Ugh. Get well soon Anton! (Photo: Sarah Connors/flickrs)

It’s over twelve hours later and I still don’t feel any remorse for the post I wrote last night. Usually I do by now but that’s how badly I think they played. And to hear Torts say “the effort is there”… I honestly just want the season to be over. Which means I expect them to pull out a couple of wins to prolong our agony. As I said, their motto should be “the hard way”.

As for practice today, a couple of good and bad notes. First off, it was an optional practice. I want an explanation of why. I get it’s late in the season (but let’s be honest, it’s really February for these guys) but after a game like last night and their backs completely against the wall, how do you not have an actual full practice today?

The good news is the three guys who missed yesterday’s game, Marc Staal, Darroll Powe and Ryane Clowe, were all on the ice. Clowe, in particular, is a great sign as I was beginning to wonder if he was still with the team. He only skated briefly but even getting on the ice is a good start. I have no idea if any of them are close to being ready but my guess is it won’t matter too much. Carl Hagelin, who was hurt during the third period last night, also skated so he should be fine to go tomorrow.

» Continue reading “Practice Updates From Possibly The Last Rangers Practice Of The Season”

I’m sorry Henrik. You, like the fans, deserve better than what you have to deal with right now. (Photo: Melissa Andus)

Did I say the Rangers wouldn’t be swept in this series? Yeah, I take that back. Because right now they deserve to be.

I can sit here and recap this game but I think the title says it all. You have a team of professional athletes who supposedly want to win a Stanley Cup. Supposedly. After tonight I’m really beginning to wonder if they do or they just want to play a coupe extra games, get whatever playoff bonus they can and then go play golf.

Going into tonight they were down 0-2 due to bounces. Game one was winnable. Game two they had until an early goal in the third period. So you would think, with their backs against the wall, they would come out with a fight tonight and do whatever they could to win this game. Instead I got to watch whatever that just was for the last two and a half hours. Honestly, I put more effort into making dinner tonight than the Rangers did on the ice and my dinner consisted of a friend heating up leftovers. I wasn’t even the one to put them in the oven.

» Continue reading “No Effort + No Heart = Rangers One Loss Away From Elimination”

Don’t look at me like that. I still played more than you would have if you were in the lineup. (Photo: Melissa Andus)

I skipped game two of this little game and it didn’t go well for the boys so we’re starting it up again. (Yes I realize they lost when I guessed in game one…but at least the score was close in that game.) For game one, I guessed Brian Boyle would play 16:42 in regulation. This time I was off by 23 seconds as he played 17:05 (I’m getting good at this).

This time I figured I would pick a player we will all be watching tonight to see if he can bounce back. (I’m not even questioning it, I know he can.) He had his lowest time on ice for the year playing under twenty minutes for the first time this season. I guess that’s what happens when you’re technically a minus-5 in a game. (Stat sheet showed minus-4 since he was on for one of the Rangers goals.)

Not only do I not expect him to be anywhere near that unlucky defensively again, but I also expect him to play more minutes. I have this belief that his minutes have a direct correlation to how the Rangers do. Look at when the team loses. Those are usually the nights Girardi doesn’t lead the team in ice time. Being it’s a home game, Tortorella can get his matchups so I think that will prevent his ice time from getting ridiculous. I’m going to go with 24:52. There’s really no rhyme or reason to that but that’s the number that popped into my head, so I’m going with it.

What does everyone else think?

I love the guy on the left but in regards to the one on the right…please be okay, please be okay, please be okay… (Photo: Bridget Samuels/flickr)

So how about that game yesterday? Yeah I don’t want to talk about it either. Did you know that no team in history has rallied back from consecutive 2-0 deficits? Well, there’s always a first.

Honestly I have no idea what to expect so not going to try to guess. I did think this was another series that would be tied after four. I just thought they’d split at home and on the road. Oh well. I know the Rangers motto is “the right way” but at this point I think it needs to be changed to “the hard way”.

In regards to actual news, there isn’t much of it today. The main thing everyone was worried about was Henrik Lundqvist’s shoulder, which he apparently hurt late in the third period yesterday afternoon (as if that period could get any worse for the visiting team). The good news is he practiced today and said he would be fine. The bad news is he said it was sore but he could play through it. I’m thinking that will be an issue. If for some reason he can’t go, I think we can all agree the Rangers are done (all due respect to Marty Biron who is an above average goaltender).

» Continue reading “Rangers Walking Wounded: No News Is Bad News”

Thanks for finally showing up! Too bad the rest of the team is exhausted (Photo: Melissa Andus)

So… this is starting to look familiar, isn’t it? The Rangers opening their series on the road with two straight losses. While I think the Rangers are looking much better in the second round than they did in the first, drawing out the first round to seven games didn’t do the team any favors in terms of fitness and reserves. So, we’re still missing Clowe, Staal, and Powe, the defense is clearly exhausted, and a 1 in 5 road record is… not great.

Well, let’s beat this dead horse!

» Continue reading “Not Even Nash Can Save Rangers In Second Loss To Boston”

At least he’s working out off ice… (Photo: Melissa Andus)

Honestly, there wasn’t much news from the Rangers practice earlier today. No one new was on the ice so the lineup is expected to remain the same for game two tomorrow, a game the Rangers kind of have to win.

As for updates on our injured players, Marc Staal snuck on the ice towards the end of the optional skate the Rangers held yesterday but was not out there today. The good news is he did skate and is in Boston. Another player in Boston is Darroll Powe, who was seen doing off-ice workouts yesterday as well. Ryane Clowe, on the other hand, is still in New York (or at least I assume he’s in New York since he isn’t with the team in Boston). That isn’t good news.

The only other news to come out of practice today was this quote from Tortorella:

» Continue reading “Practice Updates: News On Staal, Clowe, Powe + Off Ice Adjustments Needed?”

After last night’s game, one thing became abundantly clear – the New York Rangers are horrible in overtime. I don’t know the exact numbers but I think it’s gotten to the point that if a game involving the Rangers goes to overtime, people should just try to guess who on the opposing team will score the winner. Here was Tortorella after the game:

“I thought it was pretty even going into the overtime,” coach John Tortorella said. “But we got spanked in the overtime.”

Yes your team did. And I know a lot of people will try and blame you but I can’t see it being your fault the guys played one way for 60 minutes (they actually played 60 minutes, more or less) and then the exact opposite over the next 20 or however long overtime lasts in that particular game. It doesn’t make sense.

Anyway, rather than try and figure out why it happens, I figured everyone might like a reminder that the Rangers can indeed win in overtime:

» Continue reading “A Reminder The Rangers Can Win In Overtime”

Get used to this Rangers and Bruins fans. Not so much the outcome, as I expect that to fluctuate each game, but the style of play and length of the game. Maybe we should start a pool for how many minutes will be played in this series. These two teams are just so identical that I can’t imagine we see anything else. I just wish the Rangers wouldn’t have blown a game where our two boys from Minnesota scored.

The first twenty minutes were exactly what I expected from this series – good defensive hockey that just put everyone to sleep. I can’t say either team played poorly. I can’t say they played well either. Let’s just say both teams did what they were told to do. The result? Nothing happened in the first period.

» Continue reading “Minny Boys Score But It’s Not Enough As Bruins Win In OT”

Can you do this again tonight? Without getting a penalty of course (Photo: deb/flickr)

A new series means we get to keep playing our game of guessing the ice time of a Rangers player in that nights’ game. For game seven I predicted Brad Richards would play 11:34. I was off by 22 seconds.

In picking today’s “contestant” (if you will), I wasn’t sure which direction to go since we have no idea what to expect from this series other than low scoring, tight checking games that will probably be longer than 420 minutes (i.e. 7 games at 60 minutes a piece).

So I went with the local boy – Brian Boyle. I don’t think it’s a secret Boyle grew up a Bruins fan right outside of Boston. If you weren’t sure, just listen to him speak. Deciding his ice time, however, was tricky. He technically plays on the third line (assuming the lines stay as they were the last two games, which I expect them to do). But he also is great on face-offs and kills penalties so that all plays into his ice time. We also don’t know matchups.

In the last series, he ranged from 11:29 to 23:29 per night. As the series went on, he was closer to the higher number so I expect him to see more than third line minutes. Just not that high. My completely random guess (remember, regulation only) is 16:42. (Let it be known I originally had 14:42 but thought that was too low.)

Now it’s your turn – how much does the local boy play?

I have an idea…let’s turn this into a hockey rink! (Photo: John Dalton)

This isn’t so much breaking news (no matter what the NHL tries to tell us) as it is an official announcement of what we all knew weeks ago – the Rangers will be playing two games outdoors in Yankee Stadium next January. From the official release:

The 2014 Coors Light NHL Stadium Series will see the three New York City metropolitan NHL teams play a pair of games at the home of the New York Yankees. The New York Rangers will face the New Jersey Devils at 12:30 p.m. ET on Jan. 26, 2014, and the Rangers will face the New York Islanders at 7:30 p.m. ET on Jan. 29, 2014.

Rangers-Islanders in a spectacle game on a Wednesday night. Yeah, that should go well. At least the Rangers-Devils game is a Sunday afternoon one.

The Rangers are expected to be the road team for both of these games because Dolan would never give up home revenue for a game like this unless it was the actual Winter Classic. (Sarcasm aside, I’m sure the Devils and Islanders were promised they would be home games in exchange for the Rangers getting to play two of them.) Ticket information hasn’t been released yet but expect it to be a lottery that no one who is a fan of the two teams will be able to win.

Honestly, I haven’t written much about this because I think the idea of numerous outdoor games is ridiculous. Everyone watches the Winter Classic because it is different from the rest of the season but even that has lost viewers over the years. To add five or six games to that just doesn’t make sense to me. But the NHL doesn’t care about viewers, they care about money. And these games will make them more than the gap between the NHL and NHLPA that caused a three month lockout.