Keywords To Being A Rangers Fan

Isn't it exhausting reading about what the Blueshirts need to do now, now that they dropped a pivotal-playoff-contending game to the equally struggling Boston Bruins on Sunday afternoon?

Well, if you haven't read anything about the loss, then please go here for the vanilla-induced recap of the game in Boston.  Or if you are a reader or fan of DARK hockey, then perhaps if you were to Google the following keywords on any Rangers site:  consistency, overpaid, underachieving, 'Fire Sather', lacking desperation', 'lacking heart' -  you would find not only a recap describing yesterday's loss to the Bruins, but it is fair to say that you would find recaps of games throughout the 2009-2010 season.  

As an avid follower of my dear Blueshirts, there are only so many angles in the loss (reading or writing), and every time you think we've been here before, you were right.  Boston was no exception to this rule.  The consistency we've been looking for all season is right there in front of us.

A bad loss.

From a fan point of view, the above keywords could also accurately describe our own experiences this season:

Consistency - the fans are consistent.  Why not the players?
Overpaid - the fans are overpaying for what they are getting.
Underachieving - a losing home-game record!  Wow.
'Fire Sather' -  more press for the bastard.  He's not going anywhere, kids.
Lacking Desperation - the fans not wanting the Rangers to embarrass themselves in the playoffs against The Caps.
Lacking heart - this team has been breaking our hearts all season.  Enough already.  It's like break-up sex without an emotional connection.

So as much as we criticize the management, big dollar Dolan, the Captain, the rookies, The Coach, we continue to talk with great passion about the organization that we love -- which obviously points out that we, as consumers of good hockey, want good hockey.  It was/is a bad year at The Garden and you can see the cracks in the place, the team and, most importantly, the fans.   This is the first year I can remember that so many fans of the Rangers are this vocal and angry.

I suppose it's like an abusive relationship, a dependency --- but we can all count on one thing, we'll keep coming back for more.  The good, the bad, and even the shitty seasons.  They can raise the ticket prices when we don't make the playoffs.   Will it piss us off?  You bet - and we'll complain.  But we'll be there at The Garden and The MAN knows it.

Do you want an entirely new experience this season?  Enjoy the playoffs and watch those 'heart-filled' teams that earn the colors, earn the fans and work to make the Cup theirs on every level.  Let's look at the Phoenix Coyotes. Watch the little bankrupt team in the desert ride high in passion and consistency, willing to lay it on the line every friggin game TO PROVE TO THE SMALL DEVOTED FANS AND THE NAYSAYERS, TO THE EXILED QUITTER ALL-STAR COACH, THAT THEY ARE A TEAM THAT DESERVES THE CUP.....  Watch the desperation and see 'em get damn far in the standings --- because they will have earned it.  Will they win the Cup?  Probably not and the fans never expected it.  But there is pride in your team.  That's why you buy the tickets for the season.  That's why you follow the team when they suck.  Because they try.

So pay up suckers.  Keep your checkbook in hand because before you know it, the renewal notice arrives in the mail in a fancy '$20 dollar worth' disposable Rangers folder with promises of new, not old - and a promise of rebuilding, collaboration and The Brotherhood.  Ching, ching, ching, as the re-telling of a dream gets older and older every season.

See you at The Garden on Wednesday.  Big rival game.  Remember?  The Islanders!  Potvin Sucks!!?
(Pssst....we used to hate them)

tdr

BlackJack!

HIGGINS BAKES BEANS WITH LESS THAN 2 MINUTES LEFT...

For all the battling the 2 teams did in a 60 minute span, the game itself would be settled in the last 5. After giving away their 2-0 lead, blues jerseys began scampering and scrambling in an effort to not yet again, become the victim of the same brainfart that’s become a pastime when leading a game and trying to close it out.

Get the official Recap here.

After a flailing and floundering Rosival when sailing into his how crease and dislodged his own goaltender, everyone at the garden held their collective breath and gripped the arm rests and slid to the edge of their seats. Either that or they did the same thing I did; screamed out the expletive of their choice and muttered out a “f*ckin’ figures…” amongst a heavy hearted sigh. There would be no second place last night though as…. Out of the shadows of obscurity and shattering the silence, arose Christopher Higgins to swoop in and save the efforts of Henrik and the rest of the team by charging the net and jamming one short side. Ok so maybe it wasn’t quite that epic, but for Higgins who’s been struggling to find his niche and define his role on the team… I’d dare to say it was big.

In fact, aside from the PP goal of a Kotalik rocket, I would say there were a few standouts on individual efforts; including some of the breakaway/shootout magic we heard about from Christensen, when he was acquired. Therein lays the problem.
While a player like Christensen has grown on me and a player like Callahan has been a favorite of mine from day one, the hard workers and grinders on this team either stand out way too much for their hustle and attempts or are lost in the shuffle when we can’t covert anything into a goal. Gaborik aside (I am impressed with his multifaceted game), too many players on this team play like an individual trying to separate themselves from a everyone else on one shift and another anonymous fly on the rotting carcass of a lazy team, the next. We seem to be digging ourselves out of another rut so I don’t want to be too hard on this team (You can stop reading here if prefer to just be happy with the win or just plain sick of hearing me),
but…

the majority of fans (myself included) spend time ragging on the usual whipping boy d-men or the owners/ GM/coach. They do deserve part of their blame, but in the end it boils down to the players. The diva syndrome, the stupid mistakes, the backwards no look passes (a la Gomez), the shuffling around the boards just trying to get the puck to a place with some shooting room… all of it jumps out as symptoms of a team and players that don’t want any responsibility.

The owner wants big draws and starpower at any costs, that means the GM spends big on his behalf and forces a show out of yesteryear’s headliners, which in turn handcuffs the coach in terms of who he can discipline and play. All of it results in the players knowing they have the advantage and only playing hard when they feel their stock dropping or it’s easy. Powerplays and games against teams we should beat, seem to be the only time our team gets hellbent on imposing their will and winning wars by attrition. Or perhaps it’s the only time our team doesn’t wind up paying for not being aggressive with the puck, not passing accurately and bullsh*ttin’ around the perimeter. Now it’s often theorized that because we’re playing with a bunch of kids, reclamation projects and “defensive specialists”… that we can’t expect them to be skillful… until they’re a brought along properly and gain experience. Under who? There are no role models on this team. No Leetch’s, Graves’ or Messiers. Noone guiding or playing alongside these kids that says when in doubt, just do what I do. I think that only leaves us the option of repetition. If the coaching staff can’t guide these kids with a fair bit of freedom and the occasional soft touch, I say steer them with a hard stick before it’s too late. The same goes for vets on this team. Stop giving them so much credit and telling yourself, “they know the game and are seasoned pros” and put them through the embarrassment of the fundamentals until its second nature and running like a machine. All of them. Passing drills, shooting drills, run them end to end, spread them out and cover the entire ice (that includes the middle too) and for Cripes sake, outlaw that damn 1 foot tap they do to get the puck off their stick into the skates of one of their teammates. We’ll find out what everyone’s made of and weed out the ones that are afraid of hard work or don’t want to lower themselves to do it. If we don’t have the resources to polish, fine tune and mentor this teams future, at least replace the negative influence with strong fundamentals. Ones that will last till we can mentor this team and do it right. The last thing we want over the next few years are d-men duplicating Girardi losing the puck in his skates and trying to pass the puck when it’s not even on his stick… or interfering with his own goaltender like “Rozi palms” or enforcers that won’t fight, or guys that are thinking “why shoot when I can send it around the boards?”

Blueshirts Impress With a Loss, NYR 1, Bruins 2

The 'new' New York Rangers opened the pre-season last night against the Boston Bruins and certainly held their own.  Our Blueshirt squad consisted mostly of prospects vying to impress coach John Tortorella in making the starting team, with only three or four slots that may be in question.  Visibly absent was our center Brandon "Dumb-ie" Dubinsky, but they counted on Ryan Callahan to pick up the tempo when necessary.  Most of our starters were a scratch with the exception of our dear Captain Drury, newbie Kotalik (who demonstrated what might become of the power play), Christopher Higgins and the 'much-booed' Donald Brashear.

Official recap here.

Though a loss (that doesn't count), there were impressive performances by both Matt Gilroy and Michael Del Zotto, who if they continue to play throughout the pre-season as they did last night, will certainly find themselves professional Rangers come opening day.  Both were impressive, confident and strong --- and most important to Torts - forward moving blueliners. For anyone not watching the pre-season games, I would highly recommend you watch these two rookies, Michael Del Zotto at 19 years of age plays an aggressive game and wasn't backing down from Boston's Lucic -- "please the coach, please the coach..." - a very different style than former coach Tom Renney.  Matt Gilroy at 25 years of age, looks as solid as Blueshirts Dan Girardi and Marc Staal.  Missing, though, is our "stay at home" defensive stud.  Chris Pronger would have been nice.  Higgins and Kotalik were extremely impressive on the point, and will certainly make a difference in the power play.

As to be expected, the first period was sloppy and dribble - in other words, a pre-season debut - but the Blueshirts picked up the tempo in the second and third periods, controlling the last half of the game. 

I actually enjoyed last night and look forward to tonight against the NJ Devils -- as we've all read that NJ's Jamie Langenbrunner has been scratched in place of Brendan Shanahan tonight (look out for that upcoming trade, folks...ha ah ah aha h ).   MSG at 7pm.

tdr

Muzzled in the Matinee.

I suppose I could fill this post with ditto marks as nothing as really changed from the last game in Carolina. Anyone who's had the volume up on the broadcasts during the past couple of games, is probably sick of hearing "blah blah blah... The rangers played a good game, but just couldn't score... and (insert opposing team here) simply just scored when they needed to as the Rangers couldn't..." So with that I will spare you of having to recount the details of that good effort turned bad waste of time (and 2 points) when we just couldn't score one freakin goal.

For those masochists out there, you can get the official Recap here.

The only part of the game I think I will talk about is the incident between Tim Thomas and Sean Avery. For anyone who missed it...


Many people are shaking their heads and saying "same ole Avery". Me? well while no one saw it, (they actually had to go to the replay to see it and then start handing out minutes.) I have to argue that while it was cheap, it was genius. Before the hockey purists start to rain down jeers from their Ivory tower, let us recap the aftermath... Avery was escorted from the bench to the penalty box and Thomas, the Bruins best player, was assessed a penalty too. Right after, Gomez was taken down near the boards (didn't take much, did it Gomer? ;P)and we had a 4 on 3 for almost a minute and a half. It was perhaps our best chance to tie things up. Avery did what he set out to do. He went out looked around and gave a little tap to the back of the fiberglass around Thomas' head which turned him from league sweetheart to vengeance driven penalty taker. What bothers me is that Avery was the only one who saw we weren't winning this game by doing the same thing over and over again and something needed to change. Whether it be getting the goalie off his game, getting us a 4 on 4... or possibly a 4 on 3 depending on the retaliation, but most of all make the guys on our team feel like they had an opportunity to seize and change the course of the game.

If we take a good look at the team dynamic. We can still see that Zherdev plays according to his moods, Antropov sometimes does the same. Redden has two gears (crappy and less crappy-- for the money, anyway). Gomez can still weave his way through 2/3 of the ice just before turning it over. And the only thing clutch about our captain these days, is his purse. Yet the one guy that people agonized over bringing back, and people swore he wouldn't fit in with the coach and called a disruption in the locker room, is out performing all of those guys that called him selfish and a distraction to the team. Its become apparent more than ever that this team needs more players like Avery. Am I the only one who see him kind of rubbing off on Callahan? Is it the snarl, or the attitude... or just the hard work. Doing something for the sake of saying they did something whether it needed to be done or not... a lot or a little... pretty or dirty. I'll say I have started to take a bit of a liking to Morris too. Its players like these that will allow the coach some stability when it comes to guiding this team.

It's unfortunate that Avery's plan didn't reap its intended rewards. It unfortunate that it kind of backfired because in all his agitating greatness, he also somehow became one of the top scorers on the team since his arrival and the teams other top forwards couldn't managed to scrape together one goal without him against only 3 defenders. Its unfortunate that the way this team is going, there's a chance we'll have to wait till next year for Torts to truly be able to sort things out without the pressure of inheriting a team on the slide, trying to make the playoffs, not being able to bench too many people because of injuries and getting a sense of who could serve you well enough in the future than you could push for a contract for them. Unfortunate indeed. One things for certain, whether its next week or next season... it will be the "lunch pail" guys who aren't afraid to get their hands dirty, that will determine how far this team goes. Here's to hoping we can stretch this season a little further... LET'S GO RANGERS!

- J_Undisputed

'Chris'-mas Comes Early For The NY Rangers, NYR 3, Bruins 2. (SO)

So where do we go from here? More nail-biting wins, I suppose!!?

Yet again, the Blueshirts pulled out a last half of the third period road to victory for the third time this season, destined to give every Rangers fan ulcers and high blood pressure by years end.. Xmas has arrived early as Captain Chris Drury provided the shootout game winning goal and our steady goalkeeper Henrik Lundqvist continues to deliver top five league goaltending, treats far better than any bankrupt Circuit City gift card or fruitcake. Surprisingly, we lead the division and conference with a 13-5-2 record!!!! Thank heavens we aren't Islanders fans!!

NY halted a five-game winning streak for the red-hot Boston Bruins and proved to our Original Six rival who has the better goaltender. Tim Thomas may be the keeper-du-jour for the time being (and so was Martin Gerber last season), but our Blueshirt wonder King-turned-Prince-turned-Pauper-turned King again is proving this season to be more reliable and consistent. Our losses thus far are more due to our invisible defensive lines rather than shaky seasons past goalkeeping.

Marcus Naslund, Nigel Dawes and Lauri Korpikoski never let the two game deficit effect their desire to score -- an impressive third period hustle. Mickey (Mouse) Rozsival is again responsible for letting in two more goals and needs to re-look at what it means to be paid as a first-line 'D'-man vs how you are supposed to perform as a first-liner. The Dark Ranger doesn't feel good that the Mouse is getting paid 4 million more than an almost rookie Dan Girardi, who is one of the league leading 'D'-men in the NHL. Our blueliner rookies are delivering, including Staal.

Official recap here.

Ottawa tomorrow night. Rangers are rocking the Garden and surprising most of us along the way!

TDR

Yankee Stadium game likely for Rangers, and NYR 1, Bruins 0

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2008/03/09/2008-03-09_yankee_stadium_game_likely_for_rangers.html

The Dark Ranger is thrilled that this may be a possibility as long as the MSG season ticket holders are guaranteed first buy-in. As it would be a historic final game at Yankee Stadium - and strangely odd - you can count on the Dolan family (owner of MSG and The NY Rangers) to give something back to the fans and keep the ticket prices low. (not!)

Knowing there were disputes with Penguin Igloo ticket holders for this year's Winter Classic, we can only hope for smooth sailing for those - including myself - that shell out our kids' college 529 plans to attend the playoffs this season!

Sorry to have missed posting yesterday's game against the Boston Bruins, as Little Dark Ranger will be brought into the world tomorrow morning. Not much to say about the game, except we will take the two points and we will also take that level of goaltending. Henrik Lundqvist was stellar in goal -- deserving of his contract. The Lundqvist we once knew.....confidence.....sharp.....the goalie who will steal two games in the playoffs and bolster the confidence of our zero defense. Rozy played well toward the end of the game, but still needs to be reminded that he can be replaced if necessary.

There were numerous scoring opportunities; if a 0-0 game in regulation could be judged on goal post-hits the Rangers would have won 15-1. Luck didn't go our way in scoring: Jags failed breakaway, Chris Drury's beautiful far corner miss, Sean Avery's hustle for nothing. But all in all, Henrik took the game from Boston and Nigel Dawes (the lone scoring goal in the shootout) took the game for the Rangers!

Everyone welcome a guest Flyers fan who will objectively attempt to cover the Buffalo-Rangers game this evening, 7PM EST. I have no idea what will happen!!!???

Let's go Rangers! Lookin' good these days.....but for how long?

TDR

Shipping Back From Boston With A Point, 4-3 Shootout Loss

Hey, hey, hey, Scotty Hockey here to keep things shrouded in darkness as TDR wanders the hallowed Hall of Fame in Toronto.

Hopefully he is taking everything in and getting his picture taken with the Stanley Cup because the way things look, that will be the closest a Ranger will get to the chalice this season.

The Rangers brought their dads with them to Boston and played one of their sloppiest games in recent memory, losing 4-3 in a shootout (official recap here, Scotty Hockey live blog here). If it was me playing in Boston with my dad watching, I woulda gotten a smack on the back of my head for every one of the gaffes. Hopefully Marek Malik's father doesn't believe in sparing the whip because the human pylon was atrocious in taking bad penalties, making ill-advised pass attempts and missing his coverage assignments throughout the game. Should he play in the second game of the home-and-home then the Garden crowd will likely burn him in effigy.

However, Malik wasn't the only Ranger to take a bad penalty, Boston had eight power plays and capitalized on two of them. Chuck Kobasew tied the game at three with his second goal of the game after one of those ill-advised Ranger penalties - a interference call on Paul Mara. Mara had a rough game, trying to make big plays and big hits to impress his hometown crowd.

While our loyal captain, Jaromir Jagr, has been plagued by stupid penalties all season long, his minor was a bad call late in the game (although he was partially at fault if you ask me). Luckily Boston did not score on it. Jagr did score a goal in the game, his 14th of the year. It was a true beauty and hearkened back to the days when he was the best player in the league.

Despite the incredulous decision to have a father's day trip weeks after Henrik Lundqvist's dad nearly died, the King's psyche held tough and he made one of his best performances of the year. He did give up both goals in the shootout which would be cause for concern but the second one came on a shot from Zdeno Chara that a brick wall would have trouble stopping. He can't let it get to him as we will need every spectacular kick save, dive and catch he can import from Sweden if we are to see the Rangers make the playoffs. But first small steps, he will need to win tomorrow if the Rangers are to keep pace in the East.