Saturday, November 26, 2016

Expansion Draft News

The NHL released the list of players who MUST be protected in the upcoming expansion draft due to no movement clauses in their contracts.   As expected, there are four Rangers on the list:  

                         Dan Girardi
                         Henrik Lundqvist
                         Rick Nash
                         Marc Staal

There had been some speculation about players with no movement clause and many had thought that Rick Nash would be expose-able due to his limited NMC.  However, he has made the list and must be protected.  Teams do not have to expose first and second year pros so that means the following players do no have to protected:

                         Pavel Buchnevich
                         Boo Nieves
                         Brady Skjei
                         Jimmy Vesey

Here are the players who could be exposed (forwards, then defense, then goalies):

                         Jesper Fast
                         Michael Grabner
                         Kevin Hayes
                         Josh Jooris (RFA)
                         Chris Kreider
                         Oscar Lindberg (RFA)
                         J.T. Miller
                         Brandon Pirri (RFA)
                         Matt Puempel (RFA)
                         Derek Stepan
                         Mika Zibanejad (RFA)
                         Mats Zuccarello

                         Adam Clendening (RFA)
                         Nick Holden
                         Kevin Klein
                         Ryan McDonagh

                        Antti Raanta

The following will be UFA's so they don't make any list:

                          Tanner Glass
                          Steven Kampfer
                          Chris Summers
                          
The team will have the choice of protecting seven forwards, three defensemen and one goalie, or they protect eight skaters and one goalie.  The latter only makes sense if a t eam wants to protect four defensemen (not the Rangers).   Here's the guesslist of protected players:

Forwards (7):    Kevin Hayes, Chris Kreider, J.T. Miller, Rick Nash, Derek Stepan, Mika Zibanejad, Mats Zuccarello
Defensemen (3):   Dan Girardi,  Marc Staal, Ryan McDonagh
Goalie (1):  Henrik Lundqvist

The Rangers cannot lost more than one player in the expansion draft.  So, which of these players do you think the Rangers will lose?

Fast, Grabner, Jooris, Lindberg, Pirri, Puempel. Clendening, Holden, Klein, Raanta?

Former Ranger forward and Washington G.M. George McPhee is the General Manager of the new Las Vegas Golden Knights.  He has said that he will be looking for a youthful lineup.   There are many teams in far worse shape than the Rangers so it will be hard to predict who the Rangers will lose.  It will  depend on the team that McPhee can construct.  Based on their play this season, the players at risk are:
    Nick Holden:  Cheap top four defenseman who is raising his value every game.
    Kevin Klein:  Experienced top four defenseman.
    Jesper Fast:  Solid defensive forward with a decent offensive upside.
    Michael Grabner:  Older forward, but lightning fast and scoring this season.  
    Annti Raanta:  There are a lot of other goalies out there, but Raanta is playing really well and by the end of the season, may be a better value than others available (Bishop, Fleury,Andersen), .  There will be a LOT of trade action by the time the expansion draft rolls around. 

Going into the season, my bet would have been either Fast or Klein, but the play of the others may alter that.  Keep in mind that players can waive a no-movement clause, though the rules concerning that are a bit unclear.  The full ist of players who must be protected is below (courtesy of Yahoo Sports):

Anaheim Ducks
Kevin Bieksa
Ryan Getzlaf
Ryan Kesler
Corey Perry
Arizona Coyotes
Alex Goligoski
Boston Bruins
David Backes
Patrice Bergeron
Zdeno Chara
David Krejci
Buffalo Sabres
Kyle Okposo
Columbus Blue Jackets
Sergei Bobrovsky
David Clarkson
Brandon Dubinsky
Nick Foligno
Scott Hartnell
Chicago Blackhawks
Artem Anisimov
Corey Crawford
Niklas Hjalmarsson
Marian Hossa
Patrick Kane
Duncan Keith
Brent Seabrook
Jonathan Toews
Colorado Avalanche
Francois Beauchemin
Erik Johnson
Dallas Stars
Jamie Benn
Jason Spezza
Detroit Red Wings
Frans Nielsen
Edmonton Oilers
Milan Lucic
Andrej Sekera
Cam Talbot
Florida Panthers
Keith Yandle
Los Angeles Kings
Anze Kopitar
Minnesota Wild
Mikko Koivu
Zach Parise
Jason Pominville
Ryan Suter
Montreal Canadiens
Jeff Petry
Carey Price
Nashville Predators
Pekka Rinne
New Jersey Devils
Ryane Clowe
New York Islanders
Johnny Boychuk
Andrew Ladd
John Tavares
New York Rangers
Dan Girardi
Henrik Lundqvist
Rick Nash
Marc Staal
Ottawa Senators
Dion Phaneuf
Philadelphia Flyers
Claude Giroux
Pittsburgh Penguins
Sidney Crosby
Marc-Andre Fleury
Phil Kessel
Kris Letang
Evgeni Malkin
Tampa Bay Lightning
Ryan Callahan
Valtteri Filppula
Victor Hedman
Steven Stamkos
Toronto Maple Leafs
Nathan Horton
Vancouver Canucks
Loui Eriksson
Daniel Sedin
Henrik Sedin
Winnipeg Jets
Dustin Byfuglien
Tobias Enstrom

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

The Elephant in the Room

I'm just back from Madison Square Garden where the Rangers suffer their worst loss of the season. The first period was a good one.  Rick Nash scored a power play goal to give the Blueshirts the lead and they successfully killed three minutes of a major penalty to Ryan McDonagh.  They looked solid and the crowd was pleased.  Then, the Rangers came out and imploded in the second period, allowing five goals.

At the arena, you could tell that the second period would be different.  The Rangers were on the ice a full minute before the Penguins made their appearance.  It had to be the berating that they had gotten from Coach Mike Sullivan (that's speculation). At any rate, the Pens came out flying and scored two quick goals.   The Rangers had back-to-back power plays, but couldn't cash in and from that point the game got out of hand.  With just under ten minutes left in the period, Kessel scored on a wrist shot from the faceoff circle, a goal that Lundqvist could have (should have) had.  Hank was pulled after the next one, a flukey goal that deflected off McDonagh's stick and fluttered over Lundqvist's shoulder. Antti Raanta came in and allowed two goals in 27 minutes. The fifth goal was the death blow when the Penguins kept the puck in the Ranger zone for 1:36.  The Rangers were dead on their feet. Hayes, Zuccarello and Kreider were stuck on the ice for 3:11 and Brady Skjei and Kevin Klein were stuck on the ice for 2:32 before Conor Sheary scored.  As a fan, it is frustrating when a player turns away and changes when he has an offensive opportunity, but if he doesn't do it,  this is exactly what happens.

The third period was pathetic as the Rangers didn't get a shot on goal for a almost 17 minutes.  MSG was a pretty depressing place by that time with the only suspense generated by the question of whether the Rangers would actually get a shot on goal.

Was the game as bad as that?  No, it wasn't.  The Rangers led after one period and were playing well. They had a number of opportunities to score in the second period and Matt Murray made at least three spectacular saves (along with a couple more in the first period).  By the time it got to 5-1, the game was lost and from that point it was just a stinker.

Time to talk about that elephant.  The rumbling has been going on for a while.  Is Henrik Lundqvist shot?  Should Antti Raanta be the number one goaltender?  This was a textbook opportunity for the Lundqvist detractors to make their case.  He allows soft goals, He looks shaky on the ice.  He's a liability.  He's too old. And the worst....he has an $8.5 million cap hit through 2021 with a no movement clause. That's five more years as the highest paid player on the team.

Was this disaster his fault?  Absolutely not.  On the first goal, Brady Skjei had a chance to get the puck out of the zone, didn't do it and at the end of  along shift the Pens scored a goal that he had no chance on.  On the second goal, it was Zuccarello who couldn't clear the puck and another long shift that resulted in a deflection by the best hockey player in the world.  Not Hank's fault.  The Phil Kessel goal was stoppable, but also off the stick of one of the most gifted scorers in the league.  The last Lundqvist goal was a puck that McDonagh deflected into the air and it literally rolled down Lundqvist's back.

You cannot pin this on Henrik Lundqvist.  Brady Skjei had a brutal game.  Nick Holden was as bad as he was good on Monday.  The forwards were undisciplined and got caught on the ice for too long. Matt Murray stopped some very good shots.

Hey, the Penguins are the Stanley Cup Champions and have some of the best players in the world on their roster.  In the last week, they were coming off an embarrassing home loss to the Rangers, a loss to Buffalo and a 7-1 spanking by the Capitals.  They came out in the second period on a mission and it showed.

Henrik Lundqvist has played a lot of special hockey for the New York Rangers.   He is 34 years old. Outside of  New York, when people talk about the best goalies in the world, the names of Carey Price and Henrik Lundqvist are the first two that are mentioned.  Ranger fans cannot give up on him, he is one of the best goalies on the planet,

The Rangers get back in action on Friday afternoon in Philadelphia, 1pm on NBC.  The Flyers are mired in a .500 rut after many of the pre-season prognosticators predicted much better for them . Offensively, they are only behind the Rangers in goals scored, but are also the team that has given up the most goals in the league.  As usual, they have goaltending issues.  It will be interesting to see how the Rangers respond to the debacle tonight against a team that will be motivated, facing a divisional rival.

Happy Thanksgiving to all...and thanks to the Rangers for an entertaining start to the season.

Monday, November 21, 2016

The Second Ten Games (More of the Same)

So, the Rangers finished their second ten game block of the season and exceeded their performance in first ten (7-3).  After an outstanding effort in Pittsburgh, the Rangers finished 7-2-1 for 15 points.   We had predicted 14 points so they exceeded those expectations.  The stretch had started with three wins when the Blueshirts outscored the opposition 15-7.  Then came the disappointing loss at the Garden to Vancouver (let's call that the Raanta Concussion Protocol Game).  After that game the naysayers were predicting doom and gloom in Western Canada and they responded with three straight road wins. Three horrifying mistakes against Columbus meant another loss, followed by the Florida shootout loss.  The doom and gloomers began predicting dire results and this amazing team responded by coming back from a two goal deficit and scoring five straight goals against the defending Stanley Cup champions.

They went 5-1 in the six road games and they went 2-1-1 at home. Considering that they had played seven out of their first ten games at MSG, this was a good test and an opportunity to see if the "new and improved" Rangers were the real thing.  They are.

Okay, so how good are they?  After 20 games the Rangers are in second place overall in the NHL. Their goals per game average of 4.05 is almost a goal per game more than second place Columbus (3.29).  One note about Columbus....they scored 18 goals in two wins vs. Montreal and Detroit.  Their GPG without those two wins is a much more pedestrian 2.53, which would be good for 18th in the league.  It is also worth noting that the Rangers have scored six empty net goals, the most in the league.

The best news is that the Rangers have gotten their goals against average down to 2.30, good for 8th place in the NHL.  That combination of high scoring and stingy defense is reminiscent of 2014-15 when the Rangers won the Presidents Cup with the third best offense and third best defense.

On special teams, the Power Play sits at 8th place overall (21.7%) and the Penalty Kill is at 7th place overall (85.5%).  The big question is without Mika Zebanejad for 6-8 weeks, how will that affect the power play.  One third of his points ahve come on the PP and he played on the first unit.   Another issue is that Mika was quickly becoming the Rangers best faceoff man (did you see him win two clutch faceoffs in the last minute in the Blue Jackets zone on Friday?).  His faceoff percentage of 53.7% is much better than the other heavy minute centers (Stepan 44.8%, Hayes 46.7%).   Both Josh Jooris and Oscar Lindberg have shown positives in the faceoff circle, so hopefully they won't miss Mika that much. As a team, the Rangers have slipped to the middle of the pack at 49.4%, good for 18th place league-wide.

The Rangers balanced scoring continues to be a huge strength for this team.  Heres's an amazing stat. The Blueshirts have 14 players with ten or more points (it should be 15, but Buchnevich has been injured).  The next highest is Chicago with eight. My goodness, Buffalo has one player with ten points and the Islanders only have two.  FOURTEEN is simply remarkable.

Even with that balance, there are individual standouts.  Michael Grabner is tied for the league lead in goals with 12.  Kevin Hayes and J.T. Miller are sitting in eighth place in points with 18.  Ryan McDonagh is second in assists among defensemen with 13 (one behind Duncan Keith) and Brady Skjei is tied for fourth with 11.  In the odd stat category, both Brandon Pirri and Dan Girardi have three game winning goals and are tied for second in the league.

Brady Skjei and Jimmy Vesey are both in the top seven in scoring among rookies and  Pavel Buchnevich's points per game average is 5th among rookies.

The craziest statistic is plus/minus.  Michael Grabner leads the league at +19 and the Rangers hold six out of the top seven slots in the league.

1. Michael Grabner +19
2. Kevin Hayes +17
3. Shea Weber +16
4. Ryan McDonagh +14
  Dan Girardi +14
6. J.T. Miller +13
  Nick Holden +13

That's pretty impressive.

Okay, is this a mirage or can we expect more of the same as the season progresses?  While the team cannot expect to maintain this winning percentage or keep up the same offensive prowess, there have been some gut check games this season and the Rangers have won them all.  Beating Washington and Pittsburgh on the road and trouncing Tampa, St. Louis and Edmonton at home were all impressive wins.  There have really been few stinkers this season (Vancouver at MSG and Carolina in the road). Even when the team has been awful they have found a way to win (perfect example is the 7-2 win last week in Vancouver).

There are some injury issues.  We discussed the potential impact of losing Mika for two months.  Pavel Buchnevich was turning some heads with his fabulous puck sense and had scored in four straight games, but now is battling more back issues.  Let's just hope that this is nothing chronic that will affect his future.

The advanced stat freaks are starting to panic as the Ranger possession numbers are dropping.  If they keep winning, the possession numbers become irrelevant (you don't possess the puck as much when you are protecting a lead).

Something to worry about could be Henrik Lundqvist.  There are some already calling Antti Raanta a better goalie than the King.  That awful relief appearance vs. Vancouver and a mediocre showing in Columbus overshadowed a superlative effort in Vancouver and a stretch that saw him lower his GAA and Save Percentage substantially.  Lundqvist has been a notorious slow starter and one must hope that the unsteady work falls in that category.  Among the 32 goalies who have appeared in at least ten games, Hank is 14th in Save Percentage (.918) and is tied for 11th in GAA (2.27).  Not great, but not awful.

To help replace Mika, the Rangers claimed winger Matt Puempel off waivers from Ottawa today. Puempel is a 23-year old former first round draft pick who never clicked for the Senators.  He put up big numbers in the OHL and AHL, but couldn't replicate that in the NHL.  He will be travelling with the team as a depth forward.  He had decent size at 6'2", 190 lbs and has good speed.  The hope is that he will fit in with the Rangers up tempo game and regain his scoring touch.  Here is his talent analysis from hockeysfuture.com:

"Puempel is a natural goal scorer, thanks to his high-end shot and vision. He is also a good passer, and a quick skater. Although his defensive game needed quite a bit of work when he originally arrived in Binghamton back in 2012, he has put the time in to improve and is no longer as much of a liability. He has both the skill and drive required to have a good career as top-six NHL forward."

LOOKING AHEAD

What's to come in the next ten games?  They split the games five home and five away.  The only elite teams that they will face are Pittsburgh at MSG and Chicago on the road.  Their other games are against underachievers (Philadelphia, Ottawa and the Islanders) and teams struggling to make the playoffs (Carolina twice, Winnipeg and New Jersey) and one bottom feeder in Buffalo.  Those ten games will be played in 19 days, but there is only one set of back to back games.

It is not impossible for the team to get 16 points out of a possible 20, though 14 is a solid prediction. Injuries and goaltending will tell the story over the next ten games.  In the meantime, it's best to just sit back and enjoy this special start to the season.  After games like the win in Pittsburgh, it's hard to not be impressed (Corsi and Fenwick be damned)!

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Ouch

The crowd sat in silence, scarcely believing what they were seeing.  What had started as a joyous celebration of continued success turned into a nightmare.  A sure victory became a depressing defeat. It was the most unexpected of the unexpected. It was the impossible becoming possible.

Am I talking about the Javits Center, election night headquarters for the Hillary Clinton campaign? Nope, I'm talking about Madison Square Garden last night where the Blueshirts, riding a five game winning streak while scoring over five goals per game, ran headlong into the Vancouver Canucks, riding a nine game losing streak and boasting the worst offense in the NHL. The result...a 5-3 loss.

As with the campaign for President, if you had paid attention, you would have seen this coming. The Canucks played a perfect road game, clogging center ice and stopping the vaunted Ranger speed and breakout attack.  Stubbornly, the Rangers refused to alter their strategy and were thwarted time and time again as they tried to penetrate the Canucks zone.  That said, as good as the Canucks were at stopping the Rangers, the Blueshirts did as much harm to themselves as they were sloppy in all three zones, exhibiting a lack of sharpness unseen so far this season.  They came out strong, swarming the Canucks, but failed to score and then they descended to the Canucks level into a version of  the Jacques Lemaire neutral zone trap strategy that threatened to kill the NHL in the late nineties.

They were in the game however, tied 2-2, when Antti Raanta was forced out of the game to undergo concussion protocol after a collision, forcing the Rangers to put King Henrik into the game.  Well, let's just say that Henrik Lundqvist is NOT Aroldis Chapman.  The Canucks stormed the net and he allowed two goals (I wouldn't call them soft, but they could have been stoppable).  The Ranger D was as guilty as Lundqvist  so let's not be so tough on him.  What should happen is that the league should allow a warm-up when a goalie is removed from a game BY THE NHL to undergo a concussion protocol.  The Rangers' trainer cleared Raanta to continue in the game...he was removed from the game by the league.  The norm is that a replacement goaltender gets no warmup...but in cases like this, they should get something. Lundqvist thrives on preparation and for him to be thrust into the game like this was simply not fair.  The rule is in place to stop coaches from using goalie replacement as a virtual timeout, but in cases like this, they have no choice.

Finally, the Canucks were due.  You cannot lose all of your games and a long losing streak has to end sometime.  Also, Loui Eriksson was a thirty goal scorer for Boston last season, looking for his first goal of the season.  He was bound to get it and he did, last night.  Alex Burrows and Sven Baertschi also got their first goals of the season...they were due as well.   That's still no excuse for such a bad game for the good guys.

There are some takeaways from the game. Here goes:

*  Pavel Buchnevich scored in his third straight game and also had two assists.  His pass to Rick Nash for a power play goal was a thing of beauty.  This guy is the real deal.

*  Mika Zibenejad scored his first goal in eleven games.  He has shown a disturbing propensity to miss the net (especially on the PP...more on that in a bit).  Although his goal was in garbage time, maybe it will get him started on an offensive streak.  He still has ten points in 14 games, but he could be doing better.

*  The Ranger PP has gone slightly off the rails lately. While 8th overall in the league at 22.4%, it seems like they are not taking advantage of the opportunities that they have been given. They went one for five last night when a PP goal would have salted the game away.  They have gone 2-11 over their last four games and were just awful in a full two minute five on three against Boston on Saturday.  It also didn't help that Henrik Sedin scored a go-ahead goal eight seconds out of the penalty box at 2:29 of the second period.

*  A clear indicator of the lack of focus by the Rangers was their performance on faceoffs.  While the Canucks are a good faceoff team (51%), the Rangers were a putrid 35%, winning only 21 out of 60 faceoffs. Pretty much every offensive zone draw resulted in the puck back in center ice, a sure recipe for futility.

*  The Ranger rookies are making a difference.  Brady Skjei, Pavel Buchnevich and Jimmy Vesey are all in the top ten among rookie scorers.   Brady Skjei leads all rookie defensemen in assists with nine (tied for the team lead with McDonagh).    Vesey remains tied for second in goals (6) with Auston Matthews.  Buchnevich is sixth in the league among rookies in points per game (0.78).

GOOD-BYE TO THE UNDERTAKER

The Rangers traded Dylan McIlrath to the Florida Panthers for defenseman Steven Kampfer and a conditional 7th round draft pick (if McIlrath plays 30 games for Florida).   Thus ends the career of another disastrous New York Ranger draft pick.  McIlrath was taken tenth overall in 2010 and never became a NHL regular.  He suffered a debilitating knee injury that set him back at least a year, but he never exhibited the ability to be more than a 5th or 6th defenseman on Broadway.   The depressing part of this story is here:  Vladimir Tarasenko, Cam Fowler, Jaden Schwartz, Nick Bjugstad, Beau Bennett, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Kevin Hayes, Brock Nelson, Justin Faulk, Tyler Toffoli,   All of these NHL caliber players were taken in the 2010 draft AFTER the Rangers took McIlrath.

In getting Steven Kampfer, Rangers GM Jeff Gorton basically got as much as he could. McILrath was clearly not a favorite of Alain Vigneault and was not highly sought after by other NHL teams. He would have been a UFA after this season, so it was a matter of getting something instead of what would have been nothing in a few months.  Kampfer has played 72 games over the last two seasons for the Panthers.  He was a Ranger free agent signee in 2014 who was traded to Florida when the Rangers had make roster room for Anthony Duclair.  He has been assigned to Hartford and will be a depth defenseman.  Like McIlrath, he cleared waivers earlier this season.

All Ranger fans will miss the best nickname on the team as well as Dylan's eagerness to mix it up, but his departure should not have much of an affect on the fortunes of the team this season.  There is a very strange infatuation with McIlrath by some Ranger websites (most notably Blueshirt Banter) where McIlrath was depicted as the second coming of Jeff Beukeboom.  Far from it.

A LOOK AHEAD

The Rangers have three days off before heading to Western Canada to start a four game road trip.   They start in Calgary and Edmonton and then get a chance for revenge in Vancouver before finishing the trip in Columbus.  The real challenge is Thanksgiving week when they play a home and home against Pittsburgh and a matinee in Philadelphia.

Saturday, November 5, 2016

A Night of Firsts

The Rangers beat the Boston Bruins on the road very handily.  The game was never in doubt once they recovered from the quick goal the Bruins scored in the first period after some sloppy defensive work.  They were led by their special teams going 1-3 on the power play and killing all three penalties while scoring two shorthanded goals.  Other than that, it was a night of firsts.

*  Pavel Buchnevich scored his first NHL goal.
*  Nick Holden scored his first goal as a Ranger.
*  Derek Stepan scored his first goal of the season and his first shorthanded goal of the season.
*  Kevin Hayes scored the first shorthanded goal of his career.
*  Hayes shorthanded goal was the first one ever scored by a Massachusetts native for the Rangers against the Bruins.
*  Kevin Klein got his first point of the season (an assist).
*  Jimmy Vesey got his first NHL point in his hometown.
*  Antti Raanta got his first career win against Boston (he was 0-1).
*  The Rangers scored their  first shorthanded goal of the season.
*  The Rangers have their first four game winning streak of the season.
*  This was the first time the Rangers have scored five goals in a road game this season.
*  This was the first time the Rangers have won a game in Boston with three players on their roster from Massachusetts (Hayes, Kreider & Vesey).
*   Buchnevich's goal was the first scored by a Russian player for the Rangers since Artem Anisimov scored on May 14, 2012 in the playoffs vs. the  Devils.

Some other stuff....

The Rangers goal differential is now +23 with Chicago in second place with +13.

The Rangers are averaging 4.17 goals per game. Next highest is Chicago with 3.55.

This is the first time the Rangers have scored five or more goals in four straight games since February 10-16, 2015 when they scored 22 goals in four straight wins vs. Toronto, Colorado, Arizona and the Islanders.  I'd say that the competition was a little softer than Tampa, St. Louis, Edmonton and Boston this season.  What was unusual was that the four games in 2015 were all on the road and it was right after Henrik Lundqvist suffered his vascular injury.  The streak came after the Rangers went 1-2 with Cam Talbot in goal and with all Ranger fans about to give up on the season.  The Rangers then went on an unbelievable run of 16 games when they lost only one in regulation, all with Talbot in goal (except for Skapski's two wins vs. Buffalo).

In this four game winning streak, the Rangers have scored 21 goals and allowed six.

Michael Grabner is second in the league in goals with seven.

Ryan McDonagh and Derek Stepan are tied for second in the league in assists with nine.

Brady Skjei is in second place among rookie defensemen in scoring with his seven assists.  He trails only the Blue Jackets' Zach Werenski (2-8-10).

The Rangers have five players with ten or more points, the most in the league.  Tampa and Chicago each have four.  Even more remarkable is that they have nine players with nine points or more (that's half the team).  The next best are Chicago and Philadelphia with six.

Four of the top five plus/minus players in the league are Rangers.  Shea Weber leads with +15. Grabner, Hayes, Holden and Miller are all +11.   In fact, only three Rangers are minus players (Zibanejad and Nash at -1 and Kreider at -2).

The Ranger power play is 9th in the league.  The penalty kill is 12th. They are still above .500 on faceoffs (miracle of miracles).

If any Ranger fan is gloating about the 10-0 shellacking the Montreal Canadiens suffered at the hands of the Columbus Blue Jackets, don't forget that the worst shutout in the history of the NHL was on January 23, 1944 when the Detroit Red Wings beat the Rangers 15-0 in Detroit.

One of the hottest players early this season has been Jonathan Marchessault of the Florida Panthers. He is scoring on a point a game pace and is centering for Jaromir Jagr on the Panthers' #1 line.   A little known fact is that he could have been (and actually was sort of) a New York Ranger.  In 2011, he was invited to the Rangers rookie camp as an undrafted player (though he was a big scorer in the QMJHL).  He impressed enough to earn a contract with the Rangers' AHL team, the Connecticut Whale.   He had an impressive season (24-40-64) and was signed by the Columbus Blue Jackets. He also played with the Lightning before getting signed by Florida this off season.  Did the Rangers err in not offering him a chance to play in New York?  The easy answer is that he wasn't called up due to his size (he is 5'9", 175 lbs) and that they figured that they had another smurf who had more potential.  So, Marchessault didn't get called up, but the other little guy did.  That guy was Mats Zuccarello.






Tuesday, November 1, 2016

The First Ten Games

So....the first ten games have been played and I think all Ranger fans should be pleased.  Before the stretch started, I predicted 12 points with an outside shot at 16 points.  They finished with 14 and they could have had 20.  Except for the third period in Carolina, they Rangers have dominated in every game they have played and should have won the games in St. Louis and against Detroit at MSG.

There were blowout wins against San Jose, Boston, Tampa and St. Louis.  There were comeback wins against Washington and Arizona.  There was the "bend but not break" win against the Islanders.

What more is there to say except that this was one of the most dominant stretches of hockey played by the Rangers in recent memory.   They had six games against teams that finished in the top 12 last season and went 5-1.  Finishing with 6-1 and 5-0 victories over Tampa and St. Louis, two of the 2017 Cup favorites made it all the more remarkable.

The fact that they played seven games at home certainly helped, but you cannot say that they had a soft schedule.  They dominated for long periods in every game that they played with the 4-2 comeback win over Washington on the road the most thrilling.

Perhaps the most positive sign is the balanced scoring. Nine Ranger forwards have six points or more already this season. Nine.  The next highest team has five (Flyers, Flames & Blackhawks).  It's pretty amazing that the Ranger earning the third highest salary on the team did not score a goal in the first ten games.  Yup, Derek Stepan is scoreless except for six assists.  And no one cares.

How good are the Rangers?  They are third in points (14)  and tied for second in wins (7). They have scored a league high 40 goals, averaging 4.0 goals per game, a full half a goal a game more than second place Chicago and Philadelphia.   Their power play is in the league's top ten (23.7%).   They are fifth in the league in shots per game.  The defense is pulling its weight.  They have the fifth lowest goals against average (2.20)  Their penalty kill has been good, in a virtual tie for 13th place in the league. Their goal differential is the league's best (+18).  They are over .500 on faceoffs.

Individual efforts have been amazing. Ryan McDonagh has been a monster, averaging 25 minutes per game and with nine assists, he is one off  the league lead.   Jimmy Vesey has six goals, one behind the league lead and he is now tied with highly touted rookies Auston Matthews and Patrick Laine.  He is also playing less (15:17  per game) compared to Matthews (17:24) and Laine (19:17).   Finally, in Plus/Minus the Rangers have McDonagh and Nick Holden in the top eight in the NHL.

There have been a few negatives.  Their five on three power play performance has been non-productive with no goals in over three minutes.  They've shown a nasty habit of allowing goals early in periods.  Derek Stepan hasn't scored a goal yet. They've had injuries to Chris Kreider, Pavel Buchnevich and Josh Jooris.   But the biggest positive is that they have been able to overcome those negatives and get off to a great start.

What is there to look for in the next ten games?

First off, the schedule is tight with ten games in 19 days including three sets of back to back games. Four of the games will be at MSG with six on the road including a four game western Canada  and Columbus road trip.  The schedule could be described as "soft" with only two games against 2016 playoff teams.  However, they do have to play Edmonton twice and the Oilers have 15 points already this season along with Connor McDavid, the most dynamic player in the NHL. The last two games of the stretch are against Florida and Pittsburgh, the only teams that made the playoffs last season.  As with St.Louis, the Rangers will play Edmonton and Vancouver twice in the next ten games and won't see them again this season.

We can expect the Rangers to get 14 points in the next ten games if they keep playing this well (and there is no reason to not believe that).





Youth Movement and a Look Back

The Hockey News latest issue profiles the top 100 players in the world aged 21 and under.  Of course, the usual suspects occupy the top of the list (McDavid, Matthews, Ekblad, Eichel etc).   Not many Ranger prospects in the list with Russian prospect Igor Shesterkin, coming in as the third highest ranked goaltender at #72 overall.  The only other Ranger is Pavel Buchnevich who sneaks in at #100. Even more depressing is that in a detailed look at the Rangers farm system, there are no players listed as a "blue-chipper."  Four come in as "B-List Prospects" and there are two in the "Sleeper" category. Compare that to the Islanders with four in the top category and eleven prospects singled out (compared to six for the Blueshirts).  All Ranger fans should say a prayer of thanks that Jimmy Vesey and Kevin Hayes picked the bright lights of Broadway instead of playing elsewhere.

Former Ranger savior Anthony Duclair comes in at #45.   Although he had a decent rookie season last year at 20-24-44, he has hit a wall, going only 4-7-11 in his last 33 games, including this season where is has only one assist in eight games.  Let me emphasize the most important number again...four goals in 33 games.  That's not to say that he is a bust, but he certainly has not been lighting it up.

Let's look at how the Yandle trade shapes up.  The Rangers got two years of Keith Yandle along with depth defenseman Chris Summers.  The Yotes got Duclair and John Moore (who played less than one season before departing as an unsigned RFA).

The Rangers got  the following draft picks:
Arizona's 2016 4th round (defenseman Tarmo Reunanen)
Florida 2016 6th round (goalie Tyler Wall)
Florida 2017 4th round

Arizona got the following draft picks:
Rangers 2016 1st round (traded to Detroit for higher pick - Jacob Chycrun)
Rangers 2015 2nd round (traded to Calgary for draft picks)

So, it is still too early to see exactly how this will work out for both teams, but the fact that Jeff Gorton was able to get TWO draft picks out of Florida for the rights to Yandle is looking like highway robbery.  With Duclair's current offensive woes, the trade seems much less one sided that it did two years ago.  Don't forget that the Rangers got a full season of Yandle plus two playoff runs. The intangible is Arizona prospect defenseman Chychrun who came in at #50 in the Hockey News article.  So, sitting here today it doesn't sting so much...of course Duclair could go on a goal-scoring tear and make all Ranger fans more suicidal than usual.

The Blueshirts conclude their first ten game segment of the season with their final tilt against St. Louis tonight at MSG.  Coming off what was one of their best games in years vs. Tampa it appears that Chris Krieder will be returning to the lineup, meaning that Oscar Lindberg takes a seat in the press box.  Buchnevich will be moved to the fourth line with Pirri and Fast as Vigneault is not breaking up the Miller/Hayes/Grabner line that accounted for four goals and nine points on Sunday night.  J.T. Miller leads the team with nine points, three points off the league lead.  Vesey and Grabner with five goals each, are one behind the league leaders.    Ryan McDonagh is second in the league in assists with eight and has an assist in eight straight games...the longest streak since Brian Leetch.

St. Louis comes in with a 5-2-2 record and twelve points, same as New York.  The Rangers lost to the Blues 3-2 in their second game of the season.  That road loss should have been a win as they outshot the Blues 35-18.  Back up goalie Carter Hutton stood on his head to steal the win. Tonight's goalie should be Jake Allen.

Next up is a look at the first ten game segment of the season.  Also, don't forget to set your DVR's for Thursday night's game against Edmonton. Connor McDavid makes his debut on Garden ice.  If you haven't seen him play, he is the real deal.

Here's a silly question....what does Anti Raanta call his father's brother's wife?  Auntie Raanta?  Speaking of Raanta, he was fabulous on Sunday and deserved the shutout, lost on a flukey goal by Stamkos after a dumb cross checking penalty by Brandon Pirri.  Pirri should have known better.   He was probably upset that he saw no ice time during the full two minute 5x3 power play in the second period.  It wasn't because he wasn't sent out, it was because the same unit never had a chance to change.

Later.