Postgame Reactions - Rangers vs. Blues 1/16

Blues 4, Rangers 1

• Enver Lisin MUST stay in the lineup.  He was the best Ranger on the ice all night, skating hard and creating chances.  I thought he should have drawn a tripping call on his partial breakaway, and he drew one on his next shift after hitting the crossbar.
• Marian Gaborik has definitely hit a rough patch, and not just offensively.  After blowing coverage on the game-winner Thursday night against Ottawa, his turnover led to the game-winner tonight.  He also had a glorious chance and was stoned by Mason.
• The Blues have the best forecheck I've seen all year.  I hope Torts uses it as an example of how to effectively--and consistently--forecheck.
• Chad Johnson was ok.  I still don't see him as an NHL caliber goalie yet, but he seems to be the best in-house option the Rangers have.
• The D pair of Dan Girardi and Michael Del Zotto has to end.  They were minus-2 together tonight, and the defensive pairs seem to be so much more in sync when Staal is with Girardi and Del Zotto is with Rozsival.
• The power play was brutal, and there's no other way to put it.  I think the Blues had more shots on Rangers power plays than the Rangers did.  Unaccepatable.
• Hockey 101:  Clear the zone...seriously, do it!
• BREAKING NEWS: The Rangers scored a goal!  Now they need to work on increasing that number again.
• Brian Boyle was the one who found the back of the net--ok maybe not the back, but the puck found its way completely across the goal line--and Aaron Voros got the lone assist.
• If I was coaching this team:  Aaron Voros and Enver Lisin both play again tomorrow night.  Kotalik rejoins the lineup in place of Higgins.
• In all fairness, the Blues played a solid defensive game and Chris Mason was strong in net.
• It was good to see JD on MSG (or whatever you want to call it) again, and great to hear he's doing well.  It makes me miss hearing and seeing him next to Sam that much more though.
• The box score says the Rangers had 27 hits to the Blues' 23.  I don't know what game the statistician was watching, because the Blues were hitting everything in sight.  They might have had 23 hits in the third period.

Postgame Reactions - Rangers vs. Devils 1/12

Devils 1, Rangers 0 (SO)

• WOW! What a game!  96 combined shots, no goals, 4 penalties, 58 hits, and entertaining for 65 full minutes of play!  This was the most entertaining game of the season in my eyes.
• Games like tonight make me hate the shootout.  Neither team, and really neither goalie, deserved to lose this one...it was fit to be a tie.
• The shot that did end up in the net was a wicked one by Elias.
• Chris Drury...anyone want to argue that he shouldn't be on the Olympic team after his performance tonight?  He played the full 2 minutes of the 5-on-3/4-on-3 after Dubinsky and Christensen were whistled on the same play.  He also put on an absolute clinic in the faceoff circle, winning 11 of 15.
• Marc Staal and Dan Girardi shut down the Devils' top line.  Staal led all players with 27:31 of ice time and must have poke checked the puck away from Devils attackers at least 5 times.
• Vinny Prospal looked like he hadn't missed any time at all; not bad for a guy who had a torn meniscus and missed 7 games.
• Who is this guy posing as Brian Boyle?  7 hits, 4 shots on goal, a breakaway, 2-0 on faceoffs in just 7:58?!?  Maybe he needs to play against the Devils every night...
• Ryan Callahan was very involved tonight too...5 shots, 6 hits, and killed off most of the 5-on-3 with Drury.
• Overall, this was a great effort from the Rangers.  If they play at even 75% of this in every game, they're going to pile up the points down the stretch.

The Good With the Bad

While the Rangers received some good news about their future from the World Junior Championships in Saskatchewan, they received bad news about their immediate future with word that Vinny Prospal will miss the next 10 days to 3 weeks after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his knee this morning.

The bad news is pretty bad for this Rangers team that already has enough issues scoring.  Prospal is currently the second leading scorer on the Roster behind Marian Gaborik, posting 8 goals to go along with 24 assists.  He's also one of the team's alternate captains, we suspect due to his strong work ethic that is visible every time he hits the ice.  I expect to see both Aaron Voros and Erik Christensen get chances in the lineup while Prospal is out.  Christensen will probably see more time than Voros since he has more puck skills and is very effective on faceoffs, but coupling Brian Boyle's bad play of late with Prospal's injury makes me believe that they could both crack the lineup on Wednesday night against the Flyers.  If the Rangers are going to survive this stretch while Prospal is out, it will be because the middle of the pack scorers are contributing on the scoresheet nightly (Callahan, Drury, Anisimov, Lisin, Avery, Christensen).

On the good news front, Rangers prospects had a good first weekend at the WJC, with all 4 attendees cracking the scoresheet.  Derek Stepan leads Team USA with 4 points (1g, 3a) and has won almost 60% of his faceoffs, this year's 1st round pick Chris Kreider has a goal and an assist and was named Player of the Game in the 3-0 USA victory over Switzerland, and Ryan Bourque has registered an assist.  It would be nice to see Bourque get more shots on net (he only has 2 throught he first 2 games), but he seemed to find his game a bit more in the 2nd game.

Roman Horak, the only non-American Rangers prospect at the WJC, picked up a breakaway goal in the Czech Republic's second game to put them up 3-0 on Finland.  The Finns stormed back in the 3rd period and won the game 4-3, putting Horak's Czech side in an 0-2 hole and making them a longshot to advance beyond the preliminary round.

Postgame Reactions - Rangers vs. Islanders 12/26

Final Score: Islanders 3, Rangers 2 (OT)

• Brandon Dubinsky played an outstanding game.  Not only did he score both Ranger goals, but he went 12-4 in the faceoff circle and was effective all over the ice.  He also registered 5 shots on goal, 2 hits, and a plus-1.
• Sean Avery did a good job of being Sean Avery.  That said, the penalty he took for goalie interference was just dumb.  That's one of those penalties Torts has to just hate.
• When I saw just a single referee on the ice to start the game and heard that it was Steve Walkom I began to wonder if this was going to look like a Rangers-Isles game from the 90s, with lots of scraps and what is now called interference.  Fortunately...or maybe unfortunately...it wasn't.
• Marian Gaborik and Vinny Prospal were each a team-worst minus-2.  It's gonna be hard for the Rangers to win when that happens...
• Prospal's pass to Girardi that set up the first Isles goal was a tough one that took a bad hop on Girardi.  On that goal, what a pass by Kyle Okposo.
• Michal Rozsival posted 2 more assists and was plus-1.  He now has 5 assists and is a plus-5 in the past 5 games.  Despite the 2 assists, Rozsival's game regressed a bit tonight.  That said, I still don't understand why people boo the guy when his assists are announced...seems a lot like punishing good to me.  (I plan to write further on this in coming weeks.)
• Enver Lisin's game regressed a bit as well, but I still thought he had a decent game in limited time.
• See my previous post on Brian Boyle.  I don't remember seeing him on the ice again after his STUPID delay of game penalty for putting the puck over the glass unnecessarily on a delayed penalty.  Hey, at least he was 2-2 on faceoffs, right?
• Chris Drury had another effective game even though he didn't put one in the net.  He did get the primary assist on Dubinsky's first goal though.
• Did I mention how bad Brian Boyle was?  3:01 of ice time...Tortorella agrees.
• On the game-winner in OT, the puck made an unfortunate (for the Rangers) deflection off Staal's skate.  No deflection, do goal...that's a tough one.
• I'm watching NHL on the Fly (on NHL Network) as I write this.  They just played the highlights from this game, and I feel bad for whoever had to listen to John Giannone call this game.  His voice is brutal and it seems like you can see the gears spinning in his head on the screen in front of you.

That's all for now.  I have the USA-Slovakia game from the World Junior Championships on my DVR and intend to watch it tomorrow and blog on it.  Also, congratulations to another Rangers prospect, Roman Horak, on being named to the Czech WJC team.  Horak, a center, was the Rangers' 4th round selection this year.

Postgame Reactions - Rangers vs. Panthers 12/23

This post comes with a disclaimer:  I am a season ticket holder and I sit in section 403 (about even with the goal line at the end where the Rangers defend twice).  That said, the reactions that will follow this disclaimer are based on what I saw live and a little bit of looking at the box score.

• I don't think I need to even acknowledge this, but Henrik Lundqvist has been playing out of his mind.  He made at least 3 highlight reel saves that I can remember.
• Florida's power play has excellent movement.  I don't remember seeing a single player stand still for longer than 2 seconds during any one of their power plays.  John Tortorella should use this as an example to improve the Rangers' PP unit further.
• The PK unit for the Rangers did a great job once again, but they have to get better at clearing the zone.
• I thought Enver Lisin played his best game as a Ranger.  Torts seemed to agree and rewarded Lisin with 13:05 of ice time, his most since the Rangers' last home win.  His foot seems to have healed fully and his speed is a great asset.  Drury's tying goal was completely set up by Lisin's speed negating the icing and finding the captain with a beautiful pass.  He even drew a penalty and was heavily involved in 2 scrums.
• Follow up to my earlier post on Brian Boyle: I thought he played a decent game.  He was credited with 2 hits, but won only 1 of the 4 faceoffs he took.
• Wade Redden had a solid game.  He had 1 shot on goal, 3 hits (only Callahan and Gilroy had more), and did an outstanding job breaking up a 2-on-1 when the game was still tied.
• It's great to see Vinny Prospal rewarded for his hard work.  Since I've been at every home game this season, I always appreciate his visible work ethic on EVERY shift.
• Michal Rozsival had another solid game.  I don't know what Torts did, but it worked!
• Chris Drury too...that 4th line demotion last week is continuing to bear its fruit.  Drury was named the game's 3rd star and deservingly so.

Congratulations are in order for Henrik Lundqvist, who is now alone at #5 on the Rangers career wins list.

an update on tonight's lineup and some exciting news for the future

As reported by Andrew Gross on Ranger Rants, Brian Boyle returns to the lineup tonight after leaving Saturday's game in Philadelphia with a tweaked back.  Gross had also reported that Boyle was visibly uncomfortable after yesterday's skate.  It seems to me that the Rangers are rushing him back into the lineup and it doesn't make much sense to me.

You see, as a center (and a penalty killer), an important job of his is to win faceoffs.  However, he seems to be sadly lacking in this department.  In his 34 regular season games as a Ranger, Boyle has won greater than 50% of his faceoffs just 5 times (14.7% of the time).  And worse, only one of those occurrences came after the Rangers ended their 7-game winning streak on October 17, their 8th game of the season.  So doing some quick math, he's won greater than 50% of his faceoffs taken just once in the past 26 games.  Most players would get sent to the AHL (a la Gilroy), or at least shifted to a wing position...but not Boyle.

What makes this the most puzzling to me is that Erik Christensen, now 7 games removed from waivers, is once again a healthy scratch.  In the faceoff department Christensen is 25-20 (55.5%) since being picked up off of waivers from Anaheim, while Boyle is 5-9 (35.7%) during that same stretch.  Christensen also brings with him a highly lauded wrist shot, and one of the best career shootout records of any NHL player.  In fact, his 55% success rate in the skills competition trumps that of purported shootout wiz Ales Kotalik's 52% success rate, according to NHLshootouts.com.  It seems that the only thing Boyle brings is about 6" in height over the 6'1" Christensen, and it's not like either of them uses their body extensively.

What does this all mean?  It could mean nothing, but if it were up to me Erik Christensen would be in the lineup and Brian Boyle would be watching from the press box.
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Some very exciting news out of USA Hockey today.  Rangers prospects Ryan Bourque, Chris Kreider, and Derek Stepan have all been named to the 2010 World Junior Championships team.  Kreider and Bourque were the Rangers' first and third round picks respectively in this past June's NHL Entry Draft, and Stepan was last year's second-round pick for the Blueshirts.