Updates – lines and lineups

Here’s the latest from Ranger-land:

The lines as they practiced today:

Line One: Avery-Prospal-Gaborik: My dream line – reunited and it feels so good.

Line Two: Higgins-Drury-Callahan: These guys seem to go together – but I’m not sure it’s for a good reason.

Line Three: Boyle-Anisimov-Kotalik. Two centers and a cannon. “Anis” demoted from line 1 to 3. Keep your chin up Artem – and keep your head up also.

Line Four: Brashear-Christensen-Parenteau. Glad to have Punch-Man back. And with the “Second Coming” of Christiansen off the waver wire and PA – the 4th line has some potential scoring to it.

Odd men out: Lisin. Voros.

Redden returns to the team. We were 1-3 without him. But 2 were against the Penguins.

Self-Tooting Horn Department

Back on December 5th I wrote:

Brashear's hurt. Undisclosed punching injury. No one told me this - but I think he's got a cracked rib from some nasty body shots he took recently.

And today he admitted it was, in fact a rib injury. I just had a feeling from the way he looked while absorbing body shots – like he was really hurt and trying to hide it. So score one for the Blueshirt Brothers.

Puck drops 8:30. Go Avery!

We face Chicago tonight – but Who Are We?

We're 29 games into John Tortorella's first full season as the Ranger's coach. And where are we? 14 wins. And 14 losses. And an OT loss. So far we’ve pretty much moved sideways. And sideways is not good enough to make the playoffs.

So this is a team in crisis. A team looking to find its soul. Or how about a victory?

We usually open the preview by asking Who The Hell Are We Playing - but first I have to ask:

Who The Hell Are We? I mean - are we a big scoring team where Gaborik leads the league in goals and even our defensemen chip in for goals? Well, in a way yes, our goals are up this year but the last few games we've had trouble scoring. And if your name isn't Gaborik - you're not scoring goals. So, no, we're not a high powered offense right now.

Are we a team built on Goaltending and defense? Uh, not lately. Our goals per game against are way way up - over 3 goals a game. Our defenders are too busy shooting to protect the net. And Hank is not playing like an elite goalie. In fact, lately he seems to be yielding a soft goal at a critical juncture most nights and has had more 4 goal games in the last few weeks than I can ever remember him having.

Are we a tough team? Not with Brashear out of the lineup.

The truth is - I don't know who we are anymore. Lately we can't score or defend. And that's not good.

So it is with a certain degree of trepidation that I view our upcoming contest (Editor - Dave Pucks means that the next game scares him)

Who the Hell are we playing? For the first time this season we are facing the Chicago Blackhawks, an Original Six team in the Western Division. They are third seeded overall in the West at 18-7-3. They are a powerful combination of team scoring and team defense.

Primary Skaters: Unlike some teams we know – the Chicago scoring is spread out among players and lines. They have 4 right wingers with 7 goals or more. Kris Versteeg and Patrick Kane have 9 goals, Dustin Byfuglien (great name) has 8, and Troy Brouwer has 7. (We don’t even have two players with 7 or more goals!). Center Patrick Sharp has 8 goals as well. And Center Jon Toews has a plus-minus of +12

In Net: Cristobal Huet, in 22 games has a goals against average of 2.24 and a save percentage of .906. Very good numbers. If we don’t see Huet, we’ll see Antti Niemi who in 7 games has BETTER numbers. His goals against average is 1.71 and his save percentage is .931. Why can’t we get a backup like that?

Scoring & Defense: Wow. The Blackhawks score 3.04 goals a game and let up 2.29. We are only scoring 2.86 a game and we allow 3.03 per contest. They’re just better than we are.

Special Effects: We’re worse both ways. Our PowerPlay is 12th best in the league at 20.4%. But Chicago is 10th best at just 21.4%. On the Penalty Kill, Chi-Town is 4th in the league at 84.5%. We’re 7th best at 83.9%.

Scheduling Conflicts: We’ve been resting up since splitting a pair of games over the weekend. But Chicago has had more rest – sitting around since Saturday night. So no edge here either.

Possible-Probable-Interchangeable Lines- Update: Avery is back on the Top Line and all is right with the world. I'm not sure how the rest of the lines will shake out.

Line 1: AVERY(!) , Gabs and Prospal.

Beyond that I'm not sure. With Prospal taking Center on the top line again - we now have 5 centers with Christensen. Who drops out? Drury will probably center for Callahan. And I don't know the rest. Also - Brashear is skating today - so he may play.

Back At The Line: Wade Redden is skating with the team - so we'll see what happens to the K-man. I think carrying 7 defensemen is a good idea though - especially if Rozy and Wade are two of them.

Fronting the Twine: Former King Henrik has a 2.64 Goals Against average and a .914 save percentage. Not bad but not Hank. He has to play better – but I think we have to rest him to get him to play better. He’s had a few days off and the Blackhawks are not a team you’d throw your rookie out there against to make his first start. So Chad watches again and we live or die with Hank. Sometimes both.

Dave Puck Predicts: This section is getting lame because I stubbornly refuse to pick against my team. So what if Chicago scores better, defends better, goaltends better, penalty-kills better, powerplays better, and has more rest than we do? I’m saying that Hank comes out like a Man Possessed (not like an old van re-possessed) and we wake up and stun the ‘Hawks 3-1.

The + and - of Plus-Minus

The Plus-Minus statistic in hockey has a lot of its own pluses and minuses:

+ Plus - it's a good way to show a player's overall game - not just his offense - but his defense as well. The Ranger’s Alex Kotalik has 6 goals this year - but he has the worst plus-minus on the team at -12. How is that possible? It means when he's on the ice the other team is scoring a lot of goals. It could mean he’s not getting back on defense. And that could be why Tortorella benched him recently.

- Minus - Your linemates can pump up or drag down your Plus-minus. Take Vaclav Prospal for example. (And I call him Vaclav instead of Vinnie because that's his name). He's had a good season so far - but a lot of that is due to a linemate of his named Marian Gaborik. If you're on the ice while a linemate scores 21 goals - that helps the old plus-minus considerably. So Prospal's +4 gained while standing near Gabs is in great contrast to Sean Avery's hard fought +3 which he gained while toiling on the lower lines - setting up players that can't finish like The Gifted One can.

+ Plus - it shows you don't have to score goals to contribute. Matt Gilroy, the Ranger rookie defenseman who skates, passes and stickhandles well, has gotten far less attention than the Teen Ranger Phenom Michael Del Zotto. But Matt is +3, the best plus-minus defenseman on the Rangers. Delzy? He's dead last among Ranger backliners at -9.

- Minus - it doesn't account for when your coach puts you out there. If you're part of the team's best defensive pair - then your coach is always going to try and get you out there against the opponent's top line. That means you're facing guys who can score - which hurts your plus-minus. The worst defender on the team gets matched to opponents who can't score so well. So the plus-minus can easily get distorted by who you are deployed against (Editor - when Dave Pucks says "deployed" he means "played")

- Minus - it doesn't take into account games played. So Heikkinen’s plus-minus of zero doesn't mean he's better than Marc Staal who is -1. It means the K-man has only played 2 games.

+ Plus - players are aware of their plus-minus, so it actually encourages defensive play. In any sport, players will do what they get rewarded for.

- Minus - your goalie affects your plus-minus. Teams with better goalies let up less goals and all their players get a plus-minus boost because of it.

You get the idea. It's a flawed statistic, but all statistics are flawed. It's getting at something important and it tells a much fuller story than goals and assists do. I know I'll look at Del Zotto and Gilroy a little differently from now on. If you're interested in following plus-minus - BlueShirt Brothers tracks it. Just look a little ways down on the right hand column.
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Where We Stand: Now we've fallen to 10th place in the East. One point behind 8th place Tampa Bay. Not good.

Lundqvist: "Bad Goal"

"It's a bad goal" admitted a dejected Henrik Lundqvist. And he's right. The back-breaking late goal Hank gave up with 2:03 left in the third period snapped a 1-1 tie with the Detroit Red Wings and squashed whatever momentum the team had gained from their win on Saturday.

And as bad goals go - this was a real stinker. Dan Cleary fired a shot from what should have been an impossible angle. As Hank hugged the post the puck snuck under his leg pad - but not in. And then - like a horror movie - Lundqvist pivoted his leg and inadvertently (Editor: he means "accidentally") pushed the puck in his own net.

The "own goal" (as they call it in soccer) ruined a brilliant 58 minutes by Lundqvist and the Ranger defense. For the 2nd straight night they raised their defensive game - but for the 2nd straight night they gave up a preventable goal late. On Saturday they had a two goal lead and won anyway - but last night the muff turned a game that seemed destined for overtime into a crushing loss on home ice.

In all fairness Hank played great for 58 minutes and it was the 2nd game of a back-to-back. If you're going to see any signs of fatigue from your franchise netminder it will be late in the 2nd game of two straight.

This is, of course, why we need a 2nd goalie we can count on. And we here at Blueshirt Brothers think Chad Johnson should get the shot to be that guy.

After the crushing 2nd goal - the Rangers pulled Lundqvist and an empty netter rounded out the 3-1 final score.

And here's the autopsy (also known as the Recap)

The Goalies: Hank stopped 28 of 30 shots, but was bested by Detroit’s Howard who stopped 28 of 29. And that, right there, was your hockey game.

And it appears our Phantom Goalie: Mr. M. T. Nett (sound it out) was nowhere near as effective as Buffalo's counterpart was on Saturday. Boyle couldn’t score on the empty net Saturday - clanging one off the post - but on Sunday Draper beat Mr. Net cleanly for the final 3-1 margin.

Special Teams: Again - your loss can be pinned right here. The Red Wings scored on one of their three Power Play opportunities, but the Rangers were pointless on all four of their attempts and a Ryan Callahan penalty shot. A tie in this department and we could have sent this game to OT. (And have you noticed that Steve Zipay has now started using our slightly humorous term “Pointless” to describe a player with no goals or assists? Welcome aboard Steve – we love you around here and we are thrilled that you’re checking in)

The New Veteran Rangers supplied what little scoring there was. Bryan Boyle - atoning for missing an empty net Saturday - scored our only goal Sunday - tipping in a shot by Chris Higgins - who may be showing signs of waking up. But notice I wasn't able to mention Marian Gaborik who was smothered by the Red Wing defense and prevented from even shooting the puck in 23:44 minutes of ice time. Waiver-Man Erik Christensen lost 5 of his 7 faceoffs.

The Kid Rangers were pointless, but the defensive play of a backline unit with three rookies has to be commended. (Maybe it’s not too late to put Wade Redden on season-ending Injured Reserve?). Heikkinen played nearly 9 minutes, blocked three shots had 2 hits and had an even plus-minus on the day. Anisimov lost 5 of 8 faceoffs.

Your Returning Rangers also scored nothing. Drury won 14 of 24 faceoffs – the only Ranger Center winning more than 50% of his faceoffs last night. The Captain also blocked three more shots – I’ll bet the poor guy is just covered with nasty puck-shaped welts at this point. Say what you will about Chris – but he works his tail off every night for us out there.

Defense on Offense? Missing in action last night.

In conclusion. If you're looking for silver linings (and I always am) we've been playing much better defense the past few games. But all of a sudden we can't score. And I am thinking we have overworked Henrik Lundqvist too many nights for too many seasons and have finally worn him out.

We here at BlueShirt Brothers say - give Chad Johnson a shot. If Hank gets more rest he'll be a better goaltender again. And I think Chad could be just the change of pace the Rangers need.
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If The Season Ended Today - we'd be stunned that the NHL concluded their schedule in December. But more to the point: at 14-14-1 we are clinging to 9th place - tied with the hated Islanders and a few points ahead of a few teams with games at hand.
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Next Up: Two much needed days off after the back-to-back games - and then it's an 8:30pm Wednesday night start time on the road against the Chicago Black Hawks.

The Return Of The King: Rangers Score 2 – Hank Does The Rest

I said on Thursday that a shut out win would go a long way toward restoring Tortorella's faith in Henrik Lundqvist and Hank's faith in himself. And well, the Rangers got within 59 seconds of doing exactly that. But despite Boyle missing an empty net and Hank missing a 49 foot slapshot by Jason Pominville at 19:01, the Rangers held on to win 2-1, ending their 3 game losing streak with a big time road win against a good hockey team that had won 4 straight.

The win was good, but what was great was the way we looked while doing it. The Rangers played one of their most complete games of the season. As far as I could see they let up no odd-man rushes, protected the puck, defended their zone, and disrupted the neutral zone. We won the faceoffs 33-22, outhit the Sabres 18-12 and had only 8 giveaways to Buffalo's 24.

And even though Hank once again let up a big goal late – his overall level of play was spectacular. And if Hank can play well – the sky is the limit for this team.

On to the Happy Recap:

The Goalies: Vintage Hank. Even though Buffalo's Miller had a .938 save percentage – Hank outplayed him and that was the difference. King Henrik had a .973 save percentage, stopping 36 of the 37 shots he faced – including several high on the glove side. And although he let in a stoppable one in the final minute – he was super overall and was the difference last night.

Special Teams: A draw. We were 0-2 on the Powerplay and 3-3 on the Penalty Kill. All the goals were at even strength.

The New Veteran Rangers: Marian Gaborik did not score tonight – which is almost a news item – but he did grab an assist with a beautiful set up for Chris Higgins. And Higgins finally scored his 3rd of the year. I'm really happy to see Higgins score – maybe this will cheer the poor guy up – he always seems to take every missed shot so hard. And in his Ranger debut fresh off the waiver wire, center Erik Christensen won 5 of 6 face offs and did okay for a guy who hasn't played in two weeks. His arrival means that several other players could play their natural positions. He was once a good shooter – so maybe this guy can surprise us and stick. He'll certainly get an audition here.

The Kid Rangers: You know, on defense, with Wade Redden still hurting, we're half rookies now, with the K-man (Heikkinen) playing his first big league game. 9:27 of ice time, one hit, and an even plus-minus. Not a bad start. Anisimov, playing his first game on the top line – had an assist as well.

The Returning Rangers: A huge goal for Callahan to make it 2-0 in the third – off a shot from Avery that was pretty much a pass off the goalie's pads. Avery got the assist and Marc Staal collected one as well. And Chris Drury was everywhere – especially on the faceoffs where he was 13-8.

Defense on Offense: One assist for this unit. But they played real defense last night – so no complaints.

In Conclusion: To quote my son, 11 year old Pucks Junior: “Yay”!

If we can play like that every night and if Hank can find that old Lundqvist magic inside him, this team can be very very good.

Of course, we were playing a team that was much more tired than us – and a team that has trouble scoring. But the Sabres are way above us in the East Conference standings and we beat them on the road – outplayed them badly for most of the game. You can nit pick about the late goal but the bottom line is we played well in all aspects of the game and we won. And after losing 3 straight – that feels mighty good.

Next Up: No rest. We return home to play the Detroit Red Wings Sunday night.
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Where We Stand: We're 14-13-1 now and have moved up to 9th place as I write this. We're tied with the Islanders – how can that be? - and 1 point below the 8th place Lightning.

Rangers Shuffle (players), Off To (play) Buffalo

Yes - it's a new rock bottom - below the other rock bottoms we thought we had reached. Your heroes are 13-13-1. That is despite a 7-1 start. And despite having a perfect Shoot Out record. And despite having a rookie of the year candidate defenseman. And despite having the league's leading scorer in Marian Gaborik. (Editor: when Dave Pucks says "Despite" he means "even though")

13-13-1 is good enough for 10th place in the East. Out of the playoffs. But it's really worse than that because we've played more games than a few of the teams we're trailing.

If you came in late, here's our season in a nutshell: We came firing out of the gate with good physical conditioning and an aggressive forechecking style and got off to a great 7-1 start. Then teams started adjusting to us. And we started losing. So we backed off the forecheck and played more defense - but no matter what we tried we kept giving up more and more goals and scoring less and less. Lundqvist is in maybe the worst slump of his career - or maybe this is the beginning of a long slide in his effectiveness. He used to be brilliant. This year he's been very good - which is a step down. And lately he's been good, which is terrible. For Lundqvist that is.

Tortorella and Sather won't sit quietly by while the season falls apart. They have been shuffling lines - now they’re shuffling players. In come Erik Christensen and out goes Steve Valiquette.

We played better Monday - but the Penguins are a pretty good hockey club also and we lost our third in a row.

The team needs to draw a line in the ice right now and start winning some hockey games.

But first – the GameNight Preview

Who the Hell are we playing?

It's nice to not play Pittsburgh for once. This time we play Chris Drury's former team - the Bison Blades - or what the NHL calls the Buffalo Sabres. Buffalo is 3rd overall in the Eastern Conference with a record of 16-7-2 for 32 points.

Primary Skaters: Not a lot of goal scorers. the Sabres are led by two left wingers: Thomas Vanek and Clarke Macarthur who have 8 goals apiece. And defenseman Henrik Tallinder has an amazing plus-minus of +10

In Net: Ryan Miller has an amazing 1.84 GAA and a .936 save percentage. Wow.

Scoring & Defense: Buffalo has averaged 2.88 goals a game to our 2.96. Small advantage for us. But on defense, while we’re letting up 3.11 goals game the Sabres only allow 2.28. That’s why they’re great and we’re not.

Special Effects: Buffalo is the 19th best team on the PowerPlay (19.5%) while we are 9th best (21.6%). On the Penalty Kill we’re the league’s 6th best (83.9%) and the Sabres are 3rd best (85.2%)

Scheduling Conflicts: We've been off since Monday, emotionally drained but physically rested. The Sabres played and beat Montreal on Thursday. So we'll be the better rested club - for whatever that's worth.

Probable Lines:

Line 1: Like I said yesterday - this breaks my heart. I was thrilled to see Sean Avery on the top line. Sean is the perfect compliment to Gaborik. But according to reports were seeing - Sean is demoted for reasons I cannot begin to fathom (Editor - when Dave Pucks says "fathom" he mean "figure out"). The first line will now feature Anisimov with Gabs and Prospal. Big step up for the rookie center. It gives Prospal a chance to play his more natural wing position.

Sean falls to Line two, joining Callahan and Drury. Kind of like a Last Year’s Rangers Last Stand. Wake up fellas and score.

Line 3 features the haunted Mr. Higgins, the hot off the waver wire Erik Christensen at Center and "bombs away" recently-benched Kotalik. I think Torts hopes this line catches fire and becomes the real Line Two. He just doesn’t want insult Drury by dropping the team Captain below a center he just pulled off the Waiver Wire. Think of these guys as the Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Line 4: Lisin-Boyle-Parenteau/Voros. Brashear's hurt. Undisclosed punching injury. No one told me this - but I think he's got a cracked rib from some nasty body shots he took recently. Opponents have started to figure out it’s a waste of energy to hit Punch-man in the head.

On Defense: Enter the K-man. With Redden still hurting and Bobby Not-So-Ready Sanguinetti sent back to the minor leagues, the Rangers will try Defenseman Ilkka Heikkinen fills in from Hartford as the 6th defender.

Fronting The Twine: It's back to back games this weekend - but I think it's too much to ask Chad Johnson to jump from Hartford to starting in goal for the New York Rangers in two days. On the other hand - tha Sabres don't score much and on the road he won't get booed - so you never know. Hank's had time to rest - so I'm guessing Lundqvist tonight.

Dave Puck Predicts: Well, on the surface we're reeling and they're not. They're a playoff team and we ain't. The Sabres can defend, goaltend, and kill the penalty. They can’t score much – but it’s enough to get by. Do they remind you of somebody? Me too. They look like Tom Renney’s Rangers at their best.

And the Rangers, with scoring and Chris Drury but not enough Defense – are looking a little like the old Sabres. How did this happen?

Can we win? Can Hank bring his "A" game? Does he even still have one?

I don't like to pick against my hockey team. I’m not really feeling this one. But I’m going to say a Shoot Out Win 3-2

Avery makes A VERY quick exit from the top line

I try to be positive. I really do. I know that virtually (Editor - when Dave Pucks says "virtually" he means "almost") every other Ranger Blog is dominated by too much ranting and not nearly enough raving. I figure you have enough negativity in your real life. You root for the Rangers for entertainment. You don't need to hear your fellow Rangers fans constantly running down your team. There are already plenty of Devil and Islander fans ready to do that for you.

Anyway - I've been mostly positive about John Tortorella. I know he's been called rude and arrogant and impulsive - but I like the fact that he speaks his mind and let's his players know when he doesn't like what they're doing. In short - he coaches - all the time - and we see him doing it. And usually I like what I'm seeing. At least he's trying to get us better.

And of course I loved it when he finally promoted my favorite Ranger Sean Avery to the first line. We've been calling for this move for a while. Avery is perfect on the first line:

He digs in the corners and behind the net. He gets the dirty work done and gives up the body to do it. And more often than not - Sean comes up with the puck and delivers it to his line mates in a good position to shoot.

Sean also screens, harasses, and otherwise bothers opposing goalies. Sean is a player who will park himself in a position to screen the goalie - even though he gets hit doing it. And if a defender pushes Avery he always managed to lose his balance in such a way that he falls directly on the net minder - he may be the best man who ever lived at this particular skill.

And also, Sean, with his antics and the bizarre, horrendous comments that come streaming out of his mouth - attracts attention from opposing players. In fact he is probably the only player in the NHL who could attract an opponent’s attention away from Marian Gaborik. Which is also a very good thing.

What I'm trying to say is that I loved Torts move of Sean to the top line. Great idea.

And it produced instant results. Against the world champs Gaborik got an even strength goal and Avery the assist. (I'm not counting Gab’s PowerPlay goal - that's not with the regular first line).

So: Avery promoted. Instant success. And what does Tortorella do? He demotes Avery back to line two.

Huh?

And I'm sorry but I just don't get it. I mean - I can't begin to figure out what reasoning the decision was based on. Is one goal in one game not enough production for the top line? And is the one-game try-out enough time to properly evaluate the unit? Isn’t there any value at all to letting a line develop some chemistry – to let them stick together so that can learn each other’s tendencies and improve? I mean, come on. It’s not like they didn’t score. And I'm not talking a month here. Give the guys a few games to see what they can do as a unit.

So there's no other way to say it. This is a dumb move by Coach Tortorella. It makes absolutely no sense. Who is he sending a message to? What should Sean take away from this demotion? That his Coach is nuts? That Torts assigned his lines semi-randomly? These are not the messages you want to send to your players – especially the volatile Mr. Avery.

It’s a move that makes me really question - for the first time - if Tortorella has any idea what he's doing.

So, come on John – I’m trying to be positive here. Come to your senses. Keep Sean on the top line.

Hey Line 2 - Can't you at least Outscore the Defense?

I may not be a genius - especially when it comes to hockey - but I have one question.

Shouldn't your offense be outscoring your defense? I mean – that’s why they play on the offense, right? So they can score. That’s the whole idea.

I mean, Gaborik, of course, is scoring. The Gifted One has an amazing 21 goals already - a pretty good season's worth of goals and we haven't played in December yet.

And Prospal has 6 goals. He also has a ton of assists - many of which are just the results of his always-brilliant decision to pass to his linemate Marian Gaborik.

And Kotalik with his cannon-like shot has 6 goals - although he played his worst hockey in his brief visit to our first line.

But after those three - with 17 points - 5 goals and 12 assists - is a rookie defenseman - Michael Del Zotto. On the offense Anisimov has 5 goals as well.

Now that's great for Delzy - but what does it say about our other 9 forwards that they can't outscore him?

And at 4 goals we've got two defensemen (Girardi and Gilroy) and two forwards (Avery and Callahan)

And all the remaining forwards: Drury, Higgins. Lisin, Dubinsky (I know, but still), Parenteau, Boyle, Brashear, Voros all trail our top three defenders in goals.

And that is exactly what's wrong with the offense in lines 2-4. Almost all of them can't outscore our top 3 defensemen. In fact - as crazy as this sounds - if we made a forward line out of Delzy, Gilly and Giradi, they'd start off with more goals than our current 2nd line now has.

We need to get somebody going. When Dubinsky’s hand gets better - he could be one of those guys. Callahan seems to be working hard - but always a step slow. Higgins, whose disappointment in himself shows on his face every night is desperate to start contributing goals but can't seem to do it.

Drury. There's extra attention on him because of his salary - but at least he's working hard and contributing on special teams.

Has Tortorella made this harder by constantly shuffling the lines? It's a double edged sword. He wants to reward hard work - but the movement doesn't give lines time to develop together.

Whatever the cause is - non-Gaborik and non-defenseman scoring is way too low.

If we can figure out a way to get the 2nd line to score - there is no telling how far this team can climb. But if we don't - we're talking no playoffs.

So, come on somebody - you're the offense. The least you can do is outscore the defense. Otherwise you guys might as well switch places.

Rangers Wave Valiquette!

Steve Valiquette has been put on waivers by the New York Rangers. If no other team claims him - a possibility given his performance this year - he will join the Rangers AHL affiliate in Hartford.

To take his place the Rangers have promoted goalie Chad Johnson to the NHL club. There's no indication that he'll play - and the thinking is that the Rangers will be looking for a veteran backup goalie to give Hank some real rest.

As we've said a few times here - I'd love to see Chad get a shot. He looked very impressive in preseason. And after a slow start, Chad has a 2.10 GAA and a .926 save percentage in Hartford. But Torts may not be thinking that way.

The Ranger coach also spoke about Steve getting time in Hartford to "get his game back". But there's also a good chance someone else will claim him. Either way - there's a real possibility we will never again see Valiquette wearing Ranger Blue and his Spiderman Mask on the ice again.

It is the right move. Steve V. was not someone we could put in net with confidence. As a result hank was getting overworked again - and his game is starting to slip. But still, I'll miss the big guy.

Thanks for wearing the colors Steve - and best of luck.

There was a second move as well - the Rangers have claimed center Erik Christensen on waivers from the Anaheim Ducks, Christensen was sent down after not scoring in 9 appearances. He's just short of his 26th birthday, shoots lefty and weights 208 and is just over 6 feet tall. In 2006 with the Penguins Erik had 18 goals and 15 assists in 61 games. We're short on centers right now with Dubi hurt - so let's see what he can do.

And of course with Slats - you never know if this is just part one of a larger move. Stay tuned....

We were all thinking it - But Torts Finally Said It

It was subtle. I had to read it twice before I noticed it.

But see for yourself. Here was a quote from John Tortorella after Monday night's loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins:

"I thought we played better defensively, first of all. I thought we had the puck more. We generated some offense. It is discouraging. I thought there were a lot of good things for a lot of minutes of that game. Right now we are just not figuring out how to win it at key times. We need another big play, another big defensive play, another big offensive play, another big save. That is the fine line between winning and losing in this league and right now we are not getting it done.”

Okay - before I explain what I'm talking about - let me say that one thing I like about John Tortorella is that he doesn't use Coach-Speak. He may get annoyed with the press - but he does talk to them.

And he's right about what he's saying. I agree with the entire statement. The team really did play well and hung in there a long time with the NHL champions.

But when I read the quote a second time - one part jumped out at me: Here, read that part again:

"We need another big play, another big defensive play, another big offensive play, ANOTHER BIG SAVE"

And there it is.

That little phrase is nothing less than the very first public criticism of Henrik Lundqvist by a New York Rangers employee that I have ever heard in my life.

Now John is certainly not singling out Hank. But on the other hand Torts is being pretty clear about this. Because he also said that we played better defensively. John is saying that we needed one more save to win the game - and if John had made that big save with about 10 minutes left in the third period - the Rangers might well have won on Monday.

For a few years now the Rangers have ridden their star goaltender as far as Hank could take them. But last year in the playoffs, Lundqvist was outplayed by Varlamov - something I don't think I ever saw before in a playoff series. And in game seven Hank let up the big goal late. And ever since - he's been good - but not Hank-like.

Word has gotten around the league to test Lundqvist high on the glove side. And unfortunately - this is a test that Hank seems to be failing. I mean - Hank is still very good - but he used to be the best.

And now it seems like Tortorella and his Franchise Goaltender may be having some problems with each other. John pulled Hank from the Tampa Bay Lightning game - one that must have meant something to Torts who was returning to the city where he won the Stanley Cup. Hank did not like the public humiliation and skated right to the locker room - not the bench as he was supposed to. That can't have sat well with Tortorella.

And a few weeks ago - when the Rangers won a low scoring game - Hank said to the press that he likes that type of defensive battle - which was kind of a veiled indictment of Tortorella's attacking style. That probably didn't sit so well either.

Put all that together with the first ever criticism of Lundqvist and we have, apparently, an issue between Stanley Cup winning coach and award winning Goaltender.

And I can't say I blame Tortorella. It was not so long ago when three goals meant a Ranger win. But this year? It's just not true anymore.

Maybe more rest will help. Maybe a different defensive scheme. Maybe more defensemen in their prime and less rookies or fading elders. But there's no ignoring it any longer. Hank's numbers are dropping. And Torts knows it. And so all is not well between the feisty coach and the proud Net-Minder. Let's see what happens next. A shutout win in Buffalo Saturday would go a long way in smoothing things over. Let's hope it happens.
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Where We Stand: Same as yesterday - still in 10th place - below the Line-of-Death - and still tied in points with the hated Flyers and the more-hated Islanders.

Sanguinetti (not Penguin-Ready)

Bobby Sanguinetti who had been called up to the Rangers from Hartford to replace the injured Wade Redden, proved to not be ready to face the Pittsburgh Penguins. Bobby looked a little over his head in both losses and word today is that he has been sent back down to the Hartford Wolf Pack – the AHL minor league affiliate.

You know, we’ve really been spoiled by the great play of Del Zotto and Gilroy. Bobby looked like a rookie out there – which is exactly how a rookie is supposed to look of course. But when Gilly and Delzy had shown themselves to be NHL ready right out of the chute – we were half expecting Sanguinetti to do the same.

With Bobby departing for parts North – we can only assume that Wade Redden will be rejoining the team by the weekend. We were 0-3 without Wade. I will not say that I’m happy to have him back, but – as long as we have to pay his salary – and as long as we don’t have anyone better to replace him - and as long as his (we’re guessing shoulder) injury wasn’t season ending or career ending – I suppose it will be better having him on the team.

So, bye-bye Bobby. Better luck next time around.

Swept Away: Gaborik 2 – Penguins 5

I don't like to be negative. I don't like kicking a team when they're down. It feels too much like piling on. And you know what? I'm feeling something today besides disappointment.

I know we just got swept in two games with Penguins. I know we're 13-13-1 and our season is in jeopardy. But I saw something today that I liked.

We showed some fight. We raised our level of play. Gaborik got mad. The team showed real effort. And for over 50 minutes we were tied 2-2 with the best hockey team in the world.
And we finally saw Sean Avery on the top line with Gaborik and Prospal – and they looked great together. Sean digs in the corners and behind the net and makes great set up passes. And Sean draws attention – which distracts some away from Gabs. It's a great line and I hope Tortorella keeps it together. And Sean is playing like Sean again – which brings some real happiness to my BlueShirt Brothers heart.

So yes - we lost - and yes - the team has a 3 game losing streak and yes – we've hit a new rock bottom. But I saw some fight out there last night, And long stretches of great hockey from this team. And when Gaborik was pushing and shoving with Sidney Crosby, I started falling in love with my hockey team all over again.

But anyway – here's what happened.

The Goalies: Fleury saved 29 of 31 shots for a .935 GAA. When you put that together with the Pittsburgh offense that is one tough team to beat. Hank had some stretches of his super-human self, but he is also showing this very very disturbing trend of letting up the late goal. In the end I have to say it – he let us down with a .875 Save Percentage, stopping 28 of 32 shots. Fleury was a little bit better and we can never win if we're outplayed at the goalie position. A lot of the blame goes right here.

Special Teams: We won this battle, going 1 for 3 on the PP and stopping all 5 Penguin man advantages. Against a lot of teams on a lot of nights if you win in Special Teams you win the game. But tonight it just wasn't enough.

The New Veteran Rangers: Marian Gaborik did his best to single-handedly win this one himself and god bless him he almost did it. Two goals on 7 shots and a near fight with Sidney Crosby. Gabs gave us all he had and more than you could ask for. Brashear added 4 hits and seems to be playing better. Prospal had an assist. Chris Higgins somehow managed to be minus 4 on the night. Lisin, by the way, was a healthy scratch – he must really be in the Tortorella doghouse. And Kotalik only played 3 minutes – much of that after the game was pretty much over.

The Kid Rangers: Michael Del Zotto had an assist and six hits. Anisimov, on the flip side, was -3.

The Returning Rangers: Assists for Marc Staal and Chris Drury. And some great defensive plays for Dan Girardi.

Defense on Offense: Two assists for this unit.

In Conclusion: Scoring from the 2nd 3rd and 4th lines. We need it and we're not getting it. I'm starting to wonder if there really is any more to Chris Higgins or if this is who he is. And I keep wondering if Lundqvist is worse this year because of the system we're playing, or the quality of the defense, or is it something about Hank's game. I guess the Olympics may show us if it is us or Hank that is having the problem.

But my other conclusion is this. Win or lose, I like this hockey team. Gaborik is everything you could ask for in a player: he's great - he stick-handles well - he passes well - he's the best pure goal scorer I've seen in Ranger Blue in a generation - he's humble - he cares - and he gives 100% every night. Watching him our there with Sean Avery - what a perfect combination. Sean gets in the corners and behind the net and delivers the puck to his linemates and gets the other team distracted with his physical and verbal antics - and Marian gets in perfect position and finishes and benefits when the other team is looking at Sean.

Next Up: After 5 games in 8 days we get a bit of rest before playing back to back games on the weekend. First we travel to Buffalo for a 7pm start on Saturday. So there are a few days for Tortorella to try and think about how to raise his team's play. We're letting up more than 3 goals a game now and it's going to be tough to win that way.
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Where We Stand: Still in 10th place at the moment and still tied in points with the hated Flyers and the more-hated Islanders.

Rangers look to Stop Sid and End Skid

10th place?
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We're in 10th place in the Eastern Conference? But we have all those Gaborik goals. And all those defenseman goals. And all the great play from New Rangers. How can we possibly be doing worse than we were last year?
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It can't be the player moves. We got rid of Zherdev and Antropov and got Gabs and Prospal. We dumped Mara and Morris - but Del Zotto and Gilroy are playing great. (Well, on Saturday Del Zotto was a surprising and terrible -5, but in general – he's been great)
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So what's the problem?
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I really can't figure it out. We should be playing better. We should be winning more.

But we're not. And all we can do at this point is focus on the next game and go from there.

Who The Hell Are We Playing? It's a rematch against our last Who-The-Hell-Are-We-Playing opponent, the NHL champion Pittsburgh Penguins. Pittsburgh is tied with the Washington caps atop the NHL East with a 18-9-0 record. We've lost twice to the Penguins this year – in the very first and the very latest games of the year. Pittsburgh will be without Matt Cooke this time – the league correctly suspended Cooke for his hit to the head of Artem Anisimov – for two games.

Primary Skaters: You know this. Sid and Evgeni. Sid's got 15 goals now – thanks to his last opponent (The New York Rangers) who let up a hat trick. Malkin has 8 goals and 17 assists.

In Net: You know this too. Marc-Andre Fleury has that fancy hyphen in his first name. So his name is just a little fancier than yours or mine. It sounds juts a little more sophisticated to say his name – for example - “pass me the salt Marc-Andre”, or “Little Marc-Andre has thrown up on his school desk again.”

Scoring & Defense: The Penguins score 3.22 goals a game, better than our 3 goals per. And the Penguins let up 2.78 scores a game, while we are allowing 3.04. So they dominate at both ends.

Special Effects: Powerplay: Pittsburgh 14.7%, Rangers 21.2%. Somehow this is advantage Rangers. Penalty Kill: Pittsburgh 84.2%, Rangers 83.2%, so that one is close but the Penguins are better.

Scheduling Conflicts:
Nothing to see here. We played the Penguins and they played us on Saturday – so no sleep advantage.

Probable Lines: Not sure what Tortorella is thinking- but he seems to have tried a little Sean with Gabs and Prospal on Saturday. I would like to see Avery get a real shot on the first line. Beyond that – especially with Lisin having been benched – I don't know what Tortorella will do.

On Defense: Still no Redden and still Bobby Sanguinetti in his place. Rangers are 0-2 without Wade (I know, but it's true).

Dave Puck Predicts: We're tumbling off the playoff face of the earth right now. We need a win to restore our confidence and to halt this two game losing streak. We've got two things going for us tonight that we didn't have Saturday: Lundqvist and home ice. We're also mad as hell. Will that be enough to propel us to a win? I sure hope so. I'm saying a 4-3 win. In OT.

Sorry other people (by pucks junior)

Yesterday I posted that other people were copying me and my juniorness. But then some awesome dude with guts told me to shut up and that it was a sign of flattery. Thanks I needed that. Keep on posting everybody.

Lost Weekend

Hang in there fellow Blueshirt Brothers – as losses go this was an interesting one. Playing the world champs in their own arena – we may have lost but we did not go quietly. Missing several players – some to injury: Dubinsky and Redden (I know – but just go with it), and some to Tortorella's decisions - Lundqvist and Lisin - our heroes fought as long as as hard as they could – but when the breaks went against them and and the Penguins were just too much, at least we went down with honor. Well, actually we started fights and were sore losers – but that was fun to watch and showed some spirit.

In the end the score was more lopsided than the game really was – we were down 3-2 with ONE SECOND LEFT IN THE SECOND PERIOD before a 56 foot wrist shot from Mark Eaton founds it's way past Valiquette with 0.4 seconds on the clock. Still we fought back with a goal from (and yes I checked it twice) Michal Rozsival 33 seconds in to the 3rd to make it 4-3. But the roof fell in after that, we fell behind, we got in some fights, were penalized, gave up power play goals and in the end it was 8-3. The worst aspect of the evening is that the hated Sidney Crosby got a hat trick on Penguins Hat Night – so the Pittsburgh fan just about covered the ice with hats when Crosby got his third goal of the evening.

The best part of the evening's ugliness was Don Brashear continuing to throw punches around the linesmen who was trying to separate Punch-Man from Matt Cooke. Brash is such a veteran fighter that he landed a few going around the ref's body. And not to be left behind – our Sean Avery collected 17 minutes of penalty time for his fight with Fedotenko.

What I like is the fight – literal and figurative – this team displayed. The Monday night rematch – with Hank back in net and the team at home – should be interesting to watch. Hang in there friends – we got 3 goals and with Hank – that might well have been enough. And sooner or later there are a bunch of guys who will start scoring.

Okay – the unhappy recap:

The Goalies: In a way this game was over when Torts picked Stevie V. But Valiquette hung in there fairly well for a while – making some good saves in the first 39 minutes and 59 seconds of play – where we stopped 20 of 23 shots. But in the end it got worse and Steve let in a terrible 8 goals on 33 shots by the time the night was over. I'm still saying – let's give someone else a shot at the #2 goalie slot. We're not getting enough from Vali.

Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 22 of the 25 shots he faced – good enough for the win.

Special Teams: Our butts, once again, kicked. Rangers 0-3 on te PP and Penguins 2-7. That's your hockey game right there.

The New Veteran Rangers: Two assists for Gaborik – who was shadowed all night by Penguin defensemen. And assist for Kotalik and Prospal. Mr. Higgins, however, was pointless with 6 shots and a -2 on the night.

The Kid Rangers scored a goal from Matt Gilroy and got an assist from Sean.

The Returning Rangers did well for a change, contributing goals from Marc Staal and Michal Rozsival (!) and assists from Avery and Captain Chris.

Defense on Offense: All three Rangers goals came from our defensemen. Not a bad night. Of course letting up 8 goals takes some of the shine off the accomplishment.

In Conclusion: Well, if we're not good enough to beat the NHL champs in their own building – we've got plenty of company. This was rough 2 days for the hockey club – out two game winning streak now flipped on it's head. But think about it – we've got some scoring – we got some defense and we've got some goaltending. And we've got a coach who won the Stanley Cup. So I think we've got enough to turn this around. But can we do it? That's the mystery of this season.

That and how – with Gaborik and Prospal and a full year of Tortorella – can we be worse than we were last year?

Oh yeah – and why was Lisin benched? And has Tortorella created a rift with his franchise goaltender?

Next Up: Sunday off – then home for the rematch to the Penguins.
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Where We Stand. It's bad. We're below the line-of-death in 10th place, tied in points with Philadelphia and the hated Islanders.

I was right (by Pucks Junior)

I'm going to stop watching. We're losing 3-1 in the first. We've been playing OK. The reason that we're losing is because the rangers are Henrik Lundqvist. Everyone's going to be pumped for Monday's rematch.

I WAS WRONG!!!

Thank goodness I was wrong. Vali's playing awesome. MARK STAAL!! It was an awesome goal

Oh No! (by Pucks Junior)

Steve Valiquette in goal, it had to be done. It's a dumb call by Torts. He should have rest Lundqvist yesterday,But his pride got the best of him. I wonder what will happen...

GameNight: Rangers - Penguins

As my 11 year old son said below - we've got an angry goalie and a game with the defending World Champions tonight. Sorry for not having the full Recap or Preview today - it was our Editor's wedding - but BlueShirt Brothers is back up and running tonight and ready for action.

The early indication is that Lundqvist, who angrily skated off the ice to the locker room instead of the bench when Tortorella pulled him yesterday, will sit today. We would have rather had Hank sit Friday and play Saturday - but we can understand Tortorella's idea here. He doesn't want the 'Guins to see Hank in back to back games.

You know how we are right now. The team hasn't been playing well, we're going without our top goalie and we're playing the best hockey team in the world on their home ice.

So no Dave Puck predicts tonight - I'd rather stay positive and hope for the best. It should be fun (that is at least somewhat non-gut-wrenching) to watch Gaborik and Crosby in the same game.

Much more later - let's go Rangers.

A Secret Here at the BlueShirt Office (by Pucks Junior)

My dad Dave Pucks doesn't want to talk about it, but there are a few other hockey bloggers out there ripping us off. CUT IT OUT! I am THE Junior in the Hockey blogging world, so why all of a sudden there is some other Juniors on other hockey blogs? Just asking.

Anyway - Recap and Preview below.