Superstition or system?
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- March
- 14
Tom Renney has again opted against tinkering with his lineup, other than Marek Malik missing his second consecutive game with what is now a slight shoulder sprain.
This also means Henrik Lundqvist is back in net, which makes sense: Florida has won five straight, so the Rangers are better off having their No. 1 guy tonight.
All this courtesy of my fantasy league co-owner Zipay (under whose stewardship we are losing ground in the standings. And to Dellapina, no less!). Sadly I am not in Florida, which would be even more painful if not for the first signs of spring appearing here. Instead, it will be Sam and Joe on the TV and my 2 1/2 year-old bouncing on the couch wondering why the Rangers are wearing white (he refers to them as the “Blue Rangers,” so this is all very confusing).
In other news, my colleague Rick Carpiniello chimes in with a buzzkill observation here.
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on Friday, March 14th, 2008 at 1:03 pm by Sam Weinman.
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Josh Thomson Josh, who is 26 and a native of Carmel, graduated from Boston University in 2002 and began working for The Journal News the following March. 
Incidentally, and I’ve said it before too as someone pointed out, if you deliberately injure someone you should sit out as long as the person injured, HOWEVER LONG THAT IS!
I saw that play where Chris Pronger stomped on the guy’s leg. Chris Pronger should get at least the same amount of games that simon got and it should include the playoffs.
longtimerangersfan,
yea, that was beer me yesterday that made that suggestion but
that has been mentioned before, I don’t see the league going in that direction.
tomg, I realize that it is a fact of life that sometimes when you get injured you lose your place in the lineup if the team plays well in your absence but Prucha is a scorer and if used CORRECTLY, ahem, Mr. Renney, on the PP, he could be effective. As Rodent pointed out…couldn’t be any worse than Straka now.
A couple of smaller things (I’ll let everyone else disect the larger problems of the team):
1) Backman’s penalty was not a penalty. The stick was on the legs, and it never came above the waste. If the standard is above the waste, that’s not a hook, especially since the Florida player didn’t go down. So, I can’t really blame that one on him.
2) Jokinen’s goal was triggered by Hank playing the puck poorly. We’re the second most profitable franchise in the league. Hank is the second highest paid goaltender in the league. You mean to tell me that we can’t get a coach purely to show him how and when to play the puck?
3) The hilariousness of my girlfriend watching Rangers games with me continues. Last night’s comments:
a) (Upon seeing Straka) “AGH! What’s wrong with his face?!”
b) (After I told her the guy in the purple shirt was Ron Duguay) “Did you just say his name was ‘Too Gay?’”
So Doodie, I may have missed it, I guessed Italian, what’s the scoop?
They gave Prucha top PP time for like a month and he scored a total of ZERO goals.
Prucha isn’t the answer for the PP. It’s getting rid of Straka on the point, and getting Rozsival away from Jagr. No shots from the point=no goals for the unit.
Oh, I’m sorry, he had 2 in one game against Toronto back in December in a 5 PPG night for the team. CLEARLY a fluke since nothing like it was ever repeated, particularly for Prucha, who had gone 17 games without a goal.
You didn’t miss it, I never said it, but it wasn’t Eye-talian.
Boy, I must have missed a lot of games as I don’t remember Prucha on the PP that much. Perhaps he was on the last 15 seconds after Jagr and co. finally left the ice?
The writing was on the wall … 5 of the last 6 games the Rangers opponents have gotten at least 1 point … obviously staal mart, stuart and others ignore that … they lose to Tampa then lose to Pitt … then they have to play Philly …. Sure Staal … keep the same lineup … play Backman 30 minutes … Renney is a reactor not pro-active and as I predicted (Rodent also) Rangers lose.
Settle down folks this is one game, maybe we needed a loss for a realality check. THEY WILL COME ON STRONG TONIGHT, THEY WILL.
Duguay made a great analysis on MSG last night. Might be too candid for the brass so who knows if we see him again.
That’s it. I’m done. If Koffy doesn’t coach the rest of the season we’re going to miss the playoffs a la ‘07 Mets. Koffy … If you check on the rangers website, there’s a mailing address. I’m pretty sure they’d take your resume for the head coaching job. Give it a shot.
It’s 1 loss. ok, so now we’re 17-6-4 in our last 27. Too bad the trade deadline already passed. We should have traded everyone and brought in new guys, a new coach, jagr should change his sticks again, straka should watch from the press box b/c he obviously doesn’t understand how to play hockey after 35 years.
If Prucha is the answer to the PP, then we have MUCH bigger problems than we thought.
You want the biggest positive to come out of last night? Well, we were clearly not going to go undefeated the rest of the way, so if you’re going to give up points, why not give them to a team that’s way behind you and outside of your division? It’s not the end of the world, and I’m glad it was the Panthers that we lost to and not pitt or nj.
Thankfully I get to watch tonights game on a huge HD screen. Isn’t it odd that my mom has an 50” hdtv and I watch on a 36” old-skool picture tube tv? Something ain’t right.
We’ll win tonight. (and Tuesday)
“Might be too candid for the brass so who knows if we see him again.”
You know lenny, I kinda had the same thought. Dolan will have him kidnapped, and brainwashed like Trautwig and Fishler soon.
I think Backman played pretty well last night and Jokinen’s goal was completely due to Hank’s inability to use his glove hand. The shot from the point was going over the net. Hank took a swipe and missed and there was the Joke to put the puck away. Besides puckhandling, Hank has other flaws in his game, but let’s be real, they cannot win them all. I think Renney should have let them all lay out on the beach for 2 days, though. Shanahan looked better last night, Gomer was flying, the d was pretty tight in the neutral zone, but one bad goal by Hank.
While I think the real reason we lost is that we probably we’re a little cocky and didn’t throw enough at the net, the powerplay could sure use a shakeup.
I remember in February ‘07, our power play was failing miserably and Renney then took Shanahan off Jagrs Power Play line. I’m a little surprised they have played so much together this year considering it clearly didn’t work last year. I also don’t think it would hurt just using our first and second lines as the power play lines-there is already chemistry there-why not give it a shot? Lots of teams just throw out their top two lines on the power play-Montreal does it and look what they can do.
Beer said: “If Prucha is the answer to the PP, then we have MUCH bigger problems than we thought.”
Beer, no one said Prucha is the answer to the PP but why not try something, ANYTHING different!!!! If a team can’t find a PP with the PROVEN scoreres that the Rangers have then whose fault is it? Can’t be the coaches fault.
Trautwig was brainwashed a long time ago having grown up on Long Island
Guys, if you want to keep your jobs you can’t talk bad about your employer…it cost Chadwick his job years ago. Go to your CEO and say something bad, deserved or not, and see how long you last. BTW, I don’t like it either but it’s a fact of life…get over it!
What DID Oolala Sasson say? I had the Fla feed and Potvin sucks.
LTRF, generally, talked about how being good enough wasn’t good enough. Duguay said that against a team like Florida, one with inferior talent, the Rangers had to come out and exert themselves. Instead, he saw complacency and that the Panthers were playing with much more desire. He had a line that was something like, “It’s not just making the playoffs, it’s how you make the playoffs.”
Also, said our power play was too fancy, that we need to get a guy with “a big butt” in front of the net. They can’t be afraid of being hit by the puck.
Hey Everybody,
Maybe we should ease of on the Straka talk…
First off, I agree he needs to shoot the puck more…
Beyond that, I didn’t hear anybody complaining about him playing the point the past two seasons when he had 76 and 70 points. Why don’t you look at his linemates… Drury and Callahan… totally different mentality of the way the game should be played… Straka needs to be played with players who see the game the same way… he played his best with Nylander and Jagr in NY and Kovalev and Lang in Pittsburgh… and why swap Straka for Prucha… Prucha is useless… can’t play D and get knocked around like a rag doll… Straka hustles, plays PK… it’s obvious that line with Drury and Callahan can’t make 2 passes in one shift… How many times does Callahan fumble that puck… I feel embarassed for him… Callahan has 8 pts in 41 games? Give me a break… Straka is a world class player.
duguay is 100% right in that regard…. just good enough is NOT good enough
Hank did give Jokinen that 3rd goal. Someone needs to teach the guy how to play the puck. Also, why the hell was Straka on the PP in the final minute? That goes to show you how dumb Renney is. He should have had Avery in there, a guy who always parks himself in front of the net. Its pathetic that Nyr has split the series the 4 of the 5 shitty south east teams. Hopefully tonight they dont do the same thing.
BTW
Please tell me you all saw when Joe Michaletti accidentally drew the Penis and Balls on the Panther player when he was trying to show the viewers where the puck was. He said “sorry for that” or something like that, cause he knew exactly what people would think it was. Lol of all the luck the guy has, he didnt draw it on his face or his stomach, it had to be down there where it belongs. This guy is so fuggin funny, he is the perfect replacement for JD, especially last season when a Ranger broke his stick, and he said “he broke his shit” by accident.
BTW
Im hoping Straka retires next season, so we can either give Prucha that spot, or give Cherepanov a big shot next season, if he has what it takes. He sucks on the point on the PP, if he isn’t playing with Jagr then he’s pretty much not there offensively. He’s a good player, but i think he should call it a career after this season.
If we get outplayed and lose to Tampa tonight then I would say we can worry a little bit, but I don’t really think that is going to happen. We have answered back during this streak we had going after bad games. I think we are going to come out really hard tonight and take the lead and not give it away for the rest of the game.
Hank in nets again tonight per Dellapina.
Bottom line for the loss last night is the same as it always is…
Our defense is too slow and can’t handle speed well… therefore the forwards have to come back and help more than other teams’ forwards do… when the’re not effective at that… we lose.
If our PP could just be mediocre it would erase some of those issues but it’s not mediocre… it’s abyssmal.
Cherepanov ain’t coming over next season, he has one more year of serfdom for his Russian team.
new post!
Riche’,
I agree 100%, the rangers D-men are to slow and to soft, this will be the rangers down fall in the playoffs IMO, especially against teams like carolina, ottawa, montreal.