Good, Bad, Ugly: Rangers take over 1st in East, win 4-1

The Good: The Rangers started the scoring just 35 seconds into the game off the redirection of a Callahan pass to super rookie Carl Hagelin. Roughly 4 game minutes later, Brad Richards received a pass in stride from Jeff Woywitka that somehow got through two Panthers players and Richards shook his goal drought with a goal past Clemmensen at 5:10. The Rangers third goal in the first period was just a result of hard work along the boards by Hagelin and Richards. Richards eventually found Del Zotto cross ice at the point who shot the puck off of a Panther defenseman and past Clemmensen (who was subsequently pulled for Theodore) for a 3-0 Ranger lead at 15:37. The Rangers final goal from Dubinsky that made it 4-0 in the second period was just a result of hard work and determination. Dubi received a pass from McDonagh at the Florida blueline, muscled his way around Versteeg and drove to the net and got a backhanded shot stickside past Theodore.

The Bad: The Panthers ruined Lundqvist's shutout bid on a play that was a bit unlucky for the Rangers. Panther defenseman Erik Gudbranson took a shot from the point that was blocked by McDonagh. Unfortunately for the Rangers, the puck deflected to his right, right to Matt Bradley's stick who got backhander past Hank at 9:28 of the second period.

The Ugly: Sure was nice to see the Rangers come out flying to start the game rather than sleepwalk through the first 15 minutes of the game before waking up. However they did take their foot off the pedal a bit for the remainder of the game and relied a Hank who got a ton of help from the post and crossbar last night. If they were looking forward to Monday's Winter Classic, they made sure they gave themselves a good lead. Regarding the suckerpunch by Kopecky on Del Zotto, these two teams meet again January 5th back in the Garden, which promises to be one interesting game. Love Tortorella's reaction to the punch too.

Does Anton Stralman have a future in NY?

As fantastic of a season that the Rangers are currently experiencing, its never too early to start thinking into the short term future with regards to the Ranger blueline and all the draft picks that they acquired through the draft. Most of the Ranger blue-chip prospects on the blueline have already graduated to the Rangers with the exception of Dylan McIlrath, the Rangers first round pick in 2010. Most of the bloggers/experts that follow Ranger prospects in the junior leagues in Canada have all indictated that McIlrath is realistically about 2 years away from getting his shot on Broadway. In the mean time, one begs the question, does Anton Stralman have a future in NY keeping the seat warm until McIlrath is ready?

Anton Stralman signed with the Rangers back on Nov. 5 after a couple weeks of rumors of his impending arrival to New York. With Marc Staal already out with concussion symptoms and Mike Sauer out with a concussion following a check from Dion Phaneuf, the Rangers needed yet another body to step in and fill a role. As Dave Lozo of NHL.com found out in a recent interview with John Tortorella, the coach wasn't too fond of the way Stralman played hockey. An offensive defenseman in his own right, Stralman was labeled as soft by many, unable to play physical hockey and lost in his own end. After a few practices with the Rangers, Stralman has bought into the system that Tortorella preaches and has been rewarded with more and more ice time paired with Del Zotto on the Rangers top 4.

Stralman is signed through the remainder of the year. In addition to Stralman, Del Zotto, Eminger and Woywitka all have expiring contracts. Del Zotto is likely the only one with a guarantee that he'll be back on Broadway next year. While I don't think Woywitka will be back and Eminger will be iffy although Torts does like him as we've seen on 24/7. It would not surprise me to see Stralman stick around going into 2012-13 to compete for the final two spots on the Rangers blueline.

Good, Bad, Ugly: Rangers rip away 1st place from Philly

The Good: The Rangers first two goals tonight in the second period came off deflections sent off the stick of Whale call-up defenseman Stu Bickel. The first one scored by Stepan was an incredible display of hand-eye coordination by Stepan tipping Bickel's shot past Bryzgalov that was going well wide. The goal was under review by the war room in Toronto but was quickly ruled a good goal. The Rangers second goal was kinda fluky. Bickel shot the puck from nearly the same spot that led to Stepan's goal on net that deflected off of Fedotenko in front. The way the puck went into the net and bounced out fooled the ref but once play stopped the play was quickly reviewed and ruled a good goal. The Rangers third goal scored by Gaborik who now leads the league with 21 goals came off of a faceoff win. The puck quickly found its way to Stralman who cleared the zone off the boards to a streaking Gaborik and he beat Bryzgalov on a breakaway to run the Rangers lead to 3-0. Gaborik took a slash to the left shoulder before shooting the puck past the Flyers goalie but reports after the game stated he was ok. Ryan Callahan made it 4-1 on the power play following a shot by Girardi on Bryzgalov who left a rebound right on Callahan's stick to provide the Rangers extra insurance.

The Bad & The Ugly: I'm too excited by tonight's enormous win to go over the two Flyer goals but more importantly, there a couple loose ends the Rangers need to tie up. First off, the Rangers at some point have to start waking up sooner in the first period. To say they sleptwalked through the first period would be a little harsh but the Rangers didn't have a shot on goal until there were nearly 5 mins left in the period mainly due to the Rangers trying to be too cute on the puck. Both teams did come out and bang the body around on each other including a KO win by Prust in a fight with Bourdon. Secondly, for a team like the Flyers who are very thin down the middle due to injury, you would expect the Rangers to have a bigger advantage in the faceoff circle which wasn't the case especially in that first period. Finally, the Rangers have to start doing a better job getting pucks on net. The Rangers shooters love to pick the corners and unfortunately that leads to more shots pushed wide.

Good Bad, Ugly: Rangers get win #20 beat Isles 4-2

The Good: Nice overall win tonight by the Rangers. Perhaps they were a little too pass happy at the start, the Rangers started shooting the puck and were rewarded a goal with a little over 5 minutes left. Dubinsky went coast to coast, out muscling 2 Islander players and buried a shot by Nabokov, in front of Mark Streit who was anticipating picking off a cross ice pass. The Rangers second goal appeared to be a set play and it came from the red hot Marian Gaborik. Anisimov won a draw, pushed the puck forward and quickly found Gaborik for his league leading 20th goal. In addition to Gaborik, Jonathan Toews, Phil Kessel, and Steven Stamkos are all tied at the top with 20 goals. The Rangers third goal stretched the lead to 3-1. Prust took a pass at the Islander blue line from Anton Stralman. Looking for Fedotenko, Prust's pass deflected off an Islander defender and found Michael Del Zotto cross ice who ripped a bouncing puck, five hole, past Nabokov at 15:25 of the second period. The Rangers final goal was an empty netter from John Mitchell to ice the game with 1:33 remaining in the third period.

The Bad: The Islanders got on the board just 18 seconds into the second period. With McDonagh off serving a penalty he acquired in the first period, the puck found Mark Streit who ripped a shot on Biron who made the initial save, but the rebound immediately found former Ranger PA Parenteau for the putback. The Islanders second goal and second power play goal at 8:29 of the third period made things interesting for a little while. Mark Streit shot the puck in at Biron who made a good glove save but couldn't handle a rebound and Matt Moulson fired the long rebound past Biron.

The Ugly: The one and only real complaint I had tonight was that the Rangers PK was uncharacteristically bad. The PK gave up 2 goals out of 3 Islander power plays. That cannot happen against better teams as those will kill you. The botched icing call with 3 minutes left in the third period that nearly lead to an Okposo goal could also have been a killer. Tonights win was the Rangers 20th win of the season and a regulation win against the Flyers tomorrow will put the Rangers in a virtual tie with the Flyers atop the Eastern Conference heading into the Christmas break.

Good, Bad, Ugly: Rangers earn a very rare walk off regulation win in the desert

The Good: The Rangers first goal was developed out of a play that the Rangers badly missed last season. Del Zotto found Gaborik on a home run pass of a shorter variety and Gaborik split the Coyotes defensemen and beat Coyotes goalie Mike Smith through the wickets at 8:34 of the first period. Gabby did it again just 1:09 into the third period when Keith Yandle fanned on a pass from behind his own net, coughed it up right to Gaborik and after Smith made the initial save, Gaborik scored on his own rebound. The game winner as we all went nuts about came from Brad Richards with one tenth of a second left. Richards threw the puck at the net, deflected off Keith Yandle's skate and Smith whiffed on the puck with his glove hand. Absolutely an unbelievable goal.

Two other things of note: Rupp was very noticeable throwing his body around in his first game back. The Hagelin-Boyle-Mitchell line was excellent tonight. Hagelin's speed and forechecking ability is second to none. Now if Boyle can only learn to stay in front of the net to screen the goalie and bang in rebounds he just may figure out how to score goals again...

The Bad: Both Coyote goals came very late in the first and second periods and both could have gone either way. At the end of the first period, Boyd Gordon beat Christensen off a draw badly right to former Ranger (of course) Lauri Korpikoski scored past Biron with just 9 seconds left. The Coyotes took the lead with 52 seconds remaining in the second period when Shane Doan threw the puck at the goal and after some pinballing around in front of Biron who appeared to have closed his glove hand on the puck wound up on Cal O'Reilly's stick for an easy put back.

The Ugly: Let us look at this realistically. The Rangers were insanely lucky to be able to win tonight. Keith Yandle who is an all star defenseman in his own right, coughed up the puck to Marian Gaborik of all people in front of the Coyotes net, to Brad Richards scoring with one tenth of a second left in the game? Lets not let the Rangers good fortunes tonight get in the way of all the crap Torts has been trying to pull. I've been very supportive of him, but putting Erik Christensen on the ice to take a draw during a Ranger power play in the defensive zone at the end of a period is one of the worst coaching decisions I've ever seen anyone make. The Hagelin-Boyle-Mitchell line was probably the Rangers best line even strength tonight and didn't get a chance together on the power play cause Torts has it in for Christensen for some reason. Absolutely baffling.

The Rangers will be home for the holidays as they play the Devils for the first time this season on Tuesday and they don't have to jump back on a plane for the next 10 days.

Quick NYR cap clarification

Before starting, all numbers and salaries or courtesy of capgeek.com. Disclaimer: I'm not a professional capologist so some info below might be inaccurate.

There was some question Wednesday morning about the recall of Tim Erixon up to the Rangers without anybody being sent back the other way and how the Rangers could still be cap compliant. For those who may not know, the NHL collective bargaining agreement offers teams cap relief for players on teams on long term injured reserve. In layman's terms it allows teams to go a little over the salary cap to fill roster spots for injured players. As of this writing, early Friday morning 12/16/11, after the recall of Tim Erixon, the Rangers currently sit 23K over the 64.3 million dollar cap ceiling. The Rangers placed Marc Staal on LTIR sometime in late October-early November. Once Marc Staal comes off long term injured reserve the Rangers must make moves to get below the 64.3 million dollar ceiling, which shouldn't be a problem.

Rupp's back, so who sits?

Andrew Gross of the Bergen Record reported this morning from the Rangers AM skate that forward Mike Rupp, out since October 25 with a torn meniscus has been cleared for contact and could play as soon as Saturday with the Rangers out west in Phoenix. So the question is who sits? Well, Rupp has been for the most part an "everyday" player over his career unlike Boogaard was in the sense that Boogaard would only play 45-60 games a year when you needed to add toughness to the lineup. I would be hesitant to send John Mitchell back to the Whale given how well Hagelin has played on that line with Boyle. So of course it comes back down to Christensen and Avery. Of course, the Ranger fan in me says that the Rangers should be doing everything in their power to get Christensen off the roster but I think its going to be Avery. The Rangers would have one too many guys who drop the gloves and would somewhat limit the Rangers offense.

If I were Torts, I would scratch Prust for a few games and get him healthy again. It's terribly obvious that all the bumps and bruises he takes have added up and greatly limited his effectiveness to the team. He is not the same guy who was all over the ice for the Rangers last season and awarded the Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award.

Good, Bad, Ugly: Rangers keep rolling, win 6-1 over Florida

The Good: Yet another complete game by the Rangers tonight, alot of good to take away from tonights game. Brad Richards opened the scoring with a power play goal at 11:40 of the first period taking a cross-ice pass at the Florida blueline from Callahan, and Richards who faked a slap shot, got Panther goalie Jose Theodore to move awkwardly to his right and Richards beat Theodore under his armpit for a 1-0 lead. Artem Anisimov made to 2-0 towards the end of the first period on yet another power play goal. Set up by a beautiful cross ice pass from Stralman to Anisimov, as well as a couple Panthers chasing the puck and getting caught out of position, Artie passed the puck over to Christensen who shot it into Theodore's pads but the rebound came right back out to Anisimov for the easy rebound goal at 17:27.

The fun didn't stop in the second period. With Brandon Prust serving the end of his penalty, Derek Stepan took the puck from coast to coast, putting a deke on Panthers rookie defenseman Gudbranson, and beat Theodore high glove as Prust's penalty expired to stretch the Ranger lead to 3-1. The Rangers made it 4-1, set up by Hagelin being able to negate an icing. The puck found its way to John Mitchell in the bottom of the circle who shot the puck into Theodore, but a big juicy rebound came all the way out to Eminger in the high slot who blasted a shot by Theodore high blocker side. The Rangers made it 5-1 following more hard work by the GAS line particularly from Stepan. Stepan raced up ice, took a hit from a Panther defenseman, got right back up with the puck, found Anisimov for a one timer which found its way to Theodore who left a big rebound at the top of the crease between Florida defenseman Kennedy's legs for Marian Gaborik who does not miss from that close. The Rangers closed the scoring just 55 seconds later set up by a pass from Gaborik to Stepan at center ice who passed to Del Zotto at the Florida blueline. He rifled a shot at Theodore, who left another big juicy rebound chance for Stepan between the hashmarks who also doesn't miss from that close to make it 6-1.

Scott Clemmensen relieved Jose Theodore to start the third period.

The Bad: The Rangers lone negative mark against them came at 18:07 of the second period, 40 seconds after Anisimov made it 2-0 Rangers. Erik Gudbranson scored the first goal of his NHL career. After a few seconds of the puck pinballing around in the Rangers zone, the puck found Kris Versteeg along the side boards, who passed the puck back to Gudbranson who blasted the puck by Lundqvist high glove off the crossbar. Not much else went wrong from the Rangers tonight.

The Ugly: Admittedly, I did not watch the third period due to connectivity problems with NHL Gamecenter Live, but it seemed like the Rangers did a good job clogging up the neutral zone and not allowing the Panthers to establish momentum to try and mount a comeback. I'm also running out of good things to say about the Rangers. It was a good and dominating win tonight against a first place team and one of the early surprise teams in the NHL, although one has to wonder how Florida got there with Jose Theodore as their starting goaltender.

I don't remember a time where I've been prouder to call myself a Ranger fan. How could anyone not love this team?

Good, Bad, Ugly: Rangers get off the skid, beat Buffalo 4-1

The Good: Rangers special teams ruled the roost in the second period with two shorthanded goals.  Hagelin with the first goal, starting with a nice pass by Eminger along the glass which wound up right on Hagelin's stick who zoomed up along left wing with Dubinsky on a 2 on 2, and with the defenseman cheating slightly toward Dubinsky, Hagelin roofed it over Enroth's glove hand as he was going to his pads. The Rangers second goal was simply a case of hard work on Callahan's part, picking off Christian Ehroff's pass at the point, running down ice, and with his back turned to Ehroff somehow sneaks the puck under Enroth's pads. The Rangers kept rolling in the third period on Hagelin's second of the night, Biron left the puck off for Del Zotto behind the net who quickly passed the puck left wing to Hagelin while the Sabres were in the middle of a line change and Hagelin beat Enroth again with a well placed wrister to the glove side. Gaborik completed the scoring at 17:26 of the third period with a PP goal after Mitchell leaves Gaborik the puck in the high slot and Gaborik lays into a shot and beats Enroth high glove off the crossbar for his 14th of the year.

The Bad: Buffalo's lone goal tied the game up at 1, following a bad turnover by Gaborik at Buffalo's blueline, Vanek raced up ice and following a give and go with Pominville, Vanek blasted a shot past Biron 64 seconds after the first Ranger goal. Gaborik was subsequently benched by Torts for the remainder of the second period.

The Ugly: I hope the injury bug that plagued the Rangers last season isn't starting to come out of hibernation. Hopefully McDonagh and Anisimov are OK. McDonagh came back but Artie did not so we'll see tomorrow for the Ranger game against Florida back in NYC if both guys are able to play. The Rangers controlled the play for most of the first period but were unable to bury one. I thought the Rangers may have been a little fortunate to be ahead after the second period, following a couple short handed Ranger goals. As we like to see, the Rangers were able to step on the throat of their opponent in the third period, shut down Buffalo's offense and put in two insurance goals of their own. The Rangers are back at it again tomorrow night against the southeast division leading Florida Panthers.

How awesome is Carl Hagelin?!?!?!

More re-alignment thoughts...

(screenshot pulled from sportsline.com)

In addtion to my re-alignment idea that I posted here not too long ago, there seems to be another (and probably better) idea that was shown on Hockey Night in Canada during the games on Saturday night shown above. What is proposed above is a different twist than what I had posted for the Eastern Conference that moved Nashville east and Winnipeg obviously back to the west. I had 2 divisions of 8 and 7 teams in each conference and an unbalanced schedule. What I don't think people are taking into account is whether the Coyotes are going to be playing hockey in Glendale next year. The city itself has no intention of pumping more money into the franchise and will likely be moved very soon if not next season. What throws the wrench into all this is the underground talk of adding a franchise somewhere in eastern half of Canada. There really isn't anything the NHL is going to do to make everyone happy.

Personally, I can't understand why the NHL would want to move Detroit to the Eastern Conference, despite their longstanding rivalries with the Blackhawks and the Avalanche. It would be one thing if it made geographical sense but it obviously doesn't. The NHL may truly have no choice but to go to four divisions and slightly increase every teams travel across the country to keep it "fair."

State of the Rangers: December Edition

It would be quite easy to sit here and marvel at the amount of wins the Rangers have put up just 28% of this still very young season but however there are a few loose ends that need tying up.

First things first on the injury front, we heard some new fresh news with the health of Marc Staal. He talked to reporters after doing some light skating with coaches on Thursday. It's good enough news that Staal is able to start skating to begin with. He also said that his return is quite 'a ways away' and didn't want to put a definite timetable on when he could return. I did speculate with little knowledge of the situation on twitter that Staal might be back in time for the Winter Classic, but now I think we are looking at sometime late February-early March. Staal was ordered by doctors to shutdown from physical activity earlier this season which he admitted did a number as far as his conditioning goes. Once he is cleared by doctors to resume working out and getting his conditioning to the level it needs to be, barring any setbacks which would probably sideline him for the year, I think we'll get a better sense of where he is as far as a timetable for return.

Tis the season for trade rumors. Last week we were treated to the first big trade rumor of the season and to no one's surprise the Rangers were right in the thick of things. However one has to decide whether it is such a good idea to break up the Rangers right now given how well they have played since Halloween. We all know that NJ product and Anaheim Ducks winger, Bobby Ryan was the center of attention in the hockey world given that the Ducks were ready to trade a 24 year old kid with three 30 goal seasons already under his belt. Looking at this from a Rangers standpoint, I'm all for trading away Dubinsky for a guy of Ryan's caliber, but it was what else the Rangers had to throw in to satisfy Ducks GM Bob Murray's demands. Originally when this story blew up, there was report thrown out that the Ducks were demanding a top 6 center, top 4 defenseman and a high draft pick/prospect. Immediately, the Rangers top prospect Chris Kreider, who is currently in his junior season playing for Boston College was thrown into the trade talks, and I believe this is what put the brakes (at least in the minds of Ranger fans) on the team acquiring Ryan. The Rangers have invested far too much time already waiting on Kreider to sign a pro contract to simply trade him away a season before he's likely to leave school for the NHL. However, the opposite side to this is that Bobby Ryan already is what you expect Kreider to be a couple seasons from now however Ryan comes with a much higher cap hit than Kreider will have for the next 3-4 seasons. With the Rangers playing so well at the moment, why get greedy? They've waited this long....

Which brings me to the enigma known as Brandon Dubinsky. Doober is still sitting on one goal this year, however he's been setting up his teammates for some wonderful goals as well. You can see the Rangers for the past couple games have been trying to force him the puck to get him going but it obviously hasn't been working. My one and only theory on Dubinsky is that there's little pressure on him to score goals this year. Last season, Gaborik got hurt very early last season, followed by Callahan going out twice from injuries. Dubinsky stepped up to the plate in Callahan's absence and even when Gaborik came back and only scored goals in bunches, Dubinsky was that force that drove the Rangers into the playoffs last season. Now that Gaborik is in the middle of a career season with Stepan and Anisimov reaping the rewards of being on that line and with the addition of Brad Richards and his chemistry with Ryan Callahan. The only way to get him going is probably a swift kick in the ass from Torts although if it hasn't happened already it probably won't if the Rangers keep consistently winning.

Finally, the HBO cameras will be starting to film the Rangers on Monday 12/5. With the Rangers currently rolling through their schedule, I hope the cameras don't become a distraction.

Good, Bad, Ugly: Rangers ride the Lightning, win 4-2

The Good: Rebound goals were the name of the game tonight, all the Ranger goals scored by Fedotenko, Anisimov and the game winner by Stepan were due to second chances the Rangers created in front of the net and terrible rebound control by Tampa goalie Garon. Also quite fitting that Brad Richards scoring into the empty net to secure a win. Besides an excellent penalty kill by the Rangers after Callahan took a lazy hooking call just 17 seconds after Stepan scored, there really is little else to commend the Rangers on tonight but thanks to the defense and world class goaltending, the Rangers just manage to find ways to win games. Tampa had several really good scoring chances but the Rangers are getting all the bounces to go their way.

The Bad: The Rangers didn't bring their best game to Tampa tonight but eventually found a way to win. Steve Downie scored the first goal of the game just 84 seconds in with a rip from the blue line that beat Lundqvist who was very upset at either himself or Stepan who may have partially screened Hank when the shot came in. The second Lightning goal scored by former Ranger draft pick Tom Pyatt was a shot that Hank would like to have back as Pyatt beat him 5 hole.

The Ugly: Honestly, tonight's game was strange and quite boring to watch at times. It took the refs 53 minutes to call a penalty which the Rangers received and did little with. The Rangers just keep rolling along despite not playing their best against a trapping Lightning team. The Rangers fly home tonight and are going to have their hands full once again when they faceoff against the Leafs on Monday at MSG.

Good, Bad, Ugly: Rangers shut out Flyers 2-0

The Good: I finally get to watch the Rangers play a full 60 minute hockey game. The Rangers came out today and executed their gameplan, played good defense, shut down Giroux, won individual battles along the boards and got timely goals. Congrats to Carl Hagelin getting his first NHL goal. The kid is a keeper and hopefully he stays and gets better with time. Anything that keeps Christensen off the ice is a good thing.

I want to note that during the game I tweeted that I didn't think the Rangers were too far away from a Eastern Conference Final or perhaps a Stanley Cup Final run. To elaborate while I don't think it could happen this year (never say never) but you really can't help but notice how much better the Rangers have been playing year-to-year since the lockout. The kids the Rangers have drafted in the past few seasons are beginning to work their way up to the Rangers and are extremely talented. If guys like Kreider and JT Miller play to potential and are in Rangers blue next season there's no telling how high the Rangers can go. Especially once the Rangers get rid of some of these deadweight contracts in Wolski, Christensen, Stralman, Eminger and Woywitka and use the money to re-sign homegrown guys in Del Zotto and Stepan.

The Bad: Very little to complain about today. The only thing really is the Rangers let their foot off the pedal towards the end of the first and second period. I get you can't play on a emotional high for every second of every game but if the Flyers were going to score on Lundqvist today it was during those small timeframes.

The Ugly: At the beginning of the season you couldn't help but notice this 3 game stretch around Thanksgiving the Rangers had. First on the road ending another road trip in Washington followed by 2 more tough games against Philly and Pittsburgh. So far the Rangers have passed both tests against a floundering Capitals team and a banged up Flyers team by a combined score of 8-3. The Rangers next game on Tuesday night is a measuring stick game against the Penguins.

Is another roster move imminent?

It's quite noticeable among us fans on twitter about the shakeups surrounding the bottom 6 players on the Rangers forward roster. Boyle has been virtually useless so far this year and I was strongly against giving him any kind of long term deal in the offseason unless Boyle was able to prove he could repeat what he was able to do last season. With Boyle signed into a 3 year contract, like quite a few of the Rangers early this year have tried to do too much with the puck in attempt to score goals. Erik Christensen has no place on this team. Prust is noticeably having a rough start to the year due to injury and probably could use some extra time off.

I'm not sure with all the success that Carl Hagelin is currently having in Hartford, how long the Rangers can afford to keep him there. I'm curious to see how well a line composed of Avery-Boyle-Hagelin would fare or if the Rangers wanted to get really bold and have them call up Zuccarello and putting Zuke and Hagelin on a line together here either with Brad Richards or Boyle and seeing what could happen from that.

I'm not sure Sather is going to be able to find a GM partner dumb enough to try to take Wolski or Christensen off the Rangers hands by the time the trade deadline comes around either. The Rangers high end prospects will be ready to compete for roster spots next season and guys like Wolski and Christensen won't be around next year anyway if the Rangers could somehow trade either guy for a late draft pick somewhere although this scenario is unlikely.

A NHL realignment idea (Eastern Conference)

Here's my new proposal for NHL realignment, 2 conferences composed of 4 divisions.

Northeast:
Boston
Toronto
Buffalo
Montreal
Ottawa
Rangers
Islanders
New Jersey

Mid Atlantic:
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Washington
Nashville
Florida
Tampa Bay
Carolina

Here's why I think this works. The Northeast Division adds an original six team in the Rangers to the equation, reigniting old rivalries while still keeping the NYC metro area rivalries together. For the Mid Atlantic, it keeps the Pens and Flyers together after management for both teams publicly expressed concern that the NHL was thinking about moving the Penguins to the Northeast Divsion. It also adds another dimension by pairing the Caps and the Pens in the same division for the "mainstream" NHL fan (if there are any.) But nationally televised games between those two teams tend to get good TV ratings anyway so more games between the two couldn't hurt.

Scheduling would be as follows: 82 game season, each team in the division would play each other 6 times a year and play the teams in the opposite division 4 times. Remaining games would be played against random teams in the opposite conference.

NHL players namely Jarome Iginla have called for the NHL to get rid of the loser point. Well, Mr. Iginla you got your wish. I propose the NHL switch their points system so that teams that win in regulation get 3 points and teams that win in OT get 2 points. It will increase scoring so teams won't be happy to just sit back in the third period, play defense and wait for OT and an automatic point.

Finally, the playoff system gets a revamping: In the first round, instead of ranking the conference 1 through 8, the top 4 teams in the each division make the playoffs and are ranked 1-4. The 1 seed plays the 4 seed and the 2 seed plays the 3 seed. In the second round the two divisions are merged, reseeded and again the 1 seed plays 4 seed and the 2 seed plays the 3 seed. It is a bit complicated, but with expanded divisions, winning games against teams within your division now means more than ever and in my opinion the best team will come out and eventually represent the rest of the conference in the Stanley Cup Final.

Let me know what you think either by leaving a comment or tweeting me @justblueshirts

State of the Rangers: November Edition

What a difference 20 days make. It truly seems like a good amount of time has passed since fans wanted to ship Tortorella to Connecticut and wanted to drive Dubinsky to the airport on a plane bound for parts unknown. Since my last State of the Rangers column, the Rangers won 4 of 6 on the homestand and haven't lost since taking a bad shootout loss to the Senators on October 29. I really believe what started the Rangers incredible run were the events that followed the Rangers victory over San Jose on Halloween. As most of us know after the game, San Jose captain Joe Thornton called the Rangers the 'softest' team they played on their roadtrip. Word quickly got to Tortorella as he was asked about it during his post game press conference. You can be sure that Torts brought that back into the locker room with him.

Following that game, the Rangers went on a tear and haven't looked back. The Rangers have been winning games with offense (5-3 victory against the Habs), winning games with defense (3-0 victory against the Jets), and winning games through grinding and hard work when the puck just didn't seem to want to go in the net (2-1 SO victory against the Ducks.) When Torts does shuffle the lines, he does strike rich on occasion. Last year he paired the Prust-Boyle-Fedotenko line which was the best line for the Rangers heading down the stretch. This year its the Stepan-Anisimov-Gaborik line that has generated the most offense during the Rangers winning streak and for the Rangers to win the GAS line needs to consistently produce.

I want to quickly mention that its good to see Ryan Callahan continue to perform and play his game with the C on his chest now. It's a far cry from when guys like Drury, Jagr, and even someone like the beloved Brian Leetch seemingly crumble with the responsibility.

Speaking of contracts, the one guy that is seemingly really struggling with the weight of a new contract is Brian Boyle. Boyle, who has only 3 points so far in 15 games has really struggled and is not the same guy who surprised everyone coming out of camp last season on his way to a 21-14-35 season. Torts very recently has been putting him in the middle of Dubinsky and Callahan so hopefully the move can jumpstart him, however I'm not sure how long Boyle is going to keep Brad Richards on the third line.

Lastly, I want to mention Lundqvist. Hank has been letting up a few very un-Lundqvist like goals. It seems this year Lundqvist has let up a few soft goals that were low or very close to ice level. We were used to seeing Lundqvist when he first broke into the league consistently getting beat high glove when he did let pucks go past him. Now as a seasoned veteran in the NHL, Lundqvist has a MUCH improved glove hand and I do laugh a little inside every time I see a shooter come down the right wing and tries to beat Lundqvist high glove on his short side. But recently, like Ponikarovsky's goal last Friday is a shot that Lundqvist, un-screened should be able to handle. Nothing to full blown panic about but it's something to keep an eye on moving forward.

Good, Bad, Ugly: Rangers run the streak to 5, beat Ottawa 3-2

The Good: How good is Derek Stepan? You can just tell that the game has really slowed down for him. For all the crap he got in the beginning of the season being stuck on the fourth line, Stepan has really turned heads with his stellar play. Anisimov did set up both of the first two Ranger goals, first pressuring Gonchar into a turnover right to Stepan who quickly found Gaborik. On the Rangers second goal, Stepan forced rookie defenseman Rundblad into a terrible turnover behind the net, the puck found its way to a driving Anisimov, and following a save by Anderson, left a rebound right in front of the net for Stepan to bury. The third Ranger goal was all Gaborik. With Gaborik and Stepan coming down ice on a 2 on 1, a flatfooted Rundblad chose to play the pass instead of stepping up to the man with the puck and Gaborik made him pay. Also, Anderson was cheating a little too much towards Stepan and left the entire short side of the net open.

The Bad: Not a great start to the first period outshot at one point 8-1 and had just 4 shots on goal total through roughly 28 minutes of the game, although the Rangers should be used to that early this season. On Ottawa's first goal, there needed to be more bodies backchecking for the Rangers as the Sens had four guys at or below the dots to the Rangers two with Callahan coming back very late. On the Sens second goal, the puck takes an unlucky bounce over Woywitka's stick at the Ranger blue line where Da Costa picks up the puck and finds a rushing Foligno for a goal. Rangers need to be better in the faceoff circle too.

The Ugly: The Rangers are on a 5 game winning streak, so its awfully hard to complain about the wins. I think it may be time to break up Dubinsky and Callahan and perhaps try Dubinsky with Gaborik and Stepan at some point to get him going. Torts did demote Dubinsky to the Prust and Boyle line towards the end of the second period and obviously that's not going to help.

Good, Bad, Ugly: Biron pitches his first shutout, NYR down the Jets 3-0

The Good: Doing what you are supposed to do on a power play ie. crisp, concise passing, moving bodies around in the zone down low led to Del Zotto's pass to Stepan for his second of the year. Another beautiful pass from Stepan to Gaborik on a 2 on 1 to provide an insurance goal in the middle of the third period. Stepan is having himself a helluva week, he's been really seeing the ice well lately. Also how fortunate are the Rangers to have such good goaltender backing up Lundqvist. Biron again was solid in net tonight.

The Bad: Hard to complain after pitching a shutout but not being able to score on successive power plays including an extended 5 on 3 in the third period is troubling. The Rangers power play was pretty good on the first half of the homestand but terrible the last half. Torts seemed thrilled giving Avery a pat on the butt last night.

The Ugly: Look the Rangers have clearly turned a corner this season, it started rough and ugly over in Europe and the following road trip in Canada even though they did win 3 of 4 games. Things clearly changed following the win against San Jose that started the Rangers 4 game winning streak. It's certainly possible that Joe Thornton's 'soft' comments lit a white hot fire under the Rangers and they proceeded to rip off 3 more wins to finish the homestand. This Rangers team is far too talented to be the Rangers team that started the season slow and undisciplined. It's a long season which will have its ebbs and flows and hopefully the Rangers can keep the momentum up as they only play 8 more games for the rest of November.

Good, Bad, Ugly: Rangers play hard for the first 20.... and lose 4-2

The Good: Very little good to take away besides controlling play in the first period.

The Bad: I'm not one for criticizing the refs, but the first Ranger goal that was disallowed should have counted, the phantom slashing call and the unsportsmanlike conduct call for snowing the goaltender on Dubinsky were atrocious. The Rangers had 16 shots in the first period, 14 shots combined over the last 40 minutes against a shaky goaltender. The Rangers for as well as they've played in the third period so far this year packed it in after Lupul scored 2 minutes into the third. Lundqvist wasn't remotely close to the Lundqvist we've seen so far this year and let in a couple softies.

The Ugly: Obviously the biggest news that will come out of this game was the 'We want Avery' chants that erupted in the crowd in the third period. As much as I love Avery and what he's done for the Rangers, I don't think bringing him back is going to change anything. Unless he can score 25 goals this year, Avery on his best game isn't going to change a thing. Besides do you think Torts is going to let him do what he was so effective doing when Renney coached the team? Also Marc Crawford on TSN during one of the intermissions was criticizing Brad Richards for not skating hard and that is quite alarming.

State of the Rangers: October Edition

I'm introducing a new segment on the Just Blueshirts blog called 'State of the Rangers' a once a month piece where I basically will just post my thoughts and musings on important subjects around the Rangers.

The Rangers long winding road trip covering tens of thousands of miles, spanning across 6 countries and crossing the Atlantic Ocean twice came to an end when the Rangers plane landed back in NYC from Winnipeg early Tuesday morning. The Rangers somehow won 3 out of 4 on their western Canada trip despite being outplayed for long stretches and horrendously outshot by their opponents. Again I can't imagine how tired this team must be following all that traveling, moving in and out of hotels, trips to the airport, etc. Now that the Rangers are going to be playing at MSG for the next two weeks, I think we as Ranger fans are going to find out alot about the identity of this team coming up.

The Rangers were fortunate to get out out of Canada getting 6 out of a possible 8 points which is better than even the most optimistic fan could have hoped for. Lundqvist, in my opinion played the best game of his career against a tough team in Vancouver leading the Rangers to a 4-0 victory. What followed was 3 very ugly games in Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg which the Rangers were lucky to escape with 2 wins. Now that the team is home I have a hunch that we are going to quickly find out how good this Ranger team is.

Notably with Mark Staal still out with post concussion symptoms, which by the way I'm not going to panic over just yet, the Rangers have been forced to start rookie Tim Erixon, who had intended to start the season in the minors, receive top 4 minutes in the NHL. As common place as well around the Rangers, the trade winds have been swirling around. The Rangers do have several attracting pieces on the team that could be traded, but at the moment the real piece that fans have traded 30 times over is Mats Zuccarello. Poor Zucc never had a real chance to earn top 6 minutes on the Rangers and was constantly shuffled around unable to properly develop chemistry with anyone and found himself on the third and fourth lines more often than not.

Looking Forward
Now is the time the Rangers now need to find their game, re-establish their identity and become less reliant on Henrik Lundqvist bailing them out every night. The Rangers are ranked tied 29th in the league with an average of 2 goals for a game and that needs to improve. The second line needs to wake up and start producing and to take the scoring pressure off of Richards and Gaborik. The power play needs to be more consistent and the 2 power play goals in Winnipeg on Monday night was a start. The Rangers could be getting Michael Sauer back for the home opener Thursday and that will be huge for a heavily penalized team like the Rangers although that aspect of their game is slowly improving as well. The Rangers next 6 games are all at the Garden and getting at least 8 points is critical.

Good, Bad, Ugly: Oilers put up Bulin wall around NYR fall 2-0

The Good: Only thing noting is that Hank is seriously injured.

The Bad: Brendan Bell pinching too deep in the offensive zone allowing the first Oilers goal. Newbury's dumb penalty at the end of the second period. Anisimov and Christensen being benched in the third. Not converting a 5 on 3 at the end of the second period, too much standing around on the power play as well.

The Ugly: Like I said on twitter, I'm blaming Torts for the loss tonight between not giving Hank a rest and playing Bell over Woywika who couldn't have possibly done any worse.

Good, Bad, Ugly: NYR escape Calgary with a last second 3-2 OT win

The Good: Buckling down after the crazy first period, finally a power play goal!!! Henrik being Henrik, Tim Erixon's poise being booed everytime he touched the puck. It looks like the Rangers have their superstar sniper back after a year away, the Rangers need Gaborik to consistently put the puck in the net if they expect to go anywhere, not to mention Stepan's pass to him for the PPG was a beauty. Boyle and Prust making a play for the shorthanded goal, and Ryan McDonagh's last second heroics scoring at 4:59 in OT thanks to a fantastic setup by Dubinsky dumping off to Girardi shooting the puck off the boards to a wide open McDonagh for the game winner.

The Bad: The Flames goal song,  I'm sure the coaches will find something but after re-watching the game its hard to come away with any real negatives without nit-picking here and there, the Rangers did take two delay penalties for putting the puck over the glass which you obviously can't do. McDonagh did seem to have a tough game before his goal.

The Ugly: I was going to say before the Rangers scored in OT but they are somehow winning getting zero production from their forwards on the second line. I know with the Rangers winning it isn't going to happen but I think it might be time to temporarily  break up the Dubi-Anisimov-Callahan line which has done little since the team has come back from Europe. If Wolski comes back against Edmonton on Saturday, I say throw him with Anisimov and Callahan, move Dubi back to the first line and Stepan with Boyle and Prust if Torts is interested in shaking things up.

Good, Bad, Ugly: NYR shut out Vancouver 4-0

** Disclaimer: I only watched the last 28 minutes of the hockey game**

The Good: Henrik Lundqvist singlehandedly getting the Rangers through the first two periods before the offense finally taking over in the third. The Rangers held Vancouver without a shot on goal for the last 6:23 of the game. Dan Girardi and Ryan McDonagh keeping the Sedin's off the score sheet. Tonight was the Ryan McDonagh coming out party, the kid is a stud. The secondary scoring coming alive after 11 periods.

The Bad: TOO MANY PENALTIES. Rangers still don't have a power play goal. Brad Richards had a bad night in the faceoff circle. Not a terrible negative but Stepan was just ok on the top line.

The Ugly: Heading into the third period I would have been happy just getting out of Vancouver with a point, no one had the Rangers winning tonight 4-0. Everything statistically tells you the Rangers got their butts handed to them. Outshot 40-19, 31 penalty minutes against, 17 minutes to Dubinsky himself. Lost 37-27 in the faceoff circle. There is alot to improve on with this Rangers team but this win is a start.

The Rangers should keep Zuccarello in the NHL or look to move him...

Posted 7/27

I went on a bit of a rant on my twitter last Saturday about what the Rangers should do with Mats Zuccarello. If you remember, it was rumored that the Rangers were not MZ's first choice as he wanted to play with the other half of the Swedish Olympic men's ice hockey team known as the Detroit Red Wings. When MZ approached Red Wings GM Ken Holland about signing in Detroit, Holland couldn't promise him extensive time in the NHL without starting in the minors first. Upon visiting the Rangers, he was apparently told he would start the season in New York and thus signed with the Rangers. As we all know MZ started the season in Hartford and was called up in December, he was also promoted/demoted a couple times during the season as well, as an injury replacement. He has done everything he can during his time in New York to make himself a better player at the NHL level.

MZ is a Brad Richards-esque player just in terms of his statistics. In Sweden, he was better than a point-per-game player with those points coming more in assists than goals. In his last two seasons in Sweden, over 90 games, he scored 35 goals with 69 assists for 104 points. Last season between New York and Hartford, over 78 games, he scored 19 goals with 33 assists for 52 points, which I think is fantastic for a guy playing in his first full season on North American ice. I would LOVE to see MZ play on the first line with Richards and Gaborik next season. Just having those guys on the ice is going to open up a ton of ice for him and he certainly has the speed to keep up with Gaborik. MZ is entering the last year on his contract and I would hate to see him be stuck in Hartford for the majority of next season and leave only to succeed in the NHL somewhere else.

Good, Bad, Ugly: NYR fall to Islanders 4-2

The Rangers lose 4-2 to the Islanders Saturday night on Long Island, here's the good, the bad and the ugly on the game.

The Good- Henrik Lundqvist did everything he could to keep the Rangers in it, the top line showing good chemistry, Del Zotto shooting the puck alot more he's a much different guy from last year. PK wasn't terrible despite letting up 2 goals to Tavares. Woywitka wasn't bad in his limited minutes and might have a role on this team.

The Bad- Gaborik hooking penalty with 5 mins left was lazy on his part. Dubi-AA-Cally line weren't completely invisible but needed to be better. Why was the 4th line out with 2 mins left before Torts pulled Hank? Bad move by him perhaps a timeout there would have been better. The Rangers 4th line might be the worst in the league. Didn't notice Rupp or Zuccarello at all.

The Ugly- My number one key to the game was staying out of the penalty box which they failed to do. Rangers still haven't scored on the power play, they were 0-4 tonight but they did get their chances. The Rangers spent 30% of the game killing penalties, it's awfully hard to generate consistent offense when you have guys parading in and out of the box all night. The wins will start coming once the Rangers start taking less than 4-5 penalties a game. At least the absence of Staal isn't the cause of the Rangers losing the early games.

It doesn't get any easier from here, the Rangers next game is on Tuesday 10/18 against the Canucks in Vancouver to begin a 4 game, 6 day road trip through Canada.

Rangers at a competitive disadvantage?

After watching a slew of hockey games this past weekend, I couldn't help but to notice that the teams that stayed state-side were playing at a much faster pace than the Rangers showed, particularly in the latter stages of the second period and into the third period last Saturday against Anaheim. It was also apparent to everyone watching that the Ducks were the more conditioned, rested team going into that game against the Rangers despite having to fly from Finland to Sweden after their opener against the Sabres and not to mention that Anaheim only had to play one game against a European team in Finland. As soon the NHL announced that the Rangers were going to be playing 4 games in 5 nights in 4 different countries and then play 2 regular season games, I hated it and I mentioned it on here. I don't care if the Rangers were the most conditioned team in pro sports, playing all those games in such a short time frame and doing as much traveling as the Rangers did, has to take a toll on the human body.

The NHL definitely put the Rangers at a huge competitive disadvantage going into those two games against LA and Anaheim and with the Rangers definitely in Europe again next year with the renovations at MSG, the NHL needs to be far more cautious as to how many exhibition games they allow the Rangers to have.

NYR Reviews: @LA, @ANA

Just so you guys know I'm not going to have long drawn out reviews of all the Ranger games this year due to personal lack of time but rather I'm just going to point out the good, bad and the ugly of all the games. Here we go...

10/7  NYR vs. LA
The Good: Henrik Lundqvist and Ryan Callahan in midseason form, Prust being able to drop the gloves following his shoulder surgery. Actually somehow having the lead in the third period.

The Bad: The entire first period, the entire defense, too many penalties, blowing the third period lead.

The Ugly: Where was Brad Richards? How about Wolski or Stepan? Zuccarello's boarding call was a terrible move on his end. Del Zotto not doing more against Mike Richards for the game tying goal, Erixon was just ok, the Rangers need Staal back badly and it shows.

10/8 NYR vs. Ana
The Good: Henrik Lundqvist and Ryan Callahan again, top 2 defensive pairings against the Ryan-Getzlaf-Perry line, Rangers PK during the ref's penalty binge.

The Bad: Marian Gaborik and Brad Richards today together looked lost and were broken up in the third period, Rangers powerplay, undisciplined play.

The Ugly: This Ranger team is flat out dead tired. I can't even imagine how sore these Rangers are going to be on the flight home from Stockholm. Gotta give up to Brad Richards today scored a huge goal late to salvage a point.

I'm going to wait until the Rangers get a few more games under their belt before starting to criticize. It's unfair to get on some guys now because of all the traveling this team has done in the past two weeks and I'm sure the Rangers are anxious to fly home tonight for some much needed rest before their next game against the Islanders one week from today on Long Island.

Ranger news and notes 10/5

As we all know, Sean Avery was waived by the Rangers yesterday in what some likely term as financial move, however Tortorella's comments to reporters yesterday made one think that the writing was on the wall on Avery for awhile.

"To me, we have a better team now, and I think we have better players than Sean Avery. I don't want to throw dirt on the guy, and Sean had a very good camp, but our depth has put Sean in this spot. We are a better club now." -John Tortorella

Torts went on to add that Erik Christensen, the man who beat Avery out for a job (somehow) could be used in a variety of roles such as on the power play, a top 6 guy (which admittedly had me scratching my head) and on the shootout. Avery despite having some chemistry with Gaborik last year, was rarely used in any of those situations. 


I enjoyed having Sean Avery in a Rangers uniform. He was a key part to the Rangers success during the prime Renney years here. However with the youth movement that the Rangers have been pushing for the past season and a half it was clear that there wasn't anymore room for a 3rd-4th line agitator in his form.

In more pressing matters, it was revealed today per Larry Brooks and the NY Post that Marc Staal could be out as much as one month due to his intermittent headaches from a concussion in the middle of last season. This will cause the Rangers to make roster moves once the waiver statuses of Sean Avery, as well as Brendan Bell and Stu Bickel, defensemen also waived by the Rangers yesterday are known. Tim Erixon, the Rangers highly touted defensive prospect, will be on a plane today heading to Stockholm to meet up with the rest of the team who only have 5 healthy jet lagged defensemen at the moment. It has been rumored for a while and later confirmed that the Rangers are in talks with Paul Mara, a former Ranger defenseman to be added as a 6th-7th pointman which can be done after noon today once the Rangers players clear waivers.

BREAKING: Avery to be waived by the Rangers

A little bit of breaking news this AM. Larry Brooks from the NY Post is reporting that Sean Avery will be waived by the Rangers. As I accurately predicted in my last blog post this ends Avery's tenuous career in New York. If anything Sean is a cap casualty because his cap hit is double Erik Christensen's and he is least likely of the two to be claimed off waivers. I honestly can't see him reporting to Connecticut either which will make him a FA if that occurs although that's just speculation. More info will be posted as it becomes available.

Rangers announce cuts, Staal and Sauer updates, EC/Avery competition

This morning the Rangers announced they sent the following players to the Connecticut Whale of the AHL: Bourque, Hagelin, Mitchell, Newbury, Weise, Erixon, Parlett. The Rangers also sent Dylan McIlrath to Moose Jaw of the WHL

The lineup looks something like this:
Wolski-Richards-Gaborik
Dubinsky-Anisimov-Callahan
Zuccarello-Stepan-Fedotenko
Prust-Boyle-Rupp
Avery/Christensen

Staal-Girardi
Mcdonagh-Sauer
Del Zotto-Eminger, Bell, Bickel

Lundqvist
Biron
Stajcer

Stu Bickel and Brendan Bell were kept based on the injury situations regarding Staal and Sauer. Sauer is traveling with the team in Europe but is not playing and according to Torts is improving. Staal's situation too must be getting better since he is practicing with the Connecticut Whale once again today. Another interesting subject is the competition for the 13th forward spot between Avery and Christensen that Torts went out of his way to announce. In my opinion Avery is behind Christensen at the moment and needs to step up his game more in terms of skill for the remaining european games if he expects to make the team.

Dylan McIlrath era in NY maybe ushered in sooner than later...

While practicing in Hartford today with the Whale, Ranger defenseman Marc Staal told reporters per Andrew Gross that he is not in game shape and not cleared for contact which throws his availability in to question for the start of the season in Sweden against the Kings and Ducks next week. This completely changes my opinion on whether Staal should play overseas at all. The Rangers need to keep him here and get him in game shape for their first regular season game against the Islanders on 10/15. If Staal can't go, I can really see the Rangers keeping McIlrath for the time being. Although Torts says he isn't ready he may not have a choice especially with Erixon struggling.

Lets all calm down about Staal...

Yesterday at the Winter Classic press conference to announce what was quite possibly the worst kept secret in sports, Glen Sather talked to reporters about the status of All Star blueliner Marc Staal.

"Marc practiced yesterday, he looked great and his conditioning is terrific, I think he's tested, in every test that we have, he's been one of the top guys in the organization. I'm not concerned about that at all." 

He also went on to add that Staal will re join the Rangers later on this week. What is unknown at the moment is if he will be flying to the Czech Republic or Sweden for the Rangers exhibition games on Thursday or Friday, respectively, as well as his availability for those games. I'm guessing that Staal will be ready for the first two regular season games against the Kings and Ducks in Sweden on Friday 10/7 and Saturday 10/8.

Staal suffering post concussion symptoms...

It was reported earlier Sunday by various sources that Marc Staal is suffering symptoms from post concussion after a check way back last February from Marc's brother Erik in Carolina. While Rangers doctors are saying that he is cleared for contact, the Rangers aren't taking any chances and rightfully so. While it is currently unknown whether Staal will make the trip to Europe, the Rangers are correct for holding Staal out while he recovers and hopefully in time for the season. The Rangers not having Staal for an extended period of time could be devastating to the Rangers defensive corps and while that scenario isn't expected, the Rangers are stocked with talent at the minor league level that can temporarily take over while Staal recovers. If the Rangers are without Staal, I expect them to go with just 6 defensemen. I don't think they'll be looking for a trade due to cap constraints, but look for minor leaguers Pavel Valentenko to get a long look during camp and perhaps Dylan McIlrath if things become desperate.

Rangers season preview part 3: Eastern Conference predictions

1. Washington- The signing of Tomas Vokoun makes this team scary if Ovechkin can pot 50+ goals like he is capable of doing and gets the secondary scoring from guys like Semin and Backstrom. It'll be interesting to see if the Caps go back to the run and gun offense now that they have a top 10 goalie.

2. Pittsburgh- We already know what Pittsburgh is capable of, and depending on Crosby's health, the Pens could really finish anywhere from 2 to 6.

3. Buffalo- I'm buying this team as a potential dark horse to come out of the East. Alot of free agent moves however have put the team 3.5 million over the cap as of this writing so moves still have to be made. Plus any team that boasts Ryan Miller in goal has a chance.

4. Tampa Bay- An elite goaltender is just about the only thing holding back the Lightning from potentially winning a cup. I'm not saying they can't do it, but the Lightning just remind you of a Washington Capitals team before this year with elite scoring but with an average and in Tampa's case, aging netminder.

5. Boston- I debated whether or not I wanted to put the Bruins or the Rangers here at 5. The only reason I give Boston the slightest of edges here is because of recent Conn Smythe award winner Tim Thomas despite the fact that the Rangers are deeper on offense.

6. Rangers- Quite frankly this is the lowest end of the spectrum I expect the Rangers to finish the season. However I do expect the Rangers to strongly compete for the top spot in the division. Getting there is do-able however its much easier said than done.

There are a number of teams that could make up the final two spots in the Eastern Conference. I'm leaving out the Flyers and the Canadiens for a variety of reasons and inserting two teams that didn't make the playoffs last year.

7. Carolina- As we all know the Hurricanes missed the playoffs when they lost the last game of the season at home against the Lightning and put the Rangers in the playoffs. I'm sure those guys have had to endure a long offseason after that loss and have been chomping at the bit to get back on the ice. Besides, with Eric Staal, super rookie Jeff Skinner entering his second year and underrated goalie Cam Ward, the Canes will make it back to the playoffs.

8. Devils- This year could mark the end of an era for the Devils. With Martin Brodeur entering the last year of his contract, I can't see the Devils not in the mix for the eighth seed and perhaps sneaking in on game 82. The talent is there, its up to Marty and how much he has left.

As I wrote in Part 2, I don't like the Flyers this season at all. Montreal is too inconsistent, you never really know what to expect out of Carey Price. I'm not going in depth into the Winnipeg Jets since they aren't going to be in the conference next season although I don't think they are too far away from returning to the playoffs. Florida, Toronto and the Islanders are light years away from contending.

Rangers season preview part 2- Atlantic Division

Atlantic Division Predictions
Pittsburgh (104 points)-This is purely based on Crosby being healthy to play. If he plays at the level he did before his concussion, the Pens take the division. However if they are without Crosby for an extended time then the Rangers could be breathing down their necks all season long.

NY Rangers (100 points)- I think this is the season the Rangers begin their push. The team filled two huge needs with one player. If the Rangers stay healthy getting to 100 points is not out of the question. If the young guys improve from last season the Rangers can have three lines that can score. Wishful thinking?

NJ Devils (93 points)- Can't see the Devs starting off this season the way they did last year. Kovalchuk makes this team dangerous. Hottest NHL team post all-star break and nearly made playoffs. With Parise and Brodeur in contract years do the Devils "go for it" one last time? How much does Marty have left?

Philadelphia (90 points)- The Flyers traded away their top two scorers, only to replace Richards and Carter with Jagr and Brayden Schenn. Unless Briere, Giroux, and Van Riemsdyk all score 50 goals each wheres the scoring coming from? With Pronger hurt with a bad back is this the beginning of the end for him? Can Bryzgalov shake off the bad playoff series he just had against the Red Wings? Too many questions for me to put them in the playoffs.

NY Islanders (79 points)- Tavares, Grabner, and Moulson are all nice pieces to build the team around, however ownership issues will continue to plague the Isles until they get a new stadium in the area or move elsewhere. Constantly picking high in the draft has to get them somewhere eventually right? Lets not get started on Rick DiPietro...

Rangers to announce captain and alternates... (update)

Per Jim Cerny of newyorkrangers.com, the Rangers will announce the 26th captain in franchise history tomorrow, Monday 9/12/11. When the news is announced an updated blog will be posted here.

UPDATE 9/12/11 11 am
The Rangers have just announced that Ryan Callahan has been named the 26th captain in franchise history. Also named as alternates are all-star defenseman Marc Staal and newly acquired free agent center Brad Richards.

I couldn't be happier about the state of this Rangers team right now. Especially with the Rangers prospects tearing up the Traverse City tournament. The sky is the limit for this Rangers team and when we look back 5 years from now, we can say that the road to the Stanley Cup was paved with this offseason.

The Rangers taking a gamble on defense?

I came across an article this afternoon on SI.com about teams taking the biggest gambles this season and the last team on this writers article was the Rangers. This persons concern is if the Rangers defense is too young and inexperienced. If they were young and inexperienced this year, what was last year? The Rangers biggest gamble was promoting Sauer and McDonagh to the big club last season and they did little else but succeed. In fact, Sauer and McDonagh are two huge reasons the Rangers even made the playoffs. If you remember, Sauer scored the game winning goal in their incredible comeback win against the Bruins on April 4 and McDonagh scored the game winner, his first of the season against the Devils in the last game of the season. I know in the mind of fans, the defense on this team is the last thing we have to worry about, plus any mistakes that the defense may make are usually bailed out by Henrik Lundqvist in net. The Rangers last season were one of seven teams to give up less than 200 goals. Leave it to the national media to make up reasons to put a team down.

You know whats scary? Watching the THN video preview of the Rangers season. It's the first time I've ever seen them talk positively about the Rangers in quite a long time.

Enough already...

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past 24 hours... you know that the KHL team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl was involved in the plane crash yesterday in Russia killing all but 2 aboard as of this writing. We all know and read the statements and tweets that were put out yesterday by teams and players and I'm not going to re-hash every little thing that was said and done yesterday. It truly is unfathomable that one sport could be exposed to so much tragedy in the 3 short months since the Cup Finals. I could only hope the NHL does the right thing by somehow honoring all those who have passed on.

What does Brad Richards have to do to live up to the contract??

If you took out Lebron James in the above Nike commercial after he signed with the Miami Heat and replaced him for Brad Richards after he just signed his monster deal in New York, there would be very little difference in the commercials message. Give Richards a chance to show what he can do for the Rangers to push this team closer to a title, perhaps closer than Lebron James did in Miami last season.

Rangers season preview part one

This is my first installment of a three part series previewing the upcoming season. This entry focuses solely on the Rangers roster before zooming out and going over the division and finally the conference and predictions.

Imagine what could have potentially happened if the Rangers could just stay healthy last season. Losing Drury and Gaborik in the first week, Prospal, who wasn't ready for half of the season. Callahan was out twice for long periods, Biron getting hurt in practice forcing Lundqvist to play way more than he should have down the stretch. It was just one injury after another. Lets imagine for the sake of this article that the Rangers top 9 play 70+ games and we'll assume the same stats from last season. If the younger guys like Stepan (45 points), Anisimov (44 points) can crack 50 points and Zuccarello (23 points) improves from last year, nothing drastic. That potentially buys the Rangers 2-3 wins that they didn't have last season. Now with the addition of a first line center in Brad Richards and assuming that he gels with Gaborik and Gabby can score 40 goals like he is capable of doing that's another 3-4 additional wins that they did not have last year. Adding in Brad Richards and a potential 70-80 point season, the Rangers are at the top of the conference right? Sure looks good on paper. Barring sophomore slumps from Stepan and Zuccarello, the Rangers look very deep this season.

Potential top 6 line combinations are endless. If neither Wolski nor Zuccarello work out on the top line, Dubi moves up with Gabby and Richards and look for Wolski or Zuccarello to be moved before the trade deadline and one of the Connecticut kids called up. Chris Thomas i'm looking at specifically here. I expect Torts to have a quick hook on both players especially if the Rangers are in contention around deadline time. I would love to see Stepan with Callahan extensively at some point. Regarding Stepan, I'm curious to see if Torts gives Stepan time on the wing. We all know about Stepan's horrible faceoff percentage from last season and I don't think he's suited for third line duty on this team. After all, Dubinsky moved to wing last season and thrived. Hopefully the same can happen for Stepan as well if that does happen.

As for bottom 6, the fourth line is basically written in stone with Prust-Boyle-Fedotenko. As for the third line, lets just say its going to be interesting watching Avery and Rupp on the same line together.

There isn't much that needs to be said regarding the Rangers defensive corps. Staal-Girardi, Sauer-McDonagh, Del Zotto-Erixon with Eminger back as the seventh defenseman. If Del Zotto continues to stuggle as he did last season, I wonder how long it takes before they send him to Hartford. Pavel Valentenko will get a long look at training camp and compete with Erixon for the final spot with the loser likely being the first injury call-up. If 2010 first round pick Dylan McIlrath impresses in camp do the Rangers give him a call-up in the middle of the season just to see what he can do?

Do we need to say anything about the goaltending? Hank and Biron are probably the best 1-2 in the league. Canucks Luongo-Schneider and Sabres Miller-Enroth aren't far behind either.

Next week we take a look at the rest of the Atlantic division.

A quick 2011-12 Rangers schedule run through

As we all know the Rangers start off in Europe. They are going to have to somehow play 4 exhibition games in 4 different countries in 5 days, something I'm not to crazy about. The real season starts against the Kings and Ducks in Stockholm on Oct. 7 and Oct. 8. The Rangers then get a week off to rest before starting the season state-side on Oct. 15 at the Islanders. With the renovations going on at MSG, the Rangers return from their early west coast trip and play their first home game a full three weeks after the season starts against the Leafs. The Rangers longest road trip is the seven game road trip to start the season. They also have a 4 game 10 day road trip which starts Nov. 15 against the Islanders and ends Nov. 25 after a game against the Caps. The Rangers have 2 long home stands as well. The first begins early in the season on Oct. 27 against the Leafs and ends Nov. 6 against the Winnipeg Jets who visit MSG for the first time since Oct 11, 1995 in a 6-4 Rangers win. The second home stand is in March, a key part of the season likely to influence playoff seeding. The home stand starts March 11 against the Islanders and ends March 23 against the Sabres. That run will not be easy with games against quality teams such as Detroit, Pittsburgh and Carolina.

Regarding division opponents, the Rangers first game against the Islanders on Long Island is the previously mentioned game on Oct. 15 and they first visit MSG on Dec. 22. The Devils first game at MSG doesn't take place until Feb. 7 and the Rangers go to Newark for the first time on Dec. 20. The Rangers visit Philly for the first time on Jan. 2 for the Winter Classic. The Flyers come to MSG for the first time on Nov. 26. The Penguins come to New York on Nov. 29 and the Rangers put their undefeated record against the Pens in their new arena on the line for the first time on Jan. 6.

The Rangers visit the Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins on Jan. 21 and visit the Western Conference champion Vancouver Canucks on Oct. 18.

Other somewhat important games:
10/24 @Jets (first game in Winnipeg since 11/17/95)
12/13 vs. Stars (Brad Richards first game against former team)
Every stinkin' game in April: the Rangers have a very difficult finish vs. Bos, @Phi, @Pit, vs.Was

Who receives the captains 'C' next season??

A few years ago I bought the DVD set of the '94 Eastern Conference Final and Stanley Cup Final against the Devils and Canucks that was actually a gift meant for someone else but I wound up keeping it instead. I popped it in today during this rainy day with my internet turning off and on with the weather changing outside. Today, after watching game 6 against the Devils, what I came away with after that game and was cemented after the Rangers won the cup 2 weeks later, was the start of something special the Rangers never had. Messier was the judge, jury and executioner. He was the go to guy, on and off the ice. He was the face of the franchise for the latter part of the 1990's and the undisputed leader of the team. The Rangers have not had a personality like his in the locker room since he left and the fans are still waiting for that one guy to step up and assume that role.

With Drury's buyout and subsequent retirement, there is a big hole at the top. One of the big questions surrounding the team is who will be wearing the 'C' when the season starts up in October. While Drury was the captain of the Rangers since 2008, I never had the feeling that he was the one true leader of the team, especially after Torts took over. A man smarter than me once said that the leader of a team needs to reflect the personality of the coach and to be able to deflect away criticism and other distractions that may afflict a team over the course of the season. If Keenan were still coaching the Rangers in the 1996-97 season they would have beaten the Flyers and advanced to the Cup Finals. The current Rangers need someone right now to fill that role.

All above is reason why I believe that Ryan Callahan NEEDS to be the captain of the New York Rangers for the immediate future. Callahan has all the tools necessary to take the Rangers to the next level and without affecting his own personal production. It would put a stamp on the youth movement that has overtaken this team since the lockout. What he did on the ice this season not only granted him the respect of the fans as acknowledged by the two Steven McDonald Extra Effort Awards he won in 2009 and 2010 but most importantly the players and coaches. Torts speaks highly of Callahan constantly and I could only imagine that sentiment is reflected in the locker room. I understand that Callahan may not have that presence that Messier once had over his team, but I think Callahan is more than capable of filling in the role as captain and leader of the New York Rangers as admirably as Messier once did.

C- Ryan Callahan
A- Brandon Dubinsky
A- Marc Staal

Drury retires...

Yesterday, Chris Drury announced his retirement from the NHL. Over 892 regular season games he scored 255 goals with 360 assists for 615 points. In the postseason, over 135 games, he scored 47 goals with 42 assists for 89 points. He was known as a clutch player with 64 GWG over the course of his career. Drury was bought out by the Rangers on June 29th to clear cap room for the Rangers to sign unrestricted free agent Brad Richards.

First an foremost I'm a Drury fan. It's on record on this blog. I can't blame him for accepting a buyout to look for other work which sounds like he has already done this summer. However, I also tweeted yesterday that I didn't blame the fans either for being angry at him. One does have to wonder if his knee was already going to prevent him from playing this season anyway. This is the reason why I stated the Rangers should just keep him this year and buyout Wolski. Drury could have just retired under contract and would have come off the cap or the Rangers would have just put him on LTIR and his cap number would come off the books that way. By the way, the Rangers would have been able to do EVERYTHING that they have done already this offseason. Its unfortunate that Drury was not the player that fans were hoping to get when he was signed to that monster contract. Good luck to him in his post NHL life.

Side note: I'm going to begin posting with more frequency as the season gets closer. The start of the season is only 6 weeks away!!

summer break...

I'm going to be taking a break from blogging for a few weeks while the NHL is in its true offseason phase. I'm also going to be moving to a much larger apartment next week. Follow the @justblueshirts twitter account here or click on the link above. See you in September!!

Rangers sign 2011 first round pick JT Miller

The Rangers announced this morning that they have agreed to terms with their 2011 first round pick JT Miller. The Rangers drafted Miller with the 15th overall pick in the entry draft last month. Miller is expected to play for the Plymouth Whalers of the OHL this season however he is eligible to play in the AHL at some point because he wasn't drafted out of the junior leagues in Canada. This is interesting news because he weren't supposed to hear anything from this kid for at least another season. He was originally going to play in the college ranks this year at North Dakota. But recently changed his mind and committed to Plymouth.

This kid is really setting himself up to be in the NHL in a year or two. The Rangers are absolutely loaded in their farm system. The next 3-5 years are going to be really exciting to watch these kids grow and mature with the team. I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest to see the CT Whale contend for a Calder Cup in the next season or two.

Callahan, Eminger signed, NYR cap situation

Ryan Callahan, the last of the Rangers restricted free agents finally signed yesterday by agreeing to a 3 year contract worth $12.825 mil and a cap hit of 4.275 mil.

Steve Eminger also agreed last week to a 1 yr, 800k deal, not bad for a 6-7th defenseman.

Barring trades or buyouts this is going to be your 2011-12 New York Ranger team. If Wolski isn't bought out which no longer seems is going to happen, I still think there could be a trade on the way between now and the preseason as the Rangers are carrying 14 forwards on the roster. As was the case for most of last season, the Rangers would like to be a couple million under the cap for potential injury call-ups from Hartford. As of right now according to capgeek.com they are just 700k under the cap with everyone now signed.

Rangers cap situation re-evaluated, Eminger close?

As reported by capgeek.com and the NY Post's Larry Brooks, the Rangers are carrying an extra $527,000 in cap space as a bonus overage from last season. While I'm not sure whom the bonus belonged to or why this happened, it does put a bit of a damper on the Rangers cap situation once again. To me, the chances of Wolski's contract being bought out increase more and more with each passing day. The Rangers are barely going to be under the cap once the rosters are set when Dubinsky, Callahan and 2 additional defensemen are signed.

Speaking about one of those defensemen, once again according to Larry Brooks, the Rangers are in talks and are apparently close to re-signing Steve Eminger to a contract. One must figure that as a 6th or 7th defenseman, he'll be making less than a million next year. On a side note, there is going to be one heck of a battle coming up in training camp for that last roster spot on defense.

Dubinsky's arbitration hearing is coming up in two days and I'm going to hold my breath on that subject...

Boyle signs, NYR current roster/cap analysis

Brian Boyle resigned with the Rangers yesterday afternoon to a 3 yr, 5.1 mil dollar contract. If you follow me on twitter you know that I'm happy that he's here because him, Prust and Rupp will make up a solid fourth line next season however, I strongly dislike his contract. On the Rangers, he will be nothing more than a fourth line player making decent money averaging 10 minutes a night. Personally, I don't like giving out contracts to players like Boyle that are more than 2 years at 1.5 mil cap hit. I know alot of the Ranger bloggers on twitter weren't happy that Rupp got a third year and Boyle shouldn't be any different.

With the Boyle signing it leaves the Rangers with just over 11 mil in cap space, with Dubinsky, Callahan and a 6th and 7th defenseman to be signed. I no longer foresee Erik Christensen nor Wojtek Wolski coming back next year. Wolski is likely at this point to be bought out and Christensen is either going to be stuck in Hartford for the last year of his contract or perhaps traded somewhere to a team that needs a veteran pivot. Wolski's buyout will free up the money ($3,333,333 to be exact) necessary to sign those last two defensemen, as Callahan and Dubinsky's contracts are going to take up an extremely large chunk of the 11.1 mil the Rangers still have to play with. When its all said and done the Rangers are going to be right up against the cap again likely 1.5 mil or less to spare.

Rangers re-sign Artie, Sauer

The Rangers announced yesterday that they had signed two important pieces to next years roster. Anisimov, who now has Dubinsky's contract from two offseasons ago, signed a 2 year, 3.75 mil dollar deal. Michael Sauer, who meshed well with call-up (and now mainstay) Ryan McDonagh towards the latter half of the season, signed a 2 year, 2.5 mil dollar contract.

Up next to receive an offer is likely Boyle. I can't imagine his contract dispute going all the way to an arbitration hearing scheduled a couple weeks from now. I would like to see Boyle get a 2 year contract in the 2.25 mil range. Speaking of arbitration, Dubinsky and Callahan's arbitration hearings are scheduled for 7/21 and 7/28 respectively. I don't think the Rangers are very willing to let Callahan get a hearing as I don't think the Rangers have much of a case against him leading to an unfavorable ruling and the Rangers shelling out more than they were willing. Dubinsky on the other hand will probably have contract negotiations with the Rangers leading up to the day before if not the day of arbitration.

Regardless of the outcomes, they'll be back in Ranger blue for next season. I'm already going through severe hockey withdrawal and I don't know how much longer I'll be able to hold out just watching youtube videos.

The NHL is going to face CBA problems quite soon

With the NFL and the NBA currently in a lockout mode with no end in sight for either league, this offseason is the perfect time for the NHL and the NHLPA to get together and perhaps begin very preliminary talks to extend or come up with a new CBA for the 2012-13 season. While the different leagues have different reasons for their respective lockouts  I'm not sure that the NHL could afford to lose ANOTHER hockey season without taking another fatal hit among the casual sports fan. Could you imagine the sports scene in North America after the World Series ends in late October being dominated by hockey only?

There's been a lot of talks revolving around current contracts specifically in terms of front loaded contracts similar to the one Brad Richards just signed with the Rangers a few days ago. What really started this talk was the proposed 17 year, 102 mil dollar contract the Devils presented to Kovalchuk before last season that really raised eyebrows over the way contracts are currently presented to high priced free agents such as Brad Richards and Ilya Kovalchuk. If you remember Kovy's contract was disapproved by the league for two reasons. First thing was years, his contract had him playing until he was 44 years old. He's not Gordie Howe. It's un-realistic to think he'll be playing until that age. Secondly was how the money was divvied up year to year. Here is the year by year breakdown of Kovalchuk's illegal contract courtesy of deadspin.com:

2010-11: $6 million
2011-12: $6 million
2012-13: $11.5 million
2013-14: $11.5 million
2014-15: $11.5 million
2015-16: $11.5 million
2016-17: $11.5 million
2017-18: $10.5 million
2018-19: $8.5 million
2019-20: $6.5 million
2020-21: $3.5 Million
2021-22: $750,000
2022-23: $550,000
2023-24: $550,000
2024-25: $550,000
2025-26: $550,000
2026-27: $550,000

The NHL had a big problem with the last 6 years of the contract, namely because he was making under a million per. From what I believe (I read the contract portion of the CBA on Monday night, its extremely confusing) it states that a player cannot have his contract deteriorate in base salary by more than 50% from the first or second year (whichever is lower) to the remaining years of the contract. Example: Brad Richards makes 12 million this year with a 10 million dollar signing bonus. Base salary of 2 million dollars. Since in Year 2 of his contract has him making another 12 million with a 8 million dollar signing bonus which equates to 4 million in base salary. With BR making 1 million the final three years of the contract his base salary does not lose more than 50% in value over the life of the contract.
(All figures in above paragraph once again provided by capgeek.com)

All in all the NHL will be put at a crossroads soon. With teams trying to acquire big name free agents with low cap hits, teams will begin to struggle to reach the $48.3 mil cap floor year in and year out, players will begin to receive money that they will never live up to from teams that would never pay them big money but are required to so they can be cap compliant. 16 of 30 teams including the Rangers were below the cap floor at some point. It's only going to be a matter of time before the owners no longer want to pay these contracts and we could be faced with a similar situation that wiped out the 2004-05 season.

Richards signs with NYR, other offseason plans...

Brad Richards finally ended the drama yesterday morning by agreeing to a front loaded, CAP FRIENDLY, 9 year 60 mil dollar contract with the Rangers. His cap hit is only $6.66 mil a year, a far cry of the $8 mil plus cap hit others were expecting. The Rangers did not have the highest offer on the table which was believed to have come from Toronto, however it was a much shorter term, something that Richards did not find attractive. It was rumored Friday night into yesterday morning that if the money was close then he was going to become a Ranger. Well that became evident on Saturday morning by agreeing to terms on his new contract.

I have to admit that I was floored when I heard the contract was for nine years, especially after the rumors that Glen Sather was unwilling to go over a seven year term. However I guess Glen wanted to do whatever it took to get Richards in the fold and at a reasonable cap number. On the ice, adding Richards is giant leap forward to turning this team into a legitimate cup contender. Now rather this team being 3 years away from potentially being ready though good draft picks and filling out roster spots in free agency, Brad Richards fills a huge gap as a true number one center, something the Rangers haven't had since Messier. He also fills a hole on the power play as the QB on the blue line, as Michael Del Zotto had problems with before becoming a healthy scratch and eventually hurt and done for the season.

I don't think the Rangers are quite done this offseason. While some are clamoring to sign a veteran defenseman (think McCabe but much less money) I disagree. The Rangers are backed up on the blueline. Staal, Girardi, McDonagh are written in stone while Sauer, a restricted FA expected to resign. Tim Erixon, recently acquired from Calgary will push for a roster spot, 2010 first round pick Dylan McIlrath will likely spend one more year in juniors before jumping to the pros but could get a 10 game tryout in the NHL if he has a good training camp. Mikhail Pashnin, a seventh round pick in 2009 will likely get a pro contract and see time in the AHL next season. Pashnin came over from Russia last season and was hitting everything in sight at the prospects camp this past week. Lastly Michael Del Zotto, who the Rangers are extremely high on, will give another chance to prove his wares. I have a feeling that Sather could move one of these defensive pieces for a top 6 scoring winger to go along with BR and Gabby especially if MZA and Wolski aren't able to gel with the top line.

This Ranger team has the potential to do a ton of damage this coming season possibly even winning a playoff round or two if things break right. The puzzle pieces are beginning to come together fans it won't be long before the Rangers begin to do some incredible things on the ice.

Day 1...

Gotta get this in before things get crazy once again tomorrow. After about 6 or so teams presented themselves to Brad Richards in Toronto today whether in person or over the phone as the Rangers did today. It is rumored that the Rangers remain the front runner despite knowingly being out bid by other teams namely the late comers in Calgary. Brad Richards apparently interviewed tonight by Canadian media said its down to four teams that he wouldn't name probably the Rangers, Flames, Leafs and Kings. Philly and Tampa were in as well on his services but pulled out. Steve Yzerman pulled his Lightning team out of the running late Friday night saying that the demands for Richard's services were a little too rich for their liking especially since they still have to re sign Stamkos. Brad Richards also said he won't keep us waiting for too long on Saturday so I suspect around noon, (probably while I'm on the road heading to NYC) we'll get an answer.

The Rangers did not sit on the sidelines completely today starting by signing former Penguin and Devils forward Mike Rupp to a 3 year, 4.5 mil dollar deal. I'm not crazy about the 3 year part even though he's 31, I would like to keep guys to 1-2 year contracts for 4th line players. The Rangers also re-upped Ruslan Fedotenko to a 1 year, 1.4 mil dollar contract. Another good sign by the Rangers nothing to write home about really.

Anyway hopefully Richards comes to NY tomorrow for the right price, as I believe he is a major piece the Rangers need to solving the Stanley Cup puzzle. The Rangers aren't too far off guys, Richards can put this team into serious contention by signing on the dotted line tomorrow.

Today's the day... plus quick draft review

Starting with the draft first, I was shocked when the Rangers took JT Miller with the 15th pick. I had came across his name briefly when I was doing my research for my draft preview post. Alot of what I saw had him going bottom of the first round. Even some of the mock drafts I saw didn't even have him in the first round. So I can imagine alot of Ranger fans were initially unhappy with the pick. But when you look up a little more on him, this kid has enormous amounts of potential. He's a good 2 way center, responsible on defense, and very strong on the puck. He won the gold medal for the US WJC U18 team this past year and is committed to playing NCAA hockey next season for North Dakota. Hopefully he can carry over what he accomplished towards the end of his U18 season to the college level and perhaps we'll see him 2-3 years down the road in the AHL. Sometime over the weekend I'll quickly go over the Rangers remaining draft selections including someone who really has been attracting attention at the prospects camp this past week.

It's currently 10:45 am, 75 minutes to go before the fun begins.

One last thing before I wrap this up, I was disappointed to hear that Chris Drury was bought out by the Rangers yesterday. I've been a big fan of his and it was unfortunate that outside of his first season in New York he was never the same guy we saw in Colorado and Buffalo that made him who he was. Now with Drury's contract off the books and the extra 3 million plus towards the cap, Sather better not let the extra cap room go to waste with the impending FA period about to begin.

Wow what a day!!!

Many apologies for the week long hiatus, working 12 hours a day since monday left me with little time to write... here's what I had penned last Thursday after the Flyers blew up their team.

Just a disclaimer to start, although this blog is called Just Blueshirts anything that has remotely to do with anything other teams do especially in the division will get covered on here. Sadly due to my work schedule unless big Rangers/NHL news goes down in the morning or on weekends I won't be able to join the massive clusterfuck of other Rangers bloggers on twitter especially a day like today after the Flyers began knocking down the dominoes of another offseason.

It was just another day in NHL land, the day before the draft, the NHL released the schedule and we marveled at how the Rangers begin the year over in Sweden against Lundqvist's old hockey team, followed by the two games against LA and Anaheim in Stockholm, the 7 game homestand in March and end the year running the gauntlet against teams such as the Penguins, Capitals, Canadiens, Flyers, and the Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins. The NHL soon after released the official salary cap information for the 2011-12 season set at 64.3 million and a 48.3 million dollar floor. It wasn't long after that, that all hell broke loose....

It was then quickly reported by NUMEROUS sources on twitter that Robyn Regehr from Calgary was asked to waive his NMC and accept a trade to Buffalo. As of this writing on Thursday night/Friday morning he hasn't decided on accepting the trade. As that was going on it was revealed that Flyers center Jeff Carter was traded to Columbus in exchange for the rights to Jakub Voracek, the Blue Jackets 1st round (8th overall) as well as 3rd round (68th overall). As fans we didn't get a chance to digest that trade until the big blockbuster came in. The Flyers then traded captain Mike Richards to LA for top prospect Brayden Schenn, Wayne Simmonds, and according to Bob McKenzie at TSN, the Kings second round pick in 2012.

Living in southern New Jersey and being constantly exposed to the Flyers, I'm not surprised by either trade to be honest. Jeff Carter saw his writing on the wall after the Flyers aquired Bryzgalov and was their most movable contract, despite the 11 year deal with a friendly cap number. The only thing that blew me away was that it was really only part one of two and then the next thing you know the Flyers captain is gone too. I've never seen the core of any one team gutted in just seconds like that. Absolutely incredible. After the the dust settled a little bit on the trades it was announced that Ilya Bryzgalov had signed a 9 year, $51 million contract with the Flyers that pays him 10 million in the first year alone! Flyers GM Paul Holmgren has a lot riding on these trades today. Failure to win a cup probably will cost him his job in a few years which brings me to my next point...

Without putting on the Rangers blue tinted glasses, where does this leave Philadelphia now? The Flyers didn't bring back anyone who put up the kind of production that the Flyers had in Richards and Carter. In fact Brayden Schenn, who is ready for the NHL but hasn't taken the next step to really solidify himself in a NHL roster, is capable of putting up bigger numbers than the former Flyers did but that may take a season or two. If and only if Schenn pans out will this deal be worth it. The Flyers, have very little room to maneuver under the cap, with just over 7.5 million dollars left that's without signing their RFA's and UFA's.

Sometimes the best trades are the ones you don't make

Boston goaltender Tim Thomas is the proof in the pudding. Thomas' 2009-10 season was a complete disaster, going 17-18-8 with a 2.55 GA and a .915 save percentage. Many in Boston were ready to move on to Tuukka Rask, their young semi-rookie goaltender who put up a blistering 1.97 GA and a .931 save percentage as well as 22 wins in 39 games in his first full season as Thomas' backup/replacement. If you remember after that season the worst kept rumor was that Thomas was being shopped around places such as Philadelphia and Dallas who were in need of goaltending. Boston GM Peter Chiarelli told ESPN after the Bruins cup victory that indeed the rumors were true but Thomas was adamant about not leaving Boston.

The Rangers now are in the same boat to an extent. They are a very young team up the middle, but it seems as though that Glen Sather is hellbent on getting the Rangers a true bonafide top line center to go with Gaborik. Assuming Brad Richards signs elsewhere, there are rumors abound on the internet and various message boards and the like of the Rangers taking a run at acquiring Jason Spezza in Ottawa. Spezza, with a cap hit of $7 million, has 4 years remaining of a front loaded 7 year, $49 million contract which thanks to capgeek pays 8 million the next two years, followed by 5 million in 13-14 and 4 million in 14-15. Acquiring Spezza at bare minimum would require a everyday player, possibly Anisimov, the Rangers 15th overall pick on Friday, unless Sather pulls a miracle and makes it a 2012 draft pick and a prospect which fans may have a problem with. Does Ottawa ask for Kreider? Or do they want someone who could crack the NHL roster in October, such as a further along Grachev or Chris Thomas? Perhaps since Ottawa's AHL team just won the Calder Cup and are just as deep if not deeper on the blueline than the Rangers, would want 2-3 everyday players and a draft pick for Spezza.

As you can see this dude isn't going to come on the cheap. I'm not crazy at all about a guy whose production has completely fallen off the map in the last two seasons, namely because of an aging and declining Daniel Alfredsson and Dany Heatley being shipped off to San Jose after the 08-09 season. The Rangers have worked long and hard since the lockout to acquire their own home-grown talent. It would sure be a shame to see the Rangers and namely Glen Sather throw it all away with one swift move.