Divvying Up the Defense

UPDATE: Lines and pairs in warm-ups are as already described below -- Straka looks ready to go.

Tom Renney puts himself squarely in the crosshairs of second guessers tonight by shaking up his defensive pairs. Although the Rangers have been giving up too many goals, the pairs he has used regularly in recent months appeared to be the ones that worked best. Not tonight -- Marek Malik will return not only to the ice but to his old spot alongside Michal Rozsival, and the season-long pairing of Dan Girardi and Fedor Tyutin will be split, Girardi pairing up with Marc Staal and Tyutin with Paul Mara.

Brendan Shanahan will be given a chance to rest his sore back, hip, and knee tonight. He will most likely be replaced by Martin Straka, returning to action after missing two games with a mild concussion. If for some reason Straka can't go, Jason Strudwick will be pressed into duty as a forward -- hence the switch back to Malik, so that Strudwick can concentrate on skating up front if he's needed. If Renney puts Straka back with Jagr and Gomez and sticks with the third line of Dubinsky, Dawes, and Prucha that played well the other night, that would leave Drury centering Greg Moore and Marcel Hossa on the "second" line.

Comments

[Dubi]

Wick -- I understand you were using Darche as an example of a coach coming down on a player during a game and that Tampa's standing isn't relevant. But look at who Darche is -- a 31 year old fourth liner who has played more games this season than in his first whole career combined. You don't see Torts benching Lecavalier or St. Louis.

Meanwhile, no one noticed this, but in that same game, when Dubinsky coughed up the puck for the two-man breakaway early in the second period trying to stickhandle out by the blue line instead of cycling it deep, he was benched for the next ten minutes. So Renney comes down on players who make mistakes too.

Now, let's see what kind of reaction we get now that I've brought Dubinsky's half-period benching out in the open.

[oleosmirf]

havent posted in a long time but I am going to speak my mind right here:

Unless Cherepanov is the next Ovechkin and Sanguinetti is the next Brian Leetch I have no reason to believe the rangers will be playoff contenders at all in the future. The young guys who are supposed to be good are all flopping in the NHL (except for the defenseman). Callahan, Dubinsky, Prucha, Dawes and Moore (only a few games I know but has been nothing special), have all underperformed this season. With Jagr, Shanahan, Straka, Roszival and Avery free agents at the end of the season replacing them with the guys in Hartford would only make us contenders for the Tavares sweepstakes. The Rangers have not had an impact homegrown young player become a star on the NHL level since probably Brian Leetch.

The Rangers are going to limp in to playoffs this year and make an exit in the 1st or 2nd round like last year but you can rave all you want about and all the prospects but when Jagr and co are gone which one of our "top prospects" are gonna give us the 25+ goal seasons.

[Wicky229 (18 choir boys never won a stanley cup!!!!)]

Dubi

Good point!! I just was stating the last time I saw it happen in the NHL to Jameson, some how that spun into I was against renney or something.

[stuart]

oleasmirf ... cherapanov may be great but he is 19 so it could take yrs.. BTW the Rangers will have plenty of $ to spend next yr. if they decide(minus shanny, straka, and Jagr, malik, and mara). so the world is not coming to an end.

finally a good effort tonight except for the penalties when they are short handed that has to stop...

[Dubi]

The Rangers are winning, so it's not making excuses or anything, but how can this be anything other than Canadien calling by these refs? The Rangers are dominating to the point where the shots are 23-6 at even strength, yet the Rangers have earned only one power play to the Habs' SIX! The only other explanation for that is that the Rangers are dominating as much as they are because the Habs aren't going anywhere near them. But that doesn't explain the non-calls on the interference against Jagr after he came out of the box or the hit on Gomez in the corner. Or how about the dive by Huet when Hollweg came to a stop next to him outside the crease -- took a goal away from the Rangers and gave the power play to the Habs! That's one way to deny the Rangers a goal -- obviously, pretending they didn't score when everyone else in the building saw that puck go in wasn't going to work in the age of video review.

But maybe these penalties are a blessing in disguise -- as important as it is to get a win and get some goals, it is even more important to get Hank back on his game. And he has been razor sharp in this game -- the Habs may not have that many shots, but most of them were primo chances.

And ya think we may have finally found our third line? The kid line!

[ANT]

LETS GO RANGERS 3RD PERIOD IS A CRITICAL ONE RIGHT NPW

[Sam]

Only 20 mins left of the game and Rangers need to stay consistent. What a second period though!!

Lets go rangerssssss!!

[laserman]

The refs couldn't change the face of this game and they really tried to. Marouelli is just one of a group of refs that go out of their way to screw the Rangers. Bottom line is the way they played tonight is the only way this Ranger team will be successful...

[Jess]

Yo Oleo

What was that again about the kids being flops. Guess that is why you are not working for anyone scouting eh? All those kids stink huh?

You forgot Anisimov too I suppose he has no future either.

Thanks for giving the person who does prospect coverage a good chuckle because posts like that is why I do not worry about my job.

All

The play is not perfect but they are working hard despite giving the Habs so many PPs. A 4-1 win does not cure all that ails the team but what it does do is show why giving up on them is the wrong idea.

They gave up a ton of penalties could be a complaint but at the same time the PK was very strong.

The defense limited the Habs scoring chances

Dubinsky line played well as did Drury's line.

My complaint is that Dawes deserved a star more than either Drury or Prucha. Dawes played a strong game at both ends.

Now let us see if they can carry this effort over to Monday.

We do know that if this team shows up, works hard and attacks the net they are a good team.

It boils down to effort.

It also boils down to having some faith too

[ltrf]

Now can we please keep it going?

[LI Joe]

the happiest fan tonight has to be the guy who always touts Dawes with a goal and nice assist. let's see if Dawes can keep it up now as we certainly need production from that line.

I was very happy for Prucha - really good to see him happy. and a happy Prucha is a productive Prucha

[Godot]

Liked what the Rangers had to offer tonight. Malik played a strong game--nice to see the young guys scoring, and Lundqvist seemed to be his old self. No complaints.

G

[Matty]

It was so relieved to not only see them play a complete game but for Henrik to get a solid game under his belt ... he didn't face many shots but he faced very good ones and only one got by him and on the power play ... he deserved his Star ...

Our third line was fantastic tonight ... they were battling hard and a threat whenever they were out there ... I can only imagine how great it would be if they actually get on track on a consistent basis and once Shanny and Avery are healthy it would just be great to see three lines that are a threat to score and actually score ...

I want to also say that I really loved how Gomez handled being named an All-Star ... sure it's an honor but he seemed almost annoyed to being asked about it when the team was, up to that point, winless in 2008 ... He seemed to take it as a personal mission to help right the ship ... and I have to say that I am loving how he is playing and leading ... his line with Jagr and Straka can truly do great things when they are one the ice together ...

Chris Drury had such a strong game tonight , boy was his opening goal a thing of beauty ... Hossa must get props for the pretty pass that sent Drury on his way ...

Tonight showed that when the Rangers decide to play good, sound defensive that they take over the game positionally and on the forecheck ... I just hope that this wasn't a tease and that Henrik and the entire team is on it's way back to how they were playing in November instead of most of December and the beginning of this year ...

The # of Penalties against us was just horrible .. while I still believe we have to be more discipline, specially cut back on the 5on3's ... I just get annoyed that the refs seemed to have reverted back to refusing to call any penalties for us when Jagr gets fouled because he's so big and strong and stays on his skates ...

Marek Malik had an uneventful game for the most part which means good for him, and he made a very good play in our zone during one of Montreal's PP's but in the play that he failed to cover his man when Montreal scored ... sigh, that was bad ...

Alright... night everyone

[THE THRILL]

if jagr shanny straka mara avery and malik didnt come back next year, we would have

prucha dubi, callie moore anisimov, cherep, korp..fwenhiplk lol i didnt want to look it up

and sangenetti with much more ice time and more ice time would equal more scoring

opportunities which inturn equals more goals...
so it would not be the end of the world it would just probably be a yaer with more mistakes, but atleast a hard working team like we saw today game in and game out
not to mention we would have mad $ and could bring up al to back up hank...

[stuart]

no the rangers would have a lot of $ to sign a FA or 2.....

the rangers have 3 very good young D men, a young very good goalie, and quite a few good young wingers, yes at present they do not have any 30 goal young guys but I believe great young D men are harder to find, just my opinion...

[Cuch]

I agree with Jess that a lot of nights it comes down to effort with this team. When its there they are tough team to beat and when its not they can be very tough to watch.

[Jess]

Thrill

Exactly the franchise is actually in transition from the dependency on UFAs to where the core of this team is going to be mainly those who worked their way up the ranks.

Give this franchise 3 years and you will see a possible roster that looks like this

Gomez/Cherepanov/Prucha

Drury/Dubinsky/Dawes

Anisimov/Hillier/Dupont

Pyatt/Moore/Zaborsky or Skokan

Defense

Staal/Girardi

Sanguinetti/Sauer

Tyutin/Baranka

Homegrown, it may not be perfect BUT because it will be homegrown there will be a ton of money available for a top level UFA to fill HOLES not stock the roster.

[LI Joe]

Jess - Drury deserved his star. he set the tone with the d play and give and go with Hossa. also re his pk duty especially on 5 on 3. whereas Dawes was involved in the 3rd and 4th goals which were not as critical as the opening goal. Dawes maybe over Prucha or Henrik for a star. but bottom line is the TEAM won and for 1 night at least all is well.