The Rangers’ first two victories of the John Tortorella era came against what you might call inferior opponents: the Colorado Avalanche and New York Islanders. Of course that doesn’t take away from the fact that they were solid victories, each in its own way (the blowout over Colorado was fun and needed; the win over the Islanders was clutch and satisfying). But those are games a playoff team, even a suspect one, needs to win.

Today’s opponent at Madison Square Garden, the Boston Bruins, are a different animal. Yes the B’s only had one win in their last three games coming into the game, but we’re nevertheless talking about the top team in the Eastern Conference. It would be a solid test for the new Rangers, while also giving the team a chance to redeem itself after its last two embarrassing outings on national TV.

Test passed with (almost) flying colors. Redemption achieved. The Blueshirts beat the Bruins 4-3 for their third victory in a row and second in as many games since Tuesday’s NHL trade deadline brought them Sean Avery, Nik Antropov and Derek Morris.

Just like they did in the midweek victory over the New York Islanders, the new players made their impact felt. None more than Avery, who assisted one goal (the Rangers’ third) in vintage fashion and who seemed to energize the team (and the crowd) every time he stepped onto the ice.

Asked if he was a different hockey player, Avery said “no.” A different human being? “Maybe.”

In the first two periods especially, the Rangers at time dominating the visitors through aggressive forechecking schemes. The B’s were able to answer the Rangers first tally when they did finally break through (courtesy of Antropov, who has been stellar in his first two games as a Ranger) but after going down 3-1 were only able to get back in the game due to some stupid double minors picked up by Dan Girardi and Chris Drury. They did so in the first minutes of the third period.

What was most impressive to me was that the Rangers were able to rally to score the winning goal after suffering such a clear shift in momentum. Yes, they got lucky on the winner, but as Tortorella said after the game, “You need to work for your luck.” Amen, Torts. The team is finally doing that now. How far will it take them? Impossible to say at this point, but you have to figure the playoffs are definitely in the cards.

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By “this” I mean the last two games, both very tough road losses that have left the Rangers reeling in fifth place in the Eastern Conference. The Rangers are even on points with the fourth-placed Montreal Canadiens, who have a game in hand and one point ahead of sixth-placed Philadelphia, who have two games in hand. The surging third-placed New Jersey Devils are now way off on the distant horizon, five points ahead with a game in hand.

We can go as far as to pinpoint the precise moment when perhaps (though hopefully not) the fortunes shifted dramatically in the Rangers season: The start of the third period in Pittsburgh last Wednesday. Going into that period, the Rangers and Penguins were tied 1-1 even though the Blueshirts had clearly been the better team up to that point. After the teams traded goals in the first period and New York was essentially dominating Pittsburgh in the second, I remember thinking ‘this is the type of game the Rangers of seasons past would typically lose. Let’s see what happens here because this could be telling.’ The team was coming off impressive back-to-back home victories and seemed to have momentum in its favor. It was playing tough, defensive hockey and more importantly seemed well-disciplined, staying away from silly mistakes such as turnovers and cheap penalties. I had every reason to believe this season would be different from others the past decade and a half. Or so I thought.

Then that third period happened and the team fell apart, playing perhaps its worst 20 minutes this season. Pittsburgh scored three times in the first 10 minutes and the rout was on. The five goals scored against New York in that period were the most in any period so far this season. And still, the Rangers outshot the Penguins in the game, 34-33. Rangers players were as baffled as anybody. “I just played terrible, I can’t explain it,” said Henrik Lundqvist. Paul Mara also called the experience “unexplainable.”

Tom Renney and the coaching staff deserve credit for getting the team to forget the experience and focus on the next game, at Boston on Saturday afternoon. The Rangers played much better, very well even, but still lost, 1-0, thanks largely to an otherworldly goaltending performance by Bruins rookie Tuukka Rask. “We played the best team in the Eastern Conference right to the letter,” Renney said afterwards. And he was right, of course. But as nice as those type of performances are, they become exercises in frustration if the team doesn’t come away with any points. Unfortunately, these are the types of games mediocre teams (ones that go one and done in the playoffs) lose. They’re also the type of losses that leave fans with the impression these are the same ol’ Rangers after all: good on paper, solid for the most part and sometimes even capable of impressive victories. But ultimately lacking any kind of unified core that can get the team back to the Stanley Cup.

Having said all that, it would obviously be premature (not to mention highly irrational) to write off the Rangers season at this point. There are 30 games left to play (31 to be precise) and the team is well placed for the Eastern Conference playoffs. Plus we have Adam Graves night tomorrow; if that doesn’t get the team fired up, nothing will. It’s not unreasonable to expect the event to propel the team on a more definitive momentum-changing streak–a true “turning point” if you will (with a more positive outcome than what is outlined here). Hopefully, that’s what happens. But these are the Rangers, after all. Until somebody like Mark Messier comes along (and unless he’s flanked by Adam Graves and Brian Leetch), “hope” is something better left abandoned. See you tomorrow night.

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While the focus of my efforts here is to analyze and discuss the NHL through a Ranger-tinted lens, I’d be remiss if I neglected to touch upon some of the draft’s other big stories, though most didn’t have much of an impact on the Rangers.

There were 13 trades in the first round of the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, far and away a record. The most notable of these was between the Florida Panthers and Phoenix Coyotes.

1) The Jokinen Trade

Phoenix General Manager Don Maloney, formerly a player and assistant general manager with the Blueshirts, pulled off what most are calling a “steal” by acquiring center Olli Jokinen in exchange for defensemen Keith Ballard, Nick Boynton and the Coyotes’ 2nd round pick, which Florida used to select defenseman Colby Robak.

Jokinen’s name has been at the center of NHL trade rumors for at least two years, so it’s a relief to finally see this saga conclude. When the deal was announced, many were caught off-guard not only because the team that acquired him was Phoenix (the rumors always centered around teams like Calgary, Vancouver, Montreal and Minnesota trying to get their hands on Jokinen), but because the return for him is perceived as being very small.

Although Ballard and Boynton are pretty solid defensemen, they are not the star players most anticipated would go the other way in a Jokinen deal. In my eyes, however, this deal didn’t come as much of a shock at all. Sure, I may not have guessed that Jokinen would go to Phoenix, but the return for him is no shock by any means.

Olli Jokinen is a solid player, a good player, but he’s not a superstar. A lot of people believe he’s an elite player, but two 90-point seasons are not enough to convince me. I like Jokinen, I think he’s a good player, I think for his production (and reputation), his $5 million dollar cap hit is very affordable, but I also see Jokinen as being perhaps the most overrated player in the league.

No NHL player has as many regular season points without a playoff victory. In fact, it’s not even close. Jokinen isn’t a winner, he puts up points but he doesn’t do much to make his club a better team aside from that. He’s a –73 player for his career.

Good deal for Phoenix, as they now have a number of pieces offensively, including Jokinen, Shane Doan, Martin Hanzal, Kyle Turris and Peter Mueller, to build around. Just don’t be shocked that Jokinen brought back so little in return.

2) The 3-Way Deal

I like this trade for each team involved. The Kings’ offense can survive the loss of Mike Cammalleri, who had high salary demands in his sights, while the draft pick they got they used to select a solid young defenseman, Colton Teubert. Calgary, on the other hand, got themselves a talented offensive player in a contract year in Cammalleri, allowing them to unload Alex Tanguay’s salary to Montreal, while still coming out of the draft with a first round pick. As for Anaheim, they were able to trade down a couple of times and re-stock their organizational depth with some solid prospects. Drafting Nicolas Deschamps in the 2nd round was a great pick.

I like Cammalleri’s style of play, and even though the word is he’s a me-first type of guy, he’ll probably play lights-out next season with unrestricted free agency on the horizon.

3) Tanguay to Montreal

I like this deal for the Canadiens. Let’s face it, this team has a tough time signing free agents. Tanguay isn’t an elite player, but he’s a pretty good one and he’ll fit in with the type of players Montreal has. He’s a skilled playmaker and he’s fun to watch, too. They could have still gotten a pretty solid prospect with the 25th pick, but this team is deep in terms of prospects and wants to win now, so this deal makes sense.

4) Umberger dealt to Columbus

It’s so easy to hate the Flyers when they pull of trades like this.

Philly desperately needs the cap room to re-sign Jeff Carter, so they trade a solid 2nd liner in Umberger to Columbus and essentially get a mid-round 1st in a deep draft. That’s not half bad. They picked up Luca Sbisa with the picl, who should be a solid defenseman down the road.

This wasn’t a very good deal for the Blue Jackets, but I understand why General Manager Scott Howson agreed to it. Columbus isn’t exactly a prime destination for free agents, either, while Umberger went to school at Ohio State and has a good relationship with Blue Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock, previously of the Flyers.

Umberger is a nice player and does fill a hole for Columbus, but they could have gotten more for that pick, in my eyes.

5) Islanders and Devils Trade Down

The Islanders and Devils both had pretty good drafts. While I think the Islanders should have used the 5th overall pick to select Nikita Filatov, the player they really need, I understand why they traded down and picked Josh Bailey. They traded down twice and collected some extra picks that allowed them to get quite the haul in the 2nd and 3rd rounds.

While Bailey might have been a bit of a reach at #9, the Isles managed to pick up talented prospects like Corey Trivino and Aaron Ness in the 2nd round, and David Toews (brother of Chicago’s Jonathan), Jyri Niemi and Kirill Petrov in the third.

If the Fishsticks are right about Bailey, then they could be the big winners of this draft, as at least some of those other prospects should develop into really good players.

The Devils, meanwhile, traded down a couple of times and still got a great player in Mattias Tedenby with the 24th pick. I explained in my last post how I hoped that the Rangers would select the crafty Swede, so I guess it’s only fitting that he goes to New Jersey. Figures.

Posted under 2008 Off-Season

With Philly winning in overtime 3-2 last night, the Rangers will now face the Penguins in Round 2 with games on Friday and Sunday in Pittsburgh and Games 3 and 4 at the Garden on Tuesday and Thursday.

Here’s the full schedule:

Game 1: Friday 4/25 at the Igloo 7 p.m.

Game 2: Sunday 4/27 at the Igloo 2 p.m. Game on NBC

Game 3: Tuesday 4/29 at the Garden 7 p.m.

Game 4: Thursday 5/1 at the Garden 7 p.m.

Game 5*: Sunday 5/4 at the Igloo 2 p.m. Game on NBC

Game 6*: Monday 5/5 at the Garden 7 p.m.

Game 7 *: Wednesday 5/7 at the Igloo TBD

*if necessary

The Rangers went 5-3 this year against the Pens. 4-0 at the Garden and 1-3 in Pittsburgh. Two of the Ranger wins were in overtime, including the one win in Pittsburgh and Marc Andre Fleury went 3-2 against the Blueshirts.

They will have to face the star power of Crosby, Malkin and Hossa. and it will be interesting to see if Tom Renney dresses Colton Orr for this matchup, since the fourth line of Betts, Hollweg and Orr did a great job against Crosby this season.

Should be a fun matchup.

I won’t be around for the first few games – getting married this weekend, but I will be watching from afar and checking in from the blackberry or on my laptop. Full reports from here and NYSD return next week.

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Saturday’s games just made matters more complicated with Boston and Washington winning. This is good and bad for the Rangers, since they may get an opponent that’s tired and beaten up, but they still have to wait and won’t be able to prepare until those series are resolved.

That said, the Rangers now face the tricky situation where they will have to stay sharp without knowing who they will play. Last year, we saw that become a problem. After sweeping the Thrashers, the Blueshirts had to wait a week until Round 2 started. They came out flat in Game 1 against the Sabres and then lost the second match.

I asked Jromir Jagr about that after the game on Friday to which he said the team will need to practice like its playing in a game. 

Round 2 is expected to start either Thursday or Friday, so it will be a long layoff for the team.

***  

Too much is being made from the Marty Brodeur snub of Sean Avery. Sure, Avery is a bit annoyed and called Brodeur “Fatso” during his post game interview on the MSG Network.

But to make it out to be some sort of crime is like making Avery’s face guarding play into some sort of international crime.

Bottom line here is this: 77 games is just too much for Brodeur to play in a season and needs to play about 60 at 36 years old. He has burned out in the playoffs the past three seasons and Lou Lamoriello needs to sit down and talk to his goaltender in the offseason.

And if the Devils keep insisting on playing Brodeur so many games, then why keep a veteran like Kevin Weekes in the roster. They would be better served with a goalie from the ‘A’ who can fill in for five games.

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Ok, the Rangers won a round and even though it’s a good thing to dispatch the Devils, the games will probably get a little harder from here on out.

For the next round, the Blueshirts will get three possible opponents depending on what happens in the two remianing series in the Eastern Conference.

The most likely opponent is the Pittsburgh Penguins, who the Rangers went 5-3 this season. They were 4-0 on Garden Ice and 1-3 in the Igloo, so if the trend continues they will win it in seven games. Now the trick with the pens is to do to Marc0-Andre Fleury, what the Blueshirts did to Marty Brodeur. If that can crash the net and get him off the game, they can steal a game in Pittsburgh and then continue Penguin mastery at the Garden.

For the series, Tom Renney may put Colton Orr back in the lineup, because the fourth line of Blair Betts, Ryan Hollweg and Orr, did a great job at shutting down Sidney Crosby during the year, while relying upon the Ranger big guns to come through with less ice time.

Also watch if Jaromir Jagr melt unter the Scott Gomez treatment in Pittsburgh.

Now if the Caps come back and Montreal wins, the Rangers will visit the Bell Centre for game 1. The Blueshirts were 3-0-1 against the Habs, who are relying upon Carey price. As we saw in Game 5, Price can get rattled by little mistakes as the Bruins were able to keep the series alive. In this possible series the Ranger penalty kill needs to shut down the Hab pwer play and also stay out of the box, because the Habs offense is centered around taking advantage of other teams mistakes.

They also will be visiting a hostile Bell Centre, unlike the cushy Prudential Center they got in the first round.

If Boston and Philly win, they the Blueshirts will open at the Garden against the Flyers. They were 5-1-2, but Stephen Valiquette took three of thoise wins. Don’t expect Vali to replace the King in the beginning, but coach Tom Renney may use his backup in this series to change things up. Valiquette has a 1.04 gaa against the Flyers.

On offense, the Rangers need to solve Martin Biron and doing the same things to him as they did to Brodeur should do the trick.

They can also play the Capitals if the Caps and Briuns win their respective series. Again, they will have to deal with Cristobol Huet, who was great in the regular season, but struggled against the Flyers who ran him. However this matchup seems unlikely due to the nature of their round 1 matchup.    

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Tom Renney looked loose as a goose today as he spoke to reporters before the game.

First he mused about a “N/R’ ron the wall at the Prudential Center looked like a “NYR”

Then he spoke about the goalies he played with joking they used to drink more than the defenseman [his position].

Finally he said he was a fan of the Western Conference meaning he could watch the games and enjoy them instead of worrying about coaching.

I guess it’s good to be up 3-1, and not getting relieved of his duties, unlike his counterpart at the Garden. Mercifully Isiah Thomas was relieved of duties and will go onto his next job as a popcorn maker. [Patrons still have to pay for the food at Ranger games.]

But it will be worth it in the second round if the Blueshirts can pull of the game tonight. It won’t be easy and Renney did warn about taking the game for granted like what happened in Montreal last night.

Should be interesting and the puck drops in an hour.

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My Sunday doubleheader continues. I was at Shea earlier and now sitting here at the Garden for Game 3.

Before the game, the media spoke with Tom Renney, who seemed very loose as his team looks to take control of this series by going up 3-0.

Jaromir Jagr came in and showed the press his Stanley Cup Ring, which he tells us is the “2008 ring.”

The Blueshirts will tote the same lineup out there, why change?

As for the Devils, they will desperately try to get back in this series which could be over by Wednesday if the Blueshirts keep winning.

Philly won today with Marty Biron coming through with a shutout, so it’s a brand new series with the Flyers taking home ice.

Oh and the Mets lost 9-7, but we won’t go there.

More later….

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Ok stat of the night: The Rangers have never lost a series when they took a 2-0 lead. Well it looks like this trend will continue.

Think about it, do you honestly believe the Devils will take two games at the Garden, a place where they are 9-2-1 against the Devils in the regular season since the lockout and the two regulation losses had Kevin Weekes in goal? Sure the Devils beat the King twice at MSG in the 2006 playoffs, but remember he did have the hip flexor and migraine headaches back then.

With the Garden rocking and a determined Ranger team, it’s going to be tough for the Devils.

Bottom line, the Blueshirts should win this series, unless a 2004 Yankee-like collapse occurs.

Before we get ahead of ourselves and look at the Montreal matchup, there are still two games to be won and unlike last year’s Atlanta Thrashers, which saw Kari Lehtonen meltdown, Marty Brodeur won’t go out that easy. Tom Renney knows this and will have his team ready.

First the Rangers will need to put more pressure on Brodeur and get more pucks to the net. With only 13 shots through two periods, the team will have to play like they did in the third tonight, while keeping Lundqvist well protected.

It’s not going to be easy, but I am keeping a quiet confidence.  

  

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Well, that looked easy didn’t it?

With the Rangers coming through for two goals in the third, the Blueshirts take home ice back for a 1-0 lead in the series.

And this was a Devil Fans nightmare. Their ‘favorites’ like Scott Gomez and Sean Avery performed and Marty Brodeur looked like a rookie out there [or at least like Mike Dunham] in the third when he tried to handle pucks that should have been just covered up.

Good job by the young Rangers like Callahan and Brandon Dubinsky who didn’t melt under the pressure and good work from Brandan Shanahan scoring the first goal.

The star of the night was Henrik Lundqvist who outplayed Brodeur and could have had a shutout if Marty Straka’s stick didn’t break causing a 5-4 powerplay to be a 5-3 since the Rangers couldn’t clear the puck and Straka couldn’t do too much.

But that’s water under the bridge, because the Callahan and Avery goals were the difference.

And what leadership from Chris Drury at the end of the game, giving the puck to Nigel Dawes for the empty netter so he can get his first goal.

All in all, a nice win.  

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