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I know it’s not polite to kick a man when he’s down.  But, when that man happens to be the New Jersey Devils and the New York Islanders, I think we can make an exception.

The Rangers capped off the 2010 part of the 2010-2011 NHL season last night with a 3-1 win at The Rock in New Jersey.  That follows a Monday night victory against the NYI, giving the Rangers a record of 8-3-1 in the final month of the year.  Overall, the Blueshirts sit in 6th place in the Eastern Conference with a record of 22-14-2.

Considering where I thought this team would be at the turn of the new year, that ain’t too shabby.  Breakout seasons for Brandon Dubinsky, Brian Boyle and Derek Stepan have carried this team further than expected, with The King still anchoring the crease quite mightily.

So the question becomes, can the beginning of 2011 match the end of 2010?

I think it can.  Here’s what the Rangers need to do in 2011 to continue the success…(As a side note, I hesitate to call these resolutions, because no one ever keeps New Years resolutions…But I’ll do it anyway.)

1) Locate Marian Gaborik: This is by far the most obvious of all the resolutions.  The team’s most prolific scorer is tied for 4th on the team in goals with a mere 10 in 24 games this season.  One problem has been injury.  The other, a lack of a consistent line to play on.  Either way, Gabby needs to be reintroduced to the offense.  A lot of times he looks like he’s waiting for something to happen instead of going out and making it happen.  For this team to make a deep run, Gaborik needs to make his own opportunities and start taking over some games.

2) Pray that Boyle and Stepan don’t collapse: I love both of these guys, I really do.  I mean, how do you not love a rookie with double digit goals and a veteran who has already tripled his previous season high for goals scored?  The problem is, we don’t know what the 82 game projections are for these guys.  Yes, Boyle and Stepan both look poised to continue there success in 2011, but one has never had an opportunity to play a full NHL season before, the other has come up short throughout his career.  2011 needs to be the year of Boyle and Stepan.

3) Cally Comes Back Strong: Ryan Callahan needs to come back and play like the Captain he was before his injury.  Enough said. 

4) Find the Right Position: I think we’ve gotten to a point in this season where we can expect the Rangers to make the playoffs with the way they have played.  Missing out would be a disappointment at this point.  That said, not all playoff positions will be beneficial to the Rangers.  While they’ve played well, they are still under skilled compared to teams like Pittsburgh, Philly and at some points Washington.  The Rangers need to find a favorable match up for the first round and hope the other teams beat each other up before the Blueshirts get to them.

5) Stay the Same: Typically, on New Years, you’re trying to find ways to change.  I ask the Rangers to stay the same.  Please, play with the same intensity, grit and determination we’ve seen thus far.  Don’t slack off.  This team is likable, I don’t want that to change.  Let’s bring the playoffs back to the Garden with some guys everyone can rally behind.

That’s what the Rangers can finally do. After 19 games in the past 35 days I think it’s fair to say they have earned some time off. In those 19 games they have put up a 12-7 record, including 12 out of a possible 18 points to start December. Even better? With only three games left in the month, two of them are against the Isles and Devils. If the Rangers take care of business they should finish 2010 at worst with a 22-15-1 record and 45 points. Hopefully I didn’t just jinx them, but let’s face it, the Rangers should not be losing to games to the Devils/Isles at this point in the year.

With that all out of the way you can’t be anything but pleased with the way this season has gone so far. Have there been bumps in the road? Sure. But let’s not forget this team has been plagued with injuries over the first half of the year to some very important players. Gaborik missed a good chunk of games. Drury didn’t really come back until the last two games (and has looked above what I have expected). Prospal endured a full practice for the first time today without contact and still hasn’t seen the ice in a game. Callahan is out at least six weeks with the broken hand. So, all things considered this has been a tremendous start. It would have been a great start even if the Rangers hadn’t had any injuries up to this point.

What does this all mean? Well, I think Eric and I touched on this a little in our last podcast. It seems as though this is the first year where all hands have been on deck. By that I mean everyone on the team is buying into the system. Everyone seems to be contributing in some way or another. Insert Frolov joke here, but even he has played a much improved couple of games of late despite still not shooting the puck enough.

I think the biggest question here on out is how sustainable is this? I have no reason to believe it’s not sustainable. Are younger guys playing over their heads? Yes. But, I think one of the biggest things for young players is confidence. Clearly this team is playing with a lot of it. The Rangers have shown the ability to play with, and beat, the big boys.

Unfortunately the one exception to that last statement has been the Flyers. I hate to say this, but it just feels like there is a Philadelphia curse out there. Think of what that city has done to us New Yorkers over the past couple of years. If you’re a Mets fan like I am, I don’t need to say much more other than “collapse”. Speaking of collapse, how many of you Ranger fans are also Giants fans and hate the Eagles like I do. Yep, don’t need to say much more there either. Even for you Yankee fans, sure you beat the Phillies for the World Series a year ago but don’t you really wish you had Cliff Lee in your rotation right now? As for the Rangers, well yeah, 0-for-2 so far this year and we all remember game number 82 or the regular season last year. Philly curse? Maybe it’s just me, but man do I hate that city’s sports teams more than ever these days. I digress.

I will say this. Watching that game Saturday I believed the Rangers were going to come back and win in the 3rd period. Good thing or bad, it has certainly become the norm to see the Blueshirts make a 3rd period comeback to win a game. They came up short in Philly because of too many giveaways. The Flyers are a very good team, perhaps the best in the conference. You can’t make mistakes against good teams and expect to win. I was very encouraged by a couple of things from that game though. Stepan’s goal to cut the lead to 2-1 showed that no-quit attitude from the Rangers. That shift was a thing of beauty and they finished it off with a goal to put them right back in the game. Again, I don’t think Rangers teams of years past come back and score a goal down 2-0 in the 3rd. Also, how about the play of Dale Weise making his NHL debut. Here’s another young kid stepping in and looking like he has played up at the NHL level all year. He almost scored twice, skated well and took out Carcillo late in the game. I loved it! I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do over the next few games. Conversely, the one thing that bothers me to no end is seeing former (bad) Rangers score. Two goals for Zherdev? Really? I hardly remember him scoring two goals FOR the Rangers. Yuck. I guess at least Betts didn’t score in this one…

Notes

Eric and I are planning on getting a show recorded in the next couple of days with former NYRangerscaster Steven Gelbs. We’re just trying to work out our schedules. We’ve had a couple e-mails already which we’ll get to, but I wanted to give you all a heads up on this instead of keeping it from you so you could send in any questions you might have for Steve specifically. I think we’ve had some great mailbags already this year and that is part of what makes it really fun for us, so keep up the good work. Friendly reminder: send the questions in at hosts@nyrangerscast.com. In the meantime, hope you all have some great holiday plans. If you’re doing anything interesting, let us know. Happy holidays everyone!

I’ll be honest with you, for most of last night’’s SO Rangers victory, I was bored to tears.  Maybe it was because I had to listen to the Coyotes broadcast, which is not nearly as entertaining as Sam and Joe.  But really, I think it was because last night’s game was much different than the previous two, although the outcome remained the same.

Last night, the Rangers were able to grind out a win.  You could tell the Rangers were tired after having to keep pace with the Penguins the night before.  Yet, they kept pace, they got a garbage goal, and persevered yet again in the 3rd period to steal 1 point and then earn a second. 

The Blueshirts have now won three in a row.  In three of their last four wins, the Rangers have trailed in the third period.  It’s the nature of this team, the personality that Erik and I have talked about all year long.  Grinders.  If you watched the 24/7 premiere on HBO, you saw first hand how quickly a team like Washington got deflated after giving up a goal.  This Rangers team doesn’t fall into that trap.  New York always seems to be 30 seconds away from taking the lead, no matter how many goals.

Another great game by the dynamic duo of Brandon Prust and Brian Boyle.  I continue to be dumbfounded trying to explain these two.  So, I’ll just smile and laugh and enjoy their play.  Prust scored his third SH goal of the season on a team that leads the league in them.  They are just never out of it.

Although it came in the SO, the Rangers are now 7-0 when Erik Christensen puts a puck in the back of the net.  (May be more if you go back and check the other SO’s)

Want more resiliency? Derek Stepan gets benched for the first half of the 3rd period and comes out and scores the game tying goal with less than 6 minutes left. 

The Rangers have picked up 12 of the possible 16 points in the month of December.  They have the 4th most points in ALL of the NHL.  They sit just outside the top 4 in the East.  And the train keeps rolling. 

The question is, nearly halfway through the season, are you starting to believe???

There are a couple ways I sum up last night’s road victory in Pittsburgh (again).

1. That was a very typical Rangers/Pens game that wasn’t all too fun to watch until all of a sudden New York went wild, scoring two goals in 15 seconds and four in a total of 6:19. In the 3rd period. In Pittsburgh. Against the Pens. Woah!

2. The Rangers have now won back-to-back games. That’s great, BUT put this in perspective. The Rangers have won back-to-back games, claiming four points from the Caps and Pens. In the process, they outscored them 11-1. I don’t care that the Caps are really struggling right now, to take four points in regulation from those two teams is impressive. Sure, the Pens dictated play in the first two periods, but the Rangers showed up in the 3rd and put the hammer down. Very, very impressive.

3. The Rangers win when Erik, not Eric, Christensen scores. I tweeted during the game last night right after he scored that NY is 5-0 when he scores this season. Make it 6-0. They are also 9-1 now when he registers a point. Call it a coincidence if you want, but that’s at the very least a fun stat.

4. This plays off of #1 a bit and off something Eric and I talked about in our new podcast (which is up, check it out from right before the Pens game), but we are really seeing a new, New York Rangers team. Teams of years past didn’t do what this year’s team has been doing on a consistent basis. This year’s team is handling adversity extremely well and finding ways to win games and stack up important points.

5. Chris Drury returned and played a whole game for the first time this season. He managed 14:32 of ice time and I thought he skated relatively well. This is hopefully a good sign that he can stay healthy and contribute some the rest of the way.

6. Frolov scored the eventual game-winning goal and actually played a pretty solid game. Wait, what? Yeah, I said it and it’s not a typo. Move along.

7. I thought seven was supposed to be a lucky number. Guess not. I saved the negative for the end because I wanted to look at it with a glass half full perspective. How could you not be excited about that win? Well, Ryan Callahan broke his hand blocking a shot in the first period and did not return. It was reported that he would be out six weeks but he is going to be re-evaluated today. You don’t need me to tell you how much this stings. Eric and I have talked throughout the season how he and Dubinsky have really emerged this year, especially when Gaborik was out. Well, like I said before, the Rangers have handled adversity well this year. Here’s another heavy dose of it. That line of Cally-Arty-Dubi that has been so good all year. Now the question is, who steps up?

News and Notes

- Eric and I recorded a podcast just prior to last night’s game. It is up on the site so check it out.
- Andrew Gross is reporting there will be no call-ups for tonight’s home game against Phoenix. Todd White will be inserted for Cally in the lineup. He predicts Drury will be moved up to fill the void on the Dubi-Arty line.
- Chris Botta of NHL Fanhouse wrote a piece on potential rental names in this year’s market. Problem for the Rangers is a lot of these names come from the Devils and Islanders since they are both in the basement of the Eastern Conference. How likely are either of these teams going to be willing to deal to a division rival and do we really want to see young talent go to our division rivals? Yeah, didn’t think so… He also hints at a possible Messier/Leetch reunion in the Rangers front office.
- I watched the HBO series, 24/7 Penguins Capitals: Road to the Winter Classic last night. As a hockey fan, I thought it was really, really cool. It was the NHL’s version of Hard Knocks and it didn’t disappoint. The story works well given the two superstars and two teams heading in very different directions now. I love the all-access footage especially intermission locker room speeches. Rex Ryan who? Bruce Boudreau is an angry elf! Feel free to share your thoughts of the show so far hosts@nyrangerscast.com. How awesome will next week’s show be with another Rangers beatdown in there?
- I promised I would post a link of Colton Orr’s epic fight. Well here it is. Watch and enjoy.

Greetings from snowy Columbus, Ohio.  I traveled up from Cincinnati to enjoy a hockey game last night and, aside from the outcome, it was enjoyable.  Thanks to my Dad, I got a chance to sit 3rd row behind the Blue Jackets bench.  Quite possibly the greatest seats I’ve ever had a sporting event.  Nationwide Arena is a great place to see a game.  Very fan friendly and the Arena District with bars and restaurants is very impressive.

Unfortunately, not even my presence could bring the Rangers a win.  Shocking, right?  Isn’t it always the NYRangerscast fault when the Rangers do poorly?  It’s tough to watch a game live and really be objective and take away a lot of conclusions.  Most of your time is spent just enjoying the event, you don’t really watch with much of a critical eye.

However, live or not, there was one thing I took away from last nights game more than anything else.  Marian Gaborik needs help.  Serious help.  The Rangers star is on an island, aimlessly skating around waiting for the talent around him to step up and give him a lifeline.  Problem is, there’s no one that can do it.

Stepan, nope.  Frolov, not a chance.  Avery, Christensen, Boyle, Fedotenko…Nice players, not nice enough for Gabby.  The Rangers right now, in my mind have 1 2/3 set lines.  Dubi-Anisimov-Callahan, set.  They even got bumped to the first line last night against the Blue Jackets.  The other 2/3’s of that, Boyle-Prust.  The duo somehow combines for one hell of a tandem.  Outside of that, you have a bunch of guys without defined lines.

It becomes even more of a problem when you realize it’s not getting any more defined unless some new talent puts on a Rangers uniform.  The only way to do that is through a trade.  But, who do you trade?  Is this team at a point in 2010-2011, where trading away 1 or 2 young stars is worth bringing in a veteran All-Star to help out Gaborik?

Unfortunately, you can’t have your cake and eat it too.  It’s either stay pat and hope someone on the team miraculously emerges to aid Gaborik.  Or, it’s trade some future stars for a hopeful sudden surge. Not sure I like either option.

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!**

It’s a simple question really.  Does tonight’s game with the Penguins mean anything?  The reason I bring it up is because I was already thinking of the excuses I would use on the podcast once the Rangers lost.  Here’s what I was going to go with…

1) The typical, “The Penguins are a better team.” Fact.

2) The Penguins are one of the hottest teams in hockey right now.  Also, fact.

3) The Rangers have been playing well, 7-3 in the last 10, they’re due for a letdown. Again, correct.

Now, this is not to say I want the Rangers to lose.  But, when you look at the last game the Rangers played against the Pens, they were completely dominated even though they were able to squeak out a win. Since than, the Pens have gotten even better.

So, if the Rangers do win, does it mean anything?  A win would mean double digits wins in the month of November.  It would mean a second straight win against the, in my opinion, best team in the Atlantic.  It would mean a home win against a very good team. 

If they lose, it’s just another loss, right?

But what does that all mean at this point?  I thought the last Penguins game was significant because of the way the Rangers won.  This one, I don’t know, I honestly can’t decide how much tonight’s game means for the Rangers.  They’ve played well, better than anyone could have expected, but does a win or a loss really mean a lot to the Rangers season?

I don’t know.  I have perplexed myself.  What do you guys think?  I feel like I’ll know more after the game…that’s right, I’m taking the easy way out on my own question.  Live with it.

Look at our boy Plebian stepping up to the plate!  Had our last podcast been released, you would have heard Erik and I talk about how we wanted to encourage fans to write into the Fan Post section of the blog. 

We hadn’t gotten much of a response, so we called out loyal listener/e-mailer Plebian to write the initial Fan Post.  After much careful consideration, Pleb caved and sent in a post this morning.  Well done, Pleb.

I hope this encourages all of you to send your blog posts into hosts@nyrangerscast.com.  Doesn’t have to be long, or funny, or particularly intelligent (as long as you can take criticism), just has to be relevant to the Rangers.  So without further ado, Plebian…

Musings from Plebeian.

Disclaimer: I’m not a professional journalist…I’m not even an amateur writer, so excuse my diarrhea of the mouth, grammatical errors, spelling errors, my constant use of parentheses, my constant use of three dots (…), and oh yeah my persistent use of run on sentences.

Things I’ve noticed: John Giannone must have been a failed psychiatrist. Every question he asks the players starts with “What goes through your head when…” or What kind of mindset do you have when…” or “What kind of thoughts and emotions do you feel when…”   He simply has an obsession with the human mind.  Seriously pay attention next time he does an interview. Once you notice it, it will drive you nuts.

Things I hate: Officiating, Brodeur, the Penguins (not the cuddly kind, …I love them)

Things I love: Cuddly Penguins (see above), and this years NY Rangers team

Things I would like to see: Some rule changes (see below)

    Proposals:

1. The 2 minute penalty for shooting the puck over the glass has to go. In my opinion, the penalty is much too extreme for so minor an offense. It leads to so many unnecessary 5 on 3 Power plays. I hate to see the outcome of the game rest on a so simple mistake such as this. My suggestion is thus: change the penalty to that of icing the puck. The puck stays in the defensive zone, and the offending team cannot change lines for the new face-off. When you really think about it, the 2 infractions are almost identical. You are in a desperate situation, someone is bearing down on you and you have nobody to cleanly pass it to, so what do you do? You have to get rid of the puck in an illegal fashion, so you ice the puck, or you shoot it over the glass. Same difference people, either way it is delaying the game. I don’t see why one gives you a slap on the wrist, and one is a full 2 minute penalty. Come to think of it, they could use this rule change for any delay of game infraction, like a goalie playing the puck outside of the trapezoid, or stopping the puck out of the crease (which the refs never seem to call anyway). I think it would help balance the flow of the game and keep things reasonable.

(Wayyyyy more after the jump)

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Gritty performance last night by the Blueshirts.  A good back and forth battle with Calgary that had the Rangers emerge because of their special teams and physical play. Oh, and one other thing, their great goaltending performance.

This Rangers team is no stranger to great goaltending performances.  However, they are strangers to having more than one guy on the club who can produce them.  For the past four years it’s been one guy and one guy only, The King.

Yet, this year, the King’s crown has come a bit off kilter.  Henrik has started 15 games this season for the Blueshirts, posting a 7-7-1 record, a save percentage of 91.4%, and a G.A.A of 2.75.  He’s been inconsistent and has already sat out 8 games this season, only 2 less than he sat all of last year.  More importantly, he’s sat out games (last nights against Calgary the most recent) because of performance, not rest.

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