Archive for the ‘Blog Entries’ Category

Okay, maybe not. But if you listened to our new podcast from last night then you might be led to believe he does! That, or Eric has inside sources that he isn’t revealing to anyone.

If you’re still wondering what the heck it is I’m getting at then just listen to the new episode. Torts has made Del Zotto a healthy scratch for tonight’s game in Ottawa. Matt Gilroy will take his place in the lineup.

Eric and I talked about how it seems like we haven’t mentioned MDZ once this year and I think he was right about that. How could that be after the rookie season he had? He’s not playing awful hockey, but he’s not standing out like he did last year with his highlight-reel passing ability and occasional goal. Sophomore slump? I wouldn’t go quite that far. The kid, with heavy emphasis on kid, is still only 20 years old and played way over his head his entire rookie year.

I like the move by Torts. This isn’t punishment. Del Zotto isn’t a highly overpaid veteran who would take this the wrong way and let it become an issue (cough, Wade Redden, cough). Excuse me. I would have to imagine MDZ will take this as a positive. It’s a learning experience. He’s got plenty of hockey games left in him in his career. Not playing in one, and instead just watching it from above, could really do him some good. I’ll be interested to see how he responds after tonight’s game, but I think the move supports some of the points Eric and I made in our podcast last night. Take a listen if you haven’t to hear our full opinions and then let us know what you think.

Good move or bad move by Torts?

Before the home and home with the Islanders I tweeted: “Rivalry? Yes. Throw out the records? Of course. But…two MUST wins for #Rangers against #Isles. Anything else is unacceptable. Agreed?”

Obviously, any Ranger fan would agree with this because, let’s face it, we never like seeing the Rangers lose to the Isles and always feel like they should beat them. But I also meant this from a Rangers perspective in terms of what it would show us about this team. There’s no question that anytime these two teams play anything can happen. Just look at that game Thursday night. What a wild and nerve-wracking game. The fact of the matter is the Islanders are a very bad team. Again. The Rangers are a far superior team in terms of talent. Thus, they should win those games. Well it turns out they did. Back-to-back wins and four very important points. That is where they are “close”. Close to being a very different team than teams from the past few years. A team we can trust much more to get the job done when it should.

But then we got a dose of reality. I’m not trying to be pessimistic here, just realistic. The Rangers came out totally flat in the first 20 minutes of yesterday afternoon’s game against the Senators. Ottawa has scored the fourth fewest goals in the NHL this year. They came into the Garden with a brutal scoreless streak that the Rangers were able to extend to 200+ minutes. Even while completely forgetting to show up in the first 20 minutes, the Rangers still were in a scoreless game heading into the second period. They then outplayed the Sens for the final two periods and still lost the game 3-1.

These are the kinds of games that make the Rangers still not quite “there”. Good teams don’t allow slumping teams to hang around. They take advantage early, throw the first punch and knock them out, especially in their home building. What the Rangers did was come out flat and give a down team some life. Credit the Sens for coming out flying, but I put more of the blame on the Rangers not showing up early. Say what you want about coming off an emotional couple of games against the Isles, but every game has to be important for a team like the Rangers. They can’t take games for granted, or not show up in them, and expect to be a contender.

Fact of the matter is this year’s team is better than past years, but I think they are still going through some growing pains. They are still not quite there in terms of being that consistently good team. Despite the loss yesterday, the team has a couple days to regroup and try to continue its road success against the very same Senators.

**I’m on the road tonight at Yale for a basketball broadcast, but Eric and I will find some time to get a podcast up before the next Sens game Thursday night. Remember to get your questions in at hosts@nyrangerscast.com. We’ve had some great feedback from a number of you as to where you’re listening to us from. It’s really great to hear from everyone out there, whether it’s where you listen from, why you listen or what you think of this Rangers team throughout the course of the season. Keep sending us your thoughts and comments. We have a heavy mailbag for the next show!**

BAM!

How about my man Erik Elken teasing two weeks ago on the NYRangerscast? It’s as if Erik Elken worked at ESPN and knew that this was going to happen…Hmmmmm

In case you missed it, word got out this week about something Erik and I talked about two weeks ago on our Parting Shots segment.  ESPN is fully poised and ready to make a run at the television rights for the NHL after the leagues contract with Versus expires.

Here’s a link.

This would be absolutely huge for the NHL.  With the NBA on the brink of a lockout, the NHL could potentially be the premier league on ESPN next winter.  The only thing it would compete for time with is MNF and the World Series of Poker.  We’ll see if the powers that be get this one right and bring back Gary Thorne and the NHL at ESPN.

Keep those tweets coming! We have a timely tweet in which a fan actually takes our advice. Wait, something doesn’t sound right there. Advice from NYRangerscast? We’ll take it! Anyway, loyal fan Dan French (@JDanielFrench) took the advice I gave to Torts to heart:

I took the @NYRangerscast advice and watched the last game of the 2009-2010 #nyr season…my blood’s literally boiling for tomorrow.

That’s precisely the reaction I expected and exactly the reason why I think it might be a good idea for Torts to sit his team down before the Flyers game and watch last year’s debacle. Get that blood boiling just before the game to ensure that every player remembers how last season ended so quickly. It can’t hurt, right? I can’t wait for this slugfest!

Don’t forget to check out our new podcast if you haven’t already. I have an Election Day parting shot and Eric has a bone to pick with the NHL Network. As always, get your questions/comments in at hosts@nyrangerscast.com. We’re still waiting for someone to write us a blog post so we can post it to the site.

Let’s Go Rangers!

We’re starting to get the Twitter machine cranking. Our hope is that we can reach out to more people via Twitter and continue to be an interactive blog/podcast. As we mentioned at the beginning of the season, we will post some fan tweets that tweet @NYRangerscast on the blog as long as they are appropriate. Thus, we have a fan tweet to post! This tweet provides an interesting perspective on the ESPN vs. Versus debate from a loyal listener in the U.K.

From Mark Dalby (@novahob):

@NYRangerscast being in uk we have acess to espn america which we get a good selection of games. i remember 1st watching years ago when espn broadcasted.i did used to like the commentry bill clement + cant rem name, & darren pang. thought it was really imformative about the game + facts about the teams. ive caught a couple of college games which espn do, and it brought back good memories. i must admit us/canadian sports commentators are lot better than in the uk, not sure why they just sound more informative.

Sounds like Mark is all for ESPN getting the television contract back next season for the NHL. I’m pretty sure the announcer he’s referring to is Gary Thorne. Gary was someone I mentioned in the podcast. Just a great hockey voice and a great hockey broadcast team in Thorne and Clement.

As for the announcer discrepancy between the U.S./Canada and the U.K….I think it just has to do with the total number of sports. In the U.K. you have so much soccer (football) and not a ton else that fans are crazy about. I think the European soccer announcers are way better than the American ones. In North America, there are just so many different sports that are popular and sports broadcasting as a whole is a much more popular profession. I can’t say I have a ton of credentials backing this opinion, but that’s just what I think.

Keep tweeting away! Also, if you haven’t voted in our Halloween poll (see post below) then do it. I’m feeling pretty good about Eric being the lone vote for the day before. We’ll have fun with this next podcast and bring out some of your thoughts on the ESPN vs. Versus topic that are in our mailbag.

Everyone can take a bit of a sigh of relief…

After the post-game press conferences we can thankfully say Rozsival hyper-extended his knee but is expected to be fine. Anisimov injured his ankle trying to block a shot. He will need an MRI tomorrow. Let’s hope neither have to miss any time.

Now for the fun part. After looking at the mailbag I noticed a few comments on the trick or treating debate in our last show. For some strange reason, Eric grew up confused as a child thinking that he was supposed to trick or treat on the day before Halloween. I had never heard of this unless Halloween was on a Sunday (school night) and people decided Saturday would be better so their kids can stay up late. Anyway, I created a poll to make sure I’m not crazy. Vote away! It is almost Election Day, after all.

While there may never be another Mark Messier, the thought of it is sweet to any Rangers fan. Check out this article from The Wall Street Journal on 20-year-old Center Derek Stepan. It has a lot of interesting insights and really tells a great story of a kid who looked to be too small and slow to play even high school hockey, let alone in the NHL.

What stands out to me is what his high school coach, Tom Ward (who coached the likes of Crosby, Jonathan Toews and Zach Parise), says about Stepan’s play:

“He’s like a Mark Messier, guys who aren’t the most skillful but are the most important cogs for good teams, who play entire shifts goal line to goal line and block shots, win draws and are incredibly reliable. A complete player who might be a leading scorer, but he’s more interested in winning. We call it ‘hockey sense,’ and he’s blessed with it.”

If this is who the young Stepan will be then he could very well be the face of the franchise in years to come. It’s only two NHL games, but it’s a very promising start for a talented young player.

For those who have been asking because they missed it or just want to see it again, here’s a link to Wisniewski’s gesture to Avery:

Wisniewski’s Gesture to Avery

Who would’ve thought Avery would be the victim for once? Wisniewski has been suspended two games for his actions. Avery was suspended six games for his Dion Phaneuf comments back in December 2008.

I have no qualms with the decision. It seems fair to me. What do you think?

Alright everyone, unfortunately Live Blog is posing a few problems. Instead, I will be manning the Twitter for tonight’s game in Florida. Fire away with your comments/questions.

Follow @nyrangerscast and be sure to check out the brand new 140 Characters from Center Ice feature on the site. It’s a great way to keep a pulse on the Rangers, especially during and after games.

Let’s Go Rangers!

Another big one (aren’t they all).  Let’s see how the new guys look. 

Here we go…

7:10 p.m.: Quick whistle there.  Ward didn’t cover that one…

7:14 p.m.: Wow, what a beaut! Jagr with the fantastic pass and Dubi with the patience.  This line just keeps truckin…

7:27 p.m.: It’s a good sign that Jagr shot it there.  A couple weeks ago, he doesn’t have the confidence to rip that…

7:33 p.m.: The Rangers are just flying right now.  But what’s seperated this latest run from the rest of the season is that now they are starting to pull away from teams.  Let’s see if the Rangers can net another one here…

7:41 p.m.: When you’re hot, you’re hot and boy is Sean Avery hot.  That is a BIG, BIG goal.  The Rangers had dominated the first 15 minutes, but Carolina was coming on in the last 5.  That just killed any momentum, the ‘Canes may have been able to build going into the break…

8:01 p.m.: Ward has been fantastic tonight…

8:03 p.m.: The Rangers look downright scary right now.  The Rangers are constantly 3 steps ahead of Carolina and are moving the puck like they have 360 vision.  This is an absolute clinic…

8:06 p.m.: If Ward wasn’t playing as well as he is, this game would be 7-0 right now…

8:14 p.m.: That’s a fluky goal, but Carolina’s been playing well for a few minutes now.  The Rangers have to learn from the Montreal game and not start running around…

8:22 p.m.: You have to absolutely love these kids.  Cally should have drawn the initial penalty and when the refs didn’t penalize the ‘Canes, he took matters into his own hands.  But isn’t something off when Dubinsky and Callahan are fighting and Hollweg isn’t?

8:26 p.m.: The Rangers really need to just start getting the puck out of their zone.  There’s too much playing around with it along the boards and not enough moving it into neutral ice.  It’s going to get them into trouble if it doesn’t stop…

8:30 p.m.: Sjostrom looking really good there.  He’s definitely got some speed…

8:34 p.m.: 10 minute misconducts for what…saying bad words? Please.  That’s ridiculous…

8:36 p.m.: The ‘Canes played much better for most of the second period, but give the Rangers some credit.  They didn’t let things spiral out of control after a fluky goal by Carolina.  The refs have been awful in this one.  They’ve missed 3 or 4 big ones…

8:56 p.m.: Second high-sticking penalty for Backman (even though Staal’s in the box, Backman should be) and this one’s a double minor.  The Hurricanes’ PP has looked good.  Backman also had a bad giveaway earlier in the game.  Not a good debut for the Swede….

9:03 p.m.: Unbelievable…another fluky goal.  A good defensive play by Betts actually hurt them on that one…

9:04 p.m.: And Backman’s called for holding! Horrible first game for Backman…

9:07 p.m.: Phew! That’s huge right there.  Unbelievable pass by Dawes and a classic Shanny finish.  Remember after the Montreal game when Eric and I said that the Rangers needed one of their leaders to step up to stop the bleeding?  That’s what we were talking about right there…

9:12 p.m.: Wow, Backman is just awful tonight.  He’s getting beat all over the place and has now (essentially) taken 10 minutes in penalties tonight.  He’s not exactly endearing himself to Ranger fans right now…

9:17 p.m.: Lundqvist has had a very strong game.  He’s directing rebounds where he wants them to go and is hanging tough through a lot of traffic in front…

The Rangers keep on rolling.  They’re now 11-3-2 in their last 16.  Was it as dominating a win as it looked like it would be after the first? No. But it was a win on the road against a team that was 7-0-1 in their last eight home games.  Lundqvist was great, the first line looked fantastic again (when it was intact) and Shanahan provided the big goal to squash the comeback. 

When talking about the negatives, the officiating was a close second to the play of Christian Backman.  The former Blue made you wonder how JD was able to swindal something as good as a fourth round pick for him.  Hopefully it’s the first game jitters, but this was certainly not what you wanted to see.

In a quick look around the league, Marian Hossa had a heck of a run in Pittsburgh.  It was only about 30 minutes, but it was certainly memorable. In all seriousness, the former Thrasher hurt his knee and looks to be out at least a couple weeks. 

Also, it looks like John Paddock wasn’t the problem.  Ottawa lost again to the Flyers tonight.

Right now, it’s anybody’s conference.