Blueshirt Boggle

Rangers Get a Break Heading Into Break

The Rangers breathed a collective sigh of relief this evening when they were able to pull out a 4-2 win over Tampa Bay after blowing a 2-0 lead in the third period. Special teams and the goaltending of Henrik Lundqvist allow them now to go into the Christmas break with a big win instead of a four-game home losing streak as they prepare to face Ottawa next Monday in Ottawa. Tom Poti also breathed a huge sigh of relief as he scored his fisrt goal in a year and a half, the game winner in the waning moments of the third period, to earn cheers and post-game kudos for a change.

The Poti story may be the most "natural" one to come out of this game, and there will certainly be a lot of coverage on him in tomorrow's papers. But the real story of this game was the power play and a phenomenal young goalkeeper. One couldn't fault Kevin Weekes's netminding in the two 2-1 losses earlier this week, and one would have to say he played pretty well. But with Colorado offering little by way of attack and Jersey missing the net on all their best scoring chances, he did not do -- did not have to do -- what Lundqvist did tonight.

Lundqvist, playing for the first time in nine days, came in and almost stoned the Lightning, stopping 30 shots, many of them quite good, beaten only when he could not see the shot and had it deflect in off of something (a stick, a post). Weekes made all the saves he had to make, and gave up one bad goal in each game, the game winners. Lundqvist made phenomenal saves, game-saving stops. He put his team in position to win this one -- in fact, to win it twice, after they blew their first lead.

The power play was re-energized by an unexpected tweak. Martin Rucinsky dropped back to man the left point, with Martin Straka moving off the point and up front. Rucinsky has a better shot than Straka, making him a logical candidate, but he was reluctant to make the move because of his fear of blowing defensive assignments. Tom Renney finally talked him into it this morning, and it paid off when he fed Jaromir Jagr in the corner, who in turn fed the amazing Petr Prucha for a redirection while he was being taken down and then another diving play to jam home his own rebound. Straka score the second PPG by redirecting a backhand from Rucinsky off the rush. And Poti netted the game winner on a big slapper after three Rangers worked hard to get the puck out of the corner.

The penalty kill came up big again too, stopping Tampa on the first six of their seven advantages before being victimized by a screen shot from the point. The officiating tonight wasn't as picky as the past few games, but there was a seeming slant toward the visitors, who benefitted from some calls that were not being made the other way -- we counted at least six interference infractions against Tampa, blatant ones, that were uncalled. And it seemed like the officials were trying to find a way not to call the automatic penalty for delay of game against Nolan Pratt that gave the Rangers the deciding power play -- they didn't make the call until a linesman skated in and said something that obviously tipped the balance against the Lightning.

The Rangers clearly had the edge in play for the first two periods. It seemed to us from our vantage point in the upper press box that Tampa was trying to employ a trap through two periods and that the Rangers, initially stifled perhaps out of surprise, quickly solved it and were flying up the ice. Down by two, the Lightning started the third period pressing in their usual manner, scoring immediately, and continued to press, ultimately knotting the score.

Michael Nylander paid the price for his penalties the other night by being a healthy scratch tonight. Kudos to Renney for holding him accountable. Ville Nieminen, who sat out the past two and four of the last six for his bad penalties and ineffective play, replaced Nylander. On the flip side, Ryan Hollweg was scratched despite his energetic performances of late.

Ranger Olympians

Five Rangers were named to the Czech Olympic team today -- Jagr, Straka, Rucinsky, Malik, and Prucha. The Swedish team as expected will go with Henrik Lundqvist as their starter in goal. Marcel Hossa will be part of Slovakia's entry. Articles here on the Czech, Slovak, and Swedish selections, full rosters for all teams at IIHF. For some reason the Brian Leetch snub story just won't die -- more today from the Toronto Sun.

Back in Rangerland, Don Maloney told both the Daily News and Journal News that the Rangers will not look for a quick fix win-today deal, that they are committed to rebuilding, that they don't want to bring in vets who will take ice time from rookies like Prucha, and that there are guys in Hartford they'd bring up first before looking for an outside trade. Sounds great -- except that a one for one trade of Poti for someone like Sykora would have maintained the veteran-youth mix and the salary cap balance while ridding us of boo-bird Poti. Other Ranger stories from Newsday and the Post.

That was assistant GM Don Maloney telling reporters about the Rangers' personnel plan. His boss the GM was seen at the Garden Tuesday in a rare sighting, but only by a pair of observers about a half hour after the game ended. He hadn't been seen since the time a few weeks ago when he ushered a family into the Ranger locker room and quickly escaped before reporters could corrall him. On this night, he was crossing the ice in the empty arena. "Who's that guy?" asked one observer, sarcastically. "I think he works here," said the other. The GM stopped in the middle of the rink and looked down at the ice. "I think he helps maintain the ice or something," said one of the observers.

Rangers Bedeviled by Penalties

Kevin Weekes pitched 119 minutes and 25 seconds of shutout goaltending in the past two games. Problem is, the Rangers allowed themselves to be shut out for 119 minutes and 58 seconds during those same two games, consecutive 2-1 losses (not including empty netters) in which the opposition scored twice within 19 seconds and 16 seconds, respectively. The latest was a stunning turnaround late in the third period to a Devil team in complete disarray after their coach and one of their players just up and quit.

"You can't win scoring one goal," Jaromir Jagr said afterwards. "You can't expect to win hockey games when you score one goal. That's the problem. Nothing else." But you can't expect to score goals when your entire game is disrupted by penalties -- four in the first period, three in the second, and four more in the third when the Devils took none (after taking three in each of the first two periods). The penatly killers were awesome, Kevin Weekes good in goal, and the whole affair fortunate that the Devils missed the net twenty times, often on their best scoring chances.

But there is more to it than the eighteen-plus minutes spent shorthanded (two and a half of those down two men) -- there are the shifts on which the penalties are taken that are cut short, seven of them while the top two lines were out on the ice, and there are the subsequent shifts that are disrupted because a) the penalty killers can't go right back out (especially the defensemen), causing some confusion among the lines, and b) the top line comes out cold after sitting out all the power play time. As Tom Renney said afterwards, "We handed it over with the penalties. Any kind of momentum or fluidity you can create off of rolling your lines certainly is disrupted by having to kill so many penalties."

The penalty problem started with the officials. "We get paid to do what we do, and they get paid to do what they do," Weekes said after the game. "We want to have our impact on the game, we want to allow our skills to dictate the impact. [But] some of the calls and the timing of some calls puts too much responsibility in the hands of people that aren't playing the game. When your right to determine the outcome of a game is somewhat taken away, that's frustrating."

The officiating in this game was simply atrocious. To prove the point, let's look at some of the penalties called on the Devils, never mind the team we root for -- opening minute, Martin Rucinsky is tugged and shoves his arm back to embellish the tug and draws a penalty; Sergei Brylin tries to backhand the puck away from Marek Malik and has his follow through deflected up into Malik's face by Malik's stick; I still can't see Scott Gomez's hook in the third period that negated a minute of two-man advantage and another minute of a Ranger double minor.

Not that we want to cut the Devils any slack, but that's how bad it was. It cut both ways -- Jason Ward touched Paul Martin and he went flying on the most obvious dive of the game; Petr Prucha raised his stick for a second, realized he can't do it, and dove instead, and still was called even though he never touched the guy; Ryan Hollweg checked Alexander Mogilny immediately after he played or tried to play the puck, the worst of all manner of officiating when a legitimate body check is improperly penalized.

It is nevertheless the players' responsibility to see the way the officiating goes and adjust accordingly. In the opening minute and a half, each team was called equally for the most minor of hooks, each player going to the box shaking his head. The Devils adjusted, taking only two more hooking penalties the rest of the way. The Rangers kept raising their sticks, taking six more hooks and one trip caused by a raised stick (the Martin dive). Moan all you want about the dives and chintzy calls, but if the Rangers don't raise their sticks and stick them into the mid-section, no matter how innocuous they may be, the penalties could not be called.

Even the worst offender, Michael Nylander, who took a team season-high four minors, made no excuses. "Sticks down on the ice, that's the rules," he said in his usual curt manner. Asked about the calls made against him, he said, "I really didn't see it. I got in the box. I shouldn't be there. I really should be on the ice. It was my fault, whether they're bad calls, it doesn't matter." When he said he shouldn't be in the box, he wasn't blaming the refs, he was blaming himself. That he accepts responsibility for his mistakes and yet continues to make them is the most perplexing aspect of this obviously talented player. Asked if he has any plans to deal with Nylander, Renney nodded, but he wouldn't elaborate. "We'll see," he said. "I'll reserve judgement on that. I don't want to make an emotional decision at this time. I'll just settle down and think it through."

Asked whether, in his clearly emotional state over his team's lack of discipline, it ever crossed his mind to say to himself that the next guy who does it will become an example to the rest of the team, he said, "No, we had to play our full bench tonight. It crosses your mind as time goes on that there may be something you have to deal with beyond tonight. [But] it does not do anything for your flow [to bench anyone]. When you look at what you've got to offer up beyond that [one] line for scoring, the most we could do for ourselves was to try to roll through our four lines and try to develop some kind of scoring. I did not want to take Michael out of the line-up."

Not that he was asked specifically about Nylander in that context -- there were many perps in this game. But clearly Nylander was on his mind. It has been more than penalties with him. He has had difficulty making the decision to shoot rather than make cutesy passes all season long, he was the guilty party against Vancouver two games earlier when he tried to stickhandle at the goal mouth, and his first penalty last night was all the more irksome because it was a reaction to his turnover on an ill-conceived drop pass at the blue line when he should have gotten the puck in deep, a problem he has had all season, even costing the Rangers a game earlier in the season on a nearly identical play.

Even Jagr washed his hands of Nylander last night. He was asked to talk about Nylander's success by a Swedish TV crew. "I don't know what you're talking about," was his incredulous response. "Well, not today, but if you look at the season," the interviewer responded. Even then, he said he couldn't answer because they hadn't been linemates all that much with the coach changing lines, which of course belies the fact that they have in fact been linemates most of the time, including the past two games.

Lost in the shuffle was another phenomenal play by Petr Prucha to set up the Rangers' only goal. He dove head first and chipped the puck over to an open Steve Rucchin for the score. If every Ranger played like Petr, then Jagr wouldn't have to say stuff like, "For a while we were really lucky. Now it's sometimes we have bad luck. We were winning the close games, now we're losing the close games."

We're not going to waste your time or ours with all the links to the Lou Lamoriello stories, so here are the handful of articles that focus on the Rangers: News, Newsday, Journal News. Andrew Gross of the Journal News also looks at the commute fans had to make in light of the New York City transit strike -- there were many empty seats, but not nearly as many as one might expect under the circumstances. Charlotte lost last night -- another assist for Jessiman. Brian Leetch tells the Boston Globe that he wasn't informed about his status on the US Olympic team, that he found out by watching the televised announcement of the roster. For shame. How done is Vladimir Malakhov with the Devils? They gave his #2 to Dan McGillis, and gave McGillis's #6 to Tommy Albelin.

Dangerous When Cornered

"For a Change, Rangers Have Upper Hand" -- the headline of today's Post preview of tonight's Ranger-Devil contest speaks volumes, even if the article itself contains little of substance. Yes, with the Devils in complete and utter turmoil, and the Rangers having done so well against their struggling neighbors already this season, the Rangers do indeed have the upper hand. But you know what that means -- "Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!" With their GM behind the bench, Patrick Elias back, and deadbeat Vladimir Malakhov gone, the Devils will have the incentive to turn that hand around, especially with the Rangers themselves struggling for offense and power play efficiency. The Rangers will have to be extra-prepared tonight, even though Tom Renney said his team would make no big deal about it.

If as a Ranger fan with ties to New York you are hoping to root for Team USA in next year's Winter Games, you will not be able to meld that rooting interest with anything Ranger-centric. That's because no Rangers were named to the team -- not that there were any real candidates. Three Devils, three Isles, and three ex-Rangers (Schneider, Knuble, Weight -- four if you count Ranger draftee Aaron Miller) are on the team, but Brian Leetch isn't, reportedly because of injury, although he still stands a chance of being a late addition in case of injury. Ranger fans will have to root for either Sweden, certain to have Henrik Lundqvist as their starting goalie, or the Czech Republic, certain to have a strong Ranger contingent, once Team USA makes its early exit from the competition.

Gotta love Jeremy Roenick complaining about being blackballed from Team USA. Maybe he hasn't considered that at age 36, with only six goals and 13 points in 32 games, he is done. Or that he let the team down by not playing in the World Cup to protect his personal contract interests. Or maybe they just didn't want any more hotel rooms trashed. Take a page from the book of classiness, JR: No sour grapes from Brian Leetch, just a statement that his hand is still raised if they need him.

[Note: There are a ton more links about the Devils and their woes, and about the naming of the US Olympic team, but we're not going to catalogue them all, having already picked out a few of the best that tell the whole story from the point of view most important to the Rangers and their fans.]

Power Outage

We're working down to the final minutes on the next issue of Blueshirt Bulletin, so not much time for an update today. The local writers all home in on the most evident problem from last night and recent games -- the lack of scoring (News, Post, Times, Journal News, Newsday). The Times has the most relevant quotes, these from Jagr: "They didn't outplay us. No way. We didn't score goals. We don't have enough goal scorers. Let's face it." Colorado take on the game (Sakic, mostly) in the Denver Post and Rocky Mt. News.

Hartford completed a productive weekend with a 3-1 win last night. Charlotte lost in OT -- Hugh Jessiman was not on the score sheet this time. Lengthy interview at Hockey's Future with US World Junior coach Walt Kyle, the former Ranger assistant who currently coaches Ranger prospect Darin Olver at Northern Michigan University. No mention in the interview of the somewhat controversial omission from the WJC team of CHL players like Brandon Dubinsky, Mike Sauer, and others, in favor of US collegians.

Rangers Bury Themselves Under Avalanche

The great thing about having a superstar goal scorer on your team is that it doesn't matter if he doesn't do anything for 19 minutes and 41 seconds of a period. If he can get three breakaways in 19 seconds and get you all the goals you need, then he's done his job. Unfortunately for the Rangers tonight, that superstar with the clutch goals was not Jaromir Jagr, it was Joe Sakic of the Colorado Avalanche.

Having allowed the Avalanche just six shots on goal through the first 30 minutes of the game, just nine shots two-thirds the way through the second period, the Rangers made two defensive errors that let Sakic come in alone twice and score -- the first time on a power play breakaway when Michal Rozsival wrongly anticipated where the puck was going and left Sakic an open lane at full speed, the second time on a penatly shot after a Darius Kasparaitis turnover gave the Avs a two on none breakaway on which Martin Straka hooked Sakic as he shot. Sakic converted the penalty shot.

Afterwards, coach Tom Renney had to apologize several times for not giving the Avalanche due credit, but he felt strongly that the Rangers had lost this game more than Colorado had won it. And he was right. The Rangers had all the best scoring chances, barring the ones that led to Sakic's goals. But they couldn't finish, barring Ryan Hollweg's rebound of a Jagr shot in the waning seconds of the second period that gave the Rangers some life heading into the third period.

But that life was sucked out by a power play that, well, sucked. Through one period, the officials weren't calling anything, even blatant muggings. In the second period, they called almost everything Colorado's way, apparently failing to realize that a) there were old rules that needed to still be enforced, not just new rules, and b) there were two teams on the ice doing just about the same things to each other.

It wouldn't have mattered, though, had the refs given the Rangers more power plays, as they did in the third period. The Rangers would have been better off declining them. With coach Renney and captain Jagr still in disagreement on how to organize the power play, the man advantage runs be default -- give Jags the puck and hope he scores. Or at least sets up Pruchs. Well, Jags hasn't scored a PPG is a long time, and Pruchs saw his club record-tying goal scoring streak end at six games, his performance hindered by sitting out all those second period PKs and by a shot he took off his arm blocking a point shot in the first period.

Renney said the Rangers' 30 shot total "flattered" them. By which he means, it looked better than it was. Only a handful of those shots came from the kill zone, and two of those came from Hollweg on his goal. He again declined to give Colorado credit for clogging the middle and blamed his own players for not driving to the net. He was right -- yes, but he didn't take any measures to do anything about it either, especially when the power plays rolled in in the third period and he had another chance to make a statement, as he did in Chicago ten days ago.

Although one could argue effectively that the Rangers made Avalanche goalie Vitaly Kolesnik look better than he had to be in his fifth NHL start, and one could argue as well that Kevin Weekes did well to limit Colorado's still potent attack (the league's fourth best at 3.72 goals per game) to just two goals, the truth is, Weekes battled the puck all night, he let Sakic's penalty shot trickle in through his legs, and he probably would have been pasted had the Rangers allowed the Avs more than 17 shots on goal.

Marcel Hossa was inserted back into the line-up and lined up at left wing with Blair Betts and Jason Ward, with Petr Prucha taking his prior spot on the right side with Steve Rucchin and Martin Rucinsky. The move energized Hossa in two ways -- in the first period, Hossa never once moved his legs away from the puck (only when he had it), and it showed, contrasting sharply to the non-stop skating style of his new linemates. After that, though, the combination of that possible embarrassment combined with the motivation of staying out of the press box got him going, and going good -- though he still failed to register a goal for a thirteenth straight game (only one assist during that time).

Maxim Kondratiev also got back onto the ice, with Jason Strudwick scratched, and acquitted himself well. Both Kondratiev and Hossa had to be helped off the ice during the game, Kondratiev after absorbing a huge check into the glass (looked clean), and Hossa after being accidentally tripped into the end boards trying to chase down an iced puck. Neither seemed the worse for wear -- Prucha also looked fine after the game (we asked him directly about his arm and he said it was OK).

Hollweg had an active game beyond his goal -- he fought one-time Ranger Ian Laperriere in the opening minute (looked like Laperriere got away with pulling of hair), and he threw numerous checks. How he only got credit for one is beyond belief -- he threw at least three on one shift right after someone boarded Jed Ortmeyer, the last of the hits on Laperriere. But rather than energize the Rangers, it was followed moments later by Sakic's two-goal explosion.

By the way, though they didn't get a minus on either goal, the Rangers' top unit was responsible for both. On the first, Michael Nylander once again refused to make the smart play and get the puck in deep at the Av blue line, turning it over instead for the Marek Svatos rush that drew the power play on which Sakic scored. The same unit of five was on the ice when Kasparaitis turned it over for the two-man breakaway -- Sakic shot wide, so Straka's hook that drew the penalty shot went for naught.

Curious scene in the locker room after the game. After giving the English media his usual good-natured, optimistic comments (certain that the power play will revive itself), Jagr had a heated, one-sided conversation in Czech with a cameraman. He was really worked up, but no one other than the cameraman understood what he was saying. It went on for quite awhile, right in the middle of the dressing room, with Jagr seemingly oblivious to all the other people around him watching him, including much of the English media, who eventually abandoned their interview with Kevin Weekes to take it all in.

Whether it was directed at the cameraman himself, or whether Jagr was venting to him about something else, is anyone's guess -- it didn't seem as if the guy did anything to offend Jagr, but on the other hand his camera was not rolling, leading us to believe that Jagr was telling him in no uncertain terms why he did not want to be interviewed. But on the third hand, Jagr was making motions with his hands that looked like he was talking about his hockey stick in some context. Maybe this will end up in the Czech media and we will get a translation from our friends over at Hockey Rodent. Or maybe one of the beat reporters went back and asked him about it.

[Photo courtesy of Getty Images]

Update From MSG

Reporting from the Garden -- in warm-ups, Prucha skated with Rucinsky and Rucchin, Hossa with Betts and Ward. If Hossa matches the energy level of his linemates, he should do well. Strudwick scratched -- Kondratiev back in.

Prucha blocked a shot off his arm -- looks to be in major pain... Looks like he's trying to gut it out and stay in the game, going right back out for his next shift.

Memo to NHL officials: In addition to the new rules, there are still the old rules. It's kind of silly to call just the new ones and let the old ones go.

Nix that last memo. Memo to officials: There are two teams on the ice subject to the same rule book, not one.

New Old Lines

New line combos tonight have the Rangers returning mostly to old line combos -- the original first line of Nylander between Straka and Jagr and the HMO line are reunited. Rucchin is back on the second line, with Rucinsky on the left and with Hossa back in the lineup on the right, according to the Journal News, which leaves Prucha back with Betts and Ward. The Post and Newsday, though, have Hossa and Prucha flip-flopping positions and lines. Either way, looks like Nieminen will sit out. John Dellapina in the News focuses his game day report more on the Rangers' second big measuring up test in a row against Colorado.

Local area Sunday columns focused on the league at large rather than the Rangers in specific: Larry Brooks of the Post on the veracity of the NHL's revenue reporting, Sherry Ross of the Daily News on the Penguins and other stories, Jason Diamos of the Times on the Blues' demise and the Joe Thornton trade, Alan Hahn of Newsday on why the Ducks' inability to find assets worth trading Petr Sykora for is a compliment to the Rangers, Andrew Gross of the Journal News on Dan Cloutier and the Canucks.

The Wolf Pack wailed away on the Isles' Bridgeport affiliate last night to the tune of 6-2. Thomas Pock has a goal and three assists in the win. Jake Ortmeyer, Jed's older brother, a defenseman, scored his first goal of the season, the game winner for Charlotte. Hugh Jessiman added two more assists to his burgeoning point total.

Light News Day

Maxim Kondratiev got a video lesson from Tom Renney as he learns to play defense in the NHL, courtesy of the Journal News. Kevin Weekes talks to Newsday about goalies being run in the new NHL. Wolf Pack lose another shootout (they're 1-5 this season in the game-deciding finales). Two assists for Hugh Jessiman in Charlotte's 8-6 win. Photo of Marc Staal with Brent Sutter leads coverage of Canada's WJC team selection at Sportsnet.ca -- Staal and fellow Ranger prospect Tommy Pyatt were named to the team.

Late News Update

Petr Prucha's emergence and his relationship with Jaromir Jagr are the subject of a Shawn Roarke article at FoxSports.com. A breakdown of some Ranger scoring and face-off stats from Larry Brooks of the Post. How Tom Poti handles criticism from John Dellapina of the News. In Hartford, from Bruce Berlet of the Courant, how Dwight Helminen has figured into the Wolf Pack offense, and a preview of Wolf Pack's weekend. From the Board of Governors meeting, a change in shootout procedures resulting from questions that arose during the Marek Malik game -- if one team has shortened its bench due to injury or whatever, the other team gets to shorten its bench too when it comes time to cycle back to the top of the line-up. Also, an expected rise in the salary cap due to increased revenue projections, and mainetance of the sixteen team playoff format.

Apologies for the outage this morning -- it has nothing to do with the MTA transit strike, nor did we ban any commentors. The web host's application was out of service. If you're reading this, then obviously everything is back to normal.