Blueshirt Boggle

Rangers Relocate Power Play and First Line

The formula proved to be as simple as anyone could have expected. Two power play goals, two goals by your top line, three goals and five assists by your top five offensive players -- and of course the customary blend of good defense, superb penalty killing, and timely saves. That's all it took to dispatch the pesky Islanders tonight. The game was not really as close as the 4-2 final score would indicate due to one lucky goal for the Islanders that was put in by the Rangers' defense and one goal off a defensive breakdown that gave the Isles life just when the Rangers were ready to run them back out the LIE. But the way the Rangers' luck has run against their cross-county rivals this season, the Isles stayed close enough to come within a shanked shot at an open back door of tying the game in the third period.

In the end, it was the opposition's power play that let them down rather than the Rangers'. The Isles came out strong in the first few minutes, as is often the case for a team playing its second game in two nights, hoping to capitalize on early energy before their legs start to give out on them. The Isles got a power play in the opening minute, they got a two-man advantage in the middle of the first period on what appeared to be an incorrect call, and they got a fourth advantage later in the period that was definitely an incorrect call when Chris Simon was unpunished for a post-whistle skirmish with Colton Orr and Brendan Witt.

As bad as the officiating was, it actually helped the Rangers. A friend who works for the Islanders said after the period that Ranger fans should cheer the calls, because they took the wind out of the Islanders' sails -- the Isles should just, in his opinion, say "penalty declined, first down" when they get a power play. Ranger fans are used to saying that about their own power play, but tonight, the penalty killers came within a fluke goal of a perfect night and the power play scored the go-ahead and game-winning goals in the second period.

The scoresheet is a compendium of welcome sighs of relief as well -- Jaromir Jagr, a goal and an assist; Chris Drury, a goal and an assist; Martin Straka, two assists; Scott Gomez, one goal; and Brendan Shanahan, one assist. Not to sell anyone else short -- especially Brandon Dubinsky with a goal and an assist as second star of the game and Dan Girardi with an assist and four shots on goal in nine shot attempts -- but seeing such a complete list of top Ranger forwards in the scoring summary is a good sign. Nevertheless, the question remains -- Can they carry forward down the road, especially with Ottawa and Carolina next up? Can the power play and the top five forwards continue scoring without weakening the defense? If so, they can actually improve on their 10-3-1 November record heading into December on this kind of note.

Official word on Sean Avery as of this moment (word for word, I swear): "Successful surgery, out indefinitely." No word on Paul Mara, who appeared to injure his left arm or shoulder in a collision along the boards in the final minute of play.

Rangers Rested For Overworked Isles

The Islanders may be 3-0 against the Rangers so far this year, but the deck is stacked against them as they make their second visit to the Garden tonight. After a light early season schedule, the Isles will be playing their fifth game in the last seven days today -- the Rangers by contrast are playing their third, coming off three full days off. The well-rested Rangers should not only be able to take advantage of the fact that the Isles played last night, they may also benefit from a bit of an Islander hangover from beating the league-leading (though recently slumping) Ottawa Senators in a shootout -- or if not a hangover, at least some slight dampening of the extra spirit the Isles usually bring to contests against the Rangers.

Of course, the usual caveats apply for the Rangers -- they need goals, goals from their silenced guns, goals from their power play. And in addition to that, they need to find a way to win without the passion Sean Avery usually adds to their game. Avery will undergo surgery on his left wrist this evening just as the Rangers are getting to play. Marcel Hossa will skate in his place on the second line, according to reports from today's morning skate in Rangers Report and Blue Notes. Marek Malik will be a healthy scratch. Petr Prucha will join the top power play unit, with Martin Straka dropping back to the point, and Ryan Callahan will return and might see some power play duty as well. Brandon Dubinsky was seen limping today with an ice pack on his knee, but he insisted he was OK.

See reports on Avery in the Daily News, Journal News, Newsday, Times, and Post. Newsday and NYR.com have game previews. Henrik Lundqvist is the co-subject of pair of articles -- in Newsday, his rivalry with the Isles' Rick DiPietro, and at NHL.com, his relationship with his twin brother Jor-el. NYR.com has more on the coaches' forum with fans. Prospect Park names the Rangers prospect of the week -- David Skokan.

Avery's Wrist Shot

Sean Avery will undergo arthroscopic wrist surgery tomorrow to correct chronic problems with his left wrist that were exacerbated when it was hit with a shot in Tampa. Although no timetable is set for his return, Paul Mara, who underwent a similar procedure, said he was back to full strength after two weeks. In his absence, Petr Prucha will join the second unit power play, but who will skate on the left wing alongside Shanahan and Gomez is uncertain -- it could be a call-up from Hartford (Nigel Dawes or someone else), it could be Marcel Hossa (who skated there today), or it could be someone else, with Ryan Callahan's return to action opening up some other possibilities. All of this comes courtesy of the reporters at practice today reporting in Blueshirts Blog, Blue Notes, and Rangers Report.

Coaches' Q&A With Ranger Fans

Mitch Beck, who covers the Hartford Wolf Pack for Blueshirt Bulletin in Howlings, and who writes the humorous "Zoning In" column for our monthly print publication, attended a Ranger season subscriber event on Monday night. Here is the Ranger-related portion of Mitch's account of that event:

About 250 season ticket holders gathered in the lobby of the Theater at Madison Square Garden to share an evening of conversation with the Rangers' coaching staff, hosted by MSG broadcasters John Giannone and Dave Maloney. Also in attendance, though he did not speak, was Ranger fan favorite Adam Graves. The evening opened with each coach discussing their personal background, how they came to the Ranger organization, and the roles they play in preparing the team -- Perry Pearn handles defense, special teams, and conditioning, while Mike Pelino works with the forwards and scouts opponents (Pearn added that his responsibilities include making sure Tom Renney dresses properly).

Topics ranged from the silly -- "Who is the best dressed Ranger? Colton Orr and Scott Gomez -- at least since Sean Avery took him shopping" and "Who keeps the locker room loose? Jason Strudwick, of course Ryan Hollweg with his dancing, and Avery" -- to the serious. The questioning was as varied as the ages of those in attendance. The coaches were direct in their replies, as direct as they could be, and did not shy away from any questions.

It didn’t take long for the power play to come up. When it proved to be the first question, the coaches joked that were curious how long it would take to get to that. Pearn summed it up sharply: the "top skill players are not playing to their top skill level, and for us to be successful they need to be." He added that the team was suffering "from confidence issues team-wide." For the the five on three to be more effective, Pearn felt the point men need to move back a bit, though not as much as some fans think. That was a problem that they were working on. He pointed out that the newest style of four-on-five penalty killing was to keep three players in a triangle as if they were two men down and have the fourth defender rove, pressuring the points and chasing the puck.

Regarding specific players in New York (for assessments of Hartford players, and there was a lot of talk about them, see Howlings), Marcel Hossa was the first to come up. Pearn, who did a lot of the talking, said "confidence is his biggest issue." If he could resolve those issues within himself, they project him to be a regular third line player because his defensive ability is "very strong" and "he is capable of putting 10-12 goals a year in the net. He just has to believe it, and right now he doesn’t."

Dan Girardi, Pearn said, "has been the biggest surprise of the past three years, especially how good he is without the puck. He has made the most dramatic change from his first development camp to today." He then compared Girardi to another player he coached earlier in his career -- Wade Redden. Pearn said Girardi "is certainly comparable with that first outlet pass, which is such an important factor, as Wade."

On Brandon Dubinsky, Tom Renney said, "We like what we are seeing in him. He knows the blue paint area and has a very high hockey IQ. He plays the game with some snarl and he’s certainly not afraid to challenge anyone as you’ve seen. We’re working on him with that." When someone proposed that Dubinsky reminded them of a young Walt Tkaczuk, Renney responded, "I can see that -- it’s a fair comparison. But let’s not put that kind of pressure on him just yet."

Asked about the goaltending and how good Steven Valiquette has been, Renney remarked, "Steve has won over his teammates and they feel confident when he’s in the net. It speaks volumes to Steve’s commitment as well as to Benny Allaire’s work with both he and Henrik." Asked if that has caused him to revise his original estimate of how many games Lundqvist would play, he said, "Absolutely. We originally had him slated to play between 70 and 72 games, but I can see it being less than that, sure."

Other issues discussed included the stick salute, which Renney said "was started by the players. Since we have so many Euros on the team, they are used to that -- that’s how it’s done there. They did it on their own and I hope they continue that here." Renney noted that he was the last coach to lead an amateur team into the Olympics in 1994 and that he is opposed to NHL players in the Olympics, saying, "The NHL product is compromised. If players get hurt it can ruin a team’s season, and there is certainly a letdown when they come back -- it takes time to refocus the team." He should know, having witnessed what happened to Henrik Lundqvist and his wide contingent of Czechs during the 2005-06 season, the Olympics derailing a white hot Ranger team.

The rumor about the team opening next season in Prague is still just talk. Many factors need to be taken into account before they fully commit, a big one being whether Jagr and other Czechs are still Rangers next season. Renney himself is not in favor of going -- when he coached in Vancouver, he said, they played a game in China and it took him a while to get his team back on track after that. He said he would prefer to have some part of training camp there and perhaps an exhibition game or two, but not a regular season game.

Lastly, Renney spoke about some of the changes the NHL has made. He thought that the removal of the red line was long overdue, but that he is not in favor of tinkering any more. "The changes to tradition would be bad," he said, especially resizing the nets or some other proposals that are rumored to be out there. One of the lighthearted moments of the evening was the result of the large representation from Section 419. The coaches felt that was the place to hang out. Overall, the evening was light, informative, and friendly, and the buzz from those in attendance was that they were all satisfied that their questions had been answered.

Ron Boesgaard, who pens Blueshirt Bulletin's "Views From the Blues" column every month, sent in this report:

I was at the season subscriber event in the Theater Monday night. Tom Renney, Perry Pearn, and Mike Pelino fielded questions from the audience. John Giannone and Dave Maloney were onstage with them and emceed the event. A fan asked about Marcel Hossa and talked about his lack of production as a first line player and how he has only scored during a couple of short streaks. Pearn said Hossa skated in the shadow of his brother and that Marcel just lacked the confidence to take his game to the next level. Pearn also inferred that Marcel was running out of time to find a way to get that confidence and start to play and score commensurate with his talent.

All in all an interesting evening. I got Dave Maloney and Adam Graves to sign my "Losing the Edge" book. I said hello to Mitch Beck and listened to Ms. Hurley ask a few questions of Tom Renney [see Margaret's take at My Blueshirt Heaven]. All three coaches said they preach "playing in the paint" over and over and over again to their charges and are hoping their "work in progress" will finally get that to sink in. They said the team was going to have to learn how to score the dirty goals in order to win in the playoffs. Bottom line: Pearn said the loss to Buffalo made the players understand what was needed to get to the next level and everyone would draw on that this year. Pelino said the team would get stronger every month. Renney said they were laying the foundation for a very good team for years to come.

Pearn, who was with the Senators while they were building a contender, said he talks to his friends back there frequently. He was told that Ottawa currently has just one or two players at their AHL affiliate that could play in the NHL. He then stated that there are eight or nine guys in Hartford the Rangers think can make the jump in the next few years. He said that was exceptional. Renney said the commitment Artem Anisimov has made to learning English and acclimating himself to North America has been exemplary and that the kid is doing everything right to make his way to the NHL. He also said Anisimov is paving the way for Alexei Cherepanov to come over next season and "possibly spend some time in Hartford." This was all good stuff. My brother and I and the other people from section 404 in attendance thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Ryan Callahan and Marek Malik are both ready to return from their injuries, according to reports in Blueshirts Blog, Rangers Report, and Newsday from yesterday's Ranger practice. Callahan stands a good chance of getting back into the line-up, with Marcel Hossa looking like the odd man out -- at least that's how they lined up at practice. But Renney is not ready to disrupt his successful defensive pairing, so Malik may not make an immediate return to action. Renney is especially loathe to cut the playing time or responsibility level of Marc Staal, who has emerged in Malik's place alongside Michal Rozsival on the Rangers' top pair.

In other Ranger news, Sam Weinman of the Journal News spoke to Martin Straka (hear the full interview at Rangers Report), the Post spoke to Scott Gomez about shooting the puck more, and CBS Sports is, like the rest of us, waiting for Gomez and Chris Drury to bust out. Hartford is reeling from a string of injuries, writes Bob Crawford at WP.com, yet Bruce Graham and Mike Busto (the latter returning from injury) have been assigned to Charlotte (see Howlings). WP.com also has Wolf Pack Weekly. At Prospect Park, Jess reports that there is no dearth of scoring among Ranger prospects in Canadian juniors. First rounder Bobby Sanguinetti gets all of the attention in these parts, but Blueshirt Bulletin and Prospect Park want to direct your attention to Ryan Hillier, a third round draftee who is having a career season with the Halifax Moosehead, having already put up 18 goals. We are planning to run Jess's interview with Ryan in the December issue of Blueshirt Bulletin.

Czeching In With Jaromir Jagr

Jaromir Jagr is counting heavily on the return of Martin Straka to help him get his offensive game in gear. Analyzing his goal scoring drought for a Czech reporter after Sunday's loss to Dallas (here is the original Czech article) -- he scored a goal while trying to pass to Straka, his first goal and his first point in six games, giving him only five goals and 13 points in 24 games this season -- Jagr described how difficult it has been for him to mesh his style with any Ranger other than Straka. "I couldn’t find a way to click and gel with our new additions," he said of the two free agent centers the Rangers acquired over the summer, both of whom are experiencing scoring woes of their own. "We invested a lot of money in our centermen but I ended up with a guy who came up from the farm."

Jagr had nothing but praise for the "guy who came up from the farm," Brandon Dubinsky. "He’s a great guy," Jagr said. "He works really hard. Hat’s off! I like him. I know he’s doing the best he can." But in the long run, he feels that he needs to mesh better with a more experienced center. Jagr concedes that Scott Gomez is not that guy. "It would work with him somehow, but not the way it was expected to work," he said. "It’s better for him to play with Shanahan. He [Shanahan] is a natural goal scorer, he doesn’t want the puck in the neutral zone. I do. Me and Gomez play a similar style. We both go back for the puck. We found ourselves both coming to the defensemen when the play was about to break out. That was weird."

Chris Drury remains a possibility. "We didn’t play much together, four games perhaps," Jagr said of their early season match-up. "We then tried Dubinsky and that kind of worked." But Drury has been used in several situations with Jagr over the past few games -- one game on the left wing with Dubinsky centering, and then in power play situations and late in the last game with Drury centering and Straka on left wing. To say that Jagr was relieved to see Straka come back is an understatement. "You bet!" Jagr said when asked about it. "I don’t care whether I score or not -- it’s fun for me again to play. Straks would wait for me, give it back to me. We understand each other and we suddenly have more scoring chances. I thought I was going to have a stroke when he came back to play at Florida and then left again with a pulled muscle!"

Asked about the paucity of shots he got during his five-game pointless streak (only five total), Jagr said, "I didn’t even get any scoring chances." Pressed about specific chances that he passed up looking for a pass, he conceded, "OK, when you don’t finish often enough, you lose your instincts. It takes a while to get them back." He also conceded that his self-confidence has waned. "Sure," he responded when asked about it. "I need to play my game. I can’t dump and chase the puck -- I don’t know how to do that. When my linemates send it up the ice, I’m suddenly on the other side of the rink. That wears you out a lot! No matter how well-conditioned you are. You’re flying up and down the ice without the puck. I felt like I was in an elevator -- up, down. I could conform. I could dump the puck in and chase it. But I’d be late. Seriously, without the puck I’m useless out there."

It helps that the team is winning while he tries to figure his way out of his slump. "I’ve got more time to get out of it," he said. And he has no problem with the defensive style the team relies on for its wins these days. "You can’t win anything with open hockey," Jagr explained. "You need superb goaltending and rock solid defense. Otherwise you go into the playoffs and get swept. It’s hard to score on us even for players who have lots of points. Period after period, you see how they’re losing it -- they can’t play at all, their frustration grows. If a team from the 80s played in today’s NHL, they’d have no chance. Today’s team would demolish them. Back then, guys didn’t backcheck, they weren't as strong. It’s so much harder to come through nowadays. Coaches prepare their teams so well for every game. They know exactly what they have to do. The team works like a machine."

At this point, Jagr is unsure where he stands for next season. "If they don’t want me on the team, what should I do here? Take out the trash?" he quipped. He is not even sure where he stands on the team this season. "If I don't play well, I’ll lose my position," he said. "But that’s normal." Asked if it’s like his days with the Penguins when he jumped on the ice when he wanted no matter what the coach said, Jagr responded, "Those times are long gone!" And looking ahead to the Rangers possibly opening next season in Prague, Jagr, who put in a good word for the event, said, "I have no idea what’s going on right now. It’s even possible that there won’t be one single Czech on the team next year."

Jagr told the reporter that he and the Rangers have not spoken about a contract extension. But of course, the Rangers would not want to consider an extension until they knew whether the option year in his contract would extend their cap-friendly salary sharing arrangement with the Caps. Larry Brooks reports in the Post today that the terms of the current CBA forced the team to renounce the club option that was in the original contract. That happened right after the CBA was signed, before the first post-lockout season began. So the only way for Jagr to remain with the Rangers for an extra season with the Caps picking up almost half the bill would be for him to hit his achievable targets -- now down to scoring 84 points (which would require a far from inconceivable 66 points in the remaining 58 games, assuming that 35 goals in 58 games is indeed inconceivable at this point) and winning one playoff series.

In other news, as the Rangers return to practice in anticipation of their Thursday night Garden match against the Islanders, the Ranger power play is the subject in the Daily News, their offense in general is the subject in Newsday, and how good the team might be is Stan Fischler's subject at MSG.com. Fischler also looks ahead to the Islander game at MSG.com. Hockey Rodent breaks down the Rangers' defensive breakdowns vs. Dallas using video stills. At ESPN.com, Henrik Lundqvist doesn't rank in their top three Hart candidates (although he's tops for the Vezina), the Rangers look pretty good among their Original Six rankings, and the only Ranger-related entries in the ten worst salary cap contracts are the ones they passed up (Nylander, Chara, Jovanovsky -- so far). In the Times, if you're interested, an article on the demise of the goal judge. In Howlings, Mitch Beck reviews Wolf Pack themes from last night's season subscriber meeting with the Rangers' coaching staff (we'll have the Ranger-related portion tomorrow), and he also takes a look at the injury plague that has hit Hartford. In Prospect Park, Jess has a teddy bear story that is not exactly warm and fuzzy.

Rangers Still Searching for a Spark

A minute and a quarter into the third period of yesterday's 3-2 loss to Dallas, Brendan Shanahan got into a scrape with Steve Ott, the Stars' penalty king, that went into the books as a fight. With the game tied 2-2 and the Rangers again struggling to score, it almost seemed as if Shanahan was trying to fire up his team. But why would the team need to be fired up? They were thoroughly dominating the game, outshooting Dallas 32-9 at that point, 26-5 over the preceding 33 minutes (which included a 22-minute stretch where the Rangers outshot the Stars 19-2), en route to a 41-18 final tally (74-33 in total shot attempts), and had just completed a period-opening shift where they had launched five good shots, three on net.

Indeed, after the game, Shanahan conceded that he should not have gotten involved. "How do fights start?" he said. "He called me a name, he slashed me in the leg. He chopped me in the back of the leg. Probably if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't have wasted my time with him." And wouldn't have lost the next five minutes in the penalty box. Rather than fire up his team, the Rangers took a penalty and gave up the game winning power play goal just minutes later, then went into a stretch where they came completely undone, coughing up the puck repeatedly in their own zone, and ultimately left themselves with too little time and too little confidence to get back into the game.

"I'm sure they were surprised to be tied after the first period," Shanahan said. "And I'm sure they were surprised to be tied after the second period." Dallas coach Dave Tippett said, "We had only two scoring chances in the first two periods and we were 2-for-2." Sean Avery said, "It's gonna happen a couple of times a year, you can play great..." And yet you lose. The Rangers have lost a number of games this year that they could have and probably should have won, like this one. To their credit, they did not let this one dishearten them, not like the 4-1 home loss to Toronto where they similarly dominated but lost because of one bad ten-minute stretch. They know their goalie, Henrik Lundqvist, is not going to have too many ordinary games like this one (although to be fair, he was beaten on two breakaways and a slam-dunk two on one).

And they still believe their offense -- and their power play -- will come. "We've gotta build on those leads," Shanahan said. "We played a good game against a team that's on a really good roll, shut them down. We'd have one breakdown and they'd score. The power play has been better [than it has been recently], but we need to have more of a killer instinct when we get up on a team. We had scoring chances, we had guys going to the net. But it would be nice to start cashing in on some of them." Shanahan believes the team will get results from the current strategy of using two regular lines during man advantages. "We've got two units going out on the power play," he noted. "There seems to be competition there, the realization that if you're not getting pucks to the net, there's another unit that's going to take your place."

"Believe it or not, it's better than it's been," Tom Renney said of the power play. "I thought tonight we showed good puck movement, I thought we had some chances. We still need to shoot more, naturally. That certainly is an area we have to improve upon, and work habits are a part of that." Renney understands the importance of taking advantage of your advantages. "If our power play doesn't get clicking," he said, "if we beat ourselves, which may have been the case tonight, then the statistics will bear out where we belong. Every team is a work in progress, but at some point in time there is a level of excellence that is acceptable, and only that, and we've gotta make sure we continue to strive for that."

Getting more shots -- since 41 on goal and 74 total was clearly not enough yesterday -- is crucial, especially for someone like Scott Gomez, who gave up the breakaway that tied the score at 1-1 in the final minute of the first period while looking to pass instead of shoot. "Notwithstanding the fact the he went down somehow, he should have shot the puck," Renney said. "We work so hard to get to the slot -- the function of offensive attack is get to the slot and shoot, when you're there you want to make sure you do that. [Gomez] thought the stick might have [tripped] him, but I'm not sure about that. He knew he had Girardi going to the net on one side, he had Shanny getting himself set up as a screen, I think he might have been trying to go to Girardi instead of just putting it on the net."

Renney went on to explain what he needs from Gomez. "I remember telling Paul Kariya in the Olympic year in '94, 'You're in the slot more than anybody else on our team with the puck -- why don't you want to shoot?"' he recounted. "I said, 'You're gonna get six shots a night moving forward,' and he did. And he continues to do that. I'm not certainly taking any credit for that, but my point is that's what Scotty's got to look at. Scott's got to look at a number and say, 'I've gotta get four shots on goal tonight.' That should be an objective of his. The guy can shoot the puck. A lot of time he's in position. But he loves to make plays, he wants to defer to somebody else and be an unselfish player. I really have to be firm with him and say, 'I want x number of shots, and when you're in the funnel and you don't shoot, just be ready coming back to the bench.'"

It's tough to question Girardi for darting in on that play and leaving the backline open for the breakaway. He saw an opening and he took it. Perhaps if he knew Gomez was going to shoot instead of looking for a perfect pass, he would have stayed back. Still, Girardi was not happy with himself. "I'm a little disappointed in myself," he said after he was beaten one on one by Mike Ribeiro on the game winner. "I got caught flat-footed, he put it right between my wickets, and that’s all she wrote. I tell you, that's not my game out there, that last play. I'm really really frustrated now, but I have to bounce back, leave it behind me. That's not going to happen again. I'll tell you that right now."

Girardi has had difficulties lately. He is after all a veteran of only 58 NHL games and has not played a full season yet. It's possible the rest of the league is catching up to him, working out his areas of vulnerability now that he has put himself on the map. But his words are full of a determination that can only make one believe that, just as he worked himself up the ladder from undrafted junior through the ECHL, AHL, to the NHL, and to the defensive stalwart he's been so far this season, that he is going to work just as hard to make good on his vow to not let it happen again.

Game reports: Daily News, Journal News, Newsday, Times, Post, Advance, AP, NY Sports Day, and NYR.com -- the Post recap is especially hard on Henrik Lundqvist. More from the Post, skewering Scott Gomez, and from the Times, praising shot blockers, plus game notes from Newsday and USA Today. Dallas area reports here, here, here, here, and here, the last one on Jor-el Lundqvist. Sunday prospect action in Prospect Park, and that's it for today, at least until the reporters check in in their blogs this afternoon. With Ryan Callahan set to return to action Thursday and Martin Straka obviously skating well, Greg Moore was returned to Hartford today (see Howlings).

How to Win and Lose With the Power Play

"I don't have an answer for it," Brendan Shanahan said in analyzing why the Rangers lost 3-2 today to Dallas despite thoroughly dominating the game. "We seem to go to the net, we seem to get scoring chances. But we're not burying them with any real consistency." Jaromir Jagr said, "I thought we played pretty good. We had a lot of chances. We had the opportunities to get rebounds. We just didn't do it. We just didn't score goals. We could have won this game."

The answer is simple. One team, despite getting no offense otherwise, capitalized on its two full power plays to tie the game and win it. The other team, despite all its offense, ground to a near standstill whenever it got the man advantage. Dallas 2-for-3 (the lone failure a three-second power play after the Rangers negated an advantage with a penalty of their own) -- Rangers 0-for-6. Not to mention the Stars scoring on the four on four after the Rangers negated their own power play.

What went wrong? The Rangers had some set-up time on the power play, but a) they missed the net six times, b) they had their flow consistently disrupted, limiting their attack time, and c) not one of their ten shots on goal generated a rebound, the majority of them held by Dallas back-up Mike Smith. By contrast, in less than three minutes of power play time, the Stars got six shots on goal, two of them goals. "There is certainly reason to believe that that's going to be there," coach Tom Renney said of his power play. "But what our team needs to do is understand that the blue paint is vital for scoring. We generated a lot of shots today, and that's great. But we are not a second or third chance team in close at this point in time."

The Rangers have gotten where they are on defense and goaltending. In a game when that's not all there -- Henrik Lundqvist did not look like his usual stellar self on the two breakaway goals, and Dan Girardi was keenly disappointed with himself for his role in all three goals against -- it's up to the star-studded power play to make a difference. That's what the Stars did with their power play in a game where they literally had nothing else. That's what the Rangers failed to do when they had chances to extend the lead with the man advantage or tie the game back up. There is no reason in the world for this group of players -- so deep that power play specialist Petr Prucha can't even get any ice time -- to hurt themselves so badly with the man advantage that they end up losing games they should win, and win easily.

Matinee With the Stars

The Rangers return home this afternoon to face the hot Dallas Stars, who have won four straight and are 4-0-1 since changing the structure of their management team to include Brett Hull as co-GM. They had gone 2-4-1 before making the change, but come in now as one of the NHL's hottest teams, 6-1-2 in their last nine. The Rangers, on an even better 9-2-1 run despite a reprise of the scoring woes they thought they left behind during their five game win streak, will once again have to shut down a formidable power play -- the Stars are second in the NHL, are nearly as good on the road as they are at home, and have scored with the man advantage in six of their last nine (two PPGs in four of those games).

Henrik Lundqvist will be back in net after resting in Florida and may face his twin brother Joel, called up by the Stars from the AHL for at least this game. It's not certain who will oppose him in net -- backup Mike Smith has won three of the last four for Dallas, giving up only two goals in those games, and will split the two games the Stars play today and tomorrow with Marty Turco, who is not having a great season so far. The Stars are missing two key players -- Jere Lehtinen and Mattias Nortstrom. The Rangers remain without Marek Malik, who has not been missed given the rapid emergence of Marc Staal, and are uncertain about the status of Martin Straka (likely to go after tweaking a hamstring in his first game back on Friday) and Ryan Callahan (just about ready to return from a knee sprain). If neither can go, Greg Moore will play. Ivan Baranka has gone back to Hartford with Michal Rozsival OK after missing the first of the two Florida games.

The state of the Rangers is discussed in the Daily News and Post. NYR.com has a game preview. For a look at the Stars, see the Dallas Morning News here and here, as well as the team's web site. The Wolf Pack nipped the Devils in overtime last night -- see reports in the Courant, Howlings, and at WP.com. The Sunday hockey column in the Times has a section on Bobby Sanguinetti. Jess has a review of Saturday's prospect action at Prospect Park.

Power Play Earns One Point After Nearly Costing the Rangers Two

When you play golf as badly as I do, the question frequently arises, Why the heck do you insist on torturing yourself this way? The answer, as many a hacker will tell you, is that sweet shot amid all the other misfires that makes it all so worthwhile, and the hope that some day those sweet shots will become the rule rather than the exception. And so it seemed with the Rangers' uber-frustrating power play last night. The power play nearly cost the Rangers the game on four separate occasions, but then it came through to tie the game and earn the Rangers a point, and then it blew another golden opportunity to win the game -- and almost lost the game again -- before the Rangers fell in a shootout to the Panthers in Florida.

The power play had three consecutive chances to extend a 1-0 lead in the second period and put a stranglehold on a game they had no business being in after a awful first period. On one occasion, Florida goalie Tomas Vokoun was all that kept the power play from converting, but on another, a completely ineffective two minutes probably turned the game against the Rangers -- not even half a minute later, the Panthers tied the game, and with newfound momentum, they eventually earned a power play of their own on which they took the lead.

A late five on three as the Rangers scrambled to come back appeared to be just what the power play needed to redeem itself -- and that they did. But not before Steve Valiquette forestalled the ultimate embarrassment in stopping Josef Stumpel on shorthanded breakaway while two men down. The Rangers' five best forwards had managed to get no attack at all for nearly thirty seconds of their two-man advantage by that point, but they then came back and set up and converted on one pretty passing play down low to salvage a point.

But then the scenario repeated itself in overtime -- on a power play that negated what would have been the game winner for the Panthers, a four on three that is nearly as golden an opportunity as a five on three, the four Ranger forwards allowed another shorthanded Stumpel breakaway that beat Valiquette but hit the goal post. This time, though, the unit couldn't respond after that near-disaster, sending the game to a shootout which was won after five rounds by the home team after the Rangers failed to score on any of its chances.

Valiquette, playing his third straight 2-2 shootout (dating back to last spring), was once again outstanding in spelling Henrik Lundqvist for the second time this season. He withstood a 19-shot first period with some great saves as the Rangers stumbled out of the gate in a post-Thanksgiving stupor. And though he allowed two goals on the remaining sixteen shots he saw, as the Rangers regrouped after Chris Drury's goal in the waning seconds of the first, Valiquette kept the Rangers in the game with his breakaway saves on Stumpel. The Rangers started the season figuring they would pretty much concede many of the points that were on the line when Lundqvist rested, but with two excellent outings, Valiquette has earned three out of four points for his team.

Drury broke his goal scoring slump by netting both Ranger goals. Three of his five goals and five of his fifteen points have come in two games vs. the Panthers -- he is +4 in those two games, -5 in his other 21 games. But Jaromir Jagr's streak of futility continued -- he is without a point in his last five games, with only five shots on goals, and the way he has been passing up shots betrays a profound lack of confidence in his offensive game. Not even the return of his compatible opposite winger Martin Straka helped, although the truth is that Jagr's pointless streak should have ended -- and the Rangers should have won in regulation -- late in the third period when he set up Sean Avery with the net completely open only for Avery to hit the goal post (Avery was with Jagr because Straka left the game due to a hamstring pull).

But even though the power play cost the team one point and nearly cost them two (before salvaging the one point), and even though Jagr continues to struggle offensively (along with most of the other forwards -- Scott Gomez was once again dreadful with the puck and Brendan Shanahan was once again invisible), the Rangers continue to rack up points. This can go one of two ways -- the defense and goaltending can ultimately crack under the relentless pressure of playing one 1-0 or 2-1 game after another, or the formidable offensive weapons that have thus far been predominantly dormant can get it together and vault the Rangers to the top of the league. This will be a huge test for coach Tom Renney and the team's leaders. And as is the case for any offense, the power play goes a long way toward defining success vs. failure.

Game reports -- Daily News, Newsday, Post, and NYR.com, with notes from USA Today and the Florida papers here, here, and here (the Sun-Sentinel also has a feature on Czech and Slovak players on the Panthers and Rangers). Blueshirts Blog spoke with Bobby Orr, Marc Staal's agent, about Brian Leetch. A couple of quarter-pole reviews at CBS Sports and Yahoo Sports have Lundqvist as an obvious MVP candidate, but only one mentions Staal among the rookie crop. Hartford won 5-3, with Nigel Dawes scoring two goals and two assists -- see reports in the Courant, Howlings, and WP.com. Howlings reports that Mike Sauer is out with concussion-like symptoms. Prospect Park has a review of game action from last night.

Straka Returns to Help Jagr

UPDATE: According to John Dellapina reporting in Blueshirts Blog from the morning skate, Steve Valiquette will get the start tonight in net for the Rangers. Straka will take left wing with Jagr and Dubinsky, Drury will move back to the middle between Prucha and Hossa, and Avery will be in his usual spot with Gomez and Shanahan. Rozsival is back and will skate with Staal -- which means Moore and Baranka will not play.

The Rangers complete their Thanksgiving road trip to Florida when they face the Panthers tonight, looking for a two-game sweep. Their opponents have won two straight and three of their last four, but two of those wins were against the league-worst Washington Capitals and their most recent win was against the slumping Blue Jackets, who have won only once in their last eight games. The Rangers will be a more formidable test, having won ten of their last dozen. To best their hosts, the Rangers will have to stop Florida's power play, fourth best in the league and especially effective (over 25%) at home. They have the penalty killing to do it (third best in the NHL), and they can of course nip the Panther power play in the bud by not taking too many penalties (the Panthers don't get as many as most other teams).

The Rangers could make life easier for themselves by scoring some power play goals of their own. Bolstering their cause tonight will be the return to action of Martin Straka after missing sixteen games with a broken finger. Straka will rejoin Jaromir Jagr on the top line -- no word yet on whether he'll replace Chris Drury on left wing or Brandon Dubinsky at center. That should hopefully help Jagr get out of his scoring funk (one goal and one assist in his last six games, both in New Jersey, and only four shots on goal in total in the other five games) -- see the Daily News and Post for more on Jagr. No word yet either on the status of Michal Rozsival (sore knee) and Sean Avery (hand) for tonight's game, which will affect Ivan Baranka's and Greg Moore's chances of playing their second NHL games.

In other reading, the New York Sun discusses the Rangers' line configurations, NYR.com has a game preview, and the Hockey News has another humorous article on trash talking inspired by Avery. Hartford has recalled both Miika Wiikman and Matt Zaba from Charlotte to replace injured Al Montoya and Chris Holt -- see the notes at the bottom of an unrelated article in the Courant, a press release at WP.com, and Howlings. And for a preview of this weekend's upcoming prospect action, see Prospect Park.