Posts tagged ‘Dawes’

Well, those of you who have been listening to the show for a while know my admiration for Nigel Dawes.  So you can imagine the joy I am feeling right now.

Nigel Dawes will remain a Ranger for another year.  Dawes was a restricted free agent and the Rangers have locked him up for 2008-2009.  The price is $587,500 for the season.

In my mind this is quite a bargain…maybe thats just because I would have been OK with paying him $15-20 million (only kidding folks).

If Nigel playes well this season, he may be the recipient of a Girardi/Tyutin-like mid-season extension, which I am fine with.

Nigel is a solid player, who is still young and really fits the mold of what the Rangers have been aiming towards this offseason.

With the Rangers lineup dwindling due to the injury bug, tonight’s lines have become a Lets Make a Deal of sorts.

· Behind Door Number One: The always underachieving Marcel Hossa will be thrust into the top line with Jagr and Gomez.

· Behind Door Number Two: Chris Drury will dance in between Brendan Shanahan and Greg Moore. Shanahan will be playing left wing.

· Behind Door Number Three: Nigel Dawes, Brandon Dubinsky and Petr Prucha

Now it’s just a matter of figuring out which door contains the $8,000 fur coat and which door has the donkey pulling the wagon that nobody wants. Boy, what a few hours of the Game Show Network will do to you.

Classic game show references aside, a big game tonight against the Flyers. The Rangers slide has taken them down to the bottom of the Atlantic (oceanic pun intended). Flyers stand one point up on the Blueshirts and are returning Simon Gagne to the ice after missing the last two months.

Steve and I will be back with a new show tomorrow. This team desperately needs two points, so we can have at least a partially positive show.

Well if the western Canada swing wasn’t bad enough, the Rangers have some new injuries to report. After only getting 1 point out of a possible 6 on the road trip, Martin Straka is out with a concussion. The man that has been credited with reviving the first line is out at least two games. Hopefully, Jagr and Gomez (who skated in practice with Nigel Dawes) will be able to keep up some offensive production in Marty’s absence.

• In other injury news, Brendan Shanahan is day-to-day with a knee injury. Don’t expect him to miss any game time even though he’s been out of practice.
• As Steve called for on the show last week, Ryan Callahan has been sent down to Hartford. This brings up the always traveling Nigel Dawes and Greg Moore.

Nigel Dawes has been called up from Hartford and will play tomorrow night against Atlanta. As I talked about in an earlier blog and in the first podcast, I thought Dawes deserved some time with big club while Sean Avery was injured. That didn’t look like it was going to happen with the recent play of Marcel Hossa. But, Hossa is also injured now, only skating for a short period of time during practice this week. Dawes is the logical choice to play on the first line with Gomez and Jagr.

Fans can also breathe a sigh of relief that Renney didn’t go with Dave Scatchard instead of Dawes. Scatchard’s best year came with the Islanders in the 2002-2003 season (81 GP, 27 G, 18 A) but hasn’t played a full NHL season since. Many speculated that Renney would try the veteran before Dawes but thankfully The Scatch was sent packing for a 5-day tryout with the Wolfpack.

If all goes well with Dawes, the Rangers are put in quite a predicament. If both Dawes and Hossa have played well enough to deserve more time, what happens when Avery comes back? That’s a question that may need to be answered soon but right now its time for Nigel Dawes to show what he’s made of on Thursday night.

Nigel Dawes and Thomas Pock will, in all likelihood, make their season debuts for the Rangers tonight in Atlanta. For Dawes, it’s almost a sure thing that he’ll play, seeing as Marcel Hossa can’t go because of a hip flexor injury. For Pock, it’s not as certain, but following yesterday’s practice it seems probable. According to the Blueshirt Blog and Rangers Report, Pock was paired along side Michael Roszival in practice and Marek Malik was paired with Jason Strudwick. Although Tom Renney said not to read too much into it, look for Struds and Malik to be watching tonight from the Press Box. (If you’re quiet, you can hear champagne corks popping in the home every Rangers fan as we speak.)

For Dawes it’s a shot; for Pock it’s the shot.

When it comes to Nigel Dawes, it’ll be nice to see what he can do tonight. He’ll be playing on the first line with Jagr and Gomez (certainly different than last year when he got to play, but with the likes of Jason Ward and Adam Hall). But let’s be realistic. No matter how well Dawes plays, the road still leads back to Hartford. Even if he makes a case to be in the lineup over Hossa, Sean Avery is on the horizon. And when Avery comes back, Dawes will go back. So take tonight for what it is with Dawes, a possible glimpse into the future. But for Dawes, no matter what he does, the future is not now.

For Thomas Pock this is a completely different situation. For him, this is the be all, end all. Sure he’s been in the lineup before (he actually played 44 games last year). But in most of those games he was subbing in for an injured player and even though Pock probably deserved to win a lineup spot, he continually got scratched for a lesser veteran when the vet came back. This time it’s different. This time Malik is taking a seat because of poor play and Pock needs to seize the moment one more time. He needs to get into the lineup and stick; not allow the coaching staff to take him out. And whether or not it’s unfair, it has to happen tonight. If Pock doesn’t play well, he won’t get another shot on Saturday in Boston. Malik will be right back on the ice and Pock will be right back in street clothes. This is it. Pock knows it, and don’t be surprised if Pock takes advantage of it.

Now let me say this. No matter what happens tonight, it is becoming more and more evident that something has to give on this Rangers backline. Marek Malik, Paul Mara, and Thomas Pock are every day players fighting for two spots. None of them will stay content to be scratched for long periods of time. I’d expect a trade sometime in the near future.

First off, if you haven’t gotten a chance to listen to the podcast yet, welcome to the NYRangerscast, part of the New York Sportscast Network. Steve and I will be keeping you up to date on our thoughts regarding the goings on of the Blueshirts all season long, both via podcast and this blog.

To get right into things, Steve and I touched on the implications of Sean Avery’s injury in our cast but I’d like to discuss it a little bit more. As of today Nigel Dawes (nor anyone else for that matter) has been called up to the big club to fill Avery’s role. Instead fans will see Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hossa on the ice with the second line against Washington.

Now, we have all seen what the potential is in Marcel Hossa. Spurts of greatness from the former first round draft pick. His performance in the playoffs last year (2 G, 2A, +5), I believe, has earned him an audition for the Avery spot. But, Tom Renney needs to also audition Nigel Dawes.

With Avery being out four weeks at the very least, that leaves ample time for Hossa and Dawes to get their time to shine. Dawes has been a prospect long enough and there are only so many chances you can give Marcel Hossa before it’s out with the old and in with the new.

With the influx of new talent from the offseason, it looked to most fans that time for Dawes on the first or second lines would be nonexistent. But, if the Rangers take advantage of the Avery injury and let Dawes play with the big guys for a couple weeks, it may pay off huge dividends in the future.