Posts tagged ‘Jagr’

Hey guys, so I wanted to do a blog today where I touch briefly on a bunch of different thoughts I have on this team. I’m going to try and do this at least once a week. Here it goes:

• Tonight’s game pits brothers Marc and Jordon Staal against one another for the first time. Don’t be surprised to see Marc lay out his little bro at least once, when Jordon comes down his wing.
• Martin Straka’s out 4-5 weeks. Sean Avery is still recovering from a shoulder separation. A key to the Rangers success over the last couple of years has been their ability to stay healthy. You wonder if their luck is running out in that department.
• With Straka out, who gets his ‘A’? It’ll probably go to Drury, but wouldn’t you love to see Renney slap that sucker on the King?!
• And speaking of #23, can the real Chris Drury please stand up? None of the big guns have been getting it done, but Drury is the only one you never notice on the ice. For a guy Barry Melrose termed, “The best leader the Rangers have had since Messier,” he seems to be blending in a lot more than he stands out.
• Henrik Lundqvist has given up an average of 2.14 regulation goals a game. The King deserves better than 2 wins.
• Jaromir Jagr has one goal (and it was in garbage time) in the first seven games. He looks absolutely lost with every center Renney pairs him up with. Anyone miss a certain #92?
• One brightspot early on in the season has been the play of Brandon Dubinsky. The rookie looks good and is strong on the puck, but still hasn’t hit the back of the twine. Look for that to change sometime in the next week
• Dan Girardi is looking more and more like one of the bigger steals in the NHL. With every passing game, the formerly undrafted free agent looks more and more like the real deal. With him, Tyutin, Staal, and the crop of youngsters coming up, this Rangers D could be one of the best in the league within a few years.

That’s it for today. Big game tonight for the boys. Need to finish out the road trip strong and build momentum before 7 of 8 at the Garden.

We’re now nine periods into the ‘07-’08 Rangers season and we’ve yet to see this vaunted Blueshirt offense we’ve heard so much about. Outside of a four goal outburst in the third period on opening night, the Rangers have scored a total of two goals in eight periods. And these tallies were not put up by guys named Jagr, Shanahan, or Gomez, but rather by defensemen named Roszival and Tyutin. So the question is…what’s the problem?

First of all, it can’t be expected for a team with this many off-season changes to have instant chemistry, but I think there’s a bigger issue in play here. To me, the wrong players are centering every line.

Second, if you’re Tom Renney I think you’ve got to try Scott Gomez with Jaromir Jagr, and Chris Drury with Brendan Shanahan. I know these were the original combos early in pre-season, but they weren’t given a long enough look.

Both Drury and Gomez are obviously world class centers, but both have very different styles. Gomez is the king of the end to end rush. He uses his speed to gain the offensive zone and then makes plays once he’s there. Drury on the other hand, plays more of an “American” style of hockey. He dumps the puck into the opposition’s zone and then goes and gets it. He makes a living off of, as he puts it, being in the right place at the right time, and cashing in rebounds. In short, Gomez plays Jagr’s game and Drury plays Shanny’s.

Jagr and Gomez tend to look more for the “pretty” goals, whereas Drury and Shanahan will take ‘em any way they can get ‘em. No one style is correct, but to have the optimum success, linemates need to be on the same page. The way the two lines are set up now, that’s just not the case.

When it comes to lines three and four, Brandon Dubinsky and Blair Betts should be switched as well. After a shaky first game that saw Renney move Dubinsky down to the fourth line, the center’s played a strong last two games. But let’s be honest, even Gretzky would have trouble generating offense with Ryan Hollweg and Colton Orr on his wings. Dubinsky deserves another shot at developing offensive chemistry with Prucha and Callahan.

On the other hand, Betts has proven over the last two seasons that he’s an ideal fourth line center. Sure, he’ll pop in his ten goals a year, but at the end of the day he’s a fundamentally sound defensive forward. He stabilizes the banger fourth line and usually allows them to get off the ice without giving up a goal.

Now, it’s too early to panic about the lack of offense, but a couple more games like this and a change will need to be made. I could very well be eating my words after a seven goal outburst tomorrow night against Washington, but I just don’t see it happening. To me, these changes make too much sense to not be given a shot.