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Thursday, May 31, 2012

Stay or go: Michael Del Zotto

In recapping the Rangers offseason, the Just Blueshirts blog will one by one go over each and every one of the 2011-12 New York Rangers whose contracts will have to be renewed going into the 2012-13 season.

Today I ask "stay or go" regarding the future of defenseman Michael Del Zotto.

2011-12 Regular season & playoffs statistics- 97 GP 12 goals 39 assists 51 points
Contract History- Signed 3 year, $2,625,000 entry level contract in 2009
Cap hit- $1,087,500 (RFA) (capgeek.com)
Drafted 1st round 20th overall by Rangers in 2008

Season Review:
Following a miserable sophomore season in 2010-11 in which Del Zotto was a frequent guest in Torts' dog house, struggled with his defensive responsibilities and the best part of his game, his offense on the power play fell off the map. Bigger expectations were expected out of him coming into this season and he did not disappoint. The 2011-12 season was by far his best season as a young pro. Del Zotto was among the league leaders in +/- for a majority of the season and was showing positive strides as far as his defense was concerned. Del Zotto was no longer the defensive liability that he was in his first two seasons as a pro and was thrust into a top 4 role when Mike Sauer was in and out of the lineup with injury issues. Torts even trusted him on the Rangers PK, a move that would have been ridiculed for the past 2 seasons prior.

Stay or Go:
This will be very interesting as to which direction Tortorella and Sather are going to go with the young defenseman. With the names that are currently out there on the market, coaches and ownership will have a tough decision on their hands. The decision is mainly dependent on how coaches feel where Tim Erixon and Dylan McIlrath's development will be going into next season as well as whether Sather decides to go after McDonagh and Stepan's former teammate at Wisconsin in Justin Schultz. Schultz, a defenseman, has the offensive upside that Del Zotto has, but Schultz has a much better defensive upside as well. Schultz will likely come cheaper than Del Zotto will and with the uncertainty regarding the CBA going into next year might be attractive to the Rangers' financially. Also have to wonder if Sather goes after a big, expensive name on the open market like Shea Weber or Ryan Suter.  As of this post, I have Del Zotto at a 75% chance of a return next season although I expect that number to fluctuate violently as July 1 gets closer.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Stay or go: Brandon Prust

In recapping the Rangers offseason, the Just Blueshirts blog will one by one go over each and every one of the 2011-12 New York Rangers whose contracts will have to be renewed going into the 2012-13 season.

Today I ask "stay or go" regarding the future of forward Brandon Prust.

2011-12 Regular season & playoffs statistics- 101 GP 6 goals 13 assists 19 points
Contract History- Signed 2 year, $1,600,000 contract in 2010
Cap hit- $800,000 (UFA) (capgeek.com)

Season Review:
After a career offensive season in 2010-11 and winning the Steven McDonald extra effort award as voted on by the fans, Prust's offense took a hit this season, but his role as a 4th line grinder and tough guy never changed. Played through half of the season with a torn tendon in his finger. Prust is a cornerstone block of the Ranger franchise and exemplifies the Rangers team identity.

Stay or Go:
Little doubt about this one. I want Prust back and I'm sure the Rangers want him back too. Probably the only Ranger that comes back with close to 100% certainty. 

Monday, May 28, 2012

2011-12 New York Rangers Season in Review

The end of Game 6 in the Eastern Conference Finals last Friday was a tough, bitter pill for Ranger fans to swallow especially considering how much the Rangers scratched and clawed their way through two equally tough series' against Ottawa and Washington. Fans should be proud of how the 2011-12 Rangers laid the groundwork for the future successes of the franchise in the very near future. The signing of Brad Richards last July was a very large piece to the Rangers' Stanley Cup puzzle and he'll continue to be a big part for the next several years. What was unexpected was the emergence of Carl Hagelin and the immediate dividends he paid as well as the sheer dominance of one Ryan McDonagh filling in for Marc Staal for half of the season. However what was not unexpected was the production from guys like Marian Gaborik, who had a fantastic comeback year from his injury riddled 2010-11 season and new captain Ryan Callahan, who set a personal career high in goals this season.

I strongly disagree with the notion that the Rangers "overachieved" this season. Tortorella had the Rangers giving it 110% in each game and in each practice. When some teams went in the tank in December and January, the Ranger coach would not allow his team to become complacent and always had them pushing forward. Still, one has to wonder how much the Rangers truly had left in the tank at the end of the season. The Rangers did not have the greatest March and had to hold off late season pressure from the Pittsburgh Penguins. In my final State of the Rangers column here, I showed how important it was for the Rangers to have a good final month leading into the playoffs.  When you count the entire season, the Rangers finished with a record of 61-34-7. From the trade deadline to game 82, the Rangers were 12-9-1 and extending that record into the playoffs, the Rangers were 22-19-1. Adding up all those numbers, 56% of the Rangers total losses this season came only after the trade deadline on February 27th. Playing barely better than .500 hockey since February 27th is not the mark of a champion. By comparison, the Devils are 25-11-2 and the Kings are 24-7-3 since the trade deadline.

Numbers aside, the question now is what do the Rangers have to do personnel-wise in free agency to get them over this hump and into the Stanley Cup Final. The Rangers are very capable of keeping with most of the teams in the Eastern Conference. As far as the offense is concerned, Rick Nash, No. Zach Parise, too expensive. It wouldn't surprise me to see the Rangers move that 28th overall pick in the draft as part of a package for a player the Rangers really like in exchange for one of the Rangers blue-chip prospects. It's too tough to speculate who the Rangers will go out and acquire who they think will put them over the top. Perhaps they move a player like a Artem Anisimov or a Brandon Dubinsky. When you bring in big money salary, somebody has to go and the Rangers cannot stand pat, especially after doing virtually nothing at the trade deadline. Defensively, the Rangers are just fine, although there will be slight tweaks on the back end of the Rangers 6 defensemen. Whether it would be acquiring Justin Schultz's rights from Anaheim or hoping that Michael Sauer is able to recover from his concussion and going with a nearly identical defensive corps is up to Torts and Sather.

Perhaps a change to the Rangers offense philosophically is in order.  If you look back on the playoffs, the Rangers generated most of their goals from shots on net by their defensemen. Girardi, who had just 5 goals in 82 games this season, scored 3 times in 20 postseason games and was second on the team in postseason points. Think about that, Dan Girardi, ahead of Gaborik, Callahan and Stepan who were all top 5 in points in the regular season. Del Zotto had 2 fantastic rounds scoring 9 points in the first 14 games, before being consistently victimized by the Devils 4th line all series long and only contributing 1 assist in the Conference Final. So perhaps that kind of offensive style that starts with shots from the point with 2 forwards in front of the goaltender to get to rebounds rather than the cycling along the half wall and behind the net looking for the perfect pass to the middle of the slot is an idea the Rangers can toy with leading into next season. Boston works it to perfection and they aren't half bad, are they? No the Rangers don't have Zdeno Chara but that doesn't mean it can't work.

As I said up top, Ranger fans should be very proud of this team. The Ranger players themselves were far too proud to admit at the end of Game 6 that they just didn't have enough legs to keep up with the Devils in the end. Whether or not the Rangers will be able to replicate their regular season success into the 2012-13 remains to be seen, but that shouldn't prevent fans getting even more behind their hockey club in what is only the beginning of the most successful period in Rangers hockey.

Friday, May 25, 2012

NYR 2012 Playoff Stats

UPDATED: Through Game 5 Eastern Conference Finals vs. NJ

Player                       GP            Goals-Assists-Points
Brad Richards               19                    6-8-14
Marian Gaborik             19                    5-6-11
Dan Girardi                  19                    3-8-11
Artem Anisimov            19                    3-7-10
Michael Del Zotto          19                    2-8-10
Ryan Callahan              19                    5-4-9
Derek Stepan               19                    1-8-9
Chris Kreider                17                    5-2-7
Anton Stralman            19                    3-3-6
Marc Staal                   19                    3-3-6
Brian Boyle                  16                    3-3-6
Ruslan Fedotenko          19                    1-5-6
Carl Hagelin                 16                    0-3-3
Brandon Prust               18                   1-1-2
Ryan McDonagh            19                    0-2-2
Brandon Dubinsky          8                     0-2-2
John Mitchell                18                    0-1-1



Henrik Lundqvist    10-9  GA- 1.76    SV%- .933     SO- 3

Saturday, May 19, 2012

ECF vs. NJ G3: Hank turns off the lights, shuts out NJ 3-0 in Newark

There aren't going to be too many times where I feel that Lundqvist was the one sole reason for any Ranger victory, but in todays 3-0 win in Game 3, Lundqvist was simply unbeatable. The Rangers were badly out played and out hustled to every puck along the boards in the first period and the Rangers were extremely lucky to get out of the first period without finding themselves down on the score sheet. More of the same lethargic hockey came out of the Rangers to start the second period, but following what will likely be a landmark timeout at 1:51 of the second period by Tortorella, the Rangers play began to change, albeit slowly. The Rangers did get a few chances in the second including Callahan on the doorstep that he couldn't sneak by Brodeur.

The third period was a different Ranger team compared to the team from the prior 2 periods before. The Rangers had a little more jump to their game and finally managed to get a puck past Brodeur following a Richards faceoff win to Girardi, who sniped one past Brodeur stick side from the high slot at 3:19. The Rangers scored again less than 2 minutes later following a McDonagh shot from the point that Kreider tipped past Marty at 5:16, the rookie's fifth of the playoffs. The Captain added an empty netter at 17:47.

It's an ugly way to win playoff games, but its somewhat disheartening to see the Rangers play as lethargic as they did coming out of the locker room. Whether or not the game start time played any type of role in today's game you'd like to see the Rangers play 60 full minutes of playoff hockey. It looked at times that the entire Ranger team went bar-hopping Friday night with the exception of Lundqvist and Kreider who was the Rangers best forward today and the only one who seemed to have legs. I hate to say it but the Rangers are tired. Getting called for 5 penalties in a undisciplined fashion, to me showed where the fatigue level was throughout the team. But today's win was a character win by the club who simply will not say die even when it seems like they are teetering on the edge of elimination.


Monday, May 14, 2012

Justblueshirts blog previews the Conference Finals

2012 Eastern Conference Finals
1. New York Rangers vs. 6. New Jersey Devils
Well, well, well. Look at what we have here. Two teams nobody said at the top of the season would get this far into the postseason, let alone face each other for the right to play for the Stanley Cup. The season series between the two clubs has been eventful and playoff series promises to be no different. We all know that the Devils are a far cry from the neutral zone trapping team we all came to know pre-lockout and that system was the major catalyst to their 3 Stanley Cup Championships since the Rangers last one their title in 1994. The Devils now play a similar aggressive forecheck offensive style the Rangers employ and with the players the Devils possess to run that system, makes them a tough playoff opponent. The Devils were just an OT goal away in Game 6 and Game 7 back in the quarterfinals against Florida from being eliminated and embarrassed out of the playoffs by an inferior team that burned the Devils consistently on the power play despite the Devils nearly 90% success rate on the PK this season, an NHL record. If the Rangers were going to make this series easy on themselves, they'll need to duplicate Florida's success. The Rangers themselves have come into another series, fresh off of another Game 7 victory. A lot has been said, mainly by the national writers, to discount the Rangers going into the conference finals, mainly about how much the team has left in the tank after the Washington series. The Rangers' players themselves have had to answer a ton of questions surrounding that issue and the players continue to maintain that their conditioning is just fine and won't be an issue. 

As far as matchups go, the Devils need to be very concerned with the Rangers forecheck and transition game. Outside of the Devils 1-0 win over the Rangers back in February, Carl Hagelin has showed up on the scoresheet in every single game against the Devils this year and if the Rangers are to advance to the Cup finals, he needs to be a factor each and every game. The other component to the Rangers forecheck is Chris Kreider. Kreider is a bit of an x-factor because of the way Torts has employed him since joining the team. Torts hasn't been happy with the way Kreider has played in his own end and was benched for the last 10 minutes of Game 7 following Washington's last goal. If Kreider is able to get a couple pucks past Marty in this series, I'm positive Ranger fans can look past the rookie's defensive deficiencies. Elsewhere, there really aren't any glaring 1 on 1 matchup issues I see becoming an issue for either team.

This needs to be the series when the Rangers bottom 6 forwards have to become a factor. Brian Boyle, who single handedly killed Ottawa, needs to be the guy he was before he sustained a concussion at the hands of Chris Neil. Same thing goes for Brandon Prust and Mike Rupp who have done little more than take up roster space through the first two rounds. I'm sure Ranger fans and Torts in particular are dying to see the magic Ruslan Fedotenko provided the Lightning back in their Stanley Cup run back in 2004. John Mitchell was called upon to take big faceoffs in those crucial games against the Caps and played a lot better as the semifinals went on and hopefully that can continue.

The Devils have yet to play a team with the goaltending and defensive depth the Rangers possess in these playoffs. They are also known to get a little bit unraveled and take dumb penalties <cough cough Kovalchuk cough> if things start to get tough. The way the Rangers came out in Game 7 against Washington and imposed their will on the Capitals convinced me that this is just the Rangers time. While I would love to see Callahan, Richards and Staal pose with the Prince of Wales trophy in front of 18,200 Ranger fans at MSG, 10,000 Ranger fans in Newark for Game 6 will suffice. Plus that isn't the trophy the Rangers are playing for either. Rangers in 6.

2012 Western Conference Finals
3. Phoenix Coyotes vs. 8. Los Angeles Kings
I'm not going to go terribly in depth into this series because I have followed little of either of these two teams in the regular season. What I do know is that these two teams have split the season series with each other and 5 out of the 6 games were decided by one goal. The Kings and Coyotes were only separated by 2 points in the Pacific Division standings. Both teams have gotten to where they are thanks in large part to their superb goaltending. Outside of the goaltending, both teams seem to be mirror images of each other. Both have defensemen who love to jump up into the play generate chances, Drew Doughty for the Kings and Keith Yandle for the Coyotes. The Kings can't overlook 20 year old Phoenix defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson who is going to be a star on the Coyotes' blueline for the next 10+ years and has averaged just over 26 minutes TOI in these playoffs. On the opposite side of the coin, the Kings have 2 guys who have been here before in Mike Richards and Jeff Carter. Both led the Flyers within 2 games of a Stanley Cup title just 2 seasons ago. Although Richards has been a solid nearly point-per-game player in this postseason, Carter is still struggling to find his game and only has 1 goal in the 9 playoff games the Kings have played so far. Can't forget to mention the two captains Dustin Brown for LA and Shane Doan for Phoenix who both have been key cogs in their respective teams' playoff runs. I'm quite frankly struggling to see where either team has an advantage over the other. As far as a prediction goes, I'm going to go against the grain and pick the Coyotes in 7 games. While it wouldn't surprise me to see LA move on, I don't think they are going to steamroll past Phoenix the way Vancouver and St. Louis let them. I'm curious to see how LA will respond to adversity as well. Should be a fantastic series.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

ECSF vs. WSH G7: NYR advance to ECF for first time since 97

The Rangers on Saturday night put on a show for the ages. They played a FULL 60 minutes of Ranger hockey and did an incredible job of playing with the lead for 58:30 minutes of tonight's game. The Caps had only 4 shots on goal in the third period, which is an astounding defensive achievement to hold off a team like the Capitals facing elimination. Tonight's Rangers looked nothing like the team that showed up in Washington last Wednesday and had the Ranger faithful looking at Game 7 with a glass half empty attitude. Tonight's Rangers got bodies in front of Holtby, who never seemed as settled and locked in like his counterpart 200 feet away. Tonight's Rangers forechecked and cycled the Caps to death, unlike at any other point in this series, save for Game 1. Hagelin and Gaborik were all over the ice. It can't be overlooked how tremendous Brad Richards' goal 90 seconds into the game was.

The one lone mark against the Rangers was Roman Hamrlik's goal just 38 seconds after Del Zotto put the Rangers up two at the 10:05 mark of the third period. I hate to kill the kid again, but Kreider was partially responsible for allowing Laich to center the puck to a pinching Hamrlik who basically floated one up and past Lundqvist.  Kreider did a half ass job getting his stick in the passing lane when he should've noticed Hamrlik flying into the offensive zone. Worse, Kreider then became a spectator watching Hamrlik (of all people) blow past him. Kreider never saw the ice for the remainder of the game after the Caps' goal. The other half of responsibility for the goal against goes to Del Zotto. I'm dumbfounded at the way Del Zotto stepped up to Hamrlik when he jumped into the play. Del Zotto for some reason decided to defend Hamrlik by spinning around counter-clockwise, facing his back at the shooter, allowing Hamrlik to get a clean shot on net.

All in all, it was a fantastic night for the Rangers who now advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 1997. This series against New Jersey is going to become another epic battle. Remember what happened the last time these two teams met?


Yeah, get ready for an all out war.
MAAAAAAAAARRRRTTTTYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!

Justblueshirts reviews its Conference Semi-final predictions

1. New York Rangers vs. 7. Washington Capitals
Prediction: Rangers in 7
Actual: Rangers in 7
What else is new with the Rangers?

5. Philadelphia Flyers vs. 6. New Jersey Devils
Prediction: Flyers in 5
Actual: Devils in 5
Whoops. After looking so underwhelming against Florida in the first round, and needing Game 6 and Game 7 OT victories just to stave off elimination, I didn't think the Devils were a great matchup against a well rested Flyers team that was chock full of confidence leading into this semi-final matchup. I couldn't have been more wrong. The Flyers had a difficult time against the Devils forecheck and something called defensemen. The Flyers inexplicably couldn't hold nor capitalize any time they went ahead on the scoreboard, going 1-10 in all playoff games in which they scored first. The turning point for me in this series had to be the four goal - third period the Devils dropped on the Flyers in Game 2. The Flyers' swagger we saw in the Penguins series as well as the latter 3 periods (including OT) Game 1 in this series never returned after Game 2, as the Flyers were the more undisciplined, unprepared team.

2. St. Louis Blues vs. 8. Los Angeles Kings
Prediction: Blues in 6
Actual: Kings in 4
I can safely say NO ONE expected this result. A few completely wrote off Los Angeles going into this round after dispatching Vancouver in the first round without their best player in Daniel Sedin. LA was supposed to be the team that had fantastic goaltending and these big time goal scorers, who couldn't score. Not only did they get fantastic goal scoring in this series from Vezina trophy finalist Jonathan Quick, their goal scorers woke up as well. LA scored 15 goals in just 4 games. It wasn't as though 1 or 2 guys on the Kings suddenly woke up and took the series over either. The Kings had 10 different goal scorers in this series alone. With the balanced scoring as well as lights out goaltending from Quick, the Kings are going to be one tough out (if at all) for somebody.

3. Phoenix Coyotes vs. 4. Nashville Predators
Prediction: Nashville in 7
Actual: Coyotes in 5
Admittedly, I did not watch too much of this series besides the 3rd period of Game 5. When I made my prediction I thought the Preds were the better defensive team, with the shutdown pair of Weber and Suter combined with Pekka Rinne backstopping to cover up any mistakes. Turns out there's still some magic in those old legs of Coyotes' captain Shane Doan and Ray Whitney who can still fly (using that term loosely) now at the age of 40.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

ECSF vs. WSH G6: lethargic Rangers sleepwalk in DC, fall 2-1

I'm never overly critical of the Rangers but tonight's game was just downright embarrassing. Sure it helped the Caps that they were afforded the bounces, particularly on Chimera's goal, but you cannot win playoff games by sleepwalking for 59 minutes. The Rangers showed zero killer instinct and no willingness to push the envelope and impose their will on the Caps. The fact that the Caps have outplayed the Rangers since Game 4, its a borderline miracle that this series is going 7 games.

Stralman in particular was abused tonight by Chimera, who had no answer for his speed along the boards, Del Zotto failing to keep the puck in the offensive zone on numerous occasions, Torts' lineup decisions outside of his top line were just brutal and I was critical of them even before Game 5. Kreider's bad Game 4 has cost him a boat-load of ice time in these past 2 games and the Rangers could've used him, especially 2 goals down and attempt to generate some kind of offense outside of the top line. Kreider TOI tonight: 6 mins and 6 seconds. If the Rangers had a best forward tonight, it was John Mitchell, who has become more visible in Kreider's absence.

The Rangers owe it to themselves to play a good 60 minute game we haven't seen them play since Game 1 of this series. If it doesn't show up, I'm going to be talking draft and July 1st soon. The Rangers do play their best with there backs against the wall and I'm going to expect nothing different Saturday night.

Monday, May 7, 2012

Thoughts from Game 4 and why the sky isn't falling

I just want to go over a few things from Game 4 since I was extremely busy this weekend and never had the chance to write a review for the game. First, I thought that the Caps played their all around best game of the series on Saturday. The Caps consistently beat the Rangers to pucks, bullied the Rangers along the boards, had a ton of puck possession especially in the first period which set the tone for the game, blocked  nearly 30 Ranger shots and lastly made less mistakes than the Rangers did that allowed them to send the series back to New York for Game 5. 

Lets be honest, the first two goals against the Rangers were on Kreider. No explanation needed for Ovechkin's blast that made it 1-0, but Kreider was responsible for picking up Backstrom, who passed the puck around the net, not before what was basically a stiff arm to a charging Anisimov, which planted Artie firmly on his rear. Backstrom made a simple move from the corner to the low slot where he was wide open to shoot the puck past Hank which he did. To be noted as well that Kreider did not have his stick in the passing lane either to break up the centering feed.

It was a shame after the game to see so much Kreider hate on twitter and various message boards. He's a big reason why the Rangers advanced past Ottawa to begin with so lets not kill the kid. Plus I think Kreider is entitled to a little learning curve. If you want to bash the kid, do it next season after he's had a offseason with the team plus training camp. If he still is making the same defensive mistakes, then he is open to criticism. Kreider is going to be a fantastic hockey player for this team for the next several years, so lets quell the 'trade him and half of the Rangers to Columbus for Rick Nash' chatter.

Moving forward, I hope the fans aren't naive enough to think that the series is now over because they looked terrible in Game 4. The Rangers have always responded well to bad games this season and I would be surprised if tonight was any different. The Rangers know that they have to win tonights' game to avoid what they went through against Ottawa. They also have to start to learn to be a little more selfish with the puck. The Rangers made far too many passes in transition that allowed the Caps to get set up defensively and led to their heavily inflated shot blocking totals in Game 4. I expect the Rangers to come out flying at the start tonight in front of their home fans and come away with a win.