The Wrap: Rangers 8, Lightning 2. When it rains....

Tuesday January 19, 2010 10:34 PM By Steve Zipay

               OK, ladies and gents, let's start with Marian Gaborik, Marc Staal and Chris Drury, who summed things up quite nicely.

              "It was just one of those games," Gabby said. "I try to draw people to me and guys were getting open. It was a team effort and one of those nights where everything was going in. We deserved it. We haven;t been scoring that many goals lately. We played physical and played well as a team."

              "It was a long time coming," said Staal. "We were creating chances,m but we weren't getting rewarded. Our guys are hitting holes, moving and it made oit easy to find them. It was nice the last couple games, to hity the back of the net. Hopefully, it keeps on rolling."

            "I think a lot of guys are feeling good mentally," said Drury. Asked about Aaron Voros fight before fans could settle in with beers and popcorn, he said: "When you see a guy like that willing to do that right off the hop, ten seconds in, I think it gets the guys' attention."

            And this beauty from Tampa coach Rick Tocchet:  "Every facet of the game, they outdid us. You can go down the list. The only thing we did, was the bus was on time to get us to the game. The bus driver was the best thing we had.".

           Here's my gamer, with stats and more quotes:

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The Wrap: Avery's four-point explosion darkens Stars

Wednesday January 6, 2010 11:03 PM By Steve Zipay

                Like a tornado that suddenly appeared in a calm sky, Sean Avery cut through the unusual silence of his season last night, yapping and shoving and most importantly, scoring against any team, especially his old one.

                Avery's power-play slapshot past Dallas' Marty Turco tied the game at 1 after a deflection had given Dallas the lead just 3:22 earlier in the first period. But Avery, who had just four goals and 11 assists on the season. was far from done. His bump-and-grind was back. In the end, with three assists as well, he tied his single game career high, March 17, 2007 against Boston, as the Rangers kayoed the Stars, 5-2.

              "It's a pretty good night when you have four points against a team that didn;t want you," said Henrik Lundqvist. "He was Sean at his best tonight, a lot of energy..."

               Avery's 13:20 effort in a chippy game---OK, he was off for 12 minutes in penalties, including a silly misconduct---was relentless and pushed the Rangers to their second consecutive win at the Garden, the first double-shot since Oct. 14 . The victory also lifted the Rangers to 7-1-2 in the last 10, and they will face the Thrashers in Atlanta on Thursday night.

                "I can take a lot of good things out of tonight, but it really doesn;t mean anything unless I play that way tomorrow," said Avery, who had been signed to a four year deal by Dallas and then banished for his "sloppy seconds" comments last season. "I think in general our game is starting to come."

                Coach John Tortorella was pleased by Avery's long-overdue performance. "I'm happy for the guy.  As I said prior to the game, he has strggled of late. I wish he didn;t take the misconduct (for charging Jere Lehtinen after Ales Kotalik's goal). He plays with an edge. He makes a helluva play of Dru's goal (when he stole the puck from Matt Niskanen along the left boards deep in the zone, spun to the net and found Drury in front for a deflection that made the score 4-2.) He is an important part to our hockey club when he plays on edge and when he plays a north-south game." 

              Give the penalty kill (six for six) major credit also. The Stars had just four shots on goal in 10:33 of PP time, including 54 seconds of a 5 on-3, when Dan Girardi blocked two and perhaps three shots and finished a plus-3 in a game-high 23:09.

              "It would be nice to get on a roll here," said Kotalik, whose long blast from 8:23 in the second blew past Turco for a 3-2 lead. "I don't know if Turco didn't see it or what, sometimes it's just best to put it on net, that's what the coaches are telling me." 

BY THE NUMBERS

                   Lundqvist (25 saves, including a flat-out robbery of Jamie Benn on a breakway that preserved a 3-2 lead) has held opponents to two of fewer goals in 13 of the last 16...Erik Christensen had an assist on Gaborik's 28th goal, and has two goals and three assist in four games. He could have had another goal if not for a belly-slide by Stephane Robidas in front of a net that Turco vacated trying to make a stop at 4-2....Matt Gilroy had his first assist since returning from the minors eight games ago.... Michal Rozsival has eight assists in his last 10 games...Dallas' Mike Ribiero didn't return after an incident in the second period when Chris Higgins inadvertently caught him in the throat with his stick at center ice....Both Dallas goals came on deflections, the first caromed off a sliding Marc Staal and the second glanced off Drury's stick...  Turco had an assist on the first goal and Lundqvist appeared to kick the puck before Callahan's rush for the final empty-netter, but it was officially unassisted...

Rangers-Bruins, live game thread

Monday January 4, 2010 6:16 PM By Steve Zipay

               Still about an hour away from the drop of the puck. Either I'm coming down with something---a little chilled---or the AC's on here at the Garden. That's efficient.

               Henrik Lundqvist will start his 16th stright---tying a career high---and Tuukka Rask, not Tim Thomas, will start for the Bs. Could be that Chad Johnson will start in Atlanta Thursday and Lundqviost comes back against the Bruins at TD BankNorth Saturday afternoon.

               Expected lines tonight:

              Brandon Dubinsky-Erik Christensen-Marian Gaborik
              Christopher Higgins-Chris Drury-Ryan Callahan
              Sean Avery-Artem Anisimov-Ales Kotalik
              Donald Brashear-Brian Boyle-Enver Lisin

              Marc Staal-Dan Girardi
              Michael Del Zotto-Michal Rozsival
              Wade Redden-Matt Gilroy

               FYI, before the Rangers face the Bruins on Saturday, they will practice on Friday at Boston University (alma mater of Chris Drury and Matt Gilroy). Looking forward to that. Recall seeing Blueshirts practicing at Northeastern one season.

              Reminder: For free, real-time news and random comments on sports and the rest of the North American hullabaloo, join the growing caravan who follow me at home and on the road, on streets, highways, arenas, farms, fields, hotels and taverns at twitter.com/stevezipay

            More in a few...

 FIRST PERIOD

Girardi-Del Zotto starting with Dubinsky-Christensen-Gaborik....Avery bangs Boychuk on boards...fourth line on now...Lisin zips one over the bar....Rangers PP with Dan Paille off for tripping at 3:13...Rask gloves Dubinsky's shot from the left circle, the Rangers' second of the PP, which ends without a real threat... A flurry of shots ends with Staal slapper hitting Rask square int he mask, shots 5-4 Rangers...Sobotka, at 7:31 called for holding, and Rangers are handed second power play. They are 2 for last 24....Another penalty for Bs at 9:58, crowd booing Rozy. Kotalik's goal was his first since Nov. 5... Gaborik's two shots from left point miss net early in short 5-on-3, but Ales Kotalik scores on ensuing 5 on 4 slapper inside near post, 1-0 NYR. Rangers then don't cash in on another PP...It is the first time in six games that the Rangers have scored first...At 17:30, too many men for the Rangers. Bs PP coming up....But Rangers hold em off, and Dubinsky almost beats Rask five-hole.

RANGERS 1, BRUINS 0 END OF ONE

B's have territorial edge early..15:01 left.... Marc Savard collides with Lundqvist's head (no call) and the goaltender himself, after stoppage, goes into corner scrum to complain, then has more to say to linesman Steve Miller....Erik Christensen then shoves puck one-handed thru Rask after cutting in from right sid eon a rush. 2-0 Rangers on his seocnd of the season, and Dubinsky's second assist at 7:34. Del Zotto started play with headman pass to center ice...The goal is Christensen's fourth point in three games since being installed on first line and the first time in five games that the Rangers have built a two-goal lead...Lundqvist makes nice blocker save on Recchi...And now Gaborik off with 5:34 left. Delay of game. Key moment in the period, 2nd PP for Bruins.

The Morning Skate: Staal, Prospal, Rozy not on Olympic rosters

Wednesday December 30, 2009 1:10 PM By Steve Zipay

               And that leaves Ryan Callahan as pretty much the final Rangers candidate for the Vancouver Games when Team USA is announced on Friday. John Tortorella, an assistant coach for the team, said the American brass had an "extensive" conference call on Monday and noted that Callahan "didn't need any help on my part. People know the kind of player he is." 

              Marc Staal was not one of seven D announced for Canada, but in my opinion, could be among the injury replacement players; Rozsival, who did not play in 2006, was not amnong the eight D selected by the Czech Republic, and Prospal, who deserved to be on the team, is out two to three weeks following a knee scope. If there's an injury, there's an outside chance he could be tabbed as a replacement.

             Rozsival, who said his rough start this season may have impacted his chances, said he wasn't disappointed (but sounded a little like it). "Obviously, it's something you'd like to be a part of, but there's nothing I can do about it. Definitely, I’ll be watching and cheering for them," he said. "I’ve got a job to do here. I can’t really worry about that.” In shockers, Henrik Lundqvist (Sweden) and Marian Gaborik (Slovakia), were chosen earlier this week.

            As for tonight against the Flyers, Chris Drury did not practice for the second day---although Tuesday was a personal day. Tortorella described him as being "under the weather last night" and was sent home. Eric Christensen will dress for Prospal and Aaron Voros would step in for Drury if necessary. Brandon Dubinsky will replace Prospal on the first PP unit.

           Torts also rejected speculation that backup G Chad Johnson would face Carolina tomorrow in Raleigh. "He'll play in January," he said.

          REMINDER: For real-time news and commentary (bout 10 tweets today already), and hyperlinks to Blue Notes, follow yours truly for free at  twitter.com/stevezipay 

The Wrap from Raleigh: Three straight roadies, Rangers 3, Canes 1

Monday December 21, 2009 11:21 PM By Steve Zipay

The recap from Raleigh: the game story, more quotes and extra numbers:

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I was looking for more coffee after the first 40 minutes here at RBC Center. And it wasn't the pulled pork dinner that was making me drowsy.

Neither the Rangers or Hurricanes generated much electricity for much of last night’s game. 

There were the two sparks at the start of the second period, first when Sergei Samsonov curled behind the net for a wraparound at 46 seconds after Henrik Lundqvist had stopped a shot at the post with his left skate. Then Marian Gaborik responded with another timely goals, his 25th overall of the season just 28 seconds later to tie the game at 1, before the defense settled in.

Leave it to Brandon Dubinsky, whose backhand pass from behind the net led to the first goal, to finally light the fuse.

He roofed a backhander over Cam Ward at 1:21 of the third period on a pretty feed from Gaborik for a 2-1 lead.

Forechecking and neutral zone grinding prevented odd-man rushes until Marc Staal’s 130-foot empty-netter with 33 seconds left sealed the 3-1 win, the Rangers third consecutive victory.

It is their first such stitched-together streak since beating the Maple Leafs on Oct. 17.

Dubinsky’s goal was his first in the five games since he returned from a broken right hand suffered in Calgary on Nov. 7 and was sidelined for 13 games. Before the game, he removed the plastic shield that protected the injury and a device that limited his flexibility.

“It takes a while to get back into the groove of things and when I first came back my hand wasn’t where I wanted it to be,” said Dubinsky, who also won 12 of 19 faceoffs. “Tonight was the first time I was able to play without having my hand covered, not to make excuses, but anytime you’re hindered by anything it makes it harder. I’ve tried hard and worked hard and tonight I took a big step, producing a little bit which, let’s face it, is one of my jobs being on the top line; I’ve gotta get some points.”

After Dubinsky’s go-ahead goal, the Rangers played a far stronger third period than in the 2-1 win in Philadelphia on Saturday for their third straight road win and inched above .500 at 17-16-3. “I thought we were more on our toes and really tried to sustain our forecheck, and Dubi’s line led the way there,” said coach John Tortorella. “I thought he fought the puck a little in the first period, but he gave us a lot of good minutes in the second and third.”

 Henrik Lundqvist, who made 32 saves against the Eastern Conference cellar-dwellers, said the Rangers didn’t “try to overplay things…sometimes when you want to do too much, you’re all over the place. You can see when we’re in the lead, there’s not a lot of odd-man rushes, right now as a team we are playing smarter. When you’re winning, you don’t drain yourself between games. When you’re losing you think a lot, when you’re winning you can relax.”

  Beside Lundqvist, Gaborik, who was held off the scoresheet on Saturday in Philadelphia, left his usual mark: he has a point or more in 28 of 34 games. And much-maligned Michal Rozsival had an assist and played another impressive, physical game.

“There’s things we can do better in these games, but we’re starting to turn things around,” said Dubinsky. “Hank’s playing awesome, we’re playing pretty good team d and if we can start burying a few more chances, we can take some pressure off ourselves in the third periods.”

 Torts:"We're growing, I think the grit of the team is improving...Not just in our own zone but along the boards int he neutral zone to try to get into a forecheck. It was a better game for uis than the Philly game/ I thought we played a better third period. SO as far as the battle level and grind of the game, I think we're improving there."

Canes coach Paul Maurice: "There were good chances at both end and both teams needed tennis racquets...They did a pretty good job, their defense, they collapsed the front of the net, their goaltender gets down low and played a lot of rebounds that we couldn't get a handle on. "

Brian Boyle, who was grabbing a hot dog in the corridor outside the upstairs press box, was moving gingerly, but said his lower back was improving. "It happens about once a year, but this one made me just pull up," said Boyle, who felt the twinge in Philly. "You know I couldn't move, it would've been a 3 on 2 and I dumped it.

BY THE NUMBERS

The Rangers are 10-7-2 on the road and 7-9-1 at the Garden, where they open a three-game homestand on Wednesday against Florida...The Blueshirts haven't won at home since Nov. 23 against Columbus...The Rangers had just six shots in the second period....Lundqvist has stopped 103 of the last 107 shots; he has started 10 in a row...Michal Rozsival and Marc Staal played 24-plus minutes each. Staal said he had "a ton of time" (on his empty-netter from the left circle in the Rangers zone) and couldn't find a pass. I didn't want to flip it up the boards, or it would have been icing, so I shot it and was fortunate that it went in." It was Staal's fourth of the season....

The No. 6 ranked PK was 3-for-3...Dubinsky now had four goals and nine assists...Rozsival, who saved a potential goal by tying up Eric Staal's stick while facing a half-open net, has four assists in his last seven games and is playing his best hockey of the year....Vinny Prospal's 24th assist came on the game-winner...As for the second chancers, Wade Redden played 18:46 and was OK; Matt Gilroy played 15:36 including 31 seconds on the power play and was a plus-1. Ales Kotalik bounced around between lines for 11:36 and was on the ice for Samsonov's goal...Ward made 28 saves in his sixth game since returning from a left leg laceration in early November against Columbus...

Rangers All-Decade Team: My ballot

Wednesday December 16, 2009 8:21 AM By Steve Zipay

After a Tweet and blog-free day and gearing up for a home and home against the Isles, what better way to lock the door and turn the key on the Oughts (the countdown has started at Chez Zipay) than the Blue Notes Rangers All-Decade Team?

As we all know, Blueshirts pretty much spit the bit in the early '00s, then made the playoffs four straight after the lockout. Your first impression of the below may be, "Jeez, there must be more, Dr. Z must have sampled the eggnog early. He must be missing somebody..." Well, give it a shot. Yep, tough to eliminate Ulanov, I know. Kidding.

The player of the decade? Jaromir Jagr.

OK, there's not a lot of depth at LW (so positions are not ultra-strict) and D; the top RWs and Gs are not difficult. Please weigh in and fill out your ballots on the message board. Certainly willing to open rational (ahem) debate....Have at it.

Forwards
Martin Straka-Mark Messier-Jaromir Jagr
Brendan Shanahan-Michal Nylander-Alex Kovalev
Eric Lindros-Petr Nedved-Martin Rucinsky
Matthew Barnaby-Chris Drury-Ryan Callahan

Defense
Brian Leetch-Marc Staal
Michal Rozsival-Tom Poti
Fedor Tyutin-Darius Kasparaitis

Goalies
Henrik Lundqvist
Mike Richter (2000-2003)

Spares
Radek Dvorak, Jan Hlavac, Pavel Bure, Theo Fleury. (Presumably, Marian Gaborik will be here next time.)

Coach
Tom Renney

As always, feel free to join the teeming masses who track me daily for updates and commentary at twitter.com/stevezipay

The Wrap from Chicago: Tortorella, Lundqvist quotes, stats

Thursday December 10, 2009 12:00 AM By Steve Zipay

           Some choice stuff from the coach in the wake of the 2-1 overtime loss to the Hawks, in which Henrik Lundqvist was heroic in regulation, in which the Rangers were called for three penalties in the third period and Chicago tied the game on the final one of five overall, and in which the Rangers had a season-low one shot in the third period.

          Stats to ponder: Patrick Sharp had 10 shots; Duncan Keith had five. The Rangers had 18. Marian Gaborik, who had an assist but has been blanked in five of the last six games, had two shots.  

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             Tortorella: "They had the puck the whole night. When we had opportunities to get the puck we didn't do it, we weren't strong enough to take it away from them, they were in our blue (the crease) all night long."

             Torts on Lundqvist, who made 39 saves on 41 shots: "He's about the only one who played. Fourth line, Lundqvist, penalty killers...It's unacceptable."   

             More Torts:  "Forget about offense, that's not my concern tonight, it's just a level of competing, which was void as far as I'm concerned."

          "I've seen the effort in recent games. If guys thought they were trying tonight, they're in for a rude awakening. And that's the best team we've played all year long, and I understand that. I haven't been upset with the effort, it's funny, we get no points against Detroit and I thought we played well. I thought we stunk tonight and ended up getting a point."               

            "On the winner, (by Dustin Byfuglien, who went right on Lundqvist and slipped it back to the left) Vinny gets his shot blocked, and I know Gilly gets skated by."                       

Lundqvist:

             "I'm so disappointed right now, a couple tough calls on penalties in the end and they tied the game, it felt like we had the chance to sneak this one. I felt like maybe they were the better team, but..."

            "We worked so hard to get the win and its hurts so much, especially when you give up the late goals and not being able to get the two points. It's painful. "

            Lundqvist also took a swipe at Patrick Kane, who drew two of the penalties. "I think that guy, he went down a couple times there, he's a small guy and two times we touched him and he went down. That's frustrating."   

****

            Let's face it, a team with that many offensive weapons was bound to score at one point. It's amazing they didn't have six.             

            Here's Marc Staal: "We were chasing it in their zone a lot and that wears on guys. We took some penalties that we didn't need to take...The way Hankie played he deserved two points. We come out of here with one and they're a good team, so we've got to come back and try to win the next one. When you have the puck in our zone, that weighs on our goaltender."  

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         The Hawks have won all four of their overtime games...The Rangers are 14-14-2 and face the Sabres at home on Saturday...Four Rangers d-men had zero shots: Del Zotto, Girardi, Gilroy and Rozsival  

Rangers-Penguins live game thread

Saturday November 28, 2009 7:41 PM By Arthur Staple

 Steve Valiquette in net for the Rangers, Marc-Andre Fleury for the Pens. Both teams coming off losses yesterday. On we go.

Penguins 4, Rangers 2, end of 2nd

A crusher by Mark Eaton with 0.4 seconds left makes the Rangers' climb a bit steeper. As usual, they only have themselves to blame, with Michal Rozsival allowing Brooks Orpik to charge the net on a chance, retrieve the rebound and start the play around the boards to Eaton, whose shot barely beat the horn.

P.A. Parenteau, Chris Higgins and Vinny Prospal were also out there, along with Michael Del Zotto, who's a minus-4 despite not playing all that poorly.

Matt Gilroy scored on a wrist shot with Sean Avery causing trouble in front for a 3-2 game with 5:17 left in the period, and the Rangers carried the play for much of the second.

It was all wasted by the laziness in the final seconds, though.

Penguins 3, Rangers 1, end of 1st

Well, there's that... The Rangers were not as bad as they were in Tampa, even if the score says so. They generated a rush, they made some decent plays in their own zone, Steve Valiquette actually made a handful of terrific saves... And yet they're still getting hammered.

Marc Staal did get them on the board first at 8:50 with a decisive rush and a nifty backhand past Fleury.

But after that, the Penguins took over. Well, Sid Crosby took over, to be precise.

After a thoughtless icing with Donald Brashear and Aaron Voros on the ice, the Pens put Crosby and Evgeni Malkin out. Crosby outmuscled Matt Gilroy behind the net and Malkin swept in the rebound to tie it at 14:37.

Then, the roof caved in. Four Rangers were back to break up Alex Goligoski's rush as the Pens changed, but Michael Del Zotto's poke check sent the puck right to Crosby, who weaved in amongst the flat-footed Rangers and wired a wrist shot over Valiquette's stick at 17:43.

Just 46 seconds later, Chris Drury and Del Zotto both went at Crosby on the off-wing boards and nobody picked up Max Talbot as the trailer. He went in alone and beat Valiquette for a 3-1 Penguins lead.

Chris Drury set to play for Rangers on Wednesday

Tuesday November 24, 2009 12:47 PM By Arthur Staple

 The Rangers captain practiced fully today, centering Enver Lisin and Ryan Callahan, and pronounced himself ready to go barring a huge setback. Drury still has to fly with the team today to Fort Lauderdale for tomorrow's game with the Panthers, but he is ready.

So is his coach.

"If I don't think he's able to play in a certain situation, I'll rest him, but he's going full-bore against Florida," John Tortorella said.

Ales Kotalik may not. Kotalik missed today's practice with a "body" injury. He took a hard check behind the Blue Jackets net in the second period last night. He'll be a game-time decision.

Not that the Rangers want one of their top-9 forwards out, but this may be a good thing for continuity. The Chris Higgins-Vinny Prospal-Marian Gaborik and Sean Avery-Artem Anisimov-P.A. Parenteau lines will stay intact, and those two units generated six of the Rangers' seven goals last night.

Tortorella and Marc Staal had a chat on the ice after practice, discussing some of what Tortorella termed Staal's "inconsistency" this season. Staal was a plus-4 last night and held Rick Nash off the scoresheet.

"For a stretch there I was kind of in-between on a lot of plays," Staal said. "Whether I should jump up or get back -- I wasn't reacting as well as I should have. I'm just trying to get back on track and concentrate on playing really good defense, shutting down the guys I'm playing against."