There were a number of important developments in last night's Ranger win over Washington, some good, some not so good. The least important was Donald Brashear, not the fans booing him nor John Tortorella's paranoid defense of his hand-picked enforcer. First the good -- Marian Gaborik was simply stupendous in his second exhibition game, one which was close to a regular season game in roster and instensity. Brandon Dubinsky was excellent in his first game, showing no ill effects of his holdout, indeed showing a desire to prove that it was justified. Matt Gilroy played another eye-popping game on the heels of winning the Lars-Erik Sjoberg Award as the best rookie in camp. And several other players were once again very good -- Enver Lisin, Vinny Prospal, and Christopher Higgins.
It wasn't all good. The Rangers seem intent on keeping Alexei Semenov even though he seems intent on making fans forget Marek Malik with his soft and errant play, and the way Tortorella is talking, that may lead to Mike Del Zotto's return to junior even though he has been better and has a ton more potential. And Artem Anisimov was dreadful in the role of fourth line center, skating between a pair of wingers in Brashear and Aaron Voros who cannot possibly help him be any better than dreadful (though to be fair, he did fare well as a penalty killer). We wrote yesterday that it was important to not just retain promising young players like Anisimov but to utilize them properly -- having him center a couple of enforcers is setting him up for failure.
Tortorella would chastise me for coaching the team from the media box for saying stuff like that. The head coach had quite a few words of disrespect for the beat writers who cover his team, as reported in Blue Notes. Disrespect was the watchword last night, with Tortorella blaming fan treatment of Brashear on what he perceived as "disrespect" from the media after the former rival was signed as a free agent. Never mind that Brashear was one of the most hated of rivals from his years of playing against the Rangers. Never mind that Tortorella and GM Glen Sather showed disrespect for our own resident enforcer, the popular Colton Orr, who did his job so well that routine Ranger-running ceased the moment he laid out Todd Fedoruk to earn a regular roster spot. Least of all, never mind the extra cap dollars wasted on Brashear when Orr, who is a lot younger, could have been kept for less.
Look in the mirror at your own actions and the disrespect you routinely show everyone before you start accusing others of disrespect. Or better yet, maybe ask yourself whether the disrespect the fans are showing Brashear is warranted and that signing him was unwarranted. The only way that disrespect will change is when Brashear proves himself as a Ranger -- give him credit for recognizing that even when the coach hasn't. To do that, Brashear is going to have to do better than he did in his pair of bouts against former Wolf Packer Brandon Sugden -- he lost the first when he tripped trying to throw his first punch, and he earned no better than a draw in the long second fight with a good comeback after losing the first half soundly. But why are we even wasting time on this when we have a guy like Gaborik out there playing real hockey?
For more on Brashear: Newsday, Record, Daily News, NYR.com, and Blueshirts Blog -- the Post has a bit on him as well after a main article on the Ranger defense. For more on Anisimov: Newsday. For more on Dubinsky: Game On! and HF Rangers Blog. For more on Matt Gilroy being named camp rookie of the year and Bobby Sanguinetti being named odd man out: Ranger Rants here and here, Blueshirts Blog, and BB.com. For more on last night's game and other issues: Ranger Rants here and here, Blue Notes, BB.com, NYR.com, NHL.com, AP. The Wolf Pack made their first training camp cuts, with a couple of minor surprises -- see Howlings and Beyond the Blueshirts for more. A couple of Rangers made the bottom half of Hockey's Future Top 50 Prospects. Prospet Park has news from last night's action. A Ranger fan is suing the Garden over his season tickets, according to the Daily News.
Don't forget including Avery in the lineup. Once he comes back there's a chance Torts could put Grachev or Lisin on his wing, and bump Voros off the roster (that would make sense to me, considering Voros is an absolutely useless player, especially if you already have an Avery and a Brashear in the lineup). Or you could be right, and Grachev goes to Hartford and leaves Anisimov stuck between the stone-hands.
Posted by: J | September 25, 2009 at 05:55 PM
The Rangers need to get rid of Dedden and Rosival. Too bad they are eating such a large chunk of the cap.
Posted by: Richard | September 25, 2009 at 06:36 PM
Tortarella certainly likes to slam the media - on one of the links I read a comment where essentially he says its not just the local media he hates, its all the f-ing media. Funny how that didnt stop him from a taking a high paying job as a talking-head on The NHL on TSN. Talk about a double standard. Maybe he should have stuck by his principles and lived on the money he could have made running a succesful hockey school (of course, few parents would probably want to send their kids there)...
Posted by: marty from rfc | September 25, 2009 at 06:41 PM
Not to take Tort's side in this, but I feel compelled to point out that Tom Renney was "one of the nicest guys" in the NHL coaching fraternity, but he was run out of town for not winning enough of boring games. I personally am looking forward to the season. It remains to be seen if Torts can win with this group. If nothing else it will be entertaining.
Posted by: Rich | September 25, 2009 at 11:17 PM
Are you surprised Tortorella hates the media? He has no public releations saavy at all, and he's eaten alive by the media!
Posted by: wildplaces | September 26, 2009 at 08:47 AM
Certainly would like to see some of John Tortorella's "abrasiveness" that he has toward the media translated into his teams play this season. The Rangers were a relatively "soft" team to play against in the Renney years in which the opposition knew and used to their advantage. I don't mean stupid fight filled hockey games, but more grit, passion, and physical play. Hey, maybe he can even wake up the team captain to show some more passion and leadership....and oh yea, keep Chris Drury away from the media also, like Torts he doesn't have a good knack for that either.
Posted by: paulinflorida | September 26, 2009 at 10:02 AM
Tortorella can't live by the same sword he swings. Let's see him get beyond talk with good results, not excuses. Let's see him coach 82 games like he wants his players to play, petal to the metal. This is a make the playoffs sport, not a bluster one. He needs to learn the meanings of respect. But he seems to think he knows everything already. Guess he likes confrontation and controversy, except when the light is shown on him. He lives in a glass house, throwing stones.
Posted by: i | September 26, 2009 at 11:53 AM
Ummm, Torts? Shut up and coach.
Posted by: Andrea | September 26, 2009 at 12:50 PM