11-9-1: My Kingdom For Some Shots

You kind of expected the Washington Capitals to defeat the New York Rangers tonight, what with Ovechkin coming back and the Rangers being so bad, but as they are apt to do, the Blueshirts tempted and teased before ultimately falling apart. Washington won 4-2 as Ovie made a triumphant return to the ice.

As good as he is - and he clearly didn't lose a step during his absence - the Rangers still could have won before a (surprise, surprise) Wade Redden defensive lapse allowed Matt Bradley to score what would be the game-winner. You can talk about scoring woes and reluctance to shoot as much as you want (and I will, don't worry) but sloppy defense lost the game.

And Wade had made a great defensive stop in the second period too ... what a shame. For eight million bucks this season, you would think we could at least get Tom Poti-esque level of play or even something on the degree of Igor Ulanov ineptitude but not Marek Malik-ish embarrassment. What a scale of suckitude we can build from our blueline this century. It's shameful. Everyone knows the cliche, defense wins championships and this franchise isn't winning anything with Redden - or Rozsival for that matter - wearing the colours.

Just got into the house and read the AP wire report over at Yahoo where John Tortorella had the nerve to blame the Bradley goal on Matt Gilroy not being able to catch up to Bradley from behind? Are you kidding me? What does Redden have to do to get a lashing? Sleep with Sather's wife? Keep blaming the kids Torts, they will still be here when you get rightfully fired at the end of the year.

*Discussing the match with Mr. X from the Blue Seats after the game, we agreed that the Rangers played a good 20 minutes - the first 10 and the last 10 before the Bradley goal. They skated hard, worked the puck to the net and battled for position in the offensive zone. It was just the over 40 minutes where they looked lost, bored and all-around awful.

*The Blueshirts were stuck on 11 shots for what seemed like an hour, even though there was a post hit inside that span of time. They let the Caps fill the middle of the ice and remained out on the perimeter, looking an awful lot like the Renney Rangers.

*Speaking of them, another friend of the blog (Eric) made the good call that Perry Pearn must have been back in charge of the power play. They made one pass too many too many times, allowing the Caps to close all of the lanes. Semyon Varlamov rarely had to make a good save while Hank was under siege much of the evening.

*You can talk about the penalty troubles - and Ovechkin's return on a national tv night certainly helps lend to a conspiracy theory - but the simple fact was that the Rangers didn't play smart hockey. Rozsival shouldn't be chasing a player around the defensive zone, because he can't keep up and will do something dumb.

*At the same time, an allowance should be made for the Sean Avery Rules as Aves was called for a soft penalty and spent half of his night getting knocked around. He still drew a penalty but if the Rangers pulled half of what the Caps did to, say, Ovie then there would have been several more penalties called.

*Avery played his most spirited match since the playoff benching but it still didn't get him anywhere. He would draw the defense, of course, but linemates never got the puck to the net and Avery never got through the coverage to slide into the slot and get one of his inyourface! goals. At least we saw Cally step up and defend Avery in a scrum in the first period; it is about time these guys stood up for each other.

*Lord knows Donald Brashear won't be the one to do it. The Neanderthal was useless as always and Jon Tortorella inexplicably put him out on the ice right after Washington scored to tie the game. Brash seems to get on the ice, circle a few times while watching the play before remembering where the bench is and taking his rightful seat upon it. It was comical to see him watching Voros fight Bradley, then go over to the penalty box when Voros sat down. What was the conversation like? 'Hey Aaron, you fight good.' 'Yeah Donald, I didn't stop too many punches with my face this time!' 'Me like fights.' 'I don't, but at least I can say I did something tonight - change things up a little.' 'You make him bleed. Blood gooooood. Fire baaaaaad.'

*Following a Frankenstein reference, where was Arty Anisimov? The kid has the amazing capacity to be invisible despite being over six feet tall. It is remarkable. You remember when he scored those two goals? Me too, too bad they were in preseason.

*To take a break from the badmouthing, Marian Gaborik is good. Very, very good. Unfortunately, as in Minnesota, he can score but he can't carry a team singlehandedly to victory. Damn shame right there, because we need him to.

*Let's get back to the bashing because it is so easy and so appropriate after yet another home loss. Ales Kotalik? Thanks for nothing tonight. Cally and Chris Higgins couldn't score either but at least they battled hard out on the ice. And, honestly, I think the Higgins-at-center experiment is working well as he has stepped up his game and playing smarter hockey. Let Drury stay away as long as he has to ... longer even so we can get his salary off the cap and get someone who can score onto the team.

*I like P.A. Parenteau and think he put in a good effort but, correct me if I'm wrong, he didn't take a single shot all night. For an AHL scoring ace, you would think he would understand that you have to shoot to score.

*Can you imagine what the final result would have been if Mike Knuble and/or Alex Semin had played? I was so thankful to see Semin scratched and figured that would be a big boost for the Blueshirts. I was wrong.

*But on that same note, when will Brooks Laich get some recognition outside of Washington? This nobody is racking up the points this year and making the big Caps injuries not hurt nearly as much as they should. Watching him just enhances the hurt that tis he Rangers secondary scoring or lack thereof.

*The Garden brass made the massive mistake of going to Dancing Grandma during the regular Dancing Larry television timeout. Not only did she get booed and have the fans chant for Larry, but the Caps came out of the break and scored. The next stoppage Larry was allowed to do his thing but by then it was too late. Redden's disgrace had taken the air out of the building and nothing outside of Gabby completing his hat trick could have put it back.

*Redden and Rozy may be doing their best to disappoint night after night but I still hate you Poti!!!

*PHW Three Stars
3-Matt Bradley - one goal.
2-Marian Gaborik - two goals.
1-Alex Ovechkin - one goal.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Hank - Gabby's two goals were big but Hank held his ground as the Rangers let the Caps come at the crease in waves. Sure he gave up three goals but he gave the team a chance to win the game, something they certainly didn't deserve. Eleven shots in a period and a half against a team with Tom Poti on defense. Pathetic.
2-Ovie - Is there anything he can't do? I love that he is finally getting booed every time he touches the puck, shows his level of stardom.
1-Matt Bradley - As depressing as it was for us Ranger fans, it was just impressive that this guy skated off the ice bleeding after getting his ass kicked in the first period and came back to score the game-winning goal.

Peepin' Foes: Washington Capitals

The Blueshirts are back on Broadway Tuesday night looking to build off their win in Ottawa against the Washington Capitals. The game is due to start at 7 pm, will be on Versus and is sure to be entertaining. Not the Versus telecast - that will likely suck - but the game itself.

Alexander Ovechkin is due to return, which certainly presents one heckuva quandary: on one hand we will be privileged enough to see the best hockey player on the planet - something hockey fans in, say, Switzerland will never get to witness in person. On the other hand, why the hell does he have to come back against us? Isn't it bad enough that the Rangers have won just three of their last eight games? It's not faaairrrrrrr!!!!!!!

*stamps feet and pouts*

Where We Are: Playing the Caps for the second time this season, the first being a cardiac-inducing 4-3 win in the Phone Booth amid that 7-0 run last month. Yes, it really was only last month. Feels like quite longer, donnit?

Where They Are: Looking to bounce back from a 5-2 loss to the Devils. They lost to Jersey on the fourth, won four games in a row and then lost to Jersey again. How depressing. If the Rangers lost two straight to Mmmaaaarrrtttyyy I'd be borderline suicidal, or in a murderous rage; either way, it ain't good to be the Rangers.

Who To Watch For: Oh, there are a few guys. Ovechkin, Semin, Backstrom and Green are all upper echelon. Brooks Laich, Brendan Morrison and Tomas Fleischmann are successfully providing secondary scoring and rookie Mathieu Perreault has five points in his first six NHL games. Mike Knuble is out after finger surgery, so that's something. Right?

What To Watch For: Ranger discipline - they have given their last two opponents 11 power plays with Atlanta scoring twice. The kill was spectacular against Ottawa, but let's face it, the Sens don't have the power play talent that Washington has. The Caps don't have a goon so this would be the perfect chance for Brashear to do some damage, send a message and cause chaos (like he did against us when Torts stupidly benched Colton Orr in the playoffs) but let's face it, he hasn't contributed anything to the team so far so why would things change now?

What We'll (Hopefully) See: Everyone's favourite ex-Ranger Tom Poti to play like he did while wearing a Blueshirt and cause his team to lose with half-hearted, stupid play ... essentially to out-Poti Rozsival. Sean Avery to remember that he is Sean Avery. Someone other than Gabby or Prospal to score, preferably Cally as he has one goal in the last 14 games. Marc Staal to continue his stellar work shutting down Ovie, Dan Girardi to keep blocking pucks and someone to remember to cover Nick Backstrom every minute of every shift because he is scary good.

Also Check Out: Japer's Rink rocks the block - and if you can't make it to the Garden, head over there to hang out during the game because they are some fun folks. But don't troll, they don't like trolls. There are plenty of other Caps blogs out there, but why go elsewhere after you went to the best?

11-8-1: Afternoon Delight

The Rangers rebounded from their Atlanta escapade with a 2-1 shootout win over the Ottawa Senators Saturday afternoon. The low scoreline belies a lot of drama and end-to-end action in the matinee match and, frankly, it was great to see (if a bit hard on the heart).

Sorry that there are no pics and few numbers, I ran out to Lamb of God/Metallica at the Garden. I may or may not update further ...

*First off, WHAT. A. KILL. Girardi, Staal and Cally played their hearts out killing Ales Kotalik's second dumb penalty of the game in overtime. They were outstanding stepping to shooters, getting in the passing lanes and blocking shot after shot. How the hell does the rest of the team play so bad, so half heartedly for so long when players like this are willing to give it all. Dy-no-mite kill, one of the best moments I have seen by the Blueshirts all season.

*There are few things in hockey that I enjoy more than shorthanded goals and it was great to see the Blueshirts score one (rather than have one scored against them). Gabby makes a great play at the Ranger blueline, hustles the puck up and finds Vinny Prospal breaking on the far side for a perfect one-timer. Gotta love that he retrieved the puck from the ref, as it was the first shortie of his career.

*For as dynamic as P.A. Parenteau was through the first period - and in the shootout, hehe - his half-hearted skate back up the ice left Brian Lee alone as the trailer on a four-on-three that opened the game's scoring. Sorry kiddo, this isn't the AHL, you have to skate hard every second. Sure Ales Kotalik was also trotting back up the ice, but he has already earned a spot on the roster with that shot of his - P.A. still has to earn it. You can almost forgive his empty net miss in the final seconds, seeing as Chris Higgins also blew a gimme seconds earlier, hitting the iron.

*Semi-related: Is it me or is Marian Gaborik the only Ranger with a quick shot release? I mean, PA and Vinny seemed pretty quick but the rest of the boys were bad - and Arty's shootout attempt was torturous.

*The Blueshirts still didn't stand up for each other physically, with who else but Sean Avery getting batted around time after time. With four minutes left in the first Sean Avery hits big Matt Carkner, Chris Neil confronts Avery, Carkner comes back around and nary another Ranger around. Avery gets cross checked across the crease late in the third and nothing. Since they are certain to take bad penalties, why not take some good ones standing up for each other?

*Slightly OT - in case you didn't know, and you likely didn't, I am on Twitter now @truebluefan329. I am still getting into it so I will flesh it out further and update it more soon.

*As I tweeted during the game: "This Rangers power play is brought to you by Acela Express, because it will be a train wreck." It went 0-4 and couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.

*What are the odds that Redden realized how much he missed life in Ottawa and won't come back to New York? I'm not sure why he got the same reception of boos as he does in New York, seeing as he had such a nice pass to Jason Spezza early, let Jonathan Cheechoo get a wide open breakaway later in the first and let the Sens have a great power play chance in the second as he struggled to pick his stick up off the ice. The guy can't catch a break, but at least he can go cry into his eight million dollar salary this season.

*Amazing how most of the best Ottawa opportunities seemed to come when Rozsival was on the ice. Tortorella is rightfully limiting his ice time compared to the rest of the blueline but he doesn't even deserve what he gets. Brooksie was right, Bobby couldn't possibly be worse.

*Second period situation: Brashear skates into the Ottawa zone, passes to Boyle, Boyle has room in the high slot, Boyle passes it to Voros ... and the play is broken up.

*Jason Spezza was heavily hacked and slashed in traffic all game. his wood stick didn't break, and the Rangers weren't penalized. The new sticks cause more nonsensical penalties than they cause goals.

*Lyndon Slewidge does a nice job with the anthems - it was nice for MSG to show it. And every game should include the Canadian anthem, but preferably in all english, not the bastardized version that Slewidge has to sing in the Canadian capital.

*What do you think it would take for MSG to get rid of Joe, and how can we arrange it?

*I love that local commercial that Cablevision runs on MSG for 2 Brothers Scrap Metal. A hot high school girl calls her friend, asking what she should do with all of her scrap metal. Her friend asks her dad, who says to call 2 Brothers, then they cut to 2 Brothers taking a huge pile of scrap metal away from the first girl's driveway. Are there a lot of high school girls with this kind of problem nowadays? Is it really a demographic that they need to address?

*How pathetic/sad is it that great tickets are available for Tuesday's game against Washington? The team we played against in the playoffs, the team with the most exciting player in the NHL ... and there are still tickets available.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Chris Phillips - no points, one shot and two turnovers that I saw .... ???????
2-Brian Elliott - 27 saves.
1-Henrik Lundqvist - 35 saves.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-P.A.
2-Prospal
1-Hank

Peepin' Foes: Ottawa Senators

The schedule surges on and the Rangers are back in action Saturday with an afternoon matinee up in Kanata. They face off against the Senators at 2 p.m. on MSG or CBC for the lucky ones.

Where We Are: Trying to re-inflate the egos after a pretty flat 5-3 loss to the Atlanta Thrashers on Thursday night. The loss was the third in their last four and fifth in their last seven games. Not good, not good at all.

Where They Are: Ottawa is coming off of an embarrassing 5-1 loss at the hands of former goaltender Ray Emery and the Flyers. The Sens still sit just three points behind the Rangers in the standings, with three games in hand.

Who To Watch For: The usual suspects in Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza. Milan Michalek, who Ottawa got in return for Dany Heatley, has seven goals and is tied for the team lead with Mike Fisher - better known as Mr. Carrie Underwood. Former Ranger Alex Kovalev has been completely underwhelming with just eight points in 16 games, which likely means he will be good for a hat trick on Saturday. Ryan Shannon, who I had high hopes for this season, has just one assist in 11 games (typical).

What To Watch For: Everyone's favourite scumbag Jarkko Ruutu is still a Sen, as is general pain Chris Neil. Neil is second in the NHL with 60 PIM and his teammate Matt Carkner is sixth with 50. Combine that with Ruutu's 43 and you have three guys who are going to take it to the Rangers physically. Good thing they demoted Dane Byers and called up P.A. Parenteau.

What We'll (Hopefully) See: The Rangers finally realizing they are a team and standing up for each other. The Blueshirts to be like Bettsy and score a power play goal. Jarkko to do something stupid and get himself suspended forever. Kotalik to get that shot of his on net more. Higgins and Callahan to break through and score a goal or two. Brian Boyle to win a faceoff. Rozsival to not suck too badly.

Also Check Out: Sens Army and Five For Smiting and Black Aces, no not Nick Kypreos and Mike Hartman.

Friday Afternoon Transaction

New York Rangers President and General Manager Glen Sather announced today that forward P.A. Parenteau has been recalled from the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League (AHL), and forward Dane Byers has been assigned to Hartford.

Apparently Byers didn't provide enough offense playing six minutes while paired with Voros and Brashear Thursday night so he was banished back to the minors. At least P.A. will get the chance that Byers wasn't given - a slot alongside actual hockey players.

And Rozy will still dress and play 15 minutes or so on Saturday. That is accountability folks ...

10-8-1: Days Off Don't Help

Don't let the 5-3 scoreline or the 36-27 shot total fool you, the Rangers were dominated tonight by the Atlanta Thrashers. Yep, the Atlanta Thrashers.

It was atrocious, and yet the Blueshirts were a post and a crossbar away from winning the game. I guess that is a good thing, but walking out of the Garden I don't feel the least bit good about the Ranger performance. Atlanta kept them bottled up in their own end for long stretches, had little trouble breaking up most Ranger rushes and kept the shots away from the danger zones. You would think that after finally getting a few days off to practice the Rangers would be better, not worse. You would think that.

Efforts like this make you wonder if the team has tuned out Tortorella already or simply have no clue or capability to play his hard-nosed, open ice hockey. The slot remains empty with no one paying the price to go to the net, the defense isn't helping the offense and isn't playing defense, and players are passing up good shots while taking bad ones.

The upside is that the Rangers have a cupcake of a game on Saturday against the Senators where they have a good chance of pulling out a W. Tonight the Sens allowed Blair Betts to score a power play goal - I kid you not. But that isn't until Saturday so let's look at the misery that was this evening:

*The night started in entertaining fashion with Sean Avery talking trash to Colby Armstrong throughout warm-ups. Unfortunately, the game started, Armstrong scored 19 seconds in and Avery took a cross checking penalty less than two minutes later. And that was all we saw of Sean Avery for the night. Perhaps he was afraid of incurring further wrath at the hands of Kerry Frasier, perhaps he was afraid of incurring further wrath at the hands of John Tortorella, who knows but the result was an invisible Avery. And the Rangers need the exact opposite. I love Aves, but he has to step up and provide some secondary scoring.

*The same goes for Cally, who blew a perfect chance on the doorstep. I loved the thought of Cally across from Higgins but perhaps it is time Torts pulled the two stone-handed players apart. Cally should fill the slot across from Gabby as Lisin has clearly lost a step with his foot injury.

*Torts also needs to re-think his defense, Girardi/Staal has stagnated, Gilroy is carrying Redden and the pairing of Rozy and MDZ .... ugh. Rozy's tenure as a Ranger should have ended with Jaromir Jagr's, seeing as he has been horrendous ever since his Czechmate left town. Tonight he helped lower the bar even further with some of his worst play this season. His laissez faire defense just doesn't work and it led directly to two Atlanta goals and his passing is constantly off the mark, putting teammates in bad spots. The sight of him staring at Hank shrugging his shoulders after the Kane goal was ... I don't have the words. He makes Redden look like Rod Langway. That bad. And the whole Tortorella accountability thing is officially a bad joke.

*Why did Torts waste his timeout with nine minutes remaining? He gave the Thrashers a breather, clearly didn't inspire the Ranger power play and was without his break when he needed it in the final minutes. Very questionable.

*Several folks who watched the game on TV said that MDZ was indeed tripped by Peverley as he flew into the Thrasher zone and his momentum carried him forward and got a mistaken diving penalty but from my seat it looked like a dive of Brodeurian proportions.

*Just as I had predicted, Brashear got into a pointless fight against Boulton early on. The score was 1-1, he wasn't standing up for a teammate, he was just trying to justify his contract with more buffoonery. He took on a guy he knew he could beat, and proceeded to throw dozens of punches at the guy's helmet. One could only hope that he hurt his hand again and will be out for a prolonged time. I doubt it, seeing as he circled around the ice for a few more shifts but one can pray.

*The other fisticuffs came courtesy of Cally, who took on young Zach Bogosian after Bogosian ran him. Cally laid on the ice, looked for a penalty, didn't get one, had none of his teammates come to his aid and took him on himself. I'm not sure why he didn't get an instigator, but the referees in the NHL seem to have no idea how to call that mistake of a rule nine times out of 10.

*Brian Boyle got a goal, playing trailer on a rush and banging in a rebound. The tally helped level the table after some horrendous play in the Ranger end. The big guy got some good time and pretty much proved that he doesn't belong any higher than the fourth line in an ideal world; I think I saw him win one faceoff all night. I want to see Corey Locke called up because Torts' experiment of three centers clearly failed on this occasion and Locke is racking up points in the A. Torts got so desperate that he even put out Byers, Brash and Voros by themselves after Boyle scored. The sad thing? They killed the clock in the Atlanta end better than the second and third lines were able to do. The saddest thing? Any momentum gained from the goal was completely killed.

*If the Hartford crew doesn't think Locke can do the job, then Sather needs to look elsewhere. Atlanta's Rich Peverley came off of the garbage heap and has flourished as their first-line center. They need more people who can score, that simple. Gabby is outstanding but he can't win alone.

*Peverley and Ilya Kovalchuk were an interesting contrast to Prospal and Gaborik. While their styles are different, I would say that their skill and talent are a wash. Gabby, yet again, was the one Ranger to consistently put himself into good spots to score while Kovalchuk created something out of nothing time and time again.

*The Garden wanted $55 to heat press a name plate on a jersey. Just to heat press it on, not sew it. What the hell?

*Max Afinogenov really is bad. No wonder he frustrated Buffalo fans so badly. He blew several gimme goals for A-T-L. He got his empty netter after Vinny Prospal made the same mistake several Rangers made over the night - passing up the shot to try for force a foolish cross-ice pass on a midget goaltender.

*Borat was a little bit better, going hard to Hank but he couldn't get himself good vengeance with a goal. Thank goodness for small favours.

*I typed almost all of this on the train before getting home just now to finish it up and head to bed. I tuned into MSG and caught the last three minutes of Rangers in 60 where Sam and Joe seem to have traded in their journalist credentials to become PR shrills. Let's face it, they always have been but it was worse than usual.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Rich Peverley - one goal and two assists.
2-Marian Gaborik - one goal and one assist. And he didn't even bother to come out to salute the crowd after it. Classless.
1-Ilya Kovalchuk - one goal and two assists.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Hank - How can you fault Hank for the loss? He had no chance at stopping three of the four goals against and without him, the game would have been 5-1 by the end of the first.
2-Gabby - When he gets inevitably injured, we will be screwed.
1-Kovalchuk - Kovy is all-world and it shows. He can't lead the Thrashers to Stanley Cup success but when his skills are combined with other big talents, he is scary - thus the Russian success in the World Championships. Watch out Vancouver.

Peepin' Foes: Atlanta Thrashers

“When you play against them with a different team you don’t feel that- the energy of the building. But when I played for them - I cannot even explain it. It’s something special. The fans were unbelievable. Bad or good times they were there for you. They were the sixth player on the ice for sure.” -Nik Antropov to Blueland

Well, we get to be the sixth player again tonight as Borat's new bunch of buddies, the Atlanta Thrashers, come into the Garden to play the Rangers at 7pm (on MSG for those who can't make it, or those masochists who like listening to Micheletti).

Where We Are: Coming off of a four day break after a 1-2 western Canada swing. Not enough time to get Drury or Dubi back but enough time to allow Brashear back on the ice; Zip wrote that the Rangers are going with three centers, meaning a return to the lineup for both Brash and Voros ... can't wait.

Where They Are: Faring pretty well considering that Kovy and Kane have been hurt. Three wins in their last five games, but one of the losses was to the Isles, which is shameful. Of course, we lost to the Islanders too, but that is even worse and we aren't talking about us right now.

Who To Watch For: The AP said for certain that Kovy was not playing and then they said that he was playing so I guess we will just have to wait and see. Also need to look out for Evander Kane as well. The kid has some great hands, a great shot and is pretty fast but is coming off of a foot injury. Without the two of them, Borat would skate on their top line with former Buffalo Sabre softie Maxim Afinogenov and Rich Peverley, who is probably the best player in the NHL that you have never heard of. Slava Kozlov is still around but even slower and more deliberate than he used to be. Zach Bogosian is learning that he can be defensively responsible while jumping into the attack and has six goals already.

What To Watch For: Ondrej Pavelec can catch fire and turn into a brick wall. I watched two of their games recently, one being his 50 save performance against the Sens. Sure the Sens stink, but he was amazing - outright amazing. Something to note is that he faced 30 or more shots in every one of his five wins this season. Keep an eye on the Ranger lines because juggling three centers with four lines of wingers should be interesting viewing, especially once they start getting tired. A Brashear/Boulton battle is likely if Brash's "hand" is up to it - Brash won their previous tilt so he won't run and hide like he does against real tough guys.

What We'll (Hopefully) See: Sean going back to being Sean. Higgins to get a goal on home ice. Cally to re-find his scoring touch. Hank to be healthy and strong. Arty step up and play well with increased minutes. Gabby to show more skill and tenacity than every Thrasher combined.

Also Check Out: As linked to at the top - the team's own blog Blueland, the requisite MSM blog and the in-depth, well thought out fan blog Do The Thrashers Have Large Talons? (I hate the SBN name so I won't use it.)