Coming To A Head

Eliminate all head shots from the NHL.  Sounds like a worthy endeavor, and even something that can be achieved with relatively little effort given the number of concussions to some of the premier offensive players like Sidney Crosby, Brad Richards, Marian Gaborik and Marc Savard among others.  But as the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good […]

Looking To Rebound

The Rangers look to rebound from their first loss of the season Wednesday against the Sabres, when they host the visiting Maple Leafs tonight (7:00pm – MSG). Lauri Korpikoski will sit out with an arm injury, and will be replaced by Tom Fritsche in the line-up. Petr Prucha goes back to the bench to allow Nigel Dawes another shot after missing the last […]

Dawes And Prucha On The Outer

The Rangers finished their season last year, loaded with draft picks and prospects that they had developed. Lauri Korpikoski made his NHL debut in the final game, and joined Petr Prucha, Ryan Callahan, Brandon Dubinsky, Nigel Dawes, Fedor Tyutin, Marc Staal, Ryan Hollweg and Henrik Lundqvist on a team that featured nine Rangers’ draft picks, and a tenth player (Dan Girardi). Over the summer, Glen Sather took the opportunity […]

Some Things Never Change

by Mark Owens Let’s get one thing out of the way: Chris Drury will be the second-best captain the Rangers have had in the past 30 years. He is more than ready to lead this team, especially with seven new players and legends Jaromir Jagr and Brendan Shanahan out of the picture. The team’s average age is now 26, down from […]

Turnover, Speed, and Leadership Void

by Mark Owens Chris Drury and Scott Gomez, along with Henrik Lundqvist, take over as the team’s leaders. Jagr’s offensive production ‘ hopefully ‘ will be replaced by the speedy, enigmatic, underachieving, high first-round pick Nikolai Zherdev (sounds a little like Alex Kovalev, doesn’t it?). Replacing Shanahan’s 23 goals, theoretically, will be Markus Naslund, whose production the past two seasons has […]

Schedule Released

The NHL announced yesterday the official schedule for the Rangers. New York will of course start their season with a to trip to Europe and a double header in Prague on October 4th and 5th against the Tampa Bay Lightning. According to earlier reports, the Rangers will play a pre-season competition in Switzerland before heading to the Czech Republic, and are likely […]

Rangers Will Be Less Interesting Without Avery

by Mark Owens However, I can only hope that Sather has some sort of prearranged deal in place to lovingly accept Avery back should he wear out his welcome in Dallas in the next 18 months. Avery was perfect for Broadway. He was a unique combination of entertainment, talent, personality, good looks, and fuck-you attitude […]

Rangers Sign Four, Re-sign Two

Perhaps Glen Sather has a rabbit up his sleeve, but with the first nine hours of the 2008 free agent period behind us the Rangers are still without any wingers on their top lines, and are staring down the barrel of a season without a top line winger in their midst. As with most years, the free […]

Progress Made, Changes Needed

by Mark Owens Despite bowing out in round two again and perhaps wasting their final season with Hall-of-Famers-to-be Jaromir Jagr and Brendan Shanahan, the Rangers’ season was mostly successful, due to the development of rookies Marc Staal, Brandon Dubinsky, Nigel Dawes and Ryan Callahan. Lauri Korpikoski scored a goal in his NHL debut Sunday, and is one of several rookies with a chance to make […]

Game 5 Is Alive

An independent observer of the Rangers-Penguins Eastern Conference Semifinal series could easily jump to the conclusion that the Rangers have been thoroughly outclassed in this series, and that a win for Pittsburgh on Sunday is all but a foregone conclusion. After all, the Rangers lost an almost unlosable game in Game 1 when they gave […]