Tonight the Rangers take on the Montreal Canadiens after demolishing the Maple Leafs last night 5-1.

Henrik Lundqvist is back in goal, but other than that, the same lineup will go out with both Marcel Hossa and Jason Strudwick taking seats.

Tom Renney is looking to build some momentum by getting three in a row for his Blueshirts before they take the dreaded Western Canadian trip next week.

And for those who are counting that’s five games in a row against teams from the north and six out of seven.

Oh Canada!!

Even with such a bad December, remember the Rangers are only three points behind the Devils for the second most total in the conference. So it’s not so bad.

With the power play coming alive and Sean Avery back, the Rangers look like they can take on the world in 2008.

Posted under Blog

Sean Avery will be with the Rangers on Thursday and Friday on their western trip, but according to Tom Renney he’s still a ways away from suiting up.

“[He'll] drive us bananas because he is itching to play,” Renney said. “He’s a few days away from serious contact and there’s still a little bit of pain there. We can rehab him, and he could be day-to-day in two days.”

***

Al Montoya was called up in case Henrik Lundqvist was not ready after coming down with the flu. Based on last night’s perfromance, The King was ready.

***

The line shakeups seems to work very well.

Jaromir Jagr seemed pleased with playing next to Scott Gomez: “From the first time we played together, Scotty is a lot more confident. He’s gotten a lot quicker.”

Gomez on Jagr: “I think that was the problem in the beginning, I was thinking too much,” Gomez said with a laugh. “We get in trouble when we start to think. We’re just a bunch of hockey players.”

Chris Drury and Brendan Shanahan also seemed pleased, although Shanahan wantes to take some time before passing judgement. Said Shanahan: “It was good. I though at a certain point of the game, it seemed like we were getting more special teams shifts together. We killed a lot of penalities. He had a lot of shifts with Nigel [Dawes], but then we couldn’t string them together. It’s tough to gage.”

Posted under Blog

The Rangers announced they recalled Ryan Callahan, who never left New York anyway, and sent Greg Moore back to Hartford, which was a change in heart from yesterday.

It was Tom Renney’s call, who felt he wanted Callahan in New York.

According the reporters in Greenburgh, Renney changed the lines up. You can read more on Sam Weinman’s blog on that topic.

Also Henrik Lundqvist is still sick with the flu, so if doesn’t take a turn for the better tomorrow and practices in the morning, expect Steve Valiquette again in goal against the Pens tomorrow night.

Speaking of the flu, didn’t Lundqvist get sick last year at this time? Maybe it’s time for a flu shot or something.

Posted under Blog

Unlike most other coaches and managers in New York, Tom Renney is very honest with the media. Last night was no exception as he said only three Rangers were playing well in this swoon while not mentioning them [feel free to speculate].

Also he said the team gets down when they are behind.

Renney is right. You can see the growns from crowd and the players when Joel Perrault scored in the first. Esentially when they are behind they get down and then try too hard to come back.

He said they had to get back to the simple defensive system that was working early on.

Also Henrik Lundqvist must return to form, as does Jaromir Jagr.

 

Posted under Blog

Ok the Ranger Flu strikes again. Henrik Lundqvist is out with the flu with Steve Valiquette taking the start in goal. Lundqvist will be the backup

Marcel Hossa is out and will be replaced by Nigel Dawes. Greg Moore will be on the third line replacing the demoted Ryan Callahan and Jason Strudwick is on the fourth line replacing Ryan Hollweg.

That means Marek Malik is back with Michal Rozsival and Marc Staal will be with Paul Mara.

Confused yet?

Outside of Lundqvist none of these moves are too earth shattering as they take on the Phoenix Great Ones – I mean the Coyotes.

Speaking of the Great One. Wayne Gretzky has laryngitis and can’t address to the media.

BTW, a good friend is back. Hockeybird, who has been very helpful to me has returned and Bird is posting his daily posts again. He went offline back in October and now is back.

Posted under Blog

Giants at Philly. Jets working for a win and now the Devils are at the Garden to play the Rangers.

Winners of nine in a row, New Jersey finally caught on to Brent Sutter’s system and have been killing opponents.

And the Rangers, looking to break out of a three game losing streak, need a win.

Marty Brodeur always plays great at the Garden, while the Rangers need to get Henrik Lundqvist back up to speed after a forgetable week and a few days off.

And because the game is at 5 p.m. you can watch it in peace because the Giant game will be over.

BTW six minutes left, Giants up by 3.

Posted under Blog

Now that Sean Avery was punished and Mark Messier got into the Hall, there’s a game to play.

It’s 1-1 with goals early Jamie Langenbrunner and Nigel Dawes. With Langenbrunner’s coming off a rebound in front of the net and Dawes goal should have been saved by Henrik Lundqvist.

The real question is how both Scott Gomez, playing his first game in New Jersey in an opposing sweater, and Avery, who may tone down the act tonight will play. Will they be able to adapt to the hostile Newark crowd?

More later… 

 

Posted under Blog

Is it me or do the Rangers need some shot of life? Or maybe theywere. Just too concerned about Joe Torre’s situation to be concerned with the game at hand.

But 4 shots? Surely the Blueshirts could muster a better effort.

And thanks to Henrik Lundqvist it remained scoreless. Only his brilliance kept the Bruins off the board as he was the reason the Rangers killed off a double minor to Jaromir Jagr.

Maybe the rest of the team can feed off its netminder fopr the rest of the game.

Posted under Blog

After a great first period yesterday, today, the Rangers came out a little flat and needed to get going. Fortunately, Henrik Lundqvist was up to the task as he stopped all 15 Ottawa shots.

Jaromir Jagr hurt his knee, but didn’t miss any time and was back on the ice the next shift.

Maybe more life in the second…

Posted under Blog

Ok now that baseball is over, I will be getting back to this more regularly.

Same lineup as Saturday with Jason Strudwick dressing in favor of Paul Mara and skating with Marc Staal. Renney said he liked Strudwicks influence on Staal on the ice and the bench.

Also this is Henrik Lundqvist’s first game back at the Coliseum since Ice Girl Gate last year…

More Later…

Posted under Blog