Eric and Vlad from HockeyRodent’s messageboard have rightly corrected me. Player contracts in Hartford are two way. The numbers shown below are only paid should those players perform at Madison Square Garden. In actual fact, these players make a fraction of the salaries shown below whilst playing in Hartford.

Still, it’s not the actual pay out, it’s the thought that counts. The idea that Corey Potter’s check was close to Cally’s when he was called up to play on Broadway is the point. The idea that Pyatt would make more money per diem then Dubinsky is the point.

We learned to today from Steve Zipay that Glen Sather extended qualifying offers to Dubinsky, Callahan, Korpikoski, Potter and Boyle.  The minimum offer tendered has to be a ten percent increase to keep some of these players over the $660,000 minimum. 

Brandon Dubinsky ($633,333), Ryan Callahan ($575,000) and Potter ($535,000) all earned less than $660,000. The minimum raise they are due to receive is 10 percent. Boyle, obtained Saturday from Los Angeles, earned $750,000 and is due a five percent hike. Lauri Korpikoski, at $1.017 million, had to be matched.

Their numbers have yet to be revealed but  offering 10 percent over the pittance Dubinsky and Callahan made last year would be an insult. They have the right to reject Sather’s qualifying offer, rendering them free agents. If Sather dissed me and offered the minimum, fersure I would tell Sather to take his offer and stuff it.

To put this into perspective let’s look at the salaries of some of the players in Hartford this past season:

Anisimov 821,667
Sanguinetti 855,000
Potter 542,000
Zaborsky 653,333
Sauer 846,667
Pyatt 850,000
Dupont 850,000
Hiller 750,000

With the exception of Zaborsky and Potter, the Hartford players all earned more this season then heart and soul players like Dubi and Cally. Giving them a qualifying offer is meaningless. Sather would have to have offered each of these players in excess of a million to keep them sweet, maybe more.  If he doesn’t keep them, the fan base will place his balls in a vice from which I hope he cannot wriggle out.

If Sather’s is doling out the dollars to keep the fan’s favorite kids, where’s the money going to come from to get a goal scorer and a first pair D man? Will we get the numbers before Wednesday? Or,  do we just assume because of Sather’s cap constraints and bad contracts the Rangers won’t be players in the free agent action come Wednesday?

To add insult to potential injury, apparently Colton Orr is not going to be resigned. If I had any scoring talent, I wouldn’t want ot play for the Rangers without a resident enforcer. Every single skill player in the Atlantic Division is quaking in their skates since the Flyers dealt for Pronger. I guess Sather thinks Wade Redden is going to stand up to Pronger.

Sather has treated the Rangers like a Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme. It’s just too bad the Ranger fans can’t sentence Sather to 150 years in retirement.

The first two games of the Stanley Cup finals are going to be played back to back this weekend in Detroit because NBC doesn’t want to take up its valuable weeknight primetime schedule with NHL hockey. Bettman acquiesces because he needs the exposure for the NHL and he’ll take it anyway he can get it, even if it means putting the game and it’s players to disadvantage.

After garnering good ratings with the Winter Classic, one would think that NBC would be willing to put the Stanley Cup Finals up against its schedule of all repeat sitcoms on Monday night, thus allowing both teams a day off in between games. Televising the Stanley Cup Finals in primetime might also attract fans who might not watch midday on a weekend but would watch on a week night. But, that would make too much sense.

Having back to back games on Saturday and Sunday is a win/win situation for Pittsburgh, whose younger legs might not be so weary come Sunday, as opposed to the beat up Red Wings.  Doesn’t it play into Herr Bettman’s hands to give the Penguins every possible advantage. The Cindy Crosby/Gary Bettman love fest continues.

For me, the best possible scenario is for the Red Wings to sweep and for the NBC ratings to be dismal this weekend. Well, maybe a sweep is too hopeful but I’ll take a  Red Wings victory anyway they can get it.I wonder how the officials will try to hand the series to Penguins.  Let’s see if they’ll make up any “new rules” during this series. Perhaps they’ll drag out the old “goaltender interference penalty on Tomas Holmstrom” chestnut that worked so well last year. Maybe another intended but not blown whistle to waive off a goal. 

If the Wings do prevail, their victory will be besmirched for the simple reason that for yet another year, we will have to watch that smarmy little pisher of a Commissioner hand out the greatest trophy in sports.

LET’S GO RED WINGS

The assist on Crosby’s game winning goal was from Fedetenko, not Talot, though I thought  that was what  I heard on the broadcast.

Unfortunately, I am old enough to remember this song by Leslie Gore. I even wore my hair in a flip back in the day, just like Leslie.

For the last month I have been loathe to criticize John Tortorella in any way lest I be accused of sour grapes because I was and am a Renney supporter. But this blog is my party and I’ll cry out if  I want  to.

As the last month has unfolded, I have seen John Tortorella  do some of the same things that got Tom Renney fired. Wasn’t the biggest indictment against Renney his failure to hold players accountable? Wasn’t lack of accountability one of the chief complaints of the Renney haters out there. Renney let the high priced, underachieving players continue to play big minutes. One Wade Redden comes immediately to mind.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not here to crucify Tortorella. I just find it a little ironic and unfair that Tortorella can make himself off limits to the press and doesn’t have to explain his decisions, good or ill. Accountability should start with Tortorella.

The fact is that there are soooo many sub-plots in Ranger hockey now that you may as well be watcing One Tree Hill. Dolan wants as much season subscription and playoff money as he can get. He pressures Sather to fill the seats and make the playoffs. In turn, Sather goes out and pulls the trigger on marque players and overpays them and hog ties the organization with long, no movement contracts.

Sather turned around and handed a stacked deck to Renney, who in his 3+ years as the head coach accomplished his mission. Renney was able to keep peace in the valley while juggling tempermental players, the press and the fan base. In order to do that, Renney had to be the ultimate diplomat. He couldn’t scapegoat players. He couldn’t tell the press to f*ck off and he couldn’t scream and curse at the officials.

Because Renney approached every aspect of his job in a calm, well prepared way he was accussed of being Coach Butterscotch. He was boring. His system was boring and both the players and the fan base wanted him out and to see run and gun, exciting hockey.

Unfortunately, you can’t play exciting hockey without a good defense to cover for the lack of defensive responsibilty by your forwards. Renney knew that. And despite the fact that there were 6 defensemen on his roster, he really had only 3.5 decent defensemen. He rolled four lines playing a boring, defensively conservative game for that reason. And, until the players bought out of that system, the Rangers were winning games 2-1 and in shoot outs. But, they did WIN.

Tortorella comes in and lets the team loose and they do score more goals. But instead of winning 2-1 or in shootouts, they lose 4-3 and in shootouts. Tortorella says he doesn’t need to roll four line like Renney did but he does anyway. And, for some inexplicable reason, he doesn’t use one of his best players in the shoot out. He is also shortening his bench to four defensemen. In my opinion, that’s a prescription for disaster.

If you look at Crosby’s goal yesterday in microcosim, you see why having all three forwards down low on that play lead to disaster. Renney’s five in the frame might have helped there. Avery was being tied up by Orpik, who hooked Avery in the corner. Zherdev plays the puck around the boards to Dubinsky who gets beat by Talbot. Talbot passes to Crosby at center ice who then splits the defense. Unfortunately, two of Rangers slower defenseman were at the points. Redden should have used his head and tripped or grabbed Crosby and taken a good penalty for a change.

Maybe if Sauer was on the ice instead of Redden, he might have been able to catch Cindy. We’ll never know because Tortorella only played the kid for two minutes for the entire game. But God forbid giving Redden fewer minutes.

I’m telling ya, the more things change the more they remain the same.

Tom Renney has been the second winning-est coach in Ranger history.   He has coached this franchise back to respectability since 2005. The Rangers have reached the playoffs every season since he took over after a drought of 8 years.

The Rangers are currently10 games over .500. They are in 6th place in the Conference  with 29 games remaining.  His record speaks for itself:

Renney’s Coaching Record 2004 to 2009

Games Coached 318, Wins-162, Loses-96, OTL 40, Playoffs-3

Regardless of what anyone thinks of Renney, Sather is the architect of this team. Sather is the one who signed all these bad contracts. He is the one who should take the fall. We all know he won’t. He’s the Isiah of Hockey.

The Penguins lost 9 games in January. Everyone was saying Therrien had lost that team. He has Crosby, Fleury and Malkin among others. Do the Rangers have these caliber players?  The Penguins lost Hossa and Malone in the off season and Gonchar has been out injured. That’s their excuse. Therrien’s still there.

The Stanley Cup Champions just lost 5 games in a row but no one accused Babcock of losing his team. Babcock’s team is 1000% more talented then these Rangers. Babcock still has his job.

Does Renney have cup finalists on his team like Babcock or Therrien do? We all know that answer. The Rangers, as presently constructed, will  be lucky to make the playoffs.

I still say it’s the players. They didn’t give up last night. They never came to play in the first place. Maybe they are riddled with the flu but the fan base is sick of excuses.

Firing Renneywill make some fans feel better but it won’t turn things around this season. Players need to be moved or waived, starting with Gomez and Redden.

I say make Renney GM and get rid of Sather. Nine years of Sather’s malfeasance is enough.

If Renney is fired, I won’t be renewing my season subscription next year or any year until Sather is gone for good.

Case in point, Andrew Gross of Ranger Rants and Jane McManus of Rangers Report. Today on their respective blogs, both writers alluded to remarks made by Markus Naslund with regard to Ranger team “chemistry” without benefit of “quotation marks”. I will give both these writers the benefit they denied Naslund.

Gross

“New lines are a part of life in the NHL but Markus Naslund today mentioned that it’s time for the team to start developing some line chemistry.”

McManus

“Markus Naslund said today after practice that he’d like to see lines with a little more chemistry, and he might get to see how that works as soon as tomorrow night in Dallas. ”

 What did Naslund actually say? Which blogger interpreted Naslund’s remarks in their intended context. Judging by Gross’ interpretation, Naslund’s words can be read almost as an indictment against Tom Renney for continually changing  lines in an effort to find chemistry.

McManus’ interpretation illustrates a player who wishes for more team chemistry, perhaps starting with himself. In and of  itself, her spin is innocuous and fairly characteristic of player “hockeyspeak”.

Taking a player or coaches remarks out of context and not using direct quotes is a dangerous game. In Gross’ case, he fuels the fire of a disgruntled fan base who might interpret his report as evidence of discontent and fractiousness in the Ranger locker room. That’s the last thing the Rangers need at this time.

Both reporters also regaled their readers of  Tom Renney’s reported “bag skate” yesterday. They characterized it as a punishment  for player inattention at practice. That’s their take.

I put it to them that perhaps since the Rangers have the flu running through the locker room, maybe Renney wanted to see how his players would react to the exertion. Nothing like a good skate to sweat out what ails you. I guess this may not have occurred to them.

Today, both reporters listed the lines combinations that worked in practice. 

 Aaron Voros-Scott Gomez-Naslund
Brandon Dubinsky-Chris Drury-Nikolai Zherdev
Nigel Dawes-Lauri Korpikoski-Ryan Callahan
Fredrik Sjostrom-Blair Betts-Colton Orr

Given their lack of production, I am sure some fans will be up in arms to see Voros and Gomez on the so-called “first line” with Naslund.  And, still others will be incensed not to see Prucha’s name listed.

Maybe it’s time for Tom Renney to have closed practices. If reporters are going to take players remarks and apply their own interpretation, maybe they shouldn’t be there.

Maybe player health status and line combinations should remain privileged information. Who is practicing or not practicing and with whom should strictly remain the knowledge of the coaching staff. The opposition certainly doesn’t need to know and lately some fans are becoming the opposition.

In the war that is the regular hockey season, sometimes loose lips do sink ships.

There’s only one problem with moving on. Bad times have befallen the New York Rangers. Despite hanging on to second position in the Atlantic Division and fifth overall in the Conference, the team’s failure to score goals is eating away at their position in the standings.

It has also baited that  bloodthirsty segment of the fan base. When things haven’t gone according to the wishes of some impatient and petulant fans, their response is to call for trades or heads to roll.  Tom Renney’s head is at the top of their list. He’s been there since February of 2006. 

If you have been reading this blog for the last few years, you know that I respect and appreciate all Tom Renney has done for this franchise during his tenure. However, after watching last night’s poor showing, I am at a loss to explain why this team cannot score goals. When all is said and done, I still contend that it’s the players.

Somewhere and at some point in past games this season, they did something right.  Granted, the powerplay has never really worked. But every time this team takes one step forward, they take one or two back.  The last time the Rangers played a complete game, having the better of the play, was two weeks ago against the Ducks.

The Detroit Red Wings slumped in January. It was my fault. After I saw them play the Kings in LA, they went on a five game losing streak. That streak ended Monday with a 4-3 shoot out victory over St Louis. In a post game interview, Nik Lidstrom attributed the losing streak to Detroit’s failure to play tighter team defense.

How ironic. The Rangers lose because they cannot score and the Red Wings lose because the need to play better defensively. Not that I would deign to compare the Red Wings to the Rangers. They have the fire power. We have the goal tending.  

Whether a team wins by 2 goals or in a shoot out, two points is two points. It isn’t always going to be exciting, it isn’t always going to be pretty. Save for last night, the Rangers are pretty much beating the teams they should be beating this season.

 I will continue to save my rancor for those players who have been phoning in games. Redden, Gomez, Drury come immediately to mind. I hope that the right line combinations will be found and that something will click for this team, and their coaches.

Rangers January Record