Petr Prucha is a late scatrch. He was slashed last night and is sitting this one out. Marcel Hossa took his place.
Lively crowd with a number of Canadien fans making noise and mixing it up with the Garden Faithful.
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This post was written by Joe McDonald on December 30, 2007
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.
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This post was written by Joe McDonald on December 30, 2007
The Rangers look to make their holiday wishes come true tonight with a win at home against the first place Carolina Hurricanes.
The Staal Brothers will take center stage with Eric facing off against Marc [In case you were wondering all three bothers spent Christmas in Carolina with Eric and Marc coming up here together].
Tom Renney is scratching Nigel Dawes, Marcel Hossa and Jason Strudwick, all have good reasons.
Hossa is still ill, but you would have to believe could play if he was contributing more. And Dawes and Strudwick may be sitting because the team may be showcasing Petr Prucha, Paul Mara and/or Marek Malik. The latter two will be paired up together on the third defensive set, while Prucha will slot back in on the third line.
According to Larry Brooks in today’s Post, Columbus is looking at those three in a possible trade. They have has scouts at the last few games with the Rangers looking at some help as the team has struggled over the last 10 games [going 2-6-2].
In the Post story, the Rangers are looking at defensemen Adam Foote and Rostislav Klesla with others may be in the deal as well, depending on how much Columbus takes back from the Blueshirts.
None of this can happen until tomorrow anyway, since the NHL roster freeze goes until tomorrow.
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This post was written by Joe McDonald on December 26, 2007
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.
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This post was written by Joe McDonald on December 16, 2007
A few moves before the Rangers face the Coyotes today with both Nigel Dawes and Greg Moore getting called up and Ryan Callahan being sent down.
Dawes will probably replace the flu-ridden Marcel Hossa with Moore coming in for Callahan, who has been slow getting back from his knee injury. Â
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This post was written by Joe McDonald on December 16, 2007
Sean Avery had wrist surgery today at 5:30 and the Islanders came in an hour and half later.
The Isles went to a six round shootout last night beating the now slumping Ottawa Senators and may be tired for the game at the Garden.
But these are the Rangers they are playing and the Isles tend to play up to the Rangers.
As for the lines, Marcel Hossa played on the second line with Scott Gomez and Brendan Shanahan and Ryan Callahan is back on the third line.
As for Avery, no word on how the surgery went but we may have more of a word after the game.
Right now, as I press send, Jaromir Jagr just scored to make it 1-0 Rangers,
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This post was written by Joe McDonald on November 29, 2007
Greg Moore was sent back to Hartford today to make room for Ryan Callahan, who is expected to play against the Islanders on Thurday.
With Callahan in the lineup, the Ranger forwards will be fully healthy for the first time since the first game of the year, but also presents a problem on who gets scratched.
Marcel Hossa is the probable candidate, since he has no goals and three assists and seems like he took a step back this year. But also Petr Prucha could be scratched as well, yet that seems unlikely since the Rangers do like him, although he isn’t having a good year [2 goals and 5 assists].
They also could scratch Ryan Hollweg or Colton Orr, but that fourth line played very well so far, so why mess with the one consistant Ranger line.
Coach Tom Renney will have a decision to make in the next few days, but at least there may be a consistency to the Ranger lines over the next few weeks.
Now if they can get the power play working. After an 0-6 yesterday and 3-for-39 over the last eight games. Renney has tried a number of different combinations, including just rolling lines out there. Nothing has worked.
“Believe it or not, it’s better than it’s been,” Renney said after yesterday’s loss. “I thought tonight we showed good puck movement, I thought we had some chances. We still need to shoot more, naturally. That certainly is an area we have to improve upon, and work habits are a part of that.
If our power play doesn’t get clicking, if we beat ourselves, which may have been the case tonight, then the statistics will bear out where we belong. Every team is a work in progress, but at some point in time there is a level of excellence that is acceptable, and only that, and we’ve gotta make sure we continue to strive for that.”
One bright spot about Thursday. The Islanders may be a little tired since they have a game at home against the now slumping Ottawa Senators.
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This post was written by Joe McDonald on November 26, 2007
The Rangers Just Announced two more cuts before the preseason starts tomorrow night at the Garden.
The team sent defenseman Bobby Sanguinetti back to junior and forward Tom Pyatt to Hartford.
The Rangers now have 37 players remaining in training camp, including four goaltenders, 13 defensemen and 20 forwards.Â
Here’s the list:
Goal:Â Henrik Lundqvist, Al Montoya, Steve Valiquette, and Miika Wiikman
Defense: Ivan Baranka, Dan Girardi, Andrew Hutchinson, Darius Kasparaitis, David Liffiton, Marek Malik, Paul Mara, Thomas Pock, Michal Rozsival, Michael Sauer, Marc Staal, Jason Strudwick, and Fedor Tyutin
Forwards:Â Artem Anisimov, Sean Avery, Blair Betts, Dane Byers, Ryan Callahan, Nigel Dawes, Chris Drury, Brandon Dubinsky, Scott Gomez, Ryan Hollweg, Marcel Hossa, Jaromir Jagr, Hugh Jessiman, Lauri Korpikoski, Francis Lessard, Colton Orr, Petr Prucha, Mark Smith, Martin Straka, and Brendan Shanahan
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This post was written by Joe McDonald on September 20, 2007
.Marcel Hossa scored for the Blue, and Chris Drury for the White as the Blue leads the White 2-1 after 2.
After the top lines playing for the first half, we saw the lower lines getting all or most of the time as the period came to a close. That meant more hitting and checks becuase these players had more to prove.
Alex Bourret is not playing due to a shoulder injury.
Hossa is playing with Nigel Dawes and Antem Anisimov, who looked good out there.
Al Montoya relieved Valiquette and Miika Wiikman is in for Lundqvist.
In the third I suspect there will be more rookies playing just to prevent injury.
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This post was written by Joe McDonald on September 18, 2007
There were two scrimmage games at the MSG Training Center this morning. The more interesting of the two – and the one I was there for – took place around noon when the Blue team, with Jaromir Jagr, Scott Gomez and Marcel Hossa, took on the Green, with Sean Avery, Brendan Shanahan and Chris Drury.
In the end, the 3-2 Blue score didn’t really matter with Henrik Lundqvist in goal for the Blue [Chris Holt netminded for the Green], but Gomez scored his first goal as a Ranger. Actually he scored two, but the ref didn’t see the other one.
What made this interesting was the immediate chemistry between Jagr and Gomez. It looked like they really could play together and Tom Renney said he wanted to try the combo most wanted first, although things couls be changed up in the upcoming weeks.
Also, after practice Drury modeled the new uniform. Outside of it being smaller on top and the leggings made of a different material, it looks the same. Drury gave his approval of the change saying he used to swim the the old ones.
And the funny note of the day over Henrik Lundqvist’s locker, his placard read “Hankenstein,” which is something the equiptment managers call him.
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This post was written by Joe McDonald on September 14, 2007
