Suspension time or so you would think

First off everyone likes to steal my ideas that I post on this blog 1 day later... I swear to god here is another one of those times of course they offer no real opinions like I do.... Oh well.

Ok so onto my real rant for the day. The Philadelphia Flyers how many more of these incidents need to happen before someone is suspended. Did I say someone I meant the couch followed by the GM. The Flyers have only played 10 games and have lost 47 games of man power through suspensions. I mean what the fuck. Let's face it a couple years ago... I believe it was Brian Trottier who got suspended after sending out his goons after the Rangers had already lost the game. So how is this any different? Well its 3 seperate incidents which the coach may or may not have had any control over. Most likely he didn't send out any of those players to cause those injuries or make those hits.... Now I don't actually think that he did do this but for fuck sake after the first 2 incidents both players were sent to the minors where they will remain for the remainder of their careers because for an NHL suspension to count you need to be on the roster not in the minors.

Now you may think why suspend the coach well #1 they are intent to injure situations and no team in the league has had 3 players alreadys suspended and no team has lost that much man power already this year because of stupid decisions. #2 it does protect the Flyers, wait what? If the league shows they are actually doing something about it... suspending the coach, GM fining the league it sends a message. If this shit keeps up and a few more players get hurt by those kind of actions who is going to stop the bruins from calling up 3 or 4 goons from the minors later in the (being that they have already got a playoff spot or are out of the playoffs) and taking a run with 2 guys at Gagne and 2 guys at Briere. Now lets be honest I would love to see it because of my hatred for the Flyers, but I would much rather beat them on the ice with their best players and not giving their fans the ability to say if we had our "A squad" we would have won. This is the kind of shit that leads to what happened with Bertuzzi and Moore. Of course Moore's hit was completely legal and Bertuzzi is a dipshit, which is a little different but still it close to the same thing.

Now players will always want revenge for what happened to their teamate and the next time the Bruins play the Flyers I would imagine a few players will leave the ice giving blood. If I was Briere or Gagne I would not be looking forward to seeing anything involving Boston on the schedule because since Bergeron went down... that means you guys have an even bigger target on your back... and considering they have the biggest player in the NHL I thinking your going to feel it. Get control of your team before your opposing team gets control of it for you.

What do we do now??????? ...next week.

Shit now the 2 players that were battling it out for the final spot for the forward on the roster are playing great. Marcel and Nigel are playing some great hockey out on the ice right now, and what happens when players come back from injury. There is no way that Sather will send Nigel to the minors after being the leading goal getter on the team and essentially has been the Rangers offense since he was recalled from Hartford. On the other hand Hossa is starting to check on and is playing well with Jagr and Gomez. Yea there are no problems on the roster until all 3 of the injuries are gone but still its something to start thinking about. When Avery returns he most likely will rejoin Drury and Shanny on the second line or at worse bump Hollweg (although he is playing great as well) back down to the fourth to play with Betts and Orr. So then the lines look like this:
Hossa-Gomez-Jagr
Avery/Dawes-Drury-Shanahan
Dawes/Avery-Dubinsky-Prucha
Hollweg-Betts-Orr

Thats all well and good, but that seems like a pretty set lineup. Who loses playing time when Straka comes back? He is most likely headed to the first line to play with Jagr and Gomez, which leaves Hossa in limbo. Ok so now we can either have him play with Jagr and Gomez and move Straka to the second line or the third and then bump Dawes out of the lineup. The lines then could look like this:
Straka/Hossa-Gomez-Jagr
Avery/Dawes-Drury-Shanahan
Dawes/Avery-Dubinsky-Prucha
Hollweg/Hossa-Betts-Orr/Hollweg

This is already becoming a clusterfuck of a lineup because the players that most likely will sit are the ones that are most noticeible on the ice as of right now, and noticable for the good things not the bad things. Chances are Hossa has earned a spot and Hollweg and Orr will do what they did for most of last year and switch off games depending on hardhitter or fighter is needed. However if Hollweg can keep playing the way he is playing and start putting the puck into the net Renney is going to have a huge headache on his hands unless someone else gets hurt. Which is not something you want to see in hockey ever... but it is part of the game. Once Callahan return after that unless Dawes is still leading the team in points he most likely will have lost his spot and will see Hartford again. Even though he deserves the spot on the roster barring him falling apart all of a sudden. Hossa Hollweg and Orr will all split time on the 4th line and Hossa won't be as affective as he is being now, niether will Hollweg but inorder to get more ice time without putting the biscuit in the basket would be more injuries. Avery is already hitting in practice to get back into game shape so he will be back next week forcing Strudwick from the lineup who has been pretty much a ghost as a forward so far, I imagine Pock would have been a better choice for that but he is in the minors and most likely won't see the NHL unless traded the rest of the year. Callahan will most likely be back in 2 weeks or so, maybe a little longer, which then bumps a question mark from the lineup and Straka will be back in 4 weeks which then bumps another question mark from the lineup.

Well the good news the Rangers have a lot of depth at the forward position this year... The problem is which ones should play? I wouldn't want to be Renney right now.

Pumped for the Rangers win, sad about the loss.

All in all Nigel Dawes looked pretty good in his last 2 games. Good work with the 2 goals against the Devils but another worthless performance from the offense against Toronto led to another loss. It's time to start scoring some goals, find away to do it already.

And this rumor shit has got to stop for looking for defense, I can not stand to hear anymore of these rumors about Jovo or any other defenseman. The fact of the matter is this defense is playing so well because it has already gelled. The offense still hasn't found their chemistry and that is why they are struggling. Where the defense got time to blend together in the second half of last year and have great chemistry with each other and the goaltender Henrik right now, which is why they are best in the league in goals allowed, or well one of the best in the league in goals allowed. While the offense is still trying to figure itself out, the defense is the bright spot of the team well #1 goaltending #2 defense but they in many aspects are one in the same. So enough with this bullshit, I don't want Jovo or any other defensemen in the league. Stick with what you got until it is broken this defense worked last year in the playoffs and so far is a star on the team game in game out. There are breakdowns from time to time but no players in the NHL are perfect and there will be breakdowns with any player. There is nothing this team needs right now other than Drury and Gomez learning how to score and Avery coming back from injury.

The reason I say Avery well lets see the Rangers are 1-0 when he plays and finishes a game this year. I don't think it is any surprise that when he went down the Rangers offense started to hit the skids and I hope that he jump starts the offense to get this team rolling in the right direction considering they aren't rolling in any direction right now. Without Avery in the lineup the Rangers have only scored 11 goals and with Avery 5 (yes 5 in one game) yes it was against the panthers who are 19th in the league in GAA, but against teams who are even lower on the list NJ, NYI, ATL and TOR they have only mustered a combined 7 goals 3 of which were last period goals against the Thrashers which were pointless because they were losing by 5 already. If Avery gives this team a jump and gets them rolling again this ship can turn around real quick with this defense and goalie in the back end.

Could it really be just half a second.

While watching the Rangers muster no goals for the second game in a row I made a few observations. First off it is really starting to look like this team may click soon. Now this is the first time that I have said this mostly because of how skeptical I am as a ranger fan after watching teams that should be amazing fail. It really does look like passes are about half a second later than they should be. A lot of passes the rangers are making are ending up in players skates and become a turnover or stall the rush. This can be seen more often then not with passes leaving the defensive zone and on the powerplay. Now this is a combination of both bad passing and players being in the right place just a half second too early while finding a seem through the defense. It's time to start skating boys and its time to make decisions quicker because not only are the passes a little behind the players but the players are just a step behind a gimme goal or an amazing rebound in front of the net.

The second thing that I noticed is the rangers go back more often than any other team in the world. There is not a team in the NHL today that goes backwards as much as the Rangers do. This frustrates me to no end while watching the rangers play; always backwards letting the other team set up a trap. Every team in the league runs some variation of the trap and slowing things down and constantly passing back to the defensemen and trying to find an open player (which never works) is just wasting time. Get the puck across the redline and dump the puck then hustle and make something happen. Every once in a while passing back is fine but 5-7 times a game to find an opening is spending valuable time away from the scoring zone to play with the puck.

On the upside Nigel Dawes was the best player on the ice for the Rangers tonight. Except for a play early in the games where he fumbled the puck on the way out of the zone. This didn't hurt the team at all but it did make me angry none the less. Ryan Callahan also had a great chance on a rush. These are the type of players that need to start getting the puck into the net.


Looking on the ice tonight in a lot of situations tonight, I think Sather needs to consider talking to Dino Ciccarelli about coming out of retirement and standing in front of the net on the powerplay, because there is no one in front of the net on the powerplay. Prucha does a great job on the second unit, someone needs to do it on the first unit. Move Prucha up to the first unit or make one of your 5 shooters stand in front of the net. I just want to see the Rangers simplify their game and put the puck in the net. Send someone to the front of the net, hopefully Avery when he gets back and just screen the goalie don't really help out in the corner nothing but stand there. Maybe every once in a while play in the area around the trapezoid behind the net, other than that nothing but right at the edge of the crease.

Jagr this Jagr that.

Today I actually got some time to poke around on the internet and once again come to an opinion on the rangers after reading some material online. Everywhere I looked today basically is talking about the lack of chemistry between top 2 centers of the rangers and the top winger on the rangers. And let's face it I am kind of sick of hearing about it. I don't want to have to read this shit every day. So I think that it isn't working yes, do I have a solution no. Well maybe I do. I'd give this situation another 2 weeks to develop in the system, see if Gomez and Jagr can get something going. If not it would be time to look outside the organization to find some help, and no not at the center position. Love'em or hate'em at that point it would be time to look forward with what Sather has done with the organization and start to consider dealing Jagr for a younger talented winger. I think Jagr has been great for the Rangers since he has gotten hear but this year seems to be lacking something. Someone good and young and package in a d-man or 2 for a #1 defenseman to sure up the defense. Try sending Malik, Jagr and Pock to a team and I doubt there would be few teams that wouldn't take that deal. If we get a d-man in return as well as a top line winger, that still leaves the team with an extra defenseman and gets another player on the roster who may better fit the mold of Gomez or Drury.

Let's face it here Jagr has got 1-2 years left, if there is going to be a trade happening it will be with Jagr leaving town to better suit the core of players that are left. Drury, Gomez, Prucha, Dubinsky and Callahan are the future of this team. At least will be a big part of the offense for the next 5 years, Jagr isn't. It's time to start looking past him being the top winger on this team and start getting something going that will help the team now and in the future. If the lines click then awesome, this is just really a worst case look at things. If you think about it though if this team starts wheeling and dealing I think he should be the first one out of town, not any of the youth.

Mara on the outs?

I was poking around on Hockeytraderumors.com and I found an interesting story which links to another story on boston.com. When I was reading up on the posts on the bottom I came across a couple of interesting ones, but first I wanted to start out by reminding everyone how Paul Mara came to the New York Rangers. It was a trade straight up for an aging Aaron Ward who just through the chemistry off in the locker room by questioning Jagr's leadership ability. In my expert opinion good trade; at least 5,000 times better than the trade that sent Mike York to Edmonton. Now that being said Sather knew what he was taking on with that contract and I think he did what he had to keep his team focused and got a highly talented player in return for the veteran. Aaron Ward was a good defenseman with the Rangers but didn't really fit in the locker room and that’s how he found his way out of New York.

So it looks like Mara may be on his way out. In my opinion not a good move either sending him down or trading him away (this of course will depend on what comes back to the Rangers of course) He is playing better than some of the defense personally I think he is playing up there in the top 4 out of the defensemen we have on the roster now. He has looked well with Staal and I think they make a decent pair not the best but until Renney takes apart that waste of space that is Rosival and Malik they will be stuck together. Now it is easy to pick apart these defensemen so early in the year this is because there are so damn many of them. Now I read on the same post in the comments at Pock would be a better choice. This may be true to get into the top 6 but not over Mara I think they have similar skills and Pocks aren’t as good as Mara’s are. But I do think giving Malik a sit down might be a good decision to get Pock into the lineup. Now I know how many people are thinking shit everyone hates Malik you too? Actually I do but I understand hockey, I know Malik isn’t really helping the team much but benching him for a long period of time will do nothing for his trade stock. Right now lets face it Malik is worth more on the Rangers roster than on the trade block or the press box. I do think that Malik needs a break though from the fans for a little while. This guy has made a bunch of mistakes on the ice and from what I can tell has not be reprimanded at all. You make dumb mistakes you don’t play that should be plain and simple. I think he has made enough so far to spend a night in the film room watching his mistakes over and over.

Yes, I know I am being highly critical in my first 2 blog entries of the team and where people should be playing. I think Mara has been playing with heart and has made of couple of dumb mistakes but to put him in the dog house and not Malik for similar mistakes is just dumb. If you bench one the other should be sat. Now I know the people that come off saying Malik is your best plus/minus guy stop trying to take him off the ice. Well he isn’t so far this year; Marty Straka is. Malik also is on the ice for a lot more goals against than the +/- shows since he is on the penalty kill which does not register on +/-. I also understand the other perspective of Malik sucks and we want him out of NY. Here are the 2 comments I heard from my first game in MSG… “This is all Malik’s fault… I hate Malik, Lundqvist is the best goalie ever and Malik is ruining everything” said the young pimply faced boy behind me who began to cry while he was speaking. “I don’t understand why they brought Malik back, I mean we booed Poti everytime he touched the puck and they got rid of him why didn’t they get rid of Malik?” random guy behind me, at least he wasn’t crying. Ok let’s start with the first quote, no it is not all Malik’s fault he wasn’t even on the ice for one of the goals against, and the second one was not something Henrik was going to stop anyway; also Lundqvist while great is not the best goalie ever. At least not yet hopefully soon though. Now onto the second quote, No you did nothing to get Poti out of town. Tom Poti played out the remainder of his contract in New York and ever then you couldn’t boo him out of town because he just went to Long Island. Tom Poti didn’t come back because they did not want to resign a bad defenseman, not because you booed him out of town. That’s why Malik is back.

Side note, if you keep booing a player you will not get a good return on a player in a trade. Boo Malik all you want he isn’t going anywhere and he trade value with decrease with each boo. Now you may ask why, and I will give you an economics explanation for this. There is no demand for Malik in New York at least for the Rangers and the fans boo him every game because they hate him, this decreases his value because lets face it other teams know they want him out. Now another team can give nothing in return to get Malik off our hands, let’s say 8^th round pick or a player that will never amount to any thing that is in the ECHL. Since there is a high demand to trade Malik and at this point from many fan’s perspectives for anything; a bad trade will occur. Sather knows this and so does every GM in the league. Lay off him and maybe he will play better and he can leave New York with a decent return.

So in conclusion, if you bench Mara bench Malik. Stop booing Malik and ummmm.... yea sorry about the economics talk. Mara should stay in the lineup, Pock should play from Malik and let's go Rangers. Also to continue from my thought from a couple days ago. I tried my little experiment with Dubinsky on NHL 08 and have managed 10 goals in 2 games. Just something to think about. Also the combinations of Betts, Avery and Hollweg has been more impressive than ever thought. Hollweg 2 goals, 1 assist in 2 games, Avery 1 goal 1 helper.

The Jagr problem.

Yes this may be controversial but I think it needs to be said. I don't mean to start out being this straight forward when I start this but I think it needs to be posted and I think it needs to be said to the masses, or at the very least the 6 people that may read this post.

Jagr is a great player and has amazing skills but the fact of the matter is I don't think he should get top line billing with these rangers. However he is the captain and by far the best skilled player on the team and Renney is looking for a center for him instead of trying to put together top lines that will work together. So this will most likely not happen. From what I saw in the preseason the Dawes-Gomez-Shanahan line was the best line I saw, and personally I think Prucha-Drury-Callahan would be an amazing line with the speed and skills that they possess. Problem with these lines are that Jagr does not have either of the top 2 centers that Rangers picked up in the offseason.

Of course this leads to other problems on the team, A: Dawes does not have a spot on the roster just yet, and B: Jagr has a rookie center. In my opinion however I think Jagr can and will still produce on the third line. Hear me out on this one to find out why. Who does Jagr see on a regular night? The opposing team's best defenseman on every shift. We take some scoring power away from Jagr's side lets say put Straka and Dubinsky on his line still some scoring or even Hossa and Dubinsky on his line he will still have support. Now where does the top defense pairing go? Jagr-Dubinski-Straka/Hossa? Prucha-Drury-Callahan? Straka/Dawes-Gomez-Shanahan? All of these have great potential for goal scoring, high skills and a mix of veterans and youngsters. This is all of course until Avery comes back, where Hossa and Dawes are taken out of this mix. Alright let's get back to reality real quick Dawes won't be called up anytime soon unless someone else goes down with an injury, which hopefully does not happen. Here should be the line combinations without Dawes in the mix:

Hossa-Dubinsky-Jagr
Straka-Gomez-Shanahan
Prucha-Drury-Callahan
Hollweg-Betts-Orr

I'll be honest with these 3 lines going up and rolling one after another getting even time on the ice the Rangers will be able to wear down the opposition every game. No team has enough defensemen to cover all these lines rolling... well maybe Anaheim; at the very least no one in the Eastern Conference. Side note here Blair Betts is a good center and a good team member on this team, but he should not be moved up in the lineup to the second or even third line. He is a good 4th line center and that's where I think he should remain without a question.

Since we are bringing Staal around a slow way and letting him play every game to learn I think we should do the same with Dubinsky let him play with Jagr and Hossa and see what he can do. He seems to play well on the ice with the time he gets and I think he can handle this upgrade. Although I left the Jagr line on the top this line is not the top line on this team most likely until Avery came back it would be 2 or 3. Once Avery comes back let him play with Shanny again and move Straka back to Jagr’s line.

So lets begin the demote Jagr to third line bandwagon to get this team and possibly even Jagr jump started since either he will see less of the top d pairing or the other top 2 centers will see less of the top d pairing opening them up for more offensive chances.

Alright that’s it for today unless something else awesome pops into my head.

Tune in tomorrow for the my opinion on why the Rangers are off to a slow start.

It's Alive!

Well here it is... the first post on my first blog ever. I never really thought about doing this before but it seems like I have a lot to say about this subject and really it’s about time that I started saying it.

This blog is for my comments on mostly the New York Rangers and things that I read about them and comments and stories that I come across on the internet.

What you will find on this blog: No new information just opinion about what I read on this page. Most of what you read will be opinion followed by my expert analysis. You may ask, what makes me an expert? Well that is one of the easier questions I will ever answer because I say so. I have played hockey for a solid 14 years of my life if not more sorry I didn't really count the years before starting to write this ramble. Not only that but I have been watching hockey that entire time. Also you will find my random sense of humor that will be mixed into almost every post.

Let's face it I pretty much live hockey and its time that I make my opinion available to people other than my friends. Most of all I hope over time people will actually begin to read this and comment on some of the things I say and think because feed back kicks ass.

What you will not find on this blog: quotes from the players or anything like that, I am not a beat writer nor do I have access to the players to any degree. I pretty much will comment on trade rumors, line combinations and other happenings around the league nothing more. If you want to just stop in for recycled information from other sites that's cool. I'll try and give credit to most of the people for source information if I remember to do so.

Anyway sounds like that's a good first post on my end.