My birthday was on Sunday but I got my best gift today. Scott Gomez, the ringleader of the Skating Judases, is no longer a New York Ranger. And, while that in and of itself should be enough, it’s sooo much better then that. Not only is his smirking face gone, so is his ponderous contract. And, best of all, we get Christopher Higgins and their 2007 first round draft pick, Ryan McDonagh, back the other way from Montreal.

What the ramifications may be of having $7 million dollars more in cap space for tomorrow’s free agent free for all is anyone’s guess. Apparently, Ottawa isn’t going to move Dany Heatley before midnight to the Rangers. Sather, upon announcing the Gomez to Montreal deal, said he was done for the day. Time for a well deserved cigar.

All the qualifying offers Sather intended to make seem to have been made. How much money he’s spent is not known. How much cap space remains to sign a Gaborik or a Hossa or any other available free agents is also not known. What I do know is that Sather probably isn’t finished yet with the wheeling and the dealing.

Don’t get me wrong. I still think Sather needs to retire. But today, you done a good thing Glen, a real good thing. You wished Gomer into the cornfield and now he’s gone. 

Maybe Sather still has something left in the GM tank after all. Perhaps, after this deal, it’s Bob Gainey who is suffering from GM senile dementia. Say what you want about him but Sather is never boring. I can’t wait for noon tomorrow.

Posted under New York Rangers

With Montreal’s loss tonight to the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Rangers first round playoff fate has now been decided. The Habs will be playing their most hated rivals, The Bruins, in Bean Town. The Rangers and Caps should start the ”Acela Series”  on Wednesday night in the Nation’s Capital.

Whether the Ranger’s faced Tim Thomas, the brick wall in Boston or the Ovechkin/Semin/Green firing squad in Washington, the odds of their weathering the first round rest squarely on the shoulders of the King, Henrik Lundqvist. With the scoring power of the aforementioned unholy triumvirate, poor Lundqvist will be flashing his glove in his nightmares until Wednesday.

Lundqvist has 37 wins, 25 losses, a 2.32 goals against average and a .916 save percentage. Theodore  has 32 wins, 16 loses and 5 overtime losses. His goals against average is 2.81 and save percentage is .901. While Lundqvist  may have slightly better numbers on the year, Theodore has had a better, higher scoring team in front of him.

In their four games with the Capitals this season the Rangers are 1 and 3. The Rangers lost both games in DC and two of the four game ended in shoot outs. The Rangers last defeated the Caps on February 11th in a shoot out 5-4. Unfortunately, there are no shoot outs in the playoffs. The Rangers all time away record against the Caps is 34-46-9-3.

Considering the Rangers have no powerplay, bad defense and have trouble scoring at the best of times, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the the odds are clearly against the Rangers making it through the first round.  Compound that by the fact that in Alexander Ovechkin the Caps have a superstar that not only can score but hit and fight if need be. Ovechkin is not the whining, diving Poster Boy the Rangers faced last season in Cindy Crosby. He’s the biggest superstar in the NHL. He’s the league MVP.

At least true hockey fans will be entertained by the antics of Ovechkin. Ranger fans should sit up and watch regardless of the outcome. Afterall, we’ll get to see a team the Rangers could have been. Had not Sather kept throwing money and big contracts at mediocre, washed up players since he arrived here, we too might have an Ovechkin We too might be in the Tavares sweepstakes like the Islanders.

I sincerely hope that Henrik Lundqvist and the Rangers make it through the first round. But, like waiting for shoes to drop, I am not holding my breathe.

Posted under New York Rangers

As the Rangers ran out of gas in the third period and allowed the Penguins to run the board, you can look back at all the opportunities the Rangers pissed away in the first two periods. Both at even strength and during their three powerplay opportunities, the Rangers failed to bury the biscuit. But that isn’t where the story ends.

What really ticks me off is that the Rangers allowed themselves to be embarrassed again by the Penguins, the lesser team. The Rangers played two decent periods and got blown out in the third for two reasons. Lundqvist’s head was still in Montreal and the Rangers failed to exact pounds of flesh from the Penguins on a night when Crosby was hurting. 

If my team is down 4-1 midway through the third period, I would be telling them to pound the snot out of Crosby, Malkin, Satan and Sykora at every opportunity. When you’re down by three goals, defense first doesn’t matter. Sometimes you’ve gotta just cut your losses and say WTF . They should have started running the opposition’s talent and made them pay every time they touched the puck.

I don’t want to hear any crap like the fluky goal by Sykora, tying the game at 1-1, took the wind out of the Rangers sails. That’s weak BS. The Rangers stopped skating and stopped hitting in the third period and that’s why they lost. Lundqvist had a bad third period. So what. It happens. How many games has he saved for them this season? It’s a team game.

The problem with this team is that they rely on Lundqvist too much. They did not take responsibility for the game individually or as a team. The  entire team let the Penguins walk all over them. I don’t want to hear that they were tired after playing Carolina last night. Carolina wasn’t hitting at all last night. Physically, the Carolina game was a walk in the park . The Rangers coasted to a 3-2 win in a lightly contested game. So, no one should play the “tired card”.

This game was a test of the intestinal fortitude of the Rangers and they failed miserably to a miserable team. How many more times this season will the Rangers let themselves be embarrassed like this?  For God sake, this team needs to man up and go down fighting. They had no edge in the third period tonight. No meanness. No snarl. No discernible passion.

Maybe they do need someone like Avery back to shake them up and get under their skin and the opposition’s skin.  After watching this debacle tonight, maybe they should just cut their loses, concede Saturday’s game in Boston and save themselves and everyone else the grief of seeing them get their butts kicked again.

All this said, I would rather watch the Rangers win a “boring” game then watch them get their asses handed to them by Cindy Crosby and Crue.

Posted under New York Rangers

While the NHL  celebrates it’s big weekend freezing in Montreal, I took my  “all star break”  on a cruise to sunny, warm Mexico. Taking a winter vacation around this time insures that I miss fewer Ranger home games. In fact, I missed just the one against the Ducks but I got to see whales and dolphins instead.

I got my hockey fix in LA before the cruise. We scored two tickets 15 rows behind the Kings goal at the Staple Center on January 15th. The tickets were $75 a piece. The Red Wings spanked the Kings 4-0 with grinders Maltby and Draper each scoring goals. Swedes Franzen and Samuelson potted the other two. Ty Conklin pitched the shut out. It was like a home game for Detroit. There seemed to be more Red Wings fans in attendance then Kings fans.

The Staple Center is a beautiful venue. We saw Pat Sajek sitting in the second row of our section. The cheap seats at the Staple Center are as nosebleed as those at the Belle Centre in Montreal. They make the blue seats at the Garden seem a bargain. If the planned renovations to Madison Square Garden render it even close to the amenities offered by the Staple Center, it will be worth the price.

In the time I was gone, the Rangers took six out of a possible 8 points. Not to shabby. I am just watching the games I missed. Except for the stinker in Pittsburgh, the boys played well. Nice to see Redden and Kalinin starting to turn it around a bit. The powerplay is looking better and Chris Drury is showing what has been missing for the last season and a half.

I picked up a copy of the NY Post yesterday at LAX and now I understand why Larry Brookes was gushing about the Rangers penalty kill (especially Betts and Sjostrom). Hasenfratz and Morton should be criminally prosecuted for the game they destroyed in Chicago with their atrocious officiating. Even Tom Renney, looking as dapper as ever in  that brown suit, was steaming and spouting off like one of the humpback whales I saw off Cabo San Lucas.

I can’t wait to show off  my tan to everyone in Section 409 on Tuesday. I just hope no one tries to harpoon me. I need to drop some of the gross tonnage I put on whilst at sea. Cruising is diet suicide.

Posted under New York Rangers

Any enjoyment I might have had at last night’s game was sucked right out of me three minutes in when Kovalev scored the first goal. It wasn’t so much that Montreal got the first goal or that it was Kovalev who scored it. It was the boneheaded play of Henrik Lundqvist that allowed the goal to be scored.

When, WHEN, is Henrik going to learn to stay in his crease and stop trying to handle the puck? What does Tom Renney have to do, put an ankle bracelet on him that administers an electric shock every time he leaves the paint? What is wrong with this guy?

As good as Henrik is and has been for the Rangers, he never seems to learn his lesson. Is he that vain not to admit his weaknesses? Puck handling has never been his strong suit. I can recall at least five times in the past when Lundqvist came out of his net and failed to get back into position, resulting in an opposition goal.

After it happened you could visible see Henrik’s game deteriorate. Were I Renney I would have pulled Lundqvist immediately and put in Valiquette. No one is above the team. When any other player does something stupid like that, they should be sat. Lundqvist is no exception, regardless of his star status.

The officials did their best to ensure a Montreal win by screwing the Rangers at every opportunity . There  were some ridiculous calls against the Rangers and non-calls on Montreal.  Montreal usually comes in and pounds the Rangers unmercifully. Not so last night.

Last night they appeared to ease up on their physicality, as though they had been forewarned to reign it in. Devorski and Morton should be called on the carpet in Toronto and sanctioned for their incompetence and stupidity. If it wasn’t incompetence and stupidity then the fix was well and truly in against the Rangers.

And as a  final insult, the row behind me in Section 409 had six Canadiens fans that looked like they were the cast of the Francophone version of  “Trailer Park Boys”. There must be a lot of inbreeding in Le Provence de Quebec to produce such a  motley crew.  These same six seats seem to be for sale on Rangers ticket exchange all the time. Whoever the season ticket holder is who sells these seats to opposition fans should have his subscription revoked.

Posted under New York Rangers

I think many people who read Chris Drury’s comments after last night’s games are missing the point. I certainly do not think Drury was being flippant or cavalier in his dismissal of last night’s miserable loss to the Caps in overtime. What I think he was saying is that the Rangers have had losses like this before.

They have come back from such devastating losses and won their next games (ie in Anaheim after losing badly to the Devils.) To dwell on this loss or the losses in Montreal and Pittsburgh last season or the loss in New Jersey two weeks ago is counterproductive in the short term. As a player and a team, you have to keep positive and focus on the next game.

By gaining one point, Drury is trying to see the glass as half full. Granted two points would have been better. Yes, the Rangers blew a point. In the grand scheme of things if it is this one point that loses them a playoff spot or home ice advantage, it will suck. But it might be the point that puts them over the top.

While many fans, this one included, were both angry and disgusted at last night’s game, we must ask ourselves some questions. Are we perfect fans? Do we always bring a perfect attitude to the game? Are we always supportive of the team? Do we sometimes unduly criticize them? It’s like we only expect them to win and win big. We want this team to dominate their opposition. We never seemed to be satisfied with the fact that they are leading their division. It’s either feast or famine with this team and its fans.

Chris Drury is right. I am not going to let what happened last night ruin my Christmas. I am looking forward to seeing the Rangers play the Devils on Saturday and the Islanders on Monday. I will go to these games with a positive attitude, a light heart and be of good cheer. Life is too short. Each day is a gift and an opportunity to start anew. Enjoy the time off with your family and friends.

The story of the Rangers this season is but half written. It is my humble opinion that the greatest story ever written was “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. Even Scrooge saw the error of his ways and was allowed to make amends. Are we so perfect, so flawless, that we cannot extend that same charity to the Rangers.

Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.

He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards; and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!

“I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.” – Charles Dickens

Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy Kwanzaa to All

Posted under New York Rangers