Goal Line Report

Sean Avery and Kids

by Patrick Hoffman on 11/20/09 at 04:00 PM ET
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I know that this title sounds mysterious but believe me, it’s a good thing.

On Wednesday, New York Rangers forward Sean Avery was part of a Youth Hockey Clinic series that took place at Rye Playland, the team’s former practice facility.

You can check out the photos here.

I also wanted to remind you Blueshirt fans that friend of the blog Jim Cerny hosts Rangers Radio every Friday afternoon. You can check that out here.

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 Tags: New+York+Rangers, Rangers+Radio, Sean+Avery,

Showing Salary Cap Smarts

by Patrick Hoffman on 11/20/09 at 12:26 PM ET
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From Reid Jackson at PeteProse.com:

Burning up the hockey news wire the last few days have been reports that the Chicago Blackhawks are close to inking their “Big 3″ – forwards Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, and defenseman Duncan Keith, to long-term contracts that will keep them in Chicago for the foreseeable future.

Similarly, a Boston Globe report says the Boston Bruins are close to signing their star forward (and impending unrestricted free agent) Marc Savard to a 7 year deal that will keep the Ontario native in Boston through the end of his career.

For hockey fans in Beantown and the Windy City, this is good news. Chicago has seen a resurgence in the last two seasons, and Kane, Toews and Keith have been the single biggest reasons behind the Blackhawks return to prominence. The former duo are two of the NHL’s brightest young stars, and Keith has developed into one of the NHL’s premier blueliners. Locking these three tremendous talents up long-term is an excellent move by Chicago GM Stan Bowman; he’s identified his core, and intends to build around that core for the future, cap ramifications be damned.

The same story rings true in Boston, where Savard has emerged as a perennial NHL All-Star, finishing near the top of the scoring race every season he’s donned the Black and Gold, and playing a key role in the Bruins’ rise to the top of the Eastern Conference (this season notwithstanding, as Savard has played in just 7 games due to a broken foot).

Of course, these impending signings haven’t been met with universal applause, as there are some who feel both franchises are hedging their bets on a small number of players, something to avoid in a cap world, or so they say.

Click here for more.

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 Tags: NHL, Salary+Cap,

A Full Moon over the NHL?

by Patrick Hoffman on 11/20/09 at 09:54 AM ET
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From friend of the blog Jim Cerny at Rink Rap:

I am not sure if it’s a black cloud or a full moon, but there’s something wreaking havoc on the National Hockey League so far this season.

As discussed here before, the amount of injuries to star players is off the charts. Plus there have been a string of strange incidents that add to the question: what the heck is going on here?

Two more stories from today fit right in with what has been par-for-the-course over the first quarter of the NHL season.

First, the Los Angeles Kings placed winger Ryan Smyth on Injured Reserve this morning. So down goes another star player---and another one who was off to a very strong start this year. Smyth joins the likes of Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Ilya Kovalchuk, Jonathan Toews, Cam Ward, Brian Gionta, Simon Gagne, Sergei Gonchar, Roberto Luongo, Marc Savard, Joe Pavelski, and seemingly half of the entire Detroit Red Wings roster as star players forced to the sidelines for an extended period of time.

Click here for more.

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 Tags: Jim+Cerny, NHL, Rink+Rap,

Grading the Blueshirts 1/4 through

by Patrick Hoffman on 11/18/09 at 05:51 PM ET
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From Rick Carpiniello at The Rangers Report:

Anyway, here are my first-quarter report cards. As always I’d love to hear what you think, or how you’d grade them:

Michael Del Zotto: A …He’s going to get stronger and a little meaner and he might be a star.
Dan Girardi: C … Is is possible that the Staal-Girardi pair was a product of Tom Renney’s system?
Wade Redden: B … Fits much better in this system, is playing with some passion; but will never earn that type of salary.
Marian Gaborik: A … Absolutely as advertised, and remained upright for most of the first quarter. Where would they be without him?
Ales Kotalik: B … Probably could do a little more, but that shot has given the Rangers a legit PP pointman they didn’t have at all last year.
Sean Avery: C … Don’t know if the benching in last year’s playoffs put too much of a leash on him, or what. I do know that the Avery Rules, as called by almost all officials, are ridiculous.
Brandon Dubinsky: C … Got the big contract, and didn’t produce before the injury. He’s not a first-line center, but he should be more than he was.

Click here to see how the rest of the team was graded.

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Rangers Need Help in Scoring Department

by Patrick Hoffman on 11/18/09 at 04:29 PM ET
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From Dan Rosen at NHL.com:

One problem has been consistent throughout.

“Obviously our biggest weakness is that we are not getting any secondary scoring,” Rangers coach John Tortorella said. “We just aren’t creating enough.”

That was the Rangers’ biggest problem last season and it was supposed to go away with Tortorella and his aggressive forechecking system now in play. But lack of secondary scoring appears to be haunting this team once again.

Over this 13-game stretch, 15 players have combined for just 30 goals (2.31 per game). The Rangers have had nights when they scored four and five, but they have also been held to two or fewer in eight of the 13 games.

Click here for more on the inconsistent Blueshirts.

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 Tags: New+York+Rangers,

Interesting Take on Team USA

by Patrick Hoffman on 11/16/09 at 08:06 PM ET
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As we all know, the NHL will be participating in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver in February. I for one am very excited as I have always enjoyed international competition though part of me wishes that it was every country’s top amateur players. I guess they do that in the World Junior Championships, right?

Anyways, I wanted to point you readers out there to Reid, who took an in-depth look at what Team USA should look like in a few months on Pete Prose. Here is a brief sample of what he wrote:

Team USA doesn’t have the depth up front that Canada or Sweden will possess in droves, and they don’t have the All-World game-breakers that Russia will present, but nonetheless, this is a formidable, and perhaps underrated, group of skaters.

Leading the charge will be New Jersey Devils star Zach Parise, who broke out in a big way in 2008-09, leading the Devils with 45 goals and 94 points. He is unequivocally the top American skater on the planet, and is the closest thing Team USA has to a world class superstar.

Look for Colorado Avalanche forward Paul Stastny to center Parise on the first line, as the cerebral pivot is off to a good start this year for the upstart Avs, with 4 goals and 14 helpers in 20 games. Defensively responsible, much like Parise, these two could shine together.

Click here for more on the potential look of the red, white and blue.

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 Tags: 2010+Winter+Olympics, Team+USA,

Up for Debate

by Patrick Hoffman on 11/15/09 at 10:16 AM ET
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From Greg Wyshynski at Puck Daddy:

As we continue our rankings of the best in the last decade, it’s time to look back at the best single-season performances from players in the 2000s.

We’re going for the total stats picture, and not just one facet (goals, for example). Looking back at the last 10 years, there have been some awesome performances, but only a few that cracked the NHL record book in a significant way.

Some criteria to keep in mind: This is a regular-season list. History matters, as far as records and awards. So does context, when considering where that particular season falls in with a players’ career. The differences between the NHL before and after the lockout should be kept in mind in a grain-of-salt way, although they’re not a primary consideration here. Oh, and if your favorite forward isn’t here, it’s because we tried to make room for defensemen and goalies.

Jaromir Jagr’s 2005-06 season is on this list at No. 10, when he posted 54 goals and 123 points.He had the Art Ross Trophy lead until the last game of the season when San Jose Sharks’ forward Joe Thornton took over and won the scoring crown.

Click here for more. 

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 Tags: NHL, Puck+Daddy,

A Start

by Patrick Hoffman on 11/14/09 at 07:02 PM ET
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This game had shootout written all over it. There were many missed scoring chances, big saves by each goaltender, and quality special team’s efforts.

Fortunately, this ended with a 2-1 shootout win for the New York Rangers over the Ottawa Senators. Surprisingly, the game-winning shootout goal came from P.A. Parenteau, recently called up from the Hartford Wolf Pack.

However, this game was all about the big-time effort from goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, who made 35 saves in the game and made some huge stops in the skills competition. After reading yesterday’s papers and listening to him during the post-game on Thursday night after the team lost to the Atlanta Thrashers, it was easy to see/hear that Lundqvist was frustrated and wanted to get things back on the right track. 

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Ranger Crisis?

by Patrick Hoffman on 11/14/09 at 01:51 PM ET
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No, this blog is not about the New York Rangers being in trouble. This blog is an e-mail interview I did with Eddie “The Mouth” of the famed Ranger Crisis video blog.

This is not going to be in the usual format that I post interviews. By now, you folks know all the questions that I asked so instead, I am going to post it more as a story where you get to know the guy behind the site and how he got into hockey, the New York Rangers, blogging and his thoughts on the current team.

So before the Rangers get underway in Ottawa against the Senators or some time in between periods, please check this e-mail interview out.

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 Tags: New+York+Rangers, Rangers+Crisis,

The Perfect Description

by Patrick Hoffman on 11/13/09 at 11:49 AM ET
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Sitting down at my computer this morning, I was trying to figure out how to describe last night’s performance by the New York Rangers against the Atlanta Thrashers.

Why did they lose? Who played well despite the loss? Who played poorly in the losing effort? Why did Henrik Lundqvist have to allow that fourth goal?

As it turns out, Scott over at Scotty Hockey describe the team’s loss perfectly:

Don’t let the 5-3 scoreline or the 36-27 shot total fool you, the Rangers were dominated tonight by the Atlanta Thrashers. Yep, the Atlanta Thrashers.

It was atrocious, and yet the Blueshirts were a post and a crossbar away from winning the game. I guess that is a good thing, but walking out of the Garden I don’t feel the least bit good about the Ranger performance. Atlanta kept them bottled up in their own end for long stretches, had little trouble breaking up most Ranger rushes and kept the shots away from the danger zones. You would think that after finally getting a few days off to practice the Rangers would be better, not worse. You would think that.

Efforts like this make you wonder if the team has tuned out Tortorella already or simply have no clue or capability to play his hard-nosed, open ice hockey. The slot remains empty with no one paying the price to go to the net, the defense isn’t helping the offense and isn’t playing defense, and players are passing up good shots while taking bad ones.

Click here for more from Scotty.

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 Tags: Atlanta+Thrashers, New+York+Rangers,

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