Mike Richter made 38 saves on 40 shots, giving up goals to Igor Larionov and Brendan Shanahan. Brian Leetch and Jeff Beukeboom helped hold Steve Yzerman to a -2, and the Rangers won off of tallies by Niklas Sundstrom, Petr Nedved, and John MacLean. Adam Graves was held without a point in almost 20 minutes of ice time, and Wayne Gretzky had an assist.
It was January 30, 1999. Clinton was President, OK Computer was the latest Radiohead album, there were only three Star Wars movies, no one had ever heard of an Xbox, and Lindsay Lohan was the adorable 12-year-old child star of Disney's recent remake of The Parent Trap.
It was also the last time the New York Rangers won a hockey game in Detroit.
Showing posts with label Let's Go Rangers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Let's Go Rangers. Show all posts
Monday, February 7, 2011
Friday, October 8, 2010
It's Eminger
This morning, the third pair is Eminger / Gilroy, with Sauer sitting. That seems to mean this will be the case for tomorrow night's opener (!!!) in Buffalo. I'm reasonably okay with that, assuming Torts will continue to rotate. If Sauer's gonna be out for extended stretches, better that he sit in Hartford where he can get more ice time. But lest I complain about a perceived potential problem that hasn't actually happened yet before our season even starts, let's just say this sounds reasonable, and I can't wait to actually see these guys play. I've posted it all here before, as recently as two days ago, but I feel like consolidating it (and also I'm more than a little excited), so here's what opening night looks like!
Frolov - Christensen - Gaborik
Dubinsky - Anisimov - Callahan
Avery - Stepan - Fedotenko
Boogaard - Boyle - Prust
Staal - Girardi
Del Zotto - Rozsival
Eminger - Gilroy
Lundqvist
Biron
Healthy Scratches: Kennedy, Sauer, White
Injured Reserve: Drury, Prospal
Frolov - Christensen - Gaborik
Dubinsky - Anisimov - Callahan
Avery - Stepan - Fedotenko
Boogaard - Boyle - Prust
Staal - Girardi
Del Zotto - Rozsival
Eminger - Gilroy
Lundqvist
Biron
Healthy Scratches: Kennedy, Sauer, White
Injured Reserve: Drury, Prospal
Monday, October 4, 2010
Fedo-contract
Hey, guess what - we actually signed Fedotenko! It's a pretty reasonable deal - 1 year at $1 million. Hooray! No goddamn surprises!
In honor of actually having a full roster, here's the full breakdown of the Rangers' salary cap right now. As I said last night, without Fedotenko, we were $273,333 under the cap. With Fedotenko's (pleasantly reasonable) $1 million deal, we are therefore $726,667 over the cap with these 25 players - but the contracts include $1.775 million in performance-based bonuses, so the bonus cushion places us well within our legal limit for starting the season, even without placing anyone on LTIR. As I mentioned, depending on Drury and Prospal returning, it would be best to come down that additional $726,667 at some point, so as not to risk dipping into next year's cap - but I guess that only matters when Drury and Prospal (if Prospal?) come back, at which point we'd need to cut down anyway to hit the maximum NHL roster size.
Anyway, the point is, there's a $59.4 million cap, which means I just told you we have a total salary of $60,126,667 spread across 25 men, of which $1.775 million is in conditional bonuses. This is a very good place to be, but I want to show you how we got here.
16 Forwards ($35,614,167, incl. $1,562,500 in bonuses)
Marian Gaborik - $7.5 m
Chris Drury - $7.05 m
Alexander Frolov - $3 m
Vinny Prospal - $2.48 m (incl. $1.4 m in bonuses)
Todd White - $2,375,000
Ryan Callahan - $2.3 m
Sean Avery - $1,937,500
Brandon Dubinsky - $1.85 m
Derek Boogaard - $1,625,000
Ruslan Fedotenko - $1 m
Erik Christensen - $925,000
Derek Stepan - $875,000 (incl. $162,500 in bonuses)
Artem Anisimov - $821,667
Brandon Prust - $800,000
Tim Kennedy - $550,000
Brian Boyle - $525,000
7 Defensemen ($16,762,500, incl. $212,500 in bonuses)
Michal Rozsival - $5 m
Marc Staal - $3,975,000
Daniel Girardi - $3,325,000
Matt Gilroy - $1.75 m
Steve Eminger - $1,125,000
Michael Del Zotto - $1,087,500 (incl. $212,500 in bonuses)
Mike Sauer - $500,000
2 Goalies ($7.75 m)
Henrik Lundqvist - $6,875,000
Martin Biron - $875,000
And so there you are - $60,126,667 in 25 player salaries, including $1,775,000 in bonuses. Technically within the $59.4 million cap, thanks to the $4,455,000 bonus cushion, and only $726,667 from not having to use the cushion at all, despite being 2 men over the maximum roster size. In other words, the Rangers are actually in good shape with respect to the cap.
Have I mentioned how nice it is to visit CapGeek and see the Rangers in the middle of the back, with the Devils $3 million in the negative? It's really, really, nice.
In honor of actually having a full roster, here's the full breakdown of the Rangers' salary cap right now. As I said last night, without Fedotenko, we were $273,333 under the cap. With Fedotenko's (pleasantly reasonable) $1 million deal, we are therefore $726,667 over the cap with these 25 players - but the contracts include $1.775 million in performance-based bonuses, so the bonus cushion places us well within our legal limit for starting the season, even without placing anyone on LTIR. As I mentioned, depending on Drury and Prospal returning, it would be best to come down that additional $726,667 at some point, so as not to risk dipping into next year's cap - but I guess that only matters when Drury and Prospal (if Prospal?) come back, at which point we'd need to cut down anyway to hit the maximum NHL roster size.
Anyway, the point is, there's a $59.4 million cap, which means I just told you we have a total salary of $60,126,667 spread across 25 men, of which $1.775 million is in conditional bonuses. This is a very good place to be, but I want to show you how we got here.
16 Forwards ($35,614,167, incl. $1,562,500 in bonuses)
Marian Gaborik - $7.5 m
Chris Drury - $7.05 m
Alexander Frolov - $3 m
Vinny Prospal - $2.48 m (incl. $1.4 m in bonuses)
Todd White - $2,375,000
Ryan Callahan - $2.3 m
Sean Avery - $1,937,500
Brandon Dubinsky - $1.85 m
Derek Boogaard - $1,625,000
Ruslan Fedotenko - $1 m
Erik Christensen - $925,000
Derek Stepan - $875,000 (incl. $162,500 in bonuses)
Artem Anisimov - $821,667
Brandon Prust - $800,000
Tim Kennedy - $550,000
Brian Boyle - $525,000
7 Defensemen ($16,762,500, incl. $212,500 in bonuses)
Michal Rozsival - $5 m
Marc Staal - $3,975,000
Daniel Girardi - $3,325,000
Matt Gilroy - $1.75 m
Steve Eminger - $1,125,000
Michael Del Zotto - $1,087,500 (incl. $212,500 in bonuses)
Mike Sauer - $500,000
2 Goalies ($7.75 m)
Henrik Lundqvist - $6,875,000
Martin Biron - $875,000
And so there you are - $60,126,667 in 25 player salaries, including $1,775,000 in bonuses. Technically within the $59.4 million cap, thanks to the $4,455,000 bonus cushion, and only $726,667 from not having to use the cushion at all, despite being 2 men over the maximum roster size. In other words, the Rangers are actually in good shape with respect to the cap.
Have I mentioned how nice it is to visit CapGeek and see the Rangers in the middle of the back, with the Devils $3 million in the negative? It's really, really, nice.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Who plays tonight?
A few quick things: on the Thrashers side, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is now reporting that Kovalchuk did, in fact, make the trip to New York tonight and will be a game-time decision. On our side, Lundqvist has been confirmed as the starter for tonight. Also, I was slightly mistaken about our lines: Brashear-Voros-Byers isn't actually the fourth line, those are the three men acting as our fourth-line wings. Our fourth line, whenever it does make it to the ice, will be made up of two of those three (all three are dressed tonight, they will rotate), centered by one of our other centers (Prospal, Anisimov, or Boyle), double-shifted. Also, I was half right about the wings. Anisimov will get Higgins and Kotalik, and Boyle will get Avery and Callahan.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Capitals 4, Rangers 0
"A good, old-fashioned spanking," Torts called it. I...can't really come up with a better phrase. We took a 2-0 series lead back home and got messed the hell up. There's not a lot of good to take from this game. The Caps came out the same as they have in the last 2 games, but a little hungrier. We looked like me in my weekly ice skating class compared to them.
At the very least, this was an opportunity to lose to the best player in the world, who reminded me a great deal in this game of one Jaromir Jagr of our recent past, stepping up and carrying an entire playoff game on his back.
Not that Ovechkin was alone - Alexander Semin and Nicklas Backstrom both delivered performances that will make any Ranger fan nauseated. But Ovechkin was, as Brooks called him, "unconquerable." On both ends of the ice. His lack of goals in the series shouldn't fool you - last night, he was a star.
That said, not all is lost, because this isn't entirely different than the way the Caps showed up for games 1 and 2. The big difference was the New York Rangers. We came out flat and embarrassing. Mark Staal provided the executive summary:
-----------------------------------
I don't think it was so much them as much as it was us: we were standing around kinda watching a lot, circling, turning our backs, and against that team, they'll pass it around you, cycle it around you. So from the start, I don't know what it was, but we were kind of hesitant to play D-zone coverage well enough to keep them off the board.
-----------------------------------
"I don't think it was so much them as much as it was us." Exactly. There are a lot of things we could blame - not just Ovechkin. We could blame the officiating. After all, as Brooks put it, "The Dave Jackson-Kelly Sutherland referee pair made it its business to eliminate Sean Avery from the game by whistling him into oblivion. Mission accomplished." Meanwhile, Ovechkin broke Rozsival's nose by hitting him in the face with a stick, for no call at all (Vs. (possibly rightly) excused it by showing multiple angles and saying "you're supposed to be in control of your stick, but the referees will let it go if it's a follow through," while TSN claimed it was a puck that hit him in the face, and not a stick at all). But Torts's answer was the important thing: "I mean, penalties were called. I'm not sure what they were. That really wasn't an indicator of how we played. So, I'm not gonna whine about penalties. We stunk. Simple."
We could blame excellent goaltending from the opposition, like we used to in the regular season, and like we no doubt would have if we had played the same exact game to lose by the same exact score to Jose Theodore last night. But it's hard to make that argument when a 20-year-old is playing his 7th and 8th NHL games ever, his first-ever NHL playoff games, his first NHL games of the season, and two NHL games in the row for the first time. And then he lets in one goal on 57 shots.
We could blame the Caps as a whole for stepping their game up, like many "experts" are doing now. But I'm having some trouble buying that. In each of the first two games, the Caps put 35 shots on Hank, and in the third, they only raised that to 40. In the first two games, they had 23.5 hits on us, and in Game 3, they had 24. In blocked shots, which is a stat that NHL TV specifically used to prove that the Caps had stepped it up significantly, they had 10 in Game 1 and 13 in Game 2. They had 13 in Game 3. That's....not "stepping it up."
Indeed, the only Caps stat that has changed significantly over the course of the series is faceoffs, of which they won 70% in Game 1 and have only won 53% since then. To summarize, it is not statistically justifiable that the Caps have significantly improved their gameplay over the 3 games. They have started to look a little sharper, sure, but mostly, it's by comparison.
The Rangers, meanwhile, have fallen off significantly. In Game 1, we beat the Caps at their own game, and in Game 2, we tightened up and beat them at ours. In Game 3, we failed to play our game, and we let them play theirs. We reverted to February hockey, getting 11 more shots on goal than the average of our previous two games, but most were from the outside. Meanwhile, having blocked an average of 25 shots in each of our first two games, we blocked only 13 this time around. Since scoring 2 PPG in 8:00 of PP time in Game 1, we've been stymied for 18:16 of PP time. There's no one we can really blame but ourselves.
In the game of puck possession, we were the losers. No question. We've been losing that game all series. It had to matter eventually, but there are real differences. In Game 1, we took advantage of every opportunity, on a weak Theodore. Last night, in the first 11 and a half minutes, we had two wide open nets that we failed to bury the puck into - the second of which, Callahan's, was particularly egregious and also led directly to the Caps' second goal. Talk about a momentum shift. In Game 2, we tightened up defensively, and despite not having a ton of possession time to show for it, when we couldn't play a solid game of keep-away, at least we played some fantastic get-in-the-way. Last night, we didn't have the defensive chops to keep it up.
A reporter asked Torts why his team didn't come to the arena with the jump they needed, and he said something about the jump not being all they were missing. Like what?
-----------------------------------
I thought we were terrible defensively. As I said, I think a very important part of trying to compete in this series is having the puck. You're not gonna have the puck if you play defense like we played tonight. To create offense, you need to be sound defensively, and we weren't. We weren't even close.
-----------------------------------
That's the long and the short of it. Time to, as Torts put it, "take our medicine." But let's talk personnel for a second.
First of all, Bruce Bo-French-Name did an excellent job in keeping Varlamov in. The kid seems immune to all the nervousness you'd expect out of a Garden, playoff, Sean Avery, 20-year-old type situation. And with the currently-NHL-playoff-best .982 save percentage and 0.5 GAA the Rangers have granted him, expect to see more of Simeon Varlamov, at least until we give Boudreau a reason to pull him.
As for the rest of the Caps, we've covered it: Ovechkin, Semin, Backstrom = bad news. Keep them contained. Let's move on to us. Chris Drury. I like the guy, and this is the time of the season when we need him most. But he has a goddamn broken hand. And as much of a warrior as he is for staying in and playing through it, he just hasn't been helpful the ways we need him to, which are big plays in front of the net and faceoffs. Those are what he does. In 15:25 of ice time in Game 2, he hit a guy once and blocked 3 shots, but he only took one shot (it missed the net), and he went 1 for 2 on faceoffs. In 10:58 of ice time in Game 3, he did nothing (shots, faceoffs, hits, blocks - nothing) but be on the ice for the Caps' second goal (he was the man supposed to pick up Semin) and in the box for their third. I think he's a great hockey player, and I love that he wants to play. But if Drury-with-a-broken-hand is less effective than Voros, then Voros should get the start in favor of Drury-with-a-broken-hand.
Yeah, Sean Avery got a little frustrated last night. But you would have too, if you'd been a marked man from minute one as obviously as he was. They keep showing that goalie interference call, and I keep rubbing my eyes and going "huh?" NHL TV even used the clip of that call to talk about how out-of-control Avery is, taking 3 minor penalties in the second like that. Weird that no one said anything about Naslund's 3 minors in Game 2.
The $11-million-dollar men didn't play too much worse than our other pairings last night, which I guess could be considered a good thing? There were errors from everyone. None of our back 6 seemed to be able to hold a puck once they got it. They all got to pucks, but none of them knew what to do with them.
I can't get on Callahan's case too badly for the wide-open miss, but it sure would have been nice if he'd buried that. Also, I need more from everyone named Nik.
As usual when we give up this many, Lundqvist was blameless.
That's the long and the short of it. We sucked. Tomorrow night, we need to suck less. Tomorrow night is the difference between going into the last 3 games of the series only having to win 1 and returning to Washington for the start of a best-of-3. That sounds like the difference between winning a series and losing one. Let's see what happens tomorrow night.
At the very least, this was an opportunity to lose to the best player in the world, who reminded me a great deal in this game of one Jaromir Jagr of our recent past, stepping up and carrying an entire playoff game on his back.
Not that Ovechkin was alone - Alexander Semin and Nicklas Backstrom both delivered performances that will make any Ranger fan nauseated. But Ovechkin was, as Brooks called him, "unconquerable." On both ends of the ice. His lack of goals in the series shouldn't fool you - last night, he was a star.
That said, not all is lost, because this isn't entirely different than the way the Caps showed up for games 1 and 2. The big difference was the New York Rangers. We came out flat and embarrassing. Mark Staal provided the executive summary:
-----------------------------------
I don't think it was so much them as much as it was us: we were standing around kinda watching a lot, circling, turning our backs, and against that team, they'll pass it around you, cycle it around you. So from the start, I don't know what it was, but we were kind of hesitant to play D-zone coverage well enough to keep them off the board.
-----------------------------------
"I don't think it was so much them as much as it was us." Exactly. There are a lot of things we could blame - not just Ovechkin. We could blame the officiating. After all, as Brooks put it, "The Dave Jackson-Kelly Sutherland referee pair made it its business to eliminate Sean Avery from the game by whistling him into oblivion. Mission accomplished." Meanwhile, Ovechkin broke Rozsival's nose by hitting him in the face with a stick, for no call at all (Vs. (possibly rightly) excused it by showing multiple angles and saying "you're supposed to be in control of your stick, but the referees will let it go if it's a follow through," while TSN claimed it was a puck that hit him in the face, and not a stick at all). But Torts's answer was the important thing: "I mean, penalties were called. I'm not sure what they were. That really wasn't an indicator of how we played. So, I'm not gonna whine about penalties. We stunk. Simple."
We could blame excellent goaltending from the opposition, like we used to in the regular season, and like we no doubt would have if we had played the same exact game to lose by the same exact score to Jose Theodore last night. But it's hard to make that argument when a 20-year-old is playing his 7th and 8th NHL games ever, his first-ever NHL playoff games, his first NHL games of the season, and two NHL games in the row for the first time. And then he lets in one goal on 57 shots.
We could blame the Caps as a whole for stepping their game up, like many "experts" are doing now. But I'm having some trouble buying that. In each of the first two games, the Caps put 35 shots on Hank, and in the third, they only raised that to 40. In the first two games, they had 23.5 hits on us, and in Game 3, they had 24. In blocked shots, which is a stat that NHL TV specifically used to prove that the Caps had stepped it up significantly, they had 10 in Game 1 and 13 in Game 2. They had 13 in Game 3. That's....not "stepping it up."
Indeed, the only Caps stat that has changed significantly over the course of the series is faceoffs, of which they won 70% in Game 1 and have only won 53% since then. To summarize, it is not statistically justifiable that the Caps have significantly improved their gameplay over the 3 games. They have started to look a little sharper, sure, but mostly, it's by comparison.
The Rangers, meanwhile, have fallen off significantly. In Game 1, we beat the Caps at their own game, and in Game 2, we tightened up and beat them at ours. In Game 3, we failed to play our game, and we let them play theirs. We reverted to February hockey, getting 11 more shots on goal than the average of our previous two games, but most were from the outside. Meanwhile, having blocked an average of 25 shots in each of our first two games, we blocked only 13 this time around. Since scoring 2 PPG in 8:00 of PP time in Game 1, we've been stymied for 18:16 of PP time. There's no one we can really blame but ourselves.
In the game of puck possession, we were the losers. No question. We've been losing that game all series. It had to matter eventually, but there are real differences. In Game 1, we took advantage of every opportunity, on a weak Theodore. Last night, in the first 11 and a half minutes, we had two wide open nets that we failed to bury the puck into - the second of which, Callahan's, was particularly egregious and also led directly to the Caps' second goal. Talk about a momentum shift. In Game 2, we tightened up defensively, and despite not having a ton of possession time to show for it, when we couldn't play a solid game of keep-away, at least we played some fantastic get-in-the-way. Last night, we didn't have the defensive chops to keep it up.
A reporter asked Torts why his team didn't come to the arena with the jump they needed, and he said something about the jump not being all they were missing. Like what?
-----------------------------------
I thought we were terrible defensively. As I said, I think a very important part of trying to compete in this series is having the puck. You're not gonna have the puck if you play defense like we played tonight. To create offense, you need to be sound defensively, and we weren't. We weren't even close.
-----------------------------------
That's the long and the short of it. Time to, as Torts put it, "take our medicine." But let's talk personnel for a second.
First of all, Bruce Bo-French-Name did an excellent job in keeping Varlamov in. The kid seems immune to all the nervousness you'd expect out of a Garden, playoff, Sean Avery, 20-year-old type situation. And with the currently-NHL-playoff-best .982 save percentage and 0.5 GAA the Rangers have granted him, expect to see more of Simeon Varlamov, at least until we give Boudreau a reason to pull him.
As for the rest of the Caps, we've covered it: Ovechkin, Semin, Backstrom = bad news. Keep them contained. Let's move on to us. Chris Drury. I like the guy, and this is the time of the season when we need him most. But he has a goddamn broken hand. And as much of a warrior as he is for staying in and playing through it, he just hasn't been helpful the ways we need him to, which are big plays in front of the net and faceoffs. Those are what he does. In 15:25 of ice time in Game 2, he hit a guy once and blocked 3 shots, but he only took one shot (it missed the net), and he went 1 for 2 on faceoffs. In 10:58 of ice time in Game 3, he did nothing (shots, faceoffs, hits, blocks - nothing) but be on the ice for the Caps' second goal (he was the man supposed to pick up Semin) and in the box for their third. I think he's a great hockey player, and I love that he wants to play. But if Drury-with-a-broken-hand is less effective than Voros, then Voros should get the start in favor of Drury-with-a-broken-hand.
Yeah, Sean Avery got a little frustrated last night. But you would have too, if you'd been a marked man from minute one as obviously as he was. They keep showing that goalie interference call, and I keep rubbing my eyes and going "huh?" NHL TV even used the clip of that call to talk about how out-of-control Avery is, taking 3 minor penalties in the second like that. Weird that no one said anything about Naslund's 3 minors in Game 2.
The $11-million-dollar men didn't play too much worse than our other pairings last night, which I guess could be considered a good thing? There were errors from everyone. None of our back 6 seemed to be able to hold a puck once they got it. They all got to pucks, but none of them knew what to do with them.
I can't get on Callahan's case too badly for the wide-open miss, but it sure would have been nice if he'd buried that. Also, I need more from everyone named Nik.
As usual when we give up this many, Lundqvist was blameless.
That's the long and the short of it. We sucked. Tomorrow night, we need to suck less. Tomorrow night is the difference between going into the last 3 games of the series only having to win 1 and returning to Washington for the start of a best-of-3. That sounds like the difference between winning a series and losing one. Let's see what happens tomorrow night.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Ovechkin vs. Tortorella
It's the tiny battles that make the war interesting.
Early during our pregame practice this morning, Alex Ovechkin went out to the visitors' bench and sat there, watching. Then a PR person told him he had to go to the stands. Why did you go sit there, Alex? He smiled and said it was to mess with Torts. And why did they ask you to leave? "Because they're afraid of me, alright?"
Good stuff. I like this guy.
Torts's response?
"Oh God, I didn't even know. This is the first I heard of it. Ask me a question about the game, not that shit."
Point to Torts.
Early during our pregame practice this morning, Alex Ovechkin went out to the visitors' bench and sat there, watching. Then a PR person told him he had to go to the stands. Why did you go sit there, Alex? He smiled and said it was to mess with Torts. And why did they ask you to leave? "Because they're afraid of me, alright?"
Good stuff. I like this guy.
Torts's response?
"Oh God, I didn't even know. This is the first I heard of it. Ask me a question about the game, not that shit."
Point to Torts.
Rangers 1, Capitals 0
No time to blog. We won, but not by enough. I'm thrilled and nervous. As Naslund said, "One goal is not going to cut it." As usual, I'm happy that at least we seem to know it. We've been outshot 70-45 in the two games so far. That's not surprising, but we're not gonna keep winning like that. Simeon Varlamov didn't hold up much better than Theodore to a little bit of poking, and we have to assume that one of these two goalies will play a good game soon. We're going to need to really bring the pressure, more than you might think.
Defensively, it seems, Redden and Rozsival are playing decently. If they continue doing that, and we stop using them on the PP, we might be in okay shape there. Not necessarily 11-million-dollar shape, but okay shape.
So, we need to get more pucks to the net. And at the end of the day, we're STILL gonna need a huge performance from our ever-MVP, King Henrik. Let's hope he puts on another show.
Sorry, I'm in a lot of meetings at work, so this entry is pretty short. We know what we have to do, and it has to be more than we've been doing if we want to go up 3-0 tonight. That said, it's hard to imagine my reaction to being told a week ago that we'd be taking a 2-0 series lead back to New York. So, let's see what we can do for the Garden Faithful. I, for one, can't wait to hear them.
Defensively, it seems, Redden and Rozsival are playing decently. If they continue doing that, and we stop using them on the PP, we might be in okay shape there. Not necessarily 11-million-dollar shape, but okay shape.
So, we need to get more pucks to the net. And at the end of the day, we're STILL gonna need a huge performance from our ever-MVP, King Henrik. Let's hope he puts on another show.
Sorry, I'm in a lot of meetings at work, so this entry is pretty short. We know what we have to do, and it has to be more than we've been doing if we want to go up 3-0 tonight. That said, it's hard to imagine my reaction to being told a week ago that we'd be taking a 2-0 series lead back to New York. So, let's see what we can do for the Garden Faithful. I, for one, can't wait to hear them.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
The Washington Capitals
Round 1 Schedule, in case you missed it:
Game 1 - Tonight (4/15), 7:00, in DC
Game 2 - Saturday (4/18), 1:00, in DC
Game 3 - Monday (4/20), 7:00, at the Garden
Game 4 - Next Wednesday (4/22), 7:00, at the Garden
---------------IF NECESSARY-----------------
Game 5 - Friday, 4/24, 7:00, in DC
Game 6 - Sunday, 4/26, 2:00, at the Garden
Game 7 - Tuesday, 4/28, in DC (time TBD, but probably 7:00)
So, 7 games to beat the Caps 4 times. That's hard work. How do we do it?
The first step is containment. You've probably heard a thing or two about one Alex Ovechkin, the best player in hockey. That's not the sarcasm I use when I call Brodeur a Prince or Crosbaby the Face of the NHL - Ovechkin is actually the best player in hockey right now. Which is not to scare you, it's to prepare you. But it's not Ovechkin I'm the most worried about. He is going to break through and score a few unbelievable solo act goals, and we're gonna have to rely on Marc Staal and then Henrik Lundqvist (the two Rangers I would trust the most to do pretty much anything) to keep those to a minimum. Seriously, the key to the series will not be "stop Ovechkin." You don't stop Ovechkin. You put your best players between him and the back of your net, and you keep him to a minimum. I'm fine with that.
I'm talking about containing everyone else. Most notably: Alexander Semin and Mike Green. That's where the other guys come in. That's where we need solid defense all around. That's where we need a guy like Sean Avery to get in people's faces. He's not gonna distract Ovechkin - Ovechkin is too good. But he might distract Mike Green, and that could be a difference-maker.
So, that's the first part: Lundqvist needs to steal more than a few games, every defenseman needs to step up - Staal needs to be as good as he can be, but Redden and Rozsival also need to be better than I've seen them (as discussed yesterday).
What then?
If the Capitals have a weak point, it is their last line of defense. Jose Theodore just isn't great. However, he's playing behind a team that could score 7 goals a game, against a team that still doesn't really know how to score them, so that may not matter. How do we make it matter? Get shots to the net. I'm not asking for much from Redden and Rozsival, they have enough on their hands playing defense. But Mara needs to shoot. Morris needs to shoot. And every Ranger forward needs to be in the crease. If we default to our usual "come down the boards, stay to the outside and set up," we will lose this series. We need to take advantage of what weakness the Caps do have, and that means peppering Theodore with 40 shots a game. Not one-and-done shots, sustained pressure. The Tortorella way. This applies to everyone.
Everyone is predicting a Caps win in this series, and their reasoning is sound. I'm not going to tell you we'll win this series, but I am going to tell you we can. We know the Rangers are capable of driving to the net. We know Theodore will give up goals if we do. We know Lundqvist can stop breakaways normal humans can't. We know Avery can get in people's faces.
This isn't just bullshit, it is an actual way that we could win this series. The question is simply: can the Rangers pull it off? There's no doubt that we have a path to victory, and there's no doubt that the burden of proof is on us. That's why the posts about our own guys were the important ones. The Caps are a hard team to beat, and this post outlines a way that it could happen - but really, it comes down to the improvements I talked about yesterday. As always, as Torts professes, this is about us, not them. Puck drops in 6 and a half hours; clown time is over.
Game 1 - Tonight (4/15), 7:00, in DC
Game 2 - Saturday (4/18), 1:00, in DC
Game 3 - Monday (4/20), 7:00, at the Garden
Game 4 - Next Wednesday (4/22), 7:00, at the Garden
---------------IF NECESSARY-----------------
Game 5 - Friday, 4/24, 7:00, in DC
Game 6 - Sunday, 4/26, 2:00, at the Garden
Game 7 - Tuesday, 4/28, in DC (time TBD, but probably 7:00)
So, 7 games to beat the Caps 4 times. That's hard work. How do we do it?
The first step is containment. You've probably heard a thing or two about one Alex Ovechkin, the best player in hockey. That's not the sarcasm I use when I call Brodeur a Prince or Crosbaby the Face of the NHL - Ovechkin is actually the best player in hockey right now. Which is not to scare you, it's to prepare you. But it's not Ovechkin I'm the most worried about. He is going to break through and score a few unbelievable solo act goals, and we're gonna have to rely on Marc Staal and then Henrik Lundqvist (the two Rangers I would trust the most to do pretty much anything) to keep those to a minimum. Seriously, the key to the series will not be "stop Ovechkin." You don't stop Ovechkin. You put your best players between him and the back of your net, and you keep him to a minimum. I'm fine with that.
I'm talking about containing everyone else. Most notably: Alexander Semin and Mike Green. That's where the other guys come in. That's where we need solid defense all around. That's where we need a guy like Sean Avery to get in people's faces. He's not gonna distract Ovechkin - Ovechkin is too good. But he might distract Mike Green, and that could be a difference-maker.
So, that's the first part: Lundqvist needs to steal more than a few games, every defenseman needs to step up - Staal needs to be as good as he can be, but Redden and Rozsival also need to be better than I've seen them (as discussed yesterday).
What then?
If the Capitals have a weak point, it is their last line of defense. Jose Theodore just isn't great. However, he's playing behind a team that could score 7 goals a game, against a team that still doesn't really know how to score them, so that may not matter. How do we make it matter? Get shots to the net. I'm not asking for much from Redden and Rozsival, they have enough on their hands playing defense. But Mara needs to shoot. Morris needs to shoot. And every Ranger forward needs to be in the crease. If we default to our usual "come down the boards, stay to the outside and set up," we will lose this series. We need to take advantage of what weakness the Caps do have, and that means peppering Theodore with 40 shots a game. Not one-and-done shots, sustained pressure. The Tortorella way. This applies to everyone.
Everyone is predicting a Caps win in this series, and their reasoning is sound. I'm not going to tell you we'll win this series, but I am going to tell you we can. We know the Rangers are capable of driving to the net. We know Theodore will give up goals if we do. We know Lundqvist can stop breakaways normal humans can't. We know Avery can get in people's faces.
This isn't just bullshit, it is an actual way that we could win this series. The question is simply: can the Rangers pull it off? There's no doubt that we have a path to victory, and there's no doubt that the burden of proof is on us. That's why the posts about our own guys were the important ones. The Caps are a hard team to beat, and this post outlines a way that it could happen - but really, it comes down to the improvements I talked about yesterday. As always, as Torts professes, this is about us, not them. Puck drops in 6 and a half hours; clown time is over.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
You never call, you never write...
Oh, wait, that's me. I'm back from traveling! And I'm getting on another plane to leave again tonight!
Since I left, we lost some games, and we won some games. I didn't see the Bruins game on Saturday, but it seems like I missed very little. I saw the loss to the 'Canes and the win over the Habs. We can't feel too terrible about these. The Bruins are the best team in the East, and the 'Canes have cold forgotten how to lose games. Other teams didn't do us favors, then they did. We can't worry about that, because we can only win our games. Also, the Penguins are SUCH DICKS that they didn't even beat Florida for us. SUCH DICKS.
We've been playing...decent hockey. I feel like last night's victory had a lot to do with a very jumpy Carey Price. We're crashing the net...more...but not enough. We definitely looked good in the second and third periods, but not exceptional, and we looked awful in the first. The point is that I'm very happy with the points, and we didn't play bad hockey, but if Carey Price were, say, Marty Biron, we might have lost this game 2-1. Just sayin'.
Sean Avery is playing fantastic hockey, despite the fact that his probationary period still doesn't seem to be over. Naslund seems to have stepped up his game, at least for this last one. Antropov continues to be huge. Oh! And Rozsival's back! And...he looks exactly as confused as he did when he left.
At the end of this last hiatus I seem to have taken, here's where our (now significantly diminished) standings update...stands...:
7. Montréal, 92 pts, 2 GR
8. NEW YORK RANGERS, 91 pts, 2 GR
-------------------------
9. Florida, 89 pts, 2 GR
10. Buffalo, 85 pts, 3 GR
Between now and this weekend's finale, the Sabres have to play both the 'Canes and the Bruins. Let's assume that they're not beating both (and the Leafs tonight). That puts us somewhere between 7th and 9th. 9th is out. 8th plays the Bruins round 1. 7th plays the Devils or Caps, most likely the Caps (unless the Caps lose to both the Lightning and the Panthers AND the Devils beat both the Senators and the 'Canes - unlikely).
So, mathy times. If we win one of our two, we are in the playoffs. That's simple. If we win one more, we have more wins than the Panthers can get, and we have as many points as they can get. So we're in with one win. If we don't get that win, Florida or Buffalo can catch us by winning out (really, Florida can catch us with a win/OTL combo too).
As for catching 7th (which, as previously described, is hell of desirable - see also: Boston is a way better team than Washington), we'd need help. Montréal can clinch 7th by winning out the season. If they lose 1, we can clinch it by winning out, if they lose both, we can clinch it by winning 1, etc. This is obvious. In case of 3-point games, here are the tiebreakers:
We have 2 more wins than the Panthers. So if we end up tied, we will likely still have 1 more win than they do, which means we win the tiebreaker. If, however, we end up tied with them by losing both our games in overtime while they win both, we'll be tied in wins, and the tiebreaker will go to the season series, which the Panthers have won.
If we somehow end up tied with Buffalo (they win out, we lose out), we will also end up tied with them in wins. The tiebreaker will go to the season series, which the Sabres have won (this is why they are still in contention).
We are tied with the Canadiens in wins. So, if we end up tied with them in points because they lost in OT a game that we won, we will win the tiebreaker by having the extra win. However, if we end up tied because we lost in OT a game that they lost in regulation, we stay tied in wins, and the tiebreaker will go to the season series, which, as you have no doubt guessed if you're still reading this and good at pattern recognition, the Canadiens have won.
So, what are the chances of these teams doing these various things? Let's look forward. As well you know, our season comes down to a home-and-home against the Flyers, Thursday night at 7 at the Garden, and Sunday night at 5 in Philly. We've already covered the Sabres. Meanwhile, what will the Panthers and Canadiens be doing? Florida is in Atlanta tomorrow night at 7, then home against the Caps Saturday night at 7. Montréal is in Boston tomorrow night at 7, then home against the Pens Saturday night at 7.
This is not so bad for us. It lets us just concentrate on beating the Flyers. If we can beat them in both games, we make the playoffs and have a good chance at 7th. If we can beat them in one game, we make the playoffs and have a mediocre chance at 7th. If we can't win at all, we have a poor chance at the playoffs and no chance at 7th. I know I've described "season-defining moments" before, but....yeah.
Since I left, we lost some games, and we won some games. I didn't see the Bruins game on Saturday, but it seems like I missed very little. I saw the loss to the 'Canes and the win over the Habs. We can't feel too terrible about these. The Bruins are the best team in the East, and the 'Canes have cold forgotten how to lose games. Other teams didn't do us favors, then they did. We can't worry about that, because we can only win our games. Also, the Penguins are SUCH DICKS that they didn't even beat Florida for us. SUCH DICKS.
We've been playing...decent hockey. I feel like last night's victory had a lot to do with a very jumpy Carey Price. We're crashing the net...more...but not enough. We definitely looked good in the second and third periods, but not exceptional, and we looked awful in the first. The point is that I'm very happy with the points, and we didn't play bad hockey, but if Carey Price were, say, Marty Biron, we might have lost this game 2-1. Just sayin'.
Sean Avery is playing fantastic hockey, despite the fact that his probationary period still doesn't seem to be over. Naslund seems to have stepped up his game, at least for this last one. Antropov continues to be huge. Oh! And Rozsival's back! And...he looks exactly as confused as he did when he left.
At the end of this last hiatus I seem to have taken, here's where our (now significantly diminished) standings update...stands...:
7. Montréal, 92 pts, 2 GR
8. NEW YORK RANGERS, 91 pts, 2 GR
-------------------------
9. Florida, 89 pts, 2 GR
10. Buffalo, 85 pts, 3 GR
Between now and this weekend's finale, the Sabres have to play both the 'Canes and the Bruins. Let's assume that they're not beating both (and the Leafs tonight). That puts us somewhere between 7th and 9th. 9th is out. 8th plays the Bruins round 1. 7th plays the Devils or Caps, most likely the Caps (unless the Caps lose to both the Lightning and the Panthers AND the Devils beat both the Senators and the 'Canes - unlikely).
So, mathy times. If we win one of our two, we are in the playoffs. That's simple. If we win one more, we have more wins than the Panthers can get, and we have as many points as they can get. So we're in with one win. If we don't get that win, Florida or Buffalo can catch us by winning out (really, Florida can catch us with a win/OTL combo too).
As for catching 7th (which, as previously described, is hell of desirable - see also: Boston is a way better team than Washington), we'd need help. Montréal can clinch 7th by winning out the season. If they lose 1, we can clinch it by winning out, if they lose both, we can clinch it by winning 1, etc. This is obvious. In case of 3-point games, here are the tiebreakers:
We have 2 more wins than the Panthers. So if we end up tied, we will likely still have 1 more win than they do, which means we win the tiebreaker. If, however, we end up tied with them by losing both our games in overtime while they win both, we'll be tied in wins, and the tiebreaker will go to the season series, which the Panthers have won.
If we somehow end up tied with Buffalo (they win out, we lose out), we will also end up tied with them in wins. The tiebreaker will go to the season series, which the Sabres have won (this is why they are still in contention).
We are tied with the Canadiens in wins. So, if we end up tied with them in points because they lost in OT a game that we won, we will win the tiebreaker by having the extra win. However, if we end up tied because we lost in OT a game that they lost in regulation, we stay tied in wins, and the tiebreaker will go to the season series, which, as you have no doubt guessed if you're still reading this and good at pattern recognition, the Canadiens have won.
So, what are the chances of these teams doing these various things? Let's look forward. As well you know, our season comes down to a home-and-home against the Flyers, Thursday night at 7 at the Garden, and Sunday night at 5 in Philly. We've already covered the Sabres. Meanwhile, what will the Panthers and Canadiens be doing? Florida is in Atlanta tomorrow night at 7, then home against the Caps Saturday night at 7. Montréal is in Boston tomorrow night at 7, then home against the Pens Saturday night at 7.
This is not so bad for us. It lets us just concentrate on beating the Flyers. If we can beat them in both games, we make the playoffs and have a good chance at 7th. If we can beat them in one game, we make the playoffs and have a mediocre chance at 7th. If we can't win at all, we have a poor chance at the playoffs and no chance at 7th. I know I've described "season-defining moments" before, but....yeah.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Looking Forward Again
It's been a while since a standings update. And I'm going to go traveling soon, and I don't know how much posting I'm gonna get to do, pretty much right up through the end of the regular season. I may have to miss games, which makes me SuperMegaUltraMiserable (SMUM). So I'd better get at least this one in now.
4. Philadelphia, 92 pts, 7 GR
5. Carolina, 91 pts, 5 GR
6. Pittsburgh, 90 pts, 6 GR
7. NEW YORK RANGERS, 89 pts, 5 GR
8. Montréal, 86 pts, 7 GR
-------------------------
9. Florida, 85 pts, 6 GR
10. Buffalo, 82 pts, 7 GR
Wow, in all this time, the ranking still hasn't shifted. Don't get comfortable or anything. Just sayin'. It's neat.
Oh Em Gee why am I still listing Buffalo? I think maybe 'cause it's more embarrassing for them if I keep listing them and they never climb? Lindy Ruff is a dick.
Our next game is Thursday night at 7, and it's on the road against the suddenly-hot 'Canes. Do the math: if we win it, we tie them. If they win it, they're 4 points ahead of us with 4 games left in the standings. I know it's not too likely at this point that they'll find themselves in 9th or 10th at season's end, but we need the points on them to keep ourselves out of those spots. And bear in mind how much better a position like 6th or 7th is than a position like 8th. Taking these points from the 'Canes is almost as important as winning them for ourselves. They will be a very hard team to beat right now. If we play the way we have over the last 2 games, we'll be in okay shape.
Also in action before and on that night:
Blackhawks at Montréal, tonight at 7:30 - Come on 'Hawks - you want home-ice advantage, and we could use a little breathing room. The Habs have 2 games-in-hand on us - if they win them both, we're actually in 8th (which is not only precariously close to 9th, it's also a Bruins draw (and therefore likely early exit) in the first round). This counts as one of them.
Senators at Florida, tonight at 7:30 - Remember a week ago, when everyone said "OH HEY THE SENATORS WON SOME GAMES NOW THEY WILL END UP IN 4TH AND WIN THE CUP"? Yeah, that's over. Go Sens.
Sabres at Atlanta, tomorrow night at 7:00 - Go Thrashers! Keep sticking nails in this already-obviously-sealed coffin!
Flyers at Toronto, tomorrow night at 7:30 - I wouldn't normally actually consider catching the Flyers at this point, even though it's only a 3-point difference, because of their 2 games-in-hand and their playing-of-worse-teams-than-we-are-in-the-homestretch. But, our last 2 games of the season each are a home-and-home against each other, so there are big points to be gained between us. Toronto could certainly make this sound a little more plausible if they stole 2 here.
Devils at Pittsburgh, tomorrow night at 7:30 - If I weren't so busy, I would go to this game. I hesitate to say I have a good feeling about any game involving the NHL's godforsaken wunderkind, but the Devils will want one badly against another division rival after we spanked them so badly last night. Come on, Marty!
Canadiens at Long Island, Thursday night at 7:00 - I hate when bubble teams get to play the Fish Sticks, because I hate when bubble teams get free points. You can hope for the Isles in this one, because "anything can happen blah blah blah," but I wouldn't get too excited.
That's it! Let's Go Rangers!
4. Philadelphia, 92 pts, 7 GR
5. Carolina, 91 pts, 5 GR
6. Pittsburgh, 90 pts, 6 GR
7. NEW YORK RANGERS, 89 pts, 5 GR
8. Montréal, 86 pts, 7 GR
-------------------------
9. Florida, 85 pts, 6 GR
10. Buffalo, 82 pts, 7 GR
Wow, in all this time, the ranking still hasn't shifted. Don't get comfortable or anything. Just sayin'. It's neat.
Oh Em Gee why am I still listing Buffalo? I think maybe 'cause it's more embarrassing for them if I keep listing them and they never climb? Lindy Ruff is a dick.
Our next game is Thursday night at 7, and it's on the road against the suddenly-hot 'Canes. Do the math: if we win it, we tie them. If they win it, they're 4 points ahead of us with 4 games left in the standings. I know it's not too likely at this point that they'll find themselves in 9th or 10th at season's end, but we need the points on them to keep ourselves out of those spots. And bear in mind how much better a position like 6th or 7th is than a position like 8th. Taking these points from the 'Canes is almost as important as winning them for ourselves. They will be a very hard team to beat right now. If we play the way we have over the last 2 games, we'll be in okay shape.
Also in action before and on that night:
Blackhawks at Montréal, tonight at 7:30 - Come on 'Hawks - you want home-ice advantage, and we could use a little breathing room. The Habs have 2 games-in-hand on us - if they win them both, we're actually in 8th (which is not only precariously close to 9th, it's also a Bruins draw (and therefore likely early exit) in the first round). This counts as one of them.
Senators at Florida, tonight at 7:30 - Remember a week ago, when everyone said "OH HEY THE SENATORS WON SOME GAMES NOW THEY WILL END UP IN 4TH AND WIN THE CUP"? Yeah, that's over. Go Sens.
Sabres at Atlanta, tomorrow night at 7:00 - Go Thrashers! Keep sticking nails in this already-obviously-sealed coffin!
Flyers at Toronto, tomorrow night at 7:30 - I wouldn't normally actually consider catching the Flyers at this point, even though it's only a 3-point difference, because of their 2 games-in-hand and their playing-of-worse-teams-than-we-are-in-the-homestretch. But, our last 2 games of the season each are a home-and-home against each other, so there are big points to be gained between us. Toronto could certainly make this sound a little more plausible if they stole 2 here.
Devils at Pittsburgh, tomorrow night at 7:30 - If I weren't so busy, I would go to this game. I hesitate to say I have a good feeling about any game involving the NHL's godforsaken wunderkind, but the Devils will want one badly against another division rival after we spanked them so badly last night. Come on, Marty!
Canadiens at Long Island, Thursday night at 7:00 - I hate when bubble teams get to play the Fish Sticks, because I hate when bubble teams get free points. You can hope for the Isles in this one, because "anything can happen blah blah blah," but I wouldn't get too excited.
That's it! Let's Go Rangers!
Too much fun
I am having too much fun reading about last night.
Jay Greenberg, whose entire piece is extremely enjoyable, sums up the goalie battle: "Brodeur leads Lundqvist three Stanley Cups to zero, 20 postseason series wins to two, 553 regular-season victories to 139, 101 shutouts to 13. Lundqvist, 3-0 winner last night, leads Brodeur 18-6-4 in all time head-to-head meetings -- regular and postseason combined." Incidentally, that regular-season record is 14-2-4.
Meanwhile, Larry Brooks, whose column is also worth reading (isn't everything worth reading after a game like this?), concentrated on the Oh yeah, there were also people on the ice not wearing #30 storyline, which admittedly is mostly the Sean Avery Sean Avery Sean Avery storyline. It sounds similarly exciting to the Lundqvist always beats Brodeur headline, only it reads more like Avery always beats the Devils: "The domination was complete from one end of the ice to the other. For 60 minutes at the Garden last night the Rangers owned the Devils, mind, body and soul. With Sean Avery wearing Blue, what else is new?"
Read both of these articles, and rejoice.
Jay Greenberg, whose entire piece is extremely enjoyable, sums up the goalie battle: "Brodeur leads Lundqvist three Stanley Cups to zero, 20 postseason series wins to two, 553 regular-season victories to 139, 101 shutouts to 13. Lundqvist, 3-0 winner last night, leads Brodeur 18-6-4 in all time head-to-head meetings -- regular and postseason combined." Incidentally, that regular-season record is 14-2-4.
Meanwhile, Larry Brooks, whose column is also worth reading (isn't everything worth reading after a game like this?), concentrated on the Oh yeah, there were also people on the ice not wearing #30 storyline, which admittedly is mostly the Sean Avery Sean Avery Sean Avery storyline. It sounds similarly exciting to the Lundqvist always beats Brodeur headline, only it reads more like Avery always beats the Devils: "The domination was complete from one end of the ice to the other. For 60 minutes at the Garden last night the Rangers owned the Devils, mind, body and soul. With Sean Avery wearing Blue, what else is new?"
Read both of these articles, and rejoice.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
I hate the Penguins
Fuck the fucking Penguins. Okay? Fuck them. Everyone listen up. Yes, the Penguins changed coaches and started playing well. Great. So did we. Their record of 13-2-3 under the new guy sounds impressive. But everyone shut the hell up. Listen. Yes I'm pissed they beat the Flames last night. But fucking look, okay? We are 2 points behind them in the standings with a game-in-hand (that game is tonight, against the lowly Thrashers). If we win, we're exactly tied in the standings. Look, here's the point:
Under Tortorella, we are 8-3-1, outscoring our opponents 38-29. Under Bylsma, the Pens are 13-2-3, outscoring their opponents 64-47. That means we've put up 17 points in 12 games, an average of 1.4 pts/game, while they've put up 29 in 18, an average of 1.6 pts/game. We're winning each game by an average of 3.2-2.4, while they're winning by an average of 3.6-2.6. That's not actually a very big difference. Let me put this another way.
The Pens have played 18 games with their new coach. If we continued at our current pace through 18 hypothetical games with Torts, we would be looking at 26 points in those games, only 3 points fewer than the Pens. What's more, we would have scored only 7 goals fewer than the Pens (57), while giving up 3 fewer (44).
That's not a substantial fucking difference! And we're doing it all without having two of the top 3 scorers in the NHL! In conclusion, the Pens aren't very fucking special. Thanks, math.
Oh, also last night, the Sabres beat the Panthers, and the Hurricanes beat the Senators, both in regulation. Shrinkin' it back down:
4. Philadelphia, 90 pts, 10 GR
5. Carolina, 89 pts, 6 GR
6. Pittsburgh, 88 pts, 7 GR
7. NEW YORK RANGERS, 86 pts, 8 GR
8. Montréal, 83 pts, 9 GR
-------------------------
9. Florida, 81 pts, 8 GR
10. Buffalo, 78 pts, 9 GR
We play the Thrashers tonight at 7, and had better damn win. This should be an easy 2, and as long as we don't approach it as such, it should be. This gets "must-win" status. Wake-Up Call: it's the last "easy" game on our schedule. After this, it's all Eastern Conference, all bubble teams or higher: Pens, Devils, 'Canes, Bruins, Canadiens, and Flyers twice. So yeah. We need the points wherever we can get them. Let's Go Rangers!
Two other games of import tonight. At 7:00, the Cats are in Philly. I'm officially going to say go Panthers, because I'd like to believe that 3 points and a game-in-hand is enough of a cushion on a sliding team that's 1-4-3 in their last 8, while 4 points and a game-in-hand might still be a surmountable distance over which to catch a team against whom we finish the season with a home-and-home. Always looking up, not down. Go Florida. Plus their broadcasts always look like the multimedia department of a high school made them in the late 90s. So, they get points for that.
At 7:30, the Lightning are in Montréal. Sure, the Bolts aren't good, but neither are the Habs lately (in fact, their records are right around the same over the last month), and if the Lightning could steal one for us, that would be neat.
That's all I got! Hockey hockey hockey!
Under Tortorella, we are 8-3-1, outscoring our opponents 38-29. Under Bylsma, the Pens are 13-2-3, outscoring their opponents 64-47. That means we've put up 17 points in 12 games, an average of 1.4 pts/game, while they've put up 29 in 18, an average of 1.6 pts/game. We're winning each game by an average of 3.2-2.4, while they're winning by an average of 3.6-2.6. That's not actually a very big difference. Let me put this another way.
The Pens have played 18 games with their new coach. If we continued at our current pace through 18 hypothetical games with Torts, we would be looking at 26 points in those games, only 3 points fewer than the Pens. What's more, we would have scored only 7 goals fewer than the Pens (57), while giving up 3 fewer (44).
That's not a substantial fucking difference! And we're doing it all without having two of the top 3 scorers in the NHL! In conclusion, the Pens aren't very fucking special. Thanks, math.
Oh, also last night, the Sabres beat the Panthers, and the Hurricanes beat the Senators, both in regulation. Shrinkin' it back down:
4. Philadelphia, 90 pts, 10 GR
5. Carolina, 89 pts, 6 GR
6. Pittsburgh, 88 pts, 7 GR
7. NEW YORK RANGERS, 86 pts, 8 GR
8. Montréal, 83 pts, 9 GR
-------------------------
9. Florida, 81 pts, 8 GR
10. Buffalo, 78 pts, 9 GR
We play the Thrashers tonight at 7, and had better damn win. This should be an easy 2, and as long as we don't approach it as such, it should be. This gets "must-win" status. Wake-Up Call: it's the last "easy" game on our schedule. After this, it's all Eastern Conference, all bubble teams or higher: Pens, Devils, 'Canes, Bruins, Canadiens, and Flyers twice. So yeah. We need the points wherever we can get them. Let's Go Rangers!
Two other games of import tonight. At 7:00, the Cats are in Philly. I'm officially going to say go Panthers, because I'd like to believe that 3 points and a game-in-hand is enough of a cushion on a sliding team that's 1-4-3 in their last 8, while 4 points and a game-in-hand might still be a surmountable distance over which to catch a team against whom we finish the season with a home-and-home. Always looking up, not down. Go Florida. Plus their broadcasts always look like the multimedia department of a high school made them in the late 90s. So, they get points for that.
At 7:30, the Lightning are in Montréal. Sure, the Bolts aren't good, but neither are the Habs lately (in fact, their records are right around the same over the last month), and if the Lightning could steal one for us, that would be neat.
That's all I got! Hockey hockey hockey!
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Senators 2, Rangers 1
Oh wow I have SO MUCH WORK TO DO, and the game's in 45 minutes, and I'm still at work doing SO MUCH. Okay, fine, the quick summary.
We played the same game we did against the Sabres, but even less exciting. I told you it wasn't enough. We lost because of it. No surprises. Sam and Joe went back to their "OH WOWZ THE OPPOSING GOALIE WAS SO GOOD" tricks, which is terrible. Alex Auld was fine, and we couldn't put more than one past him. We again won faceoffs and puck battles but couldn't figure out what to do from there. We again squandered power plays. Et cetera. We deserved to lose, and we did. Fine, I'm over it - everyone has bad weekends. We're just...running out of time to have them, so let's recover and win three big this week: tonight against the Wild, Thursday against the Thrashers, and Saturday, in Pittsburgh (I'll be there).
Rozsival got hurt. He's out 7-10 days. That is the end of how much I care about this fact. Michael Obernauer's Daily News article opens with:
The bad news is, the Rangers will have to do without Michal Rozsival for a little while. The good news is, they found out Monday that it will only be a little while - seven-to-10 days.
Wait, strike that, reverse it.
We're replacing him with a 21-year-old kid named Michael Sauer, who will be wearing (the original) LT's 56. He has 6 G, 16 G, 35 PIM in 59 games for the Wolf Pack this season, and Schoenfeld picked him because he got over some injury quickly or something. Whatever, he's not Rozsival, woo.
Last night, the Flyers beat the Devils, and the 'Canes beat the Panthers, in OT, so everything that could possibly have gone wrong did.
Standings:
4. Philadelphia, 90 pts, 10 GR
6. Carolina, 87 pts, 7 GR
5. Pittsburgh, 86 pts, 8 GR
7. NEW YORK RANGERS, 84 pts, 9 GR
8. Montréal, 81 pts, 10 GR
-------------------------
9. Florida, 81 pts, 9 GR
10. Buffalo, 76 pts, 10 GR
At this point, the Sens are only a game behind the Sabres, and no way am I adding them to the list, so the Sabres are about to go. I'm leaving them on right now 'cause I'm too busy to make a decision.
Only other game of note tonight (ours is at 7) is Thrashers at Montréal at 7:30. Ugh. Bad time for a bad team to play a team right behind us. Please go Thrashers.
We'd better win this one. If we lose this one, those big wins from last week really seem to stop mattering. The Wild are desperate to get above their dashed line tonight. We need this win. That means we need to come out as if we need this win. We'll see what happens. Let's Go Rangers!
We played the same game we did against the Sabres, but even less exciting. I told you it wasn't enough. We lost because of it. No surprises. Sam and Joe went back to their "OH WOWZ THE OPPOSING GOALIE WAS SO GOOD" tricks, which is terrible. Alex Auld was fine, and we couldn't put more than one past him. We again won faceoffs and puck battles but couldn't figure out what to do from there. We again squandered power plays. Et cetera. We deserved to lose, and we did. Fine, I'm over it - everyone has bad weekends. We're just...running out of time to have them, so let's recover and win three big this week: tonight against the Wild, Thursday against the Thrashers, and Saturday, in Pittsburgh (I'll be there).
Rozsival got hurt. He's out 7-10 days. That is the end of how much I care about this fact. Michael Obernauer's Daily News article opens with:
The bad news is, the Rangers will have to do without Michal Rozsival for a little while. The good news is, they found out Monday that it will only be a little while - seven-to-10 days.
Wait, strike that, reverse it.
We're replacing him with a 21-year-old kid named Michael Sauer, who will be wearing (the original) LT's 56. He has 6 G, 16 G, 35 PIM in 59 games for the Wolf Pack this season, and Schoenfeld picked him because he got over some injury quickly or something. Whatever, he's not Rozsival, woo.
Last night, the Flyers beat the Devils, and the 'Canes beat the Panthers, in OT, so everything that could possibly have gone wrong did.
Standings:
4. Philadelphia, 90 pts, 10 GR
6. Carolina, 87 pts, 7 GR
5. Pittsburgh, 86 pts, 8 GR
7. NEW YORK RANGERS, 84 pts, 9 GR
8. Montréal, 81 pts, 10 GR
-------------------------
9. Florida, 81 pts, 9 GR
10. Buffalo, 76 pts, 10 GR
At this point, the Sens are only a game behind the Sabres, and no way am I adding them to the list, so the Sabres are about to go. I'm leaving them on right now 'cause I'm too busy to make a decision.
Only other game of note tonight (ours is at 7) is Thrashers at Montréal at 7:30. Ugh. Bad time for a bad team to play a team right behind us. Please go Thrashers.
We'd better win this one. If we lose this one, those big wins from last week really seem to stop mattering. The Wild are desperate to get above their dashed line tonight. We need this win. That means we need to come out as if we need this win. We'll see what happens. Let's Go Rangers!
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
More defining moments
Tonight, we play in Montréal at 7:30. This, you'll recall, is the final game of the stretch my father referred to as "season-defining." So far, we're 2-1-0 in that stretch. 3-1 is a better definition of a season than 2-2 is. You've seen the standings. You know why this is big. Winning puts us at the top of the bubble, losing puts us back near that dreaded dashed line (ooooooooooh). But seriously, this is another game against an in-bubble team. The Canadiens, meanwhile, are a team a lot of us are starting to smell blood around. Since firing Carbonneau, they have gained 3 points in 6 games without winning in regulation. This is an opportunity to strike while they're faltering and gain some very important points against some very nearby competition (again, see the current standings 3 posts ago).
In "unimportant storylines people are writing about because they need to write about something" news, Lundqvist hasn't done well in Montréal lately. That's a dumb thing about which to write a story. Relatedly, I'm depressed by how much this blog seems to come down on Larry Brooks, who I really do like. And hey, I guess you have to write about bullshit sometimes, when you write to pay the rent. The point is: that's a dumb article.
More importantly, notice that tonight is our last game until the weekend. That gives the other bubble teams the rest of the week to start making up points on us. This is part of that whole "you need to get points in the games-in-hand for them to matter" thing. If we don't pick up the 2 tonight, and other bubble teams win a lot this week, our recent feel-good success will stop feeling quite so good again. As my father is so fond of saying, "Of course, I'll start to really feel good if they can do this for more than one game in a row..."
Also tonight, at 7:00, is a game the Rangers don't actually care about, but that I'll mention anyway - Blackhawks in New Jersey. Tonight, barring miracles, Martin Brodeur will pass Patrick Roy and become the winningest goalie in NHL history. I threw up a little in my mouth when I said that. I'm not watching this game, but I feel obligated to mention it for a sentence. I'm, of course, rooting for the Blackhawks, but not just on general principle (at this point, Brodeur is obviously going to get this record soon, I'd rather spend that energy blogging about why Roy was still a better goalie, which I may do at some point later in life) - if he fails, he gets another chance against Carolina tomorrow night, and I'd like to see the desire to win that record help us out there. But realistically, he's going to make some modicum of numerical history tonight, so, there you have it. Moving on.
Every game that matters tonight is at 7:30:
Sabres in Ottawa - If the Sens do us a favor here tonight, then the Sabres move on to face the Flyers Friday night. If that game goes as it ought to (not that I necessarily want it to), we could be poised, on 3 days' rest, to put the final nail in the coffin of a tired Buffalo team. I know, I'm getting ahead of myself. But still - an Ottawa win at home can't hurt.
Thrashers in Pittsburgh - Oof. This sucks. Thrashers are playing without Kovalchuk AND Lehtonen tonight, while Malkin seems to be healthy enough to suit up for the Pens. I appreciate the Thrashers' current 6-game streak, and I'd LOVE to see them pull this off for us, but...we might have to bite the bullet on this one. Even so, as you've heard me say before, stranger things have happened.
Capitals in Florida - The Caps need to get their shit together. The Panthers are 2 points behind us with a game in hand, and this game would be a great one for them to lose, against #3 in the conference, as opposed to, for example, Thursday, when they play Toronto. I'd like to get invested in this game, since it has every reason to go well for us, but the Caps keep breaking my heart. Please, guys? You have the best player in hockey!
Flyers in Detroit - I know, we're not thinking about the Flyers yet. I talked about this game before. Just keeping it on the rader.
Let's Go Rangers!
In "unimportant storylines people are writing about because they need to write about something" news, Lundqvist hasn't done well in Montréal lately. That's a dumb thing about which to write a story. Relatedly, I'm depressed by how much this blog seems to come down on Larry Brooks, who I really do like. And hey, I guess you have to write about bullshit sometimes, when you write to pay the rent. The point is: that's a dumb article.
More importantly, notice that tonight is our last game until the weekend. That gives the other bubble teams the rest of the week to start making up points on us. This is part of that whole "you need to get points in the games-in-hand for them to matter" thing. If we don't pick up the 2 tonight, and other bubble teams win a lot this week, our recent feel-good success will stop feeling quite so good again. As my father is so fond of saying, "Of course, I'll start to really feel good if they can do this for more than one game in a row..."
Also tonight, at 7:00, is a game the Rangers don't actually care about, but that I'll mention anyway - Blackhawks in New Jersey. Tonight, barring miracles, Martin Brodeur will pass Patrick Roy and become the winningest goalie in NHL history. I threw up a little in my mouth when I said that. I'm not watching this game, but I feel obligated to mention it for a sentence. I'm, of course, rooting for the Blackhawks, but not just on general principle (at this point, Brodeur is obviously going to get this record soon, I'd rather spend that energy blogging about why Roy was still a better goalie, which I may do at some point later in life) - if he fails, he gets another chance against Carolina tomorrow night, and I'd like to see the desire to win that record help us out there. But realistically, he's going to make some modicum of numerical history tonight, so, there you have it. Moving on.
Every game that matters tonight is at 7:30:
Sabres in Ottawa - If the Sens do us a favor here tonight, then the Sabres move on to face the Flyers Friday night. If that game goes as it ought to (not that I necessarily want it to), we could be poised, on 3 days' rest, to put the final nail in the coffin of a tired Buffalo team. I know, I'm getting ahead of myself. But still - an Ottawa win at home can't hurt.
Thrashers in Pittsburgh - Oof. This sucks. Thrashers are playing without Kovalchuk AND Lehtonen tonight, while Malkin seems to be healthy enough to suit up for the Pens. I appreciate the Thrashers' current 6-game streak, and I'd LOVE to see them pull this off for us, but...we might have to bite the bullet on this one. Even so, as you've heard me say before, stranger things have happened.
Capitals in Florida - The Caps need to get their shit together. The Panthers are 2 points behind us with a game in hand, and this game would be a great one for them to lose, against #3 in the conference, as opposed to, for example, Thursday, when they play Toronto. I'd like to get invested in this game, since it has every reason to go well for us, but the Caps keep breaking my heart. Please, guys? You have the best player in hockey!
Flyers in Detroit - I know, we're not thinking about the Flyers yet. I talked about this game before. Just keeping it on the rader.
Let's Go Rangers!
Friday, March 13, 2009
Speaking of last night's results...
Hooray for hockey! I don't know where to begin. My (less happy than I) Pens fan friend and I spent 4 hours watching 5 games on 2 TVs last night. End result: Hooray for hockey!
In the Panthers-Sabres game, I said I think I want the Sabres to win, but I'm happy as long as it doesn't go into overtime. The Sabres won in regulation. Sure, that keeps them in the bubble for now, but they're still at its bottom, and time is running out, and I'm willing to spot them 2 points against the Panthers, if it means the Cats don't get them. And they're welcome to lose tomorrow to the Thrashers ;)
In the Penguins-Jackets game, the Jackets went up 3-0, and were still up 3-0 with 12 minutes left in the game. Then, they did what non-championship teams do, and the Pens did what the Pens always do, and in a span of 3:25, it was 3-3. That's a point I'm kinda pissed about, because I really hate the Penguins, and come on! You're up 3-zip with 12 minutes of hockey left to play! Just...play the game! But, the Jackets win it in the SO, so the Pens' winning streak snaps, and they only take 1 point out of the night. Fine.
In the Islanders-Canadiens game, I'm not really gonna care too much that the Isles were up 2-1 with 14 minutes left, then killed off a full 2-minute 5-on-3, and then 2 minutes later gave up the tying goal. The Isles came back and won it in overtime anyway, and this is tantamount to robbery. Fish Sticks do us a favor. Canadiens gain 1.
Finally, in the game I watched the least of, the Stars went up 3-1 and finished off Carolina 3-2. I don't have a ton to say about it, cause I didn't watch it a ton, but I'm sure it was as good as I expected it to be, because I'm right about everything. Thank you Dallas.
So, IF we were to discount the Sabres from contention (which, you'll note, I'm not), the 5 remaining teams in the bubble were all in action last night. We're the only one that came away with 2 points. And, as I mentioned yesterday, that means all the games-in-hand math stays the same. We just...move up. Of course, losing to the Flyers this weekend would still put us in a terrible place. But we'll worry about that later. No one in the East is in action tonight. Lundqvist sets his NHL record. We're 4-1 in our last 5. Today, we feel good.
Your reward:
5. Montréal - 80 pts, 14 GR
6. Pittsburgh - 79 pts, 13 GR
7. NEW YORK RANGERS - 78 pts, 14 GR
8. Carolina - 78 pts, 12 GR
-----------------------------------
9. Florida - 77 pts, 14 GR
10. Buffalo - 75 pts, 14 GR
In the Panthers-Sabres game, I said I think I want the Sabres to win, but I'm happy as long as it doesn't go into overtime. The Sabres won in regulation. Sure, that keeps them in the bubble for now, but they're still at its bottom, and time is running out, and I'm willing to spot them 2 points against the Panthers, if it means the Cats don't get them. And they're welcome to lose tomorrow to the Thrashers ;)
In the Penguins-Jackets game, the Jackets went up 3-0, and were still up 3-0 with 12 minutes left in the game. Then, they did what non-championship teams do, and the Pens did what the Pens always do, and in a span of 3:25, it was 3-3. That's a point I'm kinda pissed about, because I really hate the Penguins, and come on! You're up 3-zip with 12 minutes of hockey left to play! Just...play the game! But, the Jackets win it in the SO, so the Pens' winning streak snaps, and they only take 1 point out of the night. Fine.
In the Islanders-Canadiens game, I'm not really gonna care too much that the Isles were up 2-1 with 14 minutes left, then killed off a full 2-minute 5-on-3, and then 2 minutes later gave up the tying goal. The Isles came back and won it in overtime anyway, and this is tantamount to robbery. Fish Sticks do us a favor. Canadiens gain 1.
Finally, in the game I watched the least of, the Stars went up 3-1 and finished off Carolina 3-2. I don't have a ton to say about it, cause I didn't watch it a ton, but I'm sure it was as good as I expected it to be, because I'm right about everything. Thank you Dallas.
So, IF we were to discount the Sabres from contention (which, you'll note, I'm not), the 5 remaining teams in the bubble were all in action last night. We're the only one that came away with 2 points. And, as I mentioned yesterday, that means all the games-in-hand math stays the same. We just...move up. Of course, losing to the Flyers this weekend would still put us in a terrible place. But we'll worry about that later. No one in the East is in action tonight. Lundqvist sets his NHL record. We're 4-1 in our last 5. Today, we feel good.
Your reward:
5. Montréal - 80 pts, 14 GR
6. Pittsburgh - 79 pts, 13 GR
7. NEW YORK RANGERS - 78 pts, 14 GR
8. Carolina - 78 pts, 12 GR
-----------------------------------
9. Florida - 77 pts, 14 GR
10. Buffalo - 75 pts, 14 GR
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