down low, one of which led to a Ranger goal, but is still a little short for a Storm Trooper.
As for the two guys I hadn't seen before, Deveaux was decent, and Mitchell was impressive. Some reports say that Mitchell was likely the 19th forward, the one that "earned his way to Europe," and I'm not surprised. Dude was strong on the puck and spent a good deal of time in front of the net. Based solely on last night's game, if Avery doesn't get the 12th forward spot, I'd give it to Mitchell.
Speaking of Avery, I feel like he won round two of Avery v. Christensen: Roster Battle 2k11. It's almost comical to watch how often an opposing team member skates past Christensen and all of a sudden Mr. Softie doesn't have the puck anymore. He supposedly makes up for his inability to keep the puck by having a great wrist shot, but last night all he did was hit Bryzgalov squarely in the P a few times. Holy possession time, Batman: he is a piece of shit.
Avery, on the other hand, did almost everything right. First of all, the Rangers first (and only even-strength) goal came entirely from his hard work, down in the trenches, keeping the puck away from like 3 different Flyers. Dude does not lose the puck, ever; it is great.
A few minutes later, dirtbag-in-training Tom Sestito hit Mike Sauer into the boards, from behind. No call. Sauer left the game with a shoulder sprain and will be back in a week. The next thing I heard (over Steve Coates's mic between the benches) was a voice yelling at Sestito to slow down and pay attention, or he was gonna injure somebody. Turns out that voice was Sean Avery's. The next shift, Avery is out there starting trouble with Wayne Simmonds.
A few minutes later, sure enough, Sestito once again goes after a Ranger from behind into the boards. This time, it's Deveaux (not his best night ever), and it's way worse. It leads to a brawl, a game misconduct for Sestito, and almost certainly a suspension from Shanahan today. The Flyers' broadcast brilliantly explained to us that "Avery starting with Simmonds" was where the whole thing started, but hey - that's what you get when you watch the Flyers' broadcast.
Avery did take an unfortunate Unsportsmanlike Conduct penalty in the second, which I'd be more apt to judge if I had been able to see it. I saw Simmonds punch Avery in the back of the head, into the glass (no call), and I saw the two of them skate away. I heard the Flyers broadcasters talk a whole bunch about what a drain Avery was on his team, upon the penalty being called a few seconds later. But, because they were too busy talking about it, they didn't bother to ever show us the actual play, so I don't know what happened there.
Avery ended up leaving the game for a reason Torts can't get too upset about: he blocked a shot. Avery went down hard and stayed there for a bit before limping off to the locker room. The good news is apparently his foot is not broken, and he will be fine. It also led to my favorite Flyers broadcast moment of the night, in which they showed Simmonds hitting Avery in the upper body on the previous shift, then immediately showed Avery leaving for the locker room after the blocked shot, and bragged about how Simmonds hit Avery so hard, he had to go to the locker room. My friends, it takes a serious brand of homerism to spin "blocked a shot with his foot and had to limp off to the locker room" into "got hit so hard by our guy 2 shifts ago that he had to leave just now to cry about it," but the Flyers broadcast team is capable of such homerism. And, really, shouldn't we respect those who excel in any field?
On defense, I'm starting to get concerned. While the Staal situation remains as it was (he didn't fly to Europe today, but still could by the end of the week), we had a brief scare with Sauer getting hurt on like his second shift and not returning. Fortunately, he, too, has nothing broken - it's a sprain that will keep him out a week. With him out last night, though, there was a big opportunity for Del Zotto, Erixon, or long-shot Stu Bickel to step up and fill a gap (the other two spots were held admirably by Girardi and McDonagh). And unfortunately, none of them did.
Erixon's ability to make the puck move well on a power play was not tested much last night, with Torts instead opting to test his defensive responsibility at the NHL level (this is smart - I'd hate to bring up yet another young defensemen who's supposed to improve the power play and can't play defense). And, as it turns out, Erixon had some problems. He was caught out of position, he lost the puck a lot, et cetera. Look, I know he's 20. Nothing against the guy. But last night, he didn't look totally ready to play defense in the NHL.
Meanwhile, Del Zotto looked bigger than he did last season, but didn't really look any better on defense. This is a huge disappointment, as he had the opportunity to make a real impact, and he didn't. Oh, and after watching a whole hockey game, I know no more about Stu Bickel than I did yesterday. That doesn't say much for the kid.
One last crazy thing that happened yesterday: Wayne Simmonds called Avery a faggot! Yeah, classy, right? Simmonds, predictably, responded to the media by saying something like "hey, he's Avery, he says shit too sometimes." After some digging, Flyers blogs seem to be pinning it on a clip overheard early in the game. After Sestito threw his (first) uncalled-for intent-to-injure hit-from-behind, Avery yelled at the Flyers bench. It sounded to me like, "You know, I kinda wanna fucking kill Giroux tonight. After -- this guy right here [indicating Sestito]? Get him under control, or we'll fucking kill Giroux."
That right there? That's exactly what he should be saying. This schmuck targeted out guy's head? You keep that punk under control, or we'll go after your guys! I imagine that even most Flyers fans have to see the difference between that quote and Simmonds calling Avery a faggot. Especially less than a week after Simmonds himself, who is black, was targeted by some horribly racist fans in Ontario, who threw a banana on the ice when Simmonds was making a shootout attempt.
And, for perspective's sake, let me once again remind you that when Sean Avery was asked, by a reporter, in a locker room, about being in Calgary (home of Dion Phaneuf, who had started dating Avery's ex-girlfriend, the unassailably attractive Elisha Cuthbert), Avery responded "I just want to comment on how it's become like a common thing in the NHL for guys to fall in love with my sloppy seconds. I don't know what that's about, but enjoy the game tonight." As a result, that very same night, Avery was suspended indefinitely for "conduct detrimental to the league or the game of hockey." The suspension ended up being 6 games, plus a mandatory anger management evaluation, and his team (the Dallas Stars) refused to ever play him again.
In conclusion: the Rangers are in Prague now, fuck the Flyers, the regular season starts in 10 days, Avery's great, and I'm spending New Years in Philly.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
First round of cuts
As promised, after last night's 4-3 victory over the sorta-Devils, the Rangers made their first round of roster cuts, and as promised, it was a huge set of cuts. Unlike last year, when people seemed to trickle out a dozen at a time, it looks like Torts and the rest of the staff really want to pare down to the people who deserve serious looks. As such, 28 of the 63 players the Rangers had in camp were cut this morning. Here's who got cut. An * next to a player's name means he was returned to his junior squad - everyone else was returned to the Whale. (Source)
Forwards: Chad Kolarik, Jonathan Audy-Marchessault, Tommy Grant, Shane McColgan*, J.T. Miller*, Christian Thomas*, Jordan Hickmott, Tayler Jordan, Kale Kerbashian, Chris McKelvie, Matt Rust, Michael St. Croix*, Scott Tanski, Kelsey Tessier, Jason Wilson, Andrew Yogan*
Defensemen: Tomas Kundratek, Samuel Noreau*, Pavel Valentenko, Lee Baldwin, Collin Bowman, Peter Ceresnak*, Sam Klassen, Jyri Niemi, Jared Nightingale
Goalies: Chad Johnson, Jason Missiaen, Cam Talbot
A few things that struck me: up front, recent acquisitions Andre Deveaux and John Mitchell are apparently both playing well enough to warrant further consideration. Of the crew of kids everyone was talking about (Hagelin, Bourque, Thomas, Grant, McColgan), only Hagelin and Bourque are sticking around, and joining them is dark horse Andreas Thuresson. Meanwhile, Chad Kolarik, who was called up for a 4-game stretch last January (1 assist, 4 shots, 2 PIM, -1 in that stretch) didn't make the cut. On defense, interesting that Pavel Valentenko (who was once considered as exciting a prospect as McDonagh, and who had a reportedly terrible game last night) was sent home, while the much-less-often-praised Stu Bickel stuck around. Also interesting that McIlrath ("The Undertaker") earned an apparent plane ride to the Czech Republic. Finally, in net, I think it's at least a little notable that Johnson, the go-to callup last season, isn't coming along, while Stajcer, the Traverse City starter, is. Perhaps Johnson is the regular callup because the team is less interested in his development, while they like to let Talbot and Stajcer play. Or perhaps I'm overthinking it.
So, the Rangers cut 16 of 37 forwards, 9 of 20 defensemen, and 3 of 6 goalies cut. Which leaves 35 players in camp: 21 forwards, 11 defensemen, and 3 goalies. If you'll recall, the current plan is to bring 19 forwards, 11 defensemen, and 3 goalies to Europe, a trip that happens sometime soon after Monday night's game against the Flyers (the Rangers' first game in Europe is Thursday afternoon, in Prague against HC Sparta, and they'll be out there through the second game of the regular season, against the Ducks in Stockholm on Yom Kippur (October 8)). It sounds like we're mostly set for our initial European roster, but that two more forwards will be cut after Monday night's Flyers game. If I had to guess, I'd say anyone on that bubble will be in the lineup that night. That likely includes Bourque, Deveaux, Newbury, and Thuresson? Possibly also Hagelin, Mitchell, and Weise? Who knows?
And so, if you'll allow me to upgrade a few "other kids" to "notable prospects," here's who we've got left in camp:
Forwards (21)
Rangers you saw last season (14)
Artem Anisimov, Sean Avery, Brian Boyle, Ryan Callahan, Erik Christensen, Brandon Dubinsky, Ruslan Fedotenko, Marian Gaborik, Kris Newbury, Brandon Prust, Derek Stepan, Dale Weise, Wojtek Wolski, Mats Zuccarello
Summer Acquisitions (4)
Andre Deveaux, John Mitchell, Brad Richards, Mike Rupp
Notable Prospects (3)
Ryan Bourque, Carl Hagelin, Andreas Thuresson
Defensemen (11)
Rangers you saw last season (6)
Michael Del Zotto, Steve Eminger, Dan Girardi, Ryan McDonagh, Mike Sauer, Marc Staal
Summer Acquisitions (1)
Brendan Bell
Notable Prospects (4)
Stu Bickel, Tim Erixon, Dylan McIlrath, Blake Parlett
Goalies (3)
Rangers you saw last season (2)
Martin Biron, Henrik Lundqvist
Notable Prospects (1)
Scott Stajcer
Forwards: Chad Kolarik, Jonathan Audy-Marchessault, Tommy Grant, Shane McColgan*, J.T. Miller*, Christian Thomas*, Jordan Hickmott, Tayler Jordan, Kale Kerbashian, Chris McKelvie, Matt Rust, Michael St. Croix*, Scott Tanski, Kelsey Tessier, Jason Wilson, Andrew Yogan*
Defensemen: Tomas Kundratek, Samuel Noreau*, Pavel Valentenko, Lee Baldwin, Collin Bowman, Peter Ceresnak*, Sam Klassen, Jyri Niemi, Jared Nightingale
Goalies: Chad Johnson, Jason Missiaen, Cam Talbot
A few things that struck me: up front, recent acquisitions Andre Deveaux and John Mitchell are apparently both playing well enough to warrant further consideration. Of the crew of kids everyone was talking about (Hagelin, Bourque, Thomas, Grant, McColgan), only Hagelin and Bourque are sticking around, and joining them is dark horse Andreas Thuresson. Meanwhile, Chad Kolarik, who was called up for a 4-game stretch last January (1 assist, 4 shots, 2 PIM, -1 in that stretch) didn't make the cut. On defense, interesting that Pavel Valentenko (who was once considered as exciting a prospect as McDonagh, and who had a reportedly terrible game last night) was sent home, while the much-less-often-praised Stu Bickel stuck around. Also interesting that McIlrath ("The Undertaker") earned an apparent plane ride to the Czech Republic. Finally, in net, I think it's at least a little notable that Johnson, the go-to callup last season, isn't coming along, while Stajcer, the Traverse City starter, is. Perhaps Johnson is the regular callup because the team is less interested in his development, while they like to let Talbot and Stajcer play. Or perhaps I'm overthinking it.
So, the Rangers cut 16 of 37 forwards, 9 of 20 defensemen, and 3 of 6 goalies cut. Which leaves 35 players in camp: 21 forwards, 11 defensemen, and 3 goalies. If you'll recall, the current plan is to bring 19 forwards, 11 defensemen, and 3 goalies to Europe, a trip that happens sometime soon after Monday night's game against the Flyers (the Rangers' first game in Europe is Thursday afternoon, in Prague against HC Sparta, and they'll be out there through the second game of the regular season, against the Ducks in Stockholm on Yom Kippur (October 8)). It sounds like we're mostly set for our initial European roster, but that two more forwards will be cut after Monday night's Flyers game. If I had to guess, I'd say anyone on that bubble will be in the lineup that night. That likely includes Bourque, Deveaux, Newbury, and Thuresson? Possibly also Hagelin, Mitchell, and Weise? Who knows?
And so, if you'll allow me to upgrade a few "other kids" to "notable prospects," here's who we've got left in camp:
Forwards (21)
Rangers you saw last season (14)
Artem Anisimov, Sean Avery, Brian Boyle, Ryan Callahan, Erik Christensen, Brandon Dubinsky, Ruslan Fedotenko, Marian Gaborik, Kris Newbury, Brandon Prust, Derek Stepan, Dale Weise, Wojtek Wolski, Mats Zuccarello
Summer Acquisitions (4)
Andre Deveaux, John Mitchell, Brad Richards, Mike Rupp
Notable Prospects (3)
Ryan Bourque, Carl Hagelin, Andreas Thuresson
Defensemen (11)
Rangers you saw last season (6)
Michael Del Zotto, Steve Eminger, Dan Girardi, Ryan McDonagh, Mike Sauer, Marc Staal
Summer Acquisitions (1)
Brendan Bell
Notable Prospects (4)
Stu Bickel, Tim Erixon, Dylan McIlrath, Blake Parlett
Goalies (3)
Rangers you saw last season (2)
Martin Biron, Henrik Lundqvist
Notable Prospects (1)
Scott Stajcer
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Let the rampant speculation begin
Today, we've got a few things to guess wildly about between now and the next time we gain any small bit of semi-information.
First off, the kinda-Rangers' 2-1 OT loss to the kinda-Devils last night. Reportedly, round one of the great Avery-Christensen roster spot battle went to Avery. While Torts praised the Avery-Mitchell-Miller line as "our most effective line, at least as far as offensive pressure," Christensen a the much less promising critique from the coach, "not much was happening there." Of course, as Torts went on to say, you don't want to "get too down or too high on a guy after the first game." Still, if game one was a battle between these two guys at all, it went to Avery, and that's not bad news.
I feel like it's worth pointing out my father's opinion, which is that Christensen is being badly misused: he's not smart enough to be a center, but could be a very effective right wing (he played center last night, between Hagelin and Thomas). While I fundamentally agree that Christensen could do much better things than he currently does if given a low-pressure "shut up and shoot" role, and while there really is something to the argument that we're fine on grit, and what we need is scoring talent (which sways toward Christensen and away from Avery), I just can't get past the fact that I don't like him very much.
Moving on, we can also invent unsubstantial theories about the meaning behind the lineup for tomorrow night's preseason matchup, also against the Devils, back at the Rock. Here's who's playing in that game:
Forwards: Brian Boyle, Ryan Callahan, Ruslan Fedotenko, Marian Gaborik, Kris Newbury, Derek Stepan, Dale Weise, Wojtek Wolski, Mats Zuccarello, Brad Richards, Mike Rupp, Carl Hagelin
Defensemen: Michael Del Zotto, Ryan McDonagh, Mike Sauer, Brendan Bell, Tim Erixon, Pavel Valentenko
Goalies: Martin Biron, Chad Johnson
We can form theories here about why Eminger isn't getting a second-straight look like DZ, Bell, and Erixon are - they can be anywhere from "because he's a lock for a spot" to "because he's not being given serious consideration for a spot." We can read into Weise and Hagelin getting second-straight looks while Miller, Mitchell, and Thomas didn't. We can wonder if it means Wolski-Richards-Gaborik is pretty much set in stone at this point. And so on.
It's also worth remembering that after this game, the first big round of camp roster cuts will be made. So it's probably at least worth speculating that guys like Kelsey Tessier and Stu Bickel, who didn't make the roster in either preseason game, are probably going home soon.
Ooh! We can make uninformed guesses about various reported injuries, too! Brad Richards and Mike Sauer both playing tomorrow is probably good news about them. As for Staal, he didn't practice again today, but apparently that's because he had a pre-scheduled session with his specialist, which was deemed more important. Which is totally valid! Unless it's a coverup. So that's totally something we can bullshit about!
Finally, here's a really fun one to guess things about. Remember that the Rangers both end the preseason (against HC Sparta, Frolunda, HC Slovan, and EV Zug) and start the regular season (against the Kings and the Ducks) in Europe this year. In fact, after tomorrow night's game, they only have 1 more preseason game (Monday in Philly) before flying out. So, they'll have to take much more than their final roster with them to Europe to finish out training camp and the preseason.
Yesterday, Tortorella announced that the team was planning on taking 18 forwards, 10 defensemen, and 3 goalies with them to Europe. However, today, he announced that a 19th forward "earned his way" onto the trip. So, that must have been someone from last night's game; we can guess who that is! He also said he'd take an 11th defenseman, but that's as insurance for the Staal injury, not because someone earned it. So we can start to guess who those 18+1, 10+1, and 3 players are!
Isn't the preseason fun?
First off, the kinda-Rangers' 2-1 OT loss to the kinda-Devils last night. Reportedly, round one of the great Avery-Christensen roster spot battle went to Avery. While Torts praised the Avery-Mitchell-Miller line as "our most effective line, at least as far as offensive pressure," Christensen a the much less promising critique from the coach, "not much was happening there." Of course, as Torts went on to say, you don't want to "get too down or too high on a guy after the first game." Still, if game one was a battle between these two guys at all, it went to Avery, and that's not bad news.
I feel like it's worth pointing out my father's opinion, which is that Christensen is being badly misused: he's not smart enough to be a center, but could be a very effective right wing (he played center last night, between Hagelin and Thomas). While I fundamentally agree that Christensen could do much better things than he currently does if given a low-pressure "shut up and shoot" role, and while there really is something to the argument that we're fine on grit, and what we need is scoring talent (which sways toward Christensen and away from Avery), I just can't get past the fact that I don't like him very much.
Moving on, we can also invent unsubstantial theories about the meaning behind the lineup for tomorrow night's preseason matchup, also against the Devils, back at the Rock. Here's who's playing in that game:
Forwards: Brian Boyle, Ryan Callahan, Ruslan Fedotenko, Marian Gaborik, Kris Newbury, Derek Stepan, Dale Weise, Wojtek Wolski, Mats Zuccarello, Brad Richards, Mike Rupp, Carl Hagelin
Defensemen: Michael Del Zotto, Ryan McDonagh, Mike Sauer, Brendan Bell, Tim Erixon, Pavel Valentenko
Goalies: Martin Biron, Chad Johnson
We can form theories here about why Eminger isn't getting a second-straight look like DZ, Bell, and Erixon are - they can be anywhere from "because he's a lock for a spot" to "because he's not being given serious consideration for a spot." We can read into Weise and Hagelin getting second-straight looks while Miller, Mitchell, and Thomas didn't. We can wonder if it means Wolski-Richards-Gaborik is pretty much set in stone at this point. And so on.
It's also worth remembering that after this game, the first big round of camp roster cuts will be made. So it's probably at least worth speculating that guys like Kelsey Tessier and Stu Bickel, who didn't make the roster in either preseason game, are probably going home soon.
Ooh! We can make uninformed guesses about various reported injuries, too! Brad Richards and Mike Sauer both playing tomorrow is probably good news about them. As for Staal, he didn't practice again today, but apparently that's because he had a pre-scheduled session with his specialist, which was deemed more important. Which is totally valid! Unless it's a coverup. So that's totally something we can bullshit about!
Finally, here's a really fun one to guess things about. Remember that the Rangers both end the preseason (against HC Sparta, Frolunda, HC Slovan, and EV Zug) and start the regular season (against the Kings and the Ducks) in Europe this year. In fact, after tomorrow night's game, they only have 1 more preseason game (Monday in Philly) before flying out. So, they'll have to take much more than their final roster with them to Europe to finish out training camp and the preseason.
Yesterday, Tortorella announced that the team was planning on taking 18 forwards, 10 defensemen, and 3 goalies with them to Europe. However, today, he announced that a 19th forward "earned his way" onto the trip. So, that must have been someone from last night's game; we can guess who that is! He also said he'd take an 11th defenseman, but that's as insurance for the Staal injury, not because someone earned it. So we can start to guess who those 18+1, 10+1, and 3 players are!
Isn't the preseason fun?
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Preseason starts tomorrow
Or, as Rick Carpiniello of the Lower Hudson Journal's Rangers Report put it, "One More Day 'til a Hockey Game."
Apparently the first roster cuts from training camp, which Steve Zipay reports will be "major," will occur either Friday night or Saturday morning, after the Rangers have played their first two preseason games (both against the Devils, tomorrow night in Albany and Friday night at the Rock). So, we'll look for that.
Meanwhile, while the lines haven't been announced (and will likely be pretty fluid), here's the lineup for tomorrow night's game:
Forwards: Artem Anisimov, Sean Avery, Erik Christensen, Brandon Dubinsky, Dale Weise, Andre Deveaux, John Mitchell, Ryan Bourque, Carl Hagelin, Shane McColgan, J.T. Miller, Christian Thomas
Defensemen: Michael Del Zotto, Steve Eminger, Dan Girardi, Brendan Bell, Tim Erixon, Dylan McIlrath
Goalies: Henrik Lundqvist, Cam Talbot
A lot more big-name players in this lineup than I expected, which is exciting (it'd be more exciting if I could see the game). I like that Lundqvist is getting an early warmup (he'd previously said he'd probably play 3 to 3.5 preseason games, and I like starting early). It also seems like a real opportunity for some of the more lauded kids (Hagelin, Thomas, Erixon) to play with the big boys. If I were pressed to read way too much into this lineup, I'd say it's an early tell as to which kids are gonna get more serious consideration for this roster, since they're the ones the staff is gonna want to see a lot of. Putting them out there with people like Dubinsky and Girardi is the best way to see what they're made of at the NHL level.
In other news, Sean Avery had better have a great game tomorrow night. With Wolski reportedly making magic on the top line with Richards and Gaborik, Avery probably loses what I thought was his best spot on the roster. Christensen apparently had an unremarkable camp until today, when he scored 2 goals in scrimmage. (Him? Inconsistent? Weeeeeeird.) If Wolski earns the top left wing spot, the top 6 starting forwards are clearly he, Richards and Gaborik, followed by Dubinsky, Anisimov, and Callahan. That leaves the bottom 6 spots, of which three are all but guaranteed to Boyle, Prust, and Stepan, with a 4th and 5th likely Fedotenko's and Rupp's to lose. That puts Christensen solidly on a healthy list of people Avery will have to outplay to earn the final regular roster spot.
Fortunately, there's a reason Scotty Hockey unrelentingly calls Christensen "Mr. Softie the Backstabber." Despite his apparent scoring talent, Christensen is eminently outplayable. Still, anything can happen, and that roster spot could easily go to Carl Hagelin or Mats Zuccarello or Christian Thomas or something, too. It's all up in the air. That's what makes it fun, right?
Here's the point: Someone please make Marc Staal's head get better.
Apparently the first roster cuts from training camp, which Steve Zipay reports will be "major," will occur either Friday night or Saturday morning, after the Rangers have played their first two preseason games (both against the Devils, tomorrow night in Albany and Friday night at the Rock). So, we'll look for that.
Meanwhile, while the lines haven't been announced (and will likely be pretty fluid), here's the lineup for tomorrow night's game:
Forwards: Artem Anisimov, Sean Avery, Erik Christensen, Brandon Dubinsky, Dale Weise, Andre Deveaux, John Mitchell, Ryan Bourque, Carl Hagelin, Shane McColgan, J.T. Miller, Christian Thomas
Defensemen: Michael Del Zotto, Steve Eminger, Dan Girardi, Brendan Bell, Tim Erixon, Dylan McIlrath
Goalies: Henrik Lundqvist, Cam Talbot
A lot more big-name players in this lineup than I expected, which is exciting (it'd be more exciting if I could see the game). I like that Lundqvist is getting an early warmup (he'd previously said he'd probably play 3 to 3.5 preseason games, and I like starting early). It also seems like a real opportunity for some of the more lauded kids (Hagelin, Thomas, Erixon) to play with the big boys. If I were pressed to read way too much into this lineup, I'd say it's an early tell as to which kids are gonna get more serious consideration for this roster, since they're the ones the staff is gonna want to see a lot of. Putting them out there with people like Dubinsky and Girardi is the best way to see what they're made of at the NHL level.
In other news, Sean Avery had better have a great game tomorrow night. With Wolski reportedly making magic on the top line with Richards and Gaborik, Avery probably loses what I thought was his best spot on the roster. Christensen apparently had an unremarkable camp until today, when he scored 2 goals in scrimmage. (Him? Inconsistent? Weeeeeeird.) If Wolski earns the top left wing spot, the top 6 starting forwards are clearly he, Richards and Gaborik, followed by Dubinsky, Anisimov, and Callahan. That leaves the bottom 6 spots, of which three are all but guaranteed to Boyle, Prust, and Stepan, with a 4th and 5th likely Fedotenko's and Rupp's to lose. That puts Christensen solidly on a healthy list of people Avery will have to outplay to earn the final regular roster spot.
Fortunately, there's a reason Scotty Hockey unrelentingly calls Christensen "Mr. Softie the Backstabber." Despite his apparent scoring talent, Christensen is eminently outplayable. Still, anything can happen, and that roster spot could easily go to Carl Hagelin or Mats Zuccarello or Christian Thomas or something, too. It's all up in the air. That's what makes it fun, right?
Here's the point: Someone please make Marc Staal's head get better.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Training Camp Roster: It Begins
(Hey Blogger, I'm switching back to the old interface 'cause there's a lot of information in this post. I tried to tell you that in your "why did you switch back to the old interface?" survey, but - hilariously - there was a Google Forms error.)
Well, training camp started this morning. I'll summarize the reports for you: Torts's training camp has a reputation for being very hard because it is very hard. Everyone basically agrees. Groups of players skate back and forth a lot really fast, and they won't see a puck today at all. Sean Avery, again, is just a pinnacle of manhood and handles these better than most of the rest of them. He still won't make the nightly lineup, which will make me very angry, later. For now, let's talk about who's in camp.
63 players made training camp this year, and the Rangers will go through a series of cuts over the next few weeks until camp is down to a maximum of 23 by opening night. The camp itself, along with the preseason games (which start on Wednesday), will be the staff's opportunity to determine who stays and who goes. So, for lack of real hockey to watch, let's spend our time tracking who's in camp.
Forwards (37)
Rangers you saw last season (15)
Artem Anisimov, Sean Avery, Brian Boyle, Ryan Callahan, Erik Christensen, Brandon Dubinsky, Ruslan Fedotenko, Marian Gaborik, Chad Kolarik, Kris Newbury, Brandon Prust, Derek Stepan, Dale Weise, Wojtek Wolski, Mats Zuccarello
Summer acquisitions (4)
Andre Deveaux, John Mitchell, Brad Richards, Mike Rupp
Notable Prospects (7)
Jonathan Audy-Marchessault, Ryan Bourque, Tommy Grant, Carl Hagelin, Shane McColgan, J.T. Miller, Christian Thomas
Other Kids (11)
Jordan Hickmott, Tayler Jordan, Kale Kerbashian, Chris McKelvie, Matt Rust, Michael St. Croix, Scott Tanski, Kelsey Tessier, Andreas Thuresson, Jason Wilson, Andrew Yogan
Defensemen (20)
Rangers you saw last season (6)Michael Del Zotto, Steve Eminger, Dan Girardi, Ryan McDonagh, Mike Sauer, Marc Staal
Summer Acquisitions (1)
Brendan Bell
Notable Prospects (6)
Tim Erixon, Tomas Kundratek, Dylan McIlrath, Samuel Noreau, Blake Parlett, Pavel Valentenko
Other Kids (7)
Lee Baldwin, Stu Bickel, Collin Bowman, Peter Ceresnak, Sam Klassen, Jyri Niemi, Jared Nightingale
Goalies (6)
Rangers you saw last season (3)
Martin Biron, Chad Johnson, Henrik Lundqvist
Notable Prospects (3)
Jason Missiaen, Scott Stajcer, Cam Talbot
So, there you are: 63 potential New York Rangers. The first round of camp cuts will probably come after the weekend, but that's just me guessing. Everyone says this is going to be the most interesting, competitive Rangers training camp in years. Of course, they say that every year.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Traverse City ends; Training Camp begins
And the Buffalo Sabres are your 2011 Traverse City Prospects Tournament champions. Their first year ever doing the tournament, too! Eh, so it goes. It was fun to watch hockey, and these kids have a lot going for them. Went down 2-0 in the first, came back to tie it and went into the third tied 2-2, then gave up 3 goals in the third. Honestly, I think the kids played a decent third period, just had some bad breaks. 2nd place at Traverse City is nothing to be sad about.
What I actually came here to say was that J.T. Miller and Carl Hagelin, both of whom I called out yesterday as being not particularly impressive, bounced back with very good games last night. Miller was much more of a presence than he was in the Carolina game, and Hagelin showed much more of that speed that I had read about but not seen. So, good for both of them.
Meanwhile, hockey really is booting up quickly here. With the Traverse City tourney ending yesterday, official training camp starts tomorrow. Though most of the Rangers have already been skating at the practice facility by now, tomorrow starts Torts's official training regimen. Sometime soon, we'll see an official roster of something on the order of 60 players who are at camp, and that'll be the group that the roster is eventually made of. Torts will try various combinations at camp and in the 7 preseason games that will come between next Wednesday and October 3. Throughout this process, the roster will be trimmed a few players at a time until it is down to the opening night roster, in time for the Rangers' season opener October 7.
I'll try to keep this thing updated, as I did last season, with all the new roster announcements as they come in. Holy shit you guys, hockey's starting!
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Traverse City
...which is apparently pronounced "TRA-verse," not "tra-VERSE." So, an anonymous tipster (my father) read my complaints about not being able to see any of these games and told me that he caught part of one on the NHL Network the other day. So, I did some very complex investigation to the tune of visiting a website or two for about three minutes. Turns out that not only is MSG Network badass enough to broadcast all the Ranger games at the tournament, they're also the only network badass enough to do so (or, really, to even notice that it's going on). This leaves NHL Network two choices: pick up the Rangers feed for all these Traverse City games, or don't, and don't show any of the tournament at all. So, NHL Network has is broadcasting every Ranger game of the tournament. And here I was, bitching about not watching hockey, instead of just cold watching some hockey.
So, I watched the Rangers' prospects lose to the Canes' 4-3 in the second overtime yesterday. (Overtime at this tournament is 4 minutes of 4-on-4, then 4 minutes of 3-on-3, all sudden death. Following that, a 5-man shootout.) It was fun! Real people (granted, they all looked 12 years old, but real nonetheless) in real NHL jerseys playing real hockey! The season is coming! It's worth noting that because I watched NHL Network's rebroadcast, at 7:00 (the game was at 3), they cut out large swaths of the 3rd period to make it fit in a 2-hour broadcast. So, with that caveat, here were my 1-game unenlightened first impressions.
Up front, I really liked a lot of the first line. Left wing Tommy Grant (who was apparently acquired as an undrafted free agent back in March) struck me as a guy who knows where he's supposed to be. He kept being right in front of the crease creating traffic on offense, and he kept getting back to his position in time to go the other way. He also found himself in the right place on the penalty kill a few times. A 6'2" forward who crashes the net and is defensively responsible? Yes, please.
Right wing Christian Thomas (whom you'll recall from last year's training camps - he was our 2010 2nd-round pick) was one of the two real stars of the night, for me (the other was Erixon). He's really fast - with the puck, not just on his feet - and he made a lot of good-looking passes. Yeah, I know that's fool's gold in a kids' game, but still - shift after shift he kept making smart, pretty plays. Thomas playing opposite Grant made an ideal tandem of wingers, but Thomas stood out more as the forward with the best shot of making the big squad (based on me watching one game).
The other standout forward for me wasn't Grant and Thomas's center, it was the third-line center, some guy named Jonathan Audy-Marchessault. He's not not under contract to the Rangers, but he's in the system, on a 2-way contract with the Whale and the ECHL's Greenville Road Warriors, which was only signed 3 months ago - he was an undrafted free agent (source in French). I noticed him early in the game as a good 2-way player, a smart forward with real defensive responsibility, but as the game progressed he also made a number of clever offensive plays and kept the puck on his stick a little more than you expected him to. I liked this kid a lot.
Other forwards worth mentioning: first-line center Shane McColgan (our 5th-round pick this year) got a lot of Zuccarello-esque praise for being good at his job despite being very small. Meh! 2nd-line left wing Carl Hagelin (I mentioned him a couple of months ago when talking about potential cap hits added to the team this season; he was drafted in the 6th round back in 2007) made a few nifty moves throughout the night (though he wasn't nearly as dynamic as Grant, Thomas, and Audy-Marchessault). Finally, this year's first-round pick, J.T. Miller, played second-line right wing and was not particularly remarkable.
On the back six (is that a real thing I'm allowed to call the defense? The back six?), let's all throw a parade for a kid named Tim Erixon. I mentioned him in that same post about possible additions, and man is he ever one. Early this summer, Sather made yet another one of his increasingly frequent smart prospect moves when he traded away dead-end prospect Roman Horak and two 2nd-round picks to the Flames, in exchange for a 5th-rounder and Erixon. This is one of the reasons we only had one pick between #15 and #106 overall this year. Erixon is another solid young defenseman with a real chance to make the team: he made smart, quick moves at the point on the power play, showed a real ability to keep the puck when by all rights he should have lost it, was in the right position every time I noticed, and put up a lot of PK time. All while he had to spend some time covering for his defensive partner, who was out of position sometimes. Oh, and he plays forever. I don't think the dude came off the ice for the last 5 minutes of the game or the first 3 shifts of overtime. Major minutes. If yesterday's game was any indication, Erixon should have the best chance of any of these guys to make the team.
I also want to call out giant child Samuel Noreau. This dude is 6'5" and was born after The Pixies broke up. What the fuck. Noreau was drafted this year just two picks after McColgan, and while Gordie Clark talked about how he was a project and the team needed to work on his 2-way responsibility, I just loved everything the guy did. He's huge. If he wasn't defending our crease then he was taking up space in theirs. His stick is longer than a 5k. I like him, I want him in the system, I can't wait to see how big he is when he hits puberty.
Dylan McIlrath (you remember him - last year's first-rounder, nickname "the Undertaker" or something) was named the Captain of this squad, and you could see why - he defended his teammates constantly, and was often in Canes' faces. Unfortunately, this didn't always mean he was defending the puck - in fact, at one point in the first, Jared Staal (yes, there's another fucking Staal) hit Ranger winger Jordan Hickmott late. McIlrath skated right over and got in his face for it, which was great. He also left his position wide open right in the slot, which led to a Carolina goal. But still, it's great to see these guys defending each other like that after only being on a team together for a week.
Other players worth noting: defensemen Jyri Niemi (part of last year's camp as well, acquired the previous May from the Islanders for a 6th-rounder) and Collin Bowman (totally non-roster, invited to camp a week ago) both made defensive mistakes and did very little to make up for them. I know, it's only one game, but I notice what I notice. Finally, goaltender Jason Missiaen has an unspellable last name. He, with every one of his vowels, was signed as a free agent back in March (he had originally been drafted by the Canadiens in 2008, but went unsigned and became a free agent). He looked pretty good! I know it's just a prospects game, but the dude had to make a lot of saves last night, and more than a couple of them were hard saves to make! So, a gold star for the kid who has raised the bar for diphthongs everywhere.
Tonight at 7:00, the Rangers' prospects will play the Sabres' for the 2011 Traverse City Tournament championship. And, as it turns out, I'll be watching it! Let's Go Rangers' prospects!
So, I watched the Rangers' prospects lose to the Canes' 4-3 in the second overtime yesterday. (Overtime at this tournament is 4 minutes of 4-on-4, then 4 minutes of 3-on-3, all sudden death. Following that, a 5-man shootout.) It was fun! Real people (granted, they all looked 12 years old, but real nonetheless) in real NHL jerseys playing real hockey! The season is coming! It's worth noting that because I watched NHL Network's rebroadcast, at 7:00 (the game was at 3), they cut out large swaths of the 3rd period to make it fit in a 2-hour broadcast. So, with that caveat, here were my 1-game unenlightened first impressions.
Up front, I really liked a lot of the first line. Left wing Tommy Grant (who was apparently acquired as an undrafted free agent back in March) struck me as a guy who knows where he's supposed to be. He kept being right in front of the crease creating traffic on offense, and he kept getting back to his position in time to go the other way. He also found himself in the right place on the penalty kill a few times. A 6'2" forward who crashes the net and is defensively responsible? Yes, please.
Right wing Christian Thomas (whom you'll recall from last year's training camps - he was our 2010 2nd-round pick) was one of the two real stars of the night, for me (the other was Erixon). He's really fast - with the puck, not just on his feet - and he made a lot of good-looking passes. Yeah, I know that's fool's gold in a kids' game, but still - shift after shift he kept making smart, pretty plays. Thomas playing opposite Grant made an ideal tandem of wingers, but Thomas stood out more as the forward with the best shot of making the big squad (based on me watching one game).
The other standout forward for me wasn't Grant and Thomas's center, it was the third-line center, some guy named Jonathan Audy-Marchessault. He's not not under contract to the Rangers, but he's in the system, on a 2-way contract with the Whale and the ECHL's Greenville Road Warriors, which was only signed 3 months ago - he was an undrafted free agent (source in French). I noticed him early in the game as a good 2-way player, a smart forward with real defensive responsibility, but as the game progressed he also made a number of clever offensive plays and kept the puck on his stick a little more than you expected him to. I liked this kid a lot.
Other forwards worth mentioning: first-line center Shane McColgan (our 5th-round pick this year) got a lot of Zuccarello-esque praise for being good at his job despite being very small. Meh! 2nd-line left wing Carl Hagelin (I mentioned him a couple of months ago when talking about potential cap hits added to the team this season; he was drafted in the 6th round back in 2007) made a few nifty moves throughout the night (though he wasn't nearly as dynamic as Grant, Thomas, and Audy-Marchessault). Finally, this year's first-round pick, J.T. Miller, played second-line right wing and was not particularly remarkable.
On the back six (is that a real thing I'm allowed to call the defense? The back six?), let's all throw a parade for a kid named Tim Erixon. I mentioned him in that same post about possible additions, and man is he ever one. Early this summer, Sather made yet another one of his increasingly frequent smart prospect moves when he traded away dead-end prospect Roman Horak and two 2nd-round picks to the Flames, in exchange for a 5th-rounder and Erixon. This is one of the reasons we only had one pick between #15 and #106 overall this year. Erixon is another solid young defenseman with a real chance to make the team: he made smart, quick moves at the point on the power play, showed a real ability to keep the puck when by all rights he should have lost it, was in the right position every time I noticed, and put up a lot of PK time. All while he had to spend some time covering for his defensive partner, who was out of position sometimes. Oh, and he plays forever. I don't think the dude came off the ice for the last 5 minutes of the game or the first 3 shifts of overtime. Major minutes. If yesterday's game was any indication, Erixon should have the best chance of any of these guys to make the team.
I also want to call out giant child Samuel Noreau. This dude is 6'5" and was born after The Pixies broke up. What the fuck. Noreau was drafted this year just two picks after McColgan, and while Gordie Clark talked about how he was a project and the team needed to work on his 2-way responsibility, I just loved everything the guy did. He's huge. If he wasn't defending our crease then he was taking up space in theirs. His stick is longer than a 5k. I like him, I want him in the system, I can't wait to see how big he is when he hits puberty.
Dylan McIlrath (you remember him - last year's first-rounder, nickname "the Undertaker" or something) was named the Captain of this squad, and you could see why - he defended his teammates constantly, and was often in Canes' faces. Unfortunately, this didn't always mean he was defending the puck - in fact, at one point in the first, Jared Staal (yes, there's another fucking Staal) hit Ranger winger Jordan Hickmott late. McIlrath skated right over and got in his face for it, which was great. He also left his position wide open right in the slot, which led to a Carolina goal. But still, it's great to see these guys defending each other like that after only being on a team together for a week.
Other players worth noting: defensemen Jyri Niemi (part of last year's camp as well, acquired the previous May from the Islanders for a 6th-rounder) and Collin Bowman (totally non-roster, invited to camp a week ago) both made defensive mistakes and did very little to make up for them. I know, it's only one game, but I notice what I notice. Finally, goaltender Jason Missiaen has an unspellable last name. He, with every one of his vowels, was signed as a free agent back in March (he had originally been drafted by the Canadiens in 2008, but went unsigned and became a free agent). He looked pretty good! I know it's just a prospects game, but the dude had to make a lot of saves last night, and more than a couple of them were hard saves to make! So, a gold star for the kid who has raised the bar for diphthongs everywhere.
Tonight at 7:00, the Rangers' prospects will play the Sabres' for the 2011 Traverse City Tournament championship. And, as it turns out, I'll be watching it! Let's Go Rangers' prospects!
Monday, September 12, 2011
Correction no one cares about
Technically, Callahan is the 26th captain in Rangers' history, not the 27th. Because Mark Messier was captain twice.
ANNOUNCED
According to Andrew Gross, it's Callahan, with Staal and Richards getting the As. CAPTAIN CALLAHAN WOO. Man, I miss hockey.
Woah! Blogger got weird
Feelings on the new blogger interface: NOT AWESOME
Here's the point: 9 days until the preseason starts! At which point I still won't be able to watch any games, because I can't just subscribe to a damn channel, because TV is still stuck in the past. But still: 9 days! And some news, today, too!
Later today, the Rangers will be announcing their new captain and alternate captains for the 2011-2012. Callahan -- oops, I mean, whoever they select -- will be the 27th captain in New York Rangers history. But seriously, it's got to be Callahan, right? With one A going to Staal, I imagine, because he's the one who wore it last season. The other one goes to Dubinsky? Possibly Richards if not Dubinsky? I'd give it to Lundqvist, but I know you're not supposed to do that for vague and unsubstantial reasons.
In other news, Traverse City has been going on this week. I wish I could have seen any of the games, but again, TV doesn't know it's the future yet. But apparently it's been going well: the Rangers' prospects are 2-0 so far, beating the Blues' 5-2 on Saturday and the Stars' 6-2 yesterday. Today is a day off at the tournament, tomorrow they play the Canes' prospects to round out the "regular season," and then the tournament's "playoffs" are on Wednesday. Names we should be paying attention to, apparently, are Dylan McIlrath, Ryan Bourque, Tim Erixon, and Blake Parlett. So, there that is. Let's Go Ranger Prospects!
Here's the point: 9 days until the preseason starts! At which point I still won't be able to watch any games, because I can't just subscribe to a damn channel, because TV is still stuck in the past. But still: 9 days! And some news, today, too!
Later today, the Rangers will be announcing their new captain and alternate captains for the 2011-2012. Callahan -- oops, I mean, whoever they select -- will be the 27th captain in New York Rangers history. But seriously, it's got to be Callahan, right? With one A going to Staal, I imagine, because he's the one who wore it last season. The other one goes to Dubinsky? Possibly Richards if not Dubinsky? I'd give it to Lundqvist, but I know you're not supposed to do that for vague and unsubstantial reasons.
In other news, Traverse City has been going on this week. I wish I could have seen any of the games, but again, TV doesn't know it's the future yet. But apparently it's been going well: the Rangers' prospects are 2-0 so far, beating the Blues' 5-2 on Saturday and the Stars' 6-2 yesterday. Today is a day off at the tournament, tomorrow they play the Canes' prospects to round out the "regular season," and then the tournament's "playoffs" are on Wednesday. Names we should be paying attention to, apparently, are Dylan McIlrath, Ryan Bourque, Tim Erixon, and Blake Parlett. So, there that is. Let's Go Ranger Prospects!
Friday, August 26, 2011
I am apparently late to the party
But I have just learned that Bruce Boudreau was used as an extra in Slap Shot. Yeah, the movie. Check out this 20-second clip of the Chiefs' game against the Hyannisport Presidents.
Number 7 on the Presidents is apparently a young Boudreau, who played at the time for the Johnstown Jets of the short-lived North American Hockey League. The film apparently tapped the Jets for extras pretty often, and - well - there he is.
Number 7 on the Presidents is apparently a young Boudreau, who played at the time for the Johnstown Jets of the short-lived North American Hockey League. The film apparently tapped the Jets for extras pretty often, and - well - there he is.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
On fights, and those who fight
Okay, so let's get serious today.
You may recall Rick Rypien, a 4th-line center who spent years in and out of the Canucks' lineup as a fighter - he was the one who was suspended last year for grabbing a fan. Last month, at age 27, he signed a new, fresh-start contract with the new Winnipeg Jets. Well, Rypien was apparently found dead in his home yesterday, with no information yet released about cause of death.
This news, in conjunction with the death of Boogaard a few months ago, has of course reawoken the old debate about violence in hockey among sportswriters who say dumb shit for a living. You know, like Bill Plaschke, who was on some ESPN show the other day, yelling about the Islanders having a watch party this summer for last season's insane brawl game against the Penguins. Plaschke said, somewhat offensively, "this is why your sport is a fringe sport!" No, you dingleberry, it's a fringe sport because, among other reasons, it's not on ESPN. But the point is that people like that love to point out how violent hockey is - the implication being "well if they'd just stop punching each other, we true-blooded Americans would get on board!"
So, of course, a lot of that came out of the woodwork today, after the news that a second enforcer died in the prime of his NHL career this summer. The argument is simple: Rypien, like Boogaard, has had some behavioral problems, and it seems non-coincidental that an enforcer's life can lead to these kinds of issues. And, as expected, hockey lovers came immediately to fighting's defense, with an argument best summed up in Down Goes Brown's tweet, "a presumptive 'screw you' to anyone who thinks it's appropriate to start up the fighting debate."
First of all, the Plaschke-esque argument that this is the kind of stuff that keeps hockey out of the mainstream is dishonest. Yes, hockey is a very physical sport. But football requires 300-pound men to put on helmets and run toward each other at full speed with the sole intention of gaining ground, over and over again, and you don't see the NFL starving for American fans.
Also, the most attended live competition in America is NASCAR. Come on.
With that said, the hockey community absolutely has a responsibility to protect its own, and if there is a certain kind of lifestyle that is put in danger by playing hockey, measures should be taken to help. Puck Daddy, as usual, has a pretty good piece summarizing a few different people's reactions to the whole thing. "To say the physical toll of fighting doesn't exacerbate the problems for a hockey player is a head-in-the-sand position," Wyshynski writes, "but to say fighting is at the heart of these problems is also naïve."
It's a pretty reasonable position to take in the current debate. If the NHL is concerned about mental trauma, the NHL should step up its rehab and counseling programs (and not just to make a show of them because a convenient target said "sloppy seconds" in a locker room). But I wonder if there's an underlying issue here that the debate doesn't capture. To me, the question isn't whether there should be fights, it's how there should be fights.
I'm no historian, but fighting hasn't always been like this. Yes, the game as a whole is bigger and faster these days, but fighting itself is also a lot more delegated than it used to be. I'm not saying everyone used to be Gordie Howe. There have always been McSorleys and Gretzkys (Gretzkies?): people you didn't fuck with and people who skated next to them and scored goals. But I wonder if it's more polarized these days. Sure, there's an argument that a Donald Brashear has no place in today's NHL; but I wonder if he has no place in 1975's NHL either.
Yes, the Broad Street Bullies won a lot of hockey games by kicking a lot of asses, but they did it as a team. Yes, there are bigger guys and littler guys on every squad. And yes, while sometimes bigger guys would be cheap and go after littler guys, there was always a cultural mandate for bigger guys taking on bigger guys. But hockey didn't really have this understood, staged approach to fighting: two "scorers" get into a scuffle, they skate away quickly, and the two teams' "fighters" go out for the next shift, face off, and immediately drop the gloves. Then everything goes back to normal.
Like so many hockey fans, I am all about fighting as a part of hockey. But that's the key phrase right there - I want it to be a part of hockey, not a thing that also happens during a hockey game. Less Warren Zevon's "Buddy" and more Brandon Dubinsky vs. Mike Richards. Two team contributors who aren't afraid to throw punches at each other, when the game demands it. That's the kind of fighting I'm looking for. It's the kind that's been a part of the game forever.
Hockey's a physical, passionate sport, and we embrace that, and that's part of what makes us special. Sure, that kind of sentence is always used to defend fighting in hockey, so it's not particularly interesting here. But it's important because it highlights the kind of fighting real hockey fans want to see.
I'm not claiming to understand the psychology behind the tragedies the NHL has seen this summer, and I'm certainly not claiming that a different attitude toward fighting in the league could have prevented either of them. But I do think it's important to go a little deeper than the current discussion does, because the implications of the kinds of fighting we see in the game today are a lot more nuanced than those of "does fighting lead to these problems?"
If a better understanding of that doesn't lead to the prevention of awful events like this summer's, maybe it can at least lead to a better understanding of them and of hockey as a whole.
You may recall Rick Rypien, a 4th-line center who spent years in and out of the Canucks' lineup as a fighter - he was the one who was suspended last year for grabbing a fan. Last month, at age 27, he signed a new, fresh-start contract with the new Winnipeg Jets. Well, Rypien was apparently found dead in his home yesterday, with no information yet released about cause of death.
This news, in conjunction with the death of Boogaard a few months ago, has of course reawoken the old debate about violence in hockey among sportswriters who say dumb shit for a living. You know, like Bill Plaschke, who was on some ESPN show the other day, yelling about the Islanders having a watch party this summer for last season's insane brawl game against the Penguins. Plaschke said, somewhat offensively, "this is why your sport is a fringe sport!" No, you dingleberry, it's a fringe sport because, among other reasons, it's not on ESPN. But the point is that people like that love to point out how violent hockey is - the implication being "well if they'd just stop punching each other, we true-blooded Americans would get on board!"
So, of course, a lot of that came out of the woodwork today, after the news that a second enforcer died in the prime of his NHL career this summer. The argument is simple: Rypien, like Boogaard, has had some behavioral problems, and it seems non-coincidental that an enforcer's life can lead to these kinds of issues. And, as expected, hockey lovers came immediately to fighting's defense, with an argument best summed up in Down Goes Brown's tweet, "a presumptive 'screw you' to anyone who thinks it's appropriate to start up the fighting debate."
First of all, the Plaschke-esque argument that this is the kind of stuff that keeps hockey out of the mainstream is dishonest. Yes, hockey is a very physical sport. But football requires 300-pound men to put on helmets and run toward each other at full speed with the sole intention of gaining ground, over and over again, and you don't see the NFL starving for American fans.
Also, the most attended live competition in America is NASCAR. Come on.
With that said, the hockey community absolutely has a responsibility to protect its own, and if there is a certain kind of lifestyle that is put in danger by playing hockey, measures should be taken to help. Puck Daddy, as usual, has a pretty good piece summarizing a few different people's reactions to the whole thing. "To say the physical toll of fighting doesn't exacerbate the problems for a hockey player is a head-in-the-sand position," Wyshynski writes, "but to say fighting is at the heart of these problems is also naïve."
It's a pretty reasonable position to take in the current debate. If the NHL is concerned about mental trauma, the NHL should step up its rehab and counseling programs (and not just to make a show of them because a convenient target said "sloppy seconds" in a locker room). But I wonder if there's an underlying issue here that the debate doesn't capture. To me, the question isn't whether there should be fights, it's how there should be fights.
I'm no historian, but fighting hasn't always been like this. Yes, the game as a whole is bigger and faster these days, but fighting itself is also a lot more delegated than it used to be. I'm not saying everyone used to be Gordie Howe. There have always been McSorleys and Gretzkys (Gretzkies?): people you didn't fuck with and people who skated next to them and scored goals. But I wonder if it's more polarized these days. Sure, there's an argument that a Donald Brashear has no place in today's NHL; but I wonder if he has no place in 1975's NHL either.
Yes, the Broad Street Bullies won a lot of hockey games by kicking a lot of asses, but they did it as a team. Yes, there are bigger guys and littler guys on every squad. And yes, while sometimes bigger guys would be cheap and go after littler guys, there was always a cultural mandate for bigger guys taking on bigger guys. But hockey didn't really have this understood, staged approach to fighting: two "scorers" get into a scuffle, they skate away quickly, and the two teams' "fighters" go out for the next shift, face off, and immediately drop the gloves. Then everything goes back to normal.
Like so many hockey fans, I am all about fighting as a part of hockey. But that's the key phrase right there - I want it to be a part of hockey, not a thing that also happens during a hockey game. Less Warren Zevon's "Buddy" and more Brandon Dubinsky vs. Mike Richards. Two team contributors who aren't afraid to throw punches at each other, when the game demands it. That's the kind of fighting I'm looking for. It's the kind that's been a part of the game forever.
Hockey's a physical, passionate sport, and we embrace that, and that's part of what makes us special. Sure, that kind of sentence is always used to defend fighting in hockey, so it's not particularly interesting here. But it's important because it highlights the kind of fighting real hockey fans want to see.
I'm not claiming to understand the psychology behind the tragedies the NHL has seen this summer, and I'm certainly not claiming that a different attitude toward fighting in the league could have prevented either of them. But I do think it's important to go a little deeper than the current discussion does, because the implications of the kinds of fighting we see in the game today are a lot more nuanced than those of "does fighting lead to these problems?"
If a better understanding of that doesn't lead to the prevention of awful events like this summer's, maybe it can at least lead to a better understanding of them and of hockey as a whole.
Friday, August 5, 2011
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Let's play coach!
OK, so we've got a roster. I mean, there are some questions about who makes the team out of camp and who doesn't, but we've mostly got a roster we understand. Assuming nothing crazy happens at camp, like we discover that JT Miller is secretly Bobby Orr or that Brad Richards is secretly Colton Orr, we know what our pool of players to choose from is. So, let's make some lines. Forwards only, for now.
Here's what I think we ought to try:
Avery - Richards - Gaborik
Dubinsky - Anisimov - Callahan
Fedotenko - Stepan - Wolski
Rupp - Boyle - Prust
Here's what I think Tortorella is as likely to do as anything else, because I think he doesn't know how to keep lines together and doesn't like Sean Avery:
Dubinsky - Richards - Gaborik
Wolski - Anisimov - Callahan
Fedotenko - Boyle - Prust
Rupp - Stepan - Christensen
What do you think? What would you do?
Here's what I think we ought to try:
Avery - Richards - Gaborik
Dubinsky - Anisimov - Callahan
Fedotenko - Stepan - Wolski
Rupp - Boyle - Prust
Here's what I think Tortorella is as likely to do as anything else, because I think he doesn't know how to keep lines together and doesn't like Sean Avery:
Dubinsky - Richards - Gaborik
Wolski - Anisimov - Callahan
Fedotenko - Boyle - Prust
Rupp - Stepan - Christensen
What do you think? What would you do?
Have you heard my new steam-punk band, Voytech and the Vole-skis?
Callahan for second-line right wing! Callahan for Captain! Callahan for President! Callahan for... one fewer year than we offered Dubinsky?!?
OK, fine, whatever, it's a slightly richer deal (cap hit of $4.275 to Dubi's $4.2), and it's only one fewer year. I'm hoping that, behind the scenes, it was taken into account that the shorter deal will leave Callahan up for negotiation a season that only Richards's, Dubinsky's, and Staal's contracts remain on the books, leaving him open to negotiate for more? I don't know, that's a theory I read somewhere, but I can't find the source anymore, so apologies to whomever I stole that idea from.
Anyway you guys, this means everyone's pretty much back, so now what? What about these rumors about a Wolski buyout? It seems that it's not likely to happen, to hear absolutely everyone tell the story. So let's take a look at the cap situation, then:
Forwards: Gaborik ($7.5m), Richards ($6,666,667), Callahan ($4.275m), Dubinsky ($4.2m), Avery ($1.9375), Anisimov ($1.875m), Boyle ($1.7m), Rupp ($1.5m), Fedotenko ($1.4m), Stepan ($0.875m), Prust ($0.8m)
Total: $32,729,167; 11 forwards
Defensemen: Staal ($3.975m), Girardi ($3.325m), McDonagh ($1.3m), Sauer ($1.25m), Eminger ($0.8m)
Total: $10.65m; 5 defensemen
Goalies: Lundqvist ($6.875m), Biron ($0.875m)
Total: $7.75m; 2 goalies
Other Bullshit: Drury's buyout hit ($3,716,667), Last season's cap overage ($0.527m)
Total: $4,243,667
That'll bring the total to $55,372,834, leaving $8,927,166 under the cap. But it also only accounts for 11 forwards and 5 defensemen. Here are some possible additions we could make to finish the roster out, and their respective cap hits:
Wolski - $3.8m
Zuccarello - $1.75m
Christensen - $0.925m
Hagelin - $0.875m
Erixon - $1.75m
Del Zotto - $1.0875m
Since an NHL roster is capped at 21 skaters (assuming 2 goalies), the above list includes one too many, and it puts us $1,260,334 over the cap. So, if we exclude Wolski, Zuccarello, or Erixon, we can afford everyone else. We couldn't, however, include Wolski, Zuccarello, and Christensen and still have room for Erixon and Del Zotto. These are, of course, solvable problems - we could carry fewer than the maximum roster size, etc.
People (myself included) are talking about buying out Wolski because it's hard to justify his $3.8 million cap hit in these circumstances, when we're paying $3.975 to Staal and $4.2 to Dubinsky. Buying out or trading Wolski surely will give us a ton of cap space. But, it looks like we've got the space to give him a shot, and if he makes the team better, we can afford that salary for this one remaining season on his deal. If, at training camp, he's not useful, we can always send him to Connecticut or bench him for a while.
OK, fine, whatever, it's a slightly richer deal (cap hit of $4.275 to Dubi's $4.2), and it's only one fewer year. I'm hoping that, behind the scenes, it was taken into account that the shorter deal will leave Callahan up for negotiation a season that only Richards's, Dubinsky's, and Staal's contracts remain on the books, leaving him open to negotiate for more? I don't know, that's a theory I read somewhere, but I can't find the source anymore, so apologies to whomever I stole that idea from.
Anyway you guys, this means everyone's pretty much back, so now what? What about these rumors about a Wolski buyout? It seems that it's not likely to happen, to hear absolutely everyone tell the story. So let's take a look at the cap situation, then:
Forwards: Gaborik ($7.5m), Richards ($6,666,667), Callahan ($4.275m), Dubinsky ($4.2m), Avery ($1.9375), Anisimov ($1.875m), Boyle ($1.7m), Rupp ($1.5m), Fedotenko ($1.4m), Stepan ($0.875m), Prust ($0.8m)
Total: $32,729,167; 11 forwards
Defensemen: Staal ($3.975m), Girardi ($3.325m), McDonagh ($1.3m), Sauer ($1.25m), Eminger ($0.8m)
Total: $10.65m; 5 defensemen
Goalies: Lundqvist ($6.875m), Biron ($0.875m)
Total: $7.75m; 2 goalies
Other Bullshit: Drury's buyout hit ($3,716,667), Last season's cap overage ($0.527m)
Total: $4,243,667
That'll bring the total to $55,372,834, leaving $8,927,166 under the cap. But it also only accounts for 11 forwards and 5 defensemen. Here are some possible additions we could make to finish the roster out, and their respective cap hits:
Wolski - $3.8m
Zuccarello - $1.75m
Christensen - $0.925m
Hagelin - $0.875m
Erixon - $1.75m
Del Zotto - $1.0875m
Since an NHL roster is capped at 21 skaters (assuming 2 goalies), the above list includes one too many, and it puts us $1,260,334 over the cap. So, if we exclude Wolski, Zuccarello, or Erixon, we can afford everyone else. We couldn't, however, include Wolski, Zuccarello, and Christensen and still have room for Erixon and Del Zotto. These are, of course, solvable problems - we could carry fewer than the maximum roster size, etc.
People (myself included) are talking about buying out Wolski because it's hard to justify his $3.8 million cap hit in these circumstances, when we're paying $3.975 to Staal and $4.2 to Dubinsky. Buying out or trading Wolski surely will give us a ton of cap space. But, it looks like we've got the space to give him a shot, and if he makes the team better, we can afford that salary for this one remaining season on his deal. If, at training camp, he's not useful, we can always send him to Connecticut or bench him for a while.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Happy/Sad
Happy Because: Signed Eminger, 1 year for $800,000.
Sad Because: Prospal signed with Columbus. 1 year for $1.75 million, which is admittedly more than I would have offered him as a Ranger. Still, sad to see him go.
Sad Because: Prospal signed with Columbus. 1 year for $1.75 million, which is admittedly more than I would have offered him as a Ranger. Still, sad to see him go.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Wait, but he said....
OK, so here is Larry Brooks's report on the Rangers' current cap situation. He says we have $10,201,500 left to sign Callahan, Eminger, etc. Wait, but, I said we have $6,966,666 left. How can this be?!?
Here's how:
1. Bonus overage from last season. On this point, I'm just wrong, I think. Here's the deal. Certain players are eligible to have performance bonuses written into their contracts. These are paid out only if they meet certain requirements during the season (like scoring 20 goals or playing 50 games or something). Because it is possible that the team will not end up paying them out, it is hard to figure out how to calculate their cap hit. So, here's what they do: a team is allowed to go above the salary cap, in total performance bonuses, by up to 7.5% of that season's cap. Then, if the team ends up actually paying out those bonuses enough to take them over the cap itself, the amount by which they go over is deducted from their following season's cap. So it all evens out.
Now, according to Brooks (and according to CapGeek, which cites Brooks as its source), the Rangers went over last season's cap by $527,000. I have done no math of my own to confirm this, and I'm not sure I have enough information to do so. Still, it's a reasonable figure, and it's not super-likely that Brooks would be wrong about it, so I'm gonna start using it. That brings my total figure down to $6,439,666.
2. Erik Christensen definitely counts against the summer cap, which I showed here is probably no longer as much of a concern as our season cap. But Brooks takes him out of the main cap calculation, as he's not a definite to make the team. I can't complain about that move. If you take Christensen's $925,000 salary out of Brooks's figure, it drops to $9,276,500.
3. I said I was making a bold assumption and including four two-way contracts in my figure: Stepan, McDonagh, Zuccarello, and Del Zotto. Brooks makes the same assumption about Step and McD, but not Zucc or DZ. To get up to his figure, I'll concede Zucc and DZ for now. However, notice that, even after Eminger and Callahan, the number will only include 18 skaters (18 play a night; our roster would be full at 21). Anyway, releasing Zuccarello's $1.75 million and Del Zotto's $1.0875 million brings my number up to $9,277,166.
So, with all those changes, why is my cap figure $666 higher than his? Rounding. He uses $6.667 million as his Richards figure and $3.717 million as Drury's. The actual numbers are $6,666,667 and $3,716,667, respectively. There's your remaining difference.
So even if we make his roster concessions, we're looking at $10,202,166 to sign Callahan and Eminger, but then only have 17 skaters. If we throw in Del Zotto, Zuccarello, and Christensen, we've got 20 skaters, and we've got $6,439,666 left for Cally and Eminger. So, we're okay, but we're a little tight. Which is why at the end of his piece, Brooks brings up the idea of buying out Wojtek Wolski's contract.
First of all, yes, they can do this. The Standard Player Contract states that there are two windows in which a team can buy out a player: 1) the period between June 15 (or the end of the Finals, whichever comes later) and June 30; and 2) if the team has any kind of salary arbitration pending, for the 48 hours following the resolution of their final arbitration. It's so teams can see what's up with their arbitrations before planning buyouts. So, the Rangers will have a small window in which to buy out Wolski's contract, beginning either when Callahan signs a contract or, if his arbitration happens, when it is resolved, and ending 48 hours later.
What would it mean? Well, Wolski is making $3.8 million under the cap this season, the final one of his contract. Because he is 25 (under 26, specifically), the buyout value of his contract will be 1/3 of the total remaining salary on it, which is $4 million. So the buyout value will be $1,333,333. That's spread over twice as many seasons as remain, for $666,667 per year. An additional calculation involves this year's salary vs cap hit. Don't worry about it, just trust me. His buyout cap hit would be $466,667 this season and $666,667 next season, as opposed to $3.8 million this season and nothing next season.
That might be a buyout worth doing. It saves us $3,333,333 on this season's cap and only costs us $666,667 next season. Then he can feel free to go find some team who will give him a more reasonable, $1.5 million deal. Hell, if he turned back around and signed with us for that, it would still save almost $2 million. Bear in mind that if this happens, next season's total buyout hit for Drury and Wolski (which will be the only other season they affect) will be $2,333,334 (Drury will definitely count for $1,666,667). I'm for it!
Here's how:
1. Bonus overage from last season. On this point, I'm just wrong, I think. Here's the deal. Certain players are eligible to have performance bonuses written into their contracts. These are paid out only if they meet certain requirements during the season (like scoring 20 goals or playing 50 games or something). Because it is possible that the team will not end up paying them out, it is hard to figure out how to calculate their cap hit. So, here's what they do: a team is allowed to go above the salary cap, in total performance bonuses, by up to 7.5% of that season's cap. Then, if the team ends up actually paying out those bonuses enough to take them over the cap itself, the amount by which they go over is deducted from their following season's cap. So it all evens out.
Now, according to Brooks (and according to CapGeek, which cites Brooks as its source), the Rangers went over last season's cap by $527,000. I have done no math of my own to confirm this, and I'm not sure I have enough information to do so. Still, it's a reasonable figure, and it's not super-likely that Brooks would be wrong about it, so I'm gonna start using it. That brings my total figure down to $6,439,666.
2. Erik Christensen definitely counts against the summer cap, which I showed here is probably no longer as much of a concern as our season cap. But Brooks takes him out of the main cap calculation, as he's not a definite to make the team. I can't complain about that move. If you take Christensen's $925,000 salary out of Brooks's figure, it drops to $9,276,500.
3. I said I was making a bold assumption and including four two-way contracts in my figure: Stepan, McDonagh, Zuccarello, and Del Zotto. Brooks makes the same assumption about Step and McD, but not Zucc or DZ. To get up to his figure, I'll concede Zucc and DZ for now. However, notice that, even after Eminger and Callahan, the number will only include 18 skaters (18 play a night; our roster would be full at 21). Anyway, releasing Zuccarello's $1.75 million and Del Zotto's $1.0875 million brings my number up to $9,277,166.
So, with all those changes, why is my cap figure $666 higher than his? Rounding. He uses $6.667 million as his Richards figure and $3.717 million as Drury's. The actual numbers are $6,666,667 and $3,716,667, respectively. There's your remaining difference.
So even if we make his roster concessions, we're looking at $10,202,166 to sign Callahan and Eminger, but then only have 17 skaters. If we throw in Del Zotto, Zuccarello, and Christensen, we've got 20 skaters, and we've got $6,439,666 left for Cally and Eminger. So, we're okay, but we're a little tight. Which is why at the end of his piece, Brooks brings up the idea of buying out Wojtek Wolski's contract.
First of all, yes, they can do this. The Standard Player Contract states that there are two windows in which a team can buy out a player: 1) the period between June 15 (or the end of the Finals, whichever comes later) and June 30; and 2) if the team has any kind of salary arbitration pending, for the 48 hours following the resolution of their final arbitration. It's so teams can see what's up with their arbitrations before planning buyouts. So, the Rangers will have a small window in which to buy out Wolski's contract, beginning either when Callahan signs a contract or, if his arbitration happens, when it is resolved, and ending 48 hours later.
What would it mean? Well, Wolski is making $3.8 million under the cap this season, the final one of his contract. Because he is 25 (under 26, specifically), the buyout value of his contract will be 1/3 of the total remaining salary on it, which is $4 million. So the buyout value will be $1,333,333. That's spread over twice as many seasons as remain, for $666,667 per year. An additional calculation involves this year's salary vs cap hit. Don't worry about it, just trust me. His buyout cap hit would be $466,667 this season and $666,667 next season, as opposed to $3.8 million this season and nothing next season.
That might be a buyout worth doing. It saves us $3,333,333 on this season's cap and only costs us $666,667 next season. Then he can feel free to go find some team who will give him a more reasonable, $1.5 million deal. Hell, if he turned back around and signed with us for that, it would still save almost $2 million. Bear in mind that if this happens, next season's total buyout hit for Drury and Wolski (which will be the only other season they affect) will be $2,333,334 (Drury will definitely count for $1,666,667). I'm for it!
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