Staal Pots Two
Marc Staal two goals, but last year’s Young Stars MVP Brandon Dubinsky was kept off the board, as the All-Star festivities got under way. Henrik Lundqvist will play 20 minutes tonight in his first All-Star selection as the only Ranger representative. Lundqvist heads up the Daily News report card, and also features in this article from the Times Herald-Record. Former Rangers netminder Mike Richter is […]
Betts And Sjostrom Are Killing It
The NHL All-Star break continues, with commissioner Gary Bettman threatening to suspend any player who doesn’t show up for the event in Montreal. Niklas Lidstrom and Pavel Datsyuk may yet change their minds, or face the prospect of missing a regular season game as a result. In the mean time, Larry Brooks makes the case […]
Leaving Henrik Out to Dry
by Mark Owens The Rangers are making an annual event out of blowing four-goal leads. Last season’s meltdown in Montreal was brutal, but it was a road game in one of the most intimidating buildings in the NHL. Wednesday night’s 5-4 overtime loss to the Capitals was more troubling. The Rangers hadn’t blown a four-goal […]
Hank and Team Defense Carrying the Team
by Mark Owens Only three NHL defensemen have a worse plus/minus than Dmitri Kalinin. At -10, Kalinin leads the team in this category. He also seems to bring the worst out of whichever defenseman he is paired with. Aside from Sunday’s team-wide malfunction, is it any surprise that Michal Rozsival‘s play improved immensely once he was reunited […]
Heading Down To D.C.
The Rangers head down to Washington tonight to face the Capitals (7:00pm – MSG). It’s the first meeting between the teams this year, but the Caps did pick up two overtime wins on their home ice last season. For New York, it looks like Renney will continue to stick with Petr Prucha in the line-up, with Dan Fritsche a […]
Valiquette In Net?
Stephen Valiquette would get another shot at the Maple Leafs tonight (7:00pm – MSG) when the Rangers visit Toronto. New York has a four game winning streak, but the Leafs have had some success lately, and shut the Rangers out the last game they met, a 1-0 shootout win in New York last month. The Leaf’s plan is to […]
Jessiman Traded
The Rangers have reportedly traded 2003 1st round pick Hugh Jessiman to the Nashville Predators in exchange for future considerations. The trade closes the book on what looks in hindsight, to be one of the worst first round picks in the Sather era. Don’t expect the Rangers to get anything of consequence back…if they ever do get […]
Renney Has Guided Rangers to 9-2-1 Start
The Rangers remain at the top of the league in terms of points, but slipped down to fifth in terms of their “win percentage” after last night’s games. The Wild remain the only team without a regulation loss (6-0-1), while the Sharks, Red Wings and Canadiens all have better points per game than the Rangers. Still their […]
Staal, Mara Given Props
The Rangers head out to the Island tonight (7:00pm – MSG HD) for their first of six meetings with their division rivals. The Islanders have struggled this year, with only 4 points in 9 games…and are coming off a 4-3 loss to Carolina in which they registered 60 shots, but failed to tie it on a Penalty […]
A Game-Changing Power Play and Other Surprises
by Mark Owens Last season’s power play unit ranked 22nd in the NHL and continually failed to help the team win close games. This failure came to a head in the playoff loss to the Penguins, when the Rangers squandered one power play after another during the five games. In this season’s first 10 games, Brandon […]